Come Anticipate "Old Joy"

can't wait to watch Wendy And Lucy.
loved Old Joy.

This really made me want to go to the Cascade Mountains and take a bath in the woods with my old best friend.

Dr Morbius is otm about the ruminative silences, that's what I remember more than anything, esp. scenes where the protagonist is just driving around with the radio on.

Thanks for the reminder -- I liked Wendy and Lucy and am now interested in seeing Old Joy.

i really loved Old Joy. i forgot to put it on my list of favourite films of the decade but i should have.

i was disappointed by Old Joy - wasn't much to fill the silences with - but definitely seeing this

gabbneb otm

Yeah, I found Old Joy sort of tedious, even though I liked a lot of things about it.

ie, like an Iranian film

Dr. M, if I have to see one Iranian film, which one should it be? I've somehow managed to never see one.

"The Color of Heaven" - Majid Majidi.

"A Moment of Innocence" - Mohsen Makhmalbaf

color of paradise, that is

Makhmalbaf is awesome.
what was the name of that half-documentry about the guy who pretend to be Makhmalbaf?! - it's a must see

it's Close Up - Abbas Kiarostami

Kiarostami is probably the most innovative of all iranian directors, and has the best filmography as a whole imo

as a matter of fact,Close Up is one of the deepest, complex (though not difficult) and original pieces of cinema ever made:
a self reflective piece about the power of inema, a political statement about Iran, and a true story, acted as a doc, by the original persons of the story (including the fake Makhmalbaf himself)

got to see it again!

I knew morbs would play the Iranian card. Sorry Reichardt is no Kiarostami (and does not operate under iranian restrictions).

no she is not (I love MM & AK), and I will reveal more in the Wendy & Lucy thread. Don't expect a style change.

did u go to any of the talks?

I saw her and Daniel London do Q&A after Old Joy at New Directors.

wendy & lucy was really great

i talked to her at tiff. she is pretty cool, very funny and not pretentious. liked her.

Taste of Cherry and Crimson Gold are my two favorite Iranian films, off the top of my head.

except of itanian cinema, there are also traces of Satyajit Ray (one of Itan's art movie heroes, and it shows) , minimaistic japanese cinema, and other american indie directors like Van Sunt and Sofia Coppola.

The nice thing is, with all his "faults", Oldham character, connected to nature and earth, is the one's the movie raves about on its subtext.
Those men in nature meditation-feels-like scenes are unforgettable.

Iran..

crimson gold's great.
i thought there was a wendy and lucy thread but maybe not; i saw it last night and thought it was fantastic, like a much less distressing dardenne brothers film by way of van sant. all of the criticism i'd heard of it was that it wasn't a big deal, wasn't life changing etc, but i thought it did a really good job of capturing minutiae, how big a deal it was for her to say thank you to the security guard (i so thought it was this guy), etc.

Is River of Grass worth seeing?

Kelly Reichardt's "Wendy and Lucy" starring Michelle Williams

Wendy and Lucy was pretty good although the second the dog disappeared I assumed what would happen and was right. I liked it though, I wondered how she had gotten into this situation, and I certainly felt compassion for her.

i enjoyed old joy more on second viewing

My thoughts on W&L.

New interview with Oldham on Old Joy.

Finally saw this last night (the interview link above was related to a screening I almost went to and missed in January 2020). Reichardt introduced it briefly, telling a funny story of going to Powell's Books to get a copy of the book of Oldham interviews, and the clerk said "He was in this terrible movie, but that's not his fault" and then she shrugged and was like "Here it is!"

I really enjoyed the way it didn't escalate action into a necessary confrontation about their friendship. The Malick comparison makes sense as far as showing a world in constant motion (animals large and small, trees, wind) and the human stories on equal footing with everything non-human. Also, 20 years after it was released, interesting to see Oldham as somewhat playing the Gen X jester/slacker archetype (exemplified from Puck on The Real World to Galifanakis in The Hangover) but makes the character individual, and his most transgressive moment is an intimate and soft one rather than just aggressive/teasing. Anyway, was fun to see it in Portland with Reichardt and a full theater.

That sounds like as great way to experience it for the first time! I saw it at home last year for the first time and totally agree with your take.

It's been some years since I saw Old Joy. It was a bit of an odd experience because it was basically filmed in my home city and in the mountains and forests where I have spent my lifetime. The hot springs bathhouse where the movie culminates is well known to all hikers in the area and I've known it for over fifty years. Everything in the movie was familiar already, even the characters and the story were like pieces of the fabric of my life, not the highlights, but much of it could have been memories of mine. I do recall being a bit impatient with the dialogue, which felt naturalistic enough, but much slower paced more tentative than seemed realistic. Hey guys! Just TALK to each other, ok?

Great soundtrack--didn't know this had its own thread.

Should go back to see this again. Remember really liking it, but my impression is every thing she's done since has been better

I saw it at Sydney Film Festival in 2004 with Reichardt introducing too! I can’t remember what she said but it must have been natural and low key because I loved the film and still do. I enjoy most of her work, she reminds me to watch more carefully which is always good advice.
She has one earlier film I can never recall the name of, which I haven’t seen - must make an effort to find it.

otm xpost

I really like this film, as well as Wendy and Lucy... both really captured a time and place

(the same dog was in both films! and it's name was actually Lucy)

Wendy.

Yes, Lucy.

are the hot springs warm enough?

warm enough that the bathhouse is in constant high demand

She has one earlier film I can never recall the name of, which I haven’t seen - must make an effort to find it.

River of Grass? You can watch it on Kanopy, also cheap on Prime.

my impression is every thing she's done since has been better

Half her films, I'd say yes: I think Wendy and Lucy, Certain Women, and Showing Up are all better. But based on one viewing, I liked Old Joy much more than her two revisionist westerns, a genre that, with occasional exceptions, became repetitive at least 40 years ago.

I've been meaning to watch Night Moves again.

xp I was just going along with Alfred's bit!

Kelly Reichardt doesn't have a thread of her own, but deserves one.

I finally watched Showing Up. It is a small, domestic, low-stakes drama about artists and frenemies in a small arts community in Portland Oregon (filmed at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, which like the SF Art Institute closed recently) aka a Kelly Reichardt movie. Its portrayal of a graduate student art school is interesting.

Seeing Michelle Williams' many different moods in the film is worth it alone. She is simultaneously dour, forgiving and fierce

The film is very light, but it exactly recreates my most frequent nightmare - being painfully and terminally thwarted in a task I desperately need to complete, a nightmare so prolonged that I can't stand it anymore and have to wake up.

Cynthia Lathi’s sculptures are beautiful