Servo posted a BLOG item 2 days ago

sup bro

Servo posted a BLOG item 5 days ago

Why I Love Movies

(I got this idea from Film Crit Hulk)

Because they tell us something

Because they take us somewhere

Because they show us who we are

Because they show us who we want to be

Because they only get better

Because forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown

Because we have a T-Rex

Because you don’t talk about Fight Club

Because he’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight

Because I am Iron Man

Because male nudity is fucking hilarious sometimes

Because The Artist was a movie I really needed to see that day

Because of nacho’s

Because of ticket stubs

Because if you look up at just the right moment, you can see the projector beams shining against the screen

Because of Star Wars

Because of John Williams

Because if you sit back far enough, you can hear the projector flicker

Because I live for the sound of a reel spinning in a film camera

Because Amelie scored me my first kiss

Because after War of the Worlds, my friends and I all needed a cigarette

Because I can’t not play the Close Encounters theme whenever I’m near a xylophone

Because I would marry Cher Horowitz

Because June lied about not loving Johnny

Because Buster Keaton made my too-cool-for-school roommate laugh his ass off in passing

Because they just get me

Because I just get them

Because there’s nothing else on this Earth that I would rather invest my entire being into creating

Because I spent my first lunch break at my first job in LA outside the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I didn’t even eat, I just marveled.

Because Lex wouldn’t turn the light off

Because E.T. will be right here

Because Freddy Krueger is god

Because Akira Kurosawa painted his storyboards on giant canvases

Because Akira Kurosawa hand-wrote the entire script to Seven Samurai

Because Ripley went back for Newt

Because of the even-numbered Star Trek movies

Because Alice jumped

Because Gerard Depardieu starred in like 500 films

Because Citizen Kane is the most beautiful middle finger to one of history’s biggest assholes

Because It’s A Beautiful Life will grip anyone’s heart

Because my ultra-conservative-right-wing-evangelical-christian mother thinks Phantom of the Opera is dark and sexy

Because it’s okay, I’m a leaf on the wind.

Because Katherine Hepburn is a comic-fucking-genius in Bringing Up Baby

Because of Merryl Streep

Because of Kate Winslet

Because of Michelle Williams

Because of Jennifer Connelly

Because of Mila Kunis

Because of Jack Nicholson

Because of John Cusack

Because of Daniel Day Lewis

Because of Leonardo DiCaprio

Because of cigarette burns

Because WALL-E and EVE's relationship is the most believable romance I've ever seen portrayed on screen

Because the relationship in Blue Valentine reconfirms my crippling fear of commitment

Because of Holden McNeal's speech to Alyssa Jones

Because Indiana Jones hates snakes

Because Rick O'Connell will yell back at a Mummy and shoot his ass with a shotgun

Because Jack Sparrow's compass is broken

Because Noah Cross is the most evil motherfucker ever

Because Hannibal Lecter still gives me nightmares

Because JAWS makes me very suspicious of shadows in the ocean

Because of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard

Because Jenny is Forrest's girl.

Because Scream gave me an archetype to relate to in movies

Because...I'm not alone.

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Servo posted a BLOG item 11 days ago

conversations with friends

Friend: OH MY GOD JP I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN YEEEEARS

Me: It's been a while yes.

Friend: We have to talk about movies, I'm sure you've seen them all, what'd you think of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo?

Me: Didn't see it...

Friend: Oh, what about Sherlock Holmes 2?

Me: Nope...

Friend: Adventures of Tin Tin?

Me: Nada.

Friend: Tree of Life?

Me: No ma'am.

Friend: War Horse?

Me: Negatory good buddy.

Friend: Mission Impossible?

Me: Naw.

Friend: Okay you had to have seen Hugo.

Me: You'd think that wouldn't you.

Friend: HOW HAVE I SEEN MORE MOVIES THAN YOU

Me: I HAD A BAD YEAR

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Servo posted a BLOG item 12 days ago

DRIVE

Wow.

First off, Ryan Gosling is one cold blooded motherfucker in this movie, okay? He is cooler than any roided-up, cheesy-line spewing "HERO" Stallone thinks Hollywood needs more of because, y'know, "dese guy are duh real deal ey-yo." No. Fuck you Stallone. Cool is not some asshole with a buzzcut wielding two miniguns plowing through nameless stuntman chomping on a cigar mugging the fucking camera and rubbing his face in fake titties. You know what cool is? Cool is quiet. Cool is unpredictable. Cool is when you're eating at a diner and some dude comes up to you with an idea for a job and with his hand still on the fork he tells you, "Shut your fucking mouth before I kick your teeth so far down your throat I'll shut it for you" under his breath without batting a fucking eye. Ryan Gosling is the very definition of cool in this movie. He is brutal, but it only comes out when it is absolutely necessary, and when it does your heart is pounding out of your chest like after a fat kid just tried sprinting up the Great Wall of China. And when it's over, you don't have a shit-eating grin on your face nor are you cheering because you're so fucking enthralled and scared at the same time by the hell he just put some poor fucker through by kicking his face in until it's a puddle of goo. Gosling delivered this incredible performance of quiet intensity that only people like Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen pulled off when the term "action movie" was first coined and it has seldom been accomplished ever since.

The chases were in the same vain. It wasn't like the Fast and the Furious films where you have this sense of being on a rollercoaster, I sincerely believe that what I felt while watching these chases is exactly what I would felt if I was in that car next to Gosling - tense as shit. These scenes delighted me but not because they were delightful to experience, but because it was done in such a grounded way that I was amazed at how the director had made me feel.

The violence in the film reminded me a lot of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. It wasn't obligatory or celebrated, it was tragic. Unforgiven was a bit more deep and exploratory in its message of the effects of violence, but this film needed no exposition to tell you how violence affects people, because it's there right in front of you. You feel sorry for Carey Mulligan having to witness something horrible. You're horrified by Gosling's detachment from humanity that he would commit the acts that he did. And you can't help but to feel sympathy for the poor bastard that decided to cross him.

Albert Brooks has the capacity to become the next Gene Hackman. He's disarming, and when it's time to go to work, fucking run. I think my favorite trait of his is how he handles his knives. It's his method of killing. In one scene he returns home to a glass case with a few blades, and you can tell that this is what this man specializes in, and like Gosling, it's affected him; it's dehumanized him.

The film's direction was way cool. Long takes, very necessary slow motion shots in a time when they're used so unnecessarily. I really dug the 80's soundtrack, and thought it really set the tone of a gritty Euro-80's independent film. The juxtaposition between the intense action scenes and the touching moments between Gosling, Mulligan and her son were seamless, which made both aspects that much more impacting. The script was fine. Nothing outrageously original or incredibly profound, but it was necessary for the type of film Nicholas Winding-Refn was trying to make.

I think the most recent film that accomplished what Drive set out to accomplish was Man on Fire, even though that film wasn't nearly as subtle and suffers from a lot of unnecessary flare.

Bottom line, when it comes to your standard non-superhero/non-high-flying-adventure action film, this is what I prefer. Fuck off Expendables. I want to see real people, real situations, and real consequences to violence without trying so goddamn hard to be cool. Sometimes all you have to show that someone's pissed off is a tightening fist with the sound of a straining leather glove.

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Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

fanboyisms

Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

don't be like me you'll just get in to trouble

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Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

here's some audrey

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Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

A Dangerous Method

Whenever I watch a David Cronenberg film I typically expect to be shocked or disturbed by visual oddities that he’s so known for. But this is not a typical Cronenberg film. This is a film about the few years in which modern psychoanalysis was developed, focusing on the people who helped shape it into what we recognize it as today (“the talking cure”) and their relationships that played a role in that shaping.

I think what I enjoyed the most about the film was its performances. The film is extremely dialogue-driven, which is apropos considering the subject matter, and because of that Cronenberg needed actors that can exude a presence that holds our attention as we learn about psychoanalytical theory along with the characters, and he did exactly that with Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, and Keira Knightley.

Fassbender and Knightley do fine, but the performance that will capture everyone’s attention will be Viggo Mortensen. Viggo Mortensen’s Sigmund Freud is probably go down as one of my favorite performances ever. I think it’s a testament to the Mortensen/Cronenberg relationship mainly because the last time I saw the actor disappear into a role was in Eastern Promises, a personal favorite of mine. Michael Fassbender plays Carl Jung, a man stuck in a trifecta of strained relationships. His affair with Keira Knightley’s Sabina Spielrein affects just about every area of his life: his marriage to Emma, his friendship with Freud, and naturally his career, as Sabina was not just a patient of Jung’s but also became a colleague, which is a very interesting development to watch and Knightley plays the manic role…manically, I guess.

The film is incredibly restrained. There were moments where I would’ve liked to have seen Cronenberg go crazy, specifically the kinky sex scenes, but this just isn’t that kind of film. It almost plays like a BBC period piece mini-series with its exercise in restraint and slow-burn narrative, which isn’t a bad thing at all, just a very big departure from Cronenberg’s usual. In fact I would say that the restraint adds to the tension between the characters.

After watching the film I immediately shrugged it off, not finding much merit in the film besides the performances, but after letting it soak in and doing some research on Jung, Freud, and Spielrein (see: 15 minutes of wikipedia’ing) I’d actually like to give it another view in the future whenever it’s available to buy. Though this time I’d like to go in with more knowledge of the history and theory of psychoanalysis — not to say the film requires homework or a knowledge of the subject matter to find enjoyment, I just think it would be a more rich experience overall to go in after reading some of the correspondence between the characters (which is present in the film), as well as some of their studies.

Also, a sidenote, Vincent Cassel is here as Otto Gross. I don’t know what it is about Cassel, but I can’t really dislike him in anything he does. He’s becoming one of my favorite actors and he pulled off a great performance in this film as well. It’s a very small role, but every minute the guy is on screen is a real treat.

Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

w/e

Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

there's so much shit that i like

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Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

just some badass directors i like

Servo posted a BLOG item about 1 month ago

I'm procrastinating

Ladies and gentlemen? Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for visiting with us this evening. Now, I’ve traveled across half our state to be here and to see about this land. Now, I daresay some of you might have heard some of the more extravagant rumors about what my plans are; I just thought you’d like to hear it from me. This is the face. There’s no great mystery. I’m an oilman, ladies and gentlemen. I have numerous concerns spread across this state. I have many wells flowing at many thousand barrels per day. I like to think of myself as an oilman. As an oilman, I hope that you’ll forgive just good old fashioned plain-speaking. Now, this work that we do is very much a family enterprise- I work side by side with my wonderful son, H.W.- I think one or two of you might have met him already. And I encourage my men to bring their families, as well. Of course it makes for an ever so much more rewarding life for them. Family means children. Children means education. So wherever we set up camp, education is a necessity, and we’re just so happy to take care of that. So let’s build a wonderful school in Little Boston. These children are the future that we strive for and so they should have the very best of things. Now something else, and please don’t be insulted if I speak about this - bread. Let’s talk about bread. Now to my mind, its an abomination to consider that any man, woman or child in this magnificent country of ours should have to look upon a loaf of bread as a luxury. We’re going to dig water wells here. Water wells means irrigation, irrigation means cultivation. We’re going to raise crops here where before it just simply was impossible. You’re going to have more grain than you’ll know what to do with. Bread will be coming right out of your ears, ma’am. New roads. Agriculture. Employment, education. These are just a few of the things we can offer you, and I assure you ladies and gentlemen, that if we do find oil here, and I think there’s a very good chance that we will, this community of yours will not only survive, it will flourish.

Servo posted a BLOG item 2 months ago

Peter Fucking Dinklage

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Servo posted a BLOG item 2 months ago

yep. it's that time again.

Servo posted a BLOG item 2 months ago

more shit that i like

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