October - Brandon's picks

Since it will be October for my round, I decided to change up the nominees. I'll save that other list for another time.

Go ahead and vote in the comments as before.

Drag Me to Hell - by Sam Raimi
A Tale of Two Sisters by Kim Jee-woon
The Devil's Backbone by Guillermo del toro
Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton
The Uninvited by Lewis Allen
Ju-on by Takashi Shimizu

NO I WILL NOT LET ARNOLD OR TUTTLE GO AGAIN BEFORE I GO

OK gentlemen.  Let's do this.  Here are my picks--hopefully you guys are up for another documentary . . . here goes:

Hearts of Darkness

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Burden of Dreams

Comedian

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

Babette's Feast*

*Babette's Feast is not a documentary, though the exquisite storytelling and superb acting make it seem so real.  It belongs on ANY list of films, NO MATTER WHAT.

Not sure I can figure out how to do the nifty voting thing that Tuttle did so WAH WAH.  Just vote, dang it!  AND I'M GOING NEXT.  I hope.

How about some early Woody Allen?

Testing out Google Forms for the survey. Hope it works.

Trailers:
What's Up, Tiger Lily?
Take the Money and Run
Sleeper
Love and Death
Zelig (not much of a trailer, but it's great. You should vote for this one)

July nominations from Jordan: a study of people and their cults

I'm fascinated by people, relationships, and culture. Also, boundaries of belief and behavior. Cults and communes provide very nice contexts from which to examine these things and gives us insight into cultural and psychological forces that play on all of us. I've seen two of these movies and plan on seeing them again so don't let that deter you (they're probably the best two). Apparently, cult gazing is in the current indie zeitgeist, as the release dates of these films would indicate. I had to go against the grain of Josh and Brandon's old-timey films.

Mr. Lonely (2007) wr. & dir. by Harmony Korine - Diego Luna and Samantha Morton star in the most beautiful and watchable of Harmony Korine's films. The movie settles on a celebrity impersonator who joins a group of other celebrity impersonators that live on a commune together. Explores themes of authenticity/imitation, faith/doubt, self/community, and death. I've seen this one and highly recommend it.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) wr. & dir. by Sean Durkin - from imdb, "Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult." Co-starring John Hawkes - one of my favorite character actors.

Sound of My Voice (2011) wr. & dir. by Zal Batmanlglij - from imdb, "Two documentary filmmakers attempt to penetrate a cult who worships a woman who claims to be from the future."

The Master (2012) wr. & dir. by Paul Thomas Anderson - Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman are excellent as two men coping in the world in opposing ways. Can the crooked and ill-fitted Freddie Quell be tamed by community and cult-ure? Or will he find a way to make it on his own; rudderless and masterless? Paul Thomas Anderson is my favorite current director. I've seen this one and highly recommend it.

Electric Children (2012) wr. & dir. by Rebecca Thomas - fundamentalist Mormon girl, Rachel, listens to a forbidden cassette tape of modern music. She has an experience which she interprets as a type of immaculate conception. This brings consequences that cause her to leave her family and community and search the voice of the lead singer of the tape in the outside world.

God Willing (2010) dir. by Evangeliene Griego - From imdb, "The film examines the modern-day phenomenon of religious 'intentional communities,' or as they are often called, 'cults.' It takes as its focus 'The Church,' also known as 'The Brotherhood,' the 35-year-old ministry of messianic figure Jim Roberts."

JOSH NOMS FOR JUNE:

"MANLY DILEMMAS"
I haven't seen any of these movies but most are well reviewed.
Also the trailers are pretty fun (though the one for Naked Prey gives away too much I think so be forewarned...)
also, vote for Brandon's nominations for May below.

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) - Henry Fonda vs. lynch mob on the western frontier.

The Big Heat (1953) - Glenn Ford takes on vicious crime elements in hard-hitting noir.

Marty (1955) - Ernest Borgnine trying to get a date. This movie swept the Oscars and the trailer cracked me up.

The Naked Prey (1965) - Cornell Wilde ticks off the wrong people and becomes the title of this movie!

Electra Glide in Blue (1973) - Underdog motorcycle cop Robert Blake risks life and limb in line of duty.

Mr. Majestyk (1974) - Soft-spoken watermelon-farmer (!) Charles Bronson defends his melons from felons.

Brandon's Nominee's

Here's what I got for the next round (May?):

I changed a few from earlier, because turns out a couple aren't available anywheres. They were that good.

But these are all available, even though some are in B&W (sorry, Tuttle).

Le Circle Rouge by Jean Pierre Melville. I love all Melville's films and this one is his best. Starring the superb Alain Delon at his mustachiest.

Le Corbeau   I've been wanting to see this one for a while, and everything else I've seen by Clouzot is fantastic. Le Corbeau was made in France in 1943, during the German occupation. It pushed so many buttons it was banned by both the Nazis AND the successor French government. Says IMDB: "Alfred Hitchcock considered Clouzot a very serious rival for the title of Master of Suspense, and Psycho (1960) was put into production because Hitchcock specifically intended to outdo 'Les Diaboliques'."

Night of the Hunter You know that song "Leaning on the everlasting Lord" that the Coens used to such great effect in True Grit? This is where they first heard it. Robert Mitchum stars as the creepy preacher/murderer in one of the most eerily/beautifully shot films this side of Citizen Kane.

Memories of Murder I don't know anything about this one except the director also did the Korean monster movie "The Host". And Tuttle likes it.

Odd Man Out Directed by Carol Reed, who went on to win acclaim for The Fallen Idol, and The Third Man. I haven't seen this one, but the description uses words like "Clandestine Irish organization", "Things go sour", "Back-Alleys of Belfast", and "Constabulary." So, yeah, can't go wrong with that.

The Silence This one came out in the last 10 years and is in color.

Happy Voting. Same voting rules as Tuttle laid out earlier.

The Inauguration of the FMHH

Okay, Gentlefellows, who likes Asian flicks? Cause you're gonna see one.

Here's how we'll roll: rank the movies in order of preference (giving 5 points to your highest pick and 1 to the lowest). We'll add it all up and watch whatever gets the highest total.

I mentioned the last Thursday of the month as a regular time for gathering, but that would put us only a couple days away (or a full month). I'm happy to watch sooner or later.

The nominees (links to trailers):

Journey to the West (Taiwan 2014)
The Grandmaster (China 2013)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand 2010)
Poetry, (South Korea, 2010)
Ikiru (Japan, 1952)

Let's get it started up in here . . .

Let's face it: the best movie of all time is Babette's Feast.  The second best is probably a tie between The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz.  The third best, or fourth (because of said tie) is obviously The House of Yes.  After that it gets fuzzy . . .