Talk About Movies: Part 4
Somehow threads merged, so here's part 4 of our ongoing movie discussion.
Lol nice
Give Hard Times a try... it is Melancholy and depressing, but I love it.
Charles Bronson is a bit older but 'cut up' in this film and Jill Ireland never looked better.
the story is a depression era period piece about bare knuckle fighting and has several great actors... James Coburn, Strother Martin and Robert Tessier
I was moved by A Real Pain, directed and starring Jesse Eiesenberg. But the highlight is the performance of Kieran Culkin. He plays a wise ass who travels with his cousin, Eisenberg, on a guided tour of Holocaust sites, paid for by their deceased grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, that culminates in a visit to Majdenek concentration camp (filmed there).
Culkin is a real pain in the ass but also suffers a real pain. He's disconnected from his family, including his cousin, and handles things by being a pain in the ass but also using black humor. He's engaging at the same time. Eisenberg is the complete opposite.
The ending of the film stunned me.
In an age where "content creators" post selfies smiling and horsing around at Holocaust sites, A Real Pain shows the depth of real pain people experience.
It's another one of those small films that gets overlooked by those who favor movies about sand. See it. It's a great film, my favorite I've seen this year.
Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk
The only Oscar nom I've seen is Wallace and Grommet, and I liked it.
There was also that movie with some Van Damme clone. I think he's a teacher at some rough school and he's trained in some island martial arts. At the end, they all chant this cool island song or something while he's fighting.
That was always a fun one to watch.
From a martial arts POV, the 80-90s were technically ridiculously bad. Bloodsport holds up surprisingly well though as far as Muay Thai goes 
Also... if you like 'great' filmmakers you may want to try and find Akira Kurosawa's Sanshiro Sugata
it's another period piece that follows a young man, Susumu Fujita, Sugata, as he struggles to learn the nuance and the spiritual meaning of judo and in doing so learns about something about of the meaning of life.
an interesting note is that Susumu Fujita plays the worn out Samurai Master in Yojimbo that flees just before a big fight between the two factions of the town.
When fleeing, Susumu Fujita exchanges respectful nod's with Toshiro Mifune as he jumps over a back fence as if Kurosawa is saying 'I am leaving now and it's up to you to carry on in Kurosawa's films'
To continue the martial arts/combat sports movies discussion, an obscure movie that I watched recently, Bokser (Boxer on Netflix), which is a Polish movie based on the fictional story (albeit loosely based on several Polish athletes ventures) of a boxing champion that escapes communist Poland to achieve his dreams of success in London. A really enjoyable and interesting viewing.
this is friggen comedy gold...
Spoiler
Gotcha. I have only seen Seven Samurai from him, but will watch Sanshiro Sugata this week.
Judo is actually the first martial arts I (briefly) learned as a teenager, so I do have fond memories of practicing it/might take a few more courses moving forward - Jiu Jitsu bores the living shyt out of me, unfortunately!!!.
What's a good book or two to start with for learning about film language/techniques? Looking to add to my knowledge, especially since I'm starting to make video essays. Would add a level of authority if I knew what I was talking about! heh
Look at the YouTube channel Studio Binder. They're very good with that kind of stuff
I'm sorry. I realize that certain filmies will find this annoying. I just can't get past the penguin. When you pause to think that all the great movies are built around car chases and sight gags, how can this not be Best Picture?
Wallace and Gromit are amazing. And the train chase with Penquin in The Wrong Trousers is, and I'm not exaggerating, the greatest chase scene in movie history.
