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Beltmann

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Posts posted by Beltmann

    Now Watching 2019

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCEYXnDNcrg

     

    “Never Look Away,” an Oscar nominee for foreign language film and cinematography, is an epic 188-minute drama about a German painter haunted by his childhood under first the Nazis and then the East German regime. It’s a sweeping, romantic movie about history, love, and sex, but mostly it’s about art and the creative impulse. It’s the kind of classic cinema that they say they don’t make anymore. I loved every minute and am thankful to have seen it on the big screen.

    Now Watching 2019

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iL1K_l8Jyo

     

    I was eager to see “High Flying Bird,” Steven Soderbergh’s sports drama released Friday on Netflix. Bursting with strong ideas about the legacy of slavery and late-stage capitalism--it concerns the chess moves made by an agent during an NBA lockout--and a magnetic lead performance by Andre Holland, the movie is always compelling. Still, there’s something artificial and forced about the project, a trait that also plagued “Unsane,” Soderbergh’s previous movie shot entirely on iPhones.

     
    What are you watching?

    Now Watching 2018

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    Glad to see some love for "Stan & Ollie" here. In the ‘90s, AMC would show L&H shorts every Saturday morning, and I became obsessed to the point where I actually read a book about them front-to-back, which doesn’t sound too weird except that it wasn’t a biography but a cross-referenced encyclopedia. Whether silent or sound, I’ve seen every extant L&H movie, and most of ‘em I’ve seen multiple times. “Stan & Ollie" shares my deep affection for the duo and their comedic precision--it’s a big smile of a movie--but to my eyes it doesn't quite match their craft, wit, and invention. Many of the dramatic points are perhaps too on the nose, punctuated with lovely yet surface-level echoes of their best-known sketches. For example, one of the subtexts of their shorts is that they are bickering marrieds, and “Stan & Ollie” makes that its major premise. In fact, nearly every scene is staged like a vaudeville routine--even their wives are presented as a screwball duo--which is entertaining yet ultimately wears a little thin. Still, it all unfolds with a likable finesse, and John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan are indeed perfectly cast. Transcending mere mimicry, their graceful, complicated, lived-in performances capture the bittersweet relationship between Laurel and Hardy and help elevate the movie into one of the most worthwhile biopics in recent memory.

    Rank the Wilco albums

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    You know, we've had enough of flip-flopping in this country to last me a lifetime. Have some resolve, damn it. Stick to your principles. When you wake up tomorrow it better read like this:

     

    AM

    BT

    ST

    YHF

    AGIB

    SBS

    WTA

    TWL

    SW

     

    I only vaguely know who you are, but based on that list, I'd say you were a highy messed up freak. Your feelings on this are objectively wrong at this point.

     

    Now that I've had ample time to really let Schmilco settle into its proper place on the timeline, I feel more confident in my current rankings:

     

    AM

    BT

    ST

    YHF

    AGIB

    SBS

    WTA

    TWL

    SW

    WS

    Every Other summer HD 99 cents!

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    Thanks for the tip! Even though I own a digital copy on my computer (that was how it was originally sold), just last week I considered buying it again via Vudu so I'd also have a streaming version. That was $10, so I'm glad I waited for the Amazon deal.

    Now Watching 2018

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    When I am waiting on new Castle Rock episodes, I will be watching The Handmaid's Tale.

     

    Oh, and Mission: Impossible: Fallout was one of the best action/spy films that I've ever seen. Please try to see it on as big of a screen as possible. The action set pieces are simply breathtaking & smile inducing.

     

    You're going to love "The Handmaid's Tale." I binged the entire series in late June and am ready for more. I also deeply enjoyed "Fallout"--that's a rare series that seems only to improve with each new installment--but even more breathtaking was "Sorry to Bother You." That's my favorite movie of the year so far!

    Politics 2018

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    My county in southeast WI went 67% for Trump. Huh. Usually the Republican can count on at least 70%. (I definitely live in a bubble... to my endless frustration.)

     

    My precinct, though was only 60% Trump, so there's that.

    Now Watching 2018

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    First Reformed was a terrific film which was elevated by Ethan Hawke. It wasn't as entertaining a film as American Animals, thanks in part due to its bleakness & austerity, but it will stay cemented in my mind for a very long time due to the subject matter explored.

     

    Same here. To my eyes, American Animals is one of the summer's most entertaining movies and yet fairly limited in what it wants to say. (Even when factoring in the interesting fiction/nonfiction hybrid, it's rather conventional in its ideas.) For me First Reformed is a much more thoughtful and incisive work of art, especially in its searching questions about individual spirituality, religious hypocrisy, and the intersection of churches and politics. It joins Silence and Calvary as one of the great recent movies about what it means to be a person of faith.

    Now Watching 2018

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    As a teacher on summer break I'm getting to all the art house flicks I never have time for (and my wife won't watch). So far the selections have been:

     

    Days of Heaven- awesome movie. Gorgeous cinematography counters the bleak story line.

    The Three Colors Trilogy- this french language trilogy is considered Polish director Kieslowski's opus. So far I've watched Red (I messed up the order cause I was thinking Red, White, Blue, like an American, and it's really Blue, White, Red). Red is a concise 90 minute drama with interesting characters, a subtle twist and some great thematic stuff you can mull over without it hitting you over the head.

     

    Four terrific films. Red is the trilogy's crowning achievement, but White is underrated, its comic touches unfairly overlooked.

    Now Watching 2018

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    We watched the Three Billboards movie last night - it was a great one. Well written/ great characters / great acting. One of the better movies I have seen in a long while.

     

    Around Oscar time there seemed to be a growing, perhaps inevitable backlash to that movie. But much of the criticism seemed rooted in the knee-jerk presumption that it's intended as a work of realism rather than a fable. If the film has flaws--and I think it does--they have little to do with how it abandons reality.

     

    What struck me about “Three Billboards" is how it's less about a mother’s local activism and more about the overlapping ripple effects of two distinct acts of violence. While the lead character delivers on the caustic, funny vibe of the trailer, it's interesting to note that director Martin McDonagh doesn’t share her bitterness--he’s far more egalitarian and compassionate in his view of these people, which helps each character to be carefully observed. Even the mother cannot be easily defined by her loss and rage. What’s most remarkable, though, is how the movie seeks to comprehend anger only to reveal the power of grace, and in that sense it’s the richest Christian movie since “Silence” and the most entertaining one since, well, maybe ever. McDonagh may have also written the most perfect closing line of 2017.

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