Plato Shrimp » Watching Movies Alone with crumbsroom

Rock · 9/19/2022 8:34 am

crumbsroom wrote:
Currently I'm just distracted by why they went through the bother to use crappy make up to make actors look older, instead of just hiring older actors.

Or is this just a set up for some dumb twist revelation I won't possibly give a shit about later on

Don't answer. I want to be horribly annoyed in real time

It’s because the movie thinks old people are gross.

Rampop II · 9/20/2022 4:52 am

Jinnistan wrote:
I mentioned this is my earlier review, but aside from the already annoying plagiarism of TCM's style, I really am pretty much done with this recycled 'scary old woman' meme, which I suppose is now like the tired J-horror 'wet faceless girl', but in X it still feels plagiaristic as well to the examples below, which I believe are, like, 8 and 12 years old by now respectively.

Though of course scary old women are always in–style, I take it you are referring to that particular style of scary old woman, with that recognizable "Gollum on chemotherapy" look going on; am I right?

Hollywood. They'll flog anything that moves. I lament the day it was suddenly decreed that all ghosts in film would, theneceforth, be portrayed as capable of that "Momentary Undercrank Teleport Maneuver," particularly whenever seen on closed–circuit tv monitors. Where did that originate? Dark Water?

Those girls form the J–horror flicks sport a look that is actually quite traditional by Japanese ghost standards. The mortally–wronged ghost–girl is a fixture in the pantheon of Japanese spooks, characterized by long disheveled black hair, face often partially or fully obscured and/or disfigured, white dress, arms limp, feet bare or missing entirely...

The Ghost of Oyuki by Maruyama Ōkyo, 1750, the painting widely believed to have become the template for the classic Japanese ghost–girl look.

Ringu's Sadako is largely said to be based on the most famous of traditional female ghost characters, Yotsuya Oiwa from Yotsuya Kaidan. However, all that "haunting the well" business is pure Okiku, the wronged ghost–girl of another traditional Japanese story, Banchō Sarayashiki.

Ghost of Oiwa by Shunkōsai Hokushū, 1826

Sara Yashiki by Katsushika Hokusai, 1831

Portrait of Oiwa by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1836

From Scrolls to Prints to Moving Pictures: Iconographic Ghost Imagery from Pre–Modern Japan to the Contemporary Horror Film

[url=https://kokoro-jp.com/culture/1489/#:~:text=The%20Yotsuya%20Kaidan%20Ghost%20Story,masterless%20samurai%20called%20Tamiya%20Iemon.]The Japanese Ghost Story "Yostuya Kaidan" and its Shrine[/url]

Japanese Folklore: Maruyama Ōkyo and the ghost of Oyuki

TV Tropes: Stringy–Haired Ghost Girl

Onryō

Last edited by Rampop II (9/20/2022 4:59 am)

crumbsroom · 9/22/2022 1:48 am

Argento's Dracula is a good movie for people who hate being alive.

Jinnistan · 9/22/2022 10:47 pm

crumbsroom wrote:
Argento's Dracula is a good movie for people who hate being alive.

I laughed once or twice.

(At my pitiful curiosity.)

crumbsroom · 9/22/2022 11:52 pm

crumbsroom · 9/22/2022 11:54 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
crumbsroom wrote:
Argento's Dracula is a good movie for people who hate being alive.
I laughed once or twice.

(At my pitiful curiosity.)

There is at least a half dozen moments well worth laughing at in this one. But I also hate laughing, so it's complicated.

crumbsroom · 9/23/2022 12:28 am

The Mouth Agape
Great

crumbsroom · 9/23/2022 12:42 am

Have I ever mentioned the James Baldwin in Paris documentary here?

If not, a couple of weeks ago I was loving that.

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 12:42 pm

crumbsroom wrote:
Have I ever mentioned the James Baldwin in Paris documentary here?

If not, a couple of weeks ago I was loving that.

I haven't seen that, is it new? I do love his Notes of a Native Son books which he wrote there.

crumbsroom · 9/23/2022 1:25 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
crumbsroom wrote:
Have I ever mentioned the James Baldwin in Paris documentary here?

If not, a couple of weeks ago I was loving that.

I haven't seen that, is it new? I do love his Notes of a Native Son books which he wrote there.

I believe it was from 1970. I think it was made for television. And only about an hour long. I'm not terribly familiar with him beyond the occassional YouTube clip and that doc that came out a couple of years ago. But in this one, it doesn't always show him in the most flattering of lights. He comes off as difficult and cantakerous and maybe even a little paranoid. But he's always endlessly compelling and thoughtful about the weight of his words. A brilliant and obviously somewhat troubled guy.

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 2:04 pm

crumbsroom wrote:
He comes off as difficult and cantakerous and maybe even a little paranoid.

Sounds like most great writers.

I can only find this doc on Youtube, but it's in San Francisco. I'll watch him in just about anything.

crumbsroom · 9/23/2022 3:23 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
crumbsroom wrote:
He comes off as difficult and cantakerous and maybe even a little paranoid.
Sounds like most great writers.

I can only find this doc on Youtube, but it's in San Francisco. I'll watch him in just about anything.

It's yet another treat from Mubi. That shit is spoiling me. I dread when my gifted year subscription runs out and I end up having to pay for it myself, when I'm clearly already tapped out financially on streaming services.

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 4:05 pm

Re: MKS' take on Pearl: "I could see Repulsion meets Wizard of Oz having been the pitch".

Isn't that Wild At Heart though?

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 4:21 pm

Wooley wrote:
I think of X, at worst, almost like The Strokes are to the bands they invoked. But actually much better than that.

Oh, Wooley. Don't.

Wooley wrote:
Like if someone took the slum material and actually took it seriously and tried to make as good a movie as could be made from that material, ignoring all the short-comings of the sub-genre that inspired it and delivering the best movie that sub-genre could actually ever be.

Did he say "literally the opposite"? OK. I'll take the opposite.

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 4:33 pm

Wooley wrote:
Like if someone took the slum material and actually took it seriously and tried to make as good a movie as could be made from that material, ignoring all the short-comings of the sub-genre that inspired it and delivering the best movie that sub-genre could actually ever be.

Literally two posts later....

Wooley wrote:
I guess I just don't understand where the idea that this was great art is even coming from

Is Wooley not a fan of Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Is this, or porn, the "slum material" being redeemed here?

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 4:55 pm

Man, Wools is really taking this personally. Very strange. "I'm bummed that you felt the other way." Other way?

crumbsroom · 9/23/2022 5:02 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
Wooley wrote:
I think of X, at worst, almost like The Strokes are to the bands they invoked. But actually much better than that.
Oh, Wooley. Don't.

I was going to really dig on on that Strokes dis, was actually something I'd have more fun talking about than fucking X, but I could see he was already so wounded by me being mean to his movie that it may have been cruel to start calling him out on how incredibly wrong he also is about The Strokes.

Wooley's a nice guy, and I should learn to play nicer with him because I know he's....delicate....but I get so frustrated by posters who rage against the terribleness of movies they don't like, but curl up and die when their favorites are similarly trashed.

Like, what is the fun about talking film if we skirt around how the film actually makes us feel. And if we hate something, we should be able to just let it rip without worrying hearts are breaking.

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 5:11 pm

Weird vulnerable vibes over there today. Yarn posting Rocky slow-bro beach hugs and Captain Terror's Impotent Sea Serpents. I'm confused by all of it.

I'm just happy to see Rock thrive in ethical erotic tears.

Jinnistan · 9/23/2022 5:16 pm

I will say that there's a lot of bullshit surrounding these character significances in X. Are we supposed to be laughing at these desperate delusional people? Except Mia Goth? Who somehow has depth? And this talk about the "dignity" of the portrayal of the elderly? Can I get a taste test? I guarantee you I can find more dignified old people in movies with less ambition and budgets.

crumbsroom · 9/24/2022 2:21 pm

Jinnistan wrote:
Weird vulnerable vibes over there today. Yarn posting Rocky slow-bro beach hugs and Captain Terror's Impotent Sea Serpents. I'm confused by all of it.

I'm just happy to see Rock thrive in ethical erotic tears.

Ever siñce I got into an argument regarding some 'asshole' director who dared to call his own work shit (because think of the feelings of the fans...how dare they) I've bristled more than normal at anyone who needs their tastes coddled. Like, I get it, we all want the movies we love to be loved back. But also, at the end of the day, who fucking cares. It should be enough that you like it.

How some of these people survived RT is beyond me. You think we'd all have some good and hardy rhinoceros hide from that particular experience. But I guess some were suffering in silence.

Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention to their cries for mercy