Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Takoma11]

Glad you enjoyed this movie...it's one of a handful of movies where I really enjoyed Lana Turner. Not a great film, but watchable and I agree with most of what you've said here.

The costumes and stages were really awesome. I don't think that it nails the three different stories as well as it could have.

I've also felt more and more since watching it that Sheila's outcomes are meant as a moral rebuke for her enjoying her success and that just feels crummy.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzE3MGYyOTItN2Y0My00ZGQxLThmYmYtZDhiNzRjODM3YjFjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDM2NDM2MQ@@._V1_.jpg


2

[Thief]

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
(2013, Coen)

https://i.imgur.com/H33GJVK.jpg


"You don't want to go anywhere, and that's why the same shit's going to keep happening to you, because you want it to."



Set in the early 1960s, Inside Llewyn Davis follows the titular character (Oscar Isaac), an aspiring folk singer struggling to get through as a solo act after the death of his partner. Davis survives by performing small gigs while cycling through the houses of various friends and acquaintances to sleep in.

Like every Coen film, their mastery of dialogue and tone is superb. Still, this is Isaac's film all the way. His performance walks a fine line between charisma, charm and bitterness, frustration. He doesn't play Davis to the audience, but actually as a real man full of talent, but also full of flaws, insecurities, and anger. For all his artistry, he just can't help but burn bridges all around him, leaving him effectively trapped with the same shit happening to him.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2306144#post2306144)

[xSookieStackhouse]

4.5
https://www.universalpictures.com.au/tl_files/content/movies/jurassic_world_dominion/poster/01.jpg

[MovieBuffering]

Everything Everywhere All At Once - 2022

Well I'd been in a rut with movies then you see something that restores your faith in cinema. Wowey is this movie awesome. I legitimately and genuinely laughed out loud, cried and was in awe at some scenes. There was no heavy handed agenda, it was an Asian-American cast that felt genuine and not cast to make some diversity quota. What a splash of cold water to the face on the desert that is Hollywood right now. The acting was phenomenal. Michelle Yeoh is always great but she deserves an academy award next year for this what a force. James Hong is in it I always love him. Stephaine Hsu is a new chick to me but she was outstanding and I didn't realize this until after but Ke Huy Quan who was Short Round and was in the Goonies is in it. He hasn't acted since those 2 movies, I mean wow what a way to come back. I think he at least deserves a nomination he looked like he never left.

I don't want to give to much a way but I can not recommend this flick enough. What an inspiring piece of film making. It will put you through the ringer emotionally. It's uniquely weird in the best sense. I'll be watching it again and buying it on blu ray to support it. My rating might go up after another viewing.

4

https://blog.frame.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/B0443-featured-image-1.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/It_Follows_%28poster%29.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributors, The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44974148

It Follows - (2014)

Not the perfect horror film, but when it's this good - and this creepy - why complain? David Robert Mitchell constructs a dream world where everything is slightly off, and then inhabits it with something that has literally come straight from his nightmares to us - the titular "it", which will follow you in a steady fashion until it eventually catches and kills you. How does the curse work? It's sexually transmitted. So, of course just about everyone who watches this is doing the computations in their brains - "Is this about AIDS? Shame? What follows you after you have sex? Is it about unwanted pregnancy? Commitment?" Whatever it is, it exists in a world askew, with the wrong technology inhabiting the wrong time-period - and when you add that to the excellent score you've got something so creepy you'll feel uncomfortable as the final credits roll. Had a blast watching this.

And I liked Under the Silver Lake too.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Discreet-charm-poster.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/65372860, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39208088

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - (1972)

I loved The Exterminating Angel so much that The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie couldn't quite unseat it from my "favourite Luis Buñuel film" film pedestal - but I still enjoyed watching it very much. I think this was supposed to be my year of Luis Buñuel films - and it's June already. Time is passes much too rapidly for my liking. Anyway, a group of stuffy, privileged people are seated at a dinner table and to their surprise a curtain pulls back and they discover they're onstage - the man whose nightmare this is sweats, and states that he hasn't learned his lines. Later a policeman will be having a nightmare which involves the ghost of a commander letting political prisoners go. I knew what I was getting and my expectations were met.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Policeman_%28film%29.jpg
By IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1978447/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49619988

Policeman - (2011)

I haven't seen many films from Israel - this one feels like it's going to follow main character and counter-terrorist cop Yaron (Yiftach Klein) around as we sense more and more that he's shifty (when we leave him, he's chatting up a 15 year-old girl) - but then the focus shifts to a group of Israeli radicals railing against poverty and financial injustice. When they kidnap a group of ultra-rich figures, Yaron's group is called and instead of facing Arabs he's organising the death of fellow-Jews, something that he will obviously struggle with - but we only see his reaction to the aftermath - and then the credits roll. Was interesting while it lasted.

6/10

[xSookieStackhouse]

Everything Everywhere All At Once - 2022

Well I'd been in a rut with movies then you see something that restores your faith in cinema. Wowey is this movie awesome. I legitimately and genuinely laughed out loud, cried and was in awe at some scenes. There was no heavy handed agenda, it was an Asian-American cast that felt genuine and not cast to make some diversity quota. What a splash of cold water to the face on the desert that is Hollywood right now. The acting was phenomenal. Michelle Yeoh is always great but she deserves an academy award next year for this what a force. James Hong is in it I always love him. Stephaine Hsu is a new chick to me but she was outstanding and I didn't realize this until after but Ke Huy Quan who was Short Round and was in the Goonies is in it. He hasn't acted since those 2 movies, I mean wow what a way to come back. I think he at least deserves a nomination he looked like he never left.

I don't want to give to much a way but I can not recommend this flick enough. What an inspiring piece of film making. It will put you through the ringer emotionally. It's uniquely weird in the best sense. I'll be watching it again and buying it on blu ray to support it. My rating might go up after another viewing.

rating_4

https://blog.frame.io/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/B0443-featured-image-1.jpg
loved michelle yeoh , she one of amazing actresses

[ScarletLion]

'The Innocents' (2021)

Directed by Eskil Vogt

https://horrorbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Innocents-2021-Poster-2..jpg

Very dark supernatural thriller from Norway focussing on morals, good Vs evil, personality forming from childhood. Disturbing in parts. Very well directed and some of the child performances are outstanding. The Director Eskil Vogt wrote most of Joachim Trier's films, so clearly has huge talent.

4

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cultjer.com%2Fimg%2Fug_photo%2F2020_12%2F6867120201223021058.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Meet Me in St Louis, 1944

A year in the life of the Smith family, focusing especially on Esther (Judy Garland), who is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), and the mischief of her little sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brian).

This is considered a musical classic, and deservedly so. It's one of those movies where you just hear song after song that you know, especially The Trolley Song and Garland's rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

For a musical, it's interesting to see the way that so much of the action takes place in the family home. The set design is really masterful in the way that the house manages to feel large enough for a song-and-dance number, and yet cozy enough to give that family sensibility.

The story itself is mostly very gentle and domestic in scope. When the possibility of the family moving to New York comes up, it raises emotional turmoil in the adults and children. Esther must navigate young love and the possibility of loss at the same time. Esther's sister, Rose (Lucille Bremer) has to deal with a rivalry with another woman she thinks has her eye on Rose's crush.

My only hangup with the film was the character of Tootie. Now, O'Brian's performance is absolutely fantastic. Whether it's a sequence where she has to go and prank a scary neighbor on Halloween night, or the way she delivers the line "Aw, it'll take me days to dig up all the dolls in my cemetery", her presence is undeniable.

But Tootie herself? Too much for me. And also kind of a sociopath? There's a sequence in the middle of the film where Tootie returns to the house late at night with a busted lip, a tooth that's been knocked out, and a fistful of hair in her hand, claiming that John assaulted her. Insert classic sound of record scratching to a stop. It then turns out that Tootie and her sister put a fake body on the trolley track to derail the trolley. This whole sequence was bizarre and off-putting to me, and made me feel like "What is wrong with these people?!".

An interesting musical and overall very enjoyable.

4

[pahaK]

'The Innocents' (2021)

Directed by Eskil Vogt

https://horrorbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Innocents-2021-Poster-2..jpg

Very dark supernatural thriller from Norway focussing on morals, good Vs evil, personality forming from childhood. Disturbing in parts. Very well directed and some of the child performances are outstanding. The Director Eskil Vogt wrote most of Joachim Trier's films, so clearly has huge talent.

4

Easily one of the best films of 2021. Gave it the same rating few months ago.

[Little Ash]

It's funny, despite being a horror fan and being pretty high on Coppola at that time, I remember this movie, seen in the theater on its initial release, being just so abysmal that I have never, ever been able to bring myself to endure it again.


While clearly connected to FCC's Dracula from a year or two before*, this one was was directed by Kenneth Branaugh, not Coppola.


*: I assume it was the same studio, but if not, then it was at least cashing in on the success(?) of the former.

[SpelingError]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cultjer.com%2Fimg%2Fug_photo%2F2020_12%2F6867120201223021058.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Meet Me in St Louis, 1944

A year in the life of the Smith family, focusing especially on Esther (Judy Garland), who is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), and the mischief of her little sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brian).

This is considered a musical classic, and deservedly so. It's one of those movies where you just hear song after song that you know, especially The Trolley Song and Garland's rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

For a musical, it's interesting to see the way that so much of the action takes place in the family home. The set design is really masterful in the way that the house manages to feel large enough for a song-and-dance number, and yet cozy enough to give that family sensibility.

The story itself is mostly very gentle and domestic in scope. When the possibility of the family moving to New York comes up, it raises emotional turmoil in the adults and children. Esther must navigate young love and the possibility of loss at the same time. Esther's sister, Rose (Lucille Bremer) has to deal with a rivalry with another woman she thinks has her eye on Rose's crush.

My only hangup with the film was the character of Tootie. Now, O'Brian's performance is absolutely fantastic. Whether it's a sequence where she has to go and prank a scary neighbor on Halloween night, or the way she delivers the line "Aw, it'll take me days to dig up all the dolls in my cemetery", her presence is undeniable.

But Tootie herself? Too much for me. And also kind of a sociopath? There's a sequence in the middle of the film where Tootie returns to the house late at night with a busted lip, a tooth that's been knocked out, and a fistful of hair in her hand, claiming that John assaulted her. Insert classic sound of record scratching to a stop. It then turns out that Tootie and her sister put a fake body on the trolley track to derail the trolley. This whole sequence was bizarre and off-putting to me, and made me feel like "What is wrong with these people?!".

An interesting musical and overall very enjoyable.

4

I also like that one quite a bit. I agree that the trolley track sequence is the weakest part of the film, but it's still pretty solid.

[Iroquois]

Jurassic World Dominion - 1

putting the NO in dinosaur

[Slentert]

'The Innocents' (2021)

Directed by Eskil Vogt

https://horrorbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Innocents-2021-Poster-2..jpg

Very dark supernatural thriller from Norway focussing on morals, good Vs evil, personality forming from childhood. Disturbing in parts. Very well directed and some of the child performances are outstanding. The Director Eskil Vogt wrote most of Joachim Trier's films, so clearly has huge talent.

rating_4
I sadly missed this one when it (briefly) played in theaters here. I'm gonna rest it soon cause I'm really looking forward to it!

[Slentert]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cultjer.com%2Fimg%2Fug_photo%2F2020_12%2F6867120201223021058.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Meet Me in St Louis, 1944

A year in the life of the Smith family, focusing especially on Esther (Judy Garland), who is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), and the mischief of her little sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brian).

This is considered a musical classic, and deservedly so. It's one of those movies where you just hear song after song that you know, especially The Trolley Song and Garland's rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

For a musical, it's interesting to see the way that so much of the action takes place in the family home. The set design is really masterful in the way that the house manages to feel large enough for a song-and-dance number, and yet cozy enough to give that family sensibility.

The story itself is mostly very gentle and domestic in scope. When the possibility of the family moving to New York comes up, it raises emotional turmoil in the adults and children. Esther must navigate young love and the possibility of loss at the same time. Esther's sister, Rose (Lucille Bremer) has to deal with a rivalry with another woman she thinks has her eye on Rose's crush.

My only hangup with the film was the character of Tootie. Now, O'Brian's performance is absolutely fantastic. Whether it's a sequence where she has to go and prank a scary neighbor on Halloween night, or the way she delivers the line "Aw, it'll take me days to dig up all the dolls in my cemetery", her presence is undeniable.

But Tootie herself? Too much for me. And also kind of a sociopath? There's a sequence in the middle of the film where Tootie returns to the house late at night with a busted lip, a tooth that's been knocked out, and a fistful of hair in her hand, claiming that John assaulted her. Insert classic sound of record scratching to a stop. It then turns out that Tootie and her sister put a fake body on the trolley track to derail the trolley. This whole sequence was bizarre and off-putting to me, and made me feel like "What is wrong with these people?!".

An interesting musical and overall very enjoyable.

rating_4
One of my absolute favorite movies of all time. But I agree with your comment on the tooth scene, it never really made much sense to me. Otherwise, I absolutely adore the Toothie character, she's like Shirley Temple mixed with James Cagney (an unholy combination as I've ever heard one).


The entire movie is made up out of these little moments that make me giddy just thinking about them, even when, on a dramatic level, the story itself is rather shaggy.

[SpelingError]

5th Shorts Hall of Fame

Night and Fog (1956) - 4.5

I've watched this a few times and each viewing cements it as one of the best documentaries and short films I've ever seen. It's hard to watch, but I find the imagery in it highly important given that so much holocaust denial and antisemitism still exists in the world.

While most war films/documentaries hold back on showing the full extent of what was inflicted on people during those times, Resnais shows the worst of what went on in the concentration camps and it makes for a truly powerful and unforgettable experience. This documentary confronts you with so much suffering and misery to the point that some of the images, like mountains of hair and landscapes of dead bodies being bulldozed into pits, take on an otherworldly and alien feel. As I said, a lot of holocaust denial and antisemitism still exists in the world today and, if seeing buckets filled with severed heads, soap made from human skin, or charred remains and skulls don't mean anything to those people, I'm not sure that anything exists on film that can can convince them, as far as I'm concerned.

With that being said, what prevents me from giving this documentary a perfect rating is that it's a fairly straight-ahead experience. As with all works which detail atrocities, they'll likely move you the first time, but after you watch them a couple more times, you'll start to grow accustomed to them. When I first watched this, I found it to be among the most harrowing films I had ever seen. When I rewatched it this time though, its impact was more diluted. To compare it to The House is Black, the beauty of that film never loses its impact for me (and I'm pretty sure I've seen The House is Black more times than Night and Fog), so I prefer that film by a pretty decent margin.

Regardless, as you can see from my rating, I don't mean to imply that Night and Fog isn't memorable by any means. It still is. Very much so for the reasons I listed above. The impact it had on me when I first watched it is truly unparalleled. Given this, it's essential viewing for all cinephiles, even though I've grown accustomed to it over time.

[Thief]

ANTES QUE CANTE EL GALLO
(2016, Cruz)

https://i.imgur.com/pMbQl2v.png


"The 'rooster is gonna crow' for that girl soon. If she's like that now, I don't know how she'll be when she's a little woman."



The "rooster crowing" is a slang term in Puerto Rico for a girl's first period, the entrance into womanhood and therefore, her sexual awakening. An entirely normal and expected phase, that can be problematic when the environment around the girl is not the best one. That is the case with Carmín (Miranda Purcell) in this wonderful Puerto Rican film.

Antes Que Cante el Gallo, translated as "Before the rooster crows", follows Carmín as she struggles with the above while living with her strict grandmother (Cordelia González). To complicate things, her mother is moving to the US looking for a better job, and her father Rubén (José Eugenio Hernández) has returned home after a prison sentence.

Technically speaking, the direction by Ari Manuel Cruz is pretty good and the cinematography by Santiago Marí Benet is impeccable. There are some really good shot compositions along the film, and the overall camera movement is solid. There is also great use of the mountain and country landscapes where the film is set. This, paired with a pretty good production design results in a film that feels real, as opposed to other local films that feel and look like a "fake" Puerto Rico.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2306269#post2306269)

[Wooley]

While clearly connected to FCC's Dracula from a year or two before*, this one was was directed by Kenneth Branaugh, not Coppola.


*: I assume it was the same studio, but if not, then it was at least cashing in on the success(?) of the former.

Coppola produced, I had forgotten. When it was released, they threw his name heavily in the marketing because of Dracula and because Coppola.

[Little Ash]

Coppola produced, I had forgotten. When it was released, they threw his name heavily in the marketing because of Dracula and because Coppola.


Francis Ford Coppola presents Kenneth Branaugh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.


That should have been the poster. Just to irritate people.


I'm not surprised he produced. It was very much meant to be paired with Dracula. I know I saw it in the 90s, but I was a teenager, and have no recollection of my opinion of it. Dracula hit when I was in middle school and I'll just say, the eye in the moon seemed really cool at that age (my understanding as an adult is it's not actually that great of a movie, but I'm not clear on the matter). I don't remember coming out of Frankenstein feeling that way about anything in that movie.

[Daniel M]

The Wrecking Crew (Phil Karlson, 1968) 3

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c0/97/8a/c0978a13df0bfeed36a53d9603e9a801.png

As featured in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... , a product of its time but still a whole lot of fun with all its ridiculousness. Dean Martin is the king of cool and the ladies of the film are wonderful - especially Sharon Tate. Plenty of cheesy lines, action scenes that are so bad you'd have no idea Bruce Lee was involved, catchy music, and a ridiculous plot. Lots of loveable stuff and endearing qualities that are hard to find nowadays. A nice fun watch and I'd watch the others if they were on TV too.

[beelzebubble]

Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon (2008)--Is the outrageous story of a young sissy who becomes a gay porn icon (kind of a Marlboro Man type). It is available on Prime. Jack Wrangler aka Jack Stillman grows up among Hollywood royalty and finds his way into the beginning porn industry of the Seventies. He marries an older woman, Margaret Whiting, a successful singer with a similar childhood background. Luckily for him this switch keeps him out of the life during the AIDS epidemic thus saving his life. Jack is entertaining, exhibitionistic and endearing.

Four our of Five popcorns



The Dons of Disco--(2018) This is the story of Den Harrow a European disco idol of the Eighties. Who was actually both the singer/song writer Tom Hooker and Italian model. Stefan Zandri. This is a lip-syncing scandal ala Milli Vanilli and the battle between both the aging Den Harrows for acknowledgement as the Eighties pop stars. It is also on Prime.

Four out of Five popcorns

[Thief]

MALICE IN WONDERLAND
(1982, Collins)

https://i.imgur.com/v3YwUlD.jpg


"Alice tasted it, and finding it very nice ... she very soon finished it off."



Malice in Wonderland is a short film directed by Vince Collins *loosely* inspired on Carroll's novel. It takes ideas from its narrative and presents them through a series of bizarre, trippy, and sexually charged visuals and sounds that include fluids, appendages, vulvas, screams, and laser sounds.

The animation style is extremely aggressive and in-your-face with a non-stop flow. Even though it borders "closely" to sensory overload, there is still a hypnotizing quality to it all. It is also nice to recognize how Collins and graphic designer Miwako interpret the different elements from Carroll's story, like the Cheshire Cat, the Queen, the Rabbit, etc. in their own way.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2306326#post2306326) or in the 5th Short HoF thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2306327#post2306327).

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-vhPdmG_wm08%2FXlJQ5NDtE9I%2FAAAAAAAAJlY%2Ff4DQnW-F4cAAw9JkxaqxddOWef2Ag4DhwCLcBGAsYHQ%2Fs1600%2Fclock.png&f=1&nofb=1

The Clock, 1945

On a two-day leave, soldier Joe Allen (Robert Walker) meets New Yorker Alice Maybery (Judy Garland) at Penn Station, and the two embark on a whirlwind romance.

File this as another Garland film that is, hey, pretty good!

The beginning third rolls along just fine as the two meet each other and, after a little bluster, realize that they really like each other.

But the best part of the film is easily the middle, where a dinner date morphs into something else entirely when the couple snags a ride with a milkman who then needs their help when disaster strikes. This middle section is endearing and really unlike anything I associate with romantic comedies of this era. The sheer amount of time devoted to their adventure with the milkman is interesting, and it shows something about both of their characters. (It also includes a sequence where a drunk man--played by Kennan Wynn--harasses an entire diner full of people, including a woman played by Angela Landsbury's mother for an unbroken 3 and a half minutes!). In other words, this middle act is weird and wonderful and does a far better job of showing how two people could consider themselves in love after just a day than most comedies with that arc.

The movie does lose a little steam in the last act, and for me it's mainly because it can't seem to decide what to think about the couple's plan to get married before Joe goes back on duty. At this point, the clock of the title takes on a double meaning. (Originally it seems to reference the clock where the two meet for their date). Racing against time to get all the necessities for a marriage license, hustling around the city battling indifferent public servants. Is it romantic? Is it foolish? The movie seems to oscillate from one point of view to the other. In one seemingly critical moment, Alice and Joe sit on a bench at the clerk's office next to a woman wearing the exact same dress that Alice is wearing holding the arm of a sailor. Yet the movie does seem to want to lean more on the "It's romantic!" side of things, and I had a mixed response to it.

Well worth checking out for its strange and magical middle act.

3.5

[GulfportDoc]

[The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent] It sounds good to me, definitely worth a look. I like Cage better in comedy, ever since Raising Arizona.

It tickles me though: Cage must be on the Hollywood "A" PC list. On Wikipedia they said about the film,that it "... underperformed at the box office (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_office_bomb), grossing $28 million against its $30 million budget", whereas they usually would say about that lousy of a return that it was a "flop", or a "box office bomb"...:D
Had high hopes for this one, but it didn't connect with me at all. It was good to see Cage back in comedy, but I couldn't click with the writing. Made it for a half hour, then had to bail. Hope I didn't miss the good parts later in the film!

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.frockflicks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F10%2FHarveyGirls-1946-Judy-CandyCane.png&f=1&nofb=1

The Harvey Girls, 1946

Susan Bradley (Judy Garland) responds to a matrimonial ad, making her way out west to Arizona to marry a man she's never met. On the way, she meets a group of Harvey Girls, women who will work as waitresses in a restaurant chain that serves train customers on layovers. When Susan discovers that the love letters written to her were done so as a prank by the owner of the local saloon, Ned Trent (John Hodiak), she decides to stay on as a Harvey Girl to get revenge. This also involves clashing with local showgirl Em (Angela Landsbury) who happens to be in love with Ned.

This was mostly a slice of good fun, with Garland once again owning the screen in her role as soft-but-tough Susan.

The song-and-dance numbers are fun and engaging, and the rivalry between the two businesses provides a decent narrative against which the love-hate romance between Susan and Ned can develop. Garland is effortlessly charming in her role, especially in sequence where her temper flares up, such as when she takes a pair of pistols across to the saloon when they steal all of the steaks from the Harvey kitchen. Hodiak is also good in the role of Ned, especially as he begins to clash with the locals who want the Harvey restaurant gone at any cost, even if that means endangering the lives of the women who work there. Landsbury is also really good in her role, even if it feels as if the character could have been given a lot more depth.

The only thing that feels off about the movie is how it wants to have things both ways with the characters of the showgirls (who are maybe also meant to be prostitutes? Unclear). Pitting the morally upright Susan against Em feels like a cheap way to make Ned realize that he wants to live life the "right way". The movie is happy to offer up a moment of sisterly solidarity between Susan and Em, but mainly because it seems happy to pat Em on the head as long as she'll get out of the way. Framing the showgirls as the problem (and not, you know, the men who patronize them) is obnoxious. Especially with the spark that Landsbury brings to her role, it also feels like a waste.

Buoyed by good supporting performances, well worth checking out.

3.5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/The_French_Dispatch.jpeg
By IMP Awards / 2021 Movie Poster Gallery / The French Dispatch Poster (#2 of 2), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63083885

The French Dispatch - (2021)

Wes Anderson appears to be in creativity overload, as evidenced by The French Dispatch which roars along at a frantic pace so fast that I couldn't take all of it in on first viewing - there are a few interesting things going on in each s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ s̶h̶o̶t̶ frame of film, and second of sound. It's not as instantly loveable as The Grand Budapest Hotel, but still a fabulous film which I will no doubt watch many times. Anderson's ensemble is now enormous, and includes Benicio del Toro, Timothée Chalamet, Christoph Waltz and Jeffrey Wright. This is his first anthology film, taking the form of different stories printed in The French Dispatch - a magazine edited by Bill Murray's Arthur Howitzer Jr., who has just passed away. Let me just add that my favourite moment was the introduction of Willem Dafoe, discovered by Jeffrey Wright's character sitting in the "chicken coop" of a French police station wide-eyed and asking if he's about to be done away with.

Liev Schreiber and Timothée Chalamet both appearing brought back bad memories of A Rainy Day in New York, but this film, while intelligent, isn't as pretentious as that disaster. It's a kaleidoscope of amusing characters, wonderful imagination, and visual delight. If you hate Wes Anderson's films, you won't be won over with this one, but as a fan I think this is up there with his best - and my rating will probably go up on future viewings.

8/10

[Wooley]

MALICE IN WONDERLAND
(1982, Collins)

https://i.imgur.com/v3YwUlD.jpg




Malice in Wonderland is a short film directed by Vince Collins *loosely* inspired on Carroll's novel. It takes ideas from its narrative and presents them through a series of bizarre, trippy, and sexually charged visuals and sounds that include fluids, appendages, vulvas, screams, and laser sounds.

The animation style is extremely aggressive and in-your-face with a non-stop flow. Even though it borders "closely" to sensory overload, there is still a hypnotizing quality to it all. It is also nice to recognize how Collins and graphic designer Miwako interpret the different elements from Carroll's story, like the Cheshire Cat, the Queen, the Rabbit, etc. in their own way.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2306326#post2306326) or in the 5th Short HoF thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2306327#post2306327).

What made you watch this?
Because I also watched this last night after knowing about it my whole life and never seeing it.

FWIW, my reaction was that it was the closest representation of a a "Bad Trip" I've ever seen (and I've had a few of them).

[XenoChimera]

"Brooklyn" 2022


So I watched the new movie with Brooklyn Gray as the lead. I gotta say it might be one of the best films I've seen so far this year. MTV played it a few times, and I remember the performances were impressive. I'd have to recommend this movie to anyone else who likes comedy-dramas. I give this film a 9/10

[xSookieStackhouse]

"Brooklyn" 2022


So I watched the new movie with Brooklyn Gray as the lead. I gotta say it might be one of the best films I've seen so far this year. MTV played it a few times, and I remember the performances were impressive. I'd have to recommend this movie to anyone else who likes comedy-dramas. I give this film a 9/10
theres movie called Brooklyn (2015) and its romance drama. i know brooklyn gray is a pornstar. theres no such a mtv movie called brooklyn that stars brooklyn gray.
https://c.tenor.com/sFUrqYH8eP0AAAAM/really-suspicious.gif

[Thief]

What made you watch this?
Because I also watched this last night after knowing about it my whole life and never seeing it.

FWIW, my reaction was that it was the closest representation of a a "Bad Trip" I've ever seen (and I've had a few of them).

It's one of the entries in the 5th Short Film Hall of Fame (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=66154)

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.b0ZrsSafle-kdpuRlWdwcgHaEK%26pid%3DApi&f=1

Easter Parade, 1948

Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) has just been dumped by his long-time dance partner, Nadine (Ann Miller). Drunkenly swearing that he could be a hit with any female partner, he scouts small-time dancer Hannah Brown (Judy Garland). At first trying to mold her as a replacement for Nadine, he soon realizes he needs to embrace her style of song and dance. This is all complicated by a crush that Don's friend, Johnny (Peter Lawford), has on Nadine.

This film stands in an interesting contrast to For Me and My Gal. For starters, Gene Kelly was originally to play the role of Don Hewes. After an injury, Astaire came in to take over the role. The result is that three of the four leads are all 26 years old, while Astaire is 49 years old. Despite a fair amount of the film relating to Hewes respecting Hannah, the romance aspect doesn't read quite right. This might also be something that bothers me because for a while it seemed as if the romance would be between Johnny and Hannah, and the rest of the film explore the professional relationship between Hannah and Don. Alas, no. And unlike For Me and My Gal, the plot between the song and dance numbers is relatively thin. There just isn't enough background or depth to the characters to make them really interesting, or to explain why Hannah falls for Don.

The musical numbers themselves are pretty charming, especially the "flop" number when Don and Hannah disastrously perform for an audience with Hannah exactly one half step behind on everything. It takes a lot of skill to get something so wrong, so right. And the added touch of Garland's dress shedding feathers left and right is perfect. Despite being the general "villain" of the film, Miller's Nadine gives a very funny performance and some really solid dance numbers of her own.

Again, though, I was just a bit distracted by all the parallels with For Me and My Gal. Seasoned performer scouts Judy Garland character. Conflict around half of a partnership jumping ship for a big opportunity. Heck, even the line "Why didn't you tell me I loved you?" is reused. A seemingly very fitting alternative romantic interest. (I was going to say "both called Johnny", but in the other film his name is Jimmy, LOL). Now, there's nothing wrong with Easter Parade taking a much lighter approach, it's just that it must contend with the echoes of a film I found a lot more compelling.

Solid musical numbers, great lead performances, story a bit thin.

3.5

[Ultraviolence]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Whatisawomancover.jpg/1200px-Whatisawomancover.jpg
Good subject and interviews but sometimes the documentary looks like a YouTube essay - the dramatizations scenes are pretty bad.
rating_3

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWMwZmIyMzktOGVmYi00MGY2LTk2MzUtZGQ0MzJmZWYxYzFlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjMwNzk3Mjk@._V1_.jpg
Well conducted and organized interviews about the birth of Black Metal (Mayhem, to be more specific) free of western censorship. Necrobutcher looks like a cool dude.
rating_4

[Stirchley]

87510

Good movie. I liked it. Both leads are excellent. Did not realize it was Carrie Coon.

[Allaby]

I went and saw Crimes of the Future today. It was weird. I am also weird, so I liked it. I thought the screenplay was smart and well written. Performances were good, especially Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart. I would rank this as David Cronenberg's 8th best film and rate it 4. If you are a weirdo who enjoys weird movies (like me), you should check out Crimes of The Future.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Jurassic World: Dominion

This is what you happens when you lose the director of the Orphanage and bring back the director of The Book of Henry.

[Rockatansky]

Jurassic World: Dominion

This is what you happens when you lose the director of the Orphanage and bring back the director of The Book of Henry.
I'll probably give it a watch at some point because I'm a sucker for dino action and the first one is a childhood favourite, but man, I cannot muster any enthusiasm for this.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I'll probably give it a watch at some point because I'm a sucker for dino action and the first one is a childhood favourite, but man, I cannot muster any enthusiasm for this.
While the script is rife with laziness and problems, I've not seen a director suck the life and energy from a film that should so easily direct spectacle.

Trevorrow is to dinosaurs what Rob Marshall is to musicals.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I haven't gotten moist over any of the new crop of JP flicks. A lot of it has to do with Chris Pratt. He's fine when bringing a goofy, comedic sensibility to his leading man roles. But I don't think this type up of proficient, devil may care kind of hero is his forte.

[Rockatansky]

While the script is rife with laziness and problems, I've not seen a director suck the life and energy from a film that should so easily direct spectacle.

Trevorrow is to dinosaurs what Rob Marshall is to musicals.
That was my biggest problem with Jurassic World. Every action scene was directed in the flattest way possible so as not to raise the pulse even slightly. There's no sense of wonder or even fear. I understand that tied into the movie's attempts at satire, but a fun viewing experience it did not make.


Fallen Kingdom is no masterpiece, but it at least understood how to make dinosaurs seem formidable and awe-inspiring.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/The_Witches_%28Official_2020_Film_Poster%29.png

3

SF = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

[matt72582]

LIKE A ROLLING STONE: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres

I never liked or read critique (unless it's someone like us), but I know this guy is a big fan of The Doors



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbw0Ew5q5Ec

[ThatDarnMKS]

That was my biggest problem with Jurassic World. Every action scene was directed in the flattest way possible so as not to raise the pulse even slightly. There's no sense of wonder or even fear. I understand that tied into the movie's attempts at satire, but a fun viewing experience it did not make.


Fallen Kingdom is no masterpiece, but it at least understood how to make dinosaurs seem formidable and awe-inspiring.
I fear Treverrow's direction has only become flatter.

Fallen Kingdom is not a masterpiece (Treverrow's script knee caps that) but Bayona's direction is masterful.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-XdTlucJhPHo%2FTtZWYOinAWI%2FAAAAAAAACkA%2FxxlF-I73upw%2Fs1600%2Fpp08.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Pirate, 1948

Manuela (Judy Garland) is a young woman living in a Spanish village and dreaming of being carried away by notorious pirate Macoco. Instead, she finds herself engaged to Don Pedro (Walter Slezak), a man with no desire to travel any further than his own front door. When traveling performer Serafin (Gene Kelly) rolls into town and falls for Manuela, he decides to pose as Macoco in order to win her affections, not thinking about the consequences of his deception.

The second Garland/Kelly pairing that I've seen, and this one is a fun little romp, lifted by a strong third act that makes up for some wobbly parts that come before it.

It won't shock anyone to find out that Garland and Kelly absolutely nail their time on screen as Manuela and Serafin. Honestly, the characters are not the best written, but both actors power through just by letting their natural talents shine. Kelly in particular is given several sequences to just strut his stuff, which really makes up for his character being a bit of a goober. Slezak is also good as the arrogant Don Pedro, whose pride becomes the greatest threat to Manuela's happiness.

The plot only really picks up steam in the last act, when Serafin is put on trial as the pirate Macoco and must figure out how to escape an inevitable hanging. There are some good plot turns along the way in the last 30 or so minutes, and it all comes to a very strong conclusion. There's one of those "how long will this go on?!" comedy bits involving Garland throwing various items at Kelly that's a pretty winning piece of slapstick.

Part of the last act is a show-stopping dance number with Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers. I was shocked (though I guess not surprised, sigh) to read that in many Southern states this sequence was simply cut because it featured Kelly dancing with two Black dancers. I mean, joke's on the racists for missing out the best five minutes of the whole movie, but it's still a bizarre thing to think about.

And while it doesn't show on screen, this was apparently a pretty horrible time for Judy Garland, who was frequently ill and suffering effects from the various medications she was on. I haven't written about it in my other reviews of her films, but each one is filled with such heartbreaking trivia about what she went through during her career and how it all just continued to snowball on her.

Overall this was a fun romp with some thin characterization but a satisfying conclusion.

3

[GulfportDoc]

The Wrecking Crew (Phil Karlson, 1968) rating_3

As featured in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... , a product of its time but still a whole lot of fun with all its ridiculousness. Dean Martin is the king of cool and the ladies of the film are wonderful - especially Sharon Tate. Plenty of cheesy lines, action scenes that are so bad you'd have no idea Bruce Lee was involved, catchy music, and a ridiculous plot. Lots of loveable stuff and endearing qualities that are hard to find nowadays. A nice fun watch and I'd watch the others if they were on TV too.
It's a fun movie, played mostly for camp and some laughs. The novel of the same name was written by Donald Hamilton, who wrote 27 Matt Helm mysteries. I think I read every one of them. Great reading if you haven't already sampled his novels. The novels are more serious, but very addicting..:)

[GulfportDoc]

The French Dispatch - (2021)

Wes Anderson appears to be in creativity overload, as evidenced by The French Dispatch which roars along at a frantic pace so fast that I couldn't take all of it in on first viewing - there are a few interesting things going on in each s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ s̶h̶o̶t̶ frame of film, and second of sound. It's not as instantly loveable as The Grand Budapest Hotel, but still a fabulous film which I will no doubt watch many times. Anderson's ensemble is now enormous, and includes Benicio del Toro, Timothée Chalamet, Christoph Waltz and Jeffrey Wright. This is his first anthology film, taking the form of different stories printed in The French Dispatch - a magazine edited by Bill Murray's Arthur Howitzer Jr., who has just passed away. Let me just add that my favourite moment was the introduction of Willem Dafoe, discovered by Jeffrey Wright's character sitting in the "chicken coop" of a French police station wide-eyed and asking if he's about to be done away with.

Liev Schreiber and Timothée Chalamet both appearing brought back bad memories of A Rainy Day in New York, but this film, while intelligent, isn't as pretentious as that disaster. It's a kaleidoscope of amusing characters, wonderful imagination, and visual delight. If you hate Wes Anderson's films, you won't be won over with this one, but as a fan I think this is up there with his best - and my rating will probably go up on future viewings.

8/10
I enjoyed the production, but didn't care for the story. My commentary:


The French Dispatch

Dashiell Hammett once said, “It’s the beginning of the end when you discover you have style.” One hopes that this will not be the case with Wes Anderson. But in his latest film, style over story is definitely on display. And brilliant is the style. Production designer Adam Stockhausen, set decorator Rena DeAngelo, DP Robert Yeoman, and film composer Alexandre Desplat put together a cornucopia of sight and sound that does not let up for its entire 108 minute run time. Its color palette, set framing, and off beat scene and action design fire at the viewer with such unrelenting eye candy as to be overwhelming.

Yet the story told roughly in four parts is incoherent and confusing. Reportedly Anderson was giving a nod to the magazine The New Yorker, but the link is likely recognizable only by those who are intimate with the publication’s history and personalities. And the magazine’s famous cartoons are much more droll and dry than most examples of Anderson’s eccentric wit.

The editor of The French Dispatch magazine (Bill Murray) drops dead early on, and to fulfill the orders in his will, four stories are included in a final publication. Of the four segments, “The Concrete Masterpiece” is largely the easiest to follow. A crazed artist (Benicio del Toro) who is in prison for murder, paints pictures of his nude model (Lea Seydoux), who is also his jailer. An art dealer and fellow prisoner (Adrien Brody), galvanized by the paintings, secures public presentation of them which brings international fame to the artist. Yet subsequent sales of the artist’s works becomes problematic since they were painted on walls when he was in prison. A solution is found.

The film serves as a send up of the pretentious modern art world, political revolutionaries, and Gallic nature. But the scene changes and zany confrontations come at the viewer so rapidly that one finds oneself desperately searching for some cohesion, for some narrative. In contrast Anderson’s 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel has similar style, wackiness and design, but with a more accessible pacing and a discernible plot.

The picture featured a cast full of Anderson regulars plus a carload of bankable stars. Reportedly his next film expands the cast to a boat load size. Hopefully in that film Anderson will have gotten back on track to give us a fathomable story along with his signature eccentricity.

Doc’s rating: Production - 10/10; Story - 5/10

[Gideon58]

https://editorial01.shutterstock.com/wm-preview-1500/5867019a/be5affa5/Shutterstock_5867019a.jpg


4

[beelzebubble]

Camp Hollywood (2004)
Entertaining and endearing cinema verite documentary about Canadian wannabe actors and other people who live at a run down hotel waiting for their next break. Oddly enough the only actor I recognized as a working actor was the beautiful Malin Akerman and she was not interviewed. There was also a drunken singer who was very attractive though why he got a Travis Bickle haircut to woo his ex-girlfriend I will never know. Self sabotage I guess,.Seen on Youtube for free.


I give it 3.5 popcorns out of five.

[skizzerflake]

Minus :popcorn::popcorn: (Yeah, that's a minus two)

Jurassic World Dominion - OK, so we all know by now that in this parallel universe episode dinosaurs are everywhere, threatening us. The time line seems to be roughly now but so far, no raptors in my neighborhood, so I guess it's an alternate universe. One brief review seemed to sum it up although I wasn’t sure that the author was intending to be witty. He didn’t seem to know what a trilogy is, so he referred to JWD as the 6th installment of a trilogy. That actually seems to be pretty much right on target, intended or not.

The characters and FX are all there, as are lots of roaring, crashing, smashing dinosaurs, not just in the jungle but in other places, even snowy ones. Actors all perform their duties, FX people and animators make green screens come alive, but what none of it has is that Spielberg sense of story telling and wonderment. It’s all lost in nearly three hours of quick cuts, disjointed scripting and a complete lack of anything other than action. I really did not care about any of the characters enough to care whether they got eaten by dinosaurs. Plot wise, you just have to wonder what would be the reason for making even bigger predators, since they are, after all, output of a corporate lab, not spontaneous generation or evolution.

Colin Trevorrow shows up not just as director but also as one of the writers, so this dog lands right on his lap. Even with the cast from the past (Pratt, Howard, Dean, Neill and Goldblum) doing their best, there’s just nothing in this script to work with. Cameos from past dinosaurs didn’t help, nor did making even bigger dinosaurs. There’s even a teen girl character who, in this contorted, fragmented plot, seems to be some sort of genetic project. That plot element made no sense at all, like much of this movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb5ELWi-ekk

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/The_Square_%282017_film%29_poster.png
By May be found at the following website: https://www.svenskabio.se/mb_rest/cineads_movieinfo.php?movid=2772, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54728614

The Square - (2017)

Art is tricky - I believe in it, but it becomes so easy for certain artists to become so self-important, pretentious, over-lauded and irrelevant that it's a world I wouldn't want to be a part of. The Square is about the curator of an art gallery in Sweden, Christian (Claes Bang), who has to confront his own contradictions and hypocrisy - as do the people around him, all the while living his life and dealing with artists and exhibitions. It has many truly striking scenes, including one near the end where performance art really appears to go too far - the one with Terry Notary (pictured above in the film poster) - those who have seen the film will know which one I mean. Littered throughout are many beggars and humanitarians who go ignored (or are taken advantage of) during times when various characters are espousing 'kindness' and 'solidarity with humanity' - not all of the time, but enough to chart where this community of artists really stand. It all leads up to a marketing campaign for the museum which goes off the rails due to it's tasteless content in a bid to attract attention. Christian is a deeply flawed character who makes many missteps, and is constantly having to face the fact that he's not the person he'd like to be - he's a slave to his selfish urges and thoughtless attitude. It's good enough to sustain our interest for it's 151-minute running time - so I heartily back this Palme d'Or winner.

8/10

https://i.postimg.cc/8zk6g6vp/a-house-on-the-bayou.jpg
By May be found at the following website: IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36602444

A House on the Bayou - (2021)

*sigh* Okay, lets start with a good point. 25 year-old Jacob Lofland is great in this film - his villain, Isaac, is memorable and it's a crying shame it wasn't in service to a much better film. Lofland has appeared in Mud and a couple of Maze Runner films. He's one to keep an eye on. Unfortunately though, A House on the Bayou founders in a quagmire of very dumb plot twists once it really gets going, sinking the entire film in a ridiculous, badly scripted mess. It feels like the kind of story that was just made up on the go, without any care paid to the plot as a whole - it shifts from paranormal to "tricked you! it's not paranormal" to "tricked you again, it is paranormal" to "we tricked you yet again, it's really not really paranormal" to "oh my goodness, we tricked you yet again, it really is paranormal!" and on and on to the point where the film felt too silly to get invested in, but way too serious to have fun with. It really left a bad taste in my mouth, and it's lucky to get a rating as high as I'm giving it.

4/10

[Takoma11]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/The_Square_%282017_film%29_poster.png
By May be found at the following website: https://www.svenskabio.se/mb_rest/cineads_movieinfo.php?movid=2772, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54728614

The Square - (2017)

Have you seen Force Majeur? It's another really brilliant dark comedy from Ostlund, and I might give it a slight edge over The Square.

[PHOENIX74]

Have you seen Force Majeur? It's another really brilliant dark comedy from Ostlund, and I might give it a slight edge over The Square.

I have not seen any of Ruben Östlund's other films, but I no doubt will see them - Force Majeure looks good.

[Deschain]

Have you seen Force Majeur? It's another really brilliant dark comedy from Ostlund, and I might give it a slight edge over The Square.

Force Majeur is excellent, I haven’t seen the American remake but heard it was bad.

[Takoma11]

Force Majeur is excellent, I haven’t seen the American remake but heard it was bad.

I cannot imagine a less necessary remake. I am aware it exists, but have zero interest.

[Allaby]

Babes in Arms (1939) This is pretty uneven. There are some good moments, but also some parts that fall flat. There are some sequences that did not age well at all and are pretty cringe worthy (to say the least). 3

[pahaK]

87519

The Killer Reserved Nine Seats was a mediocre And Then There Were None type of Giallo with some supernatural thrown into the mix. The Monster Project was absolutely terrible found footage horror.

Eternals felt promising in the beginning, like a little different MCU film for a change (closer to DC movies, actually, with the Superman references and all). Unfortunately, it grew staler and staler turning its potential into a bland and safe mess. Based on the weak action sequences, Zhao was the wrong director for this kind of movie.

The Invocation of Enver Simaku was some sort of paranormal investigation horror. I liked its concept but it suffered from poor execution. Offseason is another horror, this time with a somewhat boring concept but competent execution. Both of these were OK, but slight edge to Invocation because ideas > execution.

I'm pretty sure I've declared my distaste towards US teen horrors (especially the ones that also dip into comedy) before. Despite all that, The Blob is actually pretty decent. I guess having a good writer can improve a movie :eek:

[ThatDarnMKS]

WATCHER

Great, meat and potato, genre filmmaking.

https://boxd.it/2V8zmV

4.5/5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BN2I5NmFhMzAtMjYzNy00MjBiLWI0YWMtYjkwMDUxY2JlMGZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM1MTE1NDMx._V1_.jpgg


4.5

[TheUsualSuspect]

Film Watch Party Theme: Colours

Purple Rain - 3

I had a difficult time figuring out what kind of tone this film was trying to convey. After I got on the film's wavelength, I was able to enjoy it a bit more. Prince is one hell of a performer.

The Red Turtle - 4

Beautiful animation and a story told without a single word. I thought a feature film with no dialogue would be tiresome, but the film manages to convey so much while saying so little.

Blue Velvet - 4

A film that gets better with each viewing. Just the right tone of weird while maintaining a rather straightforward narrative for Lynch.

Green Room - 4

Nazi skinheads vs punk rockers. Such an intense film that had me hiding behind my fingers a few times.

[cricket]

Straightheads (2007)

2

https://cache.moviestillsdb.com/i/500x/uqgmpag0/straightheads-lg.jpg

A woman (Gillian Anderson) invites the young man (Danny Dyer) installing an alarm at her London flat to a work related party. With no fear of gang rapers or ticks, they proceed to have sex in the woods. It comes back to bite them in the ass. Watchable for fans of R & R flicks such as myself but nothing that anyone should rush to see. Made for TV quality with extra violence.

[Takoma11]

Green Room - 4

Nazi skinheads vs punk rockers. Such an intense film that had me hiding behind my fingers a few times.

I have to rewatch this, because I was so upset at different parts and looked away so much that I actually started to lose track of the plot and who was alive/dead/injured/etc.

I'm still not able to watch stuff with Anton Yelchin without getting an extra hit of sadness, and especially not a film like this where he is in danger.

[crumbsroom]

I'm still not able to watch stuff with Anton Yelchin without getting an extra hit of sadness, and especially not a film like this where he is in danger.


I'm always fascinated by how different we are in dealing with heightened emotions or even trauma in film. Where you seem to find things that might upset you overwhelming to deal with, I seek the exact same things out as a kind of balm that allows me to function.



For example, a movie I chose to watch recently (Murmur) deals with a woman who takes in sick and unwanted animals. I knew exactly what I was signing up for when I put it on, but because I am currently living in a situation where my cat (and, most importantly, my best friend) who is old and clearly going in a bad way, I was desperately in need to find a movie that deals with these exact same emotions. Without it, and without the release and the recognition such a film gives me, I think my mind would have probably collapse in on itself by now. Even though, the movie was an extremely painful watch.


So, I guess this is my roundabout way of mentioning the movie Murmur, and that it is fantastic and heartbreaking and beautiful and everyone should watch it who wants good films in their brain.

[Takoma11]

I'm always fascinated by how different we are in dealing with heightened emotions or even trauma in film. Where you seem to find things that might upset you overwhelming to deal with, I seek the exact same things out as a kind of balm that allows me to function.

I do this sometimes.

Sometimes I take comfort in movies that mirror my sadness/fear/anxiety. This is especially true about more general fears, like that someone will break into my house or a hostage situation or something.

But sometimes that mirror turns into an amplifier instead of a catharsis, and when that happens I'm not getting anything good out of the experience.

I think that film/art can be a great medicine, but like any medicine you need to know when and how to use it.

Also, I'm really sorry about your cat. If you ever want to talk about it, shoot me a PM.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/The_Worst_Person_in_the_World_%28film%29.jpg
By mk2 films, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69249296

The Worst Person in the World - (2021)

A lot of people have Oslo, August 31st on their watchlists, but in the meantime have seen Joachim Trier's The Worst Person in the World. After Thelma, it's quite a departure (I have to admit, Thelma is the only film I've seen of his) - a really light and spontaneous - and very authentic - film. The subject matter - life itself - is well paced, and the rhythm so steady that you won't notice you're watching a film. Instead your emotion remains attached to Renate Reinsve and her Julie. Her decisions become ours. You see the actress not only saying her lines, but almost thinking scripted thoughts. Julie's about to turn 30, but doesn't want children, much to her partner's chagrin, and this kind of poisons the first, serious long-term relationship she's ever had. But there's far more than this in the film, which takes a very down to earth approach to following Julie's life, her relationship with her parents and lovers, self-discovery and personal growth in a universe always willing to have the last say. One of 2021's better films.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Last_Night_in_Soho_%282021%29_poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2021/last_night_in_soho_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62288483

Last Night in Soho - (2021)

For me, this started out as a real winner. The style, the attention to period detail, the colourful visuals and both Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy were bringing much enjoyment - and so was the screenplay and story. But, for me, the ending just wrecked it. Honestly, I'm sick of films thinking they have to pull a huge twist out every single damn time - because a lot of the time the twist is too silly. Here it basically took something away from a film that had me hooked, and one which was particularly beautiful. Edgar Wright is usually always producing something enjoyable for me, and here he was well on track with a kind of faux time travel, supernatural present day/60s London adventure for main character Eloise (McKenzie) - then, during the climax, I was thinking "this film stinks". But only then.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/Lapsis.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2020/lapsis.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68126140

Lapsis - (2020)

This was kind of interesting, low budget, filmmaking. Set in a near-dystopia, where a new technology, "quantum" (comparable to the internet, or broadband networks) employs people to fix cables between quantum terminals (there's one in the poster, above). Ray (Dean Imperial) has a brother who suffers from "Omnia" - a form of chronic fatigue syndrome which is mined for comedic effect in this (everyone acknowledges it as a genuine "made up" disease) as just basic laziness. Anyway, to pay for his treatment (which is a money-making scam) Ray (who works in a criminal organisation selling lost luggage pinched from airports) decides to become a cable layer. He accidentally inherits someone else's account, which means in his first few days he gets the opportunity to earn over $100,000 on one cable run, but must beat an automated cable-layer otherwise he gets nothing for his work. Meanwhile, conspiracy theories among his fellow-cable layers, suspicions over how he's earning so much, and groups of marauding children cause him more and more angst. This was well worth watching this once, and if you get the chance, you could do a lot worse than see Lapsis.

6/10

[mark f]

Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959) 3 6.5/10
Golden Temple Amazons (Alain Payet, 1986) 1.5 4/10
The Actress (Andrew Ondrejcak, 2021) 2.5 6/10
Pete 'n' Tillie (Martin Ritt, 1972) 3.5 7/10
http://www.theawl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/1exmrfZnALjrQbpQrrDd9yQ.png
Witty tale of womanizing advertising man Walter Matthau who meets and marries lonely Carol Burnett, and their young son repairs their marriage's faults as much as he's able to.
We the Animals (Jeremiah Zagar, 2019) 2.5 5.5/10
Hockney (Randall Wright, 2014) 3 6.5/10
Bunker Bean (William Hamilton & Edward Killy, 1936) 2.5 5.5/10
Hustle (Jeremiah Zagar, 2022) 3 6.5/10
https://rizatriptantab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Donde-ver-Hustle-2022-gratis-en-linea-en-Inicio.jpeg
Wannabe coach/NBA talent scout Adam Sandler finds terrific Spanish player Juancho Hernangomez whom he brings to America on his own dime and coaches him to get over some of his personal problems which are keeping him back.
The Salt Mines (Susana Aikin & Carlos Aparicio, 1990) 2.5 6/10
Broadway Hostess (Frank McDonald, 1935) 2.5 5.5/10
Manpower (Raoul Walsh, 1941) 2.5 6/10
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Tom Gormican, 2022) 3+ 6.5/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/f1718d47836945cabc1100ba62c6aab3/e70a9b1fea557671-78/s540x810/3385f93d86fbf3176f6fefc8c6a9fb809c7a475a.gifv
On the verge of retiring, Nicolas Cage takes a vacation on the island of his superfan Pablo Pascal who's written him a script and Cage takes an immediate liking to. Then Cage learns that the CIA thinks his fan is a drug kingpin and kidnapper and wants him to go undercover for them.
Eraser: Reborn (John Pogue, 2022) 2 5/10
Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) 3 6.5/10
Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977) 2 5/10
Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) 3 6.5/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/4ebf727281e14c9c661e3cdc7904d428/e27b3e2aa632ff6a-57/s500x750/f4b3871740fbe979001c302e579a20cd7a2560dd.gifv
Joséphine Sanz & Gabrielle Sanz become close friends over a short time in a magical countryside where they learn that they may be more than just friends.
Playdurizm (Gem Deger, 2020) 2 5/10
Death Takes a Holiday (Mitchell Leisen, 1934) 3 6.5/10
The Day of Destruction (Toshiaki Toyoda, 2020) 2.5 5.5/10
Pleasure (Ninja Thyberg, 2021) 3- 6.5/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/b409b93f900454fc45cd18238317f1a1/9225fab417b44d01-d2/s540x810/e03e6008e196b51931251126e0a3e56fa2e271f0.gifv
Explicit look at the LA porn industry, starring Sofia Kappel, who comes from Sweden and is attracted to what she sees as glamour and fame but repulsed by much of everything else.

[Hey Fredrick]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-4eThTcflsuc%2FVpYwLWOFlqI%2FAAAAAAAAI1M%2FGpukSptjuJc%2Fs600%2FUnfriended%252B2014.jpg&f=1&nofb=1


Got tired of this always popping up in recommendations so I gave in and watched it and it's not too good. A girl kills herself because of a video of her that was posted online then as her friends have a video chat some thing hacks in and starts questioning them about it. The entire movie is watching stuff happen on a computer screen and I'm not a tech guy but a lot of it seemed pretty silly. I did kind of enjoy watching these jerks freak out on each other as it's revealed just how awful they all are to everybody. These are the kinds of people you want to see vacation at Eden Lake. rating_2

[Marco]

Screwed (2011)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a5/Screwed_%282011_film%29_poster.jpg/330px-Screwed_%282011_film%29_poster.jpg
I expected bad, as in, Craig Fairbrass bad ("you slaaaag") low budget British movie but was quite engaging. The semi-autobiographical tale of an ex-forces man that comes back and finds that the prison service is his best way of keeping up mortgage payments. Granted, some of the acting is a bit iffy, but, to tell the tale, it moves on at a great pace and does do that. I enjoyed if that's the word.

3

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-XdTlucJhPHo%2FTtZWYOinAWI%2FAAAAAAAACkA%2FxxlF-I73upw%2Fs1600%2Fpp08.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Pirate, 1948

Manuela (Judy Garland) is a young woman living in a Spanish village and dreaming of being carried away by notorious pirate Macoco. Instead, she finds herself engaged to Don Pedro (Walter Slezak), a man with no desire to travel any further than his own front door. When traveling performer Serafin (Gene Kelly) rolls into town and falls for Manuela, he decides to pose as Macoco in order to win her affections, not thinking about the consequences of his deception.

The second Garland/Kelly pairing that I've seen, and this one is a fun little romp, lifted by a strong third act that makes up for some wobbly parts that come before it.

It won't shock anyone to find out that Garland and Kelly absolutely nail their time on screen as Manuela and Serafin. Honestly, the characters are not the best written, but both actors power through just by letting their natural talents shine. Kelly in particular is given several sequences to just strut his stuff, which really makes up for his character being a bit of a goober. Slezak is also good as the arrogant Don Pedro, whose pride becomes the greatest threat to Manuela's happiness.

The plot only really picks up steam in the last act, when Serafin is put on trial as the pirate Macoco and must figure out how to escape an inevitable hanging. There are some good plot turns along the way in the last 30 or so minutes, and it all comes to a very strong conclusion. There's one of those "how long will this go on?!" comedy bits involving Garland throwing various items at Kelly that's a pretty winning piece of slapstick.

Part of the last act is a show-stopping dance number with Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers. I was shocked (though I guess not surprised, sigh) to read that in many Southern states this sequence was simply cut because it featured Kelly dancing with two Black dancers. I mean, joke's on the racists for missing out the best five minutes of the whole movie, but it's still a bizarre thing to think about.

And while it doesn't show on screen, this was apparently a pretty horrible time for Judy Garland, who was frequently ill and suffering effects from the various medications she was on. I haven't written about it in my other reviews of her films, but each one is filled with such heartbreaking trivia about what she went through during her career and how it all just continued to snowball on her.

Overall this was a fun romp with some thin characterization but a satisfying conclusion.

3

I like this a little more than you do, I think, Kelly really just wins me over in everything he does to the degree that I doubt I could rate any film he's in, Xanadu not included, less than a 3.5//5 popcorns (if I ever rated anything).
I will not lie, I had actually forgotten Judy Garland was in the film. But that is, in part, because the only thing I ever really remember about this movie is the scene you mention with The Nicholas Brothers. This is, to me, the moment Fred Astaire died. And I mean that in a larger, more general sense. Kelly's dancing was incredibly athletic, in fact, I think that's what makes him arguably the most legendary screen-dancer of all time, he is the perfect conduit of an extraordinary mix of athleticism and grace. While I am routinely awed by Astaire's dancing, the things Kelly incorporates into his routines, and then executes, are simply in a different place, a newer, fresher place, than Astaire ever came to. When I think of the athletic dance scenes, particularly the big one everyone remembers, from Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, I wonder if there's a chance in hell it happens if Kelly doesn't come first.
But, the interesting part of the story is The Nicholas Brothers. Kelly's choreography on this number was considered particularly bracing, really at the edge of what people thought could be done. White people. When Kelly recruited The Nicholas Brothers, even he didn't understand how good they were, almost certainly both better than even him. Kelly worked very hard on the routine and during a rehearsal he felt one of the brothers (Harold, I think) was dragging ass and Kelley accused him of not knowing the number. But the truth was more interesting. Harold had no difficulty with the number (nor did Fayard) and was actually a bit bored. So, in response to Kelly's accusation, he performed the entire number by himself, flawlessly, in front of Kelly, leaving the legend speechless.
Also, sad that Lena Horne was cut from the film, I would love to have seen her in this.
Also sad that what was reportedly an incredible dance number between Kelly and Garland, "Voodoo", was cut from the film for being to overtly sexual.

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Last_Night_in_Soho_%282021%29_poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2021/last_night_in_soho_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62288483

Last Night in Soho - (2021)

For me, this started out as a real winner. The style, the attention to period detail, the colourful visuals and both Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy were bringing much enjoyment - and so was the screenplay and story. But, for me, the ending just wrecked it. Honestly, I'm sick of films thinking they have to pull a huge twist out every single damn time - because a lot of the time the twist is too silly. Here it basically took something away from a film that had me hooked, and one which was particularly beautiful. Edgar Wright is usually always producing something enjoyable for me, and here he was well on track with a kind of faux time travel, supernatural present day/60s London adventure for main character Eloise (McKenzie) - then, during the climax, I was thinking "this film stinks". But only then.

6/10



I think I'm having Haute Tension Syndrome with this film where I keep reading reviews from people who didn't like it nearly as much as my friends and I did, largely because of the ending. And just like with HT, I'm asking myself, "What was wrong with the ending?" I liked it, I thought it made perfect sense and fit the film, and everything resolved very nicely from a story that almost seemed at times like it couldn't resolve (which could also have been a cool, but different film). I thought the performance that the ending turns around was also really strong. And it put the film back into the giallo territory for me. I probably give the film a solid 8/10.

[Takoma11]

I like this a little more than you do, I think, Kelly really just wins me over in everything he does to the degree that I doubt I could rate any film he's in, Xanadu not included, less than a 3.5//5 popcorns (if I ever rated anything).
I will not lie, I had actually forgotten Judy Garland was in the film. But that is, in part, because the only thing I ever really remember about this movie is the scene you mention with The Nicholas Brothers.

The performance in this film is top notch.

But for me, overall, I struggle when there is such a gap between the quality of the performance (song, dance, etc) and the movie around it. Not that the movie around it is bad, per se, just that it pales so much.

Also, frankly, I didn't like the characters all that much. Garland's character with her pirate fetish and Kelly's "just sexually harass every woman over the age of 16 don't worry they love it" performer weren't all that fun to be around--when not performing--until the last act.

[Daniel M]

It's a fun movie, played mostly for camp and some laughs. The novel of the same name was written by Donald Hamilton, who wrote 27 Matt Helm mysteries. I think I read every one of them. Great reading if you haven't already sampled his novels. The novels are more serious, but very addicting..:)

I was reading about the novels after I watched the movie, interesting that the movies took a different approach in nature. I'll have a look, I'm on a bit of a spy kick at the moment :)

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.mubi.com%2Fimages%2Ffilm%2F43736%2Fimage-w448.jpg%3F1445895184&f=1&nofb=1

In the Good Old Summertime, 1949

In this remake of The Shop Around the Corner, Veronica Fisher (Judy Garland) takes a new job at a music store alongside Andy Larkin (Van Johnson), and the two take an instant dislike to one another. But what Veronica and Andy don't realize is that they've been corresponding for months via a lonely hearts service.

I just watched The Shop Around the Corner for the first time back in November--on a flight of all places!--and it was fun to see this slightly different take on the material. While I actually had the same issues with this version as with the original, I still found it pretty delightful overall.

What this version does differently that I really liked was to expand the subplots around the central love story. There's a really sweet romance between the shop owner, Otto Oberkugen (S.Z. Sakall) and his long-time secretary, Nellie (Spring Byington). There's also an endearing subplot about Andy helping out an acquaintance, Louise (Marcia Van Dyke), a talented violinist who he is encouraging to go for an audition to get her out of playing in a restaurant. (Yes, this subplot also serves to complicate the central romance by making it appear that Andy already has a girlfriend, it's still sweet).

With Garland's talents on hand, the music shop setting is leveraged to give her plenty of opportunities to "demonstrate" sheet music. I liked that the film mixed in some physical comedy, such as when Andy accompanies Veronica on the piano and messes with her by changing the key and rhythm as he plays.

And speaking of physical comedy, I was shocked and delighted to find that Buster Keaton(!!!!!) has a supporting role as Hickey, Otto's slightly inept nephew. Keaton's physical comedy gets showcased in a sequence late in the film featuring a very unfortunate violin.

The only thing I didn't love about this movie was what I didn't love about the original, and that's the mechanics between the two characters and the "balance" of how they treat each other. Garland and Johnson are both clearly good with banter, but instead of really letting them spark off of each other, the film is lopsided in both halves. In the first half, we mainly see Veronica antagonizing Andy. She says things like "Whatever I do you say it's wrong." And, like, is that true? It starts to feel like she's just being mean to him for no reason or like she's just really over-sensitive.

Then in the second half (MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!), Andy realizes that she's his mystery letter writer. And he hold onto this information. I did really like a scene where his friend Rudy (Clinton Sundberg) tells him that he CANNOT stand Veronica up, and he does initially go to their meeting. But then he just continues to not tell her and it honestly starts to feel weird and mean. He watches her being distressed and continues to write her letters, taking advantage of his "inside information" about her. At the point he does start to tell her the truth, he distinctly does not disabuse her of the notion that he's in a serious relationship with Louise---Veronica is even like "We can't--you're engaged!" and instead of saying "Oh, actually Louise is just my friend" he's like "Nah, we're good."

I get that love-hate dynamics and people deceiving each other are, at this point, the bread and butter of many Hollywood romances, but I wish I'd been able to root for them more as individuals and as a couple.

Even if you've seen the original---or the 90s version, You've Got Mail--this one is well worth checking out.

4

[ThatDarnMKS]

Fresh Kill

https://boxd.it/2VluyN

4/5

A film I think crumbsroom needs to watch ASAP. Now on Criterion Channel.

[cricket]

The Sadness (2021)

3

https://i0.wp.com/bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/THE-SADNESS.jpg?resize=1000%2C600&ssl=1

Similar to a zombie movie but not quite. Taiwan, there's a pandemic turning people into vicious killers and sexual deviants. A young couple try to find their way back to each other amid the bloody mayhem. Not too much as far as plot, just craziness done well.

[FridayNightFights]

Nightbreed 7/10

[Wooley]

The performance in this film is top notch.

But for me, overall, I struggle when there is such a gap between the quality of the performance (song, dance, etc) and the movie around it. Not that the movie around it is bad, per se, just that it pales so much.

Also, frankly, I didn't like the characters all that much. Garland's character with her pirate fetish and Kelly's "just sexually harass every woman over the age of 16 don't worry they love it" performer weren't all that fun to be around--when not performing--until the last act.
No, you're not wrong at all, I remember thinking the movie was a bit meh despite everything, but Gene Kelly so still 3.5.
Reading a lot about the studio interference and such, it was clear that Garland thought she was making a much better movie than the one she realized she was in about halfway through.

[GulfportDoc]

[Donald Hamilton-Matt Helm] I was reading about the novels after I watched the movie, interesting that the movies took a different approach in nature. I'll have a look, I'm on a bit of a spy kick at the moment :)
I think that you'll like the novels. They're easy to read and well written. Plus if you like them, there are 27 of them!

[Takoma11]

No, you're not wrong at all, I remember thinking the movie was a bit meh despite everything, but Gene Kelly so still 3.5.
Reading a lot about the studio interference and such, it was clear that Garland thought she was making a much better movie than the one she realized she was in about halfway through.

Yeah, I think I gave it a 7/10 on IMDb and just left off that last half star on here.

[Guaporense]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Carne_treumla.jpg

Live Flesh (1997)

Another Almodóvar film in my journey to learn spanish. Very memorable this film was. 8.5/10

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.mubi.com%2Fimages%2Ffilm%2F43736%2Fimage-w448.jpg%3F1445895184&f=1&nofb=1

In the Good Old Summertime, 1949

In this remake of The Shop Around the Corner, Veronica Fisher (Judy Garland) takes a new job at a music store alongside Andy Larkin (Van Johnson), and the two take an instant dislike to one another. But what Veronica and Andy don't realize is that they've been corresponding for months via a lonely hearts service.

I just watched The Shop Around the Corner for the first time back in November--on a flight of all places!--and it was fun to see this slightly different take on the material. While I actually had the same issues with this version as with the original, I still found it pretty delightful overall.

What this version does differently that I really liked was to expand the subplots around the central love story. There's a really sweet romance between the shop owner, Otto Oberkugen (S.Z. Sakall) and his long-time secretary, Nellie (Spring Byington). There's also an endearing subplot about Andy helping out an acquaintance, Louise (Marcia Van Dyke), a talented violinist who he is encouraging to go for an audition to get her out of playing in a restaurant. (Yes, this subplot also serves to complicate the central romance by making it appear that Andy already has a girlfriend, it's still sweet).

With Garland's talents on hand, the music shop setting is leveraged to give her plenty of opportunities to "demonstrate" sheet music. I liked that the film mixed in some physical comedy, such as when Andy accompanies Veronica on the piano and messes with her by changing the key and rhythm as he plays.

And speaking of physical comedy, I was shocked and delighted to find that Buster Keaton(!!!!!) has a supporting role as Hickey, Otto's slightly inept nephew. Keaton's physical comedy gets showcased in a sequence late in the film featuring a very unfortunate violin.

The only thing I didn't love about this movie was what I didn't love about the original, and that's the mechanics between the two characters and the "balance" of how they treat each other. Garland and Johnson are both clearly good with banter, but instead of really letting them spark off of each other, the film is lopsided in both halves. In the first half, we mainly see Veronica antagonizing Andy. She says things like "Whatever I do you say it's wrong." And, like, is that true? It starts to feel like she's just being mean to him for no reason or like she's just really over-sensitive.

Then in the second half (MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!), Andy realizes that she's his mystery letter writer. And he hold onto this information. I did really like a scene where his friend Rudy (Clinton Sundberg) tells him that he CANNOT stand Veronica up, and he does initially go to their meeting. But then he just continues to not tell her and it honestly starts to feel weird and mean. He watches her being distressed and continues to write her letters, taking advantage of his "inside information" about her. At the point he does start to tell her the truth, he distinctly does not disabuse her of the notion that he's in a serious relationship with Louise---Veronica is even like "We can't--you're engaged!" and instead of saying "Oh, actually Louise is just my friend" he's like "Nah, we're good."

I get that love-hate dynamics and people deceiving each other are, at this point, the bread and butter of many Hollywood romances, but I wish I'd been able to root for them more as individuals and as a couple.

Even if you've seen the original---or the 90s version, You've Got Mail--this one is well worth checking out.

4

Funny, I have not seen this one but I do have the feels for The Shop Around The Corner...
Except you're right, that weird thing they do where, in the first act she is unnecessarily mean and in the second or so he is withholding information and being weird for seemingly no reason.
I did not care for You've Got Mail.

[Takoma11]

Funny, I have not seen this one but I do have the feels for The Shop Around The Corner...
Except you're right, that weird thing they do where, in the first act she is unnecessarily mean and in the second or so he is withholding information and being weird for seemingly no reason.
I did not care for You've Got Mail.

I liked it as much as the original, and it's different enough to be worth checking out.

I haven't seen You've Got Mail and I'm not exactly in a rush on that front.

[Wooley]

I liked it as much as the original, and it's different enough to be worth checking out.

I haven't seen You've Got Mail and I'm not exactly in a rush on that front.

Neither have Frank Morgan though.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I liked it as much as the original, and it's different enough to be worth checking out.

I haven't seen You've Got Mail and I'm not exactly in a rush on that front.
I think your reaction to YGM will be hilarious and I encourage the experience

[Takoma11]

I think your reaction to YGM will be hilarious and I encourage the experience

I feel like it will just be an average movie, right? Like, I enjoy the cast, no problem with Ephron. But for the most part romantic comedies just aren't my thing and it will be the third incarnation of the story.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I feel like it will just be an average movie, right? Like, I enjoy the cast, no problem with Ephron. But for the most part romantic comedies just aren't my thing and it will be the third incarnation of the story.
If I say more, I'd spoil what would be of great amusement. I'll just say that I need your reaction to Tom Hanks' character Joe Fox and everything he does/stands for.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/The_Machinist_poster.JPG
By http://www.impawards.com/2004/machinist_ver4.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1052132

The Machinist - (2004)

Just happened upon this yesterday, and it was a really pleasant surprise. The Machinist doesn't mess around like a lot of films do when there's a character with psychological problems - we know pretty much straight away that the world of Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is askew - and that much of what he's experiencing is delusion. He hasn't slept for a year, hallucinates, is concentration camp-slim, and he's heading for a major disaster. After a horrifying workplace accident (caused by him seeing things) Reznik's world begins to disintegrate - and this is all pulled off in impressive style by director Brad Anderson. Enjoyed every minute.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Mother%212017.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54043510

Mother! - (2017)

It's hard watching Mother! It's a film with a lot of trauma embedded firmly inside of it, and many scenes are unpleasant to watch. It doesn't hide the fact it's allegory at all - and once you see how closely it follows the Bible it's impossible to see it as anything other than that tale - although there were times when I simply saw Javier Bardem as all mankind, and Jennifer Lawrence as all womankind - their journey representing the journey all couples go on in a broad sense. It's shot in a wild manner - the central location being an octagonal house in the middle of pleasant (when they're not burned to a cinder) fields. The house can morph and change - and is even wounded at times, like a living being - or like the planet. If you've ever had bad dreams about your privacy being invaded - then this film will bring all of that back to you. Really interesting, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about this film - it's troubling.

7.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Demonic_%282021_film%29.jpg
By IMP Awards / 2021 Movie Poster Gallery / Demonic Poster, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68108353

Demonic - (2021)

I was deeply and profoundly shocked that someone like Neill Blomkamp - a talented, established writer and director, could produce something as bad as Demonic. It's basically a repeat of Abel Ferrara's attempt to work around the pandemic, using ingenuity, and creating something that shouldn't have been released. Parts of Demonic take place in a computer generated world, which is it's most interesting aspect. Aside from that it's your average horror film, with a demon being fought by priests that have formed godly SWAT teams (conveniently, one hands our heroine the Holy Lance) with assault weapons, and briefcases with bibles, holy water and...I can't describe this anymore. It's terrible. The script, cinematography, plot, acting, direction...everything is awful.

3/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Limbo_2020_Film_poster.png
By MUBI - https://www.firstshowing.net/2021/another-us-trailer-for-acclaimed-uk-refugee-dark-comedy-limbo/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67257804

Limbo - (2020)

Limbo is a sweet little comedy about a group of asylum seekers living on a remote Scottish island while their cases are processed. While there, they are given lessons on Western culture and language. The film mostly focuses on Omar (Amir El-Masry) - a Syrian who feels guilty because he fled when his brother stayed to fight for his country - and Farhad (Vikash Bhai) - a gay man from Afghanistan who idolizes Freddie Mercury. Omar is an accomplished oud player, but is tormented by being separated from his family in a strange new country. It's basically a film which shows how they adapt (or fail to adapt) to new surroundings. It's pleasant.

7/10

[PHOENIX74]

I think I'm having Haute Tension Syndrome with this film where I keep reading reviews from people who didn't like it nearly as much as my friends and I did, largely because of the ending. And just like with HT, I'm asking myself, "What was wrong with the ending?" I liked it, I thought it made perfect sense and fit the film, and everything resolved very nicely from a story that almost seemed at times like it couldn't resolve (which could also have been a cool, but different film). I thought the performance that the ending turns around was also really strong. And it put the film back into the giallo territory for me. I probably give the film a solid 8/10.

I guess it had a lot to do with appreciating this film as a take on giallo films, or seeing it as a film not dependent at all on that. Despite some problems with sexuality (that built and built and compounded as the film went on) I had high hopes that such an excellent film, in all regards (I was so falling in love with it) was really going to say something profound. I just felt that what I got wasn't only not profound, but it didn't really have anything to say at all. It was just a hope and expectation that was dashed, and as such my score went down to 6/10. I don't know if my reason for disliking the ending was the same as other people's though. I usually find that my reasoning can differ greatly to other people.

[FridayNightFights]

Halloween Kills 5.5/10

[Rockatansky]

Fresh Kill

https://boxd.it/2VluyN

4/5

A film I think crumbsroom needs to watch ASAP. Now on Criterion Channel.
Apparently the director made a hardcore porno that played Sundance (!) but now seems to be impossible to find. One can only hope VS or one of its partner labels picks it up.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Apparently the director made a hardcore porno that played Sundance (!) but now seems to be impossible to find. One can only hope VS or one of its partner labels picks it up.
That's one rabbit hole I might be willing to follow you down, should it get discovered.

You should also check out Fresh Kill.

[Rockatansky]

That's one rabbit hole I might be willing to follow you down, should it get discovered.

You should also check out Fresh Kill.


They're like Lays potato chips. You can't watch just one.


I have Fresh Kill on the watchlist.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fa.ltrbxd.com%2Fresized%2Fsm%2Fupload%2Fft%2Fnx%2F6x%2Fi3%2FhgViSp8G2HbMpXJ85XaT6QJH HcD-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg%3Fk%3Da46c0de034&f=1&nofb=1

Summer Stock, 1950

Jane (Judy Garland) is struggling to keep her family farm afloat after a few poor seasons. With the farm on the edge of financial ruin, her flighty sister, Abigail (Gloria DeHaven) shows up with an entire theatrical troupe in tow. The actors are also in a precarious financial position, and are counting on a big show to take place in Jane's barn. While Jane initially clashes with the leader of the troupe, Joe (Gene Kelly), they soon develop something of an affinity for each other.

On my little run of Garland films, I've at times complained about movies where there is a distinct split between the song-and-dance stuff and the narrative around those elements. Here there is actually a pretty big distinct split, but it comes in such an abrupt way that it almost feels like two different films. Though this might sound like a critique, I didn't mind it that much.

To sound like a broken record, Garland is really great! I know that this film was made at a time in her life that was really fraught, but it doesn't show in her performance. Kelly is also really good here, and he and Garland have a great chemistry together. There's just that vibe of mutual respect that adds a little jolt to their collaboration.

In terms of the story, I thought that it was really enjoyable. Both lead characters are very sympathetic and I really liked how they mirrored the conflict facing both of them. Each has taken responsibility for something really big, and with no choice but to push forward. I loved that several times through the movie you saw them soften as they realized the weight on the other person. A lot of romantic comedies go to the well of two people who don't like each other slowly coming to crush on each other. But sometimes this leads to too many sequences of them harping on each other or being mean to one another. Instead there is a gentleness here--two nice people finding their way to each other in trying circumstances.

What's weird about the film is the last act. I know that this is partly related to the issues during filming, but the last act gets very choppy. Not bad, just sort of strange in the pacing of it and the proportion of time spent on numbers. The performance itself is really cool (including Garland's famous "Get Happy" number), but there's a distinct feeling of the rest of the film being pushed firmly to the side. Loose ends (like Jane's clingy fiance who doesn't approve of her participation in the show, or Abigail running away with one of the performers) are wrapped up in a really abrupt way.

A charming film, if a bit odd in how it all wraps up.

4

[cricket]

Atrocious (2015)

3

https://i0.wp.com/psychodrivein.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/atroz-03.jpg?fit=1000%2C523&ssl=1

Mexican extreme film that deserves mention whenever the most depraved movies are discussed. It's effective because it's well made. Surprisingly it ends up having some merit besides being shocking.

[SpelingError]

5th Shorts Hall of Fame

Nu (2003) - 3.5

Storywise, this short is somewhat barebones. The wife probably had the best scenes since she's the one who's affected the most by Jakob and Adam, but overall, it's a fairly straightforward and simple story which doesn't bring much of anything new to the table. Fortunately though, there's enough to the film's style which makes up for this. Given the somewhat unconventional ways certain characters enter the frame of certain shots, how Mikkelsen's character casually walks through the areas surrounding his house as he goes between lovers, and the absence of dialogue, the film feels caught between reality and memory and I always appreciate these kinds of aesthetics which warp reality. This short also does a good job at representing the confusion of loveless marriages as the scenes which stuck with me the most showed Mikkelsen and his wife awkwardly touching each other's faces. These scenes do a great job at capturing their confusion as to how to interact with each other. Finally, the frame narrative was a nice touch. So yeah, nothing too special, but it's still pretty good.

[Wooley]

I guess it had a lot to do with appreciating this film as a take on giallo films, or seeing it as a film not dependent at all on that. Despite some problems with sexuality (that built and built and compounded as the film went on) I had high hopes that such an excellent film, in all regards (I was so falling in love with it) was really going to say something profound. I just felt that what I got wasn't only not profound, but it didn't really have anything to say at all. It was just a hope and expectation that was dashed, and as such my score went down to 6/10. I don't know if my reason for disliking the ending was the same as other people's though. I usually find that my reasoning can differ greatly to other people.

I got ya. It exceeded my expectations because I expected it to be some kind of horror-thriller and nothing more and I thought it was a good one with real art to it, really transcending some of its influences.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Freelclassicdvd.com%2FLucky_Boyps.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Lucky Boy, 1929

A young man named Georgie (George Jessel) works in a jewelry store, but dreams of being an entertainer. After a botched attempt in his hometown of New York City, he moves out west to pursue his dreams of fame.

This movie is a mix of silent and spoken and my verdict on this mish-mash of styles is NO THANK YOU.

On the positive side, the songs are pleasant enough (if a bit slow for my taste), and the old timey stand-up routine is kind of fascinating if not actually that funny. ("His son's name is Epsom. Now, don't go making fun of Epsom---he's the salt of the Earth!").

The real challenge with this film is that no one seems comfortable with the spoken portions of the film. Everyone talks super slowly, as if they are on half speed. It's actually worse when one or two of the actors with a natural rhythm get in a scene with one of the slow talkers. Jessel has this way of speaking out of the side of his mouth that is just kind of strange.

Apparently at one point this film was thought to be lost. I didn't watch the best print, but I'm not holding the look or the audio quality against it, though it was hard to hear lines of dialogue here and there, including a few punchlines.

The story itself is a little flat. I honestly had a hard time paying attention to it, as I didn't really find the characters or plot that compelling. Jessel may well have been a very talented performer, but I don't think that this film was the best showcase of his talents, nor was the story wrapped around his performances all that interesting.

I wouldn't deter anyone from watching it, but nor would I recommend it except as a curiosity with its talkie/silent mix.

2.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTdlNGQwMjEtN2ExOC00YjQ4LTljZDktNTJiN2UyY2QyOGRlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDI2NDg0NQ@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


3.5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/I_Heart_Huckabees_poster.JPG
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Fox Searchlight., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1169190

I ♥ Huckabees - (2004)

This certainly won't be everybody's cup of tea - but luckily for me it was mine. See if you respond to it's plot : Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) hires a pair of "existential detectives" (played by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to try and find out what a series of coincidences really mean to his existence. Events unravel when fellow client Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg) and rival Brad Stand (Jude Law) are dragged into the affair. There's a lot of 'meaning of existence' stuff, and lots of whimsy - but the film has a keen sense of humour and I found myself laughing a lot during this. Naomi Watts also appears, and is actually funny - along with Isabelle Huppert and Jonah Hill in his first ever screen role. I can really see some people hating this - but it was too funny for me to do likewise.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Oculus_%282013_film%29_poster.jpg
By May be found at the following website: IMDb.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42046364

Oculus - (2013)

This is a movie that had me thinking about starting an entire thread about how some horror films show too much, making us familiar with their ghostly apparitions and paranormal activity - thereby taking away it's power to scare us. Towards the end of Oculus, the action starts switching back and forth through time, connecting certain events - which was confusing (perhaps intentionally so) and it also overplayed things - with spirits and events cascading into a headache of movement, sound and imagery. Leading up to it all, this had been an amazingly creepy and haunting film - I really wanted to love this. The absolute ending is great, but that kinetic last act really took away all of it's power to frighten the audience.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Level_16_%282018_film_poster%29.jpg
By Dark Sky Films - Dark Sky Films website, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60490832

Level 16 - (2018)

Going at nearly 1000 films a year, I sometimes forget that I've already seen something (if it's forgettable enough) - and such was the case with Level 16 - a fairly average thriller about a host of young girls imprisoned in a 'school' of sorts, raised and drugged until they are old enough for...

...their faces to be harvested.

So there you go. There's nothing really wrong with it, per se, but it lacks actors with enough presence and charisma to really draw us in. I had no real wish to see this a second time, but I just sat through it anyway, slowly remembering each part as it occurred once again. This is the kind of film that I'll probably forget again in a very short amount of time.

5/10

[mark f]

Frankenstein 1970 (Howard W. Koch, 1958) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Trees of Peace (Alanna Brown, 2021) 2.5 6/10
The Legend of the Five (Joanne Samuel, 2020) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Cinderella Liberty (Mark Rydell, 1973) 3.5 7+/10
https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.S9imdNnqEu6rRVMgtN1ahwHaEK&pid=15.1
Pool hall whore Marsha Mason, her son Kirk Calloway and lonely navy hosun James Caan make a pretty good family when they keep their insecurities out of it.
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (Hong Sang-soo, 2000) 2 5/10
The Sadness (Rob Jabbaz, 2021) 2.5 6/10
Moneyboys (C.B. Yi, 2021) 2 5/10
I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock, 1953) 2.5+ 6/10
https://i.gifer.com/AnVD.gif
In Quebec City, priest Montgomery Clift hears gardener O.E. Hasse's confession which kicks off all kinds of misunderstandings with the authorities and the citizenry.
An Old-Fashioned Girl (Arthur Dreifuss, 1949) 2.5 6/10
Black Roses (John Fasano, 1988) 1.5 4/10
The Demons of Dorothy (Alexis Langlois, 2021) 2.5 5.5/10
Forbidden Planet (Fred McLeod Wilcox, 1956) 3 6.5/10
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/52/35/dd5235d5485bb22e83795f0e1ce96d03.gif
In the 23rd century, a United Planets starship commanded by Leslie Nielsen arrives on Altair IV to find the Id Monster threatening the ;pace along with the equally-mysterious scientist Walter Pidgeon, his daughter Anne Francis and Robby the Robot.
The Invisible Boy (Herman Hoffman, 1957) 2.5 6/10
South Park: The Streaming Wars (Trey Parker, 2022) 3 6.5/10
Trog (Freddie Francis, 1970) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Simon (Marshall Brickman, 1980) 3- 6.5/10
https://musicart.xboxlive.com/6/cfa9bc79-0000-0000-0000-000000000009/504/image.jpg?w=672&h=378&q=80&mode=letterbox&background=%23FFE4E4E4&format=jpg
College professor Alan Arkin is recruited by an underground think tank and put in a deprivation tank where he basically goes crazy and comes to think he's an alien.
John Denver: Country Boy (Steve Freer, 2018) 3 6.5/10
Siege (Paul Donovan & Maura O'Connell, 1983) 2.5 5.5/10
Mass Hysteria (Arielle Cimino & Jeff Ryan, 2019) 2+ 5/10
Silent and Forgotten (John Lewis, 2019) 3 6.5/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufix3TzAbSQ
Not a real documentary, but memories of silent stars, such as Clara Bow, Mary Pickford and Louise Brooks, spoken and played by the same actress (Jacquie Donley).

[Siddon]

https://cdn.flickeringmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/jurassic-world-dominion.jpg


Jurassic World:Dominion

I saw this on the IMAX screen which helped but yeah this is a terrible movie. To be honest this looks and feels like it was meant to be a video game not a film. You have these seven levels and the story barely connects to each of these plot points because you have to get to the next level. You actually have a couple cut scenes that work as information dumps that feel completely out of place.

I felt like I was watching The Phantom Menace again with this "diverse" cast of actors who come and go. The worst cases are Ramsey and Kayla...Ramsey is in essence a NPC. He solely exists to give exposition and move the plot from one point to the next. He's supposed to be the protege of the bad guy....but the bad guy is such a bad guy that his "help" is still end of the world negligence. Kayla in four scenes has four different personalities and motives she was basically the alternative version of Owen it was just delivered in the most cynical cheap way possible.

Several scenes make absolutely no sense and seem to exist just to get a cool visual or an action set piece. The worst thing is their is no wonder or nostalgia in this film it's just a boring dumb loud action close up of villainous person villainous person exits story (if they are lucky by death) and then we move on to the next piece.

rating_1_5

[ScarletLion]

'Great Freedom' (2021)

Dir.: Sebastian Meise

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eaWQzi1OHhg/mqdefault.jpg

A very fine film spanning several timelines that follows the life of a gay man 'Hans' in post war Germany. The harsh reality that homosexuality was an offence punishable by jail time is really brought home by the director Sebastian Meise who also co wrote this incredibly effective screenplay.

What stands out though are the two central performances by Franz Rogowski (Hans) and Georg Friedrich (Viktor). Even the make up to make them look aged at certain points is tremendous and really aids their acting. The film isn't an easy one to watch as most of it is set in a German jail, therefore it comes with your expected amount of violence and brutality. But the beautiful moments rise so high that this film will live long in the memory. There is one particular scene in the prison courtyard involving Hans and Viktor that is just flawless and surely one of the scenes of the year.

It's a film that explores whether freedom for some is being institutionalized and not on the outside, and while that is a well trodden path in cinema, it's rarely been portrayed as beautiful as this.

8.7/10

4.5

[xSookieStackhouse]

https://cdn.flickeringmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/jurassic-world-dominion.jpg


Jurassic World:Dominion

I saw this on the IMAX screen which helped but yeah this is a terrible movie. To be honest this looks and feels like it was meant to be a video game not a film. You have these seven levels and the story barely connects to each of these plot points because you have to get to the next level. You actually have a couple cut scenes that work as information dumps that feel completely out of place.

I felt like I was watching The Phantom Menace again with this "diverse" cast of actors who come and go. The worst cases are Ramsey and Kayla...Ramsey is in essence a NPC. He solely exists to give exposition and move the plot from one point to the next. He's supposed to be the protege of the bad guy....but the bad guy is such a bad guy that his "help" is still end of the world negligence. Kayla in four scenes has four different personalities and motives she was basically the alternative version of Owen it was just delivered in the most cynical cheap way possible.

Several scenes make absolutely no sense and seem to exist just to get a cool visual or an action set piece. The worst thing is their is no wonder or nostalgia in this film it's just a boring dumb loud action close up of villainous person villainous person exits story (if they are lucky by death) and then we move on to the next piece.

rating_1_5
i be seeing this movie on friday with my support worker :rolleyes::eek: he wants to see it cause hes friend said its really good :/ :rolleyes:

[Siddon]

i be seeing this movie on friday with my support worker :rolleyes::eek: he wants to see it cause hes friend said its really good :/ :rolleyes:


It's a two and a half hour long toy commercial

[Deschain]

It's a two and a half hour long toy commercial

I saw it last night. It is a baffling film.

[Allaby]

The Allnighter (1987) Directed by Tamar Simon Hoffs and starring Susanna Hoffs, Joan Cusack and Dedee Pfeiffer. This wasn't as interesting or as fun as it should have been. The actors mostly do a fine job and there are a couple good moments, but this feels like it could have been a lot better. 3

[Gideon58]

https://pics.filmaffinity.com/Turning_Red-326602450-large.jpg



3.5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/City_of_Lies_poster.jpeg
By Studio and or Graphic Artist - Can be obtained from film’s distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67003535

City of Lies - (2018)

Johnny Depp might blame Amber Heard, but it was really movies like Mortdecai that hurt Depp's career - empty and unashamed whimsy-filled indulgences that the entire filmgoing public were sick of. These days I'm seeing him in more serious, reality-based movies like Minamata and this, which stars Depp as real-life police detective Russell Poole who investigated the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. and found a web of corruption in his own L.A. police department. Also starring is a man I often sense is struggling with his own career, Forest Whitaker, as a journalist trying to get to the bottom of what happened. The investigation is a little complex in the number of people involved, but it all boils down to record label Death Row Records putting various officers on their payroll as security, which soon corrupted them - to the extent that they participated in the assassination. Various figures have either served prison terms or were let off entirely for related crimes, and the L.A. police never really wanted to go in the direction they would have needed to go to solve the murder. It's interesting, but needed more J.F.K-style work in post-production to really fascinate us. The editing and score makes a lot of difference.

6/10

[Torgo]

Come to Daddy - 3

This is a pretty good comedic thriller starring Elijah Wood as down and out would-be musician Norval (Elijah Wood). He accepts an out of the blue invitation to visit his estranged father (the great Canadian character actor Stephen McHattie) at his isolated coastal estate. He has no idea what to expect since he hasn't seen him in a long time, and speaking of expectations, it's best to go in with none. In other words, surprise is the name of the game. Granted, there are some good ones, but acts two and three unfortunately don't totally deliver on the promise of the first one. While the early ones are shocking, they have more of a "screenwriting 101" vibe as the movie goes on. For this reason, I believe it's more successful as a comedy, because when it's funny, it's very funny. With this cast, it would be hard for it not to be, especially since McHattie brings the same Hugh Laurie-like irascibility to his role that makes Pontypool so good. Wood is surprisingly adept at comedy as well, especially in a scene with his dad in which he touts his musical abilities. Michael Smiley also shines in a role that brings to mind Peter Stormare at his comedic best and not just because he kind of looks like him. If you need a good laugh, have a morbid sense of humor and you’re fascinated by sins of the father stories, you're bound to have a good time. If you can only take so many contrivances, on the other hand, you may be let down. Oh, and more power to them for taking a chance with this material, but be prepared to sit through a lot of production company logos after you press play.

[matt72582]

Kiss of Death - 7.5/10
On IMDB, there are no halves, and I gave it an 8 on there.. From the very beginning, I was into it, and remained interested the entire way. In the last month or two, I haven't been able to find this, and within 10-15 minutes, I'm "done".

My only criticism of noir is that it's kinda self-limiting, and not so unique. "The Long Goodbye" (Altman) makes a good effort, to reach further, to be free, instead of the marketing thing. It's like the movie, "Mikey and Nicky" being advertised as a gangster pic, when it's an artistic dialogue driven gangster comedy/tragedy, but people might have been expecting "The Godfather" (Cassavetes and Falk are excellent - it's on YouTube).

One thing I noticed is that this movie doesn't have a femme fatale, so some might not consider this a real noir, but man, it's really good. Visual editing, sound editing - so much tension. The writing is economic (just like the editing), and really good. Some good entendre. And Richard Widmark is excellent - and it was his first movie. Thank you WPA Federal Theatre (for Orson, Lillian Hellman, Burt Lancaster, etc)


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/Kiss_of_Death_1947_B_poster.jpg

[Takoma11]

Come to Daddy - 3

This is a pretty good comedic thriller starring Elijah Wood as down and out would-be musician Norval (Elijah Wood).

Interesting.

I strongly disliked this movie. I gave it a generous 5/10 on IMDb because I love Wood and McHattie. Everything about it grated on me and the whole thing had a try-hard vibe.

I guess I'm glad some people respond positively to it because it is, um, different?

[Torgo]

Interesting.

I strongly disliked this movie. I gave it a generous 5/10 on IMDb because I love Wood and McHattie. Everything about it grated on me and the whole thing had a try-hard vibe.

I guess I'm glad some people respond positively to it because it is, um, different?I agree about the try-hard vibe, especially in acts two and three. That's sort of what I meant by "screenwriting 101" because a lot of the writing in them comes across as contrived and amateurish. The performances and comedy made up for it for me though, especially Michael Smiley's line about Michael Heseltine. I'd probably give it a 6/6.5 overall, which isn't much higher than your rating.

Glad to know another McHattie fan. I haven't seen him in much (this movie, Pontypool and guest spots on TV shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Strain), but he's always great.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.r29static.com%2Fbin%2Fentry%2Ff45%2F0%2C0%2C2000%2C1050%2Fx%2C80%2F1611023%2Fimag e.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Devil Wears Prada, 2006

Andy (Anne Hathaway) is an aspiring writer who takes a job at fashion magazine Runway under the ruthless watch of editor Miranda (Meryl Streep). As Andy gets more embroiled in the fashion life, she gets support from co-worker Nigel (Stanley Tucci) but her relationship with her boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier) is strained.

This film was a really pleasant surprise, and ended up telling a much more nuanced and complex story than I expected.

There are two really obvious tropes that the film could have leaned into. The first is the "makeover" arc where a woman learns (usually through stripping or dancing or whatever) that she's actually pretty and comes to own her femininity. The other arc is the "don't change who you are!" arc, where someone learns that it's what's inside that counts. Refreshingly, the film doesn't move only in one direction, allowing for some complicated and layered storytelling that wraps in multiple characters and character arcs.

There's something wonderful about a film that can convey "it's complicated!" without feeling muddled. But The Devil Wears Prada shows us multiple variations on complication, not letting us have any easy answers.

At the center of it all, of course, is Andy. Andy begins the film with a derisive attitude toward fashion. There's a famous sequence---that I had seen previously--where Miranda explains to Andy that her off-the-rack sweater is just a long-form derivation of the high fashion decisions from earlier fashion seasons. But I was a fan of a moment where Nigel quietly tells Andy that fashion is important as a form of art because "we live in it." Andy learns to dress and style herself sharply at first to fit in, but soon develops an affinity for it.

At the same time, however, the film explores the negative side of the fashion world and more generally office culture. From the start, Andy (who is a size 6) is referred to as being fat. With a sigh she is told that they don't have any clothing in her size in their extensive closets. When she loses weight and goes from a size 6 to a size 4, she is immediately congratulated. Andy's fellow assistant, Emily (Emily Blunt) is on a diet of . . . not eating anything except for a cube of cheese when she begins to feel faint. The neutral acceptance of this is damning in its silence. There's something really nefarious about the way that Andy is forced into wearing high heels, something that is physically unhealthy for many women.

Beyond the gender-specific pressures on Andy, the film explores the challenges and benefits of working in a high-pressure, ruthless environment. On one hand, Miranda's uncompromising, vicious rebukes and threats drive Andy to accomplish things that are borderline impossible, such as in a standout sequence where Miranda demands that Andy acquire the latest Harry Potter book---by which she means the unpublished manuscript of the latest book. But while this type of work environment can push some people to do things they would not have achieved on their own, it also fosters a culture of fear and negativity. This is an office where the success of your co-workers is a threat, not something to be celebrated. This is seen most in the ongoing rivalry between Andy and Emily, but it impacts almost every character we meet at some point in the story. And most of that impact is negative.

The film also explores the classic "work or romance" quandary, via both Andy's relationship with Nate and Miranda's own relationship with her husband and children. This is one place where I had a bit of a split with what the story presents. Through the film, Andy's work repeatedly gets in the way of her time with friends and family. She gets an "emergency" call from Miranda while hosting her dad who has flown in from out of town. She ends up having to work on her boyfriend's birthday. Whenever there is an important conversation to be had, her phone rings. In one bust-up, Nate tells her that "the person whose calls you answer? That's who you're in a relationship with." Which, okay, fine. But also, from the outset Andy's work at Runway was always meant to be something that would last a year. I understand that Andy's work is putting a big strain on her relationship with Nate, but women are frequently expected to rearrange their lives around their husband's work, and often for more than just a year. The fact that Nate expects Andy to move to a different city with him without even asking if that's what she wants made me think a lot less of him and of their relationship dynamics overall. Andy actually articulates at one point that if Miranda was male, people would focus almost exclusively on how brilliant she is, and I think that this spills over into how Andy is treated by Nate.

The performances are really top notch here, and Blunt and Tucci in their supporting roles really give a lot of humor and dimension to the story. Streep is amazing, and Hathaway is perfect in the lead, balancing the story's demands that she be both hapless and very smart/capable at the same time.

This deserves, in my opinion, far more than the 6.9 average it has on IMDb. I am highly skeptical of the number of 1/10 votes for it.

4.5

[Allaby]

All About Evil (2010) This was fun. 4

[Takoma11]

I agree about the try-hard vibe, especially in acts two and three. That's sort of what I meant by "screenwriting 101" because a lot of the writing in them comes across as contrived and amateurish. The performances and comedy made up for it for me though, especially Michael Smiley's line about Michael Heseltine. I'd probably give it a 6/6.5 overall, which isn't much higher than your rating.

Around the time that he was in the hotel and the movie took this long lingering shot to be like "Look! A penis!" I was just done with it.

All of the benefit of the doubt I was giving it just evaporated and it all just kept feeling more and more juvenile.

Glad to know another McHattie fan. I haven't seen him in much (this movie, Pontypool and guest spots on TV shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Strain), but he's always great.

He's one of those actors who brings an immediate sense of depth to his characters. He was actually what made me check out the movie and part of my annoyance was feeling like he was wasted. Same with Wood, who can be so good in those socially-anxious roles (like his part in I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore.)

[M.L.]

Autumn Sonata - 4.5

My third Bergman, after Persona & The Seventh Seal, and still quite good, despite being quite heavy and hard to watch.

The Godfather: Part II - 4, maybe 4.5?

Arguably a better movie than the 1st Godfather movie, just way more dense. I'll definitely need to re-watch this to get a better opinion on it.

World on a Wire - 4.5, maybe 5?

My first Fassbinder, and this was absolutely right up my alley. It runs for a total of three and a half hours over two parts, but I enjoyed it so much it didn't feel so long to me.

I also re-watched...

Polyester - 4

Out of only two John Waters films I have seen, this is the one I could have an easier time recommending. (The other film I've seen is Female Trouble, uh, so...)

Oldboy (2003) - 4, maybe 4.5?

Not an easy watch, but definitely a good movie, still.

[Gideon58]

https://diaryofamoviemaniac.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/the-men3.jpg


4

[WHITBISSELL!]

Glad to know another McHattie fan. I haven't seen him in much (this movie, Pontypool and guest spots on TV shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Strain), but he's always great.Loved Pontypool and since I've liked McHattie's work throughout the years I was happy to see him in that starring role. I thought he did a fine job in Watchmen. I agree about I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore but other than that, A History of Violence and Immortals, the role I most associate him with is Jake Pasquinel in the late 70's miniseries Centennial.

[Torgo]

Loved Pontypool and since I've liked McHattie's work throughout the years I was happy to see him in that starring role. I thought he did a fine job in Watchmen. I agree about I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore but other than that, A History of Violence and Immortals, the role I most associate him with is Jake Pasquinel in the late 70's miniseries Centennial.Ooh, good call about A History of Violence. It's a small part, but he's terrifying in it. I've been meaning to see Immortals, which I hear is better than the reviews say.
I'll look for Centennial, which I haven't heard of.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Ooh, good call about A History of Violence. It's a small part, but he's terrifying in it. I've been meaning to see Immortals, which I hear is better than the reviews say.
I'll look for Centennial, which I haven't heard of.The director of Immortals Tarsem Singh knows how to put a gorgeous product on display, although admittedly it's not always in service to a strong story. But it's still well worth watching for a young Henry Cavill. I found it visually impressive. And Centennial is very much a product of it's time. Back when miniseries held sway and there was seemingly one on television every week. A lot of them starring the reigning king (or queen):shrug: of the miniseries, Richard Chamberlain.

[Marco]

The Contractor (2022)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/The_Contractor_%282022_film%29.jpg
Starts out OK then we have one big scene (lab) and it gets colouring by numbers after that. Chris Pine is paired up with Ben Fister, as in Hell or High Water (this being a far inferior film) as ex-special forces now working for a private contracting film run by the shady Kiefer Sutherland. Incredibly, unbelievable and pretty dull at the same time.
2
.

[cricket]

Cross of Iron (1978)

3.5+

https://64.media.tumblr.com/3ffa7a5f4131015bff999c59379f6900/tumblr_ph5au9k1xO1sw3aizo3_400.gifv

A very good but not quite great WW II film from director Sam Peckinpah. The way it started I thought it was going to be more of a cool type of movie, but it ended up pretty harrowing. A lot of violence with James Coburn and Maximilian Schell being the standouts in the cast.

[SpelingError]

5th Shorts Hall of Fame

Seven (2018) - 3

Even though this short left me asking for more, I enjoyed what it had to offer. My favorite aspect is how it explores two points of view. The first point of view is on the villagers who want to kill the oil worker. This is to set an example for the oil industry about interfering with their land. The second viewpoint comes from the perspective of Yohana, who's somewhat reluctant to follow through with the plan. Though you understand why the villagers are upset, it's also apparent that the oil worker they captured isn't solely responsible for the impact the oil industry has on their village, nor will killing the man put a stop to the oil industry. The short also comes with some lovely cinematography, with the standout being the bird's eye shot of the funeral pyre. Lastly, the ending makes for a nice slice of suspense. As stated above though, I was ultimately left asking for more. For instance, I would've liked to know more about why the villagers and the oil workers were hostile towards each other. If the reason is because of pollutants released from the oil rigs, I would've liked to see how this was affecting the villagers as the pristine landscape shots we saw in the film didn't convey any such thing. It also would've been nice to see conversations with some other villagers and the oil worker himself to provide more viewpoints to Yohana's moral dilemma. As it stood, it's a fine short, but I imagine I'll forget about it pretty soon.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.justwatch.com%2Fimages%2Fbackdrop%2F120480571%2Fs1920%2Fstrike-me-pink&f=1&nofb=1

Strike Me Pink, 1936

Eddie Pink (Eddie Cantor) is a nebbish clothing repair shop worker who gets a jolt of confidence from a self-help book. Unfortunately, this newfound confidence results in Eddie being hired to manage an amusement park called Dreamland where his crush, Joyce (Ethel Merman) performs. The amusement park has long been besieged by a gang that wants to install rigged slot machines, and the past managers have all had unfortunate endings.

I picked Norman Taurog as the director to watch 10 films from as part of the 2022 Film Challenge. Did I pick him because some of his titles are hilarious (like The Bride Goes Wild or Who Needs Husbands?? Maybe. But the last few films I've tried to watch from him have been, well, borderline unwatchable. At this point I've bailed on two of them.

Enter Strike Me Pink and the run of bad films is finally at an end!

I'm not saying that this film is totally brilliant, but it was much funnier than I expected with a range of gags and some really neat stunt setpieces.

If you've seen In & Out, there's a scene where Kline's character takes lessons from a book on tape that seems to talk to Kline as if he's in the room with him. Was this a common gag and I've just never seen it anywhere else? It's done here in Strike Me Pink and to pretty funny effect.

I also really liked a sequence where a nervous Eddie is attempting to stand proud against the wicked crew of gangsters who have cornered him in his office. His secretary, Claribel (Sally Eilers) constantly interrupts their conversation to hand Eddie notes that read things like "Keep it up! PS Watch the skinny guy he has a gun!" or "You're doing great! PS I just slipped a gun into your pocket!". Both the physical staging of her interruptions and the quickly typed notes make for a fun running gag.

The film's climax, which involves a chase along a roller coaster track is totally bonkers, and in a good way. It ventures well into cartoon territory, with events like a person opening an umbrella and flying away. In a wonderfully choreographed sequence, a man is passed continuously between two trapeze artists, losing an article of clothing with each hand-off.

There are several music sequences, none of which are amazing but none of which are terrible. One of them makes really cool use of a reflective floor that made me sit up and pay attention.

The performances are all very fun. There's an enjoyable character called Butch (Gordon Jones), a loveable lug who looks out for Eddie. There's a good bit where Eddie attempts to feed Butch the answers to his history exam via an elaborate headset and microphone system. I found myself really charmed by a lot of the jokes and comedy sequences.

I'm surprised at how high my rating is for this film, but I had a great time watching it.

4

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Le_Fant%C3%B4me_de_la_libert%C3%A9.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5866395

The Phantom of Liberty - (1974)

Watching Luis Buñuel movies yesterday made me realise how many talented actors from overseas get vacuumed up for one film by Eon's James Bond productions. In this we have Thunderball's Adolfo Celi and Moonraker's Michael Lonsdale - and in That Obscure Object of Desire we have Carole Bouquet from For Your Eyes Only. I started with an aside didn't I? Never mind. The Phantom of Liberty is extremely enjoyable, and although it doesn't give you a narrative to follow, the surreal aspects that I came for are in full force. Different segments are joined by a character that carries over. For example, at the start we see a strange scene from the Napoleonic Wars, but it turns out to be something a nanny is reading. The nanny works for a man who visits a doctor about a dream he's had, where a postman delivers a letter he still has - that letter gets mixed up with the doctor's nurse, who is heading for a retreat and a hotel etc. Many societal conventions are turned around - in this film people join together with friends and family to go to the toilet, but eating is a private experience people think disgusting, and is done in a room, alone, with a locked door. While the most fragmented of the Buñuel films I've seen, I do appreciate one where he seems to work exclusively on the strange and bizarre.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Simon-alan_arkin.png
By It is believed that the cover art can or could be obtained from the publisher or studio., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17945231

Simon - (1980)

Simon isn't quite as funny as it thinks it is, but Alan Arkin works really hard to try and remedy the situation. Along with that, I was really excited to see William Finley in something - he's an actor who really didn't get enough work for my liking, and his appearance is rare. Along with that you have the great Wallace Shawn and Max Wright. I don't know if it was quite worth watching for all of those points alone, but all the same, I don't regret watching it for those reasons. If all of that makes sense. It's about a man who's fooled into thinking he's an alien for the amusement of some intellectuals.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Music_%282021_film%29.png
By siamusic.net and @musicthefilm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66614978

Music - (2021)

I wanted to see this because it's a rare one pilloried by near unanimous consent :

https://i.postimg.cc/T1v5p3c6/musicrating.jpg

Was it really that bad? If you like Sia's music videos, there's a lot of Maddie Ziegler dancing in that fun kind of style. I quite enjoyed that. As for the rest, I just don't want to add weight to what's probably been a traumatizing experience for the artist, who obviously needed someone to tell her that what she was doing - making this movie - was a bad idea. Bizarrely, this was nominated for both a Golden Globe for Best Musical and a Razzie for Worst Picture. It lost to Absolute Proof.

2/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Obscureobjectdesireposter.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17817538

That Obscure Object of Desire - (1977)

Wow. I was not expecting something with a conventional narrative in a Luis Buñuel film. Along with defying all expectations, I thought the film brilliant, even though I was troubled by a scene which depicts domestic violence (kind of.) Mathieu (Fernando Rey) monied and pampered falls in love with his new maid Conchita (the film's main story is relayed to us as he tells the tale to fellow train passengers) and this begins an epic quest to bed her, which he tries to facilitate through gifts, money, charm and force. Conchita is played by two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina, and she continually dangles hope, which creates in Mathieu a never-ending desire for her which would have left him if he'd have succeeded earlier. Instead the two play this game, one which both benefits and complicates her life - but only leads to Mathieu's suffering. Sprinkled throughout the film are terrorists who kill people - and it's done in such a way that you know the two themes are linked. Somehow. Or perhaps Buñuel has done this to just get me to keep thinking about the film, on and on. An obscure object of desire?

10/10

[SpelingError]

That Obscure Object of Desire - (1977)

Wow. I was not expecting something with a conventional narrative in a Luis Buñuel film. Along with defying all expectations, I thought the film brilliant, even though I was troubled by a scene which depicts domestic violence (kind of.) Mathieu (Fernando Rey) monied and pampered falls in love with his new maid Conchita (the film's main story is relayed to us as he tells the tale to fellow train passengers) and this begins an epic quest to bed her, which he tries to facilitate through gifts, money, charm and force. Conchita is played by two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina, and she continually dangles hope, which creates in Mathieu a never-ending desire for her which would have left him if he'd have succeeded earlier. Instead the two play this game, one which both benefits and complicates her life - but only leads to Mathieu's suffering. Sprinkled throughout the film are terrorists who kill people - and it's done in such a way that you know the two themes are linked. Somehow. Or perhaps Buñuel has done this to just get me to keep thinking about the film, on and on. An obscure object of desire?

10/10

It's a very good film which ranks amongst my favorite Bunuels, even though I'm not sure how to interpret the terrorist subplot.

[Siddon]

https://i0.wp.com/bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/crimes-2-1.jpg?ssl=1

Crimes of the Future (2022)


Crimes of the Future moves us into a world where pain and infection are gone. Because of this people commit surgery on themselves in public as a replacement for sex. It's a weird dystopian future where the B plot and C plots are actually the important ones and the A plot (Viggo Mortensen's character who can grow things in him) is much less important.



This is a film that has three different genres fighting for supremacy. As a science fiction film I'd give it an A. This future world is completely realized it doesn't hit you with the big stuff but rather it nails all the little things. When it's world building it's unbelievable is what a world with generations of polution has done to society. As a horror film the set pieces work but the narrative fails...it's trying to be Eraserhead put Cronenberg doesn't have Lynch's horror touches. This isn't his best body horror work and a lot of stuff feels unresolved. As a drama it's likely it's weakest point. The characters always seem to behave like they are in the first act of the story and when they need to go somewhere the film just ends. I guess it's saying a lot about life but this almost felt like half of a TV season/series. It's almost 4 stars but I'll give it 3.


3

[Tugg]

The Lost City (2022) 3.5
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c7268c79-9436-4230-b75e-2814495b25f4/df1g8py-bfe292e2-c85c-4282-8aea-48700779f3ff.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQz NzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6 W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2M3MjY4Yzc5LTk0MzYtNDIzMC1iNzVlLTI4MTQ0OTViMjVmNFwvZGYxZzhweS1iZmUyOTJlMi1jODVj LTQyODItOGFlYS00ODcwMDc3OWYzZmYucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.XyxEDeGC OuXjEaNlMkFU2TJPvIndtFCsEmCM6jxSU9M
Senior Year (2022) 2.5
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c7268c79-9436-4230-b75e-2814495b25f4/df3pmrh-1c03ab3b-06f6-4274-b3b9-d98ddc877560.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQz NzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6 W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2M3MjY4Yzc5LTk0MzYtNDIzMC1iNzVlLTI4MTQ0OTViMjVmNFwvZGYzcG1yaC0xYzAzYWIzYi0wNmY2 LTQyNzQtYjNiOS1kOThkZGM4Nzc1NjAucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.bRGZcNcA t7wc3vqA12jZnnyNThVzDDa0gYp5PX-Jy7M
X (2022) 3.5
https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/images/newsite/X_Ti_600.jpg
Last Seen Alive (2022) 3.5
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/2c54b004-9dbd-44b7-8031-08fadd6517c1/df6zi9p-0c1a44a3-30f0-47db-a8e9-d5125e40f5b3.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQz NzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6 W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzJjNTRiMDA0LTlkYmQtNDRiNy04MDMxLTA4ZmFkZDY1MTdjMVwvZGY2emk5cC0wYzFhNDRhMy0zMGYw LTQ3ZGItYThlOS1kNTEyNWU0MGY1YjMucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.GtwDhVOq CHyo_fn4ttjf0VBGeDgbP6_oqfbR8azT0zg
Father of the Bride (2022) 3
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c7268c79-9436-4230-b75e-2814495b25f4/df5gaz8-d74a5f8e-9656-4e97-86f7-cddb1a8280ca.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQz NzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6 W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2M3MjY4Yzc5LTk0MzYtNDIzMC1iNzVlLTI4MTQ0OTViMjVmNFwvZGY1Z2F6OC1kNzRhNWY4ZS05NjU2 LTRlOTctODZmNy1jZGRiMWE4MjgwY2EucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.kUIDQat4 VRQoJm8MYwgmAbqjc4u7ZZ3AeUPbpn9M4lM

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.r29static.com%2Fbin%2Fentry%2Ff45%2F0%2C0%2C2000%2C1050%2Fx%2C80%2F1611023%2Fimag e.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Devil Wears Prada, 2006

Andy (Anne Hathaway) is an aspiring writer who takes a job at fashion magazine Runway under the ruthless watch of editor Miranda (Meryl Streep). As Andy gets more embroiled in the fashion life, she gets support from co-worker Nigel (Stanley Tucci) but her relationship with her boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier) is strained.

This film was a really pleasant surprise, and ended up telling a much more nuanced and complex story than I expected.

There are two really obvious tropes that the film could have leaned into. The first is the "makeover" arc where a woman learns (usually through stripping or dancing or whatever) that she's actually pretty and comes to own her femininity. The other arc is the "don't change who you are!" arc, where someone learns that it's what's inside that counts. Refreshingly, the film doesn't move only in one direction, allowing for some complicated and layered storytelling that wraps in multiple characters and character arcs.

There's something wonderful about a film that can convey "it's complicated!" without feeling muddled. But The Devil Wears Prada shows us multiple variations on complication, not letting us have any easy answers.

At the center of it all, of course, is Andy. Andy begins the film with a derisive attitude toward fashion. There's a famous sequence---that I had seen previously--where Miranda explains to Andy that her off-the-rack sweater is just a long-form derivation of the high fashion decisions from earlier fashion seasons. But I was a fan of a moment where Nigel quietly tells Andy that fashion is important as a form of art because "we live in it." Andy learns to dress and style herself sharply at first to fit in, but soon develops an affinity for it.

At the same time, however, the film explores the negative side of the fashion world and more generally office culture. From the start, Andy (who is a size 6) is referred to as being fat. With a sigh she is told that they don't have any clothing in her size in their extensive closets. When she loses weight and goes from a size 6 to a size 4, she is immediately congratulated. Andy's fellow assistant, Emily (Emily Blunt) is on a diet of . . . not eating anything except for a cube of cheese when she begins to feel faint. The neutral acceptance of this is damning in its silence. There's something really nefarious about the way that Andy is forced into wearing high heels, something that is physically unhealthy for many women.

Beyond the gender-specific pressures on Andy, the film explores the challenges and benefits of working in a high-pressure, ruthless environment. On one hand, Miranda's uncompromising, vicious rebukes and threats drive Andy to accomplish things that are borderline impossible, such as in a standout sequence where Miranda demands that Andy acquire the latest Harry Potter book---by which she means the unpublished manuscript of the latest book. But while this type of work environment can push some people to do things they would not have achieved on their own, it also fosters a culture of fear and negativity. This is an office where the success of your co-workers is a threat, not something to be celebrated. This is seen most in the ongoing rivalry between Andy and Emily, but it impacts almost every character we meet at some point in the story. And most of that impact is negative.

The film also explores the classic "work or romance" quandary, via both Andy's relationship with Nate and Miranda's own relationship with her husband and children. This is one place where I had a bit of a split with what the story presents. Through the film, Andy's work repeatedly gets in the way of her time with friends and family. She gets an "emergency" call from Miranda while hosting her dad who has flown in from out of town. She ends up having to work on her boyfriend's birthday. Whenever there is an important conversation to be had, her phone rings. In one bust-up, Nate tells her that "the person whose calls you answer? That's who you're in a relationship with." Which, okay, fine. But also, from the outset Andy's work at Runway was always meant to be something that would last a year. I understand that Andy's work is putting a big strain on her relationship with Nate, but women are frequently expected to rearrange their lives around their husband's work, and often for more than just a year. The fact that Nate expects Andy to move to a different city with him without even asking if that's what she wants made me think a lot less of him and of their relationship dynamics overall. Andy actually articulates at one point that if Miranda was male, people would focus almost exclusively on how brilliant she is, and I think that this spills over into how Andy is treated by Nate.

The performances are really top notch here, and Blunt and Tucci in their supporting roles really give a lot of humor and dimension to the story. Streep is amazing, and Hathaway is perfect in the lead, balancing the story's demands that she be both hapless and very smart/capable at the same time.

This deserves, in my opinion, far more than the 6.9 average it has on IMDb. I am highly skeptical of the number of 1/10 votes for it.

4.5

I think this movie is really carried by the performances of its four biggest, Streep, Hathaway, Blunt, and Tucci, but the relationship angle really carried the film down for me. Almost like a hastily jotted studio note that it needed to be there. I found it really distracting, the guy just sucked in such a generically selfish way that it took me out of the movie every time the film went to that sideplot. But Streep is masterful as usual and the other three really elevate what felt to me like a generic NYT Bestseller that maybe had a little more depth than one might expect. I get what you mean by "It's complicated" but it felt like "It's Complicated For Dummies" to me. I like it more than this may sound but really just for the moments between the four main characters and not so much for the overall story and certainly not for the lame relationship plot. She shoulda left that guy in the beginning anyway, he sucks.
Expectations may have something to do with it, when I see Streep in something, plus Tucci, I expect a movie that's more than just slightly smarter NYT Bestseller.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi2.wp.com%2Fmoviesandmania.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F04%2Fdr-goldfoot-and-the-bikini-machine1.jpg%3Ffit%3D1920%252C1080%26ssl%3D1&f=1&nofb=1

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, 1965

Dr. Goldfoot (Vincent Price) has a dastardly plan: using bikini-clad robots home-brewed in the basement of his funeral parlor, he will entrap and steal the assets from the wealthy men of the city. But while targeting the wealthy Todd Armstrong (Dwayne Hickman), one of the robots, Diane (Susan Hart) mistakenly flirts with Craig Gamble (Frankie Avalon). Realizing something is not right, Craig becomes determined to get to the bottom of the conspiracy.

It took two writers to write this movie. The Supremes sang the theme song.

I just wanted to put those two facts out there.

This is a very silly movie and it knows that it's very silly. It is, as they say, exactly what's on the tin. A mad doctor. Bikinis.

The worst crime that a silly movie can commit is being boring, and for the most part Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine avoids this particular trap, in large part due to the energy of all of the lead performers, and some absurd set-pieces. There are a few conversations that drag a bit, a few times where the film tries to stretch out a gag several seconds too long. But overall it moves along at a fairly fun clip.

Price--who apparently didn't think too much of the film--is really the saving grace. Even when he's slumming he's fun to watch. And in this case the movie makes the most of him, even going as far as to restage the climax of The Pit and the Pendulum. There's also the intriguing lack of a love interest, with the Todd/Craig bromance taking the place of what would normally be a love subplot.

One slightly odd/sour note in the film is the treatment of the robots, and specifically Diane. When Diane fails to procure Todd's power of attorney she is punished with electrocution and later hard labor. Where this could have been played as really goofy, it's instead kind of . . . upsetting? Removing the cheesy gold bikini aspect, when she's being punished she wears a formless brown robe thing. It feels kind of, for lack of a better word, mean. The movie never seems to decide how we should feel about the robots---they aren't portrayed with empathy as thinking/feeling beings, and yet they can be tortured and punished. It's just a bit strange and I wish the film had committed one way or the other.

3.5

[Takoma11]

but the relationship angle really carried the film down for me. . . She shoulda left that guy in the beginning anyway, he sucks.

Yeah, I think that the story needed that plot point of something that is shorthand for the way that her personal life is being majorly disrupted by her work.

I agree that she should have dumped him. His moody exasperation made him hard to take.

Honestly, though, all of her romantic prospects were bad. At one point she's choosing between the boyfriend or the man who uses professional leverage to make moves on Andy, which is more gross.

I think that the trap of any movie with a woman making relationship decisions is the idea that she needs either of them. Especially considering that a big theme of the film is loyalty and he's constantly celebrating the idea of her quitting (or losing!) her job.

I wish at the end she'd been like "Good luck in Boston!" and just struck out on her own in New York.

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Pleasure_2021_film_poster.png


3

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/zfmb7BYb/boiling-point.jpg
By May be found at the following website: Movieposterdb.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32347583

Boiling Point - (1990)

I've come to the point now, with I think the 4th Beat Takeshi film I've seen, to know what to expect, and be more familiar with his style - and that means I enjoy his films straight off the bat. Although I expect to enjoy films like Hana-bi more when I see them again, Boiling Point was the best experience I've had watching one of his films. It's a very toned down, low key film about a shy young man crossing paths with a violent Yakuza member, and the world he enters (via his baseball coach) when he reaches that boiling point and lashes out physically. Takeshi himself doesn't appear until the film's second half, leaving his scene-stealing presence out of it to give the story enough oxygen to flow. This was also by far the funniest film of his I've seen, and includes so many clever little touches that I thought it was just brilliant. I'm now becoming a fan, and look forward to seeing more of his films, and revisiting the three I've already watched.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/Goodbye_Christopher_Robin.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54240687

Goodbye Christopher Robin - (2017)

Wasn't fully sure whether I really wanted to watch this, but it turned out better than I thought it was going to be, and I like it a bit more than the critics did in general. I'm not a big fan of Whinny the Pooh, but more than just his creation, this film delves into the relationship A. A. Mile had with his son, which was complicated in this. I'm a big fan of Domhnall Gleeson, so that helped as well - and the film looks really nice visually, and has a decent score. It's very emotionally engaging with husband/wife, master/servant, nanny/child and parent/child dynamics going on - so my reading material was left untouched and it had my full attention from beginning to end. I thought it was going to be more a more kind of "magical and happy" kind of film, but instead it focuses on Milne's experience fighting in the First World War, his child's difficulty with the fame his father's creation brought, and other serious issues. Not bad.

7/10

[Obi-Wan_Mifune]

It's funny, despite being a horror fan and being pretty high on Coppola at that time, I remember this movie, seen in the theater on its initial release, being just so abysmal that I have never, ever been able to bring myself to endure it again.

I’m actually not that big on Coppola’s Dracula. It all seems to me to be a lot of incredible images in search of a movie (and a woefully miscast Keanu Reeves, who’s even more out of his element there than he is in Dangerous Liaisons).

As for Frankenstein, I watched part of it in high school when we read the book (our teacher used it to clarify the wrap-around segments in the Arctic). I watched the full thing a couple of months ago in order to be a “1990s Universal Monster Movies Remade as Prestige Period Dramas” completionist. Sadly, my spouse has accidentally gotten into a habit of late of making me rewatch questionable movies that I already watched recently on my own (this, Mary Reilly, Blade Trinity, Wolf, Constantine, Rambo II and III, etc…), but I guess those are on me.

[Obi-Wan_Mifune]

Schedule disrupted because of construction going on at the house, forcing us to shack up with my in-laws for the past two weeks (it was supposed to be less than one, but apparently the last guy we hired to work on the house did an exceptionally shoddy job, which caused the need for additional repairs).

So, handling my backlog topically, I’ll start with the recent Scooby-Doo marathon we had with my 18-month-old. I’ll even rank them for the fun of it:

1.Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
2. Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery (2015)
3. Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2018)
4. Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy (2014)
5. Scoob! (2020)
6. Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare (2010)
7. Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery (2014)
8. Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon (2012)
9. Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo (2010)
10. Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness (2015)
11. Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013)
12. Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost (2018)
13. Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)
14. Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map (2013)
15. Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020)
16. Scooby-Doo (2002)
17. Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019)
18. Lego Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash (2017)
19. Lego Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood (2016)
20. Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur (2011)
21. Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (2019)
22. Scooby-Doo! Shaggy’s Showdown (2017)
23. Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob (2021)
24. Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006)
25. Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog (2021)
26. Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire (2012)
27. Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009)
28.Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon (2016)
29. Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King (2008)

[xSookieStackhouse]

5
https://www.monsterfest.com.au/monsterfest/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/JW3_INT_DIGITAL1SHEET_ARCADIA_BLOCK_TT_AUS.jpg

[WrinkledMind]

Watched Silent Partner. Quite an enjoyable small thriller.

[pahaK]

87563

Scared to Death is a lackluster monster feature from the 80s. Sort of like a mixture of Terminator (which it amazingly predates by four years) and Alligator but far worse than either of those.

Angela is a downbeat drama about a little girl whose mother is suffering from some mental health issues. It's pretty obvious that those issues are also hereditary to a degree. At times it could have had a bit more punch, but it's definitely towards the upper end of OK. I took it was somewhat anti-religion which is also a plus in my books.

The Infernal Trio is a pitch-black French comedy about a French lawyer and two German sisters who seek better fortune through immoral means. It's not a laugh-out-loud type of comedy but more like an absurd crime drama. Funny fact: this was banned in Finland back in the day.

Housewife is truly a mixed bag. The intro scene and the last scene are good, but most of the in-between are boring as hell. It doesn't help that the film is Turkish but the actors speak English (with different amounts of foreign tones). The story doesn't seem to make sense and it's mashing too many influences into its meager runtime. The only thing keeping it above bad is its cosmic horror vibe.

Then there's this one film that's not in Letterboxd...

https://68.media.tumblr.com/be39de0524c17a886c7ecd5047a8764b/tumblr_odmdf2zN7c1tr6ni8o1_500.gif

The Sinful Dwarf (1973)
3
This one is a Danish exploitation film with some hardcore porn thrown into the mix. The story is surprisingly on par with your average B-movies and it has some serious sleaze factor. The Dwarf himself is an amazing display of depravity. It's not a great movie but I enjoyed it more than I expected.

[Rockatansky]

Then there's this one film that's not in Letterboxd...

https://68.media.tumblr.com/be39de0524c17a886c7ecd5047a8764b/tumblr_odmdf2zN7c1tr6ni8o1_500.gif

The Sinful Dwarf (1973)
3


It's on there, you just gotta toggle your settings, my friend.

[pahaK]

It's on there, you just gotta toggle your settings, my friend.

Oh, I see. Thanks. I'm still naive enough to think that such options don't exist ;)

Have you seen The Sinful Dwarf? If so, did you like it? I was positively surprised.

[Little Ash]

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, 1965

It took two writers to write this movie. The Supremes sang the theme song.

I just wanted to put those two facts out there.


I was going to say, "also directed by Mario Bava," but then checked and realized he directed the sequel. Which is to say, there's more of this series...

[Rockatansky]

Oh, I see. Thanks. I'm still naive enough to think that such options don't exist ;)

Have you seen The Sinful Dwarf? If so, did you like it? I was positively surprised.


I have not, but I think Crumbsroom is a fan.


Also, apologies for ruining your Letterboxd feed.

[Takoma11]

I was going to say, "also directed by Mario Bava," but then checked and realized he directed the sequel. Which is to say, there's more of this series...

I was also surprised by the fact that there are two of them. But you know what? I would watch two of them, so . . .

[SpelingError]

Having seen Drive My Car, I found it to be a deeply moving story about the healing powers of art and the various hurdles one has to overcome to achieve this (opening up to people, forgiveness of those who wronged you in the past). It has some powerful scenes, but it fell a bit short of greatness to me. Unlike some others, I didn't mind the pacing or the length. Rather, my issue was with the writing of certain characters. Some of the more eccentric sub-plots (a woman who comes up with story ideas during sex, a volatile actor who blows up when people take pictures of him without his permission, the detail of Misake's mother having schizophrenia) felt like dead weight. Those details could work just fine in a different film, but when you're dealing with a genuine drama with real people, they feel out of place. In spite of this, I do enjoy the film quite a bit. I just think it's at its best when its less explicit about its themes (the rehearsals of the play, the cassette tapes of Oto's voice, the long silences between car rides, the live performance of the play at the end).

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://68.media.tumblr.com/be39de0524c17a886c7ecd5047a8764b/tumblr_odmdf2zN7c1tr6ni8o1_500.gif

I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children's carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you

[Wooley]

Yeah, I think that the story needed that plot point of something that is shorthand for the way that her personal life is being majorly disrupted by her work.

I agree that she should have dumped him. His moody exasperation made him hard to take.

Honestly, though, all of her romantic prospects were bad. At one point she's choosing between the boyfriend or the man who uses professional leverage to make moves on Andy, which is more gross.

I think that the trap of any movie with a woman making relationship decisions is the idea that she needs either of them. Especially considering that a big theme of the film is loyalty and he's constantly celebrating the idea of her quitting (or losing!) her job.

I wish at the end she'd been like "Good luck in Boston!" and just struck out on her own in New York.

Yes, but it is also possible to just be alone for a little while. A cardinal sin in lesser films like the average rom-com churned out over the last who knows how many years, but for a film like this, that seemed the obvious choice for this character. The ending you suggest was the obvious and correct one and I was actually kinda shocked that this character in this story made that choice in the end. But Hollywood!
And I think what you say here is exactly what bothered me, the whole relationship was just poorly (in fact barely) developed shorthand for "and this messes with her personal life too!" Lazy and not good in a movie that deserved better.

[Wooley]

I’m actually not that big on Coppola’s Dracula. It all seems to me to be a lot of incredible images in search of a movie (and a woefully miscast Keanu Reeves, who’s even more out of his element there than he is in Dangerous Liaisons).



Exactly!

[Torgo]

American Gigolo - 4

American Gigolo's Julian Kay is another memorable misunderstood lonely man from the mind of Paul Schrader. As the title implies, he lives to show women - specifically older ones, as his is preference - a good time. A man who knows multiple languages and whose car, manner of dress, physique and southern California digs define chic, he's everything his clientele could possibly want. Julian's life becomes more complicated when against his better judgement, he gets into an off-the-books fling with Michelle (Lauren Hutton), a senator's wife. On the other end of the spectrum, he also becomes a suspect in a murder investigation.

The most striking aspect of the movie even from minute one is its look and feel, which defines the '80s aesthetic that Miami Vice popularized. Almost every frame resembles a fashion or alcohol ad found in the typical issue of Rolling Stone or Vogue from that decade. In addition to the palm trees, pastels, daylight shining through vertical blinds and Moroder soundtrack, though, are profound sadness and emptiness. Despite all the time he spends with clients or Michelle, my mind goes to the moments when he's alone in his cavernous home and his solo convertible drives first, which make him seem as lonely as Travis Bickle does. What's more, there's the use of empty space and limited extras, which accentuates the pathos. It shifts to terror once Julian's little problems become huge ones, though, and boy, do you feel it. Everyone he knows from his clients to procurer Anne (Nina van Pallandt) to pimp and supposed friend Leon (Bill Duke) want nothing to do with Julian as if they only want him to exist when it's convenient for them. As for the performances, I've always found Gere to be closed off and unknowable, which make him ideal as Julian, and Hutton and Duke demonstrate why they are always welcome sights. Besides the iconic look, what I appreciate the most about the movie - and hopefully not to spoil it too much - is that unlike similar tales about reviled men whose encounter with the genuine or meaningful spells their doom - Carlito's Way and Uncut Gems come to mind - this one has a much different take.

While I really enjoyed it, it doesn't quite reach the heights of Schrader's best like Taxi Driver and First Reformed. Despite not totally getting what I expected, and this criticism could also be leveled at First Reformed, but the protagonist and story's similarities to Taxi Driver's make it predictable at times. There are also times when all the emptiness and coldness become more than just meaningful. Still, for its aesthetic, and again, how well Schrader explores another flavor of outsider life, it is worth seeking out. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself reevaluating your wardrobe or fitness routine afterwards.

[Rockatansky]

American Gigolo - 4


The most striking aspect of the movie even from minute one is its look and feel, which defines the '80s aesthetic that Miami Vice popularized. Almost every frame resembles a fashion or alcohol ad found in the typical issue of Rolling Stone or Vogue from that decade.




Just don't be surprised if you find yourself reevaluating your wardrobe or fitness routine afterwards.


One of the essential menswear movies. Fun fact: the wardrobe was by Giorgio Armani, who was originally brought on by John Travolta (who was originally cast in the lead role). The movie is a major factor in the brand become a household name.


https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/american-gigolo-paul-schrader-armani-suits

[Torgo]

One of the essential menswear movies. Fun fact: the wardrobe was by Giorgio Armani, who was originally brought on by John Travolta (who was originally cast in the lead role). The movie is a major factor in the brand become a household name.


https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/american-gigolo-paul-schrader-armani-suitsThat's pretty cool, I didn't know that. Speaking of, I didn't acknowledge how good Hector Elizondo is as the detective. He sort of makes the transition from the '70s to the '80s himself when he swaps his huge-collared suit and shirt for an Armani.

Oh, and this is a must-see for anyone into the vaporwave aesthetic.

[Allaby]

Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) I thought this was moving and sweet and really well written. Good performances from the cast. 4

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Firs.www.warnerbros.com%2Fgallery-v2-jpeg%2FPhoto7_TheHoodlumSaint.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Hoodlum Saint, 1946

Terry O'Neill (William Powell) returns home from service in WW1 only to find that it's a lot harder to find work than he imagined. He crashes an upper-class wedding--where he happens to meet the lovely Kay (Esther Williams)--and manages to get an in with a wealthy businessman. Years later he's made good for himself, which allows him to anonymously help some of his old friends. But the stock market crash threatens to put his plans in jeopardy.

This was one of those movies that's just sort of fine. It has a few positives in the form of Powell's reliably good performance and a fun turn from Angela Landsbury as Dusty, a woman he romances when Kay turns her romantic attentions elsewhere. Rags Ragland (who was also in Girl Crazy) is memorable as one of Terry's old friends.

But despite the positives, there just isn't a ton to get your pulse going. The writing tends to be kind of on the nose, especially the sequences where everyone is raving about how great the stock market is doing. The dramatic irony comes on way too strong.

Somewhere underneath is an interesting theme about balancing the ruthlessness needed to succeed with the loyalty and compassion that you have for others.

Not bad, just kind of unremarkable.

3

[Captain Terror]

87579
STAGE FRIGHT (1950)

So I went inside of a theater for the first time since February 2020 and treated my mom to a belated Mother's Day outing to see Hitchcock's Stage Fright. (Alas, the Soavi Stage Fright wasn't an option.)

I own this as part of a DVD set, but have probably only watched it once, as it is not my favorite and most would not consider this one of AH's best. But going into it with those expectations, I found myself enjoying it more than I expected. There's an issue involving an unreliable narrator that Hitch famously regretted but it's not a deal-breaker for me. There's a ludicrous musical number by Marlene Dietrich that is impossible to take seriously in a post-Madeline Kahn world. There's a bit of suspense and some humor, neither at peak levels, but Hitchcock in second gear is still capable of producing solid entertainment so I'm glad I went.

Also, Jane Wyman was never in any horror movies so my exposure to her has been minimal but she makes for a pleasant if sort of bland leading lady. I'd be open to watching more of her stuff.

Short version: Not peak Hitch, but solid enough for fans of vintage thrillers.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I'd be open to watching more of her stuff.Johnny Belinda if you haven't yet.

[Captain Terror]

Price--who apparently didn't think too much of the film--is really the saving grace. Even when he's slumming he's fun to watch. And in this case the movie makes the most of him, even going as far as to restage the climax of The Pit and the Pendulum.

Last year I watched (almost) the entire filmography of the Beach Party Cinematic Universe and intended to write a big long piece highlighting all of the horror tie-ins there are. (There's more than you'd think.) But ultimately I couldn't be bothered, so I didn't. Your loss. :)

Maybe I'll get back on it.

[Rockatansky]

87579
STAGE FRIGHT (1950)

So I went inside of a theater for the first time since February 2020 and treated my mom to a belated Mother's Day outing to see Hitchcock's Stage Fright. (Alas, the Soavi Stage Fright wasn't an option.)

I own this as part of a DVD set, but have probably only watched it once, as it is not my favorite and most would not consider this one of AH's best. But going into it with those expectations, I found myself enjoying it more than I expected. There's an issue involving an unreliable narrator that Hitch famously regretted but it's not a deal-breaker for me. There's a ludicrous musical number by Marlene Dietrich that is impossible to take seriously in a post-Madeline Kahn world. There's a bit of suspense and some humor, neither at peak levels, but Hitchcock in second gear is still capable of producing solid entertainment so I'm glad I went.

Also, Jane Wyman was never in any horror movies so my exposure to her has been minimal but she makes for a pleasant if sort of bland leading lady. I'd be open to watching more of her stuff.

Short version: Not peak Hitch, but solid enough for fans of vintage thrillers.

Wyman is good in the Douglas Sirk movies I've seen her in. I think All That Heaven Allows is the consensus pick for his best, but I was more moved by Magnificent Obsession.

[SpelingError]

5th Shorts Hall of Fame

Un Obus Partout (2015) - 3.5

I found this to be a pretty good short film. I enjoyed the usage of black for the visual aesthetic, especially in the second half of the short which takes place at night as this caused the flashes of color to stick out more. I also enjoyed the sense of futility throughout the short as, even if Gabriel and Mokhatr would make it across the bridge, that's not going to make their political situation any better as they're still going to live in the same war-torn environment where civilians are killed each day. This knowledge gave the suspense set piece at the end an extra layer of resonance. I also appreciated how the short built tension by cutting back and forth between the snipers watching the World Cup premier and the drive across the bridge as, even though that sequence could've done more in the way of suspense, it was still a nice editing technique. Finally, that the snipers and many of the civilians were spending the night watching the World Cup premiere, there's a sense of futility to the conflict as, since both groups seemed to share some of the same interests, they could potentially get along with each other. Overall, it's a solid short film that I enjoyed watching. In terms of animated films about the Lebanon War though, I prefer Waltz With Bashir by a decent margin and highly recommend watching that film.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Year_my_voice_broke.jpg
By Impawards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12495756

The Year My Voice Broke - (1987)

Growing up in an Australian country town can be a rough experience, and for 15 year-old Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) things are about to become more complicated. It's the 1960s, his life-long best friend Freya (Loene Carmen) is not returning the crush he has on her, and is instead eyeing up older football player Trevor Leishman (Ben Mendelsohn). Complicating things further is the fact that Trevor treats him really well - but Danny tries not to miss a minute they're together to try and drive a wedge between them, which is painful for him as he watches their sexual awakening from close quarters. This is a wonderful film, and one of the best Australia has to offer from this time period - the scenic landscape, dreamy score and amazing breakthrough acting from Noah Taylor and Mendelsohn set this apart, but the story should also get recognition. It's wonderfully real and accurate, while at the same time transcendental and beautiful. I don't know if I've even seen this before, but I was surprisingly blown away watching it last night - it took me back to my youth, and reached a place that's deep down inside of me. I love when films do that. A special one.

9/10

[Captain Terror]

Wyman is good in the Douglas Sirk movies I've seen her in. I think All That Heaven Allows is the consensus pick for his best, but I was more moved by Magnificent Obsession.

Johnny Belinda if you haven't yet.

Noted, thanks. :up:

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/83/The_Novice_%28film%29.jpg/220px-The_Novice_%28film%29.jpg

3.5

SF = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

[skizzerflake]

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

Ready for a Friday night movie that's not awful? This one might be it - Brian and Charles, set in a remote location in Wales. An isolated, eccentric, inventor/hoarder (Brian) builds a sentient robot from a washing machine and spare parts. The robot (Charles) reaches adolescence and starts to rebel. Brian unwittingly finds a girlfriend but has to face down the local redneck bullies who have other plans for his robot. Eventually, the robot has plans of his own.

It seems to have made a hit as a Sundance movie, is funny, likable, definitely unusual, doesn't feature either Tom Cruise or Dinosaurs. It's seriously low budget. One of the script writers also plays the robot. The movie has a serious case of shaky camera, but it doesn't hurt much. Did I say, no dinosaurs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JfWZd4CtIE

[cricket]

Barefoot Gen (1983)

4.5

https://64.media.tumblr.com/ce76568738b4644175d038202aea6bd3/tumblr_nqay0qeUmW1rm3u4ao6_r2_400.gifv

Had never heard of this until seeing it mentioned on the forum a while ago. Japanese animation about a young boy going through the bombing of Hiroshima. It's been a few years since I've seen Grave of the Fireflies but I'd put this in the same tier. The animation isn't as good but it's all about the story anyway. I was saddened and enraged while watching this moving and devastating film. On YouTube with subtitles.

[Whammy]

Brightburn (2019)
rating_4

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gtv.blue%2Fcontent%2Fimages%2Fsize%2Fw300%2F2019%2F10%2F1_0_f8woYUzsBxwTCJJs0Fa w.png&f=1&nofb=1

Sunny Skies, 1930

Benny (Benny Rubin) is a young man who has just arrived to college where he is immediately bullied. Fortunately for Benny, football star Jim (Rex Lease) is willing to stand up for him and the two men form a genial friendship. But when Jim's drinking and aggression get out of hand, both men find themselves in a crisis.

There's not a lot on the internet about this film, but the two things that do stand out are (1) a theory that the film is subtextually about a gay relationship and (2) a hilarious pan review of the film from the New York Times from the film's initial release.

It can certainly be said that the film puts Benny into a "girlfriend" role relative to Jim. There are sequences where he gets directions from Jim on how to mix him a drink (which he brings to him in the shower), fetches him underwear, and when Jim holds him and flirts with him as a demonstration of how to woo a lady, Benny leans into Jim in a momentary swoon. What kind of complicates this is the way that Benny's ethnicity---a strong accent and suggestive clothing choices---is pushed to the fore. Is this actually about them being gay, or is it more a joke about immigrants/Europeans being feminine compared to the American men who make up the rest of the college population?

In any event, possible gay subtext makes the film a lot more interesting to watch, because without it, it's just a story about an angry football player whose friendship with the new kid is kind of pushy. As the scathing NYT review points out, "the sum of its efforts is little more than a blank." The acting is unremarkable, and there is very little character development. If you believe that there's an unspoken desire between the two lead characters, then at least you get some depth out of their imagined anguish. But if these are just friends? Eh. The women they woo are also poorly developed, and pretty forgettable aside from the fact that one of them performs a song-and-dance number that's so close to the stereotype of an old timey number that it feels like borderline parody.

Please enjoy the following excerpt from the NYT review in all its glorious snark. "There are several players in this film who enact supposedly collegiate rôles. They include Marceline Day, Marjorie Kane and Wesley Ruggles, who try hard." Who try hard, LOL.

The run time is blessedly short, and there's nothing actually terrible here. Just a lot of minutes that fail to make an impression. Thinking about what it's trying to say either about sexuality or ethnicity at least makes it engaging from an analysis point of view.

3

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thevideobeat.com%2Fmedia%2Fdescription-pix%2Fvisitsmallplanet.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Visit to a Small Planet, 1960

An alien youth called Kreton (Jerry Lewis) sneaks out of school and takes a trip to Earth, where he insinuates himself into the family of Major Spelding (Fred Clark). This includes an interest in Spelding's daughter, Ellen (Joan Blackman), much to the dismay of Ellen's boyfriend Conrad (Earl Holliman). Meanwhile, a neighbor tries to capture evidence of Kreton's alien origins.

There's a Portlandia sketch where a woman is making flirtatious eye contact with a man in her yoga class. Then at the end she goes to speak to him and he is whiny and petty and the spell is completely broken. This dynamic describes almost every sequence in Visit to a Small Planet.

I was underwhelmed by The Nutty Professor, and this film is certainly no gem either. But there's a frustrating number of times that Kreton, in his open naivete, is really likeable, only for over-the-top facial expressions or physical comedy to take things to a grating place.

There are some charming moments. A first drink of alcohol has Kreton walking up the walls and on to the ceiling in that old practical effects trick. Ellen and Kreton go to a beatnik gathering where Kreton ends up performing a dance with a woman, played by Barbara Bostock. Bostock is really funny in this role, and demonstrates a kind of controlled absurdity that would have made the rest of the film far more palatable.

The movie clips along with minor laughs, mainly courtesy of trained animals and practical effects/wirework. Lee Patrick is fun as the bustling Spelding matriarch who is totally nonplussed by any of the plot developments. Blackman is enjoyable as Ellen, but the character is hampered by corny dialogue and the requirement that she fall for Kreton.

Watchable, but nothing more.

3

[mark f]

Terror, Sisters! (Alexis Langlois, 2019) 2.5 5.5/10
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974) 3 6.5/10
I'm Charlie Walker (Patrick Gilles, 2022) 2+ 5/10
Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris Jr., 1989) 3 6.5/10
https://www.unsungfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/chameleon-street_03.jpg
Feeling his life has reached a dead end, Wendell B. Harris Jr. [left] morphs into several different jobs and identities, out of whim or necessity.
Breaking Up (Robert Greenwald, 1997) 2+ 5/10
Roadracers (Robert Rodriguez, 1994) 3- 6.5/10
Border Cafe (Lew Landers, 1937) 2.5 5.5/10
Mad God (Phil Tippett, 2021) 3 6.5/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/60da9e0af96a9a3ab35e18e11f29e8a8/1bc15bc1fb2416d8-11/s540x810/77cde003dccf0bec44f496ef3d98c52ec9bec6c3.gif
Not overly coherent but always fascinating and visually impressive is this animated labor of love set in a weird and violent future.
Clytaemnestra (Ougie Pak, 2021) 2.5 6/10
Flight from Glory (Lew Landers, 1937) 2 5/10
Hollywood Cowboy (Ewing Scott, 1937) 2.5 5.5/10
Boy Meets Girl (Eric Schaeffer, 2014) 3 6.5/10
http://www.nerdly.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/bmg-pic-3.jpg
A mixture of awkwardness and honest feelings from most all of the main characters in this surprisingly-effective take on transgender romance, here with Alexandra Turshen and Michelle Hendley.
The Nile Hilton Incident (Tarik Saleh, 2017) 3- 6.5/10
Father of the Bride (Gary Alazraki, 2022) 2.5+ 6/10
New Morals for Old (Charles Brabin, 1932) 2 5/10
Spiderhead (Joseph Kosinski, 2022) 2.5 6/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/9ead8da2b60be2c289de1f8abcd9a3e0/a60c5fc9a4b63956-66/s540x810/af9a471e9efa9b1d9f438aca43340deb205c0e01.gifv
In a futuristic prison where the inmates are used as guinea pigs by eccentric scientist Chris Hemsworth [left], the main fly in the ointment is Miles Teller [right] who shares a past with him.
Blowback (Tibor Takács, 2022) 2 5/10
Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (Danny Wolf, 2020) 3+ 6.5/10
Puppet Master (David Schmoeller, 1989) 2.5 5.5/10
Wyrm (Christopher Winterbauer, 2019) 3- 6.5/10
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/sryn5errgVINZ3tRjh6rWEhptlD.jpg
In an upside down 1990s where kids pass their evaluations in school by doing sexual activity, central character Theo Taplitz, who's making taped interviews in tribute of his dead brother, expresses lots of quiet emotions.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thevideobeat.com%2Fmedia%2Fdescription-pix%2Fvisitsmallplanet.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Visit to a Small Planet, 1960

Watchable, but nothing more.

rating_3I remember watching this a couple of times as a kid but then never hearing of it again and basically forgetting it existed until just now.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cupW89ErL._SY445_.jpg


3rd Rewatch...Alexander Payne's 2004 Best Picture nominee just seems to get better with each watch. This Woody Allen-esque look into friendship and moral compasses set against the background of the California wine country is rich and riveting entertainment from start to finish. Writer and English teacher Miles and his best buddy, an out of work actor named Jack decide to take a week to tour wine country before Jack gets married. I don't know what it is about this movie, because it features characters etched in various shades of gray in whole lot of questionable behavior, with the possible exception of Maya, the vivacious and intelligent waitress played by Virginia Madsen, earning the actress her only Oscar nomination. Sandra Oh pretty much became a star with her effervescent Stephanie and Thomas Haden Church's greasy Jack earned him his only Oscar nomination. Payne's Oscar-winning screenplay is witty and intelligent...all of the talk about wine and the adjectives used to describe wine is like music. But towering above of all of this is the extraordinary performance by Paul Giamatti as Miles, that didn't even earn him an Oscar nomination. Giamatti's performance as the slightly pathetic but fascinating Miles makes this film worth watching all by itself. 4

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/Fabian_Going_to_the_Dogs_poster.png
By Fünf Seen Filmfestival, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69103654

Fabian: Going to the Dogs - (2021)

Based on the novel by the fascinating Erich Kästner - which was published in the Germany of 1931, just prior to the Nazis taking power. The main thing that goes against Fabian is that it's 176 minutes long, and didn't really need to be (I'm sure the filmmakers would disagree) - but it's good for the most part. It's the story of writer Jakob Fabian, whose life in Berlin begins to deteriorate when he loses his job as an advertising copywriter - his friend can't get his thesis passed in a university controlled by fascists, and the love of his life becomes the lover of a film studio boss to advance her career. Pushed and pulled by the hedonism prevalent on one side and political violence on the other, he begins to unravel - and nobody can seem to help. Many are willfully blind to what's happening in the country. Fabian can't get anywhere in 1930s Germany - he's too morally upright. It's good as a reflection of the times we're currently going through, in an economic and political sense. It lacks a little cohesion (and I mean, just a little - slightly) and there's that problem of how long it runs, but I'd still recommend it to anyone interested in the period. There are obvious parallels to Cabaret.

7/10

[Takoma11]

I remember watching this a couple of times as a kid but then never hearing of it again and basically forgetting it existed until just now.

I can see that. When I was little we watched The Absent-Minded Professor and The Shaggy Dog many many times, and yet you talking about childhood watches is the first time I've thought of them in years.

The overall goofy nature of Visit to a Small Planet would make it more than passable fare for kids.

[KeyserCorleone]

Son. of. a. bitch. Lolita was amazing. I've never seen a dramedy like that before, and Sue Lyon was a perfect Lolita Hayes, Now I gotta go on a James Mason marathon.

[skizzerflake]

Bram Stoker's Dracula - :popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

Watching Coppola's Dracula, one I usually reserve for Halloween. This flick is so outrageously, rediculously, terrifically over the top, but if you've ever read the original, the book by Bram Stoker, allowing for a century of cultural change about what you can say in a book or movie, Coppola's version of the blood sucker really fits the book's feel, Victorian English supernatural craziness. Most of it was done with traditional stagecraft rather than digital FX, so it looks very retro. It has nearly lurid sex, like the original (adjusting for the time period), and Dracula does NOT look like Bela Lugosi, but a reanimated corpse.

It has Tom Waits as Renfield, a perfect casting decision with his gravel-voiced strangeness and Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, the raging vampire hunter. Winona Ryder as the fragile Mina is perfect and Keanu Reeves as the shallow Harker is just about right and red-haired Sadie Frost gets to play Lucy. There's even an American cowboy, Quincy (Stoker's name for an American cowboy), part of the retinue. This color-boosted Victorian parlor-horror is the one to see, the only version I recall that did show baby-eating, as in Stoker's book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMvD2Jlyy9U

[WHITBISSELL!]

Son. of. a. bitch. Lolita was amazing. I've never seen a dramedy like that before, and Sue Lyon was a perfect Lolita Hayes, Now I gotta go on a James Mason marathon.Odd Man Out.

It's directed by Carol Reed who also did two of my all time favorites, The Third Man and The Fallen Idol.

[KeyserCorleone]

Bram Stoker's Dracula - :popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

Watching Coppola's Dracula, one I usually reserve for Halloween. This flick is so outrageously, rediculously, terrifically over the top, but if you've ever read the original, the book by Bram Stoker, allowing for a century of cultural change about what you can say in a book or movie, Coppola's version of the blood sucker really fits the book's feel, Victorian English supernatural craziness. Most of it was done with traditional stagecraft rather than digital FX, so it looks very retro. It has nearly lurid sex, like the original (adjusting for the time period), and Dracula does NOT look like Bela Lugosi, but a reanimated corpse.

It has Tom Waits as Renfield, a perfect casting decision with his gravel-voiced strangeness and Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, the raging vampire hunter. Winona Ryder as the fragile Mina is perfect and Keanu Reeves as the shallow Harker is just about right and red-haired Sadie Frost gets to play Lucy. There's even an American cowboy, Quincy (Stoker's name for an American cowboy), part of the retinue. This color-boosted Victorian parlor-horror is the one to see, the only version I recall that did show baby-eating, as in Stoker's book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMvD2Jlyy9U

I love Bram Stoker's Dracula to death and back. However, you're the first I;'e seen compliment Reeves on his performance. Honestly, I thought he was a bit out of his depth. He didn't have all the raw emotion Harker had in the book and his accent was cheesy. I legit felt like I could've done a better acting job.

But I agree that Tom Waits was incredible in his role. Every time he was on screen, it was a real treat.

[Wooley]

As a dissenting voice, I saw Bram Stoker's Dracula in the theater and every few years I keep going back to it hoping it will be better than the last time I saw it but each time I just think it's a silly hot mess.

[Rockatansky]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thevideobeat.com%2Fmedia%2Fdescription-pix%2Fvisitsmallplanet.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Visit to a Small Planet, 1960

An alien youth called Kreton (Jerry Lewis) sneaks out of school and takes a trip to Earth, where he insinuates himself into the family of Major Spelding (Fred Clark). This includes an interest in Spelding's daughter, Ellen (Joan Blackman), much to the dismay of Ellen's boyfriend Conrad (Earl Holliman). Meanwhile, a neighbor tries to capture evidence of Kreton's alien origins.

There's a Portlandia sketch where a woman is making flirtatious eye contact with a man in her yoga class. Then at the end she goes to speak to him and he is whiny and petty and the spell is completely broken. This dynamic describes almost every sequence in Visit to a Small Planet.

I was underwhelmed by The Nutty Professor, and this film is certainly no gem either. But there's a frustrating number of times that Kreton, in his open naivete, is really likeable, only for over-the-top facial expressions or physical comedy to take things to a grating place.

There are some charming moments. A first drink of alcohol has Kreton walking up the walls and on to the ceiling in that old practical effects trick. Ellen and Kreton go to a beatnik gathering where Kreton ends up performing a dance with a woman, played by Barbara Bostock. Bostock is really funny in this role, and demonstrates a kind of controlled absurdity that would have made the rest of the film far more palatable.

The movie clips along with minor laughs, mainly courtesy of trained animals and practical effects/wirework. Lee Patrick is fun as the bustling Spelding matriarch who is totally nonplussed by any of the plot developments. Blackman is enjoyable as Ellen, but the character is hampered by corny dialogue and the requirement that she fall for Kreton.

Watchable, but nothing more.

3

As far as Lewis goes, I think The Bellboy, The Ladies Man and The Disorderly Orderly are the most appealing he's been. I generally find him easier to take as a performer when he's not talking, and the first two of those keep his dialogue to a minimum.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e9/Parallel_Mothers_poster.jpg
Parallel Mothers


3

SF = Zzz


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

[Takoma11]

Odd Man Out.

It's directed by Carol Reed who also did two of my all time favorites, The Third Man and The Fallen Idol.

Yeah, Odd Man Out is pretty great. Harrowing, but great.

[this_is_the_ girl]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-w5-ho2XxT3E%2FWDaxfOdw7WI%2FAAAAAAAABVE%2FfrS_fGfLfEU7XVzR-nFny4DO2R3tKu1tACLcB%2Fs1600%2Fboucher.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
Le Boucher (1970, Claude Chabrol)
4
Chabrol got on my radar after seeing the wonderful La Cérémonie, so I decided to try another film from him. This one could easily have been directed as a giallo/slasher horror movie but of course that's not what Chabrol is interested in, so what we get instead is a low-key psychological study focusing on the secret mental struggles and motivations of the characters, rather than the visceral horrors of the serial murder spree underpinning the plot. It's a movie about suspicion and obsession and their corrosive effects on relationships. There's a compelling mystery and a slow buildup of suspense - sort of like a Hitchcockian thriller, only in a French rural setting. No unexpected shocking plot twist at the end to shake things up, but did it really need one? I don't think so. I think it's just fine as it is.

[GulfportDoc]

Odd Man Out.

It's directed by Carol Reed who also did two of my all time favorites, The Third Man and The Fallen Idol.
Odd Man Out was a superb film, but grim. In fact it's grimness rather puts me in mind of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1963).

I loved The Fallen Idol, although I got sick of the kid continually whining, "Mr. Baines!":rolleyes: Some of the night street scenes previewed what was to come in the phenomenal The Third Man. Lovely.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Fw780%2FnKZv3YenW8gqztMMX2VkzBLPjmP.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown, 1957

Laurel (Jane Russell) is a movie star whose new film, The Kidnapped Bride, is about to hit theaters. But on the night of the premiere, Laurel is kidnapped for real by a recently exonerated prisoner, Mike (Ralph Meeker) and his slightly dim-witted friend, Dandy (Keenan Wynn). The only problem is, everyone assumes that Laurel's disappearance is a publicity stunt.

Movies are full of nice-guy kidnappers and their feisty female hostages, a weird variation on the romantic-comedy that has to get things just right or else end up coming off as actually pretty creepy, really stupid, or both. Unfortunately for The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown, many of its story beats are just a bit off and neither the romance nor the comedy land all that well.

One good example of the film failing to land correctly is an early moment where Laurel has first been kidnapped. Insisting that they let her out of the car, she struggles a bit with Mike while Dandy drives. Upset that she won't cooperate, Mike punches her in the face. Now, to be clear, this is a film where every major character sustains head trauma at some point. People get knocked on the head with everything from telephones to weighted wigs. But this punch in the car is just . . . a woman getting punched in the face. There's nothing funny about it, nothing slapstick in the way it is staged.

Russell does a pretty good job as Laurel, starting out as someone who is more manipulative, but then warming up to her captors as she learns more about them. The best comedy beats come from Laurel's immediate understanding that no one will believe that she has actually been kidnapped, and then her offence at the low amount they plan to demand from her studio as ransom. Wynn is fine as the dim Dandy. I suppose the character gets some credit for being like, "Hey, maybe let's not punch her in the face."

Ralph Meeker's acting in the film is weird, in that it feels like it belongs in a different, more serious film. Mike is stoic and withdrawn, and there is a character of a police detective who helped get him released from jail who notes that Mike is angry and that he worries about how Mike might lash out. This is all actually kind of interesting . . . but not in this movie. Meeker's Mike is too subdued, and it has the effect of making his moments of lashing out against Laurel feel really ugly. He's constantly telling her that she's a fake, that no one cares about her, that she's shallow, and mocks her for worrying about sexual assault (with that old chestnut, "Don't flatter yourself"). And this is in addition to frequently manhandling her and threatening her. If this were a thriller it would be perfect, but it isn't a thriller and it creates a rift in the tone of the film.

The movie does move along at a decent clip, so despite all of the stuff that doesn't quite work, it's not the worst way to spend 90 minutes. But with all of the talent present, it feels like there was a better movie in there somewhere.

3

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/11/Luxor_%28film%29.jpg/220px-Luxor_%28film%29.jpg

3.5

SF = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Emma_poster.jpeg
By http://www.impawards.com/2020/emma.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62400268

Emma - (2020)

Well, after enjoying Pride and Prejudice I thought why not give Emma a whirl considering it's a relatively new adaptation. It was pretty good, but I have to reserve the term "greatness" for it's production design, costumes and sumptuous visuals. It feels like a time machine, because there is so much detail and loving care put into making this look beautiful and authentic. I've never cared all that much about costume design before, but now I can't help but search out and watch Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, for that film won the Best Costume Design Oscar in 2021 - I would have been thinking Emma would have won (Best Makeup and Hairstyling also went to MRBB over Emma.) The story is in similar vein to Pride and Prejudice, being chiefly about rich and spoiled young ladies sorting out who they'll eventually marry. While this was the best looking thing I've seen in ages, I say bring on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom!

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f9/Martin_Eden_%282019_film%29.jpg
By The artwork is believed to be owned by the film's production companies. - https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/martin_eden, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61462187

Martin Eden - (2019)

I found Martin Eden a little bit boring, and the titular character insufferable. It's based on the Jack London novel, and updated to an indeterminate modern age (the 1970s would be my best guess.) Eden (played by Luca Marinelli) is a lower class sailor who crosses paths with a wealthy family after saving a young disabled guy from thugs. He peruses their library, gets quite taken with a few of the books there, and suddenly decides he wants to become a writer - despite only have a primary school education. He's blocked from entering university, and so decides to learn by himself - and thus his struggles begin. He writes non-stop, and has his writing rejected for years (his love leaves him, for he's a pauper who everyone sees as a dreamer.) Eventually, after years, he develops not only into one of the great writers, but also a political revolutionary. You know what? After writing about it, I kind of like it a little more - but it did drag a bit, and I still consider the central character to be a maddening and pretentious twat.

6/10

[Obi-Wan_Mifune]

As a dissenting voice, I saw Bram Stoker's Dracula in the theater and every few years I keep going back to it hoping it will be better than the last time I saw it but each time I just think it's a silly hot mess.

I may have been too young for it when it was out in theaters, but I do watch the Treehouse of Horror version every October, which I think is a heck of a lot more fun than Coppola’s version.

I was actually saying something similar to my partner tonight when we were watching The Shining (their idea for an ironic father’s day movie). Everything there is to get out of Kubrick’s nearly 3 hour movie I can get out of 8 minutes of Simpsons spoofing. And I do actually like that movie (just not nearly as much as most people, it seems). Coppola’s movie sure is pretty, but I get my fill of that iconic Dracula look pretty quick.

[StuSmallz]

"Homer, did you remember to lock the front door of the house?"


"...d'oh!":


https://youtu.be/cyQukqhP0UA

[Obi-Wan_Mifune]

Chipping away a bit more at my needlessly long backlog from the past week+.

Documentaries:

1. That’s Entertainment! (1974) — A bittersweet farewell to the MGM musical, even for somebody like me who generally can’t stand musicals, hates Code Era Hollywood and has always found MGM movies to be the most boring / removed from reality of the major studios (if I see that old lion roar, I can be pretty sure that I’m in for a bad time). Set amidst the studio’s crumbling backlot edifices and hosted by their broken-down stable of aging stars, it’s an invaluable introduction to the golden years of the MGM musical, even if it lacks a certain critical distance from it and is peppered with more than the occasional back-handed comment about the clips being shown. 4

2. That’s Entertainment! III (1994) — A bit of much needed perspective is included here that that the original lacked. A bit stiffer, granted, but an invaluable collection of footage, fascinating alternate takes / behind the scenes documentation and general introduction to Code Era musicals all the same. 4

3. Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach (2008) — An occasionally fascinating documentary about a successful college coach. It ended up being a bit too repetitive / shouty for me by the end of it, but Linklater’s narrative skills easily finds the through-line that most other documentarians would have struggled with. 3

4. That’s Entertainment, Part II (1976) — No matter how much more polished this is than the first movie, there’s no hiding that this is the unused B roll from MGM’s musical catalog, needlessly padded out by clips from a bunch of non-musicals. 3

5. Original Cast Album: Company (1970) — Some great music, but not much more interesting than listening to a soundtrack. 3

6. That’s Dancing! (1985) — Real “how do you do, Fellow Kids” vibes from this one. 2

[Wooley]

I may have been too young for it when it was out in theaters, but I do watch the Treehouse of Horror version every October, which I think is a heck of a lot more fun than Coppola’s version.

I was actually saying something similar to my partner tonight when we were watching The Shining (their idea for an ironic father’s day movie). Everything there is to get out of Kubrick’s nearly 3 hour movie I can get out of 8 minutes of Simpsons spoofing. And I do actually like that movie (just not nearly as much as most people, it seems). Coppola’s movie sure is pretty, but I get my fill of that iconic Dracula look pretty quick.

It is worth Bram Stoker's Dracula existing just for the Treehouse Of Horrors episode.
The Shining one is great too. "If we come back and everyone's slaughtered... I owe you a Coke."

[Yomi]

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
rating_4

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/Top_Gun_Maverick_Poster.jpg

[D54pod]

RRR (2021)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1513422368357912577/6FgmBymm_400x400.jpg

Finally saw this wicked insane masterpiece of a movie. Indian cinema unfortunately has a serious bad reputation due to the fact it mass produces so much garbage which has very little thought behind it, but movies like this prove there is gold in Indian cinema (and especially South Indian cinema). This movie took me back to the mid-90s early 00s with its relentless action sequences. I felt it was a little silly at the start, but after watching the main performers take everything so seriously I bought in quickly and just went along for the ride. One of my favourite movies of the year and hope to see more quality like this coming from India (ps I am Indian so I know what kind of crap quality comes out of India, as well as some really good movies which don't get appeal outside of Indian / Indians abroad like me).

If you like action, do check this out. It'll be well worth it.

[Torgo]

The Steel Helmet - 4

I enjoyed this lean and mean Korean War movie by Samuel Fuller as The Breakfast Club on the battlefield. I say this because as soon as our hulking, grizzled, no-nonsense Sgt. Zack - a very good Gene Evans - wakes up from a firefight that took out the rest of his squad, he meets a young South Korean man (whom he dubs Short Round) followed by other survivors of disparate backgrounds. They include a black medic, a private whose scarlet fever deprived him of his hair to a Japanese American Zack served with in the past and whom he affectionately calls "Buddha Head." Several questions rise from their interactions from why minorities like Thompson and Buddha Head bother fighting for America in spite of their poor treatment at home to whether the mental health of military lifers like Zack is properly treated or even considered. The latter comes to light in the movie's depiction of the "fog of war," which is both literal and imagined in a memorable climactic moment when Zack stands up, sees nothing but gun smoke and forgets whether he's fighting the North Koreans or the Germans. Like that John Hughes movie, it does not have much of a plot, but that is not a drawback since its conversations, reveals, resolutions of prejudices, what have you are more than enough to carry it forward. This is a war movie first and foremost, however, and when that's apparent, it's relentless and terrifying, especially in the aforementioned climax that occurs while our ragtag bunch takes refuge in a Buddhist temple. The finale drags a bit more than I would have liked, though, and kudos goes to Fuller and company for delivering on a low budget, but there are times when the cost cuts take away from the movie's poignancy, especially in the overuse of stock footage and in an obviously fake tank. Still, for its strong performances, uncompromising battle scenes and fearlessness in discussing still-taboo topics - the latter of which led kickstarted an FBI investigation and calls for Fuller's arrest, which I consider a victory - it's a highlight of Fuller's filmography.

[Stirchley]

Snooze Factor Ratings:

Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

Still the best ratings system in this movie forum.

[Gideon58]

https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/p_theemporersnewgrooves_19879_68ed235d.jpeg


4.5

[Rockatansky]

The Steel Helmet - 4

I enjoyed this lean and mean Korean War movie by Samuel Fuller as The Breakfast Club on the battlefield. I say this because as soon as our hulking, grizzled, no-nonsense Sgt. Zack - a very good Gene Evans - wakes up from a firefight that took out the rest of his squad, he meets a young South Korean man (whom he dubs Short Round) followed by other survivors of disparate backgrounds. They include a black medic, a private whose scarlet fever deprived him of his hair to a Japanese American Zack served with in the past and whom he affectionately calls "Buddha Head." Several questions rise from their interactions from why minorities like Thompson and Buddha Head bother fighting for America in spite of their poor treatment at home to whether the mental health of military lifers like Zack is properly treated or even considered. The latter comes to light in the movie's depiction of the "fog of war," which is both literal and imagined in a memorable climactic moment when Zack stands up, sees nothing but gun smoke and forgets whether he's fighting the North Koreans or the Germans. Like that John Hughes movie, it does not have much of a plot, but that is not a drawback since its conversations, reveals, resolutions of prejudices, what have you are more than enough to carry it forward. This is a war movie first and foremost, however, and when that's apparent, it's relentless and terrifying, especially in the aforementioned climax that occurs while our ragtag bunch takes refuge in a Buddhist temple. The finale drags a bit more than I would have liked, though, and kudos goes to Fuller and company for delivering on a low budget, but there are times when the cost cuts take away from the movie's poignancy, especially in the overuse of stock footage and in an obviously fake tank. Still, for its strong performances, uncompromising battle scenes and fearlessness in discussing still-taboo topics - the latter of which led kickstarted an FBI investigation and calls for Fuller's arrest, which I consider a victory - it's a highlight of Fuller's filmography.
Park Row is another good Fuller/Evans combo. Saw that one recently and enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Torgo]

Park Row is another good Fuller/Evans combo. Saw that one recently and enjoyed it quite a bit.Thanks, I hope to check out that one, White Dog, Forty Guns and The Big Red One some day. I discovered them in the great Fuller documentary The Typewriter, The Rifle and the Movie Camera, which is worth seeking out.

I'm glad I enjoyed this one because I didn't love Shock Corridor or Pickup on South Street. They're a little too melodramatic and over the top for me.

[Rockatansky]

Thanks, I hope to check out that one, White Dog, Forty Guns and The Big Red One some day. I discovered them in the great Fuller documentary The Typewriter, The Rifle and the Movie Camera, which is worth seeking out.

I'm glad I enjoyed this one because I didn't love Shock Corridor or Pickup on South Street. They're a little too melodramatic and over the top for me.

Haven't seen Forty Guns, but The Big Red One is probably my favourite from him, and White Dog has some nice pulpy energy.


I was mixed on Shock Corridor, so you're probably okay there, but Tak is a big Pickup on South Street fan, so she'll probably have your head for the latter.

[Wyldesyde19]

Where’s Mr Minio to defend the honor of Shock Corridor?

He had it in his recent top 300 films and as his top film from Fuller.

[crumbsroom]

Are there any Samuel Fuller movies that don't kind of veer into the melodramatic?


Fuller's films are this weird mix of realism and hyper realism, where there is an emotional truth to how he depicts his characters, but they are always distorted because of the world they live in. Even though he was a very very different director, Cassavetes is always what I think of when I think of Fullers world. Once one adjusts to the theatrics, their movies are the Truth. Even when it is something as dopey of Shock Corridor can be.


Also 40 Guns is easily one of his best. And Fixed Bayonets his most overlooked

[ThatDarnMKS]

Forty Guns is mandatory western viewing. Narratively, it’s a gender bent retelling of the Shootout at the OK Corral, if the leader of the Cowboys was a lovely lady that Wyatt Earp was romantically involved with. It’s Fuller’s aesthetic that makes it necessary cinema, as it’s arguably the birth of the Spaghetti Western style. It’s hard not to imagine Leone studying everything that was done in this film and adopting it’s visual language as his own (not that he didn’t expand and push those boundaries).

[Rockatansky]

And Fixed Bayonets his most overlooked

I've forgotten a lot about this, but there's one scene where a soldier crosses a frozen pond or something of the sort managed to worm its way into my brain. And I do remember some choice Gene Evans material.

[Takoma11]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Emma_poster.jpeg
By http://www.impawards.com/2020/emma.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62400268

Emma - (2020)

Well, after enjoying Pride and Prejudice I thought why not give Emma a whirl considering it's a relatively new adaptation. It was pretty good, but I have to reserve the term "greatness" for it's production design, costumes and sumptuous visuals. It feels like a time machine, because there is so much detail and loving care put into making this look beautiful and authentic. I've never cared all that much about costume design before, but now I can't help but search out and watch Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, for that film won the Best Costume Design Oscar in 2021

I really loved the new Emma, with stronger acting than any other adaptations and like you I LOVED the production and costume design. The clothing was practically its own character in the film, and the way that the interior spaces were put together was breathtaking.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom also has really solid costume design, though not in as colorful of a palate as Emma.

I'm glad I enjoyed this one because I didn't love Shock Corridor or Pickup on South Street. They're a little too melodramatic and over the top for me.

YOU TAKE THAT BACK! (And don't even think about looking in the direction of The Naked Kiss!)

[Torgo]

YOU TAKE THAT BACK! (And don't even think about looking in the direction of The Naked Kiss!)Uh oh. Rock was right.
I'll give it another chance someday with the mindset that it's supposed to be how I described it.

[Raven73]

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot
6.5/10.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81RCaO7D1sL._AC_SY550_.jpg

Given a title like that, I fully expected it to be a silly movie, but it was actually quite good, until the protagonist meets bigfoot, that is, then everything went downhill.
I honestly would have liked it if, after bigfoot barfed all over him, that our protagonist got sick, and then gradually turned into bigfoot himself. That at least would explain why you never see more than one bigfoot at a time.

[Rockatansky]

Uh oh. Rock was right.

https://c.tenor.com/oAS42RvcRTYAAAAC/he-admit-it-admit-it.gif

[Takoma11]

Uh oh. Rock was right.
I'll give it another chance someday with the mindset that it's supposed to be how I described it.

My friend, if you are lucky, Shock Corridor and Pickup on South Street will give YOU another chance.

*imagine some dramatic exit here* *door slam*

[Little Ash]

This is the part where I embarrassingly admit the only Samuel Fuller I've seen is Shark, and that was over 20 years ago.

[crumbsroom]

This is the part where I embarrassingly admit the only Samuel Fuller I've seen is Shark, and that was over 20 years ago.


Somehow you found one of the rarest and worst of all Fuller jams.

[crumbsroom]

I've forgotten a lot about this, but there's one scene where a soldier crosses a frozen pond or something of the sort managed to worm its way into my brain. And I do remember some choice Gene Evans material.


You remember more than me. I don't even remember the bayonets. But I remember my response to it and it was a very good one.

[ThatDarnMKS]

No one has brought up 3 of my favorite Fuller flicks so I’ll toss em out there:

Underworld USA
House of Bamboo
Crimson Kimono

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Focc-0-1149-299.1.nflxso.net%2Fdnm%2Fapi%2Fv6%2FE8vDc_W8CLv7-yMQu8KMEC7Rrr8%2FAAAABa6_OUq_biwo_V8xP-slobwPzbNULG-Twiue9zCmQmJo2aODAbtQ9XyLCXP45KYO9wyR6U36b0AMGkW-LyDkirzLQV0mnkBkM9Oj.jpg%3Fr%3D074&f=1&nofb=1

The Ledge, 2022

Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) is on a trip with her friend Sophie (Anais Parello) to climb a dangerous cliff face. The trip is complicated as it is the anniversary of Kelly husband, Luca, dying during a climb that the couple was doing together. The night before the women are set to begin their climb, they hang out with a group of dudes who turn out to be very bad news. Their leader, Josh (Ben Lamb), tries to rape Sophie and then murders her when she fights back. Kelly captures footage of the men disposing of Sophie's body and then must go on the run---straight up the cliff face--as they pursue her to get the evidence.

I mean, really.

There's a well-worn trope about characters in horror movies doing the stupidest things that get them killed. But what this film shows is even worse is characters who clearly, CLEARLY know better and still make horrible decisions.

Setting aside the characters, the biggest disappointment here is the lack of climbing. Everything is exciting as the chase up the cliff begins, but then Kelly sort of gets stranded on a small ledge in the rock and the film gets stranded with her. It all turns into long conversations, the men badgering Kelly and trying to negotiate with her, and the occasional burst of violence. There are a few white-knuckle moments, but too much run time burns up in conversations that don't really go anywhere.

And this is where the problem with the characters comes in. The worst are Sophie and Josh. Sophie is so abrasive and clueless that it's painful spending time with her. She is rude and patronizing, and it just doesn't quite add up that such a plain spoken person would be so absolutely oblivious as to the danger she's in from these men. She watches Josh roughly grab Kelly, yet doesn't hesitate to hang around with the men by herself when Kelly decides to go to bed. The character of Josh is just as bad. He's a one-dimensional psychopath whose misogyny and disdain for everyone else is his only defining characteristic.

What complicates everything is the rest of the dude crew. They know how bad Josh is---as we slowly learn about a horrific crime they committed at Josh's behest when they were teenagers---and yet they repeatedly take him at his word. One character repeatedly calls Josh out, to the point that he tackles him away from Sophie as he's assaulting her and later tells the other men that Josh has taken things too far and is dangerous. Yet when a character disappears and Josh says , "Oh he just decided to walk down the mountain," this character believes him! It's frustrating and baffling.

If there had been more action it might have been easier to overlook the underdeveloped characters. But there's way too much talking and far too little adrenaline-churning stuff.

There's also the fact that almost all of the actors are not American, yet constantly reference the fact that they are American and from California. This is particularly egregious in the actors playing Sophie and Josh, but noticeable in the rest of the cast. It gives all of the dialogue a tortured cadence. This is a British film and the actors are mostly British so, like, why?!

2.5

[Rockatansky]

No one has brought up 3 of my favorite Fuller flicks


Looks like somebody just did.

Underworld USA
House of Bamboo
Crimson Kimono
Nice try.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Looks like somebody just did.


Nice try.
I’m not no one? I’m a someone?

Hey, ma! I’m someone!!! I’m SOMEONE!!!

[Rockatansky]

I’m not no one? I’m a someone?

Hey, ma! I’m someone!!! I’m SOMEONE!!!
On second thought, I retract the above post.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F474x%2F90%2F22%2Fee%2F9022eed63112e1b1435ea870f545dd86.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Are Husbands Necessary?, 1942

George (Ray Milland) and Liz (Betty Field) are a married couple navigating the stressful process of adopting a baby as George tries to move up the ladder at his banking job. But when George starts hanging around with an old flame, Myra (Patricia Morison), things get especially frantic.

I've decided that maybe none of us need to write reviews when there exist such gems as the review for this film from the time of its release, written by Bosley Crowther. I mean, who needs to say more than For here again, out of the pages of Isabel Rorick's "Mr. and Mrs. Cugat," is the same bird-brained "little woman" who has been seen countless times before — Maisie, Mrs. North, Gracie Allen, all the way back to Dulcy—the cheery little wife who debonairely hangs herself on the family budget, meddles with disastrous consequences in her long-suffering husband's career, frets herself into a dizzy when he starts playing around with an old flame but, by some miraculous fortune, pulls everything to rights in the end. . . a lady who lets her bills drag on from month to month is an anachronism. So is this farce.?

Anyway, the gist of the quoted review pretty much sums up how I felt about the film. Both halves of the couple are pretty hard to take. She's flighty and a total screw-up, while his character is that irritating kind of patient that makes him seem condescending rather than kind. They actually both manage to mess things up, then scramble to make amends, then mess things up again. It's also really weird that George doesn't consider how his wife might feel sitting around watching him flirt with an old girlfriend while their friends all remark on how good a couple they were.

I did like a few isolated sequences. While the "wifey doesn't understand money" sequence is insulting, Field is at least very funny as she explains her system for sorting out their bills. Also, kudos to whoever provided her with a belt that says LIZ, because that was the biggest laugh I got out of the movie. Milland has natural charisma, but it largely doesn't shine past the flat writing. Morison is nice enough, but somewhat stranded in a thankless role.

The ridiculous title is the best thing about it.

2.5

[ThatDarnMKS]

On second thought, I retract the above post.
At least I still get to be correct. The only victory that matters to me.

[Rockatansky]

At least I still get to be correct. The only victory that matters to me.
Sorry, AvP rules apply here. Whoever wins, you lose.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Sorry, AvP rules apply here. Whoever wins, you lose.
But I won… and I’m not you.

Am I?

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F474x%2F90%2F22%2Fee%2F9022eed63112e1b1435ea870f545dd86.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Are Husbands Necessary?, 1942

George (Ray Milland) and Liz (Betty Field) are a married couple navigating the stressful process of adopting a baby as George tries to move up the ladder at his banking job. But when George starts hanging around with an old flame, Myra (Patricia Morison), things get especially frantic.

I've decided that maybe none of us need to write reviews when there exist such gems as the review for this film from the time of its release, written by Bosley Crowther. I mean, who needs to say more than For here again, out of the pages of Isabel Rorick's "Mr. and Mrs. Cugat," is the same bird-brained "little woman" who has been seen countless times before — Maisie, Mrs. North, Gracie Allen, all the way back to Dulcy—the cheery little wife who debonairely hangs herself on the family budget, meddles with disastrous consequences in her long-suffering husband's career, frets herself into a dizzy when he starts playing around with an old flame but, by some miraculous fortune, pulls everything to rights in the end. . . a lady who lets her bills drag on from month to month is an anachronism. So is this farce.?

Anyway, the gist of the quoted review pretty much sums up how I felt about the film. Both halves of the couple are pretty hard to take. She's flighty and a total screw-up, while his character is that irritating kind of patient that makes him seem condescending rather than kind. They actually both manage to mess things up, then scramble to make amends, then mess things up again. It's also really weird that George doesn't consider how his wife might feel sitting around watching him flirt with an old girlfriend while their friends all remark on how good a couple they were.

I did like a few isolated sequences. While the "wifey doesn't understand money" sequence is insulting, Field is at least very funny as she explains her system for sorting out their bills. Also, kudos to whoever provided her with a belt that says LIZ, because that was the biggest laugh I got out of the movie. Milland has natural charisma, but it largely doesn't shine past the flat writing. Morison is nice enough, but somewhat stranded in a thankless role.

The ridiculous title is the best thing about it.

2.5

I vigorously reject any disparagement of Maisie. Maisie was the shit. She was always the one who made everything right.

[Rockatansky]

But I won… and I’m not you.

Am I?
https://i.imgur.com/0JKp9PU.gif

[SpelingError]

But I won… and I’m not you.

Am I?
How about we flip a coin to settle it. Heads I win, tails you lose.

[MovieGal]

87628
The Rental
(2021)

Dave Franco's directorial debut and wasn't bad at all. Had some great kills, imo.

[Obi-Wan_Mifune]

Going on with my piecemeal viewing recap from the past two weeks, here are some rewatches I’ve worked through in that time:

Finding Nemo (2003) — For the longest time, my favorite Pixar movie (supplanted in recent years by Inside Out). Although the limits of the animation can be seen in the margins, everything in it holds up really well. 5

Encanto (2021) x3 — it gets regular play because my kid loves it so much (the fact that it’s hands down one of last year’s best movies certainly doesn’t hurt anything. 5

Moana (2016) x2 — Another favorite in regular rotation around here. 4

Zootopia (2016) — My kids been more into animals lately, so this one coming around again doesn’t surprise me. 4

Toy Story (1995) — My partner doesn’t like my take on the franchise-spanning narrative of the series (the child of a single mother outgrowing the traditional symbols of masculinity that informed his father’s generation — e.g., a cowboy and an astronaut — as he comes of age in his own right), but we both can at least agree that character work at the heart of the movie is unimpeachably excellent and that the animation mostly holds up since everything’s already supposed to inhuman and plasticky. 4

Nobody (2021) — A rougher, more grounded John Wick that’s a Hell of a lot of fun in its own right. Great cast, great finale and a lot smarter than it needed to be. 4

From Russia with Love (1963) — As I recall, one of the better classic Bonds (although I’ve been working toward a full franchise rewatch for a while now). 4

The Hills Have Eyes (2006) — Basically an American New French Extremity film (given the director tapped for the project, it’s a perfect marriage of filmmaker with film project). Gruesome, intense and really outshines the so-so original. 4

The Last Unicorn (1982) — Way darker in spots than it ever had to be (which I appreciated a lot) and has an absolutely stacked cast. Plus there’s that America theme song and Rankin & Bass animation. 4

Logan Lucky (2017) — Honestly, it’s a better heist film than Ocean’s Eleven (let alone the awful sequels), with just as stacked a cast and a much more fun premise. 4

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014) — My introduction to Jarmusch was the scattershot The Dead Don’t Die, but this one is way more my speed: a dark mood piece that I could really vibe too. 4

Night of the Comet (1984) — A really fun, campy zombie movie with a light 80’s feel to it. Not much more too it than that, not that it needs to be. 4

The Mummy (1999) — Basically the platonic ideal of an action-adventure movie: great cast, great effects, great set pieces, rock-solid script. 4

The Shining (1980) — A lot of missed opportunities, even if the movie’s still great overall. Kubrick seems weirdly ill-suited to the material in practice even if he otherwise appears perfect for it on paper (same as Zack Snyder with his DC movies or Michael Bay with Transformers). The script really could have used another thorough pass, the runtime a judicious trim and I’m unsure if the kid was bad or if Kubrick is just bad with kids (he had great chemistry with all of the adult actors, so I’m more inclined to think the latter). It does hit a bit harder post-pandemic. 4

Kick-Ass (2010) — Pretty fun, although it’s only kind of okay. 3

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) — Now that’s some Reagan Era bullshit. 3

Rambo III (1988) — The action’s not even very good this time around. 2

Blade Trinity (2004) — I just watched this one too, but my spouse really wanted to finish watching the trilogy. It’s just as awful as it was the last time, too. 1

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Talk_to_Her_poster.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56187636

Talk to Her - (2002)

This particularly satisfied me, for it not only catered to my need for something a little disturbing and unusual, but did it in a way where I could admire filmmaking skill, and themes that resonate beyond Spanish culture. It had the works, including a great cast (does Javier Cámara always look that creepy?) who I wouldn't have minded watching all day. There's so much of Pedro Almodóvar's work that I haven't seen yet, but everything I have seen has had a distinct impact on me and been memorable. Talk to Her really clicked with what excites me about film, despite this one eventually becoming something unsettling and sickly - everything outside of that awful act by a deluded man had an awful beauty. But like those terrible bullfighting contests, part of that beauty is absolutely terrible.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Ma_Rainey%27s_Black_Bottom_film_poster.jpg
By Netflix - Netflix, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65593982

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - (2020)

I was compelled to see this because I really wanted to see how it could possibly have costumes and hair-styling that's better than what I saw in Emma - and while I still don't think it does, I've been meaning to see this for a while anyway. For the most part it was awfully good, but there was something about the very last thing that happens in it that rubbed me the wrong way. Like it didn't fit into what I'd been watching up till that moment. I came to this a big fan of Fences, and so I'm not all that surprised I found myself enjoying it so much - although I've seen nothing of August Wilson's work on stage. It's basically a group of musicians arguing backstage for 94 minutes - occasionally interrupted by the terrifying Ma Rainey (Viola Davis - who is great) - but that would be selling it way short, for it packs so much drama into a tight confine, much like most plays do. It's something I really like, but that final moment just took me out of what felt like such a natural, believable atmosphere. I admit, it added meaning - especially when you see what happens to the songs of Levee Green (played by Chadwick Boseman - who was nominated for an Oscar along with Davis) - but it was fantastical that he'd do what he did - what I believe he wanted to do to somebody else. Overall though, this was a really great film.

7.5/10

[Gideon58]

https://thumbnails.cbsig.net/CBS_Production_Entertainment_VMS/2022/04/24/2026378307988/JMGL_SAlone_16_9_1920x1080_1378845_1920x1080.jpg



4

[Gideon58]

[QUOTE=Obi-Wan_Mifune;2309339]Going on with my piecemeal viewing recap from the past two weeks, here are some rewatches I’ve worked through in that time:


Nobody (2021) — A rougher, more grounded John Wick that’s a Hell of a lot of fun in its own right. Great cast, great finale and a lot smarter than it needed to be. 4






Nice to see see some love for this movie...I thought it was fantastic, gave it the same rating/

[cricket]

A Quiet Place II (2020)

3

https://i0.wp.com/www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/tumblr_dc48b2d588660d82f70db6537bb76c0b_4a7b35e5_540.gif?ssl=1

I liked the first one more. It wasn't extremely original but at least it had a hook. This one is more about the action which has been done before, but it was still fun to watch. The sound was wild going from very loud effects to dialogue I struggled to hear.

[SuperMetro]

WR: Mysteries of the Organism
So late at night on Sunday, I saw the most unique documentary I have ever seen:
https://dangerousminds.net/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/tulifjfjfjfjfjfjfjf_465_337_int.jpg
This movie had multiple themes such as sex, death, and communism. All three of
these ideas made me both comfortable and uncomfortable while watching this one.
The parts that stuck in my head included the woman who promoted free love and
later dated a Russian skater who chops her head off, the Jackie Curtis character who ate the ice cream with her partner(really confused what gender she was when watching it,
since she walked like a woman and talked like a man. Like Lola from that Kinks song), and also that unconventionally dressed man from the Fugs who believed you must "Kill for Peace" while holding a gun and rubbing it.

So again, I was disgusted and entertained by this movie at the same time. I felt
disgusted probably because of the pro-communist ideas(justified since Serbia is
European), and the song/hymn about it. I also hated the "Kill For Peace" song,
because it was not a nice song. Well I guess that is what nations think when they go at
war. I also felt discomforted by the avant-garde music playing when the sex scenes
were happening. However, I liked that too. I was about to turn the movie off at the
hour mark due my frustrations with these weird scenes, but then I realized that it
was hypocrisy, since I enjoyed The Holy Mountain when I saw it. After the last
20 minutes, it went from my least-favorite movie to a really good movie, since all of the
plots were wrapped up(I also liked the song that concluded the movie).

So, would I want to watch this one again? Probably so, it is less than 90 minutes and
was a thrill of a ride. Did I expect it to be the most disgusting move? No! This movie will
probably look like a cake walk compared to if I ever saw Salo, The 120 Days of
Sodom. I must have felt the same way about this movie as I did with the Czech movie
Daisies, a movie that I was weirded out by, but later came to say I really liked
them after I was done finishing them. I could almost think of myself saying, "What the hell
was that," after I was done watching this South Eastern European amusement park ride of a film.
3.5

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.olympicchannel.com%2Fimages%2Fimage%2Fprivate%2Ft_16-9_760%2Ff_auto%2Fq_auto%2Fprimary%2Fwppzvadvfirixv3ikpaq&f=1&nofb=1

White Vertigo, 1956

This documentary covers the action at the 1956 winter Olympics in Italy.

Despite having lost interest in the Olympics in the last few years, I have enjoyed several documentaries of the older games. That said, this one didn't quite hit the mark for me.

Something that several Olympics documentaries do that I just don't care for is spending a lot of time on the opening and closing ceremonies. I'm not all that into pomp and circumstance, and I start to get antsy when I'm 20 minutes into a sporting documentary and I've yet to see any sports.

The actual coverage of the competition is okay, but the format chosen for the film---cutting back and forth between two different sports---takes a lot of tension out of the proceedings. Then there's the stylistic choice to announce the results as we are watching the events. As a skier prepares to go down the hill, the narrator will say, "And here's Smith, about to place 6th."

I was very charmed by the footage of the figure skating. It's also interesting to see the relatively older age of the competitors. There are some enjoyable (if a bit goofy) sequences showing the athletes lounging around their cabin-like accommodations in their matching outfits.

Nothing awful, nothing special. A handful of unfortunate old-timey racist/sexist remarks.

3

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/The_Innocents_%281961_film%29.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37805438

The Innocents - (1961)

Around and around in my head it went last night. "Were the apparitions real? Or was it all in her mind? Were they real? Or all in her mind? Real or in her mind?" The Innocents very deliberately creates room for doubt, and this doubt creates a lot of tension, for Deborah Kerr's Miss Giddens becomes obsessed and hysterical to the point of overshadowing what were two little creepy kids that were either really, really naughty or possessed by the spirits of the dead. One thing I know is that I'd never go work at a place where the 'Time Since Last Workplace Death' counter rarely gets to double figures. The kids are eerie and strange, but so is Miss Giddens compared to the rest of the adults in this, with a spectacularly rosy demeanor which is so brittle you have to wonder what kind of repression and skeletons are hiding in her attic. After the film I turned the lights off and kept hearing strange noises in the dark...kudos to Jack Clayton, and especially Truman Capote.

8/10

[PHOENIX74]

Then there's the stylistic choice to announce the results as we are watching the events. As a skier prepares to go down the hill, the narrator will say, "And here's Smith, about to place 6th."

Hehe. That's why television stations should never hire sports commentators who are also psychic.

[Wooley]

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014) — My introduction to Jarmusch was the scattershot The Dead Don’t Die, but this one is way more my speed: a dark mood piece that I could really vibe too. 4

Night of the Comet (1984) — A really fun, campy zombie movie with a light 80’s feel to it. Not much more too it than that, not that it needs to be. 4


I actually enjoyed tDDD, though I admit its flaws, but OLLA is a movie that really stuck with me (and my friends, for that matter).

Night Of The Comet has been a low-key favorite movie of mine since I saw it in theaters and I don't care what anyone says, I think the movie has a heart and a brain and is also fun and I don't know what the hell more you want.

[Rockatansky]

Night Of The Comet has been a low-key favorite movie of mine since I saw it in theaters and I don't care what anyone says, I think the movie has a heart and a brain and is also fun and I don't know what the hell more you want.
It also stars the great Kelli Maroney.


A rare movie that checks all the boxes.

[Deschain]

I watched Black Bear, which I never heard anyone mention outside of Aubrey Plaza briefly promoting it on her social media. But it’s got a 90% on Rotty Ts so I gave it a shot. It’s a nifty little mindtrip of a movie that I’m not sure I fully understand but enjoy speculating on. Excellent performances too. And I wouldn’t have known about it if I wasn’t cyber-stalking my celebrity crush. :D

[Folgersboy]

Jurassic World: Dominion C-

I found this Jurassic Park entry mildly amusing, but ultimately thought that there were too many characters and not enough story.

Was that the worst villain in movie history, or what?

[Torgo]

The Two Faces of January - 4

Taking place in beautiful, sun-kissed Greece, our guide in The Two Faces of January - literally and figuratively - is tour guide and American ex-patriate Rydal (Oscar Isaac), who's on the outs with his family, having skipped his dad's funeral. Hardly the trustworthy type, he uses his good looks to woo his mostly American, college-aged female customers and his fluency in Greek to swindle them at the local bazaar. Rydal befriends married couple Chester and Colette (Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst) - partly due to Chester reminding him of his dad - and soon learns they're as shady as himself. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, he becomes their ticket to safety and perhaps his next mark.

This movie lends credence to the argument that the best acting occurs in confined spaces. Proving that they're not just movie stars, sparks fly whenever Isaac and Mortensen engage in their many close-quartered games of one-upmanship. Dunst is no less impressive in her more passive role for how her facial expressions speak volumes. Credit also goes to cinematographer Marcel Zyskind for accentuating the natural beauty of the Mediterranean setting and for making the more off the beaten path locales seem like no places for tourists. Like so many other noirs, this one is hard to say much about for fear of spoiling it - complimenting its surprises seems like a spoiler in and of itself - but I'll praise them anyway. They all took me for a loop and made me wonder how any of our gang would have a leg to stand on afterwards. After all, Hossein Amini, who made his feature directorial debut with this movie, wrote Drive and considers Le Samourai his bible, is no stranger to good noir. Presumably because it underperformed, he hasn't directed a movie since, which is a shame because he shows potential.

The movie is not without its flaws: whether they're a product of the source material of Amini's script, members of the trio sometimes make decisions that raise red flags. There are also some developments that are implied that I wish had been shown instead. It ended up exceeding my expectations anyway for how it works as noir and as a story about how complicated the father-son relationship can become. I watched it on Father's Day, and while it may actually be an anti-Father's Day movie, watching it on that holiday made the experience all the more resonant.

[Little Ash]

I watched Black Bear, which I never heard anyone mention outside of Aubrey Plaza briefly promoting it on her social media. But it’s got a 90% on Rotty Ts so I gave it a shot. It’s a nifty little mindtrip of a movie that I’m not sure I fully understand but enjoy speculating on. Excellent performances too. And I wouldn’t have known about it if I wasn’t cyber-stalking my celebrity crush. :D


I saw this show up on a friend's letterboxd account. I don't really know what they thought about it, but it got my curiosity piqued and it's on my proverbial, "I want to get to this one soon," list. Like, "near-near future soon," not, "sometime this year" soon.

[Allaby]

I watched Black Bear, which I never heard anyone mention outside of Aubrey Plaza briefly promoting it on her social media. But it’s got a 90% on Rotty Ts so I gave it a shot. It’s a nifty little mindtrip of a movie that I’m not sure I fully understand but enjoy speculating on. Excellent performances too. And I wouldn’t have known about it if I wasn’t cyber-stalking my celebrity crush. :D

I liked Black Bear, but found it somewhat confusing. I'm not sure I totally understood it, but Aubrey Plaza is great in it and the film was interesting. I rated it a 3.5.

[Allaby]

Mardi Gras Massacre (1978) This was actually pretty good. It's a satisfying and entertaining film that gives the viewer exactly what you expect. If you like to watch naked women being killed, then this is the movie for you! 3.5

[Wooley]

It also stars the great Kelli Maroney.


A rare movie that checks all the boxes.
And the wonderful Catherine Mary Stewart.
I actually did a write-up of NotC where I talked about spending half my life looking for my Reg.

[Rockatansky]

And the wonderful Catherine Mary Stewart.


Let's make it a double date. :)

[Captain Steel]

Too Many Cooks (1931)

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTM3YTcyNTYtZjdkZC00ZGFkLThlNzYtNGM1N2M1M2ZlZWRjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDI5Mjc0MQ@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg

I enjoyed this amusing little film that ran 1 hour & 17 minutes.

A romantic comedy about an engaged couple (Al & Alice) about to build their dream home, but become besieged by family members that want to butt in.
The title is a pun because Alice's family name is "Cook" and she has a bevy of interfering relatives, but Al has an uncle (his only relative) who holds money & employment over the young man's head in order to obtain a room in the future house. And each of the betrothed has a best friend (who can't stand each other upon meeting) who also stick their noses in.

Not uproariously funny or slapstick, the humor is subtle and the acting is a bit stunted with the way lines are delivered - typical for an early "talkie," yet a very engaging little story (and Dorothy Lee as Alice is a real cutie)!

3.5

[Gideon58]

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/BPHHB5/film-poster-american-pie-2-2001-BPHHB5.jpg



3.5

[Thief]

THE HEART OF THE WORLD
(2000, Maddin)

https://i.imgur.com/fEMeDAQ.jpg


"Tragic calculations! Triple-checked! No mistakes! The world is dying of heart failure!"



Set in an alternate reality, The Heart of the World follows Anna (Leslie Lais), a scientist studying the Earth's core (or "heart"). As she is being courted by two brothers: Nikolai (Shaun Balbar) and Osip (Caelum Vatnsdal), a theater actor, she discovers that the "heart" of the world is in danger and she must warn the population to avoid a catastrophe.

This is a very interesting short film, not only for its odd plot but mostly for the way it is constructed. Writer and director Guy Maddin set out to make a film that was as frenetic as possible, at roughly two shots per second, but also constructed in a style that is reminiscent of very early German and Russian silent films, like Metropolis.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2309976#post2309976) and the 5th Short HoF thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2309978#post2309978)

[Obi-Wan_Mifune]

I just finished a big collection of Blaxploitation movies on the Criterion Channel today ahead of them disappearing at the end of the month. Honestly, I’ve always loved Blaxploitation movies more than your more typical New Hollywood movie. It’s amazing what centering something other than the usual string of White guys will do, even if the movies are admittedly much rougher around the edges. Top of the Heap and Sugar Hill were a pair of especially delightful discoveries, and I’m always up for a good Larry Cohen movie (and this collection had two).

Beyond Blaxploitation:

1. Top of the Heap (1972) 4
2. Original Gangstas (1996) 4
3. Sugar Hill (1974) 4
4. Black Caesar (1973) 4
5. Three the Hard Way (1974) 4
6. Cleopatra Jones (1973) 4
7. Trouble Man (1972) 4
8. Across 110th Street (1972) 4
9. Shaft’s Big Score (1972) 4
10. J.D.’s Revenge (1976) 4
11. Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song (1971) 3
12. Truck Turner (1974) 3
13. Thomasine & Bushrod (1974) 3
14. Coonskin (1975) 3
15. Friday Foster (1975) 3
16. Blackbelt Jones (1974) 3
17. Space Is the Place (1974) 3
18. Dolemite ((1975) 3
19. Petey Wheatstraw (1977) 3
20. Lord Shango (1975) 2
21. Abar, the First Black Superman (1977) 2

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/8c9dbtrF/sunset.jpg
By "Copyright 1950 Paramount Pictures Corporation" - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85715545

Sunset Boulevard - (1950)

This always stuck out as one of the all time greats that I hadn't seen - but from last night I can cross it off the list, and oh boy, I had a great time with it. I never knew much about it, for as time went on I avoided learning anything at all so I could go into it completely fresh and unexpectant. I did not know the story would focus solely on a relationship between the 'hard on his luck' Joe Gillis (William Holden) and faded silent screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) - I thought the plot would be more intricate. This simplicity is right up my alley, and I found there was a gold mine in the camera's withering, unflattering gaze at a guy doing something morally objectionable, and a lady not wanting to let go of a gloried past. I was especially shocked to suddenly find Buster Keaton during the card game scene. I loved Sunset Boulevard more than words can say, and far more than I was expecting to, despite it's reputation.

10/10

https://i.postimg.cc/8kRySrrL/in-the-name-of-the-land.jpg
By Pathé, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60259526

In the Name of the Land - (2019)

I was shocked into giving this a high rating due to it's unbelievable ending - apparently, farming in France is so fraught with difficulties financial and practical that a French farmer commits suicide every 2 days on average. Can that be accurate? A suicide every couple of days? In this, a young man, Pierre (Guillaume Canet) inherits a farm from his father and raises a family there, but soon he has to expand to be able to pay of loans, and that expansion leads to more debt, and more work, which makes life hard. When the goat shed burns in an unexpected blaze (shades of Minari) Pierre becomes clinically depressed - eventually terrorizing his own loved ones with bouts of madness. This is based on director Edouard Bergeon's own life, and got him a nomination for a César Award for Best First Feature Film. It remains, to this date, his only feature - but it's a good one.

7.5/10

[Death Proof]

The Thing - 10/10

[Torgo]

The Wolf of Snow Hollow - 4

Jim Cummings continues to prove his expertise at telling stories about and at playing men whose professional and personal crises reveal their identities in this always entertaining horror comedy. Like in Thunder Road, he's a cop again - this time in a small Utah skiing town - but he's dealing with a different (and possibly actual) monster: a serial killer who attacks at midnight and only when there's a full moon. With each kill, Cummings' Jim Marshall loses more of his composure, and as a result, risks acquiring his next AA chip. To make matters worse, his relationship with his rising college freshman daughter becomes even more tenuous.

I like how Marshall's increasing strain and one step forward, two steps back progress ride a fine line between making you laugh and feel bad for him at the same time. This is partly because Jim's such a good actor and has an endearing presence, but I also give credit to him for experimenting with more sophisticated filming techniques, one highlight being the cross cuts between the attacks with the places Marshall hid his booze. These techniques combined with the increasing body count earn the movie its horror label. The rest of the cast also hold their own, my favorites being Riki Lindhome as Marshall's partner - whose loyalty likely keeps him employed - and Chloe East as Jim's daughter for how she never hesitates to call out her dad's failings. It's also nice to see Robert Forster - sadly for the last time - as the sheriff and Jim's ad. Oh, and I'm sure other reviewers have called out how well the movie parallels lycanthropy with the toxicity of Marshall and the town's most dudebro residents and visitors, but I'll do it anyway.

Could this movie be described as Thunder Road with a werewolf? Maybe. Despite the horror elements, Arnaud and Marshall are not terribly different, nor are their relationships with their families and co-workers. The police procedural serial killer story also has plenty of familiar beats. It's still great, and since Cummings is relatively new to feature filmmaking, I get that he wants to stick to familiar territory and establish his brand before trying something else. Besides, as I stated above, I was invested in the story and the characters enough to disregard any familiarity. It ends up being an funny and chilling little movie that's an effective reminder of how dangerous - or is it authentic - we are when we're pushed to our limit. It's also bound to make you want to know everything about Jim Cummings' career plans.

[this_is_the_ girl]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BMGJlNWYyMzktN2NhZS00NGNmLWFiYTctYWUwMjg0YjIwOTkzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MD I5NjE%40._V1_FMjpg_UX1010_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
Birth (2004, Jonathan Glazer)
2.5
I really liked Under the Skin (flawed masterpiece and kind of underrated imo), so I was curious to delve deeper into Glazer's body of work. This movie came up, and it piqued my interest due to its subject (reincarnation). Within the first 20 minutes it became painfully obvious there was something way off about Birth and the rest of the movie sadly reinforced that impression, which is a shame because it could have turned out so, so much better and creepier, had it been served with a better script. That's not to say it's a complete waste of time though (it wasn't for me anyway). Despite all the badness, there are some fine moments here that are strangely fascinating, like Joseph's meltdown scene, or that creepy scene when Clara confronts the boy, or the ending scene on the beach. The huge problem is the script which makes key parts of the film unconvincing and ineffective, and the film suffers as a whole.

[Wooley]

https://i.postimg.cc/8c9dbtrF/sunset.jpg
By "Copyright 1950 Paramount Pictures Corporation" - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85715545

Sunset Boulevard - (1950)

This always stuck out as one of the all time greats that I hadn't seen - but from last night I can cross it off the list, and oh boy, I had a great time with it. I never knew much about it, for as time went on I avoided learning anything at all so I could go into it completely fresh and unexpectant. I did not know the story would focus solely on a relationship between the 'hard on his luck' Joe Gillis (William Holden) and faded silent screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) - I thought the plot would be more intricate. This simplicity is right up my alley, and I found there was a gold mine in the camera's withering, unflattering gaze at a guy doing something morally objectionable, and a lady not wanting to let go of a gloried past. I was especially shocked to suddenly find Buster Keaton during the card game scene. I loved Sunset Boulevard more than words can say, and far more than I was expecting to, despite it's reputation.

10/10



I had the same experience when I saw it, I was really impressed by how it still managed to meet or exceed my expectations despite expectations.

[this_is_the_ girl]

I watched Black Bear, which I never heard anyone mention outside of Aubrey Plaza briefly promoting it on her social media. But it’s got a 90% on Rotty Ts so I gave it a shot. It’s a nifty little mindtrip of a movie that I’m not sure I fully understand but enjoy speculating on. Excellent performances too. And I wouldn’t have known about it if I wasn’t cyber-stalking my celebrity crush. :D
Very good film!

[Wooley]

The Wolf of Snow Hollow - 4

Jim Cummings continues to prove his expertise at telling stories about and at playing men whose professional and personal crises reveal their identities in this always entertaining horror comedy. Like in Thunder Road, he's a cop again - this time in a small Utah skiing town - but he's dealing with a different (and possibly actual) monster: a serial killer who attacks at midnight and only when there's a full moon. With each kill, Cummings' Jim Marshall loses more of his composure, and as a result, risks acquiring his next AA chip. To make matters worse, his relationship with his rising college freshman daughter becomes even more tenuous.

I like how Marshall's increasing strain and one step forward, two steps back progress ride a fine line between making you laugh and feel bad for him at the same time. This is partly because Jim's such a good actor and has an endearing presence, but I also give credit to him for experimenting with more sophisticated filming techniques, one highlight being the cross cuts between the attacks with the places Marshall hid his booze. These techniques combined with the increasing body count earn the movie its horror label. The rest of the cast also hold their own, my favorites being Riki Lindhome as Marshall's partner - whose loyalty likely keeps him employed - and Chloe East as Jim's daughter for how she never hesitates to call out her dad's failings. It's also nice to see Robert Forster - sadly for the last time - as the sheriff and Jim's ad. Oh, and I'm sure other reviewers have called out how well the movie parallels lycanthropy with the toxicity of Marshall and the town's most dudebro residents and visitors, but I'll do it anyway.

Could this movie be described as Thunder Road with a werewolf? Maybe. Despite the horror elements, Arnaud and Marshall are not terribly different, nor are their relationships with their families and co-workers. The police procedural serial killer story also has plenty of familiar beats. It's still great, and since Cummings is relatively new to feature filmmaking, I get that he wants to stick to familiar territory and establish his brand before trying something else. Besides, as I stated above, I was invested in the story and the characters enough to disregard any familiarity. It ends up being an funny and chilling little movie that's an effective reminder of how dangerous - or is it authentic - we are when we're pushed to our limit. It's also bound to make you want to know everything about Jim Cummings' career plans.

Yep, that about sums it up.
And like you say, I was really impressed with Lindhome. I think if I was a filmmaker, I'd get her in my stable of actors.
Also, I have to say, I normally hate it when something appears to be supernatural and it turns out to be some dude or whatever, they usually pisses me off immensely, but I think Cummings pulled it off really well here and I was totally satisfied with the film.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGU5YzRmMDctODIxZi00OGEzLWE4ZDYtOTRlMTNiZjlhMDA5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODk4OTc3MTY@._V1_.jpg



2.5

[cricket]

The Candy Snatchers (1973)

2.5

https://wipfilms.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/vlcsnap-2012-10-19-19h52m37s255.jpg

"Exploitation" cult film that wasn't quite as exploitive as I had hoped. 3 thugs kidnap a teen girl (Candy) and problems arise. Decent twist and ending, but it threatens to become dull at times. It was alright.