i agree with you 100% loraxeon.

i saw it last night, expecting to be disapointed because i hyped up way to much about it. but i was even more blow away than i thought i'd be. it does feel like he is moving in a different direction.

Inglourious Basterds has been the best movie i've seen all year and i doubt it'll be topped. i am only really looking forward to Fantastic Mr. Fox and Extract though.

I agree. I was very skeptical about Inglorious Basterds going in because I HATED Death Proof, liked but was annoyed with Kill Bill Volume 2 and didn't really like the trailers for this one. I am SO happy to be happy about watching Tarantino movies again.

This has all the standard QT gimmicks; long conversations, obscure film references, out of place songs - but it works in this movie is the difference. That first scene had me squirming more than a film has in a long time and it kept happening the entire movie.

Just some amazing scenes throughout, acting was Oscar worthy and I can't wait to see it again.

QUICK QUESTION: What was that song playing when Shoshanna is putting on her makeup?

David Bowie's theme for "Cat People."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gprIR991EkY

Thanks Loraxeon. What did you think of that song for that scene? I can see how the lyrics make sense but it was very distracting for me. I started thinking of QT and the style of the movie instead of how important a scene it was and what she was about to do.

Also SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

A couple of other choices I disagreed with: Sam Jackson narration, Til Schweiger intro music lifted directly from Kill Bill

Thoughts?

SPOILERS

I didn't mind the song as much the second time. I think it works for the scene and I didn't know what it was until after the movie so it didn't really take me out. The one cue that did take me out was the (other?) one lifted directly from Kill Bill, in the scene where Shoshanna is working on the marquee and the Stasi officer comes to take her to Goebbels and Zoller. The scene seems like it was shot and edited without the intention for it to be scored, at least with that music. Seemed almost like a temp-score that he just left. But I figure he's more then welcome to steal music from himself. Didn't Wes reuse Bottle Rocket music in Rushmore?

I kinda feel like the Stiglitz section goes nowhere, but it's enjoyable and it answers the question of how he got there, but as a character he's not at all important enough to merit it. I looooove the nitrate film doc though.

SPOILERS

OK, I can't wait to watch it again. I loved the nitrate mini doc as well, just feel like someone other than Sam Jackson should have been narrating it, you know? I don't know, maybe someone who fits in that time period.

I guess i just kinda feel like it's lazy to use the same songs twice given how MANY songs there are to use.

The Stiglitz section was fascinating and I loved the story but I hated the bubble letters used at the still frame - just didn't feel right and felt kinda immature, especially for this movie.

Overall, the movie was very impressive but it just kind of feels like QT is battling himself sometimes - like he has this compulsion to ALWAYS have Sam Jackson, a still frame and out of context font around or it doesn't feel right for him. I loved Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction and there weren't any superficial gimmicks involved, at least not from what I can remember.

Honestly, I'm just glad I cared enough about one of his movies to start getting excited about them again. This is just one of those movies that makes you think about everything.

LOVED that the Nazi's are burning in a Holocaust of their own in a theater - thought that was a good choice.

LOVED the Shoshanna story, very powerful at the end with her face on the screen surrounded by smoke. I was actually expecting this long speech but I was impressed that he kept it so short.

LOVED that movies were a central AND important part of the movie.

LOVED that we didn't have to watch the Basterds roam around the countryside killing Nazi's the entire time since from the preview that's what it seems like you're gonna get which is what really had me worried.

Taking Woodstock I enjoyed it. I think it kind of falls apart in the third act, but everything up to that point and immediately after is very, very good. It's not at all a concert film, it's entirely about the experience of the main character. Lee does a lot with the visuals and avoids psychedlic cliches. The performances are universally excellent.

Cold Souls It's better when it veers away from Charlie Kaufman territory, because most of the time the invitations for comparison that it makes is not flattering. Giamatti is always great, as is David Straithairn, most of the other actors (Laruen Ambrose, Emily Watson) aren't given much to do. I was not overly impressed.

I saw Cold Souls and I didn't think it resembled anything Charlie Kaufman. I think that's just a lazy way to describe it. It has it's eccentricities but It didn't remind me of Kaufman in the least. I don't get the comparisons a handfull of those reviews gave.

i mean besides that Paul Giamatti plays "himself" and Emily Watson apearing it's not like a Kaufman script. I can see where someone might compare it to Eternal Sunshine but it is its own thing.

i enjoyed it much more than most Kaufman's films. he's talented but a tad overrated.

I'm a big Kaufman fan (Synecdoche was my favorite film of last year) and I had been hearing the comparisons since I first heard of this film so it was in my mind anyway. I'd be the first person to dismiss it, I see no reason why people can't be influenced by other people, I love Interiors even though it's clearly Woody's stab at Bergman. Even beyond the premise, the dialogue and the style was very, very similar to how Kaufman's dialogue and how Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze have adapted Kaufman's world visually, although it's far less successful in this film. I look forward to seeing what Barthes does next, but this one didn't do it for me.

Having said that, when the film wore it's own look and sounded like itself, I quite enjoyed it. I also really dislike when good actors are wasted, and Emily Watson and Lauren Ambrose were both window dressing in this movie.

i'm not saying it's a bad thing that they are influenced by another artist and the filmaker might very well be influenced by Kaufman. i'm just expressing my distaste that critics and some selective fans seem compelled to imediatly judge a film based on it's influences rather than on the film on it's own merit.

another film like that would be The Brothers Bloom. Not one reveiw i read left out Wes Anderson.


I LOVE Being John Malkovich & Eternal Sunshine & Adaptation. but haven't found Kaufman's other films to be all that great. Synechdoche REALLY disapointed me.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Sooo good! It's Al Pacino with John Cazale (Godfather I & II) so there's violence and swearing, but not much violence. It's a true story about three men who set out to rob a bank; a lot of things go wrong. It's very well done. I noticed one shot in particular that had practically all the characters acting in different parts of the room as the camera slid across the room -- reminiscent of the RT shot with the firetruck. There is also a Hitchcock shot like that. Dog Day Afternoon is also very funny, and I highly recommend it to fans of Pacino or Wes's confusion/mishap humor and the like.

i've been on this odd documentary kick lately.

American Movie is great but both hearbtreakingly sad and ispirational

Religulous, Larry Charles is a fantastic director (Borat & Bruno were great) but this could have been much funnier. I apreciate the point, I Liked it but tey missed the ball with a few jokes.

the last film I watched recently was Drag Me to Hell. wich is playing at this old decrepit dollar theatre (only $1.50 a movie!) it's a terribly damaged theatre. so seeing such an amazing and gory horror film in such an environment was quite the experience. I believe the kids are calling it Grindhouse these days, though they probably didn't know that term until the film was released.

Adventureland

Good enough movie I thought. Good performances but nothing spectacular. Kristen Stewart is distracting. She ALWAYS has her hands in her face or hair.

Also, I could barely make out most of what they were saying because the soundtrack was so high and the dialogue so low. That never helps.

Finally got round to seeing Mesrine part one although I've yet to see part two. Anyone else see this one?

Dogville Wow. Consider me a Lars Von Trier fan. I circled for years around his work, only seeing Dancer in the Dark last year. I'm officially a convert. Such an amazing and sad film, the gimmick with the spare sets works for me one hundred percent and affords breathtaking shots where horror is going on in one house and you can see everyone in the other houses oblivious. Kidman and the rest of the cast are great. I can't wait for Anti-Christ.

Manderlay Second part of the proposed trilogy, can't measure up to the wollop of Dogville but I thought an equally brilliant film. I really, really hope he makes the third one.

Still Walking Wonderful. Finely acted, well observed story about a family coming together on the anniversery of the death of one of it's members. Very intelligent about class and culture of Japan.

Extract I was dissapointed. It's kind of a mess and it's not very funny. Scenes go nowhere and it looks awful.

In the Mood For Love Rewatch, gets better with every viewing.

Birth What an incredible, overlooked, brilliant film this is. I hadn't seen it since it was in theaters and I was amazed at how good it is. The score is astounding, the cinematography is gorgeous and subtle, the performances from Kidman down to the kid Cameron Bright are all nuanced and affecting. How has this not become a cult movie?

Broken Flowers Still really incredible. Easily one of Jarmusch's best, and it's easier to see the evolution to The Limits of Control having seen this again. Bill's obviously always great, but i love Jeffrey Wright in this movie.

The September Issue I enjoyed much of it but I feel it's a sorely missed oppurtunity. There are flashes in the film of real insight into the everyday workings of putting together the magazine and lives of the people who do it but it needed more depth. I don't even care that's it's completely reverant, what troubled me was how little the filmmakers delved into any aspect of the production or the reasons behind the production. Why does this magazine exist? What is it's purpose? Why do designers from around the world cow tow to this little woman in giant sunglasses? What about doing this job makes her happy? None of that is addressed in any way in this and it's a shame.

The Informant Saw it tonight and it's really good. It's very funny and unexpected in the way it plays out. Damon is incredible and the rest of the cast (including Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Robert Wilson, Tony Hale, Patton Oswalt and about fifty other great people who I won't spoil). I'm a big Soderbergh fan and while I think it's extraordinarily well made and while it confirms he's by far the best user of digital cinema, he's comparatively absent as a voice in the film. Perhaps I was just so caught up in the performances. I don't know if he will get it given the movie, but Damon definitely deserves an Oscar nomination for this. Very reccommended.