Jake Gittes

....but really, it's about two hot gypsy women wrestling in the mud.

Watched The Spy Who Loved Me too yesterday. Not so bad. Something almost relaxing about it once you accept that it's a semi-remake of You Only Live Twice paced with all the excitement of a middle-aged man's vacation. For some reason I'd expected Moore to be leaning into the silliness so it was nice to see him dryly underplaying much of it instead. Barbara Bach is hot. Between her, Isabella Scorupco and Daniela Bianchi I appreciate the series' casting of Soviet/Russian women even if none of them were the real thing.

I watched all the '60s ones save for Thunderball (which I chose to skip) for the first time this week. (Had never seen a pre-'95 Bond before.) Wasn't totally into any of them from start to finish - Casino Royale is likely to remain my favorite - but You Only Live Twice was the most enjoyable on account of it's got the best ratio of action to wheel-spinning. From Russia with Love and OHMSS have higher highs though, the former in the train section, the latter in the photography - that's one beautiful-looking movie - and most of the second half (from when Bond first escapes the institute until the very end). Wish they'd spent more time being that engaging. Dr. No is pleasantly low-key (until the island at least) and I like Connery the best in it, Goldfinger didn't do much for me esp. considering its reputation but its iconic moments do deliver.

Who said they'd be attacked? Again, it would mean they haven't seen a lot of movies beyond the popular mainstream stuff from the past 50 years. And being familiar with a lot of movies is kind of important if you want to list the greatest 10 *of all time*.

RIP. Just got to rewatch Breathless on the big screen a month ago. Icon. I should also definitely watch more of his action movies.

If you made a top 10 greatest films of all time list where half of them were by the same director it'd just mean you haven't seen shit.

August Westerns Rio Bravo - 8/10. Too much of a self-aware Ultimate Howard Hawks Movie (must work like gangbusters if it's your first one, though), exasperatingly so in the romance that's blatantly recycled from Only Angels Have Wings (down to some verbatim-quoted dialogue) except here the woman is an impossible character desperately throwing herself at a twice-older John Wayne. The professionalism and camaraderie are purely Hawksian but less effective when they're not being counterbalanced by anything; Wings - an all-time top 10 movie for me - made them deeply affecting by having them serve as the characters' shield against the constant threat of death, but there's no real sense of danger here. That said, the Hawks formula is fundamentally potent enough that even a superficial expression of it is often grandly entertaining. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - 5/10. Clear impression of a story that was worked out from the themes backwards, leading to crude cardboard characters and a narrative that's at once simplistic and contrived. The "print the legend" moment would have some teeth if the film hadn't just spent two hours presenting us with a "truth" that's hardly any more complex or less sentimental than any myth. Don't get me started on the spectacle of 53-year-old Jimmy Stewart valiantly trying to portray someone half his age. El Dorado - 9/10. A cleaner, livelier, 100% Angie Dickinson-free version of Rio Bravo, albeit with 10 more seconds of out-of-nowhere comic-relief racism. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid - 8/10 *Unforgiven - 8/10. I'd be on the masterpiece train if this weren't so aggressive about underlining its themes, specifically if it didn't push the Schofield Kid into such over-the-top obnoxiousness and have Clint intone that he's "not that person anymore" seemingly every 10 minutes without even necessarily being prompted. There are times when it feels like the movie is writing a thesis on itself even as it unfolds. Lots of self-evident greatness otherwise. Tombstone - 6/10. Very enjoyable first half with virtually no evidence of production troubles. Then a third act that goes on for over an hour. *The Proposition - 5/10, down from what would have been 9/10 in 2012 when I had last seen it. What once seemed revelatory and deep now seems shallow and punishing, an exhausting combination of florid dialogue, One. Perfect. Shot. cinematography and only-in-the-movies stuff like Danny Huston as a cultured psycho who can both decapitate someone without a second thought and thoughtfully admire a sunset. Sure. *The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - 9/10 Eric Rohmer marathon La Collectionneuse - 7/10 The Aviator's Wife - 9/10 A Good Marriage - 7/10 Pauline at the Beach - 8/10 The Green Ray - 8/10 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle - 8/10 Boyfriends and Girlfriends - 9/10 Rendezvous in Paris - 7/10 A Summer's Tale - 8/10 Strongly suspected he would be my kind of filmmaker ever since seeing him repeatedly mentioned as an inspiration for/precursor of summery relationship movies like the Before Trilogy and Call Me by Your Name (the similarities are very much there, although unsurprisingly Rohmer's movies tend to be shiftier, less overtly romantic and straightforward than those) and was glad to have it definitively confirmed (I had also previously seen and really liked Claire's Knee and some of his shorts.) Some of the best films out there about 20- and 30-somethings navigating complex relationships while dealing with anxiety, denial and self-delusion. Casually wise, witty, light on their feet, often gorgeous to look at. Excited to explore even further. Others *Hanna - 6/10 *Breathless - 9/10 Green for Danger - 8/10. A must for every whodunit fan, Alastair Sim is as great a company as any cinematic detective. Joe Versus the Volcano - 8/10. Would be higher if not for some tonally questionable choices made in the last act. Don't know if John Patrick Shanley would have kept making stuff as singular and self-assured through the 1990s if this hadn't flopped, but it's a shame he never got a chance to provide the answer. He had great and obvious gifts as a director, back then at least. This has to be Meg Ryan's best work ever too. Annette - 7/10. I think the fundamental issue is that, for all the film's efforts to disguise it, Cotillard's character is little more than an afterthought, which leaves too much empty space where the core of the romance/marriage stuff should be, but Driver's performance, various droll Sparksian touches and most importantly the unexpected gut-punch of an ending ultimately won me over. *Shutter Island - 7/10 The Untouchables - 6/10 La Haine - 8/10 *Commando - 6/10 *Malpertuis - 6/10 *In the Mouth of Madness - 6/10 *Heat - 10/10 *Interstellar - 6/10 *Barry Lyndon - 10/10

Hateful is too high, but at least it's above the much worse western released in December 2015 👀

That has nothing to do with whether it can or will win best screenplay over another movie that no one has seen yet and whether that's going to be a good thing or not if it happens. Just seems particularly strange to already "ugh" about something so completely hypothetical. As for Campion, I got the impression people were banking on/rooting for this being her BlacKkKlansman-esque high-profile movie comeback. No big surprise if it turns out more divisive than that though.

It's September.

The Descent? Not a major studio movie but still an accessible wide release.

F9 just did.

Maybe they're about to move the US release up to September too.

1. Once Upon a Time in the West 2. Johnny Guitar 3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 4-5 My Darling Clementine The Wild Bunch 6-10 3:10 to Yuma (1957) Dead Man El Dorado The Good, the Bad and the Ugly McCabe & Mrs. Miller 11-15 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs The Ox-Bow Incident The Searchers The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Unforgiven 16-20 Destry Rides Again For a Fistful of Dollars Gunman's Walk Meek's Cutoff The Tall T 21-25 First Cow The Gunfighter The Naked Spur Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Red River 26-35 Blazing Saddles Bone Tomahawk For a Few Dollars More Hell or High Water High Plains Drifter Navajo Joe Rio Bravo Seven Men from Now Stagecoach True Grit (2010) 36-50 Deadwood: The Movie Decision at Sundown Django Unchained El Topo Forty Guns The Hateful Eight Heaven's Gate High Noon Jauja Jeremiah Johnson The Outlaw Josey Wales Pale Rider Rango Tombstone The Wind

Pre-release, if the question's still relevant.

Watched El Dorado, Hawks' own remake of Rio Bravo. Enjoyed it more than the original (which I liked a lot), if only because there's no painfully self-conscious Angie Dickinson throwing herself at Wayne for the entire movie. Tighter, too. No replacing Walter Brennan in the Stumpy role, but Arthur Hunnicutt puts his own spin on it, and Mitchum and Caan are at least as good as Martin and Nelson. A grand old time. Guess that's my last recommendation of something I haven't seen FYC'd in this thread before.

July aka Western month, thanks Panda *Amélie - 6/10 The Magnificent Seven - 6/10 Pyaasa - 7/10 Le Notti Bianche - 7/10 *Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion - 8/10 *The Leopard - 7/10 *I Vitelloni - 6/10 Pinocchio - 8/10 Johnny Guitar - 9/10 The Emperor's New Groove - 9/10. Obviously the greatest thing Disney has ever done. *Cloud Atlas - 6/10 Watch Out for the Automobile - 6/10 Stagecoach - 8/10 Destry Rides Again - 8/10 The Ox-Bow Incident - 8/10. Actually quite a bit better than that for 80% of its runtime, until the awful device with the letter that couldn't possibly sound more like a preachy Author's Message if the writer himself stepped into the frame, got on a soapbox and read it into the camera. A shame. The first hour is terrifying. *Trainspotting - 7/10 My Darling Clementine - 9/10 [longer "pre-release" cut] Not a fan of what this ends up doing with Linda Darnell's character, but otherwise a nearly perfect hangout western I could watch for hours. Wouldn't surprise me if David Milch had the same thought once upon a time, and that's how we got Deadwood. *The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - 8/10 Red River - 8/10 [shorter cut with the narration] First hour's something of a drag, but it starts paying off in a big way once Clift takes charge. The ending is powerful in theory and almost works in practice, it's just hard to accept it given some of the things Wayne's character does in the lead-up to it. Has what is probably the greatest-ever reaction by a movie character to getting shot with an arrow. The Gunfighter - 8/10 The Naked Spur - 8/10 The Searchers - 8/10. The first 45 minutes is pretty staggering, absolutely feeling like myth brought to life, which only makes the useless comic relief to come more bewildering. The romantic/melodramatic parts semi-work for me as contrast to the urgency of the main narrative (Life Goes On, etc.), and are helped by some emotionally raw work from Vera Miles, but still barely function on their own narratively. It's a testament to the fundamental power of Ethan's character and story, and to Ford's sense of control whenever he doesn't inexplicably lose it, that I still came away thinking of this as a great film. Basic Instinct - 6/10 Seven Men from Now - 7/10 The Tall T - 8/10 3:10 to Yuma (1957) - 8/10, though I suspect I'm underrating it and can't wait to see it again. Biggest surprise of the month, a moody melancholy western with some breathtakingly beautiful stretches (everything with Glenn Ford and Felicia Farr as the barmaid), gratifying attention paid to character interactions above all else and an ending that actually makes sense unlike the remake's. Forty Guns - 7/10 Decision at Sundown - 7/10

FYC for the final stretch

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tom-hanks-wes-andersons-feature-exclusive-1234990834/

Looks like a return to his slick crime/crime-adjacent dramas with a coat of existentialism like American Gigolo, Light Sleeper and The Walker which I guess was predictable, he wasn't gonna do another First Reformed. Those movies are a mixed bag at best, hopefully this is better than at least some of them. I wonder what would have happened if he'd gotten to make Nine Men from Now instead of this.

This just became a Margaret reunion @lorddemaxus

Y'all don't know CJohn very well, do you?

This isn't a sequel.

Try some Budd Boetticher joints they're all 75-80 minutes long and well-regarded. The Ox-Bow Incident, too. Anthony Mann's westerns are all 90-100 minutes.