What are we watching now?

Just watched Any Number Can Win from 1963. It was delightful from beginning to end. It reminded me of Rififi and The Killing, but because of Alain Delon, it was just fun throughout. That's what I was hoping for.
 
JiveTurkey said:
Denzel is :satan Devil In a Blue Dress is seriously underrated.
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Last night was my wife's decision, and she chose Devil In A Blue Dress. I thought it was great. This was really nice because you get to see Denzel Washington have a range of emotion, and he's not just the same all the time. Here's so capable; I don't know what the deal is when his performances get boring.

Anyway, I liked seeing a 90s noir set in the 40s, so lovingly made to look and feel like the time period. It's the only time I can remember seeing anything with Washington narrating, and that helped make him warmer, in addition to his ability to generally warmer from scene to scene in this film.

That's another thing that killed me: his reactions and his presence were really cool in this film, in a nuanced and complicated way. When he first sees the late great Tom Sizemore completely lose it, his instinct is not just to be immovably tough and stoic, and he's visibly upset on such a deep level that it's really the kind of thing you see only the best actors do. He's not trying any artifice here; he's just acting, and that seems so tough for people when you could use every opportunity just to try to look cool.

I thought the director was great, because you got a real sense of good acting all the way around, even from Jennifer Beals, who I remember being bad in Flashdance. Whenever I see a mediocre actor do a good job I tend to think it's probably a good director. This is interesting to me because I've seen one other of his films, Out Of Time, and I hated that, from what I remember.

Finally, I fucking love Don Cheadle. I drove a couple hours to see a screening of Miles Ahead when it was first released. No one has that perfect combination of being an outstanding actor with such a great feel, and here he knew how to be funny too. Just awesome. Great recommendation.
 
State of Epicicity said:
Last night was my wife's decision, and she chose Devil In A Blue Dress. I thought it was great. This was really nice because you get to see Denzel Washington have a range of emotion, and he's not just the same all the time. Here's so capable; I don't know what the deal is when his performances get boring.

Anyway, I liked seeing a 90s noir set in the 40s, so lovingly made to look and feel like the time period. It's the only time I can remember seeing anything with Washington narrating, and that helped make him warmer, in addition to his ability to generally warmer from scene to scene in this film.

That's another thing that killed me: his reactions and his presence were really cool in this film, in a nuanced and complicated way. When he first sees the late great Tom Sizemore completely lose it, his instinct is not just to be immovably tough and stoic, and he's visibly upset on such a deep level that it's really the kind of thing you see only the best actors do. He's not trying any artifice here; he's just acting, and that seems so tough for people when you could use every opportunity just to try to look cool.

I thought the director was great, because you got a real sense of good acting all the way around, even from Jennifer Beals, who I remember being bad in Flashdance. Whenever I see a mediocre actor do a good job I tend to think it's probably a good director. This is interesting to me because I've seen one other of his films, Out Of Time, and I hated that, from what I remember.

Finally, I fucking love Don Cheadle. I drove a couple hours to see a screening of Miles Ahead when it was first released. No one has that perfect combination of being an outstanding actor with such a great feel, and here he knew how to be funny too. Just awesome. Great recommendation.
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Glad you dug it! Hopefully your wife did as well.

I just saw a listing on his filmography with BillyBob and Bill Paxton. I'm going to dig it up and give it a watch. Cheadle is 100% underutilized. His work in Boogie Nights is awesome. Both hilarious and sad at the same time.
 
JiveTurkey said:
Glad you dug it! Hopefully your wife did as well.

I just saw a listing on his filmography with BillyBob and Bill Paxton. I'm going to dig it up and give it a watch. Cheadle is 100% underutilized. His work in Boogie Nights is awesome. Both hilarious and sad at the same time.
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Oh yeah, she thought it was great, except she thought the big secret about Jennifer Beals character was totally obvious the whole time. This just makes me yearn for Denzel Washington to show a lot of more range, because whenever he does, his performance is truly great.
 
Watching more Robert Englund, who is a stellar actor, even when he's got one scene. He still steals the show, regardless.

Tonight is Urban Legend and The Last Showing.
 
We just watched Spirits of The Dead from 1967. It has the different directors, each with a segment telling a Poe story. The first and last were garbage, but the middle one, by Louis Malle and starting Alain Delon, was interesting. I forget how incredibly hot Jane Fonda was, and how incredibly terrible her acting was. And Fellini can just go fly a kite.
 
We just watched American Me from 1992. That is one of, if not the most, brutal films I've ever seen. Completely unflinchingly brutal. And so well directed, and so well acted. I don't know if I can get over this one. It's one of those I don't ever want to see again because it was too brutal, but I feel lucky that I got to see it because the directing was just so creative and great.
 
DrewJD82 said:
I didn't realize The Boys started back up!
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YEEP! :banana :pickle
I still haven't had time to start watching the new season

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Watched the Enfield Poltergeist series on Apple TV. Interesting style of documentary using actors lip syncing the actual tape recordings. Interesting vibe with that approach, but holy fook is that thing about two hours too long. It would not end.
 
God, my wife had me in tears last night from laughter with her Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary on Farewell, Friend from 1968. She said that in Alain Delon's attempt at acting in English he was yielded a performance mostly comprising of "indigestion and hearing loss."

I mean, we still have half an hour to go, but I can say this film is one of the most bizarre I've ever seen. You've got Charles fucking Bronson opposite French actor Alain Delon; they're in France, French director, the whole thing's in English.

Charles Bronson has this constant and unsettling smarminess, just way too confident to the point where he's creepy. It also makes it hilarious. And Alain Delon, who's acting is normally great when he's speaking French, turns into an awkward and hilarious robot with no volume control when he's trying to speak English. I love it.

And the directing was definitely by some jackass who's never worked with an actor before. I feel like this guy played with action figures so much he was confident he could get human beings to present a story in the same way. Equally hilarious.

This film feels so disjointed and just completely out of left field with every filmmaking decision, I highly recommend it if you ever look for something to make fun of for two hours. In that way, this film is perfection.
 
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