The Commitments is so great in so many levels, but the main story arc is easily overlooked.
They start off playing “Mustang Sally”; they’re terrible but everyone is happy and having fun together. They end up playing “Mustang Sally”; they’re perfect but behind the scenes they’re killing each other.
Two arcs going in opposite directions, book-ended with the same song.
Not a fan of The Commitments. Soundtrack from Bull Durham is great…SRV, the Blasters, Los Lobos, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt…
Women get wooly from all the stress.
He’s an animal, but he’s our animal.
“Betcha U2 are shitting themselves.”
“God sent him? On a fucking Suzuki?”
My Halloween watchlist (from my owned collection):
Alien(s)
The Cabin in the Woods
Seven
Shaun of the Dead
The Silence of the Lambs
The Terminator
T2
I have two Halloween regulars:
Young Frankenstein
Arsenic and Old Lace
“Twelve?!?!” somehow pops into my head from time to time
She picked out 2 she hadn’t seen for tonight, we’re going with funny (Tucker and Dale Vs Evil) then creepy (Session 9)
I can’t stand the “horror” movie genre. I may not be as particular as chuck but I’ve always found the scary movies stupid or worse, boring. Too little time and too many other interests to bother with stupid and boring.
I do not like horror/scary movies and do not watch them.
I have no interest in slasher/zombie/torture/etc.
But creepy scary? Like The Exorcist or Silence of the Lambs? Those are great.
Same here
The only slasher type movies I like are the ones like Evil Dead and American Werewolf in London, so over the top and campy that they’re hysterical.
There are zombie movies and zombie movies. In good zombie movie, the zombies are not what the movie is about, they’re a metaphor or they’re a plot device.
Shaun of the Dead is a romcom/bromance in which the zombies are there purely to force the titular protagonist to break out of his emotional funk and take control of his most important relationships.
Train to Busan uses zombies as a metaphor for letting your career eat you alive while you neglect those you love.
I do admit to having been a big fan of 80s slasher movies when I was a teenager in the 80s. It’s interesting to see how many of the banned “video nasties” are cropping up on streaming services now. Watching some of them with a more mature eye, you can see the subliminal points being made, while many are just horrific for horror’s sake. I have no interest in the latter.
I love a good suspense film. The kind that keeps you on the edge of your seat or on an emotional roller-coaster. But that can happen in several genres.
That’s what makes films like Silence of the Lambs, or The Exorcist, or Cape Fear such great movies.
Silence of the Lambs won the big 5 at the Oscars:
Best Screenplay
Best Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Film
Phenomenal film.
I’m a big fan of most all the old Alfred Hitchcock films. Psycho, the original Psycho Killer movie, isn’t close to being his best.
Ari Aster is a first rate director and is making horror films. His Hereditary and Middsommar are instant classics.
Just saw Killers of the Flower Moon. Inflenced by Middsommar. Sometimes the monster is you.
Train To Busan has quite a bit of social commentary throughout touching on social hierarchies, blatant critique of crony capitalism, youth social obligations and pressures, and even rapid industrialization that left the older generation behind. The realest and most humane characters are the working class types that haven’t dove headfirst into the system and can still recognize when others in society need help.