The Criterion Collection

[tisdivine]

Just watched my blu of Good Morning. It is such a cute and fun film. Not at all what I was expecting from Ozu. I mean I love everything Ive seen by him so far (Tokyo Story, Late Spring & An Autumn Afternoon) I just wasnt expecting how funny and light hearted it was going to be. A few times I really laughed out loud especially

[Show spoiler]when man keeps farting but his wife (who's in another room) keeps asking him if he needs something bc she thinks he's talking.

.

Not sure if that really needed to be spoilered but its better to be safe than sorry haha

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by tisdivine

Just watched my blu of Good Morning. It is such a cute and fun film. Not at all what I was expecting from Ozu. I mean I love everything Ive seen by him so far (Tokyo Story, Late Spring & An Autumn Afternoon) I just wasnt expecting how funny and light hearted it was going to be. A few times I really laughed out loud especially

[Show spoiler]when man keeps farting but his wife (who's in another room) keeps asking him if he needs something bc she thinks he's talking.

.

Not sure if that really needed to be spoilered but its better to be safe than sorry haha

It's one of my favorites from Ozu. Such a charming film. I enjoy how the children's actions

[Show spoiler]start a chain reaction with the adults in the neighborhood leading to all sorts of gossip and suspicions. Also, the one little boy who hasn't mastered the art of farting and keeps needing a change of underwear.

[AaronJ]

Wow. I was just reading the review of Ghost World -- which, btw, I cannot wait to get -- and I just cannot believe it was 16 years ago. Every day, it seems, there's something new to remind me of how old I am.

Love the movie, though. Heck, getting the Blu-ray from Germany (along with Sliding Doors) was one of the driving forces for me to go region free.

[Trekkie313]

I might consider upgrading my GW DVD in July. For some reason I thought the movie was released in 1999.

[tisdivine]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

It's one of my favorites from Ozu. Such a charming film. I enjoy how the children's actions

[Show spoiler]start a chain reaction with the adults in the neighborhood leading to all sorts of gossip and suspicions. Also, the one little boy who hasn't mastered the art of farting and keeps needing a change of underwear.

The last scene

[Show spoiler]when his mom looks at him and says "You Idiot" lol and then tells him she's not buying him anymore underwear.

I cracked up so bad. I think it was because of her personality throughout the film she was just so sarcastic. It was amazing.

[Imaginarion]

Anyone interested in seeing Waking Life or Shortbus as Criterion Collection releases? The latter is a bit controversial, but Criterion never shies away because of that.

[joy-division]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Wow. I was just reading the review of Ghost World -- which, btw, I cannot wait to get -- and I just cannot believe it was 16 years ago. Every day, it seems, there's something new to remind me of how old I am.

Love the movie, though. Heck, getting the Blu-ray from Germany (along with Sliding Doors) was one of the driving forces for me to go region free.

I cant believe it's been 15 years since Memento came out
Maybe it has been longer.. . I forgot

[joy-division]

Originally Posted by Imaginarion

Anyone interested in seeing Waking Life or Shortbus as Criterion Collection releases? The latter is a bit controversial, but Criterion never shies away because of that.

Arrow released last year a great edition of Waking Life full of other animations and commentary by Linklater among the extras

Arrow Video Sale Buys: Waking Life & Thief - YouTube

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by joy-division

I cant believe it's been 15 years since Memento came out
Maybe it has been longer.. . I forgot

17 years for Memento. Jeez. Where does the time go?!

[javy]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Wow. I was just reading the review of Ghost World -- which, btw, I cannot wait to get -- and I just cannot believe it was 16 years ago. Every day, it seems, there's something new to remind me of how old I am.

Love the movie, though. Heck, getting the Blu-ray from Germany (along with Sliding Doors) was one of the driving forces for me to go region free.

I've never seen Ghost Word. But it sounds great, and has a excellent cast. I love Bushemi and I'm a sucker for Scarlett Johansson.

[joy-division]

Originally Posted by javy

I've never seen Ghost Word. But it sounds great, and has a excellent cast. I love Bushemi and I'm a sucker for Scarlett Johansson.

You will be hard pressed to recognize her

[joy-division]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

17 years for Memento. Jeez. Where does the time go?!

I was wondering why I had the numbers #-17 tattooed on my leg!

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by javy

I've never seen Ghost Word. But it sounds great, and has a excellent cast. I love Bushemi and I'm a sucker for Scarlett Johansson.

I watched it for the first time a few months ago and its great. One of Steve Buscemi's best performances

[javy]

Originally Posted by joy-division

You will be hard pressed to recognize her

Nah, this is around the same time as Lost in Translation, a film I absolutely adore. Plus I've seen the screenshots recently posted and the trailer.

[malakaheso]

Originally Posted by joy-division

You will be hard pressed to recognize her

Yes. She either got better looking in the following 2-3 years, or her 'beauty' is largely smoke and mirrors. I suspect it is a bit of both.

[llj]

Originally Posted by malakaheso

Yes. She either got better looking in the following 2-3 years, or her 'beauty' is largely smoke and mirrors. I suspect it is a bit of both.

I'm 80% sure she had a nose job. Look at her nose in Ghost World and compare it to today. It's much more pointed and angular today.

I remember thinking Thora Birch was more attractive to me in Ghost World than ScarJo back in 2001.

Still, ScarJo has worked her butt off to advance her career in every way possible, so more power to her. She has greatly overachieved beyond my initial projections of her career arc. I have much respect.

Anyway, I double billed Something Wild (1961) and Eros + Massacre last night. Strange experience!

Something Wild is one of those transitional films that bridged the melodramatic 50s to the gritty 70s. It helps that it's one of the early examples of the American independent film scene that was still to come. It starts with a rather jaunty North by Northwest-ish opening sequence by Saul Bass. Very 50s in feel. But within the first 5 minutes, the Carroll Baker character

[Show spoiler] gets raped in a way that feels a lot more like those gritty 70s NYC movies. It's not exploitative--it's edited in a tasteful enough way and the camera lingers more on the struggling of clothes, hands and feet before fading out--but it definitely announces itself as a precurser of its intention to break away from the 50s style.

The first hour plays out much like a Carnival of Souls-style of film in terms of its depiction urban alienation. It may be one of the earliest American films that truly began to touch upon the loneliness of life in big city America. While it's tempting to compare this to the "Kitchen Sink Realist" British films of the 60s, one difference is that there is actually very little "full" dialogue in the film, whereas many Kitchen Sink dramas feature reasonably talkative working class characters. Much of the script here is limited to half sentences, quick asides, and responses that trail off. This becomes even moreso in the 2nd half of the film when the Ralph Meeker character comes into play. You get two damaged characters in the 2nd part of the film who are unable to really articulate what they want or what their "damage" is, so there is an added layer of tension just beyond the already creepy situation they are in.

What makes this an interesting film is also probably what makes it troubling for many audiences, especially millennials who've come to expect moral catharsis, easy epiphanies, social empowerment and well-adjusted characters to do the "logical" things all the time. It won't leave you feeling "right" at the end, but there's a nagging sense that there's something disturbingly plausible, in a strange way, with how it all plays out. I think that's why some of the reactions out there I've seen to the film are so uncomfortable with it.

Anyway, I don't think this film has had much reaction in here since it was released by Criterion in January...I hope people get around to at least giving it a try. I can't guarantee you'd like it, but it certainly is a movie one should at least see.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by javy

I've never seen Ghost Word. But it sounds great, and has a excellent cast. I love Bushemi and I'm a sucker for Scarlett Johansson.

So very worth it. It really does have a little bit of everything.

Originally Posted by joy-division

You will be hard pressed to recognize her

That's a vast overstatement.

There are two primary reasons she looks different.

One, the way she was costumed and made to look through hair and makeup are very different than any of her other roles since. Two, she was 16 when the film came out. I'm not sure if she was 15 or 16 when she filmed it, but either way she was in her mid teens.

But it's not like this doesn't look like Scarlett Johansson.

It's like Keira Knightley in The Hole. Sure, she looked different -- she was 15 (and briefly topless -- hello, Brooke Shields!). But it isn't as if you can't immediately tell that it's Keira.

Originally Posted by malakaheso

Yes. She either got better looking in the following 2-3 years, or her 'beauty' is largely smoke and mirrors. I suspect it is a bit of both.

Nah. She just grew up a little, but more is what I said above: They started glamming her up a bit more in most roles. I mean, in GW she's obviously just supposed to be a teenage barista.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by llj

Anyway, I don't think this film has had much reaction in here since it was released by Criterion in January...I hope people get around to at least giving it a try. I can't guarantee you'd like it, but it certainly is a movie one should at least see.

As to Something Wild, I blind bought it but unfortunately it remains on my unwatched list. I am very much looking forward to it though.

[javy]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

So very worth it. It really does have a little bit of everything.

It will be nice to see something else with Thora Birch. The only thing that I've seen her in is American Beauty.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by javy

It will be nice to see something else with Thora Birch. The only thing that I've seen her in is American Beauty.

Yeah, and she's wonderful in this. The only other stuff that I've seen Thora in is obviously American Beauty, but also as Jack Ryan's daughter in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger; but of course she was just a kid back then. I think like 10 and 12.

Oh, and she was in The Hole, along with Keira Knightley and Des Harrington. It's only a slightly better than mediocre thriller, but Thora's pretty good in it.

Her career kind of disappeared into the fog for a while there. It appears from IMDB that she has a few projects upcoming, though.