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Will Oldham recommended Love Streams (1984) in Movies (curated)

 
Love Streams (1984)
Love Streams (1984)
1984 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I had heard about Cassavetes, and when I started to see his movies I realized that I knew his face from childhood favorites Rosemary’s Baby and The Dirty Dozen. I loved The Dirty Dozen because of The Team. I still have an eight-by-ten publicity still from that movie. Which Cassavetes movie did I see first? I can’t remember. I know we watched Minnie and Moskowitz many times before a tour around the year 2000 and quoted it often, and I still offer Minnie’s toast to Zelmo in most instances when I am in the position to offer a toast: “To you and your happiness.” I know at some point I saw I’m Almost Not Crazy . . . before I saw Love Streams itself. Love Streams is, to me, Cassavetes’s version of Peckinpah’s Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia or Russ Meyer’s Supervixens: a summing-up and distillation of ideas, theories, characters, plot devices; making a statement by improving upon many earlier acts and creating something that absolutely could not have been made without specific lives behind it, celebrating those lives and the shared history of creator and audience. I’ve never seen Love Streams projected; first I owned a VHS copy and later a copy of the European DVD whose release was sponsored by Agnès B. Love Streams also reminds me of my favorite movie, The Misfits, in the way that life on-screen and off- is a crucial collaborator in the ultimate full effect of the movie."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Crack in the World (1965) in Movies

May 5, 2019 (Updated May 5, 2019)  
Crack in the World (1965)
Crack in the World (1965)
1965 | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Decent sci-fi / disaster movie hybrid doesn't dwell on its limited special effects budget or somewhat shaky grasp of geology and concentrates on solid characterisation and storytelling basics. Scientists meddle with forces they do not fully understand (again), it all goes pear-shaped, a large chunk of the Indian Ocean winds up being launched into space while Janette Scott's costume disintegrates in a suspiciously rapid and unprovoked manner.

I always get this one mixed up with The Day the Earth Caught Fire and When the Earth Cracked Open, which is some achievement considering the latter film was never even made. The storyline with the crack is kind of predictable and suffers because the movie doesn't have the budget to actually show towns being wiped out or islands crumbling into the sea; characters just hear about it over the phone. The human interest B-story is really a melodrama, but it's written and played just well enough to keep the film credible and engaging. Well-mounted climax even if it really comes out of nowhere.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) in Movies

Mar 3, 2018 (Updated Mar 3, 2018)  
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)
1961 | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Weather Forecast says 'Sun Everywhere'
Apocalyptic British SF movie shows how this sort of thing should be done. Nuclear tests shift the Earth on its axis, send it closer to the sun: civilisation struggles to cope with the prospect of looming extinction. Story is told from the point of view of the journalists of the Daily Express (don't laugh, it was a newspaper back in the 60s).

Very similar in its downbeat tone to the Quatermass movies Val Guest had previously made for Hammer - no B-movie this, but a serious, hard-edged naturalistic drama. Personal story of romance between lead journo Edward Judd and met office secretary Janet Munro is woven into the main plot with considerable skill; scenes of devastated London are well-mounted. A bit dated in some of its attitudes, but its concerns with the disastrous effects of climate change and its political cynicism mean it still feels surprisingly relevant today. Much better than any of the Roland Emmerich movies which have arguably ripped it off.