I'll watch anything with Claire Danes in it.

emperor tomato ketchup (extended version) - 8/10

Well, this isn't my favorite Terayama film, but he's one of the best directors ever (and my main influence) and I wouldn't rate any of his films lower than an 8, so............. anyway, I was only familiar with the shorter version from the EXPERIMENTAL IMAGE WORKS series (I think this was on volume 5), but the long version is amazing. Gritty, dirty, surreal, hilarious, dark as hell.. just brilliant.



straight story - 11/10

By far David Lynch's best film. I'd seen it before and thought it was his best -- now, after seeing it again, I think it's one of the best films of all time. Maybe it's because Lynch didn't write it... either way, Lynch proves he's actually a good DIRECTOR, for once. That's long been my criticism with Lynch... though I like his films okay, I don't find him particularly talented; it's all about Mary Sweeney's editing, Badalamenti's music, and whatever actresses and co-scriptwriters he's working with at the time. Hence why Inland Empire doesn't work so well. Anyway, Lynch's biggest strength is comedy -- I've always looked at most of his films as overblown comedies ("yOUR NAME! WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR NAME?!" from Lost Highway made me laugh so hard I cried once). Instead of relegating it to the best, this film is, at times, purely comedic, which works beautifully -- though it's touching, and the end made me cry. The music, low-key atmosphere, subject matter, pacing, dialogue, and characters reminded me very much of Jon Jost... anywho, the performance by 80 year old Richard Farnsworth was absolutely MINDBLOWING; I can't believe how great he was -- they wrote his degenerative hips into the movie itself. He works SO HARD in this movie... he really pushes himself to the limit. Sissy Spacek is amazing, her best role since Robert Altman's masterpiece "3 Women". Harry Dean Stanton is unreal... with his small role, he says so much without saying anything at all... also kinda neat he was in this film, since the atmosphere reminded me of Paris, Texas at times (which he is in, and is easily one of the best films ever).



seagull diner - 8/10

Beautiful film.

Nothing extraordinary, but still much better than Fun With Dick & Jane. I'm glad to see that Jim is still capable of making me laugh. Plus, Zooey Deschanel is quite the looker.

I still need to give Straight Story a spin.

Yeah, most people haven't bothered, since admittingly, the synopsis sounds boring, it's G-Rated, it was distributed by Disney, and Lynch isn't filling every frame with SURREALNESS or whatever. But it's a masterpiece.

The lack of the surreality IS THE SUR REAL ITY




Don't you get it, Adam? Adam? Adam? Ada m? Adam? Adam? Ad am? Adam?








ADAM?

interesting. guess i'll check out straight story as well

Lynch's hair is the most surreal thing about him.

I've always thought Lynch was a great gateway director. Hmm.. The only person on my imdb ignore list is some dude who ONLY posts on Lynch-related boards. He's interesting, because his posts are so annoying and ridiculous that he's run off TONS of people from all the Lynch-related boards. I can't remember his name right now, but just go to any Lynch film board, and he replies to all of them, all the time, every day. Replies to every post, usually posting something REALLY negative. I got into a big fight with him because I said Lynch had no script for Inland Empire, that he wrote lines on napkins and wrote scenes the night before, or just improvised shit. He disagreed with me. I posted ELEVEN articles saying the same thing, including interviews with Lynch, and he disagreed, saying that Lynch did have a script (for 60 hours of stuff? So, he had, what, a 3600 page script?! Hah!). Finally, I posted two video interviews with Lynch where he admitted the fact, and the guy never replied. He is a dumbfuck.

Anyway, gonna watch this in a bit


RAPEMAN 2!

Rapeman's back and he's ready to pull down his zipper! When Doctors Go Bad.... The story is about Rapeman and his Uncle who are a tag-team of sorts and created a company together where their motto is "Righting Wrongs Through Penetration". People want revenge Rapeman style, they go to the Uncle, and if it's rape worthy, Rapeman does what he does best. Anyways in Rapeman 2, Rapeman Co. has realized that the hospital and the mafia are somehow related and they decide enough is enough. What follows is even more of what you wouldn't expect from a movie called Rapeman. It's full of kind and silly humor but also inserted with a some serious emotional scenes.

Wow!


RAPEMAN!

ASP, have you ever seen any episodes of Lynch's Interview Project?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VkFNH13E54
It's actually strangely addictive.

Yeah, I've seen everything he's ever done, produced, been apart of, etc.

It's kinda yr thing.

I'm not a big fan, but I like him okay. He's usually involved in interesting projects, like producing Crumb. I like Dumbland and Rabbits a lot, as far as more recent things he's done.

Dumbland is one of his all-time best. Side-splitting.

Yeah, I can't believe Noisereductions doesn't like it -- then again, he called it "Dumbville" too.

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/307513/20373786/ = 28 David Lynch television commercials.

how did you like it?

hahaha that's true. I did. I have the DVD as a "collectible," but I've only watched it once the day it came out. I hated it. I didn't find it funny. I also didn't think Cowboy And The Frenchman was funny.

I think he's funny when he's not hitting you over the head with comedy. On The Air worked. And there's lots of good comedic stuff in Twin Peaks. But yeah. Dumbland. Didn't make me laugh.

Last night I watched an old classic:

Side Out is a 1990 film about beach volleyball competition, featuring C. Thomas Howell, Peter Horton and Courtney Thorne-Smith.

Heh, Emperor Tomato Ketchup is amazing!
I saw it some years ago at a festival where Jim O'Rourke had picked some films for screening, including that one. The reaction of the baffled French audience was almost as good as the film itself.


I really didn't like The Straight Story when I saw it in the cinema when it came out, but maybe I should watch it again.

I think the funniest part of that movie is actually Mr. Eddy's views on tailgating...

"This is where mechanical excellence, 1,400 horsepower pays off..."