Watched: The Man in the White Suit

Lightly satirical, very British science fiction. I liked it. Alec Guinness plays a mad genius who invents indestructible white fabric that never gets dirty. Mill town proceeds to freak out. Fabric falls apart and Guinness is left to think about his sad fate. Also, some interesting class commentary in this one, re: management versus labor. All in all, not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. And a good concept that's well carried out, considering how few special effects there are. Which really, considering when this movie was made, is to its benefit.

Watched: Brief Encounter

Old school romance. Call me cynical, but I didn't completely believe either the initial connection between these characters or the devastation when they realize they can't be together and are never going to see each other again. I don't think this is a fault of the script or the acting (both of which are really good) but more likely my general distrust, until proven wrong, of plots wherein the characters fall in love rapidly. I think this is probably among the best of that lot, but still. Anyway, the cinematography/direction is excellent, and David Lean's frequent use of an ordinary train station as platform for epic tragic romance [PUN INTENDED, YOU'RE WELCOME] works both to employ the stunning chiaroscuro of steam/streetlights but also to ground this movie firmly in the middle class. An interesting touch: the parallel story of the woman in the platform cafe and the train conductor, unfolding as a reflection of the main characters' own romance only one class removed, in the background. Good flick.

Watched: The Road

Bleak, beautiful, depressing movie. Great soundtrack and cinematography (grey though it may be). I actually downloaded the OST a year ago, it's by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, who also did the wonderful OST for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Viggo Mortenson gives a really strong performance, as usual, and has the physicality of a starved, dying man to match the mental/emotional things happening in the movie. The kid's really good. You'd best believe I cried. And no, I won't ever be watching this again. A little too grim for repeat viewings, methinks.

Also, these screenshots look like shit because I watched this on Youtube. C'est la vie.

Watched: Alexander Nevsky

So even though I still think this movie is extremely boring and propagandistic (it took me about 4 separate viewings to get all the way through it), I think I can at least understand why it is considered so important and influential and even called Eisenstein's masterpiece (as opposed to Battleship motherfucking Potemkin, another movie that I hated every time I had to watch it in a film class, despite its historical significance). When you finally get past all the Russia vs. German "history" in the first half an hour of the film, the rest is straight up an hour-and-change-long battle scene and from watching, seems to be the great-granddaddy of every other epic war movie (I'm looking at you, Alexander, Troy, Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven, 300, Gladiator, The Ten Commandments, Lord of the Rings, et al). It's got the cast of thousands (these days done digitally, although the presence of actually bodies is somewhat impressive even if the manner of showing "fighting" still has a long way to go from Alexander Nevsky to Spartacus: Blood and Sand standards of insane realism/stylization), the themes of encroaching oppression and the enemy/invader as ruthless child-killing wife-stealing maniacs, the small subplot of the everyman romance, and the incorruptible, fearless leader (who also just happens to be the best-looking actor in the cast, surprise!). I don't know how many movies before this one went into depicting war in such detail (the only one I can recall seeing off the top of my head is motherfucking Birth of a Nation, another bear to get through, and maybe Cecille B. Demille's 1923 The Ten Commandments) but whether or not this movie is the first, it still really congeals together all the elements that make up the epic war film template. So... well done there. Now here's to never watching this again.

In conclusion, I have no restraint when it comes to parentheses.

Watched: Kalifornia

Sensationalist, and interesting... at times. Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis are both leaning on the whole "dumb southern hick" thing a little too much, but Lewis's performance still manages to be sadly affecting. This girl, who has managed to somehow get herself inextricably tangled up with Pitt's psychopathic loser, is too dumb and scared to even realize how just how the completely fucked she is. David Duchovny is also here, doing his thing. His voiceover isn't great but his perfomance is okay. There are a few good shots and some good scenes but mostly this is just young Brad Pitt running rampant, chewing up the scenery, and not selling the story, which is not that plausible to begin with.

THESE

I want them.

via Reddit

Watched: Sid & Nancy

The sad, sick descent into darkness that is heroin addiction? A cautionary tale about mixing sex, drugs, rock'n'roll with nihilism? A really outstanding performance from Gary Oldman, chameleon-like as ever. The guy who plays Johnny Rotten is good as well. Not a bad "rise and fall of the musical/sports/business/whatever celebrity" entry, and it even has a few inspired moments.