Placenta Ovaries

Happy Halloween!

Reviews (9/14 - 9/17)

9/14

Cockfighter (1974, Monte Hellman, dvd) - 8
Warren Oates is a cockfighter who doesn't speak. There's something really compelling about Oates, and the subject matter of cockfighting is pretty fascinating, too, so this movie is great.
Poster: It's fucking amazing, but what the hell movie is it for? This is an actual alternate title and poster for Cockfighter, and neither has anything to do with the movie. Maybe the title, if it means he was born to kill chickens. Here's a more fitting poster that is also awesome, but even that one implies a subplot with a game-playing woman, which there isn't. I still rate them both a 10, despite the disappointment of there not actually being a movie where Warren Oates kills people with an ax.

La Marge (1976, Walerian Borowczyk, download) - 5
Joe Dallesandro goes to France to sleep with prostitutes, and that's all that really happens. Sylvia Kristel is way too appealing for me to completely dislike the movie, but it's pretty fucking boring.
Poster: I wish I could've found it bigger. Kristel looks good. 9.

9/15

Don't Deliver Us From Evil (1971, Joel Seria, dvd) - 9
Two teenage girls at a religious boarding school are best friends, and they're into Satan, and they do a lot of fucked up things. The girls in it totally look 14 (it turns out they weren't, the actresses were 19 and 20), and there's some stuff in it that will totally make you feel dirty for watching (although now I've kinda ruined the effect by telling you they weren't really so young). Anyway, it's really great. If I wrote longer reviews, I would've written almost exactly what Mike Kitchell wrote here.
Poster: I like it. 8.

9/16

Fruits of Passion (1981, Shuji Terayama, download) - 5
Klaus Kinski drops his girlfriend off at a brothel where she has to be a submissive prostitute to prove she loves him. There are a couple of sex scenes I really liked, but the girl's permanently unhappy face started to bother me. Like, if there were any sense of her enjoying herself because it pleased her to be pleasing her lover, then that would be fine, or if she was just being tortured, and didn't understand why Klaus had left her there, then that would be good, too, but instead it's somewhere in between and ends up kind of uncomfortable. The subtitle for this movie is The Story of O Continued, but what I read about it beforehand made it sound like more of a re-imagining than a sequel. I'm pretty sure this is wrong, though, and I may have actually liked it or understood it a lot more had I watched The Story of O first. But I don't know, I think I still would've felt the actress was kind of terrible and wrong for the part, maybe even more so if the original actress is better.
Poster: It's a little ugly, but I like that the actress is making the face that I was talking about. It looks appropriate on the cover, but imagine watching that exact expression for 80 minutes straight, within the context of this movie, and you can probably see how it would get irritating. 4.

9/17

Score (1973, Radley Metzger, dvd-r) - 9
A couple who are swingers know another couple who are not swingers, so they try to seduce them, each going for the same-sex counterpart. This movie is awesome, and is like the complete opposite of the only other Metzger film I've seen, Camille 2000, which I hated. It's really fun and light-hearted, with likable characters, and hot sex scenes. I was a little bit disappointed with the lesbian scene, and felt I didn't get to see nearly enough of Lynn Lowry, but the scene with the dudes was exactly what I want to see if I'm watching a gay sex scene, especially in the uncut Audubon release where you actually get to see them blowing each other. The sheer cheerfulness of the movie and the celebratory outlook on sex reminded me a lot of The Cheerleaders.
Poster: Very good. 8.

Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Bela Tarr, dvd) - 1
There's a town and a guy who lives there, and something about a circus and a giant whale. Once I start a movie, I have to finish it no matter what, but this was the first time in a very long while where I had to just get up and start doing something else, and just watch it periodically in the background. I didn't even do that with Wings of Desire. Two thirds of this movie is nothing more than people walking. That is not an exaggeration. There are seriously about 100 minutes in this movie where the only thing happening is people walking or occasionally running, usually without any dialogue. I've been trying to figure out how a movie like this can end up so fucking revered by so many people. I think it may be similar to the (absolutely fucking insane) idea that horror movies are scarier when you don't see anything, and it's instead left to the imagination. So maybe when movies are this fucking boring, people just start making up their own movie in their head that is far more interesting, without realizing that whatever brilliant product they're imagining is not actually representative of the meaningless bullshit that they're watching. But I don't understand the value in this.
Poster: It's a nice image, I guess. Tarr literally could've just taken about 5 photographs similar to this instead of making a long-ass movie, and it probably would've been a lot more effective. 6.

Reviews (9/6 - 9/13, 10/20)

9/6

The Godfather (rewatch, 1972, Francis Ford Coppola, 35mm) - 8.5
Marlon Brando runs a Mafia family, and some people try to kill him, and through a series of events and deaths, his son Al Pacino ends up taking control of things even though he had been trying to distance himself from it in the beginning of the movie. On it's own, I don't know if it's really the classic it's made out to be, but it is fucking awesome, and incredibly compelling. Certain scenes are amazing.
Poster: Looks good. 8.

9/10

The Godfather Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola, 35mm) - 10
Al Pacino is now in charge of the family, and he runs shit pretty harshly, and his story is intercut with flashbacks to his father's early life and career in crime. There's a lot to say about how fucking good this movie is. I don't have much tolerance for long movies, but even at 3+ hours, I felt this movie could've been longer. I used to think I hated intermissions, because it took me out of the movie too much, and I could never get back into them, but it turns out I only thought that because the last movies I saw with intermissions were The Seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia, and both those movies are kinda terrible (especially Lawrence). But with G2, I was sucked back in immediately, and remained enthralled all the way up to the final shot, which was absolutely fucking devastating. It's amazing, though, how much the success of the sequel is dependent on the existence of the original. Without the context of the first movie, I don't think the second one would be as effective. So really, my rating of 10 applies to both movies together, and the lowered rating for Part 1 is a result of it only being half of a greater product.
There's a lot I loved about the movies, but one thing worth mentioning is that although they're very much men's movies, focused almost exclusively on the men, it does manage to not entirely ignore the women. You only get brief glimpses into their role in the family, and how fucked up and depressing it would be for them to exist within that lifestyle, but the glimpses are brilliant. The scene where Diane Keaton reveals that she had an abortion is fucking incredible, and I have never felt for a character more. And not just because I love abortions, her performance is seriously incredible and heartbreaking.
Poster: I like the way it's worded. Like, Christmas better watch the fuck out, because that guy with his hands on his hips means serious business. 7.

10/20

The Godfather Part III (1990, Francis Ford Coppola, blu-ray) - 7.5
Al Pacino is still in charge a bunch of years later, and still kind of a bastard, but he's trying to improve. This movie is totally not that bad. I liked the story, and Andy Garcia is awesome in it. But, I can see how it's not the same. It didn't have the same kind of power that the other ones had, either in the execution or the performances. And the ending was kind of a letdown. It was effectively sad, but it felt forced and unnatural.
Poster: It's good. Not that into the tagline. There was another one that said "Real power can't be given. It must be taken." which is worse, because it doesn't even really apply to the movie. 7.

9/13

Starstruck (short, 1981, Claude Kerven, 16mm) - 8.5
Trini Alvarado is a teenage folk singer, and she has to decide if she wants to pursue a career in music against her family's wishes, or go to college, which her boss has agreed to pay for so long as she commits to her work and forgets about music. It's really good, and Trini Alvarado is amazing.

Times Square (1980, Allan Moyle, 35mm) - 9.5
Trini Alvarado and another girl who is much wilder than her meet up and they fall in love and start a band, and Tim Curry helps them out over the radio. It's really awesome in every way.

Breaking Glass (1980, Brian Gibson, 35mm) - 8
A girl (Hazel O'Connor) has a punk band, and then she finds a manager, and he helps polish the band, and then the band starts getting kinda big, and the girl sees someone get killed and then she's upset about it. It's mostly really good, and Hazel O'Connor is pretty amazing, but the second half kind of drags on forever. Jonathan Pryce is also really good in it.
Posters: The top poster is really perfect. And I like both taglines, especially "It will tear your heart out." So drastic. 9.

Reviews (9/7 - 9/12)

9/7

The X-Files Season 4 (1996-97, Chris Carter, dvd) - 8
Starts off really strong with Home as the second episode, the one about the inbred family that is probably the greatest episode of the whole series. But then three episodes later, it's like 45 minutes of Mulder being a fucking crybaby while recalling some past life in what is likely the absolute worst episode of the series. The rest of the season was pretty solid. Veronica Mars got me thinking, though, about how awesome it is when a storyline actually fucking wraps up at the end of a season, and I think that if X-Files had focused on a brand new conspiracy every season, and actually provided some answers to shit occasionally, it would've been like 50 times more amazing.
Poster: . - 6

9/8

Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson, dvd) - 6
A guy is broke, so he learns to be a pickpocket. It's not bad. I liked that it was only 70 minutes.
Poster: It all looks like gibberish at first, but it's actually pretty good. - 7

9/9

Devil's Nightmare (1971, Jean Brismee, dvd) - 7.5
Some people who represent the seven deadly sins go to a hotel and get killed by a succubus working for Satan. Daniel Emilfork from City of Lost Children made a swayze Satan.
Poster: People screaming and dying. My neck hurts. I like this one as well, maybe better. - 8

9/11

Burn After Reading (2008, Joel & Ethan Coen, 35mm) - 8.5
Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand find some shit belonging to John Malkovich, and they try to blackmail him, but it doesn't work out, and everybody sleeps with each other. It starts to be slightly frustrating after awhile that nothing really happens, but I felt that it was satisfying by the end. Brad Pitt is hilarious in it.
Poster: John Malkovich looks fierce. - 8

9/12

The Collector (1965, William Wyler, dvd) - 9.5
Terence Stamp kidnaps Samantha Eggar and keeps her locked up in a basement, in the hopes that she will fall in love with him once she gets to know him. It's fucking awesome. A plot like that can go from awesome to terrible pretty quickly (namely, by having her actually fall in love with him, most likely immediately after he rapes her), but time and again, this movie not only went in the right direction, but exceeded my expectations and went somewhere even fucking better. The cast is fucking great, too.
Poster: It works. I like how it's kind of ambiguous. - 8

Reviews (9/3 - 9/7)

9/3

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008, Woody Allen, 35mm) - 5
Two American girls go to Spain, where they meet Javier Bardem, and they each end up having a kind of relationship with him. This movie manages to combine two of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to movie romances. Any kind of seduction involving somebody with a supposedly sexy accent, and people hating each other when they first meet only to fall in love later. Looking back on it, though, both of these things were actually done in the least offensive way possible. The accent doesn't factor into the seduction in any obvious way, and the hating each other thing is actually only one-sided, plus they don't actually end up in love or even together really. But it still bugged me because Rebecca Hall's character was so fucking great and relatable at the beginning, and when she sleeps with Javier, it felt random and disappointing. Also, for the most part, I think the movie is well-written, particularly Scarlett Johansson's character, but there's an annoying voiceover that runs throughout the whole film that is totally unnecessary and lazy, which put me off quite a bit.
Poster: Rebecca Hall was the star of the movie for me, and she's in it way more than Penelope Cruz, so it's disappointing that she's not featured here. Rating: 2

9/4

Transsiberian (2008, Brad Anderson, 35mm) - 9
An American couple traveling on a train from China to Russia encounter another couple, who are suspicious, and they end up involved in drug dealing and murder, and are pursued by corrupt cops. It's very good.
Poster: Looks nice. Rating: 8

9/5

Dumbo (semi-rewatch, 1941, Ben Sharpsteen, dvd) - 7
A baby elephant is born and has big ears, and he's made fun of, so a mouse helps him out. It's pretty good. I liked the pink elephants scene a lot, though being familiar with the Fleischers' work makes it not quite as impressive. This part was my favorite:

Poster: Attractive, but I would prefer not to have sex with it. Rating: 6

The Flying Mouse (short, 1934, David Hand, dvd) - 6
A mouse dreams of having wings and being able to fly, so a fairy grants him the wish and gives him bat wings, but then he's shunned by all the other mice, so goes to see the bats, but they shun him too, and at the end, the fairy agrees to remove his wings, and a lesson is learned to be happy with yourself as you are. This movie was so sad. I couldn't help comparing it to being born as the wrong gender, which made the message seem rather immoral.

Elmer Elephant (short, 1936, Wilfred Jackson, dvd) - 5
Elmer Elephant has a crush on a tiger, and she likes him back, but all her friends make fun of him, and then there's a fire.

9/6

Shaun of the Dead (rewatch, 2004, Edgar Wright, 35mm) - 9
Simon Pegg has to get his life together and fight zombies at the same time. I love it more as a horror movie than I do as a comedy (which is how I feel about Hot Fuzz as well, I like it more as an action movie), but it's pretty funny sometimes, too. The social commentary of people-as-zombies-even-before-they're-actually-zombies is just as uninteresting as the social commentary in Dawn of the Dead, but it never slows it down or prevents it from being highly entertaining and all-around fucking awesome.
Poster: An absolute blast. Rating: 8

9/7

The Prowler (1981, Joseph Zito, dvd) - 7.5
Some teenagers are trying to have a Graduation Dance, but somebody wearing WWII fatigues keeps killing people. There are some good and gory kills, but not enough characterization. I like to have at least a little bit of attachment to the people being killed, whether it's liking or disliking them, but everyone in this was too bland.
Poster: Fucking good. This is what the poster should be. I like the alternate title as well. Rating: 8

September Top 10
1. Batman Returns
2. The Godfather Part II
3. Times Square
4. The Iron Giant
5. The Collector
6. Batman
7. Score
8. Don't Deliver Us from Evil
9. Transsiberian
10. Starstruck (tv movie)

The Worst
Werckmeister Harmonies

There were some other movies I saw that I didn't like last month, but they're not even worth mentioning in comparison to how much I fucking hated Werckmeister Harmonies. I think it's worse than L'Avventura.