Rate The Last Movie You Saw

By The Beach Boys - amazon.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38657474

The Beach Boys: Endless Harmony - (1998)

Watching a musical/biographical documentary, I hope for neither a puff piece nor hatchet job, and Endless Harmony was great in that the story came from all the major players in (and associated with) The Beach Boys. I also enjoyed the fact that they were all absolutely frank and honestly introspective. When you add in all the great music that accompanies this story, you have yourself a very enjoyable (albeit long) documentary. This was a simple pleasure to watch, and as I knew very little about the band itself, it was informative.

8/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1004000

The Day After Tomorrow - (2004)

If you're bright, curious, well-informed and read a lot, then rocking up to a Roland Emmerich film will have you smarting from the frequent number of times our intelligence is utterly insulted. The Day After Tomorrow is based on a book co-written by Whitley Strieber, making for a noxious combination, but when it's on I tend to watch some of it. You know what they say - "turn your brain off" - it's a disaster film, and the magnitude of these disasters are often global catastrophes. Because hundreds of millions of people are dying, the occasional light-hearted jokey moment feels pretty wrong - but at the same time, this disaster is too large for a movie to grant much feeling of the scale. If you like science, you'll be pretty upset with how ridiculous most parts are - and most of the characters are infuriatingly unlikeable too. One of a slew of huge budget blockbusters that are written appallingly but have super destructive moments that satisfy our child-like "let's smash it!" impulses.

5/10


By Unknown - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71615799

Tár - (2022)

Rewatch. Todd Field presents someone at the absolute top in Tár - Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is at the apex of her profession, has an anticipated book being published, is world famous and lives with her partner and adorable child. Intellectually she's well-versed but pretentious, and disregards people who have no immediate worth to her. Field then drops her precipitously - and what a fall it is. I still struggled getting into this film from the get-go, but once it's over I'm very well pleased with it as a whole.

8/10


By A24 - https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/...buts-tomorrow/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73515655

Talk to Me - (2022)

Rewatch. My Christmas night viewing spot is usually reserved for something I've particularly enjoyed during the year - and Talk to Me did not disappoint the second time around.

8/10

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I think that having such a cold character at the center of the film makes it hard to grip onto as a viewer at first. But you realize that you're watching a person dig themselves into a hole with lies big and small, and obliviously (or maliciously) pushing boundaries with the people who are her allies. From there you get the suspense of waiting to see when and how it will all crumble around her.

Mussum O Filmis - (2023)

The life, work and death of a brazilian comedian/musician. His life was a lot more interesting than this movie.

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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

Nothing Bad Can Happen (2013) disturbing and depressing, loved it 5/5

Before that Kubrick's Barry Lyndon -- BEST movie seen this year

Act of Violence follows Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan), a former World War II POW determined to find one of his comrades, Frank Enley (Van Heflin), at all costs. The reason? It's one of those things that happened in the war that nobody understands, not even Joe or Frank; but that's one of the mysteries that this film holds on to for a while.

I think that was my favorite thing about the film; how it manages to contrast and juxtapose these two characters, none of which are entirely free from blame or wrong-doing. For a 1940s film to present the complexity of those things that "happened in the war" and that we can't understand, it is quite something, and I like that the film never fully commits to any side. Neither Joe nor Frank are demonized or idolized, but are rather presented as two damaged individuals.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot, the Film Noir HoF, and the Noirvember thread.

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Triangle of Sadness (2022)


Quite a movie...satirical messages about the fashion industry and gender roles unfolding in 3 segments (which cause the movie to be a bit longer than it needs to). I actually really enjoyed it with a couple major exceptions...

Thieves' Highway follows Nick Garcos (Richard Conte), who returns from World War II to his family in California, only to find that his father, a produce driver, was roughed up by a ruthless dealer called Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). This resulted in Nick's father losing his legs and sets Nick on a path for revenge against Figlia.

Nick is also helped by Ed (Millard Mitchell), another driver that took up Nick father's truck, and Rica (Valentina Cortese), a local that Figlia might or might not be using against Nick. Conte is solid in the lead, but it is Cobb who easily shines as Figlia. His character moves seamlessly from fake amiability to sheer unscrupulousness and opportunism.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot, the Film Noir HoF, or the Noirvember thread.

1st Rewatch...Not as funny as the first film because it basically just rehashes the first film, but it somehow still manages to deliver laughs.

1st Rewatch...This scorching drama about a spinster schoolteacher whose obsession with a new faculty member leads her down a dark path when she learns the new teacher is having an affair with a student. This film mesmerizes thanks to a fantastic, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Patrick Marber, which includes one of my favorite narrations of a film, beautifully realized by Dench, playing one of her most riveting and unlikable characters, a performance of such passion and venom that it earned her an Oscar nomination as did Cate Blanchett's Oscar-nominated performance as the Bohemian art teacher who becomes Dench's obsession. Dench and Blanchett create one memorable scene after another here, especially the scene where Dench learns that Blanchett hasn't ended her affair with the boy. Shout out to Bill Nighy as well as Blanchett's husband. I had forgotten what a powerful film this was.

1st Rewatch...I don't want to spoil this film for those who haven't seen it yet, but upon rewatch I realized there's no way to catch everything on a single watch. I also want to say that this film is my choice for the Oscar for Original Screenplay and though I don't see him winning, I think Ryan Gosling should get a supporting actor nomination. Would also love to see a Best Song nomination for "I'm Just Ken" and though it's a long shot, a supporting actress nomination for America Ferrera would definitely put a smile on my face.

1st Rewatch...Of the movies I've seen on the subject, I think this is the most compelling, non-documentary centered around the Hollywood blacklisting, told through this look at the career of iconic screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who won three Oscars for his work but was unable to be at any of the ceremonies because of his arrest and blacklist, one of the few people who was blacklisted who actually admitted to being a communist. Bryan Cranston's Oscar-nomination performance in the title role is a revelation and we get several terrific celebrity impressions supporting the story, especially Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, David James Elliott as John Wayne, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G Robinson, and especially Dean O'Gorman, uncanny as Kirk Douglas. John Goodman also crushes it as a B movie maker named Frank King. The look of the film is also exquisite.

4th Rewatch...Michael Keaton is cute as a button on this amusing satire of mob movies, but for some reason, as I watched this time, I couldn't help thinking how much funnier this movie would have been with Mel Brooks in the director chair.

And Drew being sexy as all hell.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

The Asphalt Jungle follows a group of criminals led by Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) as they plan and stage the robbery of a jewel store that could leave them all set for life. To pull it off, he needs a safecracker (Anthony Caruso), a getaway driver (James Whitmore), and a "hooligan" (Sterling Hayden). But in this jungle, the predatory beasts are all over.

This is a film I had been hearing about for a long time, but somehow I hadn't been able to get to it. Now that I finally did, I can see what all the fuss is about. The Asphalt Jungle is a thrilling, sharply written crime film that doesn't pull its punches, which is best exemplified in the nature of its lead character, Dix Handley (Hayden), a 6'4" intimidating thug that's a chronic gambler and essentially a killer.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot, the Film Noir HoF, and the Noirvember thread.

The Family Plan (2023)

Thanksgiving (2023)

Cobweb (2023)

It's a Wonderful Knife (2023)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Carol for Another Christmas - I found this while perusing the TCM hub on MAX. Never knew it existed but the fact that it was written by Rod Serling and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz grabbed my attention. And once I found out who was in it I figured it was worth a watch. Sterling Hayden plays moneyed industrialist Daniel Grudge and he's embittered by his son Marley's death in WWII. To the point where he is perennially at odds with his college professor nephew Fred (Ben Gazzara). Grudge believes that the United States has no business getting involved in any other countries problems or even fighting in any wars. His rock-ribbed isolationist stance has led him to influence the college's governing board and have one of Fred's colleagues fired. The man's offense is being part of a cultural exchange program with what Grudge considers a "Communist" country, in this case Poland. The C word is never used but given that this was conceived, written, and produced in 1964 it's boxed in. It might also come off as archaic but back in the day it was all about stopping the spread of Communism.

Anyway, this is a Serling script and the 90 minute runtime gives him the luxury of stretching out so it's definitely wordy. Well written of course but verbose. It follows the general outline of A Christmas Carol with three "ghosts" visiting Grudge. The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by Steve Lawrence as a returning doughboy on a troop ship. He, along with most of the other soldiers onboard, is dead. Casualties of the first great war in Europe. He shows Grudge that the collective sacrifice of fallen soldiers (and his son) is a direct result of nations turning their backs on each other. Grudge is a hard get so there's also a side trip to Hiroshima where he witnesses a younger version of himself as a Naval commander along with WAVE Lt. Gibson (Eva Marie Saint) visiting the devastated city.

The second spirit is Christmas Present (Pat Hingle in a compelling performance) and he goes to work on Grudge's dismissive scorn towards the "have-nots" of the world and his "by one's own bootstraps" rationale. The spirit uses facts, figures and statistics to underline to Grudge the actual human toll of the "haves" turning a blind eye to the ongoing suffering of the "have-nots".

I think the movie however really hits it's stride in the third act as The Ghost of Christmas To Come (Robert Shaw) shows Grudge his own bombed out town hall in a post-apocalyptic future. The few remaining survivors drift in and wait expectantly and soon enough a self appointed sovereign and demagogue calling himself Imperial Me (Peter Sellars) is carried in on a palanquin. He's sporting a cowboy hat and six-guns and harangues the crowd on the virtues of unbridled individualism and a "me first" mindset. He goes on to warn them of two other smaller groups of survivors who want to meet and talk over their mutual problems. He exhorts them and tells them that these groups are a threat and need to be dealt with ASAP. And having done that he adds that they should then turn on each other until there is only one "ME", AKA, the perfect society of "I".

Some might see this as a bit heavy handed and rightly so but this was originally meant as the first in a series of television specials commissioned by and serving to promote The United Nations. It's ironic that something that purports to be a condemnation of hidebound thinking is, with the passage of time, shown to be facile in and of itself. It also reveals that what started out with such promise back in the '60's has thoroughly morphed into irrelevance. Still though, this holds genuine value as a curio. The cast is first rate and Serling's earnest attempt at changing the world one television viewer at a time shouldn't be judged by today's misanthropic standards.

75/100

It's a Wonderful Life: - A

High Anxiety: B-

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"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
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Aquaman: the lost kingdom
7/10.
This may be the last kingdom.

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Boldly going.