Movies

At times, it feels like something Dali and Lynch would have come up with if asked to show their vision of Hell. There’s a loose narrative and next to zero dialogue and it gets proper trippy at the end.

Currently watching Sleuth (1972) for the first time in decades. Absolutely brilliant.

Rewatched Inglorious Basterds. Still excellent but I disagree with Tarantino that it's his masterpiece. His greatest piece of film making remains Reservoir Dogs.

Dangerous Animals is an outstanding genre piece. Nothing you haven't seen before, but superbly executed. 100 minutes of nasty, tense, immensely satisfying killer thriller.

Two of his greatest scenes (the opening and the bar, maybe the strudel bit) and a lot of filler.

Watched the new Knives Out movie, as someone else said here, it's an upgrade on the previous one and a decent way to pass some time.

I wonder if Reservoir Dogs was so good as it was his first film and he took everyone by suprise with his film-making.,

I had recently done a Diploma in Film Studies course (nonchantly flicks Gauloise) and was ticking off all of the techniques, homages and references. I was blown away by the film from a technical perspective but actually prefer one or two of his others.

I would pay good money to see you debate directly with him as to which is his best film and why…

The classic question being what sort of films would he have gone on to make if the reaction to Jackie Brown had been more positive.

It puzzles me that filmmakers seem to really struggle with making quality and well-received versions of Elmore Leonard (Out of Sight, aside).

They’re, for the most part, fun, not overly taxing, dialogue rich crime stories by someone who had a second career as a screenwriter. You’d think they’d translate to cinema well. And be a match made in heaven for Tarantino. I haven’t seen Jackie Brown in years but I remember not really liking it.

Leonard might have an even lower books to good films rate than Stephen King. Perhaps they all need to be made by Soderbergh.

FWIW, I think Tarantino is an insufferable twat. Made some decent films though. Could do with an editor or someone that says no on a lot of his later work.

The Tarantino Hollywood film. Can't actually be arsed remembering what it's called. Stylish without relevance. Like his other stuff a lot though

I think a lot of the reason I enjoyed it is because I’m interested in that era of Hollywood. Particularly McQueen’s* role in it.

*DiCaprio’s character model.

I liked the one with the cowboys in a shed.

Speaking of cowboys, I finally got round to watching Brokeback Mountain. It was good, I can understand why it was so lauded at the time. Having seen Moonlight I suspect its impact is now lessened for me.

Also, I rewatched Children Of Men. Watched it not long after it came out, wasn't memorable. Unlike Brokeback, it feels way more relevant and important now. It's a masterpiece and it had me in tears. Not the good kind.

Children of Men might possibly be the most underrated (on release) film of all time. I set it as a prescribed text for my students and they were all stunned. It was weird going back to watch it after the death of my friend as Michael Caine’s character is exactly how I believe he would have been had he made it to that age. Even Charlie Hunnam doesn’t ruin it. It’s a masterpiece.