Movies

My local theater usually does an all-night, three-movie horror marathon in October, where you go in not knowing what movies they'll show; I haven't been but a friend has, and they usually thread the needle of showing something downright gross, something campy, and something creepy. They're partnered with one of the last video stores in town, and since they can't do the marathon, you can rent a grab bag of three horror movies, curated by the same guy who programs the marathon.

My bag consisted of The Initiation, Twins of Evil, and Demons 2. The Initiation is a generic 80s slasher that has a couple of creepy moments but gets hung up on cheesy characters and weird college-party gags. Twins of Evil is a 70s Hammer film with Peter Cushing; it was a little creepy in a gothic way, but mostly boring and nonsensical. I've been holding off on Demons 2 because I've seen a couple clips from Demons 1 and I know Italian horror's reputation for creepy gross-outs.
 
Ericj32 said:
I thought so, too, and wrote a response about how mother! took me by surprise even though I’d heard it was polarizing and was bracing myself. But then I thought maybe he was just excited about the Joon-Ho one so I deleted that part of my comment haha.

seriously though - does anyone have a solid grasp on what is going on in mother! and what that ending is about? I felt like I was into it and just impressed with the audacity of making something that felt both confrontational and deeply personal, but certain things threw me off toward the end. It just felt like it was the most important thing in the world while I was watching it, but also kind of hurt my brain.
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Yep it was the Aronfrosky movie ... apparently it’s analogies to the bible ..no characters are given names ..man is god ..mother is the earth ..Ed Harris was Adams rib..his sons Cane and Abel ...first half Old Testament..... second half new
 
Gavaxeman said:
Yep it was the Aronfrosky movie ... apparently it’s analogies to the bible ..no characters are given names ..man is god ..mother is the earth ..Ed Harris was Adams rib..his sons Cane and Abel ...first half Old Testament..... second half new
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I thought it was allegory to humanity destroying the earth/environment. Regardless I kinda hated it and 20 years ago I saw Requium For A Dream 3 Times in the theater. TBH nowadays I don’t think I would really much enjoy that either.
 
Bull Shannon said:
My local theater usually does an all-night, three-movie horror marathon in October, where you go in not knowing what movies they'll show; I haven't been but a friend has, and they usually thread the needle of showing something downright gross, something campy, and something creepy. They're partnered with one of the last video stores in town, and since they can't do the marathon, you can rent a grab bag of three horror movies, curated by the same guy who programs the marathon.

My bag consisted of The Initiation, Twins of Evil, and Demons 2. The Initiation is a generic 80s slasher that has a couple of creepy moments but gets hung up on cheesy characters and weird college-party gags. Twins of Evil is a 70s Hammer film with Peter Cushing; it was a little creepy in a gothic way, but mostly boring and nonsensical. I've been holding off on Demons 2 because I've seen a couple clips from Demons 1 and I know Italian horror's reputation for creepy gross-outs.
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Is that the same theater in Portland that does B-movie bingo? I went there with a friend a couple years ago and ended up winning a poster of the movie haha. It was pretty ridiculous but the scorekeepers did a running commentary of the film during the screening and called out the bingo squares for things as they happened in the movie. My winning squares were: “interrogated or ambushed,” “car roof smash or warehouse fight,” “x-ray glasses,” “love scene,” and “inside information from prostitute or bum.”

The horror movies thing sounds fun, too, but I would be to scaredy-pants to watch them all on my own.
 
siremobunny said:
Edit: if you really had your heart set on seeing New Order, Phildelphia Film Festival has it, but it's two showtimes with a 4 hour viewing window, and it's $15

NEW ORDER at the 29th Philadelphia Film Festival!

Mexican provocateur Michel Franco’s startling, conversation-starting thriller imagines a society left hemorrhaging after a bloody class warfare and coup d’etat.
filmadelphia.org filmadelphia.org

Also, there's a chance AFI could add passes for it later...they've done that already for a few sold out films.
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Thanks for the update! I got a ticket for New Order on Friday. I know it would bug me to miss it after I got all excited about it this weekend haha.
 
Gavaxeman said:
Yep it was the Aronfrosky movie ... apparently it’s analogies to the bible ..no characters are given names ..man is god ..mother is the earth ..Ed Harris was Adams rib..his sons Cane and Abel ...first half Old Testament..... second half new
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Yeah this is kind of similar to what I was thinking but I couldn’t really figure out who the “mother” character was. I remember being kind of thrown by Kristen Wiig’s character, too.

TenderLovingKiller® said:
I thought it was allegory to humanity destroying the earth/environment. Regardless I kinda hated it and 20 years ago I saw Requium For A Dream 3 Times in the theater. TBH nowadays I don’t think I would really much enjoy that either.
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I think this is kind of similar to how I ended up interpreting it, but it worked for me for some reason - maybe it’s just the mood I was in that particular day haha. Similar to Requiem for a Dream, something about it just felt cathartic (at least for me), like he’s trying to exorcise his own demons without pulling any punches. But yeah it’s also rough and if there’s any part of it that rings false for you, it would be hard to enjoy any of it.
 
Ericj32 said:
Yeah this is kind of similar to what I was thinking but I couldn’t really figure out who the “mother” character was. I remember being kind of thrown by Kristen Wiig’s character, too.


I think this is kind of similar to how I ended up interpreting it, but it worked for me for some reason - maybe it’s just the mood I was in that particular day haha. Similar to Requiem for a Dream, something about it just felt cathartic (at least for me), like he’s trying to exorcise his own demons without pulling any punches. But yeah it’s also rough and if there’s any part of it that rings false for you, it would be hard to enjoy any of it.
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I think my biggest issue with Requiem now is the same as I have with a few movies that I saw when I was starting to take movies more “seriously”. My initial reaction was that is was innovative and insightful but 20 years on watching it (or Donny Darko is another one) now they feel like they are trying too hard... I don’t know maybe I’ve grow more cynical.
 
Gavaxeman said:
Game night on Netflix is a decent comedy movie
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Yeah, I thought is was gonna be kinda dumb then everyone came out hard for how great it was which made me actually give it a shot but I was still a bit disappointed. I think it would have been pleasantly surprising, had I began with low expectations going in. Unfortunately IMO didn’t really live up to the hyperbolic overselling of it. So in the end I was a bit underwhelmed but if I had no preconceived notions going in I am sure I would have liked it a great deal. The cast is great.
 
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
Yeah, I thought is was gonna be kinda dumb then everyone came out hard for how great it was which made me actually give it a shot but I was still a bit disappointed as I think what would have been pleasantly surprising, had you had low expectations going in didn’t really up to the hyperbolic overselling of it. So in the end I was a bit underwhelmed but if had had no preconceived notions going in I am sure I would have liked it a great deal. The cast is great.
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Definitely felt to me like it was coasting on its potential more than what it actually brought to the table.
 
siremobunny said:
Chicago Film Festival announced it's awards a few days ahead of the end of the fest... Festival Award Winners - Cinema Chicago

Happy to see Sweat, Night of the Kings and Apples take awards, since they were all great.

Still a chance to rent some cool films:)
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Thanks for the recommendation on Apples! I ended up watching it twice and have been thinking about it all week.
 
Ericj32 said:
Thanks for the recommendation on Apples! I ended up watching it twice and have been thinking about it all week.
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It's a very thought-provoking film. I hope it gets a good official release and a lot of people see it.

You didn't rent Sweat, did you? That one was kind of a pleasant surprise too.

Also, if you're not annoyed by poetry slams, I recommend Summertime, which is playing on the Milwaukee Film Fest...it's the follow-up from the director of Blindspotting, and it's quite fun. Kind of like La La Land meets Slacker (the Linklater film).

I'll prob do a full virtual film festival summary dump post at some point, but I figured i'd recommend those before its too late.
 
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siremobunny said:
It's a very thought-provoking film. I hope it gets a good official release and a lot of people see it.

You didn't rent Sweat, did you? That one was kind of a pleasant surprise too.

Also, if you're not annoyed by poetry slams, I recommend Summertime, which is playing on the Milwaukee Film Fest...it's the follow-up from the director of Blindspotting, and it's quite fun. Kind of like La La Land meets Slacker (the Linklater film).

I'll prob do a full virtual film festival summary dump post at some point, but I figured i'd recommend those before its too late.
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i... i uh... i am um pretty annoyed by poetry slams haha. And La La Land. But I’m glad that you enjoyed it! Looking forward to seeing your rundown summary dump.

i didn’t see sweat, might check that one out.

Gaza Mon Amour was really beautiful and the Q/A with the brothers who directed it was amazing. They were super nerdy and giggly and fun just chatting live from their house in the middle of the night because of the time difference:

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I have New Order coming up tonight!

5 more films after that to wrap up the Chicago and Milwaukee fests.

also hearing really good things about Nine Days and Sound of Metal, so I might try to get tickets for those somewhere if I can find them.
 
I’m amazed by how many movies y’all watch. It takes me hours of deliberation to pluck a single movie from my increasingly large backlog.
 
Ericj32 said:
i... i uh... i am um pretty annoyed by poetry slams haha. And La La Land. But I’m glad that you enjoyed it! Looking forward to seeing your rundown summary dump.

i didn’t see sweat, might check that one out.

Gaza Mon Amour was really beautiful and the Q/A with the brothers who directed it was amazing. They were super nerdy and giggly and fun just chatting live from their house in the middle of the night because of the time difference:

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I have New Order coming up tonight!

5 more films after that to wrap up the Chicago and Milwaukee fests.

also hearing really good things about Nine Days and Sound of Metal, so I might try to get tickets for those somewhere if I can find them.
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I've been looking for a way to see Nine Days, but it sold out at AFI and Savannah and Austin film festivals have it geolocked to their respective states :(
 
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