THE KING (Eugene Jaarecki 2018)

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. Then you should see this one from Eugene Jarecki. He has a lot to say.

Have you watched any big current movies, like Jurassic World, Incredibles 2, Solo, Deadpool 2, Avengers? Last week I enjoyed Superfly and Upgrade. Incredibles 2, which I did see, is appealing and beautiful to look at but I don't think it has the sophistication of the original.. We are awash in remakes. It's summer. That's why, I am glad to be screening films of the NYAFF.

Incredibles 2, Brad Bird’s sequel to his 2004 superhero adventure The Incredibles, is a case in point: Bird describes it as "just a popcorn film," a fun action movie without elaborate themes or painful feelings.-The Verge

Other item coming in July, a French film: Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti (Edouard Deluc, starring Vincent Cassel). A film of only average quality according to French reviews (AlooCiné press rating 3.0) but someone said it was Cassel's best performance.


Still from Gauguin - Voyage de Tahiti : Photo Tuheï Adams

Was Guaguin an "orientalist" and a #MeTo bad guy? maybe but when I saw the "Icons of Modern Art: The Shchukin Collection exhibit at the Fondation Louis Vuitton two years ago I realized how uniquely beautiful his colors are.


Paul Gauguin, Le Gué, 1901, oil on canvas.PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, MOSCOW



Click on this for an article in Art News about that show.

[Johann]

Have you watched any big current movies, like Jurassic World, Incredibles 2, Solo, Deadpool 2, Avengers?

I've only seen SOLO. I really hate to say it, but movies don't "move" me much anymore.
It is really REALLY hard to get excited for any film these days.
I find comic books more beneficial (and more artistically interesting).
Movies today are almost irrelevant.
With nobody taking risks and with it all being about box office you have ShitVille.

[Chris Knipp]

Things are always in decline. That's they need our attention to set things right.

[Johann]

I admire your valliant movie-going Chris. You really are a cinema champ.
I just hate being ripped off, and every movie ticket I buy is a risk of being ripped off.
It's gotten to the point where I judge movies on how bad they are, not how good they are.
I'm more prone to criticize than praise, and that's WRONG.
There was a time when you couldn't keep me away from a movie theatre.
Now I don't really give a damn.

I can hear Stanley Kubrick shouting at the Industry: "Didn't I teach you guys ANYTHING?"

[Chris Knipp]

I feel that the change is in you, not the movies. (Of course I've valued your crisp prose and strong emotions, whether positive or negative.) Of course there were great eras - see my comments on the original Super Fly and what else was showing in New York at that time. But"How bad they are" is just presetting yourself for disappointment. There are many good experiences to have in cinemas now,and many mediocre ones to be had in the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies,Eighties, Nineties, etc.

Now, one can see lots more than in the past, even though the number of cinemas has been shrinking. And there are whole countries producing movies we can see that before were not, South America, Africa, the Middle East.

If you don't go to the movies, that is not going to make things better. You are contributing in your own small way to a decline.

You are choosing not to go to cinemas, while the opportunity to do so may be vanishing. On another thread I've cited an article by Owen Gleiberman, ace film critic for Variety, about the closing of the twin Magno Screening Rooms near Times Square, in New York. These were the big "commercial" screening rooms that I attended when I was in New York, whenever I got an invitation to do so and could. I loved the experience of going to the edge of Times Square in the afternoon and maybe coming out into the gathering darkness while the lights of Broadway sparkled around me. Since I've had digital cameras (2010 and after) I've always brought a camera for those moments.

If you had written movie reviews, like me, you'd have gotten invited to screenings. And so you would not have to "waste your money," and you'd have to find another complaint. But unlike some of my colleagues, I relish the opportunity to pay cash money to go to a regular movie theater and buy popcorn and support the system.

Now more and more as Gleiberman notes, we are being sent online screeners of new films for review, instead of being invited to screenings in screening rooms. I have been told by old hands that there used to be lots more screening rooms in New York. It seemed to me they were exaggerating, that there were still plenty. With the closing of Magno, I see that there aren't.

[Johann]

All points well taken.
You're right of course, and if the movie-going experience is going the way of the dodo bird that is a shame.
It's not something I want to see. After being turned down by TIFF in 2009 I had no more interest in free screenings.
Bam. Zap. It was that quick. Mojo gone for festivals...In hindsight, staying in Vancouver and covering VIFF should've been my plan.
You Live, You Learn...

I still have a great passion for movies. It's just I'm looking at the past, going back to the Masters. And we can do that at home nowadays. hahaha