Gotta love a film that understands that all you need to make a scene completely cinematic is Jean Gabin in fly ass pajamas eating Pate’
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Welcome to the Dollhouse 1995
“You do know that special means retarded? So you’re club is for retards.”
Middle school is the worst! A time where the insecure, trying to be grown and cool feel of high-school meet with the hellish childish energy of elementary school meet to create a stomping ground these “Children of The Corn” “Village of The Damned” little fuckers! If I came up with a comprehensive list of the worst things I’ve ever done in my life, a lot of them… -
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion 1970
I’m a sucker for a good unhinged cop character study(Bad Lieutenant, Top of The Heap, Highway Patrolman, Violent Cop)but this one might be the most politically fraught and scathing out of all of those. There are a number of things at play that make this such a rich tapestry of “crime and punishment” It’s deconstruction of a police procedural where you get the murder and murder revealed up top. It’s a portrait of power being unchecked to the point of…
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Hard Boiled 1992
Been a while since I’ve seen this! It’s crazy to think that the big hospital shootout takes up like half the movie, but it goes to show you that you don’t need 1 million different plot beats and mechanics set in motion to make a kick ass emotionaly engaging action film. Just people involved who know exactly wtf their doing getting into their bag!
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Pretty Poison 1968
It’s hard to tell, some of them seem just as normal as you and me”
What an awesome little gem this is! It’s both classical Hollywood suspense, but with a kind of lyrical touch to it. It’s like “Badlands” with Hitchcockian vibes. It feels a proto Sundance “quirky” movie, like “Heathers” or something . It’s a zany flick about a duo of misfits, but there’s a real read on America and how it interacts with people who are “bad eggs” Anthony…
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Clean, Shaven 1993
Not to get all personal about my family history, but I have a couple of relatives, distant and close that have been struck by schizophrenia. It’s gotten to the point where it’s become a subconscious thing to wonder if it would ever happen to me? Ive always been kind of a someone who’s very much in my head, and I spend so much of my time giving my senses over to all these different outlets with images, sounds, pure Fantasia.…
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Starship Troopers 1997
“It’s Afraid!”
I would say I don’t understand how the same critics who lauded Robo-Cop for it’s bitting satire missed the point of this going full “Triumph Of The Will” parody when it came out. But watching it this time I can gage some things that would create dissonance. Other Verhoeven films have a richer classier aesthetic, and this looks and feels like Disney Channel movie. He isn’t the type to wink at you every 2 seconds, he just goes… -
Highway Patrolman 1991
What starts out as this film about a wide eyed, naive rookie cop on a mission to “protect and serve” gets distorted into this Alex Cox “Acid Western” descent into nihilism. Roberto Sosa’s performance is something else, you see his gradual change and unraveling, from optimistic and gung ho about “doing good” to absolutely snapping from world and the institution that makes him but become completely drained spiritually. The culture and trappings of his job starts to bleed into his…
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Big Trouble in Little China 1986
“Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?”
To me this feels like Carpenter’s “Dune” where you can see some zany unique things here and there, I can see how some look at this as a classic. At points I was going along and having fun with the weird 80s camp, other times it felt clunky and awkward, and by the end I was just laughing at the pure ridiculousness of it(I mean this racist as fuck…
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Ganja & Hess 1973
“The only perversions that can be comfortably condemned are the perversions of others”
It’s a movie I’ve appreciated more as something that showed other “non vampire, vampire movies” the way(“Trouble Everyday” George Romero’s “Martin” “The Addiction” etc..) more than I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, but on rewatch something clicked. I feel this thing deeply in my bones. Which is fitting for a film using vamiprism and the concept of blood as this bare essence of living. There’s a jagged, raw…
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The Music Lovers 1971
Tryna resist being a basic cornball and describing this as “operatic” but gawdt dam! It’s just a maximalists artistic explosion. Ken Russell’s love for classical music is fully on display, he directs this with such a sweeping romantic hand. The period flourishes are at times feel natural and lived in, but there’s a colorful lively sense of artifice that feels like this concert within a concert. Where it really does feel like you’re going into someone’s body and experiencing how…