Kanopy Recs

[dookeyXXX]

Yes, you should watch (the original) Swept Away. It's a bit campy, and the political allegory is kind of beaten to death, but it's a real favorite of mine; I've watched it a few times, and I listen to the soundtrack album (originally bought on vinyl, long ago) occasionally.

It’s in the queue. Just gotta get in the mood for it!

[MontuckyFried]

Since Kanopy's probably the best source for some of the works of Agnès Varda, I thought I'd drop this loving tribute piece here I just saw:



Makes you realize just how pioneering and influential she was.

[dookeyXXX]

Coupla three really cool, weird/neo Westerns currently on Kanopy:

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tk80iXCspM




LET THE CORPSES TAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q7xB9CMkks




SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrmF__CXkNY

[Thaleia]

Thank you! The Good, the Bad, the Weird was on my radar a few years ago but forgot about it until now.

[dookeyXXX]

On Gaku: Our Sound
Imagine if Richard Linklater and Jim Jarmusch teamed up with Mike Judge to make an animated film about a trio of slacker delinquents who decide to form a band…
This film is a fantastic deadpan romp that lovingly skewers and pays homage to folk music, Prog rock, punk, and experimental soniference.

Highly recommended!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqptivRx_0

[bobz]

On-Gaku rocked!! Trippy animation to accompany the music, and off-the-wall laughs in between the tunes.

[bobz]

Saw recently on Kanopy:

KURT VONNEGUT - UNSTUCK IN TIME: Recommended for Vonnegut fans. The docu ends up being not just about Vonnegut, but the director's (Bob Weide, better known for Curb Your Enthusiasm) long-time association and friendship with Vonnegut in the decades that he spent working on the documentary; how he came to be less concerned that friendship was getting in the way of the film, than whether the film was getting in the way of their friendship.

HARD MILES: I'm a bikehead, and worked myself up to a multi-day bike trek in the Southwest last year, so I couldn't avoid watching this film about a social worker who elevates the lives of some youths by getting them out for a Southwest bike trek. The movie was only okay.

[dookeyXXX]

If you’re one of those folks who loves watching horror/scary movies during the month of October, then Kanopy currently has a pretty solid selection of creepy celluloid endeavors:

Talk To Me
When Evil Lurks
Beau Is Afraid
Susperia
Possession
Rosemary’s Baby
The Wicker Man
The Howling
Don’t Look Now
Audition
The Fog
Mother
Lamb
Let The Right One In
The House That Jack Built
Cube
Long Weekend
Dead Ringers
Censor
Rabid
Possessor
Carnival of Souls
In Fabric
Relic
The Innocents
Dead Snow
Phantasm
Goodnight Mommy
Hatching
All My Friends Hate Me
Bird Boy
Koko-Di Koko-Da
The Eyes of My Mother
John Carpenter’s The Ward
Demons
Red Iron Road
The Church
House of 1,000 Corpses

[dookeyXXX]

We’re two days deep into Noirvember, the month when some cinephiles attempt to watch a noir film each day.

I did it a few years back.

If you’re into such “challenges ” or are merely looking for some good, old-fashioned thrillers teeming with unlucky saps, femme fatales, and lottsa skullduggery, then Kanopy has a grip of goodies available:
DISORDER
THE WILD GOOSE INN
KING OF NEW YORK
52 PICK-UP
WHITE SANDS
WAY OF THE GUN
GUTLAND
THE BRIDESMAID
THE BEDROOM WINDOW
VIOLENT COP
TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI
HE WALKED BY NIGHT
BLOW OUT
KILL ME AGAIN
BRIGHTON ROCK (1947)
CROUPIER
POINT BLANK
DETOUR
LE DOULOS
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COULE
PRIVATE PROPERTY
THE STRANGER
THE THIRD MAN
MEMENTO
TELL NO ONE
UN FLIC
SUDDEN FEAR
TROUBLE IN MIND
DRESSED TO KILL
THE KILLING
SUNSET BOULEVARD
BLUE VELVET
LE SAMOURAI
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
BREATHLESS (1960)

[dookeyXXX]

JUNK HEAD
Hankering for some gloriously bugged out stop motion animation?

Look no further than this film!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ygfn-WqF8

[bobz]

Just watched Junk Head; that was awesomely weird!

[dookeyXXX]

Just watched Junk Head; that was awesomely weird!

Right?

Since you dug that, you may also enjoy MAD GOD (streaming on Hoopla)

They are pretty similar in terms of story, but I feel Junk Head is more coherent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jas8OABbn0Y

[bobz]

Cool, maybe sometime. I'm going to need a bit of a palate cleanser from sick puppy animation for now (I'm in the middle of The Fall Guy, which is a hoot, aside from the silly plot; somehow it's my third stuntman flick in about a month). My next Kanopy movie will have to be Hundreds of Beavers.

[dookeyXXX]

Cool, maybe sometime. I'm going to need a bit of a palate cleanser from sick puppy animation for now (I'm in the middle of The Fall Guy, which is a hoot, aside from the silly plot; somehow it's my third stuntman flick in about a month). My next Kanopy movie will have to be Hundreds of Beavers.

Curious as to what the other two stuntman movies were…

Hundreds of Beavers will be a great palate cleanser! I loved that film.

[dookeyXXX]

PS
Kanopy has a slew of amazing non-sick puppy animated films.

I highly recommend:
A Cat in Paris (original French version)
Phantom Boy
April and the Extraordinary World
The Painting (original French version)
Nocturna
Johnny Corncob
Son of the White Mare
Jacob, Mimmi and the Talking Dogs
Short Peace
The Boxtrolls
The King and the Mockingbird
The Girl Without Hands
Cryptozoo
The Secret of Kells
A Town Called Panic
Ernest & Celestine (original French language version)
Blind Willow Sleeping Woman

[bobz]

Curious as to what the other two stuntman movies were…

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; took me a while to get around to it, but now definitely one of my favorite Tarantino films.
And Tarsam Singh's messy but visually remarkable The Fall (one of the main characters being an injured stuntman sort of book-ends the movie, though it's not so much about him).

[dookeyXXX]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; took me a while to get around to it, but now definitely one of my favorite Tarantino films.
And Tarsam Singh's messy but visually remarkable The Fall (one of the main characters being an injured stuntman sort of book-ends the movie, though it's not so much about him).

Right on.
OUATIH is def one of my favorites by QT.
I “need” to revisit The Fall. I recall not liking it much when it was first released. They recently re-relased it in theaters, but I missed the run.
Guy I work with brought it up yesterday in conversation. 2 mentions in under 24 hours, no less! Guess I gotta track it down and watch it again.

Here’s another stuntman flick you might dig:
The Stunt Man (1980)
It’s available on Hoopla, Tubi, Prime, Peacock, and Roku Channel

[dookeyXXX]

And even more cool animation available on Kanopy:
Chico & Rita
Bird Boy
Bunuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles

[bobz]

I “need” to revisit The Fall. I recall not liking it much when it was first released. They recently re-relased it in theaters, but I missed the run.

Funny, I'd seen it before and loved it; this time I guess I took all the vivid scenery more for granted and noticed the not great story a bit more.

Here’s another stuntman flick you might dig:
The Stunt Man (1980)

I've seen it; good movie.

[dookeyXXX]

SASQUATCH SUNSET
This low-key nature film satire is like a mumblecore version of Quest For Fire.
If that comparison doesn’t work for you, imagine the opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey turned into a feature length film by The Upright Citizens Brigade, albeit a bit more restrained and understated (there are numerous moments where it feels as if writer/director David Zellner and his co-directing brother Nathan just let the cast go wildly off-script).
Languid and pastoral, both in terms of visuals and sonic atmosphere (the score by The Octopus Project is stellar), the film moves at a steady, loping pace that sucks you into the lush Pacific Northwest landscape.
A few bits run a tad long/feel out-of-step with the rest of the film (a scene involving a turtle could easily have been left on the editing room floor) and the squatch’s strange naivete seems a bit off, but overall the experience is quietly mesmerizing.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbKwFWtOgdk

[dookeyXXX]

MAD DETECTIVE
Co-directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai, this is a twisted yet strangely melancholic police procedural. Mesmerizing from start to finish it tweaks the investigative aspect of police dramas, turning it into a strange brew of a cop flick. At the core is a captivating performance from Sean Lau augmented by crisp and deft direction by To and Wai.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AL1fZqfvgA

[dookeyXXX]

UN 32 AOUT SUR TERRE (August 32nd on Earth)
Denis Villeneuve’s debut feature is a quirky Quebecois quasi road trip romantic dark comedy drama that is peak late 1990s indie bliss.
I really dig his first four films, which he both wrote and directed, much more than his later English language Hollywood output.
Highly recommended.

FWIW, the trailer really doesn’t do the film justice…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_eD_-ZrAHE

[dookeyXXX]

THE THICKET
I am a sucker for a good Western; it’s one of my favorite genres of film.
I was a bit hesitant to dive into this one, however, because I really loved the source novel (it’s one of author Joe R. Lansdale’s best efforts and highly recommended).
I was pleasantly surprised by the film, but then again it had a stellar cast (who knew James Hetfield could act?).
While the screenwriter took some liberties with the source material and definitely tones down the language and violence of the original story, it all still worked and made for an engaging revisionist Western.
The pacing was deliberate, the acting taut, and the winter setting was used to excellent effect, too.
Recommended if you dig Westerns.

Read the novel, too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTlgS4SyGyE

[dookeyXXX]

THE LINGUINE INCIDENT
I have been discovering some pretty cool quirky cult films from the late 80s/early 90s that I somehow missed when they weee originally released.
This particular nugget features David Bowie and Rosanna Arquette in an off-kilter heist comedy. The dialogue is priceless, the humor wry, and the fashion glitzy and over-the-top.
In short, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yrq5oA98qY

[bobz]

Just noticed that the recut version of Caligula (supposedly more faithful to Gore Vidal's original vision, and reconstructed in various ways, including removing the various blowjob closeup scenes that Bob Guccione thrusted into the theatrical release) is now on Kanopy. One of the more reliable posters on another forum reports that this version is still trashy and generally bad aside from being trashy, but I may check it out at some point anyway.

Also I see Wim Wenders'; Perfect Days is showing now on Kanopy; I want to see that one, waiting for the right day when I'm ready for something that speed (slow).

And I think already mentioned, Hundreds of Beavers, which I watched a few weeks ago. As others have said, good off the wall fun, with tasty random nonsense as occasional seasoning.