CiG
Harbinger of Metal
Jesus bruh how do you fuck your post formatting up so badly? You ain't that old, there's no excuse for this degree of boomer posting lmfao.
Edit: much better.
Edit: much better.
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The Official Movie Thread
- Thread starter Manic Ferocity
- Start date
AbelTim
Member
- Jun 11, 2021
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Just finished this Roger Corman produced Sci-Fi Horror schlock fest. A young James Cameron was Second unit director and production designer on the film, one year before he directed his directorial debut Piranha II: The Spawning. You can definitely see hints of his later works The Terminator and Aliens in various scenes.
The acting is pretty terrible but kind of add's to the film's B-Movie charm. The special effects and scenery are very good in my opinion but the pacing is very slow in places and the plot is sketchy.
Robert Englund before The Nightmare on Elm Street.
Couldn't give this more than 6/10.
no country for old wainds
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- Nov 23, 2002
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ugh do i love kristen stewart enough to watch a princess diana movie? probably to be honest. also larrain is better than your average oscar-baiting period piece director.
AbelTim
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- Jun 11, 2021
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I highly recommend it and also his 2008 film Tony Manero. That's a pretty dark film set in Chile with a twisted take on disco.
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
rms
Active Member
Seemed really overhanded and just strange. Like an influence of the shining on the Diana story.
For instance, there doesn't need to be symbolism of her wanting to leave, her descent to madness and inability to mesh as a royal was every sequence haha. And it doesn't help if the viewer has any knowledge about her time as a royal, which is hard to miss with all the shit on Netflix about her.
Think this movie should've been made when her life wasn't in such public interest, if at all. Meh
no country for old wainds
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CiG
Harbinger of Metal
I saw Spencer and these are some nonsensical complaints.
The film was really good. The cinematography and score definitely did a lot of heavy lifting. The whole thing has a sort of Yorgos Lanthimos vibe. Stewart was amazing in particular.
I'm not someone who has any interest in the royal family, but I thought it was a unique angle to play it as mostly antagonistic towards the British public rather than at any particular figure of contempt within the family like you might expect.
challenge_everything
Active Member
Licorice Pizza feels like PTA's first ever swing and miss.
Essentially a 70s teen romance concerning 15 year old Gary (a too self-aware 15 year old child actor/entrepreneur) and Alana (25 year old lost soul) but told through very loosely connected vignettes, I guess you'd say Altman-esque or even PTA's own Inherent Vice. Some of the vignettes seem to serve no purpose or verge on low fantasy (eg Gary accidentally getting arrested for murder - WTF). I didn't mind the structure too much but a lot of it seemed to be going for the satire-on-Hollywood angle as Gary and Alana encounter a range of LA wankers (hammy cameos from the likes of Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper) which wasn't particularly funny or clever, and lots of recent movies have done it better (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Maps to the Stars, Under the Silver Lake etc etc).
However at the end of the day it is still a traditional romance, inviting us to root for Gary and Alana, but they are both too obnoxious for that to work - Gary's too smarmy and Alana spends her life trying to leech onto any star who can pull her out of her Jewish suburban purgatory, only returning to Gary each time her attempts fail.
Essentially a 70s teen romance concerning 15 year old Gary (a too self-aware 15 year old child actor/entrepreneur) and Alana (25 year old lost soul) but told through very loosely connected vignettes, I guess you'd say Altman-esque or even PTA's own Inherent Vice. Some of the vignettes seem to serve no purpose or verge on low fantasy (eg Gary accidentally getting arrested for murder - WTF). I didn't mind the structure too much but a lot of it seemed to be going for the satire-on-Hollywood angle as Gary and Alana encounter a range of LA wankers (hammy cameos from the likes of Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper) which wasn't particularly funny or clever, and lots of recent movies have done it better (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Maps to the Stars, Under the Silver Lake etc etc).
However at the end of the day it is still a traditional romance, inviting us to root for Gary and Alana, but they are both too obnoxious for that to work - Gary's too smarmy and Alana spends her life trying to leech onto any star who can pull her out of her Jewish suburban purgatory, only returning to Gary each time her attempts fail.
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Einherjar86
Active Member
I thought it was good too. The Lanthimos comparison is on point. I’d add that it felt at times like a very taut horror movie (similar to Personal Shopper, also a Stewart pic). Ghostly scenes aside, it has the conversational tension of Get Out, or the early scenes in Hereditary.
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
I don't necessarily agree it's a miss, more like a bunt. I'm curious to know how much of it is inspired by Gary Goetzman's stories and how much is completely fictional.
Ultimately though I do agree with you that it belongs to the same trend films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Maps to the Stars and Under the Silver Lake are touching on but not as effectively. Definitely my least favourite PTA film. Maybe tied with Magnolia.
challenge_everything
Active Member
Has anyone here explored the free streaming app Tubi? There is a wealth of content there, with some gems hidden amongst the dross. So far I've spotted:
Five Easy Pieces
Naked Lunch
Fists of Fury
Blood on Satan's Claw
Jug Face (don't know much about this but was featured on the Woodlands Dark & Days Bewitched folk horror doco)
Cat O' Nine Tails (early Dario Argento)
Basket Case
Santa Sangre
Color Out of Space (not the Stanley version - a German version from 2010 which I've never heard of)
Peeping Tom
Dial M For Murder
Fish Tank
Charade
I Blame Society
Buzzard
Five Easy Pieces
Naked Lunch
Fists of Fury
Blood on Satan's Claw
Jug Face (don't know much about this but was featured on the Woodlands Dark & Days Bewitched folk horror doco)
Cat O' Nine Tails (early Dario Argento)
Basket Case
Santa Sangre
Color Out of Space (not the Stanley version - a German version from 2010 which I've never heard of)
Peeping Tom
Dial M For Murder
Fish Tank
Charade
I Blame Society
Buzzard
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Krow
Garbage Connoisseur
Tubi is awesome. Some of the most obscure horror trash I’ve ever witnessed on there. Watched Evil toons last night actually
no country for old wainds
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rms
Active Member
Einherjar86
Active Member
The entire institution of the British royal family is absurd ridiculousness tbh. I recall scenes of weird tension bordering on horror that you could cut with the Sandringham silver.
CiG
Harbinger of Metal
rms
Active Member
Idk if get the black humor vibe from that scene, but that's kind of where I felt the shining influence. But there's probably better examples where the protagonist is just hallucinating or dreaming up wild scenarios regularly lol
is this shit you have in your head or do you look this up before?
Einherjar86
Active Member
oh I had to look up the name of the estate, no way I'm remembering that shit.
re. humor, I feel like the entire premise/situational setup was funny, which is partly where the discomfort between awkward humor and genuine creepy weirdness lies. I found myself chuckling at parts that Diana certainly didn't find funny, but the film doesn't elicit laughter at her expense. Rather, I felt at times like it wanted you to laugh because of how stupid the royal fam is.
examples:
re. humor, I feel like the entire premise/situational setup was funny, which is partly where the discomfort between awkward humor and genuine creepy weirdness lies. I found myself chuckling at parts that Diana certainly didn't find funny, but the film doesn't elicit laughter at her expense. Rather, I felt at times like it wanted you to laugh because of how stupid the royal fam is.
examples:
kids not being able to open presents on Christmas, Diana being asked to weigh herself upon arriving, and several of the meal/leisure scenes were so staged for propriety--not just by the director but surely by the family itself--that it prompted small laughter. There were no guffaws, but chuckles throughout.
I'd also say the latter element is part of the film's self-aware constructedness. So much planning and meticulousness went into staging certain shots, but that also serves as a commentary on the family itself. Everything is staged, everything has to exude propriety and manners, everything must be flawless. There was one scene of the family having their picture taken when Diana shows up late, but truthfully so many scenes were staged as though the actors were having their picture taken or standing for a painting. That felt very sharply done, to me.
I'd also say the latter element is part of the film's self-aware constructedness. So much planning and meticulousness went into staging certain shots, but that also serves as a commentary on the family itself. Everything is staged, everything has to exude propriety and manners, everything must be flawless. There was one scene of the family having their picture taken when Diana shows up late, but truthfully so many scenes were staged as though the actors were having their picture taken or standing for a painting. That felt very sharply done, to me.
