The Last Days Of Disco - Anyone who thinks the humor of the Coen Brothers is too subtle for them would hate this movie. It's a very dry jab at the jugular of a certain type of vapid yuppie/hipster from the late 70's and early 80's who would go to disco clubs and buy ****ty apartments in New York with money their parents gave them. I enjoyed it, but I think it may have been even too subtle for me, or maybe I'd have appreciated it more if I'd been around at the time.
Thief - An older Michael Mann flick with James Caan? How have I not seen this before? Solid flick. A lot of themes and ideas Mann would use again, most notably in Heat, show up here and it was interesting to me to see how he's evolved them since. I really dug all the safe-cracking stuff and I was really happy to read about how far they went to make it as authentic as possible. Yeah, solid. I'm wondering if it showing up in HD on a movie channel means there's a Blu release on it's way. It'd get some consideration from me.
Wise Blood - Based on a Flannery O'Connor story, starring Brad Dourif. Also a name used by Jim Thirlwell for one of his music projects. Released by Criterion. Gotta check it out. Dourif plays a soldier, returning home from war in a bad mood. Angry with evangelicals in his southern hometown, he decides to start his own Church Without Christ. I had some trouble with this movie. I missed out on a lot of the symbolism and reading about it afterward, I'd kind of like to watch it again at some point. Dourif is great, as usual, and the supporting cast do a good job. It's supposed to be a black comedy, but I didn't laugh all that often, but I think if I ever get to see it again, I'll appreciate it more.
The Sadist - Pretty ****in' funny. I guess this was a pretty ****ed up picture for 1963, I was surprised it was as violent as it was. Two crime spree killers terrorize some stranded people in a remote location. It was pretty enjoyable as a straight up, tense thriller but Arch Hall, the Sadist of the title, holy ****, he is hilarious. Like a deranged cabbage patch doll. This is the kind of movie you want to watch at a midnight screening with a crowd. Or at home, drunk, with a bunch of friends. I'll buy it at some point.
Love Exposure - I've owned a Region 2 copy of this for years, but I never got around to watching it because it's ****ing FOUR hours long. JD brought it up on Facebook the other day, though, and after watching and loving Sion Sono's Strange Circus a week or two ago, I got the itch. Because I love Sono and so many people consider it his masterpiece. The woman was out of town for the night, so the time was right.
And I loved the ****ing **** out of it. It is bizarre, hilarious and ****ed up in that perfect way that the best Japanese directors seem to do so well. This movie has just about everything I love in movies and it's also really well done. I was thinking about it for hours afterwards. I still think about it. I really need to pick up the domestically released Blu-ray so I can watch it in high def. And the references they make to Meiko Kaji's "Scorpion" character are actually important to the whole movie! How ****ing cool is that? LOVE THIS MOVIE, LOVE SION SONO, 4 EVA!!!!!!!