Plato Shrimp » Watching Movies Alone with crumbsroom

crumbsroom · 10/01/2023 11:02 pm

Jinnistan · 10/02/2023 11:58 am

Is that a Japanese Skinamarink?

crumbsroom · 10/02/2023 1:42 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
Is that a Japanese Skinamarink?

World's Greatest Sinner

Jinnistan · 10/02/2023 1:50 pm

crumbsroom wrote:
World's Greatest Sinner

I was thrown off by the lack of flames and snakes.

crumbsroom · 10/04/2023 1:10 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
crumbsroom wrote:
World's Greatest Sinner
I was thrown off by the lack of flames and snakes.

Because I felt I should have started watching horror movies for October, I just wanted to make it look like I was partaking in the seasonal festivities.

I guess it is sort of a horror movie though. Timothy Carey's got some face on him. Even his teeth look sweaty.

crumbsroom · 10/26/2023 7:54 pm

I'm trying to parse the generally accepted hatred of Ghost Story.

Like, I get it. It's trash. The characters are shorthand human beings. The story is some garbled mishmash of every lame ghost story ever told. Those dignified actors give the impression they aren't really convinced they should have agreed to this. It doesn't have any consistently great aesthetic sense, and sometimes feels very shit in its period reconstructions. And it delves into two long flashbacks, neither of which are as interesting as the story occuring in the present day.

But I was heartily entertained by the whole thing, which would please seven year old crumb who considered this an absolute horror classic. And who was horrifically dismayed when I thought it was a total piece of shit when I rewatched it for the first time in decades about ten years ago

It's crap, but exactly the kind of crap I was looking for

Rock · 10/26/2023 8:19 pm

Is this the 1981 movie? I haven’t seen it, but I always assumed it was well liked.

crumbsroom · 10/26/2023 9:49 pm

Rock wrote:
Is this the 1981 movie? I haven’t seen it, but I always assumed it was well liked.

Yes that's the one.

No, it was considered a dog. It has the patina of seeming like a well liked horror film, and it seems respectable from a distance, but clearly only I fell for it.

Ebert liked it a lot though. But Ebert usually hates every horror movie, so that probably says something as well.

I think a lot of the hate has to do with how much it disregarded the novel, which was a very succesful thing at the time. And a lot of it also has to do with how dull and boring the average person thought it was.

And they aren't wrong. Except for the fact they are.

Rock · 10/26/2023 10:15 pm

Tbh I think Ebert just had really unpredictable taste in horror.

crumbsroom · 10/26/2023 10:39 pm

I think when I testify that Ghost Story is probably a good movie, even though so much of it isn't, a great deal of this has to do with Alice Krige.

And Dick Smith.

crumbsroom · 10/26/2023 10:40 pm

"Dance with me, you little toad!"

Jinnistan · 10/26/2023 11:03 pm

crumbsroom wrote:
I think when I testify that Ghost Story is probably a good movie, even though so much of it isn't, a great deal of this has to do with Alice Krige.

I liked her, although she would kind of wither with age into the kind of scary looking spectre she represents here. It almost seems like a conscious career decision maybe. Or maybe it was just a lot of pills and tobacco. I still think she was pretty sexy by the time of Sleepwalkers, an overtly worse movie than Ghost Story. But she had a kind of cobweb air about her.

I think Ghost Story's reputation has improved over the years. It was frequently panned in video guides in the 80s and 90s. I'm not sure why. As a kid I loved those couple of early jump scare scenes. Arguably the film didn't pay off. Maybe it was too long. Too austere.

I was thinking that there were two directors named John Irvin and I was confusing them, but maybe not. Weird run. He made one of my favorite Vietnam films, Hamburger Hill, in-between two of the dumbest action films of the time, Raw Deal and Next of Kin.

Rock · 10/26/2023 11:46 pm

I like Raw Deal enough (‘80s Arnie movie with Robert Davi is going to be watchable no matter what), but I saw a bunch of people compare it to poliziotteschi, and uh, I’m pretty sure they only said that because Dino De Laurentis is Italian.

Jinnistan · 10/27/2023 12:03 am

Dumb doesn't necessarily mean bad.

crumbsroom · 10/27/2023 10:24 am

Jinnistan wrote:
crumbsroom wrote:
I think when I testify that Ghost Story is probably a good movie, even though so much of it isn't, a great deal of this has to do with Alice Krige.
Her ability in this film to veer between playing unknowable cypher, a earthy sex pot, an otherwordly threat and a woman capable of withering an entire room full of men with a few choice words, is the bedrock the whole film is built on.

I think Ghost Story's reputation has improved over the years. It was frequently panned in video guides in the 80s and 90s. I'm not sure why. As a kid I loved those couple of early jump scare scenes. Arguably the film didn't pay off. Maybe it was too long. Too austere.
It's definitely improved, but I think that's a part of it kind of dropping out of the horror conversation for decades. Horror likes its underdogs, and those who seek it out, which you've kind of had to do if you wanted to see it, it would feel like a minor undiscovered gem. If one can get beyond that austerity.

And there are great moments in the film. The dreamy/nightmarish scene on the bridge probably being the best. And the inexplicable climax with the car. And the dread heavy mood preceding the moment we see Craig Wassons willy flapping in a death breeze.

[quoteI was thinking that there were two directors named John Irvin and I was confusing them, but maybe not. Weird run. He made one of my favorite Vietnam films, Hamburger Hill, in-between two of the dumbest action films of the time, Raw Deal and Next of Kin.

The director does a pretty good job with its suspense heavy moments. It's when he's trying to carve out a visual or emotional identity exploring the characters that the film frequently goes flat. It's an almost there kind of film. You can almost see how good it could have been. I think the problem is mostly the script. The dialogue is frequently awful. All those actors and they have the most screenwriter 101 lines to deliver.

And I really like Hamburger Hill. Had no idea it was the same guy.

Jinnistan · 10/27/2023 7:33 pm

crumbsroom wrote:
And I really like Hamburger Hill. Had no idea it was the same guy.

For some reason I had always assumed there was a British John Irvin and an American John Irvin, because it's not an uncommon name and his British films are quite different from his American ones. But Wiki tells me it's the same guy.

crumbsroom · 11/07/2023 9:00 am

Not being familiar with the way the original interview this movie circles around, I'm unsure exactly how much the way it has been re-edited by the director actually reshapes what we are watching here. But, not worrying too much about that, and just taking this film at face value, it's an indelible document regarding the treatment of artists by the press, and in particular, black artists. And even if we don't want to worry about the value of any of that, it also has a number of great musical performances by Monk.

Jinnistan · 11/07/2023 5:08 pm

Wonder where I can find that?

I am looking forward to a Wayne Shorter documentary that's on Prime at the moment.

crumbsroom · 11/07/2023 5:10 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
Wonder where I can find that?

I am looking forward to a Wayne Shorter documentary that's on Prime at the moment.

Currently it's on Mubi, have no idea where if it is slated to steam elsewhere. Considering it's kind of a niche thing, I can't imagine too many are angling to get the rights to it, but you never know.

It's fascinating though

Jinnistan · 11/07/2023 5:13 pm

Mubi, Tubi, Frutti

These goddamn sites.

If Mubi's free, I'm there.