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Although the plot points might not hang together in your rational mind when you watch this there’s a dark, serpentine substance at the center of this film that is coherent and weirdly horny

The use of Mahler really puts this one in another category…the ecstasy of poisoned hearts

We are all orphans…

Anyone else feel like there’s a Mullholland Drive influence here?

Condemned boat…

Commentary by Adrian Martin

“…there is no more cheerful a fairytale “ - Gilles Deleuze

If you’ve run out of Lynch films to watch and need the vision of someone else who gets it…here is your film.

A rich text delivered w brute force. Things might not hang together perfectly here but Cohen is so good and image making who cares?

A film spilling its guts everywhere…ITS ALIVE

Watched on Friday May 30, 2025.

What was Pee Wee doing for America? I found it illuminating to learn about Paul Reuben’s collections of post war toys, ephemera, chatchkies, etc. I was reminded of one of his appearances on Letterman where you can hear a woman unable to control herself in the audience- hysterical for reasons she probably couldn’t fathom. I think Pee wee unleashed a jouissance we had all been holding post Hiroshima about toys and garbage cultural items that flooded our childhoods- the simulacrum that covered up all the death - the plastic and the colors and the cheapness- I think pee wee showed us what we all wanted to do- go incredibly bonkers and hyperactive about it all. I think he helped us mediate all that energy for a few years. Thankfully he did it with sweetness and grace…Paul Reubens was a vessel and he was eventually punished for it. Very sad. America has no idea what to do with artists.

A lot that could have gone wrong here but didn’t. Charming…missing the snap of Big Adventure but not short ideas and fun.

It’s soothing to visit the early 90’s. Very affecting as it goes on.

Never picked up on his dream the end implying they rewired Alex back to his natural state.

Something in here about legacy, generativity, and procreation along side the usual Wiseman preoccupations.

Fyodor Dostoevsky smashing into Jerry Lewis.

Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.

The Art Life…

Free Solo outdoor gear freaks vs. cinephiles

Look up what the mom did after this film was made

This review may contain spoilers.

HUGE HOG at the end.

Leigh always good.

Yes and no on this one. Resonates w Wiseman’s THE STORE in curious ways.

A delightful way to spend a morning.

A taxonomy of strategies to defend against grief. Keep your eye on the dogs and the eating. I think Cronenberg is an heir to Bunuel in his capacity to render dream texture to the everyday so that you almost don’t notice it. The sound of those Tesla doors closing and bones cracking. The moment w the blind woman touching his face was so tender.

Rewarding to rewatch.

Fucking masterpiece. The closer to death, the more bifurcated human desire becomes. Every scene is pure gold. Every emotional payoff is well earned. Pastoral Vermont adds to the ache ringing through the whole film. Also- Satie used to great effect here.

So moving and yet again wiseman demonstrates how people inured to their institutional roles can become the instruments of soul erasure. No easy answers as always. Life, unadorned…

So much shame…

“Every movie is a Christmas movie” - HG

When human emotions and dreams are contextualized with the rest of nature without privileging them they are rendered strange/uncanny. It s clear why Tarkovsky loved it….

Outstanding…

Easter tradition. This film can stir me every time.  The extreme nature of war allows Malicks preoccupations the most raw and breathable treatment than any of his other films. I suppose that’s what I can say about it- it’s a film that breathes. Maybe it’s all the lush green. The best greens in the history of cinema in my opinion. We get access to TALL’s (Nolte) thoughts at the beginning but not at the end…devastating…I feel grateful I got to watch this film today.

Land of the lost.

The lighting choices in this film drove me nuts.  Spielbergs nostalgia has become blinding….

Arrives at some real poetry by the end. When I walked out of the film I thought it was fall.

A treat to see on 35mm. The original subtitles were so busted I just focused on the images. The rendering of the essential impressions of one persons childhood guides us all back to our own and inevitably a question about the collective impressions we all have but are lost upon entering adulthood.

Watched on Monday March 31, 2025.

Watched on Monday March 31, 2025.

Dada is beyond the LAW

Dear ol dad…
(This one’s not about the failure of the father function but the catharsis it provides betrays how profoundly we’ve all been failed)

The Clinton Legacy

Commentary w Jim McBride. Wonderful overview of all of Welles career from someone who knew and worked w him..

Thoughts on Orson Welles:

I was shown The Lady from Shanghai in school and loved it but felt rage at my classmates for mocking it then shame that I did not defend it. Ultra-grotesque and sexy…what more do you want?

I still don’t understand Welles relationship to sound/dialogue. I can never hear what is being said. Maybe the images are just so overpowering even Shakespeare can’t compete. Not hearing what is being said is not a problem for me in most films but Welles obviously has a relationship and is trying to place his noises somewhere but I can’t ever find them.  I feel hopeless about Chimes at Midnight. 

I like paintings where there is little to no negative space. Why do I struggle with that in his films and editing? Welles is suffocating. So many ideas. He’s the most brilliant stylist but too emotionally overwhelming to connect to.

Watched this the same week as Wiseman’s WELFARE. One is truly Kafkaesque.

In spite of Welles intentions this film ends with the image of a mushroom cloud. Welles changed the ending from Kafka’s but it’s still haunted by something darker and less affirming than Welles intended.

If old abandoned factories are your thing…

Interesting to ponder the moment where Kim essentially says what’s done is done and has a moment of grief. You can see it flash on his face. Reminds me of Henry Rollins , years after SST stopped operations, just parking his car parking his car outside of SST headquarters and just sitting there everyone he was in town.

The experience of saying goodbye to the past could have been interrogated here but alas…we have this disturbing moment at the end where the simulacrum of Kim’s video returns (maybe like Frankensteins monster?) to burden us evermore as an embarrassing fetish object.

Evokes and illuminates what we all experience in the process of learning. The dance at the end is one of the most life affirming sequences I’ve ever seen. Evokes Vigo’ ZERO FOR CONDUCT ending ecstasy.

Would you be surprised to learn Wiseman was really into Bunuel?

To have so much fun w the absurdity and still articulate a respect and curiosity about your subject(s) is master level filmmaking .

I just kept thinking, when you’re working on such a small budget and likely difficult locations you might want to go back and rethink 2 dogs as main characters. 

I was in from the opening images but I don’t think the elements at hand were exploited effectively. Probably because they were dealing w the DOGS….

Ferrara keeps things on balance. He respects every character and executes from the heart.

Might be a long shot but it feels like this Frenchman is working out some WW2/Holocaust stuff. I might just be trying to justify the pain I’m in after watching this. I dunno. Bad…

Everyone should make a document of their childhood summer haunts like this.

Watched post VERTIGO.  The last image delivers on the paranoid repetition leading up to it. A shivering, shriveled peen alone at sea forever.

Whoopsie…