shiningwizard

[shiningwizard]

Le Crime d'Amour (Guy Gilles, 1982)

Wishes of a murder (or wishes for the notoriety of being a murderer) flowing in and out of memories of a murder, but never fusing to a stable, real memory of the murder victim. Quite taken by this, above all expectation (set by French police movies of the 80s rather than anything else this director did and am clueless to). A foot in nouvelle roman, but to a more tender, sombre, affecting effect.

[shiningwizard]

The Big Pardon (Alexandre Arcady, 1982)

I’m not really one for long movies about crime families but subtracting even that, I don’t think this is that great. Interesting context of Jews and Arabs in France from Algeria continuing their little disagreement, but done in a bloated way, hitting the beats of low and high cinema by rote, uninspired (or directly inspired) means.

[shiningwizard]

Dreamscape (Joseph Ruben, 1984)

Made for children, methinks. Maybe accidentally. Everyone is in this

[shiningwizard]

The Big Easy (Jim McBride, 1986)

A very likeable cop corruption drama set in New Orleans, with the source of that likability split between the expressed, intentional qualities of it as a crime movie and the (also possibly intended) perverse and lacking elements. The put upon accents, the pastiche atmosphere and authenticity it tries to swell from a postcard imagining of this place, the times it barely rises above the feel of a regional police tv show (Miami Vice, Magnum PI, etc.). It’s a movie of everything serving to affect Ellen Barkin’s DA character, whether scandalising her with the levels of police underhandedness, grossing her out with bloody or charred corpses, or stirring her loins. And she’s great in it

[shiningwizard]

The Ghost Snatchers (Lam Na-Choi, 1986)

I’m sure if i were a higher up privy to the locked secrets and edicts of some Judeo-Christian religion it’d be the same, but on the ground, Chinese spirituality seems really complicated. Dumb, kinetic and quite fun. Exactly what i go to these movies for.

[shiningwizard]

The Big Heat (Johnnie To, 1988)

Hong Kong action, Roman concrete.

[shiningwizard]

Amagi Pass (Mimura Haruhiko, 1983)

[shiningwizard]

Big Joys, Small Sorrows (Kinoshita Keisuke, 1986)

A very pleasant time touring Japan's lighthouses as lighthouse keepers and their loved ones relocate from one scenic cliff edge to another. A remake of Kinoshita's earlier Times of Joy and Sorrow but, like the (translated) title indicates, the joy outweighs the sorrow here. There seems to be this view that this is due to a need, imposed or not, to show Japan in a prosperous and optimistic light, the war and post war an uncomfortable and distant memory in the near-burst bubble 80s. But to me it's more an old man viewing life, people, the environment and the passing of time with sentimental and hopeful eyes. The Grandpa character makes that plain. His quiet urgency and tearful eyes Kinoshita's own. And so it's extremely moving.

[shiningwizard]

Silverado (Lawrence Kasdan, 1985)

Young Hollywood nerds play the homage and regrouping game to Westerns. Caught squarely in an aims-to-be rather than is mode, but while rote, still lands at something decently entertaining. Kevin Costner endears more to me playing a goofball than any other role i’ve seen him in. Rosanna Arquette’s character just seems to exist for others to call her “pretty” and who am i to argue?

[shiningwizard]

The Big Blue (Luc Besson, 1988)

Bloated, languid and dumb. But one of those rare movies that perfectly brings about its content through form. This feels like floating in water. Not very deep water, mind, but still serene and wonderful. Alluring for no clear or sensible reason, just something to be felt. A movie made for fretless bass.

[shiningwizard]

Bachelor Party (Neal Israel, 1984)

Everything and everyone around the core group of guys is great. Well, not great - good. Good energy, good broadness, good brain numb. It just feels great compared to everything within that core group of guys. What makes a movie star?

[shiningwizard]

Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)

As good as a movie of a grown man acting like a 13 year old could be. Accurate too. He would cry on his first night out of home. He would let his adult girlfriend in on the secret after they had sex, with no sense of tact. He would find the most horrifying way to tell his mother he'll be busy for a couple of months. This feels like it had origins as a European movie, where a lack of puritan qualms wouldn't have even paid mind to the icky elements.

[shiningwizard]

The Accidental Tourist (Lawrence Kasdan, 1988)

This is one of those movies that uses the device of a character’s job or artistic pursuit illuminating and mapping their behaviour and psychology. But too palpably and ineffectually, steering more towards getting good marks in screenwriting class rather than actual good screenwriting. But it’s ok. Actors I like to see, movements I like to move along with. I didn’t know Lawrence Kasdan did this too. When not writing and/or directing fun action movies, he seems to want to involve himself in the malaises and inconsistencies of his milieu..The scene I thought I remembered from this movie was not from this movie

[shiningwizard]

The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983)

This is a movie that knows it’s audience, was made by and for its audience, that is it’s audience. Few movies have achieved such a feat, but trust cornball liberal affluence to do so to this level. And the forgiving part of me appreciates it as an exploration of weirdo problems and anxieties done with lightness and inconsequence. The non-forgiving part thinks the right time right place generation should be denied this music and any affecting power it holds. I’m at the same stage of my life as these people?! Alien

[shiningwizard]

The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

In presence, in absence: anxiety, harm, hope, comfort, all before, all after

[shiningwizard]

Satan's Bed (Marshall Smith, 1965)

Yoko Ono was in a roughie. Kind of. The rough stuff is done by junkie beatniks in what could be an entirely separate movie set in the suburbs while she's held by pock-faced gangsters in the city. Like most of these, the things that would make intellectual sense to an audience are set aside for what sleaze merchants aim to make titlating/horrifying sense. Stitched together from multiple projects, perhaps. And like most of these, it's made to look so grey-haze beautiful and alive at times. Yes, but Ms. Ono's first role. I wonder why she slummed into it. She must have been established in a loftier scene and aware by this time. Maybe the project changed from underneath her. Maybe she just wanted to experiment. Maybe the Findlays were her art scene friends. What's a rich girl like you doing in a movie like this?

[shiningwizard]

The Killing of John Lennon (Andrew Piddington, 2006)

John Lennon didn't write I Me Mine but Mr Chapman sure did write those words a lot in his diary. Let no disaffected nerd stuck too much in their own head have any destructive effect on your life. This is quite an effective character study if that character is some hokey, unsympathetic person you'd never want to hear the scattered and dull inner thoughts of, harnessed in an ugly, edgy boy early millenium film style one also should want little to do with. So, form and function, it's a successful movie! Filmed at real locations, like these ghosts are linked to these places and putting a camera there is enough to conjur and compel. Maybe so, but it didn't have make a laboured point etting us know