Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

Have to switch back to the David-Lynch-appreciation string. Courtesy of the Criterion Channel, I'm halfway through rewatching his deeply weird, unsettling masterpiece, LOST HIGHWAY. Nobody did menacing surreal like David Lynch; this film absolutely nails it. There are a number of moments in this where my conscious mind is saying, "Why is the camera moving like that?" or "This living room is kind of claustrophobic," while my subconscious mind is having a panic attack based on the flickering images. Watching this thing is a walk on a very tall razor blade.

After I got 1/2-way through LOST HIGHWAY, started watching PRETTY AS A PICTURE: The Art of David Lynch (also on Criterion Channel), and that turns out to be an ideal companion piece to the film. Many laugh out loud moments here, always in pure delight over the boundless visual creativity of the man. The scene where the principals who took part in ERASERHEAD have a reunion on the film's set ... it's hard to describe how wonderful it is.

 

I watched Eraserhead on LSD, was never interested in going back to figure out what I watched. Just remember a face that looks like the Children of the Earth bug.
Edited to say: I liked most of his other stuff I watched.

 

ERASER HEAD 100% got my attention. On one level (the visual) it was completely bonkers. On another (the story) it was just an admittedly unconventional courtship and child-rearing story, an oddly sweet one at that.

I remember watching this film and thinking, "This isn't exactly science fiction. But if there really are alternate planes of existence, this film is a documentary of one of the other planes."

WAIT--I just realized you said you watched this on LSD. Wow! I'm not sure material like this recommended for heavy psychotropic viewing. During my first acid trip (with 4 friends at college) we went to the local theater to see ENDLESS SUMMER, a bizarre documentary about surfing, with countless dramatic "wipeout" scenes. We were in the front row, looking up at the towering images of towering wipepouts. We completely lost our minds laughing & couldn't stop. Theater management threw our laughing asses out of there (Smithtown mall). Something very similar happened a few months later at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC.

 

Those bassturds just never seem to get it man.

 

Tonight is the launch of Season-3 of REACHER on Prime Video. I can't wait.

I've read every one of the Lee Child/Reacher books, plus some short stories. I also read the regrettable later books written by his brother, Andrew. I never dreamed the fascinating, monolithic Reacher character could successfully be dramatized on TV, but this series has done a very good job with it. Admittedly, it's nearly impossible to adapt Child's books, so filled with Reacher's interior monologue, planning and strategic assessments of this or that vexing situation--but the screenwriters found other ways to hint at the character's complexity.

It doesn't hurt that Alan Ritchson brings appropriate size and solidity to the character, both of which were absent in the two Tom Cruise/Reacher films, which IMO illustrated the classic "good news/bad news" Hollywood conundrum: the films only got made because Cruise was attached as star; but he was woefully miscast (despite being a great action star in his own right).

The book on which Season-3 of REACHER is based, "Persuader," is one of my least favorite in the series. I hope that the elements that bothered me (too much geographic isolation of the main characters and too much wasted dramatic time) will be better handled on screen than on the page. Stranger things have happened....

 

I've never read the books, but the idea of a smaller 'regular' guy as Reacher always made more sense to me than the seemingly unstoppable man mountain. The justice-at-all-costs feels like it might actually have a cost with a regular guy.

Weirdly, this is similar to the one (and ONLY) thing I liked about the Total Recall remake. Colin Farrell made so much more sense as the spy-hiding-in-plain-sight than the hulking lack of subtlety that is Schwarzenegger.

 

The issue I have with a fella that large is that he would have to workout 4 hours a day and consume NFL player calories in-between fighting.

 

I strongly recommend you read at least one or two of these books. FWIW, in the books Reacher is 6'5" tall and ~$250 lbs, so even Ritchson falls somewhat short of the mark (he's 6'3" and probably 220 lbs). But it's not only about size and strength. It's about character.

The Reacher series is a rare example of pure genre fiction that breaks through into the culture and becomes influential. Without getting preachy about it, let's just say that a physically strong main character with an equally strong moral compass who always takes action when others shrink from action .. that is a very appealing construct: Superman without super powers.

I have to agree with you about TOTAL RECALL (both films). Arnold at full bodybuilding weight looks ponderous onscreen.

 

I am 6'4" and around 220, maybe I should fight crime!!

 

...wearing a superhero costume!

Seriously, there's all kinds of data showing that tall(er) people often find acceptance with others more easily & have opportunities of all kinds. I'm sure this skews heavily toward males and against females; and probably applies more after, say, age 20 (being a tall kid can be hard).

My mother was 5'11". Coming of age during WWII, she was teased to the point of torment by some classmates.

I was in Chicago on business one snowy day decades ago. It was 6PM and I was checking into a Marriott near O'Hare. As I walked into the lobby I noticed a number of big people seated there (even seated they looked big). Then someone came in and said, "It's time." They all stood up...and up...and up. It was Larry Bird, Robert Parrish, John Havlicek, et al -- the Boston Celtics. I've never seen that many people that tall. It was a scene out of a dream.

 

That is my hometown team, friggen loved the bird magic era.

 

Cleveland is not too shabby in the NBA department, either--especially this year.

 

I seem to be on a mini-winning streak with horror films. Recently saw Steven Soderberg's "PRESENCE" (impressive spin on the occult) and COMPANION (witty spin on how badly AI love puppets can go wrong). Then last night I saw THE MONKEY. Well, damn. That is one witty AF horror film. And the funniest parts are the extravanantly explosive gory deaths, which occur here with metrononic regularity. Some of the fiendishly clever, inevitable Rube Goldberg physical setups are nearly as droll as the actual deaths they cause.

It's a funny bloodbath that doesn't much resemble the OG Stephen King story, but hey, who's keeping score? I'm just relieved to be enterained by films, rather than being forced to walk out of them by incompetence-associated ennui.

Really shouldn't be surprised that Osgood Perkins' new film is a gory hoot. His last film, LONGLEGS, was a whole other matter--dead serious and terrifying. This director/screenwriter really has chops. Pretty interested that at this moment when tentpole superhero films are tanking into low-receipts obscurity, horror films are firing on all cylinders. Horses for courses is my guess.

Strongly recommended.

PS: Tell me you can think of a better Brit-does-American-accent than Theo James does here? I've never anyone from the UK nail it like he does.

 

Longlegs was good scary fun. The titular character annoyed me, and the film would have been better without him in it, but I loved the marriage of serious police procedural with supernatural horror.

I'll have to check out Theo James but since you're a Reacher fan, the actress for the female DEA agent in the latest season, Duffy, is British and I'd have had no idea were it not for looking her up on imdb.

 

I didn't realize she's a Brit. My regard for her goes up, because she's not simply assaying an American accent, but a Maine/American accent. I'm pretty familiar with that and thought her attempt at it (assuming she came from here to begin with--but not from Maine) was pretty decent. Apparently it's more than decent.

 

Theo fooled me in White Lotus (Season 2).

 

I wouldn't mind seeing that one, but don't currently have access to it.

I only saw Theo in one streaming series, THE GENTLEMEN, director Guy Richie's uppercrust Brit meets lower class thug woman dramedy. I hated the show, but maybe that's just me. Regardless, he impressed me in that role.

IMO Theo is the complete package--a handsome British actor with a terrific speaking voice and genuine acting talent. He was the absolute beating heart of THE MONKEY, and I don't believe he'd ever done anything remotely like it before. He can go leading man or do character work. I think we'll be seeing him act for a long time.

 

RIP Gene Hackman. He was as good as they get.

 

Think I'm on episode 8 with this and I agree, the characterization is the weakest aspect - at times approaching Gilligan's Island level. The two main women (one a nemesis) in the protagonists life are just annoying - I'm even hoping both get shot in the head by the end, or at least given less screen time.

Yet, the pacing is good and the protagonist at least has some depth, subtlety, and I find myself rooting for him and watching the next episode to see what is going to happen to him next.