Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 - B
The Velvet Queen - A-
Easy Living - A

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Top 100 Films, clicky below

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Oppenheimer (2023)



At first, I thought about waiting for the movie to show up on Amazon Prime before watching it. But, since everybody was talking about it, I decided to give it a go. It is a great movie, perhaps Nolan's best, but also flawed. My main issue with the movie is that very fast editing in some parts lowered the gravitas of the movie (should learn with Tarvkosky) while the excessive focus on Oppie the communist witch trials distracted too much and wasted too much of the movie's runtime.

Despite these issues, I think this is the best Hollywood movie I watched that was made in recent years. Really great indeed.

By The cover art can or could be obtained from IMP Awards or Revolution Films, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27480943

The Killer Inside Me - (2010)

This is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Jim Thompson pulp novel by screenwriter John Curran and director Michael Winterbottom - it's seedy ability to shock coming from a couple of ill-advised off-putting scenes where main character Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) beats a couple of vulnerable women to death. Sadistic to the audience in it's graphicness, it reflects the kind of tone a novel of that sort would have, but is needlessly in bad taste. This is a film from the point of view of the killer, and reflects the matter-of-fact casualness with which he views his abhorrent actions - the rest of the characters are far, far removed. I'm not quite sure what to make of all of that, other than the fact that it gives us an idea of what a sociopath's thought-processes are like. Directed by the likes of Quentin Tarantino, the exploitation factor would have been ratcheted up and the characters played by Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson would have had more of a voice (all the characters would have, really) - we'd understand why it was made. As it stands, I have no idea why Winterbottom and Revolution Films made this film, and that makes me a little uneasy.

5/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14953198

Blame it on Fidel! - (2006)

What's a young girl to do when her parents suddenly become social activists and politically motivated? It's 1970, and spoiled little French lady Anna de la Mesa (Nina Kervel-Bey) has had her world turned upside down after a visit from her Spanish Aunt and cousin - unfortunate victims of the Franco regime. Before she knows it, her mother and father have found Communism, and her joyful existence becomes a miserably poor one full of "group solidarity", teargas-filled marches, poverty and loneliness. Her parents move around and their house is always full of activists, planning elections and protests. As her frustration boils over into rage, again and again, Anna will stage protests of her own against what she sees as the tyranny of maman and papa in this enjoyable French drama. Nina Kervel-Bey is gorgeous, and she has a frown that will make you laugh every time it creases her eyebrows.

6/10

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Fantastic Voyage (1966)

The science seems flawed all over the place, but everything else was fine in a Star Trek kind of way. Reminds me of 50's sci-fi so maybe this was made by folks that got their start back then. I think it could have been better all around but I'm more of an action kind of guy.

7/10

Castle of Sand (1974)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Predictable. You know exactly how things will unfold, miles before they actually do.

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Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

One heck of a storyline. The two leads were very good - the woman was new to me. Mark Rylance was terrifying!

Good movie. I enjoyed it very much, but would not re-watch.

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I liked this movie lot and no argument that there's no re-watch on my schedule. This was not an easy watch.

Sad Vacation: The Last Days of Sid and Nancy (2016)
This is an entertaining though sad documentary of the last days of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. It was a bit of a stroll down memory lane for me. I wasn’t a part of that scene, but I was part of the art and punk scene in Philadelphia during the Eighties. It was fun to see who still looked punk and who had moved on. I was reminded of mosh pits and crazy performers rubbing doll parts and cat food on themselves. And some guy who cut himself and flung his blood in the crowd, which freaked me out as it was during the AIDs crisis.
But pack to Sid and Nancy. It was lovely to see people who actually knew and liked Nancy. I think she got such a bad rap because the break up of the Sex Pistols happened while she and Sid were dating. Kind of a Yoko Ono thing; fans blaming the woman rather then the men in the group for its demise.

Many people believe Sid could not have killed Nancy, many paint him as a sweet guy. But he and Nancy had a lot of fights and he was not averse to clocking someone over the head with a bottle. They also liked to play around with knives. I think the likely hood is Sid stabbed Nancy, but not with any vigor the cut was actually relatively shallow, while they were both high on heroin. They then nodded off while Nancy bled to death.
The documentary places Sid and Nancy with in their punk milieu and also goes over the timeline of Nancy's stabbing and then Sid’s death of an overdose. I really don’t know how the movie would go over with someone who doesn’t know the scene or who, Sid and Nancy, were to it. But for those who do, it is a kind of nostalgic trip. If the deaths of two young people, can be called such a thing.
2.5 popcorns

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12082258

Gosford Park - (2001)

Well - that was kind of overwhelming. 16 major characters, and big performances are too much for me to take in on a first viewing. Who stood out to me last night? Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Richard E. Grant, Michael Gambon, Emily Watson and Stephen Fry - although I have to say that I'm also a big fan of Derek Jacobi and Charles Dance. The murder that's hinted at in Gosford Park's tagline doesn't really sit at the heart of this movie, like I thought it would. Instead it's the two separate worlds that are examined - the upstairs 'moneyed' world and the downstairs 'servants' world which are actually very alike. In fact, the murder is linked to a kind of connection between the two. A 1932 setting puts this at the very dusk of the gilded age, and most of what happens and especially what is said in this Altman film is a comment on that curious time and circumstance. I'm going to need to see this a few more times though - which I will when I get down to reviewing it. There was simply too much here for me to get on a first viewing.

8/10


By POV - Can be obtained from the following website: IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18560847

Primal Fear - (1996)

We live in an age of movies that are too reliant on having some kind of twist define them - and that can devalue a movie like Primal Fear - the swifty it pulls at the end was a real shock to audiences in '96, but there's a lot more going for it than that. A stunning debut from Edward Norton, earning him an Academy Award nomination, overshadowed what was a really strong showing from Richard Gere. Here's what I wrote on Letterboxd : "There comes a time in a narcissistic defense attorney's life when he has to believe not only that he's the best in court - but a great and altruistic person as well. The way this plays out in Primal Fear, with Richard Gere's Martin Vail convincing himself his client isn't guilty, makes for a film that really plays to Gere's strengths as an actor. The entire spotlight was stolen by a young Edward Norton, however, who dazzled in his debut and earned an Oscar nomination not to mention many other awards and plaudits. He plays client Aaron Stampler - obviously guilty, but the perfect case for Vail to prove that he's not only exceptional, but cares about this altar boy's humanity as well. The further he probes, the more convinced he really is of Aaron's innocence - leading to a devastating denouement that most of us should have really seen coming - except for this heady lawyer who in the end realises, too late, that narcissism blinds. Top notch thriller this, that has become a cliché over the years. Gere's smug self-love and performance overall shouldn't be overlooked - he's great, as are Laura Linney and Frances McDormand."

8/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5886203

Pecker - (1998)

A John Waters film is really it's own unique thing - and I can't overstate how much I love them, especially Pecker. It's hard to describe - let's start with Edward Furlong, who is giving what is probably the worst performance of his life, and yet making the film all the more glorious for it. It's a deep, abiding love of trash that's so grand it convinces me I've got everything wrong my whole life. It's a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary continually saying "Full of grace!" while it's obviously being operated via ventriloquism by an earnest grandmother that runs a "Pit Beef" stand that is unreasonably popular. I don't even know what pit beef is. It's an 83-minute film that takes a good third of it's running time to introduce it's burgeoning cast of characters. It's a film that's conscious of it's own surreal simplicity and twisted logic. Some said that Pecker was John Waters' first stab at making a mainstream film - but when I watch it I see nothing mainstream at all. It's just as crazy, and just as enjoyable, as his other films. It's not Citizen Kane or There Will Be Blood, but it strikes a chord with me that has me wondering why I haven't watched all of John Waters' films already.

7.5/10

The Redeemed and the Dominant: Fittest on Earth, 2016

This documentary follows the efforts, triumphs, and tragedies of the competitors at the 2015 CrossFit Games.

It’s . . . a movie about CrossFit.



Full Review

The Night Clerk, 2020

Bart (Tye Sheridan) is a night clerk at a hotel, where he uses hidden cameras to spy on the people who stay there. Bart has autism, and ostensibly he is using his recordings to gain insight into the way that people interact. But Bart becomes fascinated by a woman (Jacque Gray) staying overnight, and is distraught when he witnesses her murder. Unable to admit to his voyeurism, Bart becomes enmeshed in the investigation. Worse, he is drawn to an enigmatic woman named Andrea (Ana de Armas) who may be connected to the killing.

This is a bad movie, and watching it made me grumpy. It looks okay, I like the cast, but the writing is terrible and enamored with an outdated, offensive portrayal of autism.



Full review

Penelope (1966)

She was in Waves (2019) which if you know me I tend to rip on most modern AA cinema. The movie doesn't just focus on melodrama but bothers to tell an original story with actual cinematography which is becoming rarer and rarer in modern films.

Terrific director Trey Shults. 3 great films so far in his career. I wish he would do something else soon. Apparently he has a tv series about lumberjacks in the pipeline but not much else.

I thought it was pretty good.

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Groundbreaking Documentary on a Legendary Band | Gone With The Wind - 7.5/10

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The question of what we do in the face of war, especially when it's something so common in our lives, is part of what fuels this short from Alejandro González Iñárritu. Powder Keg is yet another short film from The Hire series, produced by BMW. In this one, our unnamed driver (Clive Owen) is tasked with taking a wounded war photographer, Harvey Jacobs (Stellan Skarsgård), across the border and out of hostile territory.

Putting aside the reasonings and logistics of this BMW driver being thrown into this scenario – other than promoting the shiny BMW X5 3.0i, now with leather interiors. Perfect for transporting bleeding people! – I found the short to be quite effective. First, you can feel how close it is to González Iñárritu's sensibilities, but second, Skarsgård is great in the role as he transmits the bitterness and regret of Jacobs about what he sees as his inability to do anything in the face of constant war.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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