Welcome to the post-bicentennial era of the Cinecast at Row Three. After a scattered release on DVD, VOD, and late-in-the-game theatrical in Canada, the odd and unusual Greek Tragedy Dogtooth is mulled over by Andrew, Gamble and Kurt, and in the spirit of doing a second Oscar Foreign Language nominee in a single episode, Kurt talks about the French-Canadian entry; the marvelous Polanski-meets-Haneke mystery-drama from Denis Villeneuve, Incendies. From there it is a lengthy “What We Watched” episode that stretches from Nazi war-crimes trials to abortion documentaries to Ryan Reynolds and Carmen Electra before taking a breath and plunging into head-trauma-and-doll-fantasy-therapeutic-art, HBOs Boardwalk Empire, Donald Sutherland horror films of the 1970s, music-laden Mennonite police procedurals and Mr. Holland’s Fuckin’ Opus. You have been warned, these waters run deep.
DVD picks are just as strange and diverse. It’s all good folks.
As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!
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http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_11/episode_201.mp3
ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_11/episode_201-alt.mp3
Full show notes are under the seats…
IN-HOUSE BUSINESS:
Movie Club
High and Low Brow
Icon Series
Twitch Series
MAIN REVIEW:
– Dogtooth (IMDb) | (Netflix Instant)
WHAT WE WATCHED:
Andrew
– Nuremberg (IMDb)
– Mr. Holland’s Opus (IMDb)
– Buried (IMDb) – Buried vs. 127 Hours
– Fan Made Star Wars documentary episode breakdown at FilmRot
Kurt
– Incendies (IMDb)
– Small Town Murder Songs (IMDb)
– Lake of Fire (IMDb)
– Matewan (IMDb)
– Don’t Look Now (IMDb)
– Invasion of the Body Snatchers (IMDb)
Matt
– Marwencol (IMDb)
– The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (IMDb)
– “Boardwalk Empire” (IMDb)
| DVD PICK #1: | |||
KURT: Tesis (IMDb) (Netflix) |
MATT: I Spit on Your Grave (1978) (IMDb) (Netflix) |
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| DVD PICK #2: | |||
KURT: Still Walking (Criterion) (IMDb) (Netflix) |
MATT: The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff (IMDb) |
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OTHER DVDs NOW AVAILABLE:
Thelma & Louise (20th Anniversary) [Blu-ray]
Amarcord (Criterion) [Blu-ray]
Life as We Know It
Tamara Drewe
Ong Bak 3
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
Paranormal Activity 2
It’s Kind of a Funny Story
You Again
For Colored Girls
Uncle Buck [Blu-ray]
A River Runs Through It [Blu-ray]
Barb Wire [Blu-ray]
Dinosaurr [Blu-ray]
NEXT WEEK:
Biutiful
Barney’s Version
Rango
PRIVATE COMMENTS or QUESTIONS?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or email us:
feedback@rowthree.com (general)
andrew.james@rowthree.com
kurt@rowthree.com
Speaking of Amenabar, what your guy’s opinion on Vanilla Sky? Despite being a remake and starring the much hated (largely unwarranted) Tom Cruise, I really like the film. I really don’t understand the universal, negative reaction.
From Wikipedia:
In 2010,Vanilla Sky was voted as the most confusing movie of all time in a poll conducted by LoveFilm.com.
Now I’m starting to see why a large portion of the mainstream had problems with Inception, in spite of the endless exposition.
Yeah, I would have loved Inception to have been more ambiguous (it does have too much exposition) — but it could never be. With that large of budget, a more complicated structure would have most likely resulted in a financial disaster.
I’m a big fan of both Vanilla Sky and Abre Los Ojos, although I give the original an edge because I really like Eduardo Norieaga, and Penelope Cruz is not very good in the Remake (but is excellent in the original, go figure…) The ‘explain everything’ sequence in the remake with Noah Taylor is fricken’ excellent though. Much like Verbinski vs. Nakata’s versions of RING, if you combined elements from both you’d get the perfect film.
I liked both Vanilla Sky and Abre Los Ojos as well (saw Vanilla Sky first). I never got the dislike for that movie. Penelope Cruz has this thing where she’s very not good in American films (big exception for Vicky Cristina Barcelona). I don’t know what’s up with that.
Antho, I have a feeling that most people who voted in that poll have not seen Last Year at Marienbad. Or INLAND EMPIRE. Or Primer.
Haven’t listened yet – does Andrew hate DVDs this week?
Count me in the fan base for Vanilla Sky. I actually like it a little more than the original – probably because the budget allows for a lot more spectacular visuals and set pieces. I saw it theatrically and was definitely confused at first. Now it makes perfect sense and the more I see the movie, the more I like it.
And yes, Penelope Cruz in English speaking roles isn’t as good as she is in Spanish roles. That said, I don’t understand people saying she’s “bad.” She’s not any worse than any other on-par actresses (e.g. Brittany Murphy, Scarlet Johansson, Frances Fisher, Minnie Driver, etc.). In fact, the hate for her in Blow is baffling to me. I think it’s a pretty good performance for what the character calls for.
Actually, yes, Andrew hates DVDs this week and abstained, although I try to put him in his place, there are a few good long-tail releases, and a BluRay re-release of Amarcord!
I wouldn’t say I “hate” DVDs this week. There’s just not much of anything that jumps out at me and most of the things I might like I either haven’t seen or just don’t get me all that excited. I’ve had Amarcord on my Netflix queue for a couple of years. But it’s never gotten past about 150.
I think Cruz is terrible on every level in Blow. This is especially because everyone is so good.
Underrated in Vanilla Sky – Kurt Russell.
For good Cruz, English speaking roles I’d point to Elegy and obviously Vicky Christina.
Has anyone seen Chromophobia? Doesn’t seem to be available on R1 DVD.
So no one knows anything about Chromophobia? Think I found a reg free copy. I may pick it up blind; just based on cast and cruz.
love the original, hate Vanilla Sky. Way too much of the Crowe-isms, like the typical eye closeups, and everyone is just better in the original.
oh and whats worse, is the ‘making of’ doc Crowe put together on the DVD is one of the most eye rolling “kill me know” features ever put together.
Goon. Noah Taylor is the wildcard in the Crowe Version. He is way better than what was done in the original!
I dont even remember him
He’s the guy at the end that comes along and explains everything.
Huh. No Vanilla Sky on Blu-ray. Whassup wit dat?
In regards to Incendies:
a) part of the story is set in Lebanon but the film was shot in Jordan. Apparently some Lebanese are upset about the landscape discrepancy.
b) surprised no mention of Radiohead on the soundtrack. I am impressed they got the rights (this is a Canadian film) but I think they overdid it particularly during the second music montage (venturing into Limits of Control territory)
c) the sound design for this film was amazing especially with a good sound system. The most memorable scene in the film for me was when the mother is walking along the desert road and her heels are clicking against beaten asphalt. It was really odd moment but it added a lot texture to the environment.
Yes, we talk about this in the Incendies Review thread. I think it was a bad idea to use the Radiohead where they used it. Something else could have been better. Don’t get me wrong, I like Radiohead in movies (See Lukas Moodyson’s MAMMOTH for instance) but here, not so much. It might possibly be the only misstep in the movie…well, other than the metallic-dark cinematography in Montreal…either the projector I saw it off of was dimming, or that is seriously underlit cinematogarphy. Of course all the stuff in the Middle East looks marvellous and brutal.
Rotten Tomatoes says Incendies is coming out April 22nd. Go see it!
also regarding my take on the Radiohead song, see my recent spoiler comment in the Incendies thread. I think your theater projector was messed up Kurt, everything looked perfect when I saw it. Did you see it in the Lightbox? The digital picture was stunning.
No, I opted for less travel and caught it at multiplex (A multiplex that I hate, and lesson learned) but Villeneuve’s NEXT FLOOR also has quite dark slate-grey with dabs of colour cinematography.
The Montreal visuals are drab by design, but it was never a case of feeling underlit.
Yes, I got that by design in the film. But you confirming that it was clear and ‘bright’, I am now thinking that the Silver City on Dundas needs to replace a few bulbs or something!
did you see it digitally? I usually notice and get annoyed by scenes that are underlit, but I don’t remember anything like that in the Montreal scenes. The colours are muted, and outside it is always a slate grey sky but everything was clear.
I don’t think it was Digital.
you would have noticed, at the Lightbox it was sharp and very noticeably digital every time the title cards came up.
@Andrew – a much better, experimental but still very watchable, music film is Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. It’s on Netflix Instant: http://ca.netflix.com/Movie/32-Short-Films-About-Glenn-Gould/60004430?autoRedirected=1 – Hope that redirects you to the US version