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:O Yes!
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Pretty much all organized religion is business, no?

What makes you think it's somehow a more, uh, legitimate religion in the US, anyway?
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I would say I enjoyed noticing the guy from Mulholland Dr.'s diner scene, but uhhhh

fuck
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On how the alien xenomorphs might still factor into Prometheus.

"Remember how the alien took on canine qualities after gestating in a dog? You may even suppose that the first film's alien was so recognisably humanoid because it had grown in a human. The same applies here: generation by generation, the creature mutates. As Prometheus begins, the xenomorph is not too recognisable. Sure, it has that alien DNA that Scott and Fassbender teasingly referred to, but it's missing... well, it's missing human DNA. Or dog DNA."

... This could be interesting.
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Everything in stock on Criterion Collection is 50% off with the promo code THANKS until something like 4am PST tonight, guys.

In related news, Solaris and Ran will be on blu-ray soon...
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Ooh, Barry Lyndon is finally going to be on blu-ray! I had no idea this was coming. Awesome.

edit: Apparently it will be a new transfer presented in 1.85:1. Bare-bones release. A Criterion release would obviously be nicer, but at least if the film itself looks as good as it deserves this is obviously more than welcome. At last.
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I find the insistence that this way of thinking is only juvenile to be kind of offensive. Complicated? Maybe not, but I don't really mind. Thought provoking, I think so.

But hey, I don't know, I still listen to industrial, noise, black metal, etc.
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I'm definitely more comfortable with Kubrick worship than you, to begin with, though I am at least with you on Freud being pretty gross and problematic. Anyway, I guess I've never come away with the impression that Noé actually believes this is how everyone thinks and feels -- that seems like kind of a leap. I think it's both personal and universal for him, because it's everything you said: he's using the camera for his own wildly personal explorations, and he's presenting this exploration as the illumination of the sort of truths we struggle to face (whether or not we recognize or accept this). I Stand Alone pretty much spells this out, if we consider the final scene and the Butcher's lines: [spoilers!] "If they forbid us this love, it's not because it's evil. It's because it's too powerful." You can sneer at that because oh gross, he's talking about loving his daughter, but I feel this works better as an allegory of Noé's personal view on his work than as something that merely stands on its own. Here we have what seems to be this total abomination, and the film ends with: "I love you. That's all there is to it."
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Isfet, I'm sure you've read Coil or Throbbing Gristle interviews with Balance or P-Orridge talking about how they want their music to elevate consciousness through filth or whatever. Maybe not in such specific terms, but I think you understand: there's something about the disorienting horror those bands evoke that seeks to transcend and uplift. Swans are like that in their own way, too -- maybe not so much on the early stuff, which is pure bleakness and brutality, but the later albums and especially viewing their body of work as a whole, there's a sense of disintegration and transcendence to be gained. Even if you feel there's nothing overtly hopeful or transcendent about any of Noé's films, I think he's going for something similar. This probably isn't very interesting to some...
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Gonna see Source Code tomorrow night. Until g_d informed me, I had no idea that it was directed by Duncan Jones, son of Bowie, who also did Moon...!

The trailer looked an awful lot like Quantum Leap + The Matrix, while I'm also seeing comparisons to 12 Monkeys. Hm.

Any sort of even remotely promising sci-fi gets me pretty excited these days, so I'm looking forward to this...
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I feel like Source Code is the kind of movie that should be generating as much argument around here as Inception did around these parts, though I've hardly seen any mention of it. I enjoyed it, overall, but despite claims to the contrary the ending was anything but "wrapped up all too neatly." It left so many entirely absurd loose ends open to questioning. Most of them lead to really amusing (or maybe really depressing) possible conclusions despite the tone the movie tried to convey during its finale. Saying all this, I actually liked it more than I expected I might...! It wasn't as good as Moon, though.
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I kind of liked it, too, but yeah. It's kind of amusing imagine a sequel where Christina has realized that he's not the Sean she once knew, not to mention the guy's family, friends, etc. And what of the fact that his original body lies in stasis somewhere out there in this parallel universe, waiting to realize that it is dead? He's gonna be okay with that, chanting his mantra of "it's the new me," and isn't life wonderful...? Pretty silly. But yeah, it's still fun to think about, at least, and the movie was a good ride.
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Taking this break from Source Code discussion to make a public service announcement: do not see Hobo with a Shotgun. Just saw it over at a friend's house and this is the first time in a while that I've actually regretted watching a movie. Among the worst I've ever seen. I am so fucking over all this disingenuous bullshit "grindhouse" throwback garbage. Please do yourselves a favor and avoid it. Fuck off to all praising this as worthy Carpenter homage.
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I love it more and more as I keep thinking about it.

I need to see more films with Juliette Binoche (I have seen Blue, of course, as well as Caché and a few other things) and I really hope that William Shimell will be in more films in the future. He's a good-looking man, a fine actor, and has a great voice—naturally, since he's apparently an accomplished baritone in opera.

This film has also made me very much want to revisit Last Year at Marienbad. Which I have on Criterion blu-ray, thankfully! So I think I will do that today. Gonna have to revisit some Buñuel soon, as well...
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Seriously, don't read these spoilers if you haven't seen the film unless you want it ruined for you.

Um, I think there is a switcheroo almost every other scene. Of course, it never gives you signals that it's "switching" as Lynch or Buñuel would, but there are numerous clues that the timeframe is switching back and forth between pre-marriage and post-breakup pretty much every other scene. The hints are in the subtle things like all the reflections in windows and mirrors and things like their conversation about the statue that is never fully shown (except—almost—in mirrors), and in more obvious things like the way the guy speaks Italian at the beginning of the film, but doesn't speak it later, or how he doesn't seem to remember the place they go, even though it's where they got married. Although we only see them in their physical forms as they are "now," each scene appears to alternate between two different periods of their relationship, mirrored against each other as they retrace their footsteps. Therein lies the "switcheroo," which is obviously something much more subtle than what we're used to when this sort of thing comes up. There's no blue box like in Mulholland Dr. No "Silencio"...

That's kind of the tip of the iceberg, though. It's an incredible film and definitely a masterpiece.
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I also think that none of the acting is in any way "wooden." This is something that often happens in Lynch films and I feel it's deliberate, whereas there is nothing at all like that here. Even when it seems like the two characters are "performing," playing their roles in a very human relationship, etc., it all feels 100% natural.

Anyway, for the sake of sharing, um, I describing it on Mubi as: A puzzle within a frame. This film is a time machine made of reflections and echoes, and simply a pleasure to watch. Best I've seen all year.
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CoSo, apparently some people have been walking out of Certified Copy. Kinda blows my mind, but hey.

Lynchburg, even when Carpenter did slapstick it was smart and funny, rather than stupidly mean-spirited and gross.
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http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html
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Uncle Boonmee was so great. Hazy, dreamy, mythical. I need to see it again some time soon. It was almost in step with the films of Tsai Ming-liang, I think, at least in its measured pacing and focus on finding the essence of cinema in images. Not so laconic, but it lingered on images with a similarly meditative gaze.
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I mean, I guess Evil Dead II is way too obvious, but I have a feeling it was definitely influenced by Hausu and is totally unrelenting.

(edit: Nevermind, typed this before I saw your edit.)

Some Argento films also come to mind, like Suspiria. Maybe Possession...

I guess you're emphasizing tone over sheer relentlessness, though. In which case, man, I'm not sure what to say. A lot of films...? Could you elaborate a bit, maybe?

On the subject of mainstream films in Japan, I've always been with the understanding that Miike does his art films and then he does more big-budget, ostensibly "mainstream" stuff.
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Euro-horror in general probably does this constantly. Same with stuff like Re-Animator and From Beyond. They're maybe not as magical/carnivalesque, visually—though From Beyond gets pretty psychedelic during the scenes where planes of reality are being mixed. The protagonists also react to what they've seen in pretty wildly different ways from moment to moment...

Repulsion seems fairly close, like kind of a precursor to this sort of thing, with its shattering landscape reflecting the mind of its protagonist.

And then we have Lynch, but maybe he's a little too obvious here.

How about Barton Fink? Especially the whole "LIFE OF THE MIND" part.

The Utena movie is probably worth a mention as well.

Been a long time since I last saw Coppola's Dracula. Might need to see it again with this in mind.
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I think the first time I read anything like that was after he did One Missed Call in 2003, but yeah, that makes sense, I guess.

I guess I felt like he did more, you know, daring "art" films and such at first, and then started doing more broad-appeal type movies to keep himself afloat.

Somebody like Kurosawa is just straddling that line.
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Heh, that's why I just said art films without quoting at first. You know what I mean. :B

Describing his earlier stuff as genre films with more experimental horror elements seems apt and non-schmucky enough to me.
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massive chube
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As someone who has never read any Rand, this has actually piqued my curiosity somewhat:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-shermer/why-liberals-should-see-a_b_854697.html
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Well, I didn't read the comments. I guess the article struck me because I'm used to seeing unanimous Rand bashing, but maybe I'd have seen through it as you did if I were more familiar with her writing. Now I feel kind of foolish. Oh, well.
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Yeah, cannot wait for that to get a U.S. release.

Seems to hint at Salò a bit, too.
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Also - !!!!!

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/paul_thomas_anderson_to_shoot_the_master_in_june_with_philip_seymour/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed
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Oh, man, watching Kirsten Dunst squirm like that was amazing.
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Cave of Forgotten Dreams... hm. Good, I think. Kind of awe-inspiring at times. Still, though, I feel the use of 3D is a weird gimmick—a new way of seeing (that isn't anything like seeing with human eyes, nor like traditional "2D" film itself) that feels very striking at times, awkward and broken at others (like when a guy reaches his hands toward the camera and the effect fails, so your eyes see four big hands coming at you all fragmented). On top of that, Herzog is such a goofy narrator. As I said to Ghost Dinosaur after seeing it, I feel like Herzog should let the camera speak for him a little more. GD also noted that it felt like the 3D highlighted the intricate curvature of the cave interiors more than the actual paintings, which kind of undermined just how special they are. Even with all the drawbacks, though, it's an interesting documentary. If only the final result was as sublime as the meeting of this new technology and ancient art promises to be, in concept...
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http://mubi.com/programs/la-semaine-de-la-critique
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I watched Gamer this afternoon. It's really bad, but it has some amusing cyberpunk ideas buried in there, like the Ulala-style girl in the real-life PlayStation Home/Second Life environment mind-controlled by the fat guy (because mind control is the new thing, you see (and of course obese sickos want to control sexy lady "icons")). At one point he's even picking out a costume for her and he scrolls past one that dresses her up like Pris, right before the dude from 300 goes to rescue her—in another reference to Blade Runner, I'm guessing. (Even the shot where he walks her out into the hallway is the same, and then the last shot of the film is the two of them driving through a mountain pass—a baffling nod to Blade Runner's theatrical cut.)

Too bad the thing's nowhere near as stylish... I really can't stand this ultra-saturated look and frantic jump cut obsession in movies like this and Hobo with a Shotgun. As much as it tests my patience, though, there are moments where it almost gells as a sort of '90s camp (e.g. Hackers) take on more relevant, uh, issues in modern gaming and social media as an attempt at saying something about technology and humanity. It's a bit too stupid (more Idiocracy than Total Recall) and irritatingly filmed to really achieve anything, unfortunately. It seems more interested in winking and snickering, "Dude, isn't the internet full of gross and violent people?" than it should.

Michael C. Hall, better known as Dexter, is probably the highlight of the film. His dance.

A little surprised that Ebert hasn't bothered to review this one.
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Terry Crew does indeed fucking rule.


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Pulse was just removed from Netflix instant. :(

It is pretty great, though. Still has the scene closest to an actual sleep paralysis nightmare I've had.

That part where the shadow-girl comes out from under the stairs and moves around weirdly in dead silence other than that odd sound effect, and the guy falls behind a chair and looks up at her looming faceless face...
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What I can't figure out is why I was more forgiving of Enter the Void's slip into meandering triteness.

I guess if you've got flashing neon lights against black and COIL and THROBBING GRISTLE and stuff then you've suckered me into anything.
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