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    Pick a Movie… any Movie

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    New Frontier PosterIt is lunch and I have two minutes while I eat so I figured I’d throw this post up which has been bouncing in my head over the past couple of days. Everyone should pick a movie and mention it in the comments and you have to say something “meaningful” about the movie. I don’t care if its a movie you love or one that you hate. I just want to see what movies everyone mentions and they have to say about them.

35 Comments


  1. Robert Patton says:
    September 30, 2009 at 12:17 pm

    “Red Rocks West” is a fantastic, under appreciated film noir from the early 90s, back when Nic Cage was an actor, directed by John Dahl who would later direct the funny and smart “You Kill Me.” I highly recommend it to anyone. It also featured J.T. Walsh, Lara Flynn Boyle and Dennis Hopper who all give great performances showcasing the depths of humanity.

    Reply
  2. John Allison says:
    September 30, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    Here is mine: “Murder 101″ staring Pierce Brosnon. I don’t know why I like this one. It plays somewhat like a Murder She Wrote except I guess its the whole meta aspect of the movie. Much of the plot is based off the standard murder mystery concepts but it acknowledges this. When you find out who the murderer is the explanation is even given to you. It had to be him/her because in murder mysteries it has to be him/her and I love the even more meta ending. Its not a great movie but I still had fun with it.

    Reply
    • Andrew James says:
      September 30, 2009 at 12:33 pm

      Since Bad Lieutenant 2, I’ve been really itching to go back and watch Cage some more. Leaving Las Vegas is one of my favorites of all time. Can’t wait to revisit it. It is Cage at his finest I believe and the story seems so depressing real despite its kind of stage presence (or “scripty”) feel.

      Reply
  3. Jandy Stone says:
    September 30, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    Okay, I’ll mention 1937′s Stage Door, a movie that I must’ve borrowed from the library as a teenager a dozen times or more. And I recently rewatched it, and it’s just as good as ever. Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Eve Arden, Gail Patrick, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, and others are residents of a theatrical boarding-house, trying to make their way onto Broadway. To help is sleazy producer Adolphe Menjou, who “mentors” one girl after another, but really only wants them as trophies. The film’s a great mix of comedy and drama – the comedy coming from the sharp dialogue and dry delivery from Rogers and Arden (and the slapstick mugging of Ball and Miller), the drama from Andrea Leeds, the girl who was big on Broadway the year before but can’t get a callback now. There are a lot of intertwining plot points and characters and tones to balance, but it’s done almost perfectly. Every time I get to the end of it, I just want to start it over and watch it again.

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  4. Laura Desiree says:
    September 30, 2009 at 5:30 pm

    Clouzot’s 1955 ‘Les Diaboliques’
    decided to attend a screening of this at Toronto’s Cinematheque with my twin sister 6 or 7 years ago having always been curious about it. The print was gorgeous, the sound was stellar, and I have yet to ever again scream as loud as I did in that theater for the climax.

    Vera Clouzot playing ‘Christina’, the meek wife suffering a weak/sensitive heart is one of my all time favorite characters in cinema, it builds the intensity like none other!

    I guess I’ll throw Terminator 2 in here as well, one of my all time favorites- EVER
    Why do the effects STILL rock my world today?

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  5. rot says:
    September 30, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    Love Diaboliques, solid pick. Did you catch L’Enfer de Henri-George Clouzot at TIFF Laura? It is mesmerizing, the footage I mean of this doomed and unfinished project of his.

    Reply
  6. Laura Desiree says:
    September 30, 2009 at 6:25 pm

    I missed it! I had a crazy festival this year, took on a lot more than I could appreciate! Still getting those reviews up!

    Reply
  7. Goon says:
    September 30, 2009 at 10:44 pm

    LA FEMME NIKITA is a movie I hadn’t seen for over a decade and had almost entirely forgotten about. On rewatch yesterday it initially comes across as dated, but eventually it settles into a tense groove that matches the best parts of the Professional, and if anything, reminds me that at his best Besson can easily match in the tension department with the most tense moments of Inglourious Basterds.

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  8. Kurt says:
    October 1, 2009 at 7:00 am

    I’ll Always love La Femme Nikita for introducing me to the two actors: Jean Reno and Anne Parillaud. Which reminds me, in this vampire craze we are going through, it is time to look for a copy of INNOCENT BLOOD for its strange and unusual horror/comedy vibe.

    Reply
  9. Bob Turnbull says:
    October 1, 2009 at 7:04 am

    Roy Andersson’s “You, The Living”. Through mostly static but beautifully composed shots, this follow-up to “Songs From The Second Floor” (after 7 years) intercuts between several people who simply cannot see what is around them to find enjoyment and happiness in their lives. It almost made me burst out into tears at one point due to an amazing confluence of music, images and tonal shift. It’s one of the biggest reasons I just bought a region free DVD player – I haven’t seen it since TIFF 2 years ago and absolutely need to again.

    As for Region 1, how about Ernst Lubitsch’s “Design For Living”? A comedy about two artists (a playwright and a painter) who fall in love with the same woman. She can’t decide between them, so offers an arrangement to live with them both. Witty dialogue and great timing by all the actors make it one of the better 30s comedies.

    Reply
  10. rot says:
    October 1, 2009 at 8:19 am

    @Bob, I remember You, The Living, it was at TIFF a couple years ago. Will look into seeing it.

    I think I have hammered home many of the films I think people need to see, that they may have not otherwise (Wages of Fear, When the Levees Broke, Wit, Touching the Void)

    but for an original recommendation…

    Jacques Becker’s Le Trou (on Criterion), one of if not the best prison escape film I have ever seen. Like all good genre films, it is not simply going through the motions of familiar plot points, it creates a dynamic between the characters that, particularly as a Non-Frenchman, kept me engrossed in this otherworldly prison environment where people eat fine foods and are actually fairly happy.

    Reply
    • Andrew James says:
      October 1, 2009 at 10:28 am

      So re-watched Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood last night. I’ve always been a fan of that movie as I am a Costner apologist but also Rickman, Wincott and Slater to round it out.

      This is the first time I realized how ridiculous this movie is. I still love it, but it’s overly theatrical and the dialogue is almost painful in that it tries to sound 17th century but was clearly written by barely a college kid. Then you’ve got this craziness with witches living under the castle that is about as cliche as it gets – fog and boiling cauldrons. Ravens and snakes and rats all over the place.

      Then in Rickman’s death sequence it’s like a parody of someone dying in a movie from the 30′s. The whole movie is chock full of this stuff and I almost love it all the more for it. Good fun – almost could be considered a genre flick.

      Reply
  11. Bob Turnbull says:
    October 1, 2009 at 11:19 am

    Great pick Mike! I love “Le Trou” and highly second that recommendation…

    Becker’s other two films in the Criterion line are also pretty superb. “Touchez Pas Au Grisbi” (translates to “Hands Off The Loot”) and “Casque D’Or” are great stories with great performances and it all seems effortless. The latter in particular is great – I popped it in late one night just to watch 5-10 minutes to see what it was like (since I was really tired) and ended up watching the whole damn thing straight through.

    Andrew, I’ve never seen Costner’s “Robin Hood” – not for any anti-Kev reason (I actually like him well enough), but simply because it just never felt necessary. However, you may have convinced me otherwise…

    Reply
  12. Jandy Stone says:
    October 1, 2009 at 11:54 am

    Bob, I love all those Lubitsch films – I can never keep Design for Living and Trouble in Paradise straight in my head, though. Probably because I don’t remember enough about either one. I’m putting both on my rewatch list right now!

    Mike, I remember you mentioning Le Trou a while back. I need to see it, too. Although I have seen Becker’s Touchez pas au grisbi, and remember thinking it didn’t compare favorably (for me at least) to Melville’s crime films. I have Casque D’Or around somewhere, but haven’t watched it yet, either.

    Reply
  13. rot says:
    October 1, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    Casque D’Or I have seen and thought it was great too… never realized that this was the same director as Le Trou (and to make this thread fold back on itself even more, the lead actress in Casque D’Or is the mistress in Les DIaboliques, great in both films).

    I am trying to stir up some interest in doing another movie marathon on R3, this time focusing on con artists and prison escapes, call it The Man With the Plan Movie Marathon… I will devote a post to Le Trou when and if this marathon takes off. The same goes for the previous marathon, if people want to join in on the programme and write some reviews they will be posted on the site… the whole point of a marathon I think is for it to be a shared experience.

    also interested in recommendations for films to add to the programme.

    Reply
  14. Jonathan B. says:
    October 1, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    The Hidden Blade. Yôji Yamada’s follow up to The Twilight Samurai, and while not quite as good as its predecessor, it’s still a must-watch. I just re-watched it recently and fell in love with it all over again.

    Reply
  15. Bob Turnbull says:
    October 1, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    I think I like “Hidden Blade” a smidge more than “Twilight Samurai”, but they’re both outstanding. The leads are really full characters and sympathetic too.

    Jandy, I kinda thought you might like the Lubitsch pick…B-) I actually prefer his later films like “Ninotchka”, “To Be Or Not To Be” and “Heaven Can Wait”, I had just watched “Design For Living”…I have to seek out that Eclipse box set one day that packaged up his musicals.

    I’d agree that Grisbi isn’t quite as good as Melville’s work, but it has Jean Gabin and Jeanne Moreau so you just can’t complain about that…

    Mike, Bresson’s “A Man Escaped” would be a good companion for “Le Trou”. I saw “Cell 211″ at TIFF which was quite good, though it’s not quite “a man with a plan” – it’s more of “a man improving as he goes in order to stay alive”.

    Reply
  16. Jandy Stone says:
    October 1, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    Bob, To Be or Not to Be is one of my all-time favorites. I showed it to some grad school friends last year (all of whom are film buffs to one degree or another but hadn’t heard of To Be or Not to Be) for our weekly movie night, and it ended up being one of our collective favorites of everything we watched that year. It has a healthy reputation among film junkies, I know, but I really wish it were better known in wider circles.

    I just found it difficult to hold my attention on Grisbi, which is often as much my fault as a film’s (actually had the same issue the first time I tried to watch Melville’s Le douxieme souffle recently – turned it off and tried again a few days later, and liked it much more). Melville’s Le doulos, though? Perfection. I’m working my way up to A Man Escaped, but I have a love-hate relationship with Bresson (I love Pickpocket, which I’m hoping A Man Escaped is like, but I hate Diary of a Country Priest).

    Reply
  17. Bob Turnbull says:
    October 2, 2009 at 6:24 am

    We’re definitely in sync here Jandy…”To Be Or Not To Be” has Carole Lombard – EVERYONE should be more familiar with Carole Lombard.

    And “Le Doulos” is freaking brilliant. One of my fave Melvilles. I like “Deuxieme Souffle” too, but you’re right in that it is a bit slower and harder to get right into.

    I would gauge “A Man Escaped” to be closer to “Pickpocket”. Those are the only two Bresson I can handle so far. “Diary Of A Country Priest” actually still had me kind of interested halfway, but then I realized where it was going and it became an exercise in just trying to get through it. And “Au Hazard Balthazar”? Well, when you keep hoping for the donkey to come back on screen, you know you just aren’t bought into the film.

    Reply
  18. rot says:
    October 2, 2009 at 7:29 am

    I am ashamed to say I haven’t seen any Bresson, so definitely adding A Man Escaped to the list.

    Here is a rundown of what some of us have cobbled together so far as a potential list of films for the marathon:

    A Man Escaped
    Papillon
    Heist
    Nine Queens
    Thief
    Topkapi
    Paper Moon
    Cool Hand Luke
    Grand Illusion
    Brothers Bloom
    Revolver
    F is for Fake
    Bottle Rocket
    Quick Change
    Rififi
    Little Dieter Needs to Fly

    Reply
  19. rot says:
    October 2, 2009 at 7:30 am

    add Le Trou to that list as well

    Reply
  20. Jandy Stone says:
    October 2, 2009 at 8:54 am

    And I keep putting Big Deal on Madonna Street on that list and Mike keeps taking it off.

    Bob, yeah, we’re totally classic film BFFs right now. :) I haven’t tried Balthazar yet. I know people who love it, but those are the same people who love everything by Bresson, so…

    Reply
  21. rot says:
    October 2, 2009 at 9:03 am

    I tend to tune you out Jandy :)

    will add to the master list.

    Reply
  22. Bob Turnbull says:
    October 2, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    Let’s see, you need to add the following to the “man with a plan” list:

    Escape From Alcatraz
    Ocean’s Twelve
    The Sting
    The Lavender Hill Mob
    There Was A Crooked Man…

    Nothing else coming to mind at the moment…

    Jandy, I saw Big Deal on Madonna Street years ago, but I don’t think I appreciated the riffs on other movies at the time. I need to see it again.

    Oh, and I have “The Merry Widow” on PVR, but probably won’t get to it until after my October Horrorfest.

    Reply
  23. rot says:
    October 2, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    keep the films the coming. The full title could be The Man With The Plan Movie Marathon: A celebration of being clever.

    I am almost tempted to put Fitzcarraldo on there, except it is not so much being clever as being so thoughtlessly ambitious.

    Wow Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz and I haven’t seen it… that is definitely on the list now!

    I would have put the Lavendar Hill Mob on the list but Filmspotting used it in one of their recent marathons and I am trying to go for different ones. Hence why the Ocean’s films and The Sting aren’t on it, too obvious, for me anyways.

    Also these are mostly films I haven’t seen, which begs the question: do all of these fulfill the theme?

    Reply
  24. Jandy Stone says:
    October 2, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    I guess The Great Escape is too obvious, too? Though it’s not really more obvious as a prison escape movie than Grand Illusion or Papillon…

    Bob, Rififi and Big Deal on Madonna Street should really be a double feature.

    Reply
  25. rot says:
    October 2, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    In the end the list should be made of films WE want to see, whether they be films we’ve never seen or want to revisit. I have no pressing urge to revisit Great Escape or the Sting, but if someone else does and wants to justify it being on a list by writing a review, than it goes on the list. I am already nearing 20 films on this list, which its highly unlikely I will be able to write 20 reviews. At some point I will pick and choose from this the list the ones I really want to do.

    Reply
  26. rot says:
    October 2, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    Just bought Papillon today, haven’t seen yet.

    Reply
  27. leeny says:
    October 2, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    The Austrailian film Proof (1991). Staring young Russell Crowe, and Hugo Weaving.

    About a blind man that takes photgraphs to prove whats there…is really there.

    This film had me in stitch’s. It is a dark comedy, that features some really mildly disturbing behaviour of both Crowe, and Weavings characters. The show topper is the Stalker/housekeeper character Celia played by Geneviève Picot (muriels wedding).

    Reply
  28. leeny says:
    October 2, 2009 at 2:45 pm

    Just looked on IMDB at Proof (1991)… It has it listed as a drama. I found it far too amusing to be a drama.

    Reply
  29. Kurt Halfyard says:
    October 2, 2009 at 3:24 pm

    If by PROOF you mean the Hugo Weaving/Russel Crowe Aussie movie that won just about every award that year (the aussies know their “oscarbait” too!) yea, it is pretty good stuff. They both do solid work in that one, but both have gotten much much better (Crowe in The Insider for instance, and certainly Weaving in Last Ride).

    Reply
  30. Marina Antunes says:
    October 2, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    I’m going to stay with the Down Under theme for a minute and bring up the little seen Cate Blanchett/Hugo Weaving double team of LITTLE FISH about two recovering heroin addicts. It’s a small movie but it never feels washed away by the huge talents (and they’re both very solid here). Sam Neill’s also in there for good measure too.

    Reply
  31. Kurt says:
    October 2, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Never saw Little Fish, but I do recall the entire Little Fish Cast showing up to The Proposition tiff screening making pretty much the entire Aussie Royalty (Russel Crowe and Naomi Watts excepted) in the same very tiny <200 seat theatre to watch one of the more violent films in recent memory.

    Reply
  32. Jonas says:
    October 3, 2009 at 10:06 am

    Farväl Falkenberg

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0855805/

    I can’t remember any movie affecting me so much as that movie did after I had just watched it. I’m not really sure why it had such an impact on me but damn it did. I don’t want to spoil to much so I won’t say much more.

    Reply
  33. Henrik says:
    October 3, 2009 at 10:56 am

    Drenge.

    Reply

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