Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 gosh its was so amazing movie i loved it. lots of comedy, loved korg he was so hilarious 😂, natalie portman did amazing job as mighty thor im glad shes one of my favourite actresses and ahhhh all the casting amazing so speechless. loved thor naked scene 😍😍😍 lol
https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/au_movies_poster_thor_loveandthunder_a13b306a.png

[Rockatansky]

'Buddies' (1985)
Dir.: Arthur Bressan

https://pics.filmaffinity.com/Buddies-840861917-mmed.jpg

Thought to be one of the first films to depict the AIDS epidemic, this film released in 1985 is a moving and realistic portrait of what it was like to be around the gay community living with the disease in New York in the mid 1980s.

It centres around a young guy David (David Schachter) who volunteers in a hospice to help care for Robert (Geoff Edholm who with make up on looks like across between Klaus Kinski and Willem Defoe!) who is dying of AIDS. At first the two men don't particularly get on but as time grows, so does their bond and eventually they become like two mini soul mates relying on each other for support. They swap stories of their experiences and the audience gets to hear their stories, there is even a comedy element when David brings Robert some top shelf VHS tapes to help him pass the time.

Despite the low production values and TV-Movie quality, it just works because we are in their world and there are no factors to distract us. The only faces we see in the film are the two characters. Everyone else is behind a shower curtain or on the telephone or has their back to the camera. It's a technique that is perfect for the film.

The 80 minute running time feels right and it's not too short. The ending is predictably emotional but sensitive and very deftly directed. It's additionally moving to learn that director Arthur Bressan and Geoff Edholm both actually died of AIDS shortly after the film was completed.

4

7.9/10
Two of Bressan's films were recently restored and release on Blu-ray: Passing Strangers and Forbidden Letters. They're gay pornos, but surprisingly sensitive about their central relationships and directed with a good amount of style. The former has a lot if great footage of an early Pride parade as well. Worth checking out if you're interested in digging further into his work.

[ScarletLion]

Two of Bressan's films were recently restored and release on Blu-ray: Passing Strangers and Forbidden Letters. They're gay pornos, but surprisingly sensitive about their central relationships and directed with a good amount of style. The former has a lot if great footage of an early Pride parade as well. Worth checking out if you're interested in digging further into his work.

Thanks, I did look at his filmography and saw those as two I'd like to check out at some time. Seems an under talked about director.

[Rockatansky]

Thanks, I did look at his filmography and saw those as two I'd like to check out at some time. Seems an under talked about director.


I imagine the genre he mostly worked in as well as the lack of availability of many of his films (the two I mentioned I don't think have been available on home video since the 80s) probably contributed to his obscurity. But nice to see him get rediscovered.


If you're the podcast listening type, the Important Cinema Club did an episode on him recently, and the Ask Any Buddy podcast has covered a few of his films (one of the cohosts of the latter was actually involved in the restoration of those two films).

[ScarletLion]

I imagine the genre he mostly worked in as well as the lack of availability of many of his films (the two I mentioned I don't think have been available on home video since the 80s) probably contributed to his obscurity. But nice to see him get rediscovered.


If you're the podcast listening type, the Important Cinema Club did an episode on him recently, and the Ask Any Buddy podcast has covered a few of his films (one of the cohosts of the latter was actually involved in the restoration of those two films).

Excellent! Thank you.

[pahaK]

After mentioning Crimes of Diogo Alves in another thread, I checked if they're on YouTube and gave both versions a go. They're Portuguese short films from 1909 and 1911, and they seem to be considered the first films about serial killers.

According to Wiki, Alves killed 70 people between 1836 and 1840. Based on that number alone, it feels weird that both films depict pretty much the same crimes. That makes the films very similar (although the newer one is about three times longer).

The older film has one terrible pacing decision and pretty much wastes 10% of its duration. The newer one has a more even flow. They're both technically quite crude, but the way they portray the murders is surprisingly effective (maybe even more so in the older version) -- especially the ones that gave him the nickname Aqueduct Murderer.

I'm not usually into silent films (even less into silent shorts, I guess) but these weren't bad. I'd give them both an OK 2.5.

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Uncut_Gems_poster.jpg
By IMP Awards / 2019 Movie Poster Gallery / Uncut Gems Poster, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61865131

Uncut Gems - (2019)

I completely forgot I was watching Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems, as he disappears so very far into his role - a slimy anti-hero who is addicted to gambling and almost completely lacks any morals. When the film starts, he's being hounded by loan sharks who look dangerous, so when he scores some easy money (in a very dishonest way) you'd expect him to at least pay off some of his debt, lest these guys really hurt him - but no, he gambles it. No matter how much trouble this guy is in, he'll do something awe-inspiringly stupid and get into more trouble. At one stage, after humiliation after humiliation and physical injury, Sandler's Howard Ratner bursts into tears and asks "What am I doing wrong?" - that he can't see it is the lesson for us, for it's very obvious to the audience. Ratner has bet everything on a rare opal he had shipped in from Africa, and his money-multiplying scheme involves that same amount of risk he loves. He's addicted to the adrenalin rush, and seems incapable of normality. This character-driven film again highlights Sandler's talent, just like Punch-Drunk Love did - and I want to see more of this side of him. The Safdie Bros have arrived, and get better with every feature they write and direct.

8/10

LOVED this movie and agree with everything you say here...I agree that it is his best work since Punch Drunk Love and I think he was robbed of an Oscar nomination.

[SpelingError]

Life is Beautiful (1997) - 2.5

I'm very torn on this one. Sugarcoating the Holocaust just seems like such a bad idea and, while I get what this film is going for with having the light-hearted tone of the first half translate to the second half, the tone is too inconsistent for me to take it seriously. Given all the suffering shown in the second half of the film (not to mention that most of it is shown offscreen, which wasn't the best idea either), I found it hard to feel the cuteness the second half seemed to want me to feel. In one scene, for instance, after Giosuè unknowingly escapes from certain death, the film has a "cute" scene between him and his father talking about it, but given the knowledge that the people who didn't understand the rules all died, I couldn't take that seriously at all. Sugarcoating the first half of the film works just fine, but the closer the film moves towards the Holocaust, the more this magic wears off.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjBiZjc3YzItYWQ0Ni00YjZlLWFjYTAtMTBiNzM5ZmMxOGExXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTEyMjM2NDc2._V1_.jpg

4

[crumbsroom]

Life is Beautiful (1997) - rating_2_5

I'm very torn on this one. Sugarcoating the Holocaust just seems like such a bad idea and, while I get what this film is going for with having the light-hearted tone of the first half translate to the second half, the tone is too inconsistent for me to take it seriously. Given all the suffering shown in the second half of the film (not to mention that most of it is shown offscreen, which wasn't the best idea either), I found it hard to feel the cuteness the second half seemed to want me to feel. In one scene, for instance, after Giosuè unknowingly escapes from certain death, the film has a "cute" scene between him and his father talking about it, but given the knowledge that the people who didn't understand the rules all died, I couldn't take that seriously at all. Sugarcoating the first half of the film works just fine, but the closer the film moves towards the Holocaust, the more this magic wears off.


I sort of agree with all of this.


I really like the first twenty minutes or so of the movie. I like Roberto Benigni. He can be enormously charming.


But there was a line I found myself unable to cross with the rest of the film. For me, the notion that a father trying to distract his son with a child's game could have the power to distract the boy from the impossible horribleness of what was happening around them, just undermines how not ignorable that horribleness would be. A starving child forced into slave labor, surrounded by disease and hate and death cannot have these experiences brushed under the rug by a bunch of Benigni branded whimsy.


In theory, I think the concept could work. In fact I think Jojo Rabbit plays in the same kind of territory, successfully.



But this movie really bugs me. In some ways it reminds me of the scene in Gimme Shelter, where people are being murdered and hit by pool cues in front of him, and Mick Jagger thinks a little chicken dance can solve everything. I think Life Is Beautiful believes in such Jaggerisms. Basically if it just gives us bunch of scenes where Benigni makes funny faces, and sentimental music is cued, we will somehow be able to overlook what the extermination of 6 million people looked and smelled and felt and hurt like. You know, like a six year old kid playing funny games with his goofy dad might.

[Captain Terror]

In theory, I think the concept could work.

Yes, but it would take a filmmaker known for their restraint and good taste.


87870

[SpelingError]

I sort of agree with all of this.


I really like the first twenty minutes or so of the movie. I like Roberto Benigni. He can be enormously charming.


But there was a line I found myself unable to cross with the rest of the film. For me, the notion that a father trying to distract his son with a child's game could have the power to distract the boy from the impossible horribleness of what was happening around them, just undermines how not ignorable that horribleness would be. A starving child forced into slave labor, surrounded by disease and hate and death cannot have these experiences brushed under the rug by a bunch of Benigni branded whimsy.


In theory, I think the concept could work. In fact I think Jojo Rabbit plays in the same kind of territory, successfully.



But this movie really bugs me. In some ways it reminds me of the scene in Gimme Shelter, where people are being murdered and hit by pool cues in front of him, and Mick Jagger thinks a little chicken dance can solve everything. I think Life Is Beautiful believes in such Jaggerisms. Basically if it just gives us bunch of scenes where Benigni makes funny faces, and sentimental music is cued, we will somehow be able to overlook what the extermination of 6 million people looked and smelled and felt and hurt like. You know, like a six year old kid playing funny games with his goofy dad might.

I agree that the film undermines the Holocaust by showing how easy it is to hide yourself from the horrors of it. If the father were to gradually realize he couldn't shelter his son from it as the film went on, this would've been more compelling.

A while back, I read that Chaplin wouldn't have made The Great Dictator if he was aware of what went on in the concentration camps, but while his approach is forgivable since little was known about the Holocaust to most of the world when the film was made (in addition to Chaplin being Jewish himself), Benigni knew what went on and downplayed it, so his sugarcoating fell apart for me.

[crumbsroom]

Yes, but it would take a filmmaker known for their restraint and good taste.


https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=87870


According to the evidence I can gather from this photograph, not only were the Nazi's supplying him with a supply of grease paint while detained, but also an abundance of back medication and whisky.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Life is Beautiful (1997) - 2.5

I'm very torn on this one. Sugarcoating the Holocaust just seems like such a bad idea and, while I get what this film is going for with having the light-hearted tone of the first half translate to the second half, the tone is too inconsistent for me to take it seriously. Given all the suffering shown in the second half of the film (not to mention that most of it is shown offscreen, which wasn't the best idea either), I found it hard to feel the cuteness the second half seemed to want me to feel. In one scene, for instance, after Giosuè unknowingly escapes from certain death, the film has a "cute" scene between him and his father talking about it, but given the knowledge that the people who didn't understand the rules all died, I couldn't take that seriously at all. Sugarcoating the first half of the film works just fine, but the closer the film moves towards the Holocaust, the more this magic wears off.
Michael Scott goes to Auschwitz is a terrible movie and a terrible idea and the world that celebrated it should be ashamed.

[Gideon58]

I really liked Dressed to Kill but I agree with you about the ending.

[Gideon58]

Life is Beautiful (1997) - 2.5

I'm very torn on this one. Sugarcoating the Holocaust just seems like such a bad idea and, while I get what this film is going for with having the light-hearted tone of the first half translate to the second half, the tone is too inconsistent for me to take it seriously. Given all the suffering shown in the second half of the film (not to mention that most of it is shown offscreen, which wasn't the best idea either), I found it hard to feel the cuteness the second half seemed to want me to feel. In one scene, for instance, after Giosuè unknowingly escapes from certain death, the film has a "cute" scene between him and his father talking about it, but given the knowledge that the people who didn't understand the rules all died, I couldn't take that seriously at all. Sugarcoating the first half of the film works just fine, but the closer the film moves towards the Holocaust, the more this magic wears off.

It's so nice to hear something negative about this movie.

[Omni]

Adaptation (2002) - 8.5/10 - Very meta movie which is a turn off for some but I think it is well done here

The Wrestler (2008) - 8.5/10 - Good movie for people who love bad news

Bottle Rocket (1997) - 6.5/10 - well written movie and you can see the first rumblings of Wes Anderson's style (which is interesting in and of itself) but the chemistry in the romance sub-plot was a flatline for me.

[SpelingError]

29th Hall of Fame

Adam's Apples (2005) - 3.5

I imagine this film will be hit or miss amongst us, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a funny, odd film which mixes a handful of characters with diverse backgrounds together, including a priest who has some farfetched religious beliefs, a neo-nazi inmate on probation, a terrorist trying to save up enough money to leave the country, and a former alcoholic. The film takes some risks in terms of offending the audience, but even though the characters are far out there, it simultaneously has enough restraint so that it doesn't go too far and, as a result, it makes for a surprisingly enjoyable experience. The solid twin performances from Mikkelsen and Thomsen enhance the material as well. Also, bonus points for having some unexpected outcomes to a few character arcs since comedies tend to struggle with this. For the most part, the religious themes were pretty good as well. As the film goes on, it seems less likely that the misfortunes the church's apple tree goes through are just coincidences but actually brought about by a deity. Given that, my interpretation is that the film is a modern day rendition of the Book of Job. I do think it loses its way a bit as it moves to its ending though since the priest's restored faith doesn't feel entirely earned. Unlike in the Book of Job which has a more complete character arc, this film's arc is more akin to the characters finally outsmarting God and then turning back to him, which doesn't make as much sense. Still though, it's a really good film and I enjoyed my time with it.

[GulfportDoc]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNWZkNTYxZjQtN2IwZi00OGExLTg3ZDEtODNjMDFkN2Y5Y2NkL2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc1NTYyMjg@._V1 _.jpg

rating_4_5
Both thumbs way up for this great classic. Orson Welles' screenplay produces some memorable scenes along with a fascinating story.

[Gideon58]

Adaptation (2002) - 8.5/10 - Very meta movie which is a turn off for some but I think it is well done here

The Wrestler (2008) - 8.5/10 - Good movie for people who love bad news

Bottle Rocket (1997) - 6.5/10 - well written movie and you can see the first rumblings of Wes Anderson's style (which is interesting in and of itself) but the chemistry in the romance sub-plot was a flatline for me.

Loved The Wrestler but don't understand what you said about it.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2F9Bo94QQbh0cAtDc32WEr9oMGuKN.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Fall of the House of Usher, 1928

A man named Allan (Charles Lamy) is summoned to the home of Roderick Usher (Jean Debucourt). Roderick is obsessed with his wife, Madeline (Marguerite Gance), who is dying of some sort of disease that leaves her in death-like states. Roderick is fixated on painting Madeline, and equally fixated on the fear that she will be buried alive.

Sometimes when you're watching a movie from the 20s, there's a scene that's framed kind of flat, or a performance that just doesn't work, and you think "Well, yeah, the early days of film and they were still figuring things out." But then you watch a movie like this one, and it's like, "No, that's right, people did know what they were doing."

This is a film that runs only about 65 minutes, and I'd say a solid 30 minutes of that is just mood. Curtains billowing in the wind. A frog atop another frog, leaping out of a mountainside tomb. A vast, cavernous room that dwarfs the men sitting within it.

The image above--in which a Madeline who may or may not be a figment of Roderick's imagination looms in a billowing white dress--is probably my favorite from the film, but there's so much good stuff to choose from here. Often I find the use of color filters kind of cheesy and distracting, but here it feels like it's all part of the same fever dream. We the viewers and Allan are similarly called on mainly to witness the madness that is the demented relationship between Roderick and Madeline.

This version of the story (I've also seen the Vincent Price version) slightly softens some of the perversity of the original story by making the Ushers husband and wife instead of siblings. But it doesn't soften it that much. As Roderick paints Madeline, it almost seems as if he might be stealing some of her spirit. I read online a comparison to The Pocture of Dorian Gray, but it also made me think of a short story from the collection called The White People where a man slowly steals his wife's soul in a crystal he's created. The love that Roderick feels for his wife totters on the knife edge of affection and obsession.

We've discussed whether or not movies can "age" in a negative way. I think that this film is a great example of how age can actually work with the intent of a movie. A man helping out his bereaved friend by reading him a short story might seem strange to modern eyes and, um, yeah, it's REALLY WEIRD. I have to imagine that even in a time period where such an act between friends would seem more normal, this scene would still have some charge. From a modern point of view, it seems even more alien and bizarre.

I've been waiting ages to find this film somewhere I could watch it, and a silent film channel on YouTube just uploaded a very nice looking print.

Highly recommended.

4.5

[Captain Terror]

Often I find the use of color filters kind of cheesy and distracting, but here it feels like it's all part of the same fever dream.

This caught my eye because my DVD does not have color filters, and it appears you have discovered a print that I didn't know existed. My copy features a dissonant guitar score, with a guy reading the French intertitles in English with a heavy French accent. Not ideal. I wonder if your version is for sale somewhere? Google, here I come!

As Roderick paints Madeline, it almost seems as if he might be stealing some of her spirit. I read online a comparison to The Pocture of Dorian Gray, but it also made me think of a short story from the collection called The White People where a man slowly steals his wife's soul in a crystal he's created. The love that Roderick feels for his wife totters on the knife edge of affection and obsession.

I think this is inspired by Poe's The Oval Portrait. (Model withers away as portrait becomes more and more lifelike)

But yeah, one of my favorites, obviously. So many gorgeous shots.

[Takoma11]

This caught my eye because my DVD does not have color filters, and it appears you have discovered a print that I didn't know existed. My copy features a dissonant guitar score, with a guy reading the French intertitles in English with a heavy French accent. Not ideal. I wonder if your version is for sale somewhere? Google, here I come!

Yeah, I don't know if the color was the original intent of the filmmakers or if it's something that someone added at one point. In either event, I thought it worked pretty well.

My version didn't have any reading of the intertitles.

[James D. Gardiner]

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

The First of the Few (1942)
aka Spitfire (US release)
Produced and Directed by Leslie Howard

In the beginning this movie comes across very much as a newsreel style British wartime propaganda film. But after the first 5-10 minutes or so when things start to develop, what you get is a pretty decent biographical picture with good historical development. I would not describe this as primarily a war film, with the vast majority of the story taking place throughout the inter-war years.

It tells the story of the famous British aircraft designer R.J. Mitchell (Howard), whose many achievements in that field include the design of the iconic Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft, notable for its service in the Second World War. Mitchell's career is traced from his early days where his unconventional ideas for high speed aircraft face opposition from his firm's directors. Eventually he gets his way though, and his designs go into production for competition in the Schneider Trophy races. Over the years that follow, great advances in performance and success in the competition are attained, but not without some human cost. There is an ever present theme of the rise of fascism in Europe and the threat of war, bringing Mitchell to the conclusion that he must design a fighter aircraft for Britain, harnessing all of his knowledge and the latest in technology. At the same time, he is hampered by serious illness which threatens his life and work.

It has decent performances with Leslie Howard shining well as the main character, David Niven amiable as ever as his test pilot friend and Rosamund John effective as the steadfast wife. Principle flaws mainly lie in the low end production values, the overly obvious propaganda aspect and some mishandling of historical aspects. This is adequately compensated with good original footage of the seaplane races and prototype Spitfire, in addition to some decent model work for the period.

The film holds an odd special significance in that it marks Leslie Howard's final regular on-screen film performance, before being tragically killed when the civilian aircraft in which he was a passenger was shot down over the sea by German aircraft in 1943. The incident has been the subject of many theories over time and remains an interesting mystery in itself.

7/10

[Captain Terror]

Yeah, I don't know if the color was the original intent of the filmmakers or if it's something that someone added at one point. In either event, I thought it worked pretty well.

My version didn't have any reading of the intertitles.

I'm actually a proponent of tinting, for those films where that was the original intent.

The film does not appear to be currently available on BluRay, however. Bummer.
But if they've restored the image and commissioned a new score I assume there'll be a release in the future.

[ThatDarnMKS]

The Final Member

https://boxd.it/2ZTQGD

5/5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Fat_Girl_poster.jpg
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8956753

Fat Girl - (2001)

When Fat Girl ended I felt like I'd just watched a truly great film, but I also felt like I'd been shaken up quite a bit - to say this isn't for everyone is an understatement, and I'm not sure I could have gone through with seeing it if I'd known what was in it. Despite all of that, it was only banned in Ontario for a little bit, which really surprises me. With what we see in Fat Girl, I'd have thought would be banned everywhere. Anyway, the film is principally about two girls - sisters - Elena (Roxane Mesquida) who is around 14 to 15-years-old, and Anaïs (Anaïs Reboux) who is around 12 to 13-years-old. While on holiday, Elena attracts the attention of young Fernando (Libero De Rienzo), who is in his 20s and attends university - and he lecherously takes advantage of Elena, with Anaïs as an unwilling witness to what goes on between them. This film goes into grotesque detail, and in my shock I kind of felt like barfing. To put a cherry on top, the film has an outlandish, horrific, full stop with a scene that just comes right out of the blue. Catherine Breillat has made a brilliant film here - but one I can't really recommend anybody watch. If you at all get offended by untoward things in film - stay clear. Good, but clearly crazy, filmmaking.

9/10

(Catherine Breillat had so much trouble filming the sex scenes in this that she made a whole film about her experiences, called Sex is Comedy.)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/The_Grizzlies_%282018%29_Film_Poster.jpg
By Mongrel Media - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6365796/mediaviewer/rm2525064448, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62927098

The Grizzlies - (2018)

Fat Girl only goes 86 minutes, so I had time for this true story sports film set in far Northern Canada about lacrosse. It's well made and all of it's subplots are told expertly and with heart - but I'm a little tired with the genre, which plays out the same way every time. This one tries desperately hard to avoid the white savior narrative so prevalent in film, but at the same time it's what we're faced with, so the filmmakers try and make it so Russ Sheppard (Ben Schnetzer) learns as much from these indigenous Northerners as they do from him.

6/10

[ScarletLion]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Fat_Girl_poster.jpg
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8956753

Fat Girl - (2001)

When Fat Girl ended I felt like I'd just watched a truly great film, but I also felt like I'd been shaken up quite a bit - to say this isn't for everyone is an understatement, and I'm not sure I could have gone through with seeing it if I'd known what was in it. Despite all of that, it was only banned in Ontario for a little bit, which really surprises me. With what we see in Fat Girl, I'd have thought would be banned everywhere. Anyway, the film is principally about two girls - sisters - Elena (Roxane Mesquida) who is around 14 to 15-years-old, and Anaïs (Anaïs Reboux) who is around 12 to 13-years-old. While on holiday, Elena attracts the attention of young Fernando (Libero De Rienzo), who is in his 20s and attends university - and he lecherously takes advantage of Elena, with Anaïs as an unwilling witness to what goes on between them. This film goes into grotesque detail, and in my shock I kind of felt like barfing. To put a cherry on top, the film has an outlandish, horrific, full stop with a scene that just comes right out of the blue. Catherine Breillat has made a brilliant film here - but one I can't really recommend anybody watch. If you at all get offended by untoward things in film - stay clear. Good, but clearly crazy, filmmaking.

9/10



Great film that. Shocking last 15 mins

[Iroquois]

The Suicide Squad - 1

people really thought this one was better huh

[Takoma11]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Fat_Girl_poster.jpg
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8956753

Fat Girl - (2001)

To put a cherry on top, the film has an outlandish, horrific, full stop with a scene that just comes right out of the blue. Catherine Breillat has made a brilliant film here - but one I can't really recommend anybody watch. If you at all get offended by untoward things in film - stay clear. Good, but clearly crazy, filmmaking.

9/10

I was kind of underwhelmed by Fat Girl. I think that it makes some compelling points about the misery of being on either side of the desirability spectrum, and especially for young people/young women.

The ending is shocking and all, but I have a hard time overall reconciling it with the rest of the film. Not just stylistically, but in the sense of what is happening with the character. I think that it sort of works as a kind of monstrous wish fulfillment, but overall the mechanics of it left me cold.

It probably doesn't help that I watched this and Anatomy of Hell back to back, and the latter is just out and out a bad movie.

[PHOENIX74]

I was kind of underwhelmed by Fat Girl. I think that it makes some compelling points about the misery of being on either side of the desirability spectrum, and especially for young people/young women.

The ending is shocking and all, but I have a hard time overall reconciling it with the rest of the film. Not just stylistically, but in the sense of what is happening with the character. I think that it sort of works as a kind of monstrous wish fulfillment, but overall the mechanics of it left me cold.

It probably doesn't help that I watched this and Anatomy of Hell back to back, and the latter is just out and out a bad movie.

For the same reasons you just stated there, I was very confident at the time that what happens at the end of Fat Girl was going to turn out to be a dream, or fantasy - and was pretty surprised when it turned out not to be.

[Iroquois]

Thor: Love and Thunder - 1

Horseshoe theory but on one end it's The Dark World and on the other end it's this

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdedocupdate.files.wordpress.com%2F2022%2F07%2Fgirlinthepicture.jpeg%3Fw%3D740&f=1&nofb=1

Girl in the Picture, 2022

This documentary explores the complex story behind the life and death of a woman called Sharon Marshall who is killed in a hit-and-run. A man who is assumed to be her husband later violently kidnaps the woman's son--a boy named Michael--and the ensuing investigation into the missing child uncovers a heartbreaking series of truths about Sharon's real identity and the identity of the man believed to be her husband.

I was going to watch just a few minutes of this last night and got totally sucked in.

Sometimes a true crime documentary has just one "big moment" that they are building up to and you can kind of sense the filmmakers killing time to stretch out the story until that big reveal. This movie is the opposite. There were so many bombshells that at one point after a certain revelation I paused the movie and saw to my disbelief that there were still 50 minutes left. "What else could possibly be revealed?" I wondered. Boy, the movie sure answered that question!

I can't even talk about reveals from the first 15 minutes without giving away major spoilers, but the story behind Sharon Marshall's life and death is incredibly upsetting. It's a story that involves child abuse, sexual abuse, forced sex work, and a degree of cruelty that was at times hard to take as a viewer. Despite what Sharon went through in her short life---she was only 20 at the time of her death--it speaks volumes the affection that her friends had for her. In one of the most intense sequences in the film, one of Sharon's high school friends describes a sleepover at Sharon's house where she was forced, at gunpoint, to lie on the floor while she listened to Sharon being raped. Speaking plainly, the friend describes not only the trauma of the moment, but the way that it forever changed who she was as a person. She also, equally heartbreaking, explains why she never told anyone what happened.

At the center of the film is a character who is the kind of villain that would seem a bit much if written in a fictional piece. He is truly monstrous. But much of what hurts about this film is the way that different people made choices--often choices that are somewhat sympathetic!--that allowed him to continue to prey on others who were vulnerable. There are also some moments that make you so angry, such as a person seeking mental health treatment who is advised "Go to church, you'll feel better." Later, a character wonders out loud why Sharon didn't speak up and tell someone about the abuse, and you kind of want to put your fist through the screen. Thankfully, there's very little victim blaming to be found here.

I actually really appreciated that in the final act, the documentary really de-centers the villain. A friend of mine recently watched the documentary Stay Sweet, and complained that she felt that the documentary was too enamored of its bad guy, to the point that it was pushing the victims out of the center of the story. Girl in the Picture does the opposite. In the final act, it becomes a celebration of Sharon's life and an examination of how her death impacted the people who knew and loved her. The person who tormented and abused her gets hardly a mention in the last 20 minutes, and good. There wasn't even an after title updating us about him. Is he alive? Dead? Who cares. The film chooses a moment of closure that, rightly, doesn't give him any attention.

I also appreciated the way that the film handled the topic of sex work. A few of the women who were interviewed are Sharon's co-workers from a nude dancing club. A point that's made implicitly is that sex work itself isn't the problem--the problem is when someone decides they have a right to dominate another person. The fact that Sharon (and another woman who was a victim) worked as a nude dancer can be seen in archived news reports as a way to add lurid detail to the story. But the fact is that Sharon was a victim long before she ever walked in the door of the strip club. I liked that the movie didn't implicitly look down on the women who worked as strippers/dancers. One of the saddest thing said in an interview is one of her co-workers (who has her own history of someone treating her unkindly) saying that she believed that Sharon could have been "an amazing survivor" if she'd been able to get away from her abuser.

The content and story are very upsetting, but not without some glimmers of hope. I would highly recommend this documentary.

4

[Omni]

Loved The Wrestler but don't understand what you said about it.

Well I know it's over decade old at this point, but didn't want to give away too much. Also it's a bit of a Modest Mouse reference :)

[MovieGal]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Fat_Girl_poster.jpg
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8956753

Fat Girl - (2001)

When Fat Girl ended I felt like I'd just watched a truly great film, but I also felt like I'd been shaken up quite a bit - to say this isn't for everyone is an understatement, and I'm not sure I could have gone through with seeing it if I'd known what was in it. Despite all of that, it was only banned in Ontario for a little bit, which really surprises me. With what we see in Fat Girl, I'd have thought would be banned everywhere. Anyway, the film is principally about two girls - sisters - Elena (Roxane Mesquida) who is around 14 to 15-years-old, and Anaïs (Anaïs Reboux) who is around 12 to 13-years-old. While on holiday, Elena attracts the attention of young Fernando (Libero De Rienzo), who is in his 20s and attends university - and he lecherously takes advantage of Elena, with Anaïs as an unwilling witness to what goes on between them. This film goes into grotesque detail, and in my shock I kind of felt like barfing. To put a cherry on top, the film has an outlandish, horrific, full stop with a scene that just comes right out of the blue. Catherine Breillat has made a brilliant film here - but one I can't really recommend anybody watch. If you at all get offended by untoward things in film - stay clear. Good, but clearly crazy, filmmaking.

9/10

(Catherine Breillat had so much trouble filming the sex scenes in this that she made a whole film about her experiences, called Sex is Comedy.)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/The_Grizzlies_%282018%29_Film_Poster.jpg
By Mongrel Media - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6365796/mediaviewer/rm2525064448, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62927098

The Grizzlies - (2018)

Fat Girl only goes 86 minutes, so I had time for this true story sports film set in far Northern Canada about lacrosse. It's well made and all of it's subplots are told expertly and with heart - but I'm a little tired with the genre, which plays out the same way every time. This one tries desperately hard to avoid the white savior narrative so prevalent in film, but at the same time it's what we're faced with, so the filmmakers try and make it so Russ Sheppard (Ben Schnetzer) learns as much from these indigenous Northerners as they do from him.

6/10

You know I love Catherine's work. We have discussed this.

[Gideon58]

Well I know it's over decade old at this point, but didn't want to give away too much. Also it's a bit of a Modest Mouse reference :)

Still in the dark here, but I guess that's what you want so I'm not going to push it.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Still in the dark here, but I guess that's what you want so I'm not going to push it.
They're just saying it's a good movie if you want to see a guy get physically and emotionally brutalized the whole time while referencing the Modest Mouse album title "Good News For People Who Love Bad News."

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/16b6db1ebcd228e2104d2a55f3e8b798/7fa6b4b993e5fcae-db/s500x750/292a1ddc2a56994216b689a911a4b36b13d603f1.gifv
https://64.media.tumblr.com/e4cfe66204648d176dc859fd50786a83/58cc299a42996523-9d/s400x600/d1444448fa6beb9f2a315518ea5350a9f060dc9b.gifv

The Ballad of Cable Hogue - I don't think this 1970 western would have garnered the accolades it has if it hadn't been directed by Sam Peckinpah or followed right on the heels of his grim, uber-violent classic, The Wild Bunch. Without that juxtaposition I think it might have been completely forgotten. I found it to be average at best. But then it does have a winning star performance by Jason Robards. Watching him in this drives home how unrecognized a talent he was. You may not light on his name right off the bat when discussing great performers but once you start thinking about his body of work you quickly come to realize just how strong and consummate an actor he was.

His supporting cast does alright but they're nowhere in his league. I suppose the comedic elements worked as a changeup and, with a big assist from Robards, lent some charm to the proceedings. And I suppose the production team were trying to ape the success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with the soundtrack but the theme song was overused. Up to and including an unwelcome duet by Robards and costar Stella Stevens.

Peckinpah considered this his favorite film and his finest achievement. He may have seen parallels with his own life. But, outside of Robards, I was left somewhat underwhelmed.

75/100

[ThatDarnMKS]

I love the Ballad of Cable Hogue and consider it among Peckinpah's best. I think following The Wild Bunch actually had a negative impact on its reputation (as it is usually forgotten among his works) due to it being a relatively bloodless and violence free ordeal.

[M.L.]

I watched these for the first time:

Dr. Strangelove - 4

Not my favorite Kubrick film but still quite good. Will need to re-watch at some point.

Punch Drunk Love - 4.5

My 4th film I've seen from PTA, and while it's not on the level of Magnolia for me, it's still fantastic!

Tampopo - 4

Good movie. Not perfect in my eyes (some scenes made me mildly uncomfortable) but it was good fun, and it made me want ramen noodles.

...And I re-watched these:

Spirited Away - 4.5

Not my favorite Studio Ghibli movie, but I have to say that I appreciate it a little bit more each time I've re-watched it over the years.

Hot Fuzz - 5

My favorite from the cornetto trilogy.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 4

Still good. I get a lot of David Bowie vibes from this movie and it's soundtrack. (Which is a huge plus!)

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages2.minutemediacdn.com%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Fc_fill%2Cg_auto%2Ch_1248%2Cw_2220%2Fv 1555387452%2Fshape%2Fmentalfloss%2Fgoodfellas_primary.jpg%3Fitok%3D7LK-QcID&f=1&nofb=1

Goodfellas, 1990

Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) is a mobster working several rackets along with partners Jimmy (Robert DeNiro) and Tommy (Joe Pesci). As Henry slowly climbs the ladder, he gaces challenges within the crime world and within his marriage to Karen (Lorraine Bracco).

While I really enjoyed this film, I find that I don't have too much to say about it.

The performances are solid from the leads right down to the supporting actors like Debi Mazar as one of Henry's girlfriend's friends. Pesci makes one heck of an impression as Tommy, a guy who trades in joking around but whose own skin is so thin that the merest slight as often as not ends up with someone dead.

Movies about the mafia sometimes make be a bit itchy because they seem to almost worship the idea of mob culture. I thought that this film showed just how nasty and absurd criminality can be. Most of these men are like petulant children, only with a network around them that cushions them against any consequences for their murder and hurt.

The visual storytelling in the film is really masterful, and it's one of those 2 1/2 hour films that goes by in just a flash. The world is wonderfully realized, and one of the strongest things it does (which is a theme explicitly stated by multiple characters) is show how quickly this strange and violent lifestyle becomes normal.

4.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjZjMWMxM2ItMzU3NC00NDI5LTg5YjYtM2M4ZDhiOGUxODBhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODc0OTEyNDU@._V1_.jpg

4.5

[Velvet]

The House That Jack Built (2018)
3

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/a2cfb560486411.5a4e9a9a9f2b3.jpg

Good movie

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Monsters_Inc.JPG
By http://eu.movieposter.com/poster/MPW-48844/Monsters_Inc_.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=982187

Monsters, Inc - (2001)

Just filling in the last 5 or 6 titles from the recent 2000s countdown I haven't seen. After this I still reckoned on my favourite Pixar film being WALL-E, and I'm really surprised how many of them I've seen now. Some great voice talent in this one though - from Steve Buscemi to James Coburn, John Goodman and Billy Crystal. Quite a lot of genuinely funny visual humour that would go down a treat with the young-uns, and I'd expect this would be one of their all-time favourite movies growing up. Loved that intro.

7.5/10

[FridayNightFights]

http://madmovieman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Mr-Right.jpg

Mr Right 7/10

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-3mGrK55P7qA%2FUpAHOkQjFVI%2FAAAAAAAAAg0%2FxzfvMLkRaNU%2Fs1600%2FThe%2Bmatch%2Bfactory%2Bgirl%2B01.jp g&f=1&nofb=1

The Match Factory Girl, 1990

A young woman named Iris (Kati Outinen) lives in a city in Finland with her mother and stepfather, working days in a match factory and spending her nights unsuccessfully looking for love in nightclubs. The course of Iris's life changes for the worse when she hooks up with a man named Aarne (Vesa Vierikko) she meets in a club.

There are plenty of films that take a stark look at the bleak lives of people who live lives of quiet desperation. The Match Factory Girl takes this premise and then delivers a third act that feels at once like a natural progression of events and a shocking left turn.

This is a film where not using the word "bleak" in every sentence is going to be a real challenge, because good gracious! Everything about the film seems to compound the banal misery of the main character. The news that her parents watch in the background is full of death and tragedy. When she is at the nightclub, the camera looks down on her and her desire to be wanted is painful and palpable. Even when Iris dares to think that things might be looking up, her hopes are clearly so fragile that it's not a matter of if they get smashed, just exactly how.

That third act, though. Wow. I suppose it hits so hard because a woman like Iris is the kind of person who we expect to only turn anger inward at herself. To see it directed outward, and in such a cool yet brutal manner, is astonishing. At the same time, however, what most marks Iris's experiences is a total lack of regard for her health, happiness, and spirit by anyone she crosses paths with, whether they are family or strangers. Maybe turnabout is fair play. (Okay, maybe not quite, but you certainly understand how Iris gets to that point).

The movie starts with a large piece of wood being rendered down to splinters to serve as matchsticks. This brutal whittling and grinding down serves as a perfect analogy for the main character. Ground down, splintered. But you know what a match eventually is made to do.

4.5

[WHITBISSELL!]

Goodfellas, 1990

Movies about the mafia sometimes make be a bit itchy because they seem to almost worship the idea of mob culture. I thought that this film showed just how nasty and absurd criminality can be. Most of these men are like petulant children, only with a network around them that cushions them against any consequences for their murder and hurt.
rating_4_5I came to feel the same way after watching a couple of seasons of The Sopranos. Masterful storytelling and great acting all around but in the end those guys were amoral, corrosive thugs. Some of the stuff they did would enrage me. That might have been one of Chase's objectives but even while showing the grubbiness of their lifestyle there was always an element of adulation to it.

[grendizer]

Howls Moving Castle - 8/10

[Takoma11]

I came to feel the same way after watching a couple of seasons of The Sopranos. Masterful storytelling and great acting all around but in the end those guys were amoral, corrosive thugs. Some of the stuff they did would enrage me. That might have been one of Chase's objectives but even while showing the grubbiness of their lifestyle there was always an element of adulation to it.

I think it's a fine line. Henry, who is strongly our point of view character in the film, thinks it's all really cool, including threatening innocent people like the mailman. And the only other narrator we get is Karen, who is like "All this violence is actually very sexy!".

I just had to laugh at the end (which I . . . think was the intention?) when they were howling and sobbing in each others' arms because of her having gotten rid of the cocaine.

[Marco]

Men (2022)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/AlexGarlandMenPoster.jpg
Alex Garland wrote this and it is very strange indeed. A lady, after suffering a bereavement which may or may not have been down to suicide, takes a 2 week break at a plush country manor to grieve. There she meets/sees many locals and after an idyllic start the worries start to creep in. Is it a safe place to be? Is she being paranoid?

This is OK, quirky and I read an interpretation of the premise that looks like it holds water, the same face thing gave it away for me though. The ending is frankly OTT and hilarious.
2.5

[Wooley]

I'm actually a proponent of tinting, for those films where that was the original intent.

The film does not appear to be currently available on BluRay, however. Bummer.
But if they've restored the image and commissioned a new score I assume there'll be a release in the future.
That version on YouTube does look pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-xx4f_y5D8&list=WL&index=2&t=1s

[Stirchley]

I came to feel the same way after watching a couple of seasons of The Sopranos. Masterful storytelling and great acting all around but in the end those guys were amoral, corrosive thugs. Some of the stuff they did would enrage me. That might have been one of Chase's objectives but even while showing the grubbiness of their lifestyle there was always an element of adulation to it.

Greatest show ever.

[Takoma11]

That version on YouTube does look pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-xx4f_y5D8&list=WL&index=2&t=1s

I really enjoyed watching it. The visuals are really clear and the music is very good.

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Fat_Girl_poster.jpg
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8956753

Fat Girl - (2001)

When Fat Girl ended I felt like I'd just watched a truly great film, but I also felt like I'd been shaken up quite a bit - to say this isn't for everyone is an understatement, and I'm not sure I could have gone through with seeing it if I'd known what was in it. Despite all of that, it was only banned in Ontario for a little bit, which really surprises me. With what we see in Fat Girl, I'd have thought would be banned everywhere. Anyway, the film is principally about two girls - sisters - Elena (Roxane Mesquida) who is around 14 to 15-years-old, and Anaïs (Anaïs Reboux) who is around 12 to 13-years-old. While on holiday, Elena attracts the attention of young Fernando (Libero De Rienzo), who is in his 20s and attends university - and he lecherously takes advantage of Elena, with Anaïs as an unwilling witness to what goes on between them. This film goes into grotesque detail, and in my shock I kind of felt like barfing. To put a cherry on top, the film has an outlandish, horrific, full stop with a scene that just comes right out of the blue. Catherine Breillat has made a brilliant film here - but one I can't really recommend anybody watch. If you at all get offended by untoward things in film - stay clear. Good, but clearly crazy, filmmaking.

9/10

(Catherine Breillat had so much trouble filming the sex scenes in this that she made a whole film about her experiences, called Sex is Comedy.)



I also liked this a good bit.
I will admit something, I watched this movie because I am one of those men who is attracted, preferentially, to less-slim women and I found the idea of this movie really intriguing based on the very brief description on whatever service I saw it on. A movie about coming of age and sexual awakening from the point of view, more or less, of the heavy-set girl.
I didn't see what was coming coming. I was a bit dumbfounded by the time the credits rolled.

[Wooley]

The Suicide Squad - 1

people really thought this one was better huh

Well, it couldn't possibly have been worse.

[Wooley]

Thor: Love and Thunder - 1

Horseshoe theory but on one end it's The Dark World and on the other end it's this

As you are not the first person I've seen to pan it, and my only hope left for the MCU was pinned on this film, I am really saddened.
For a few years, this franchise brought me a lot of smiles and nostalgic happiness. And now it just seems like they cannot make a good movie to save their lives, almost certainly because that's no longer what they are trying to do.

[Wooley]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/16b6db1ebcd228e2104d2a55f3e8b798/7fa6b4b993e5fcae-db/s500x750/292a1ddc2a56994216b689a911a4b36b13d603f1.gifv
https://64.media.tumblr.com/e4cfe66204648d176dc859fd50786a83/58cc299a42996523-9d/s400x600/d1444448fa6beb9f2a315518ea5350a9f060dc9b.gifv

The Ballad of Cable Hogue - I don't think this 1970 western would have garnered the accolades it has if it hadn't been directed by Sam Peckinpah or followed right on the heels of his grim, uber-violent classic, The Wild Bunch. Without that juxtaposition I think it might have been completely forgotten. I found it to be average at best. But then it does have a winning star performance by Jason Robards. Watching him in this drives home how unrecognized a talent he was. You may not light on his name right off the bat when discussing great performers but once you start thinking about his body of work you quickly come to realize just how strong and consummate an actor he was.

His supporting cast does alright but they're nowhere in his league. I suppose the comedic elements worked as a changeup and, with a big assist from Robards, lent some charm to the proceedings. And I suppose the production team were trying to ape the success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with the soundtrack but the theme song was overused. Up to and including an unwelcome duet by Robards and costar Stella Stevens.

Peckinpah considered this his favorite film and his finest achievement. He may have seen parallels with his own life. But, outside of Robards, I was left somewhat underwhelmed.

75/100

I will gladly watch Jason Robards read the newspaper for two hours.
(Not that that makes this a good movie, but I enjoyed it anyway and maybe thought it was much better than you did because of how much that guy always won me over in everything he ever did.)

[Wooley]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 4

Still good. I get a lot of David Bowie vibes from this movie and it's soundtrack. (Which is a huge plus!)

Given that this is my favorite film of all time, I feel confident saying that O'Brien was a Bowie fan and really part of the glam-rock movement in his way, given that The Rocky Horror Show opened in West End less than two years after The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was released and it probably took some time to write the thing.

[Wooley]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjZjMWMxM2ItMzU3NC00NDI5LTg5YjYtM2M4ZDhiOGUxODBhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODc0OTEyNDU@._V1_.jpg

4.5

I absolutely love this film and will never understand people who don't like it (and I've read many).

[ThatDarnMKS]

Thor: Love and Thunder

https://boxd.it/3022AX

3.5/5

[Wooley]

I really enjoyed watching it. The visuals are really clear and the music is very good.

I think I'm actually gonna put this on for October or at least late September.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Well, it couldn't possibly have been worse.
I can't conceive of thinking it's worse. Among the best comic book movies since the craze began while Ayer's is among the worst (though I do hope he gets to release his cut)

[Rockatansky]

My hot take about The Suicide Squad is that it was the first movie I saw in a theatre since the pandemic started so I was just happy to be back in a theatre. The movie itself barely registered but I suppose I didn't mind it.

[ThatDarnMKS]

My hot take about The Suicide Squad is that it was the first movie I saw in a theatre since the pandemic started so I was just happy to be back in a theatre. The movie itself barely registered but I suppose I didn't mind it.
It's a conflation of all things James Gunn. An ultra violent Troma picture with a blockbuster budget, filled with misfit superheroes and finely crafted action sequences that blend practical and digital effects better than most of the game. It's also pretty darn funny and ruthless.

I feel like you'd really like it outside of the theatrical experience if you ever gave it another whirl.

[Rockatansky]

It's a conflation of all things James Gunn. An ultra violent Troma picture with a blockbuster budget, filled with misfit superheroes and finely crafted action sequences that blend practical and digital effects better than most of the game. It's also pretty darn funny and ruthless.

I feel like you'd really like it outside of the theatrical experience if you ever gave it another whirl.

Okay, I dug up my Letterboxd review and I had more thoughts. In summary:
- It was brutally hot that day and I was glad the AC worked.
- I liked that I didn't have to do a dozen movies' worth of homework to follow what was happening.
- I found the humour pretty leaden in delivery.
- I found the movie's attempts to evoke real world geopolitics less offensive than Wonder Woman 84.
- I found Margot Robbie annoying.
- I found the treatment of the David Dastmalchian character distasteful.


Don't ask me to defend these. Except the first point. It really was that hot that day.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Okay, I dug up my Letterboxd review and I had more thoughts. In summary:
- It was brutally hot that day and I was glad the AC worked.
- I liked that I didn't have to do a dozen movies' worth of homework to follow what was happening.
- I found the humour pretty leaden in delivery.
- I found the movie's attempts to evoke real world geopolitics less offensive than Wonder Woman 84.
- I found Margot Robbie annoying.
- I found the treatment of the David Dastmalchian character distasteful.


Don't ask me to defend these. Except the first point. It really was that hot that day.
I'll simply address the last two points:

If Harley isn't a bit annoying, she's not Harley. What's important is that she has foils to bounce off of, which I felt Gunn managed perfectly (something previous Harley films struggled to do).

I thought Polka Dot Man was handled better with more care, empathy and complexity than just about any character in the rest of the film or the genre in general. Can't see what's distasteful about it (besides it being within a Troma-esque intentionally bad taste romp that goes for dark comedy).

Now I need you to rewatch it to see if you feel the same.

[Rockatansky]

I'll simply address the last two points:

If Harley isn't a bit annoying, she's not Harley. What's important is that she has foils to bounce off of, which I felt Gunn managed perfectly (something previous Harley films struggled to do).

I thought Polka Dot Man was handled better with more care, empathy and complexity than just about any character in the rest of the film or the genre in general. Can't see what's distasteful about it (besides it being within a Troma-esque intentionally bad taste romp that goes for dark comedy).

Now I need you to rewatch it to see if you feel the same.

I dunno, I didn't find Harley Quinn that annoying in TAS, but I think certain things work better in a cartoon context.


Fine, when I go through my entire Letterboxd watchlist, I'll give this a rewatch.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I will gladly watch Jason Robards read the newspaper for two hours.
(Not that that makes this a good movie, but I enjoyed it anyway and maybe thought it was much better than you did because of how much that guy always won me over in everything he ever did.) We're on the same page when it comes to Robards. He turns in yet another winning performance. I realize the dichotomy of praising the lead performer but being left unaffected by the story. I just thought it sort of meandered.
It just didn't clutch me. Right here. (Points vaguely at ribs).

[ThatDarnMKS]

I dunno, I didn't find Harley Quinn that annoying in TAS, but I think certain things work better in a cartoon context.


Fine, when I go through my entire Letterboxd watchlist, I'll give this a rewatch.
I think the cartoon context changes a lot, as does the evolution of Harley as she transitioned from minor sidekick to the comic medium and became a "big deal." A similar character is Deadpool. If you look at his earliest comic appearances, he's a far cry from the constant wise-cracking, chimichanga obsessed "Merc with a mouth" that would reach popular zeitgeist.

Both seem like the more important they became, the more obnoxious became a defining trait, with much of the humor coming from how much they annoyed their co-stars.

To faithfully adapt them at this point, is either to maintain that annoying quality or lose fidelity. I think Gunn found the right balance (just as I think they hit the right balance in DP2).

That's unacceptable. You now have to do an entire James Gunn filmography exploration. You may either start with Tromeo and Juliet or Scooby Doo.

[edarsenal]

https://media1.giphy.com/media/ddmbyFevK9Xjne4MAF/200w.gif?cid=82a1493bf4darxmpa80h89v5mmd6az8fr8kc7n8ju5e2376q&rid=200w.gif&ct=ghttps://64.media.tumblr.com/0b12e44d112cc70059d4f5821c64527c/54efcde873939e47-15/s540x810/901fb004d7a43dcd6a67ff385714d3dd386e5d25.gifv
https://64.media.tumblr.com/69e5e367675f20ef220be5ade412c8e4/54efcde873939e47-a9/s540x810/56feef1c6c1d2d30d1606720e7d6bcaa696c6dac.gifv

Minions; The Rise of Gru (2022) 4:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

As an American. As a True Blue Patriotic Son of Liberty, guess where th' f@ck I spent my July 4th -- at my local cinema, laughing my low-hangin hiney off.

High marks for the continuation of the saga, the mystical sojourn of trials and adventures of these plucky balls of yellow and denim, and of a young, shy, butterfly-like boy with a dream and the heart to pursue it.

https://media2.giphy.com/media/chWeOzhXp06L95Ji7e/200.gif

Such poignant beauty. SUCH powerful and insightful Lessons to a better life and a better self.
I'm weepy.
No, seriously, I hit my keyboard, and it splashes. It's terrible.

F@ckin LOOOVE these guys, from the get-go and on Heavy Rotation ReWatch.



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-62k3pYCR3y0/T005nR80fOI/AAAAAAAAAyA/dwNOyJkZI98/s1600/miniver.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/0aaea181589714cdedccbfb9eb7b7e3b/tumblr_nhkfqofw7r1qdj2qoo2_500.gifv
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4o9duHpeBQQ/TPKXbUihdwI/AAAAAAAADs4/pfa00DG998U/s1600/s.JPG

Kay Miniver: Did you know that the 12th Lord Beldon was hanged?
Lady Beldon: He was beheaded! Such things happen in the best families.
Usually in the best families.

Mrs. Miniver (1942) 4+++ -- aw f@ckit, 4.5

A slow-burning, sublime elegance and grace during the beginning year or two(?) of World War II. When local fishers and ANYONE with a boat rescue retreating British troops with Germans hot on their trail from Dunkirk's beaches followed by the continuous bombing of London. Through the life experiences of Mrs. Miniver, an English "middle-class" - I'd say upper middle class, wife and mother. I was mesmerized by Greer Garson's performance. The ONLY other time I've seen her was in the minor but impacting role of Calpurnia in Julius Caeser (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045943/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_24). Searching her film history, I noticed a significant and, viewing them together, I completely understand why, the pairing with Walter Pidgeon. But I've picked out around four that feel like Must-Sees of her for me.

Released in 1942 of the stoic, honorable, stiff upper lip of God Loving, Honest, Courageous British and the way of life they were fighting for.
A wholesome film with genuinely beautiful characters by excellent actors, such as Theresa Wright as Lady Beldon's niece, courted by the eldest Miniver son, a recruit pilot stationed nearby. Henry Travers plays sweet, as is his charm, the kind-hearted, rose-cultivating Mr. Ballard. The very cast themselves are genuinely endearing. Winning six Academy awards; Best Film, Leading and Supporting Actresses (Garson/Wright), Director (William Wyler), Screenplay, and Cinematography. Wow.

BRAVO. Truly.

[cricket]

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

3.5

https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/i-dont-feel-at-home-in-this-world-anymore-2017/Dont-Feel-At-Home-2017-2.jpg

Was looking for something my wife would like and picked out this Netflix movie. It felt pretty relevant with all the aholes out in the world. Liked the two lead characters and their quirky ways. I didn't expect the violent turn but it was mixed in smoothly. We both thought it was very enjoyable.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/09/The_Sea_Beast_film_poster.png/220px-The_Sea_Beast_film_poster.png

4

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

[Rockatansky]

I think the cartoon context changes a lot, as does the evolution of Harley as she transitioned from minor sidekick to the comic medium and became a "big deal." A similar character is Deadpool. If you look at his earliest comic appearances, he's a far cry from the constant wise-cracking, chimichanga obsessed "Merc with a mouth" that would reach popular zeitgeist.

Both seem like the more important they became, the more obnoxious became a defining trait, with much of the humor coming from how much they annoyed their co-stars.

To faithfully adapt them at this point, is either to maintain that annoying quality or lose fidelity. I think Gunn found the right balance (just as I think they hit the right balance in DP2).

That's unacceptable. You now have to do an entire James Gunn filmography exploration. You may either start with Tromeo and Juliet or Scooby Doo.
I've already seen Scooby Doo. I'm done explorin'.

[Allaby]

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Ambitious, insane, hilarious, beautiful, and wildly entertaining. Fantastic performances, excellent screenplay, and brilliantly directed. The best film of the year and a must see. 5

[ThatDarnMKS]

I've already seen Scooby Doo. I'm done explorin'.
But have you seen Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed?

[ThatDarnMKS]

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Ambitious, insane, hilarious, beautiful, and wildly entertaining. Fantastic performances, excellent screenplay, and brilliantly directed. The best film of the year and a must see. 5
This film, RRR and Ambulance gave me a maximalist movie high that have made it hard for quieter films to land with me this year. I mean, those classier films are still great movies... But they don't make me feel as alive.

[mark f]

Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (Taylor Hackford, 1987) 3.5 7/10
The Russia House (Fred Schepisi, 1990) 3- 6.5/10
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (Ulu Grosbard, 1971) 2 5/10
Men (Alex Garland, 2022) 2.5 6-/10
https://criticologos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/unnamed.gif
Jessie Buckley goes to relax in the English countryside after her husband dies, but she freaks out and immediately finds (or thinks she finds) herself surrounded by dangerous weirdos.
First Love (A.J. Edwards, 2022) 2 5/10
Montana Story (Scott McGehee & David Siegel, 2021) 2.5 6/10
Rubikon (Magdalena Lauritsch, 2022) 2+ 5/10
Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022) 2.5 6/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/a9d5b854d933e463726a2a58e2cde7a8/f00bc39111542278-a8/s540x810/96b3582eaa4c44cc64a1cc6e580e533bc1079116.gifv
Performance artist Léa Seydoux prepares to create an autopsy pod with her partner Viggo Mortensen whose body is mutating so much he's being entered in the Inner Beauty Pageant.
Love You Anyway (Anna Matz, 2022) 2+ 5/10
A Man Called Adam (Leo Penn, 1966) 2.5+ 6/10
Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, 2022) 2+ 5/10
Vortex (Gaspar Noé, 2021) 2.5 6/10
https://c.tenor.com/HU7x-TmA6ZoAAAAd/vortex-gaspar-noe.gif
Elderly couple Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun are falling apart physically and through dementia in a serious drama that plays out more as a horror film.
The Sea Beast (Chris Williams, 2022) 3.5- 7/10
Northern Pursuit (Raoul Walsh, 1943) 2.5 5.5/10
Code Name Banshee (Jon Keeyes, 2022) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Mother Joan of the Angels (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961) 3+ 6.5/10 https://64.media.tumblr.com/903223872a646ff5bd9b2707e7aaf73a/tumblr_o6px8aVLdA1tr6ni8o1_500.gifv
17th-century priest Mieczyslaw Voit comes to a convent to exorcize Mother Superior Lucyna Winnicka who's more than ready to expose him to as many demons as she can.
On the Job (Erik Matti, 2013) 2.5+ 6/10
Dark Cloud (Jay Ness, 2022) 2 5/10
Last the Night (Nick Leisure, 2022) 1.5+ 4.5/10
This Much I Know to Be True (Andrew Dominik, 2022) 3.5 7/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-f8HDIs6uM
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis prepare for a concert tour and just about perform an entire concert in rehearsal in this spiritual journey.

[Rockatansky]

But have you seen Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed?


It left Canadian Netflix before I got around to it.

[ThatDarnMKS]

It left Canadian Netflix before I got around to it.
Slam down that Vinegar Syndrome porn money and get yourself some REAL art. Do the Doo! Do the Doo Two! Do the Dwo!

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/Wzvr4kC0/large-girl-in-the-picture-movie-poster-2022.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49939689

Girl in the Picture - (2022)

Girl in the Picture gives you a lot to reflect on - it was initially recommended to me by Netflix, who reckoned on the fact that they knew me better than I know myself - and it was reviewed here, which increased my curiosity. It's a labyrinthine documentary which uncovers a lifetime of horror at the heart of several mysteries - the first of which is the real identity of a woman who was brought to hospital one day due to what was described as a "hit and run" accident, with suspicion soon falling on her much older husband. The woman dies, and this sets into motion the kidnapping of her son (and a school's principal) and a growing list of questions and astonishing revelations. I can't say any more than that - except that the picture alluded to in the film's title is haunting indeed, and that the film itself made me sad.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Scare_Me_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=64945499

Scare Me - (2020)

Being released by 'Shudder', I reckoned on Scare Me turning out to be a horror film, but that wasn't exactly the case. This is more comedy/thriller, and even the thriller aspect only really comes into play in the last few minutes. Other than that this is the meeting of two people, Fred (Josh Ruben) - an aspiring writer getting away from it all at a log cabin, and his neighbour, Fanny (Aya Cash) - a writer whose first novel has become one of the best-selling and most successful horror novels ever published. The disparity when they meet is much played upon, but as they spend the night together telling each other scary stories the two seem destined to become great friends, if not an item. At one stage the Pizza Delivery Guy (Chris Redd) joins them, and the three make an adorable group of theatrical horror ad-libbing bored people in a log cabin. As Fred plays his last card, the film finally delves into becoming something it's not - and it feels too late to spring something like that on us anyway, so I didn't appreciate it. But for most of it's running time, this film just get's a smidge beyond average - so despite how cute and endearing these people are, I can't fully recommend it.

6/10

[Little Ash]

Scare Me - had it's moments, but is kind of in the realm of, "comedy to watch without having to think too hard, while unwinding from the day."


Biggest problem, when talking about Werewolf movies, they didn't name Ginger Snaps or The Company of Wolves, which seemed like an omission incongruous with Aya Cash's character.

[Deschain]

I liked Gunn’s Suicide Squad in theaters a lot and it only improved on a second viewing at home. It’s gorgeously shot, funny, gory and gets surprisingly emotional in the latter half.

Peacemaker on HBO is somehow even better.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I liked Gunn’s Suicide Squad in theaters a lot and it only improved on a second viewing at home. It’s gorgeously shot, funny, gory and gets surprisingly emotional in the latter half.

Peacemaker on HBO is somehow even better.
I only disagree about Peacemaker being better, even if it is the best live action DC show (unless we're counting Watchmen)

[SuperMetro]

Cleo from 5 to 7
Oh boy, what did I just see? I saw a fantastic piece of greatness. I saw this movie last night and I loved it and was blown away by it, because of its interesting plot, it had some of the most beautiful b&w scenery I have ever seen, a strong and beautiful protagonist, and for its nice ending.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1264/971406795_88f4539422_o.jpg
Cleo is a superstitious pop singer who is afraid of having cancer because of a medical test and also some tarot cards. There was some great symbolism in this movie such as how the movie took place in June(with the zodiac of Cancer) and where Cleo wears that black hat during the summer. This movie's pacing was just beyond, since I was entertained all the way through, and had some favorite scenes. Scenes such as the silent film breather scene, the tarot card scene, and the apartment scene with her lover and the piano player where Cleo sings(are one of the best parts for me). I was impressed by Michel Legrand's score for this movie as well since it broadened the scenes of the movie(Michel also did the music for her husband's musicals). I loved the multiple people that Cleo was with throughout such as her lover, Angele the maid, Bob and Maurice, and also her model friend Dorothee. This film was very charming, was technically beautiful looking, and had style and substance. When the movie was over, it was such a breath of fresh air for all of us, since Cleo does have an illness, but it will not take very long to treat(2 months). Cleo is not worried or afraid anymore. Agnes Varda seems to be up there with Jean Luc Godard(cameoed in this movie), Jacques Rivette, Francois Truffaut, and her husband Jacques Demy had she had been a man. According to Roger Ebert, she was one of the nicest people that he has ever met and had given this movie a perfect score as well. Maybe I will give it one too.
5
This might be one of the best foreign films that I have ever seen, up there with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Young Girls of Rochefort, Daisies(another great movie by a female director), and Celine and Julie Go Boating.

[Marco]

Citizen X (1995)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/Citizen_X_%28poster%29.jpg
An engrossing and understated story of the investigation into the mass murderer Andrei Chikatilo. The acting by Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland and Jeffrey DeMunn is exceptional and the film really grips the attention with the battle against attempts to stifle or indeed derail the investigation by senior party members. Joss Ackland is terrible in this (even worse than in Lethal Weapon 2) but the point comes across.

Those tests done on his first arrest, I think it is generally acknowledged that if Chikatilo wasn't a card-carrying party member the analysis of both fluids would have aligned.

3.5

[Allaby]

Accused of Murder (1956) Directed by Joseph Kane. This was fine. The story was alright,performances were decent, nice looking film. Worth a watch. It's currently streaming on the Criterion channel as part of their Nor in Colour series. Joesph Kane directed over 100 films and this is the first one that I have seen by him. Anyone else seen this? 3

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.slantmagazine.com%2Fassets%2Ffilm%2Fmydarlingclementine.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

My Darling Clementine, 1946

Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) and his brothers are driving cattle, when their herd is stolen and their youngest brother killed. Wyatt takes on the position of marshal in the wild town of Tombstone. During his work as marshal, Wyatt runs up against Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) and finds himself drawn into the conflict between Holliday and his former flame, Clementine (Cathy Downs).

Is this a Western? Yes.

Does every other shot look like it was taken from an editorial fashion shoot? Also yes.

Obviously there is a story in this movie, and it is told very well for the most part, but my attention was 90% on the use of color and light. This film has a painterly quality to so many of its scenes.

Maybe my favorite thing about the look of it all was the use of black. While it doesn't help you in terms of keeping track of who is who, costuming almost every sequences with the main characters in black creates this somber, almost frightening center to each scene. And in some sequences, like a scene where a character is undergoing surgery in a cleared out saloon, the black creates an otherworldly corona effect around the characters.

I mean, come on. . .
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popcorncinemashow.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F09%2FMy-Darling-Clementine-1946-01.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fge09bewrs6k21.png%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Da3fcddb8c41c8cbde11784acd18 39bee0e06af56&f=1&nofb=1

The story itself balances in a lovely way on the knife's edge of hope and despair. The twin centers of this storm are the dying Doc Holliday and Wyatt's grief over the loss of his brother. Mature's turn as Holliday here us really excellent--he embodies a man who is angrily mourning his own death, chafing at kindness and putting an arm's distance between himself and any wholesome emotions. This is a cruel and largely uncompromising world, and characters often meet fates that they do not deserve. At the same time, small blossoms of optimism peek through the tough desert landscape here and there.

The only sticking point for me was the relative lack of nuance in the love interests. While their character development is better than what you get in a lot of westerns, the coding of Chihuahua (yes, that's her name) as the trashy and dishonest (and non-white) one against the pristine and sweet Clementine feels kind of basic against the interesting things that are happening in the rest of the film.

Really excellent and a beautiful film.

4.5

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.larsenonfilm.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F05%2Fcruella-review.png&f=1&nofb=1

Cruella, 2021

In this revamped take on the story and characters of 101 Dalmations, Cruella (Emma Stone) in an orphaned young woman whose brilliance and volatility both help and hinder her desire to be a fashion designer. Living and working scams with Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), two men who took her in when they were all street urchins, Cruella eventually gets a job for the imposing fashion queen the Baroness (Emma Thompson). But Cruella is about to discover that the connection between the Baroness and her own past runs deeper than she every suspected.

I've been largely uninterested in the "rebooted/revamped/live action!" craze regarding old Disney movies. I do not need some uncanny valley Lion King, thank you very much. But this film, honestly, was pretty fun. Yes, it falls into a few traps of modern kids entertainment, but the performances and the sets/costumes lift it into enjoyable territory.

Both Emma Stone and Emma Thompson bring a delicious vivacity to their characters. They make for great opponents, and Stone in particular finds a way to embody Cruella that does feel lifted right out of the cartoon. In one sequence, her hunched, frantic posture as she drives a car gave me genuine nostalgia for the original cartoon.

Along with the lead performances, there are a host of fabulous supporting turns, including Mark Strong as the Baroness's lead security guard, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Anita Darling, and (prompting me to joyfully exclaim "Nandor!!!") Kayvan Novak as Roger. There are also some very adorable dogs rounding things out, and the film manages to resist too many goofy audio cues with them.

The set design and costuming is really top-notch, with over-the-top constructed outfits of outlandish scope and scale. The use of black-and-white and red is fantastic.

It's funny having watched The Devil Wears Prada just a short while ago, because the middle act of this film is basically that same movie.

The film does suffer from some bloat. There are a few times that we are given information, only to have a character explain what we just learned, sometimes even more than once. There are also a few montages that overstay their welcome just a bit. It feels as if a good 20-30 minutes could have been trimmed off and the film would have moved along at a much better clip.

Not a bad way to spend a rainy morning.

3.5+

[Thief]

NEAR DARK
(1987, Bigelow)

https://i.imgur.com/RMtR5tC.jpg


"I ain't a person anymore. I don't know what I am. I'm sick!"



This is a film I've heard mentioned very often, but for some reason, I hadn't gotten around to it. After seeing it, I have to say I wasn't as enamoured with it as some people are. I think the main character is mostly bland, and his romance with Mae is poorly written, and the way the plot unfolds is a bit of a mess at times.

But what the film does very well is to create a certain vibe or atmosphere around the characters that carries all the way through. That, and a kickass performance by Paxton, who steals every scene he's in. Henriksen is solid as well, if not too subdued. I just wish there was more thought put into the logistics of the story.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315134#post2315134)

[Wooley]

I dunno, I didn't find Harley Quinn that annoying in TAS, but I think certain things work better in a cartoon context.

And Harley Quinn is great in the animated series she has now. I mean, that shit is aces, just totally fun.

[Wooley]

Slam down that Vinegar Syndrome porn money and get yourself some REAL art. Do the Doo! Do the Doo Two! Do the Dwo!

Wait, are you someone who can tell a Doo purist what new Doo to watch?

[Wooley]

Cleo from 5 to 7
Oh boy, what did I just see? I saw a fantastic piece of greatness. I saw this movie last night and I loved it and was blown away by it, because of its interesting plot, it had some of the most beautiful b&w scenery I have ever seen, a strong and beautiful protagonist, and for its nice ending.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1264/971406795_88f4539422_o.jpg
Cleo is a superstitious pop singer who is afraid of having cancer because of a medical test and also some tarot cards. There was some great symbolism in this movie such as how the movie took place in June(with the zodiac of Cancer) and where Cleo wears that black hat during the summer. This movie's pacing was just beyond, since I was entertained all the way through, and had some favorite scenes. Scenes such as the silent film breather scene, the tarot card scene, and the apartment scene with her lover and the piano player where Cleo sings(are one of the best parts for me). I was impressed by Michel Legrand's score for this movie as well since it broadened the scenes of the movie(Michel also did the music for her husband's musicals). I loved the multiple people that Cleo was with throughout such as her lover, Angele the maid, Bob and Maurice, and also her model friend Dorothee. This film was very charming, was technically beautiful looking, and had style and substance. When the movie was over, it was such a breath of fresh air for all of us, since Cleo does have an illness, but it will not take very long to treat(2 months). Cleo is not worried or afraid anymore. Agnes Varda seems to be up there with Jean Luc Godard(cameoed in this movie), Jacques Rivette, Francois Truffaut, and her husband Jacques Demy had she had been a man. According to Roger Ebert, she was one of the nicest people that he has ever met and had given this movie a perfect score as well. Maybe I will give it one too.
5
This might be one of the best foreign films that I have ever seen, up there with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Young Girls of Rochefort, Daisies(another great movie by a female director), and Celine and Julie Go Boating.

YES!!!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.


Instantly one of my favorite films and "Best Films".
My favorite part, actually, is when she leaves the apartment all flustered and the child is playing a toy piano on the sidewalk and as she walks, the odd little "tune" he was playing blends into other instruments (in the score) and becomes the score for her walk. That was just beautiful.

[Allaby]

Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) I could tell you what I thought of this film, but I ain't no rat! ;) 3

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.themoviebuff.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F04%2Fimage.jpeg&f=1&nofb=1

Nobody, 2021

Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) is living a banal suburban existence when a brash home intrusion by a young and dumb couple triggers his old military mentality. Angry just kind of generally at life, Hutch gets into a bloody fistfight with a group of Russian gangsters on a bus. When the brother of one of his victims, Yulian (Aleksey Serebryakov) comes looking for revenge, Hutch must really dig deep to keep himself and his family alive.

There's plenty of slick, glib action out there. While this one is elevated a bit by enjoyable central performances and a plot that deviates slightly from the expected norms, it is a strangely soulless affair.

In the realm of "middle aged or past-middle-aged action hero", Odenkirk does make for an engaging lead actor. While most of those films give the sense of a dangerous killer pretending to be a suburban nobody, the opposite is true here. The suburban dad mode feels more like the default, and that's a nice change.

I also appreciated that the movie doesn't feel the need to kill off the family. In fact, the way that everything emerges from a relatively non-terrible robbery makes the extremity of it all that much more intense and absurd.

The action itself is fine, albeit a little overly clean. It all feels like it comes a bit too directly from the storyboard, and I wish there had been more fizz around the edges. The comedy aspect of the action sequences was a bit off-balance for me, such as when the action pauses so that Hutch can wipe away the number on the "___ many days since the last accident" poster.

I enjoyed the supporting turns from some of the actors. Connie Nielsen plays Hutch's wife, Becca, as neither the saintly wife (who we typically see in gauzy flashbacks), nor the harping shrew. (Obviously some credit here also has to go to the writers who make Becca seem, GASP, kind of a like a complex human being). Christopher Lloyd is also a lot of fun as Hutch's father, a retired FBI agent who doesn't hesitate to grab a shotgun to backup his son. The RZA is also on hand as Hutch's brother, a character mainly seen via radio communications until the last act.

Somehow, though, this one left me pretty underwhelmed. For a movie that is full to the eyeballs with exposition--all about Yulian and the stuff he's guarding, all about Hutch's past--I felt like I only had a surface connection with the characters. It's hard to be scared of the bad guys, because for the most part Hutch has a laugably easy time handling them. As the film progresses, the stakes never really change. It felt like watching someone play a first-person shooter, only with a final boss that never seemed any more frightening than the numerous henchmen dispatched on their way to him.

Not bad, but given some of the positive reactions I've read I wanted more.

3.5

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.slantmagazine.com%2Fassets%2Ffilm%2Fmydarlingclementine.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

My Darling Clementine, 1946

Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) and his brothers are driving cattle, when their herd is stolen and their youngest brother killed. Wyatt takes on the position of marshal in the wild town of Tombstone. During his work as marshal, Wyatt runs up against Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) and finds himself drawn into the conflict between Holliday and his former flame, Clementine (Cathy Downs).

Is this a Western? Yes.

Does every other shot look like it was taken from an editorial fashion shoot? Also yes.

Obviously there is a story in this movie, and it is told very well for the most part, but my attention was 90% on the use of color and light. This film has a painterly quality to so many of its scenes.

Maybe my favorite thing about the look of it all was the use of black. While it doesn't help you in terms of keeping track of who is who, costuming almost every sequences with the main characters in black creates this somber, almost frightening center to each scene. And in some sequences, like a scene where a character is undergoing surgery in a cleared out saloon, the black creates an otherworldly corona effect around the characters.

I mean, come on. . .
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popcorncinemashow.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F09%2FMy-Darling-Clementine-1946-01.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fge09bewrs6k21.png%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Da3fcddb8c41c8cbde11784acd18 39bee0e06af56&f=1&nofb=1

The story itself balances in a lovely way on the knife's edge of hope and despair. The twin centers of this storm are the dying Doc Holliday and Wyatt's grief over the loss of his brother. Mature's turn as Holliday here us really excellent--he embodies a man who is angrily mourning his own death, chafing at kindness and putting an arm's distance between himself and any wholesome emotions. This is a cruel and largely uncompromising world, and characters often meet fates that they do not deserve. At the same time, small blossoms of optimism peek through the tough desert landscape here and there.

The only sticking point for me was the relative lack of nuance in the love interests. While their character development is better than what you get in a lot of westerns, the coding of Chihuahua (yes, that's her name) as the trashy and dishonest (and non-white) one against the pristine and sweet Clementine feels kind of basic against the interesting things that are happening in the rest of the film.

Really excellent and a beautiful film.

rating_4_5Yes it was. I was struck by how effortless Ford made it look. Small unguarded moments like when Wyatt is leaning back in his chair and switching from foot to foot. And how Ford juxtaposes the relaxed, laconic way Wyatt and his brothers talk to each other with old man Clanton's terse way of communicating with his sons. Both are men of few words but familiarity has such a different connotation to the two groups.

[Thief]

A GUN FOR GEORGE
(2011, Holness)

https://i.imgur.com/dp50zWw.jpg


"Times change! I dare say your previous editor enjoyed your erratic plotting, your sledgehammer prose, and a disquieting ball fixation! A lone wolf vigilante hitting the streets of Thanet to avenge the same crime 658 times is literal, but not literally overkill."



A Gun for George follows Terry Finch (Holness), a struggling writer dealing with the aftermath of the murder of his brother George at the hands of local thugs. Finch channels his anger through a series of cheap crime novels about a viligante called "The Reprisalizer", who is determined to take on the thugs of Thanet in Kent.

Set in the 1970s, A Gun for George does a great job balancing the real tragedy of its character and plot, with a cleverly handled dark humor and a more introspective character study. The way the tone is handled is masterful. It also manages to create a very real feeling of the time and place it's set in. From the locations and production to the way the film is shot, including some clever fantasy moments where Finch imagines himself as "The Reprisalizer", you really believe the film is from the 1970s.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315152#post2315152) and the 5th Short HoF thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315153#post2315153)

[Takoma11]

Yes it was. I was struck by how effortless Ford made it look. Small unguarded moments like when Wyatt is leaning back in his chair and switching from foot to foot. And how Ford juxtaposes the relaxed, laconic way Wyatt and his brothers talk to each other with old man Clanton's terse way of communicating with his sons. Both are men of few words but familiarity has such a different connotation to the two groups.

Yes, the film is absolutely stacked with foils/parallels.

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.slantmagazine.com%2Fassets%2Ffilm%2Fmydarlingclementine.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

My Darling Clementine, 1946

Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) and his brothers are driving cattle, when their herd is stolen and their youngest brother killed. Wyatt takes on the position of marshal in the wild town of Tombstone. During his work as marshal, Wyatt runs up against Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) and finds himself drawn into the conflict between Holliday and his former flame, Clementine (Cathy Downs).

Is this a Western? Yes.

Does every other shot look like it was taken from an editorial fashion shoot? Also yes.

Obviously there is a story in this movie, and it is told very well for the most part, but my attention was 90% on the use of color and light. This film has a painterly quality to so many of its scenes.

Maybe my favorite thing about the look of it all was the use of black. While it doesn't help you in terms of keeping track of who is who, costuming almost every sequences with the main characters in black creates this somber, almost frightening center to each scene. And in some sequences, like a scene where a character is undergoing surgery in a cleared out saloon, the black creates an otherworldly corona effect around the characters.

I mean, come on. . .
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popcorncinemashow.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F09%2FMy-Darling-Clementine-1946-01.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fge09bewrs6k21.png%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Da3fcddb8c41c8cbde11784acd18 39bee0e06af56&f=1&nofb=1

The story itself balances in a lovely way on the knife's edge of hope and despair. The twin centers of this storm are the dying Doc Holliday and Wyatt's grief over the loss of his brother. Mature's turn as Holliday here us really excellent--he embodies a man who is angrily mourning his own death, chafing at kindness and putting an arm's distance between himself and any wholesome emotions. This is a cruel and largely uncompromising world, and characters often meet fates that they do not deserve. At the same time, small blossoms of optimism peek through the tough desert landscape here and there.

The only sticking point for me was the relative lack of nuance in the love interests. While their character development is better than what you get in a lot of westerns, the coding of Chihuahua (yes, that's her name) as the trashy and dishonest (and non-white) one against the pristine and sweet Clementine feels kind of basic against the interesting things that are happening in the rest of the film.

Really excellent and a beautiful film.

4.5

This was one of the required films in my History Of American Film, 1925-1950 class my freshman year of college so I got to see it on the big-screen in a theater.
Obviously we were all impressed.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://media0.giphy.com/media/l2JI6MzZjK2ztJgpG/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e477hmodp98yc5a5xt2ggiuiyiw0gyeh1z9xckyw34p&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y9X4uFEUXq8/WoolkO_T3CI/AAAAAAABBk8/sXDYKwOEAU424PKnTUuJop6vjpgDDFB6QCLcBGAs/s640/TURNS.gif

The Beast Must Die - This is the first midnight movie I ever attended. Part Ten Little Indians and The Most Dangerous Game with the added hook of werewolves and a perfunctory nod to the blaxploitation craze. From 1974 and starring Calvin Lockhart as prosperous businessman and big game hunter Tom Newcliffe. After lengthy inquiries into mysterious murders Tom has narrowed down his list of likely suspects to four men and two women. He invites them to his sprawling estate under the pretext of attending a celebration. It's an eclectic group and three of the male suspects will be quite familiar to movie watchers having played Abraham Van Helsing, Albus Dumbledore and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

This is from British studio Amicus and it's more a gimmick than a legitimate horror entry. Lockhart emotes up a storm and Peter Cushing and the rest aren't given much to do outside of gathering together in different rooms of the mansion. Yes it's cheesy and there is an actual "Werewolf Break" where the audience is given 30 seconds to guess who the actual lycanthrope is. But it's a fun enough watch.

70/100

[Takoma11]

This was one of the required films in my History Of American Film, 1925-1950 class my freshman year of college so I got to see it on the big-screen in a theater.
Obviously we were all impressed.

I can only imagine. My response to the visuals in this film was on par with Cocteau's work. Honestly it's not a feeling I associate with Ford. (To be clear I really like several of his films, but I'm not usually going gaga over the visuals).

This is from British studio Amicus and it's more a gimmick than a legitimate horror entry. Lockhart emotes up a storm and Peter Cushing and the rest aren't given much to do outside of gathering together in different rooms of the mansion. Yes it's cheesy and there is an actual "Werewolf Break" where the audience is given 30 seconds to guess who the actual lycanthrope is. But it's a fun enough watch.

70/100

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Beast Must Die!. Not great, as you note, but fun.

[ThatDarnMKS]

The Beast Must Die and Werewolves Within would make one fun double feature.

[Siddon]

I nominated The Beast Must Die for a B-Movie Hall of Fame...it's one of my favorite Werewolf movies of all time.


Cursed (2022)
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
The Beast Must Die (1974)
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
The Undying Monster (1942)


For some reason my favorite Werewolf films are the lesser known ones.

[Thief]

BRATS
(1930, Parrott)

https://i.imgur.com/8Hx6yD8.jpg


"Will you brats keep quiet? How do you expect me to *concentrate*?"



Brats follows Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as two parents trying to relax and enjoy a night of checkers and pool while their two bratty children constantly interrupt them, with hilarious results. Something that I'm sure every parent in the world can understand and identify with (maybe not the "hilarious results").

The short is fairly simple, but notable for various reasons. First, it is one of those early insances where actors play two characters in the same film, and the result here is pretty seamless. Add to that the big/small special effects, and it makes for a really impressive short.

But other than that, I found it to be fairly amusing. As someone that's not that familiar with the comedy of Laurel & Hardy, I found their comedic timing to be great. Not something that blew my mind, but still made me chuckle.

Grade: 3

[GulfportDoc]

Mrs. Miniver (1942) rating_4+++ -- aw f@ckit, rating_4_5

A slow-burning, sublime elegance and grace during the beginning year or two(?) of World War II. When local fishers and ANYONE with a boat rescue retreating British troops with Germans hot on their trail from Dunkirk's beaches followed by the continuous bombing of London. Through the life experiences of Mrs. Miniver, an English "middle-class" - I'd say upper middle class, wife and mother. I was mesmerized by Greer Garson's performance. The ONLY other time I've seen her was in the minor but impacting role of Calpurnia in Julius Caeser (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045943/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_24). Searching her film history, I noticed a significant and, viewing them together, I completely understand why, the pairing with Walter Pidgeon. But I've picked out around four that feel like Must-Sees of her for me.

Released in 1942 of the stoic, honorable, stiff upper lip of God Loving, Honest, Courageous British and the way of life they were fighting for.
A wholesome film with genuinely beautiful characters by excellent actors, such as Theresa Wright as Lady Beldon's niece, courted by the eldest Miniver son, a recruit pilot stationed nearby. Henry Travers plays sweet, as is his charm, the kind-hearted, rose-cultivating Mr. Ballard. The very cast themselves are genuinely endearing. Winning six Academy awards; Best Film, Leading and Supporting Actresses (Garson/Wright), Director (William Wyler), Screenplay, and Cinematography. Wow.

BRAVO. Truly.
Wasn't Garson gorgeous! I also liked her in Random Harvest from the same year, co-staring with Ronald Colman. I think she would have been nominated for an Oscar for the role if it hadn't been in the same year she was nominated for Miniver. The film was pretty melodramatic, but both Garson and Colman were first rate.

[GulfportDoc]

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)
rating_3_5
Was looking for something my wife would like and picked out this Netflix movie. It felt pretty relevant with all the aholes out in the world. Liked the two lead characters and their quirky ways. I didn't expect the violent turn but it was mixed in smoothly. We both thought it was very enjoyable.


I took your tip, and watched the picture last night. I really liked Melanie Lynskey's casting and her acting. She pulled me in right away, being sort of an everywoman-- not too pretty, agreeable, a little unsure of herself. But you're right-- she changed later.

I thought the movie could have even been quirkier, as long as they took that route. But the story was unique and appealing, and....... enjoyable.

[Thief]

SUMMER SCHOOL
(1987, Reiner)

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


Shoop: "I'm not a real teacher."
Vice Principal Gills: "That's okay. They aren't real students."



Summer School follows Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon), a PE teacher slacking his way at a California high school. When he reluctantly gets stuck teaching Remedial English during summer school, it's clear that neither he nor the students wants to be there. Shoop then has to find creative ways to reach the students and help them pass, while also helping them with their numerous personal issues.

Still, there is a certain earnestness to how this group of students bond that I found endearing. Most of the characters are likable, and the film doesn't resort to some of the usual stereotypes of bullies, nerds, and jocks. All these kids, from the nerd to the "weirdos" to the jock, like each other and I found that refreshing. I also appreciated that the film didn't really give us a miraculous ending, instead going for a somewhat realistic resolution.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315260#post2315260)

[Thief]

SIX MEN GETTING SICK
(1967, Lynch)
A film with the number 6 (Six, Sixth, etc.) in its title

https://i.imgur.com/TsWCe3P.jpg


"This unconscious eructation of irrational, amorphous materials, sputted from these six heads like sperm from upright penises, offers a visual metaphor for the messy imperatives of the (pro)creative process"



The above is an excerpt of a review from Anton Bitel on this, David Lynch's first film, and should give you an idea of what to expect. With a 4 minute runtime, Six Men Getting Sick features no plot, but only an animated painting of six figures vomiting and spitting, over and over (six times, actually).

The short film was developed by Lynch while he was studying at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, on a $200 budget. It was well received while also giving us a glimpse of the kind of things we should expect from Lynch in the future, in terms of abstraction.

There really is not much to say about it. With its brief runtime, it is an interesting curiosity to watch, even though its repetitive nature and in-your-face sound can be tiring to some people. Then again, that's Lynch for some of you.

Grade: N/A

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/The_Lost_Daughter_%28film%29.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2021/lost_daughter.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68864633

The Lost Daughter - (2021)

This has been on my watchlist ever since it came out - I was in the mood last night, so it was about time to see it. Obviously, as a character study, the film is very good, with Olivia Colman once again getting to showcase her talents. Early on we start to sense that all is not right with her character, Leda. She often has flashbacks to when she was raising her two daughters - which appears to have been hell on earth for her independently aligned senses - so when she becomes acquainted with another woman at her holiday destination struggling with her daughter it brings everything flooding back. Lena has a tendency to lash out and offend people, and this combined with her innate British sense of reserve often puts her at odds with the Americans she finds herself among. Central to the story is a doll - a ticking timebomb she handles in a very strange manner - and we're always hanging on every revelation from her past. Her interactions with others always has us holding our breath as well. Personally, I didn't find the ending very satisfying, but overall I'd have to say I really enjoyed watching Olivia do her thing, and would have been hoping she won another Oscar. Good stuff.

7/10

[Thief]

BLADE RUNNER
(1982, Scott)

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


"My birthday is April 10, 2017. How long do I live?"



Blade Runner follows Deckard (Harrison Ford), a retired "blade runner" tasked with eliminating replicants, human-like androids that are revolting across the galaxy. When a group of four, led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), end up rogue on Earth, Deckard is reluctantly brought back to the fray and sent to find them and terminate them.

The way that Scott injects all this religious imagery and subtext into the film, sometimes subtly and sometimes right in your face, is excellent. But I also appreciate how he instills the film with this noir-ish vibe, a genre/style that was so preoccupied with how characters can't stop fate. You can meet your "maker", and yet that's not enough to stop the clock.

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315272#post2315272)

[Little Ash]

SIX MEN GETTING SICK
(1967, Lynch)
A film with the number 6 (Six, Sixth, etc.) in its title

https://i.imgur.com/TsWCe3P.jpg




The above is an excerpt of a review from Anton Bitel on this, David Lynch's first film, and should give you an idea of what to expect. With a 4 minute runtime, Six Men Getting Sick features no plot, but only an animated painting of six figures vomiting and spitting, over and over (six times, actually).

The short film was developed by Lynch while he was studying at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, on a $200 budget. It was well received while also giving us a glimpse of the kind of things we should expect from Lynch in the future, in terms of abstraction.

There really is not much to say about it. With its brief runtime, it is an interesting curiosity to watch, even though its repetitive nature and in-your-face sound can be tiring to some people. Then again, that's Lynch for some of you.

Grade: N/A


So I first saw this on the Criterion Eraserhead Blu-ray and didn't get it. (He also has really short-shorts on there that evoke more narrative in six seconds, and as such, found more interesting. e.g. premonition of en evil act, or something along those lines).

Then I went to a Lunch retrospective at PAFA (that was his non-film work - mainly his paintings and such), and six men getting sick was there on exhibit. It's not actually a film, but actually a mixed media piece. The partial, life-size figures of the "men" are sculpted into a wall and the video of the sickness is projected onto them, on loop. In that context, it actually worked pretty well.

[Thief]

So I first saw this on the Criterion Eraserhead Blu-ray and didn't get it. (He also has really short-shorts on there that evoke more narrative in six seconds, and as such, found more interesting. e.g. premonition of en evil act, or something along those lines).

Then I went to a Lunch retrospective at PAFA (that was his non-film work - mainly his paintings and such), and six men getting sick was there on exhibit. It's not actually a film, but actually a mixed media piece. The partial, life-size figures of the "men" are sculpted into a wall and the video of the sickness is projected onto them, on loop. In that context, it actually worked pretty well.

Yeah, it's a difficult film to "gauge" like we do other films, but I appreciate Lynch's "outside-of-the-box" way of approaching filmmaking, even from the get-go.

[Wooley]

SUMMER SCHOOL
(1987, Reiner)

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




Summer School follows Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon), a PE teacher slacking his way at a California high school. When he reluctantly gets stuck teaching Remedial English during summer school, it's clear that neither he nor the students wants to be there. Shoop then has to find creative ways to reach the students and help them pass, while also helping them with their numerous personal issues.

Still, there is a certain earnestness to how this group of students bond that I found endearing. Most of the characters are likable, and the film doesn't resort to some of the usual stereotypes of bullies, nerds, and jocks. All these kids, from the nerd to the "weirdos" to the jock, like each other and I found that refreshing. I also appreciated that the film didn't really give us a miraculous ending, instead going for a somewhat realistic resolution.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315260#post2315260)

I've always enjoyed this movie.
And you're right, I've never really thought about it but it was really refreshing to have a movie about a diverse group of teens that all get along and generally support each other.

[edarsenal]

Wasn't Garson gorgeous! I also liked her in Random Harvest from the same year, co-staring with Ronald Colman. I think she would have been nominated for an Oscar for the role if it hadn't been in the same year she was nominated for Miniver. The film was pretty melodramatic, but both Garson and Colman were first rate.
Spell-bindingly so!
I have Random Harvest as my finale of four films. Starting with That Forsyte Woman, Desire Me with Robert Mitchum, then Madame Curie.
And DEFINITELY earned the Oscar in Mrs. Miniver. Absolutely.

[SuperMetro]

I saw two movies on Saturday...
Three Colors Blue - I thought this one was put together better than Red and White, as you have a likable protagonist(something White lacked) and an engaging story. I liked watching Julie's story of how she overcame the trauma of her husband and daughter's death. It gives a nice theme of how to deal with such trauma and not to blank out everything that had to do with said trauma. I enjoyed the whole orchestral piece subplot quite a bit. I usually feel quite bored and entertained by these movies at the same time, but after I finished the trilogy, I admitted that they were pretty good movies. I wonder what wonders The Double Life of Veronique will bring. 4

Looper - I liked this one quite a bit with the plot where a character has to kill his future self. I enjoyed Bruce Willis as the future character and villain. I also liked all of the moments on the farm with Sara and her son Cid(he is possible the Rainmaker). I thought the action scenes were very well done and were well blended with the drama shown(that is my kind of movie). I was so impressed with how I did not really know much at the beginning of the film, and then it all came together with the awesome ending sequence where Jow kills himself in order to save Sara and her son so that the future will be put well. There also seems to be a bonus if I rewatch it someday. Everybody that I know likes it. So do I. 4.5

I kind of really like Bruce Willis as he was quite an interesting guy. I like to Die Hard, I like Moonlighting, I like Looper.
And I got to admit that I prefer the original Star Wars trilogy to that of the Three Colors. Star Wars was more entertaining, more creative, and more impressive. However, Three Colors has more hidden messages and is better written(Star Wars did not need the best plot or writing, because the story was already intriguing). However, the two trilogies are like apples and oranges, you can not really compare them, but I know for sure that I prefer that Star Wars trilogy over the Three Colors one.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I watched these going back to last year and never got around to reviewing them. 7 of these (12) were rewatches.

Psycho - 90/100 - I think this is the film that Hitchcock is most known for. Whether or not that's fair I suppose depends on your familiarity with his catalogue.

FitzCarraldo - 90/100 - Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog work their magic again. Both men inhabited their own little worlds but they somehow made their collaborations work.

The Paleface - 80/100 - Bob Hope and Jane Russell in a respectable technicolor western spoof.

Time After Time - 80/100 - Malcolm McDowell and David Warner as time travelers H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper and Mary Steenburgen as the bystander drawn into their orbit.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle - 85/100 - Great and grubby flick about the Boston criminal underworld with Robert Mitchum as weary family man and ex-con Eddie facing hard time. There are no good guys here.

Get Carter - 85/100 - Another atmospheric and sordid gangster outing. This one mostly takes place in the dingy confines of Newcastle. Michael Caine stars as London gangster Jack Carter who journeys north to look into the unexpected death of his younger brother. Watch this if you're ever wondering what is meant by the term "antihero".

To Kill a Mockingbird - 95/100 - This movie hasn't diminished in the least since I first watched it years ago in high school. Your appreciation of it is sure to grow with each subsequent rewatch.

[Wooley]

I saw two movies on Saturday...
Three Colors Blue - I thought this one was put together better than Red and White, as you have a likable protagonist(something White lacked) and an engaging story. I liked watching Julie's story of how she overcame the trauma of her husband and daughter's death. It gives a nice theme of how to deal with such trauma and not to blank out everything that had to do with said trauma. I enjoyed the whole orchestral piece subplot quite a bit. I usually feel quite bored and entertained by these movies at the same time, but after I finished the trilogy, I admitted that they were pretty good movies. I wonder what wonders The Double Life of Veronique will bring. 4
And I got to admit that I prefer the original Star Wars trilogy to that of the Three Colors. Star Wars was more entertaining, more creative, and more impressive. However, Three Colors has more hidden messages and is better written(Star Wars did not need the best plot or writing, because the story was already intriguing). However, the two trilogies are like apples and oranges, you can not really compare them, but I know for sure that I prefer that Star Wars trilogy over the Three Colors one.

Blue is one of my favorite movies of all time and would be on one of my shortest list of Best Films... vs. my list of Most Fun Films.

I would say that The Double Life Of Veronique is the most esoteric or enigmatic of the four films (Trois Couleurs and DLoV) so maybe be prepared for that. It is incredibly beautiful though.

[Wooley]

Time After Time - 80/100 - [/B]Malcolm McDowell and David Warner as time travelers H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper and Mary Steenburgen as the bystander drawn into their orbit.
[B]


Big fan, here.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Naked

https://boxd.it/30uKJF

5/5

No Escape

https://boxd.it/30vFll

3.5/5

[Captain Terror]

No Escape

https://boxd.it/30vFll

3.5/5

It's been many years now, but I remember making the case that this basically functions like a Zombie movie. Am I crazy?

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FCvnhvFm9X8s%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Pruning the Movies, 1915

In this short film, a man (Harry L. Rattenberry) appoints himself as a movie censor. He and a group he gathers make changes---that appear instantly on screen---to a movie about a young woman (Carmen de Philippi) who is dating a nice young man (Eddie Lyons) but is also being stalked by a villain (Lee Moran).

I'm going to link this short under my review, and I highly recommend that you watch it.

There are two levels on which I appreciated this movie, one kind of silly and one more serious.

On the silly side, the movie has a great series of gags regarding the edits to the movie. When there is a scene shown where the young woman lifts her skirt for a moment so that the hero can help her with her shoe, the appalled censor board demand that they "Remove the leg!". We see an instant replay of the scene, this time with the hero unfolding a large black mat to shield the sight of her leg from the audience. There are several jokes in this vein, and in such a short movie it doesn't wear out its impact.

On the more serious side, there are a few nice jabs at a harmful sort of morality, and the way that it can hide some ugly truths and send a twisted message about how violence actually goes down. Yes, some of the edits are trifles, like the insistence that instead of chewing gum the young woman should eat a prune instead.

But two later edits seek to alter the way that we see an attack on the woman and later how she is expected to defend herself. Instead of drugging the woman, the edit forces the man to just . . . slip some castor oil into her drink which makes her faint so that he can carry her off. (Let's not even talk about the fact that no one in the restaurant raises a fuss about this man carrying away an unconscious woman). But the worst edit comes in the following scene, where the woman valiantly fights off her attacker---only for the censor board to nix this moment and insist that she handle the attack the way that a "nice girl" would. Thus she pulls out a religious book and prays, which instantly subdues him. It's a really gross message that still persists to this day, and the unmitigated glee with which the censors congratulate themselves on their work is damning.

Just overall a really delightful short with a bit of kick to its message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvnhvFm9X8s&t=386s&ab_channel=NilesEssanaySilentFilmMuseum

4

[ThatDarnMKS]

It's been many years now, but I remember making the case that this basically functions like a Zombie movie. Am I crazy?
Functionally similar. Closer to "Crazies" style and I was reminded of the superior and recent "The Sadness."

Had they characterized the rebels more, this would've been avoided but the film does stay entirely with it's protagonists. Not sure if that's necessarily a bad thing as it did effectively capture the terror of such a scenario without lightening up.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2f/Morbius_%28film%29_poster.jpg/220px-Morbius_%28film%29_poster.jpg

2

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

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2Fw4m2V0gTYxNML4bmM5BAb5KrGHr.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Paris is Burning, 1990

I always had hopes of being a big star. But as you get older, you aim a little lower. Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you've made a mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you've left a mark. You don't have to bend the whole world. I think it's better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you.

This is my third (I think) viewing of this documentary that examines ball culture in New York City and the lives of some of the participants in them. Every time I watch this movie I love it more, as I can't think of a documentary that captures joy and sorrow in such equal and potent measures.

It would take pages and pages to unpack all of the issues and themes raised in the film. The interview subjects are outstanding, with Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Venus Xtravaganza, Octavia St. Laurent, and Willi Ninja making the strongest impressions.

LaBeija and Corey are both transwomen who are more experienced in the drag scene, having seen it from the 1960s and how it has morphed into its current form. It's hard to resist just quoting swaths and swaths of dialogue from the film. LaBeija delivers an astounding monologue about being Black in a white America, and how the aspirations of any non-white person has become inextricably bound up in emulating and embracing whiteness---and specifically a whiteness that is projected at them by all of the pop culture that surrounds them.

Every word out of Corey's mouth is worth noting, but this time around I really noticed something she says about the newer generation of ball competitors and runners, and how the emphasis has shifted from being about what they create (garments, props) to what they can buy. Corey is mourning an embracing of not just mainstream culture---like categories that are taken from TV shows--but also a materialism. As one queen notes, a label doesn't really mean anything because anyone can shoplift a label.

More broadly, the film challenges what has become the pop culture conception of "drag" ie a man dressed up as a woman. Categories at the ball include military, or even business executive. These aren't about gender bending, they are about life bending. In the space of the ballroom, the only limit to who you can be is how well you dress and act the part.

The ball scene is a place where the members of the community can be outlandishly, unapologetically themselves. But as we learn from the very first moments, the space outside the ballroom is not so kind. The two stand-outs in terms of this aspect of the film are Venus Xtravaganza and two unnamed boys who are interviewed (at 2:26am!) in the street. Venus is a transwoman looking for her one true love, but having to do so via escorting. She describes that men are drawn to her because she is so small, and contrasting that with her story about having to jump out a window to flee a man who grew violent when he learned she was biologically male is frightening. Venus is toughness and fragility embodied in a single person, and you want to celebrate her brashness and shield her at the same time.

This film is such a knockout, its subjects so vibrant and human. My rating for it went up on this last viewing.

5

[SpelingError]

Naked

https://boxd.it/30uKJF

5/5

I need to revisit that one. I don't have any issues with it, but it didn't make as big of an impression on me as it has for some other people here. Maybe I missed something though...

[Takoma11]

I need to revisit that one. I don't have any issues with it, but it didn't make as big of an impression on me as it has for some other people here. Maybe I missed something though...

If you can get your hands on the director's commentary, I'd highly recommend it.

[Rockatansky]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2Fw4m2V0gTYxNML4bmM5BAb5KrGHr.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Paris is Burning, 1990

I always had hopes of being a big star. But as you get older, you aim a little lower. Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you've made a mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you've left a mark. You don't have to bend the whole world. I think it's better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you.

This is my third (I think) viewing of this documentary that examines ball culture in New York City and the lives of some of the participants in them. Every time I watch this movie I love it more, as I can't think of a documentary that captures joy and sorrow in such equal and potent measures.

It would take pages and pages to unpack all of the issues and themes raised in the film. The interview subjects are outstanding, with Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Venus Xtravaganza, Octavia St. Laurent, and Willi Ninja making the strongest impressions.

LaBeija and Corey are both transwomen who are more experienced in the drag scene, having seen it from the 1960s and how it has morphed into its current form. It's hard to resist just quoting swaths and swaths of dialogue from the film. LaBeija delivers an astounding monologue about being Black in a white America, and how the aspirations of any non-white person has become inextricably bound up in emulating and embracing whiteness---and specifically a whiteness that is projected at them by all of the pop culture that surrounds them.

Every word out of Corey's mouth is worth noting, but this time around I really noticed something she says about the newer generation of ball competitors and runners, and how the emphasis has shifted from being about what they create (garments, props) to what they can buy. Corey is mourning an embracing of not just mainstream culture---like categories that are taken from TV shows--but also a materialism. As one queen notes, a label doesn't really mean anything because anyone can shoplift a label.

More broadly, the film challenges what has become the pop culture conception of "drag" ie a man dressed up as a woman. Categories at the ball include military, or even business executive. These aren't about gender bending, they are about life bending. In the space of the ballroom, the only limit to who you can be is how well you dress and act the part.

The ball scene is a place where the members of the community can be outlandishly, unapologetically themselves. But as we learn from the very first moments, the space outside the ballroom is not so kind. The two stand-outs in terms of this aspect of the film are Venus Xtravaganza and two unnamed boys who are interviewed (at 2:26am!) in the street. Venus is a transwoman looking for her one true love, but having to do so via escorting. She describes that men are drawn to her because she is so small, and contrasting that with her story about having to jump out a window to flee a man who grew violent when he learned she was biologically male is frightening. Venus is toughness and fragility embodied in a single person, and you want to celebrate her brashness and shield her at the same time.

This film is such a knockout, it's subjects so vibrant and human. My rating for it went up on this last viewing.

5

Have you seen The Queen? It's a documentary about a drag ball from the '60s. Lacks the same street level focus, but I still found it quite engaging. One of the subjects of Paris is Burning also appears in it.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I need to revisit that one. I don't have any issues with it, but it didn't make as big of an impression on me as it has for some other people here. Maybe I missed something though...

Not sure what you could've missed. I felt like much of it's greatness was transparent, from Thewlis' powerhouse performance, the writing which captures the manic, philosophical ravings or addicts and lunatics, and the dream-like aesthetic of nightime London. It's essentially a scuzzy, impoverished La Dolce Vita.

If you had trouble with connecting, that makes sense. Like it's protagonist, it makes itself hard to embrace through it's relentless thorniness and ugliness. But what it lacks in likeability, it more than makes up for in intelligence and authenticity. Walk around any city in those twilight hours and you will meet "Johnny."

[Takoma11]

Have you seen The Queen? It's a documentary about a drag ball from the '60s. Lacks the same street level focus, but I still found it quite engaging. One of the subjects of Paris is Burning also appears in it.

Previously it hadn't been available, but I see that it's now on Kanopy!

I have seen the infamous clip of Crystal LaBeija talking about "showing her color". Excited to check it out in full.

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2Fw4m2V0gTYxNML4bmM5BAb5KrGHr.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Paris is Burning, 1990

I always had hopes of being a big star. But as you get older, you aim a little lower. Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you've made a mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you've left a mark. You don't have to bend the whole world. I think it's better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you.

This is my third (I think) viewing of this documentary that examines ball culture in New York City and the lives of some of the participants in them. Every time I watch this movie I love it more, as I can't think of a documentary that captures joy and sorrow in such equal and potent measures.

It would take pages and pages to unpack all of the issues and themes raised in the film. The interview subjects are outstanding, with Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Venus Xtravaganza, Octavia St. Laurent, and Willi Ninja making the strongest impressions.

LaBeija and Corey are both transwomen who are more experienced in the drag scene, having seen it from the 1960s and how it has morphed into its current form. It's hard to resist just quoting swaths and swaths of dialogue from the film. LaBeija delivers an astounding monologue about being Black in a white America, and how the aspirations of any non-white person has become inextricably bound up in emulating and embracing whiteness---and specifically a whiteness that is projected at them by all of the pop culture that surrounds them.

Every word out of Corey's mouth is worth noting, but this time around I really noticed something she says about the newer generation of ball competitors and runners, and how the emphasis has shifted from being about what they create (garments, props) to what they can buy. Corey is mourning an embracing of not just mainstream culture---like categories that are taken from TV shows--but also a materialism. As one queen notes, a label doesn't really mean anything because anyone can shoplift a label.

More broadly, the film challenges what has become the pop culture conception of "drag" ie a man dressed up as a woman. Categories at the ball include military, or even business executive. These aren't about gender bending, they are about life bending. In the space of the ballroom, the only limit to who you can be is how well you dress and act the part.

The ball scene is a place where the members of the community can be outlandishly, unapologetically themselves. But as we learn from the very first moments, the space outside the ballroom is not so kind. The two stand-outs in terms of this aspect of the film are Venus Xtravaganza and two unnamed boys who are interviewed (at 2:26am!) in the street. Venus is a transwoman looking for her one true love, but having to do so via escorting. She describes that men are drawn to her because she is so small, and contrasting that with her story about having to jump out a window to flee a man who grew violent when he learned she was biologically male is frightening. Venus is toughness and fragility embodied in a single person, and you want to celebrate her brashness and shield her at the same time.

This film is such a knockout, its subjects so vibrant and human. My rating for it went up on this last viewing.

5
YES!!!

I'm so glad you enjoyed this as much as I did. Your terminology is on the nose, it's "a knockout".
Venus' story really is just so powerful but it all is. I mean, when I think about movies that utterly change how I see something, in one viewing, there aren't that many and this is absolutely one of them.
Also a movie I would watch any time.

[Takoma11]

YES!!!

I'm so glad you enjoyed this as much as I did. Your terminology is on the nose, it's "a knockout".
Venus' story really is just so powerful but it all is. I mean, when I think about movies that utterly change how I see something, in one viewing, there aren't that many and this is absolutely one of them.
Also a movie I would watch any time.

I have to be careful when I watch it because it really does do a number on me, especially those two boys on the street. (Rumors in YouTube videos and comments are that they are both alive and okay, but who knows. And either way, yeesh!). I had to watch 5/6 of Sense and Sensibility last night just to restore some emotional equilibrium.

I agree that it's all powerful. Normally documentaries have one interview subject or one storyline that is clearly the most engaging, but in this film it's like a seven-way split.

It is completely shameful and baffling that this film was not Oscar nominated.

[SpelingError]

Not sure what you could've missed. I felt like much of it's greatness was transparent, from Thewlis' powerhouse performance, the writing which captures the manic, philosophical ravings or addicts and lunatics, and the dream-like aesthetic of nightime London. It's essentially a scuzzy, impoverished La Dolce Vita.

If you had trouble with connecting, that makes sense. Like it's protagonist, it makes itself hard to embrace through it's relentless thorniness and ugliness. But what it lacks in likeability, it more than makes up for in intelligence and authenticity. Walk around any city in those twilight hours and you will meet "Johnny."

Might've just been a case of not connecting to it as much as I hoped. I might check out the director's commentary like Takoma recommended to see if it enhances my enjoyment of the film.

[Takoma11]

Might've just been a case of not connecting to it as much as I hoped. I might check out the director's commentary like Takoma recommended to see if it enhances my enjoyment of the film.

I think that the film has a more subdued, slow feeling to it than you would expect. Which is not to say that there aren't moments without real charge, but it feels more low-key than the concept would suggest.

While I think that I liked it a lot more on my first viewing than you did, a framing from the director's commentary that helped me appreciate it more was the idea about the comparison between two characters (Johnny and Jeremy) and the way that they do harm to those around them. For example, both characters commit sexual assaults but that there is a fundamental difference between why they commit these actions.

I also think that, interestingly, this is a film where the supporting characters are kind of the stars, with Johnny and Jeremy eliciting different kinds of responses from them and displaying very different levels of empathy.

I don't know if you'll like it more on a rewatch, but these two ideas really deepened my understanding and appreciation of what the film is after.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/tJs8Z9cG/incantation.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68455486

Incantation - (2022)

Here we have it - my "beggars can't be choosers" scary movie for 2022 - because Incantation does a lot of things right, and if you're into movies like The Ring this has some perfect scenes that will no doubt give you chills. It's also a little muddled, and doesn't always work. But if you like these kind of movies, I really recommend this new release, which tries to scare you with it's straight-faced proclamation that it's based on a true story (so was Noah's Ark) and it encourages you to chant invocations, memorize symbols and do other things to prevent the evil from the film seeping into your reality. There's a great twist which...

...provides for a great little scare-enhancer. At the end of the film they tell us they were lying, and that in fact the things you've been doing actually give you the curse - you see, the mother in the film wanted to be relieved of it, and she figures spreading it around the world will weaken it's effects on her daughter. Something a little creepy to think about when you turn the movie off and go to bed.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/The_Nightmare_poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48189460

The Nightmare - (2015)

Here's another nice little spooky documentary about 'sleep paralysis' which most of us get from time to time. Those who suffer from it a great deal are interviewed, and their experiences reenacted for terrifying effect. It's directed by Rodney Ascher, who made the excellent Room 237 - I get this happening to me less than once a year, and yeah, it's scary, but for some strange reason I kind of like it.

7/10

https://i.postimg.cc/3wK8yDFM/pentimento.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68455486

Pentimento - (1979)

This interesting little arthouse film is pretty full-on and graphic - it's ending reminding me a lot of Antichrist. It squares with you right off the bat, showing you a lady masturbating, and then gets progressively more disturbing. It's kind of a misogyny tale with various women held captive and being subject to medical experiments, and throws class in for good measure. I thought it was pretty good - but I don't know if I could ever watch it a second time.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/A_Modern_Hero.jpg
By Unknown - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025510/mediaviewer/rm2540572160, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57997280

A Modern Hero - (1934)

I read an article by Christopher Horak, titled "G.W. Pabst in Hollywood or Every Modern Hero Deserves a Mother" and that led me to watching Pabst's one and only film he directed in the U.S. - A Modern Hero. It's not a very good film at all, and races through what might have been an interesting plot in 70 minutes, never stopping to let us catch up. A real rags to riches to rags tale with middling performances and oedipal drama where Pierre Radier (Richard Barthelmess) becomes rich the wrong way, has wives and lovers, has a son and loses him, then returns to mama.

5/10

[Thief]

THE ANDERSON TAPES
(1971, Lumet)

https://i.imgur.com/PGrSMz9.jpg


"You want what you can't have. I mean you're always hammering on that locked door."



The Anderson Tapes follows Duke Anderson (Sean Connery), a thief that walks out of a 10-year stint in prison only to plan an elaborate burglary in the apartment building of his girlfriend Ingrid (Dyan Cannon). After getting financed by the Mafia, he recruits a four-man crew for the job. What Anderson doesn't know is that he's the subject of various surveillance groups: the FBI, the IRS, the BNDD, and even a P.I. hired by Ingrid's former wealthy lover.

If you've seen Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, this is pretty much the same vibe (although maybe a tad more serious). Like Clooney, Connery is a cool-ass motherf**ker in the role of Anderson, but also shows significant shades of morality. It was nice to see him in this role right after his James Bond turn as it shows a bit more range from him. Cannon was also great as his lover, even though I felt her character was undercut. The rest of the supporting cast includes a really young Christopher Walken, a very slick Dick Anthony Williams, and an extremely enjoyable Martin Balsam.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315499#post2315499)

[Thief]

KUNG FURY
(2015, Sandberg)

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


"Before I could pull the trigger, I was hit by lightning and bitten by a cobra. I blacked out, and saw images of ancient Shaolin temples and monks mastering the art of kung-fu. There was an ancient prophecy about a new form of kung-fu so powerful, only one man can master it: The Chosen One. When I woke up, I saw the kung-fu master running towards me. I could feel my body mutate, into some sort of kung-fu freak of nature."



If you haven't seen Kung Fury, but most importantly, if you don't know anything about Kung Fury, is to read no further and just look for it. It's only 30 minutes long, and if you have a sense of humor, you'll probably thank me later. For those that choose to read anyway, the film follows the titular character (David Sandberg), a Miami detective with kung fu superpowers that has to stop Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Fuhrer", from taking over the world with his army.

The film does feel like its straining a bit to keep the schtick during the last minutes, but I'd say it succeeded. When I finished watching this short film, I felt like I had watched the "best film in the world", which obviously it isn't... but when you see a detective/kung fu master beating Adolf Hitler's ass, while a giant Thor watches, then maybe that's the closest you can get to it.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315513#post2315513)

[ThatDarnMKS]

Parade

https://boxd.it/30ImFx

3.5/5

My final and sadly least favorite Tati.

[pahaK]

I need to revisit that one. I don't have any issues with it, but it didn't make as big of an impression on me as it has for some other people here. Maybe I missed something though...

You're not the only one (missing something that is, not planning on a rewatch). I watched Naked for some HoF and absolutely hated it.

https://i.postimg.cc/tJs8Z9cG/incantation.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68455486

Incantation - (2022)

Here we have it - my "beggars can't be choosers" scary movie for 2022 - because Incantation does a lot of things right, and if you're into movies like The Ring this has some perfect scenes that will no doubt give you chills. It's also a little muddled, and doesn't always work. But if you like these kind of movies, I really recommend this new release, which tries to scare you with it's straight-faced proclamation that it's based on a true story (so was Noah's Ark) and it encourages you to chant invocations, memorize symbols and do other things to prevent the evil from the film seeping into your reality. There's a great twist which...

...provides for a great little scare-enhancer. At the end of the film they tell us they were lying, and that in fact the things you've been doing actually give you the curse - you see, the mother in the film wanted to be relieved of it, and she figures spreading it around the world will weaken it's effects on her daughter. Something a little creepy to think about when you turn the movie off and go to bed.

7/10

Incantation was fine. I was a little disappointed that it didn't feel scarier, and the mother-daughter stuff should have been written out (most of those scenes were boring fluff and existed only to allow the lame twist you speak of in the spoilers). The "6 years ago" footage and generally the stuff regarding the village were good and I can see where all the Noroi comparisons come from.

So write the daughter out of the film and make it purely a cosmic horror rooted in eastern mythology and you could have a real winner. Now it's just fine (which is still quite good for a found footage).

[cricket]

Last Night in Soho (2021)

1.5

https://64.media.tumblr.com/5359501705f9c90c7a09199c981f699f/20fe0e2c2977bf30-b2/s540x810/dfd949ec3c881f3e723051a180e9f65a2464fea0.gifv

Sometimes a blind watch can backfire. From the title and the poster (A lot of awesome posters for this), I was hoping/imagining something like After Hours or The Neon Demon. This is one of those movies in which you're constantly wondering what's real and what isn't. Dream? Imagination? Mental health? Supernatural? There are movies that do these things that I like, but it's not my ideal and this movie goes full hog in that direction, especially in the second half. There are positives like London, the 60's, the music, and some nice things visually, but if not for the forum, I would have shit it off an hour in. It just became a chore to sit through. I can understand how others could enjoy it. Not a fan of the director so far and he's had some hits.

[Thief]

DRAWINGS OF MY BF
(2021, Cooper)

https://i.imgur.com/8Q9BZ5h.png


"The drawing of the muse so... incessantly has got to say a lot about the relationship for the people. It's not just someone; it's this important person to the artist."



A muse is defined as the "source of inspiration for a creative artist", something or someone that drives them to produce art, music, poetry, sometimes obsessively. That is the case of artist Wilfrid Wood and model Theo Adamson, who met through Grindr when the former was looking for a model. The result was over 1000 drawings, a relationship, an art show, and a documentary short.

Drawings of My BF is that documentary short directed by James Oliver Cooper. It chronicles Wood's incessant drawing of Adamson. But as Wood puts it, "what was a model/artist relationship turned into a bit more". Whether the art drove them to love, or vice-versa, is up to them to decide, but to see the obsessive drive in Wood is quite something.

The documentary is fairly short and simple, featuring voiceovers by both Wood and Adamson talking about their relationship as we see Wood drawing non-stop. What I found more impressive is to see the huge variety of drawings by Wood, all in different styles and sizes. It's not a groundbreaking short film, or something that would probably stick with me years from now, but it's lovely to see that creative connection between two seemingly different people working on so many levels.

Grade: 2.5

[Stirchley]

You're not the only one (missing something that is, not planning on a rewatch). I watched Naked for some HoF and absolutely hated it.

Naked with David Thewlis? It’s a brilliant movie.

[Thief]

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE
(1943, Tourneur)

https://i.imgur.com/r3lk6tZ.jpg


"There's no beauty here, only death and decay."



That's how plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway) describes the island of Saint Sebastian to nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee). He knows because he has seen "death and decay" among the slaves his family has brought there, and now sees it in the state of his wife Jessica, who's been in a catatonic state due to a serious illness, and who Betsy has been hired to take care of.

I Walked with a Zombie follows Betsy's attempts to heal Jessica through various methods, including through voodoo rituals that are common in the island. As she discovers the truth behind these rituals, she also finds herself entangled in the family problems between Paul and his half-brother Wesley (James Ellison), as well as their mother (Edith Barrett).

Although I've seen this film attributed more to producer Val Lewton, with whom I'm not that familiar, my main drive to see it was director Jacques Tourneur, who four years later would direct my favorite film noir, Out of the Past. In that department, the film totally delivered. Tourneur uses some great direction and camera movement to build up dread, whether it is through a tense walk through the woods or in a dark humid basement.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315725#post2315725)

[Thief]

UNDYING LOVE
(2011, Hauksson)

https://i.imgur.com/3CqkW2e.png


"You have to eat, darling"



During the last 10-20 years, the zombie horror sub-genre has been beaten to death (no pun intended) by filmmakers and studios with great and not so great results. From the horrific to the comical, from the endless thrills of Train to Busan to the seemingly interminable Walking Dead, and its spin-offs.

Despite this long parade of films, series, and short films, it is fun to still find some efforts that don't try to reinvent the wheel, but are still effective to some extent. That is the case of this short film from Icelandic filmmaker Ómar Örn Hauksson. Undying Love is a fairly simple short about a lonely man (Hilmir Jensson) trying to survive in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse.

At roughly 12 minutes, it's hard to talk about it without spoiling anything, but I'll just say that it was fairly well made, and well acted. With that little time, Jensson does a solid job conveying all the mixture of emotions that his character goes through. It might not bring the genre back to life, but it sure gives it a jolt.

Grade: 3

[SpelingError]

29th Hall of Fame

Anomalisa (2015) - 4

I found this to be a solid film which was enhanced by one great element. For one, I enjoyed it for its representation of alienation and social awkwardness. The conversations Michael and Lisa have with each other feel awkward, but they're also a realistic representation of how people like them actually behave. While I don't think the movie quite gets going until Michael meets Bella, once we get to that scene, the film becomes consistently engaging throughout the remainder of its runtime. While I like this dynamic quite a bit, the unconventional casting choices were what clicked with me most of all. Aside from David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh, everyone else in the film (both the men and women) are voiced by Tom Noonan. It's obvious that they all sound like the same person and Noonan doesn't appear to attempt to hide that, but this is the point of the film. Part of why Michael feels alienation from everyone is that they all seem the same to him (represented through their voices all sounding alike). Lisa interests Michael though since she's different from everyone else. This is a brilliant concept and the kind that works best in animation as opposed to live action. I don't think that aspect is quite enough for the film to be great, but it's definitely enough to elevate the material to a higher degree. Overall, I'm glad I finally got to this. Charlie Kaufman has written and directed a bunch of interesting films over his career so far and this one is no exception.

[Gideon58]

https://cdn.cinematerial.com/p/297x/vdgt0i4v/beauty-movie-cover-md.jpg?v=1655302161


2

[pahaK]

Naked with David Thewlis? It’s a brilliant movie.

That's what people here tend to say, but I'm missing its awesomeness. I guess it's somehow expected, though, considering how many people hate the films I adore.

[Stirchley]

That's what people here tend to say, but I'm missing its awesomeness. I guess it's somehow expected, though, considering how many people hate the films I adore.

Tell me which movie you adore the most. (Back on Wednesday.)

[Ultraviolence]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/ca3c0784d81f91e3f9aaa1042b85bda1/LXHOssMGpyKq1rwyuscYSnAuNwWOGa_large.jpg
Rebellion against Shogun's systematic tyranny and control.
Masterpiece.
rating_5

[ThatDarnMKS]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/ca3c0784d81f91e3f9aaa1042b85bda1/LXHOssMGpyKq1rwyuscYSnAuNwWOGa_large.jpg
Rebellion against Shogun's systematic tyranny and control.
Masterpiece.
rating_5
My favorite chanbara not directed by Kurosawa. Though Kobayashi's own Harakiri gives it a run for it's money.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/l4KhVVilBJem5ExOg/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47qb43rj37eycftjjq5buvufoeu8lfunm82bgxs49z&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
https://media3.giphy.com/media/26FPpfVkCZEywdiN2/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47yzvnyhuhqcgpo5w1hcaqx1eo1te56qacf4g8no05&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g


I Confess - I'm gonna have to do a fresh count of the Hitchcock movies I've seen because I can not only cross this off the list but Sabotage as well. This is a 1953 entry starring Montgomery Clift as Father Michael Logan. Hitchcock starts off the film as a mini travelogue of sorts, showing different parts of Quebec City. He reveals the victim right off the bat, lying inside his house and then a man scurrying off. He's wearing a cassock which he quickly removes as he makes his way back to a nearby church.

That's how the films opens but as it delves deepers into the actual crime the identity of the man is revealed as he admits his guilt to Father Mike. From there springs the crux of the film, the sanctity of the confessional and the covenant between confessor and penitent. But wait, there's more. As it turns out Father Logan also had a connection of sorts to the dead man. One which further obfuscates his involvement in not only the crime but with Ruth Grandfort (Anne Baxter), the wife of a local politician. It also rouses the suspicions of Inspector Larrue (Karl Malden), the detective doggedly leading the investigation.

This isn't one of Hitchcock's classics. It's rather slow moving with a somewhat awkward flashback that only serves to further sidetrack the narrative. But Clift was a genuine star and he does hold the viewer's attention whenever he's onscreen. Worth a watch because it is Hitchcock after all. And the story does ultimately deliver the goods.

80/100

[Thief]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/l4KhVVilBJem5ExOg/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47qb43rj37eycftjjq5buvufoeu8lfunm82bgxs49z&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
https://media3.giphy.com/media/26FPpfVkCZEywdiN2/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47yzvnyhuhqcgpo5w1hcaqx1eo1te56qacf4g8no05&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g


I Confess - I'm gonna have to do a fresh count of the Hitchcock movies I've seen because I can not only cross this off the list but Sabotage as well. This is a 1953 entry starring Montgomery Clift as Father Michael Logan. Hitchcock starts off the film as a mini travelogue of sorts, showing different parts of Quebec City. He reveals the victim right off the bat, lying inside his house and then a man scurrying off. He's wearing a cassock which he quickly removes as he makes his way back to a nearby church.

That's how the films opens but as it delves deepers into the actual crime the identity of the man is revealed as he admits his guilt to Father Mike. From there springs the crux of the film, the sanctity of the confessional and the covenant between confessor and penitent. But wait, there's more. As it turns out Father Logan also had a connection of sorts to the dead man. One which further obfuscates his involvement in not only the crime but with Ruth Grandfort (Anne Baxter), the wife of a local politician. It also rouses the suspicions of Inspector Larrue (Karl Malden), the detective doggedly leading the investigation.

This isn't one of Hitchcock's classics. It's rather slow moving with a somewhat awkward flashback that only serves to further sidetrack the narrative. But Clift was a genuine star and he does hold the viewer's attention whenever he's onscreen. Worth a watch because it is Hitchcock after all. And the story does ultimately deliver the goods.

80/100

This is one of the "few" Hitchcock films I haven't seen. I need to check it out.

[Thief]

SEVEN
(2018, Morgan)

https://i.imgur.com/f81ph12.jpg


"My father once told me that up here, this far north, with no day and night, it's easy to get lost. To think you're right when you're wrong."



Set in a remote Scandinavian village, Seven follows Yohana (Dagny Backer Johnsen), a young woman that has to decide the fate of a kidnapped oil worker (Nicholas Boulton). We are told that oil companies and rigs have been threatening the peace and environment of their village, and apparently a conflict of some kind resulted in the death of Yohana's father and leader of the village.

This is a great short in pretty much every aspect. First of all, it is beautifully shot, with some gorgeous cinematography and skilled editing. Second, all three main performances are pretty good, with Teigen being particularly notable for me. The way he conveys strength in spite of insecurity, with a little bit of shadiness, is perfect.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315862#post2315862) and the 5th Short HoF thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315863#post2315863).

[ThatDarnMKS]

This is one of the "few" Hitchcock films I haven't seen. I need to check it out.
Clift's performance makes it worth seeing but it's a very minor Hitchcock flick.

[Thief]

Clift's performance makes it worth seeing but it's a very minor Hitchcock flick.

Yeah, but since I've seen most of the big ones, I want to finish the lesser known ones to close out his filmography.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Yeah, but since I've seen most of the big ones, I want to finish the lesser known ones to close out his filmography.
Certainly. I wouldn't try to talk anyone out of a Hitchcock. Just saying to temper expections. It may be his weakest from that era.

[Ultraviolence]

http://uwbk.com.br/images/stories/Yagyuu.jpg
Yagyû ichizoku no inbô (1978)
rating_4
Rewatch.
Strong direction from Fukasaku. Nobody shows death like him. His "Yakuza style" of shooting action is a great addition to the genre with that unique camera angles. Unbelievable cast. One of the best Kinnosuke Nakamura's performance.

[kgaard]

I :heart: Montgomery Clift.

[Thief]

Certainly. I wouldn't try to talk anyone out of a Hitchcock. Just saying to temper expections. It may be his weakest from that era.

I'm pretty sure that, with one exception, the ones I have not seen would all be classified as his "weakest".

As a matter of fact, I might as well ask, since we're talking about the man. I've seen 38 of his 50-something films. These are the ones I haven't seen...

1930s
Juno and the Paycock (1930)
Elstree Calling (1930)
The Skin Game (1931)
Mary (1931)
Number Seventeen (1932)
Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
Jamaica Inn (1939)

1940s
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
The Paradine Case (1947)
Under Capricorn (1949)

1950s
Stage Fright (1950)
I Confess (1953)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

1960s
Torn Curtain (1966)
Topaz (1969)

I have intentions of finishing up his filmography, but what are the strongest out of those?

[Thief]

I :heart: Montgomery Clift.

Have you seen The Heiress? Is a must!

[ThatDarnMKS]

I'm pretty sure that, with one exception, the ones I have not seen would all be classified as his "weakest".

As a matter of fact, I might as well ask, since we're talking about the man. I've seen 38 of his 50-something films. These are the ones I haven't seen...

I would say all of these are better than I Confess:

Number Seventeen (1932)
Under Capricorn (1949)
Stage Fright (1950)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Torn Curtain (1966)
Topaz (1969)

[Thief]

I would say all of these are better than I Confess:

Number Seventeen (1932)
Under Capricorn (1949)
Stage Fright (1950)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Torn Curtain (1966)
Topaz (1969)

Nice! I'll consider it as I go down that road.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Nice! I'll consider it as I go down that road.
Of those, I’m especially fond of the Trouble With Harry. It’s easy to imagine the Coen Bros seeing that one at a young age and finding their sense of dark humor seriously impacted.

[Thief]

Of those, I’m especially fond of the Trouble With Harry. It’s easy to imagine the Coen Bros seeing that one at a young age and finding their sense of dark humor seriously impacted.

I think I've heard that comparison before :D As a Coens fan, I'll bump it up the queue.

[kgaard]

Have you seen The Heiress? Is a must!

I have and I agree! I think I’ve seen all of Clift’s films, and frankly he makes them all worth it. He’s also buried less than a mile from where i live, coincidentally.

[kgaard]

I have and I agree! I think I’ve seen all of Clift’s films, and frankly he makes them all worth it. He’s also buried less than a mile from where i live, coincidentally.

Actually, nope, I checked, I’m still missing a few of his later films. More Clift to look forward to!

[Thief]

HEDGEHOG IN THE FOG
(1975, Norstein)

https://i.imgur.com/R1Ig9zT.jpg


"If the horse goes to sleep, will it sink in the fog?"



That's the question that little Hedgehog (Mariya Vinogradova) asks himself as he stumbles upon a magical-looking white horse in the midle of the forest. Will it sink in the fog? Should he go explore? You see, little Hedgehog seems to be a bit too preoccupied about "creepy creatures" in the fog, but should he be?

Hedgehog in the Fog is an impressively made short, in terms of animation. But more importantly, an incredibly charming one. It follows Hedgehog as he embarks on a journey to meet his friend Bear (Vyacheslav Nevinnyy). But on the road, he gets lost in the fog as anxiety kicks in and he starts feeling terrified about the different creatures around him: an owl, a snail, a bat, an elephant, and much, much more.

But not the horse. The horse draws him in, and perhaps helps him realize that not everything has to go wrong; not everything has to be bad or terrifying. The fog doesn't have to be bad, not every creature is out to get him, things that were lost can be found, paths that were missed can be retaken, and true friends will always worry for you and wait for you.

Grade: 4

[Wooley]

Last Night in Soho (2021)

1.5

https://64.media.tumblr.com/5359501705f9c90c7a09199c981f699f/20fe0e2c2977bf30-b2/s540x810/dfd949ec3c881f3e723051a180e9f65a2464fea0.gifv

Sometimes a blind watch can backfire. From the title and the poster (A lot of awesome posters for this), I was hoping/imagining something like After Hours or The Neon Demon. This is one of those movies in which you're constantly wondering what's real and what isn't. Dream? Imagination? Mental health? Supernatural? There are movies that do these things that I like, but it's not my ideal and this movie goes full hog in that direction, especially in the second half. There are positives like London, the 60's, the music, and some nice things visually, but if not for the forum, I would have shit it off an hour in. It just became a chore to sit through. I can understand how others could enjoy it. Not a fan of the director so far and he's had some hits.

Yeah, this is kind of a bummer for me, not the movie, but how little anyone but my friends and I liked it. We all thought it was borderline excellent, all four of us, no dissent. And then every review I read of it here is negative. Just a minor bummer.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Yeah, this is kind of a bummer for me, not the movie, but how little anyone but my friends and I liked it. We all thought it was borderline excellent, all four of us, no dissent. And then every review I read of it here is negative. Just a minor bummer.
Edgar Wright is just exactly the wrong director for a giallo throwback, love his other works though I might. He’s not mean or subversive enough.

[Wooley]

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE
(1943, Tourneur)

https://i.imgur.com/r3lk6tZ.jpg




That's how plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway) describes the island of Saint Sebastian to nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee). He knows because he has seen "death and decay" among the slaves his family has brought there, and now sees it in the state of his wife Jessica, who's been in a catatonic state due to a serious illness, and who Betsy has been hired to take care of.

I Walked with a Zombie follows Betsy's attempts to heal Jessica through various methods, including through voodoo rituals that are common in the island. As she discovers the truth behind these rituals, she also finds herself entangled in the family problems between Paul and his half-brother Wesley (James Ellison), as well as their mother (Edith Barrett).

Although I've seen this film attributed more to producer Val Lewton, with whom I'm not that familiar, my main drive to see it was director Jacques Tourneur, who four years later would direct my favorite film noir, Out of the Past. In that department, the film totally delivered. Tourneur uses some great direction and camera movement to build up dread, whether it is through a tense walk through the woods or in a dark humid basement.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315725#post2315725)

Hm. I liked this quite a bit more than you, I would say. I couldn't possibly go lower than 4 for it and I actually just consider it a straight-up classic, canon, must-see film for anyone who watches Horror outside of their own generation, even though I probably wouldn't go to 5 for it. But I do think very, very highly of it and like it that much.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for that team and each of them individually. I mean, I think The Leopard Man is one of the most underrated in the Horror genre and I think if you don't like The Body Snatcher you can't come to my birthday party.

[Thief]

Hm. I liked this quite a bit more than you, I would say. I couldn't possibly go lower than 4 for it and I actually just consider it a straight-up classic, canon, must-see film for anyone who watches Horror outside of their own generation, even though I probably wouldn't go to 5 for it. But I do think very, very highly of it and like it that much.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for that team and each of them individually. I mean, I think The Leopard Man is one of the most underrated in the Horror genre and I think if you don't like The Body Snatcher you can't come to my birthday party.

I stand by my review, which is still positive, but I can acknowledge that I might not have been in the proper mindset when I saw it.

[Wooley]

SEVEN
(2018, Morgan)

https://i.imgur.com/f81ph12.jpg




Set in a remote Scandinavian village, Seven follows Yohana (Dagny Backer Johnsen), a young woman that has to decide the fate of a kidnapped oil worker (Nicholas Boulton). We are told that oil companies and rigs have been threatening the peace and environment of their village, and apparently a conflict of some kind resulted in the death of Yohana's father and leader of the village.

This is a great short in pretty much every aspect. First of all, it is beautifully shot, with some gorgeous cinematography and skilled editing. Second, all three main performances are pretty good, with Teigen being particularly notable for me. The way he conveys strength in spite of insecurity, with a little bit of shadiness, is perfect.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315862#post2315862) and the 5th Short HoF thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2315863#post2315863).
Color me intrigued.

[Wooley]

Of those, I’m especially fond of the Trouble With Harry. It’s easy to imagine the Coen Bros seeing that one at a young age and finding their sense of dark humor seriously impacted.

Cheers.

[Wooley]

I :heart: Montgomery Clift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssFiUE-T2OA

[Wooley]

Edgar Wright is just exactly the wrong director for a giallo throwback, love his other works though I might. He’s not mean or subversive enough.

I guess.
I mean, none of us had any idea what this movie was about when we went into it and, while the giallo was obvious, I thought he took the form and did something fun and cool with it so I wasn't judging it versus The Bird With The Crystal Plumage.
I thought the direction and cinematography were aces and the performances outstanding, for the film that he made. How they compared to the best giallo, I actually didn't do that math in my brain. I just enjoyed what was on the screen.
And I'm not saying that comparisons are the only reason people didn't like it, I'm just saying that has been brought up as the biggest detraction for a lot of people and I'm just explaining how it wasn't for me.

[Thief]

Color me intrigued.

Treat yo'self

https://vimeo.com/386467614

[Wooley]

I stand by my review, which is still positive, but I can acknowledge that I might not have been in the proper mindset when I saw it.
Well, you also might just not have liked it as much as me, which is fine. This was definitely my bag, but I'm not here to tell anyone who didn't like it as much that they're wrong.

[Wooley]

Treat yo'self

https://vimeo.com/386467614

Thanks!

[Thief]

Well, you also might just not have liked it as much as me, which is fine. This was definitely my bag, but I'm not here to tell anyone who didn't like it as much that they're wrong.

Oh, I know, but I'm just acknowledging that I really wasn't in the proper mindset when I saw it. I might rewatch it sooner than later and see where the chips fall.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/Gandhi-poster.png
By May be found at the following website: IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34903991

Gandhi - (1982)

I watched Gandhi last night for a peculiar reason (maybe peculiar is too strong a word, but doesn't matter) - I was interested in why Das Boot didn't win the Oscar for Best Cinematography the year it was nominated, and saw that Gandhi had won it. I thought that I'd seen Gandhi before, but I would have been a kid and I obviously took little of it in. So, I thought it's an important film - when you're making one about possibly the best and most important figure of the 20th Century you automatically get kudos. It's probably impossible to really do justice to him with a biopic, and this one wades into a few familiar territories, but overall I came away from it feeling wiser, and fonder of the man. If your movie can do that, then well done. Also, Ben Kingsley's performance is a work of art. I have a newfound respect for the film Gandhi now - but still think that cinematography Oscar should have gone to Das Boot - Gandhi can certainly have the rest.

8/10

[gbgoodies]

I'm pretty sure that, with one exception, the ones I have not seen would all be classified as his "weakest".

As a matter of fact, I might as well ask, since we're talking about the man. I've seen 38 of his 50-something films. These are the ones I haven't seen...

1930s
Juno and the Paycock (1930)
Elstree Calling (1930)
The Skin Game (1931)
Mary (1931)
Number Seventeen (1932)
Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
Jamaica Inn (1939)

1940s
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
The Paradine Case (1947)
Under Capricorn (1949)

1950s
Stage Fright (1950)
I Confess (1953)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

1960s
Torn Curtain (1966)
Topaz (1969)

I have intentions of finishing up his filmography, but what are the strongest out of those?


Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) is one of my favorite movies, but I just want to give you a heads up about it. Don't expect a typical Hitchcock suspense movie. It's a rom-com.

[Thief]

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) is one of my favorite movies, but I just want to give you a heads up about it. Don't expect a typical Hitchcock suspense movie. It's a rom-com.

Yeah, I know. I think that's one of the reasons why I've unconsciously stayed away from it :D

[gbgoodies]

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) is one of my favorite movies, but I just want to give you a heads up about it. Don't expect a typical Hitchcock suspense movie. It's a rom-com.

Yeah, I know. I think that's one of the reasons why I've unconsciously stayed away from it :D


You can stay away from it if you're looking for a good suspense movie, but if you like rom-coms, I highly recommend it.

[Captain Terror]

Trouble With Harry is the one from that list that I'd say is a must-see.
The rest range from "pretty good" to "I remember nothing about this" for me.

[mark f]

I had The Trouble with Harry on some little list we're doing now.

[Guaporense]

Bad Education (2004)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/La_mala_educacion_film_poster.jpg

As I am learning Spanish, I am only watching movies in Spanish, and watched this one about gay guys doing gay things. It's kind interesting but not excellent, Almodovar tries very hard to appear shocking and countercultural in his movies but I don't remember much of the plot after a few days. After watching half of his filmography I can say that Almodovar is a competent director but he is not a Miyazaki. 6/10

A Fantastic Woman (2017)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/A_Fantastic_Woman.png

While browsing "art movies" in spanish on Netflix I stumbled across a movie about how Latin American society is bigoted. Main character is transwomen who reminded me of Ozzy Osbourne circa 1975, but she gets harassed by everybody all the time for no reason other than being trans. I watched only half of the movie since the message was clear in the first 15 minutes and there was nothing else to it. Artistically it is a complete failure, don't recommend it. 1/10

[WHITBISSELL!]

Trouble With Harry is the one from that list that I'd say is a must-see.
The rest range from "pretty good" to "I remember nothing about this" for me.That would be my pick as well.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I guess.
I mean, none of us had any idea what this movie was about when we went into it and, while the giallo was obvious, I thought he took the form and did something fun and cool with it so I wasn't judging it versus The Bird With The Crystal Plumage.
I thought the direction and cinematography were aces and the performances outstanding, for the film that he made. How they compared to the best giallo, I actually didn't do that math in my brain. I just enjoyed what was on the screen.
And I'm not saying that comparisons are the only reason people didn't like it, I'm just saying that has been brought up as the biggest detraction for a lot of people and I'm just explaining how it wasn't for me.
It’s a well made film. It just swaps the ugly subversiveness of the giallo genre in favor of something that tries to be girl power empowering and collapses in on itself by accidentally being mildly racist and feeding into evil stereotypes about sex workers. As one who considers themselves fairly “woke,” there’s nothing like trying to swap a genres retrogressive politics for progressivisms and utterly fall on its face.

In short, it’s just a stupidly written film. The craft is nice though, so I can’t hate it.

[Wyldesyde19]

Yeah, this is kind of a bummer for me, not the movie, but how little anyone but my friends and I liked it. We all thought it was borderline excellent, all four of us, no dissent. And then every review I read of it here is negative. Just a minor bummer.

I liked it, didn’t love it. The third act brings it down. I was lucky to see this in the theaters, considering how hyped I was to see it. I think the performances help this along in a big way.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I liked it, didn’t love it. The third act brings it down. I was lucky to see this in the theaters, considering how hyped I was to see it. I think the performances help this along in a big way.
While I though Anya Taylor Joy was as mesmerizing as ever, I felt like Thomasin McKenzie gave an awkward and ultimately unappealing performance, leaning into a baby voice and awkward limp to add depth where there was none.

Smith, Rigg and Stamp were uniform in quality though.

[mark f]

Cryo (Barrett Burgin, 2022) 2 5/10
The Girl He Left Behind (David Butler, 1956) 2.5 5.5/10
Hot Seat (James Cullen Bressack, 2022) 2 5/10
Hopscotch (Ronald Neame, 1980) 3.5 7/10
https://www.classicfilmfreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/1980-hopscotch-walter-matthau-glenda-jackson.jpg
When he's given a desk job, CIA field agent Walter Matthau needs the help of Glenda Jackson to expose their operations throughout Europe.
Accused of Murder (Joseph Kane, 1956) 2.5 5.5/10
The Great Alligator (Sergio Martino, 1979) 1.5 4/10
Attack on Finland (Aku Louhimies, 2021) 2.5 5.5/10
The Talk of the Town (George Stevens, 1942) 3.5 7/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c6737326dcd487e7088f98bbd2de14ef/26fa3cef66b865f9-5f/s500x750/7c1ce16763122c4b9f054cf1936ce4eb28aeffd2.gifv
Perspective Supreme Court Justice Ronald Colman and escaped prisoner-posing-as-a-gardener Cary Grant debate the law and politics while Jean Arthur looks on.
Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (Juan López Moctezuma, 1975) 2 5/10
The Wonderful Summer of Mickey Mouse (4 Directors, 2022) 3 6.5/10
The Velvet Vampire (Stephanie Rothman, 1971) 2 5/10
Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979) 3.5 7/10
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWZuAOXXoAAhUsV.jpg
Filmmaker Albert Brooks is given complete charge of making a reality-based movie with a Phoenix family and, shall we say, his methods are unsound.
I Am Mortal (Tony Aloupis, 2021) 2 5/10
Bulky Trash AKA Sperrmüll (Helke Misselwitz, 1991) 3 6.5/10
Komodo (Michael Lantieri, 1999) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Serial (Bill Persky, 1980) 3 6.5/10
https://www.popcorndick.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/138797694_2562735334027176_3997643778627714191_n.jpg
In San Francisco, businessman Martin Mull [right] considers everybody else a loser, and in new age analyst Peter Bonerz and wacko "minister" Tom Smothers, he's not wrong.
Porgy and Bess (Otto Preminger, 1959) 3.5 7/10
Where the Scary Things Are (B. Harrison Smith, 2022)1.5+ 4.5/10
Half Past Midnight (Wim Vink, 1989) 2.5 5.5/10
Tab Hunter Confidential (Jeffrey Schwarz, 2015) 3+ 6.5/10
https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i505/tabhunterconfidential_taketheprettyboys_fc_470x264_071020190924.jpg
Thorough look at Tab Hunter's life, career, the homophobic era he came in on and his later years almost seeming to embrace it.

[ScarletLion]

'Aloners' (2021)
Dir.: Hong Seong-eun

https://t-2.tstatic.net/tribunnewswiki/foto/bank/images/Film-Aloners-2021.jpg

Really neat little film about a girl who is content to live a life of solitude in her small flat, but she has her reasons why which unfold throughout the film. It has a very mysterious tone, and there are plenty of things happening in the background in several scenes. Hong Seong-eun wrote, directed and edited it and has never done anything in the industry before as far as I can see. Looks to be a supreme talent.

7.4/10

[pahaK]

Yeah, this is kind of a bummer for me, not the movie, but how little anyone but my friends and I liked it. We all thought it was borderline excellent, all four of us, no dissent. And then every review I read of it here is negative. Just a minor bummer.

I liked Last Night in Soho a lot (gave it 4/5 and it shares my best film of 2021 title with The Innocents). Personally, I've never been a fan of Wright (I've skipped some of his films mostly because he directed them) but Soho showed a lot of promise.

It’s a well made film. It just swaps the ugly subversiveness of the giallo genre in favor of something that tries to be girl power empowering and collapses in on itself by accidentally being mildly racist and feeding into evil stereotypes about sex workers. As one who considers themselves fairly “woke,” there’s nothing like trying to swap a genres retrogressive politics for progressivisms and utterly fall on its face.

As someone who considers himself extremely "non-woke," I mostly agree with this criticism. This silly empowering trope and one of the best examples of a token black character (and a general lack of sleaze) were my main issues with it. I may consider them as issues for (at least partially) different reasons but in any case, that's the stuff that slightly held it down.

[cricket]

Yeah, this is kind of a bummer for me, not the movie, but how little anyone but my friends and I liked it. We all thought it was borderline excellent, all four of us, no dissent. And then every review I read of it here is negative. Just a minor bummer.

Don't think anything of it. One of the reasons I watched it was because it appeared to be well received. I didn't actually have any issue with the movie other than it wasn't my taste. It's well made and I liked the technical aspects.

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 rewatched
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjYzZGNkM2MtMjE2MS00YTcyLTliZjQtYjY5MDE3YjAyMWEzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODc0OTEyNDU@._V1_.jpg

[Ultraviolence]

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/pitch-black-553e74e15a735.jpg
rating_2_5
Experimental and somehow fresh (for the early 2000 sci-fi). The colors are really interesting to see.

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/the-chronicles-of-riddick-52ed7036e2f36.jpg
rating_2_5
Interesting world building. I was involved in the concept of the universe. I really appreciate the effort to make something original - by original I mean it wasn't an adaptation.

God of War 1 (ps2) was released one year after this and the ending of that game really reminds the ending of this movie.

[Wooley]

It’s a well made film. It just swaps the ugly subversiveness of the giallo genre in favor of something that tries to be girl power empowering and collapses in on itself by accidentally being mildly racist and feeding into evil stereotypes about sex workers. As one who considers themselves fairly “woke,” there’s nothing like trying to swap a genres retrogressive politics for progressivisms and utterly fall on its face.

In short, it’s just a stupidly written film. The craft is nice though, so I can’t hate it.

Wait, I missed the racist part (or maybe just forgot about it), what happened?

[Wooley]

While I though Anya Taylor Joy was as mesmerizing as ever, I felt like Thomasin McKenzie gave an awkward and ultimately unappealing performance, leaning into a baby voice and awkward limp to add depth where there was none.

Smith, Rigg and Stamp were uniform in quality though.

Gasp!
I thought McKenzie was absolute aces, as good as or better than her performance in JoJo Rabbit.
But that's just me.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Wait, I missed the racist part (or maybe just forgot about it), what happened?
Basically, the flick casts a black love interest but 1) only allows him to be defined by his relationship with the lead and 2) has a scene that lacks an honest POC lens to an astounding degree:

Her meltdown when they’re in bed together would be an absolute nightmare for any young black man: The appearance of sexually assaulting/raping an inebriated white woman and the threat of the police called. For a movie steeped in progressive ideas, it feels extremely out of place for the film to suddenly forget how bad this would be because it immediately shifts back to the 1st issue, and focuses only on his concern for her in their next scene.

And in its other failure of actually being progressive, it tries to turn everything into a girl power narrative but ends up justifying and forgiving her for murdering all these men because they saw a sex worker… and tried to poison the lead who apparently just… walked off being poisoned so they could hug it out? Which ones again, leads to the protagonist shrugging off the violence inflicted upon her love interest.


Is it Birth of a Nation? No. But when a film is desperately trying to modernize and be progressive, the bar is higher and the failures are more embarrassing. It has STRONG “let’s have our business woman run around in heels the whole movie and learn to be a mom” vibes ala the feminism of Jurassic World.

[GulfportDoc]

I'm pretty sure that, with one exception, the ones I have not seen would all be classified as his "weakest".

As a matter of fact, I might as well ask, since we're talking about the man. I've seen 38 of his 50-something films. These are the ones I haven't seen...
...
I have intentions of finishing up his filmography, but what are the strongest out of those?
Of the ones that you listed, I'd put The Paradine Case and The Man Who Knew Too Much at the top. Both very fine films. Topaz was very suspenseful and well acted, and was also one of Roscoe Lee Brown's big film breakouts.

[Thief]

Of the ones that you listed, I'd put The Paradine Case and The Man Who Knew Too Much at the top. Both very fine films. Topaz was very suspenseful and well acted, and was also one of Roscoe Lee Brown's big film breakouts.

I think that, overall, his 40s and 50s stuff is what I have at the top of my queue, with his early 30s stuff at the bottom. I think the latter is mostly agreed on as his "weakest" era.

[beelzebubble]

Elephant Song 2014 Canadian film.


It's about a young mental patient and the head games he plays with a psychiatrist. The head nurse and others keep warning the doctor about how cagey the young man is, but he ignore them. What could go wrong?


The first half of the film is pretty tired. I think that is due to the rather bland acting style of Bruce Greenwood, who plays the psychiatrist. His nemesis, Xavier Dolan does a decent job as the young patient. The film picks up when the young man starts to confide in the doctor. The ending is quite surprising.


I would give this a 2.5- 3 out of 5. I enjoyed it but didn't think it was that great.

[Raven73]

Blood red sky
Netflix
8/10.
Excellent, fresh, gripping vampire film, with a rare vampire protagonist. Easily the best vampire movie I've seen in years.

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/w500/v7aOJKI5vxCHotHvN8O7SR6SpP6.jpg

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fartist.api.lv3.cdn.hbo.com%2Fimages%2FGXSybwQFZX5VLqQEAAAbw%2Ftilezoom%3Fv%3D2d1ceb 4f775107a19e3cb9a70bcf1cc3%26size%3D1500x844%26fmt%3Djpg&f=1&nofb=1

Trouble in Mind, 1985

Hawk (Kris Kristofferson) is released from prison right around the time that Coop (Keith Carradine) and his wife Georgia (Lori Singer) move to town. Coop soon falls in with a criminal named Solo (Joe Morton) and as his relationship with Georgia gets more and more fractured, Hawk starts to romance her.

I'm sure that there are people who love this movie. It certainly has, um, personality. I found it annoying and boring in turn, and some strong visuals or impactful moments did not do enough to get me on its side.

Positives? Well, there are some funny moments. The movie is styled as a noir with rainy streets and a jazzy score. At certain points the take on the genre is fun, such as when a dying man tells his lover "It's all yours . . . the cash . . . the house . . . the yachts," before expiring. In a non-drag role, Divine plays sneering crime boss Hilly Blue. There's a visual moment that, for me, had neat echoes with a certain moment from The Last Wave. I enjoyed Joe Morton's turn as Solo and also Geneviève Bujold as Wanda, Hawk's former flame who now runs a diner and ends up employing Georgia as a waitress.

The problem for me, though, was this: everyone in this movie is the worst. There are some movies that cast a cynical eye on almost its entire cast of characters. That itself is not a flaw. The problem here is that these people are the worst and we the audience are expected to root for Hawk.

Hawk as a character is framed for most of the film as a borderline Mary Sue character, despite the fact that our first real scene with him involves him sexually assaulting Wanda (or, to give a VERY charitable reading, starting to sexually assault her and then wearing her down with pathetic whining). But for the rest of the film wowie! He's really great at punching people! He's so funny and sassy as he harasses Gloria by stalking her in her trailer after she repeatedly asks him to leave! Is there nuance to why he was in jail? Of course not!

Coop's descent into criminality is mainly portrayed through the evolving ridiculousness of his hairstyle. Wanda just looks over everything as if it's wryly amusing to her. The whole thing feels like an exercise in nostalgia, trying to mold noir memories with 80s sensibilities with weird near-future trappings. But it's all too cutesy to ever be immersive. It's not dreamy, just annoyingly slow-paced. Every word of Singer's baby-doll whisper voice made me want to mute the darn thing and just read the subtitles instead.

By the end I just couldn't with this movie. Normally when I dislike something this way, I go read a few positive reviews to see why some people like/love it. I can't right now. I'm too annoyed. I feel like people with real talent just wasted two hours of my time.

2.5

[Wyldesyde19]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fartist.api.lv3.cdn.hbo.com%2Fimages%2FGXSybwQFZX5VLqQEAAAbw%2Ftilezoom%3Fv%3D2d1ceb 4f775107a19e3cb9a70bcf1cc3%26size%3D1500x844%26fmt%3Djpg&f=1&nofb=1

Trouble in Mind, 1985

Hawk (Kris Kristofferson) is released from prison right around the time that Coop (Keith Carradine) and his wife Georgia (Lori Singer) move to town. Coop soon falls in with a criminal named Solo (Joe Morton) and as his relationship with Georgia gets more and more fractured, Hawk starts to romance her.

I'm sure that there are people who love this movie. It certainly has, um, personality. I found it annoying and boring in turn, and some strong visuals or impactful moments did not do enough to get me on its side.

Positives? Well, there are some funny moments. The movie is styled as a noir with rainy streets and a jazzy score. At certain points the take on the genre is fun, such as when a dying man tells his lover "It's all yours . . . the cash . . . the house . . . the yachts," before expiring. In a non-drag role, Divine plays sneering crime boss Hilly Blue. There's a visual moment that, for me, had neat echoes with a certain moment from The Last Wave. I enjoyed Joe Morton's turn as Solo and also Geneviève Bujold as Wanda, Hawk's former flame who now runs a diner and ends up employing Georgia as a waitress.

The problem for me, though, was this: everyone in this movie is the worst. There are some movies that cast a cynical eye on almost its entire cast of characters. That itself is not a flaw. The problem here is that these people are the worst and we the audience are expected to root for Hawk.

Hawk as a character is framed for most of the film as a borderline Mary Sue character, despite the fact that our first real scene with him involves him sexually assaulting Wanda (or, to give a VERY charitable reading, starting to sexually assault her and then wearing her down with pathetic whining). But for the rest of the film wowie! He's really great at punching people! He's so funny and sassy as he harasses Gloria by stalking her in her trailer after she repeatedly asks him to leave! Is there nuance to why he was in jail? Of course not!

Coop's descent into criminality is mainly portrayed through the evolving ridiculousness of his hairstyle. Wanda just looks over everything as if it's wryly amusing to her. The whole thing feels like an exercise in nostalgia, trying to mold noir memories with 80s sensibilities with weird near-future trappings. But it's all too cutesy to ever be immersive. It's not dreamy, just annoyingly slow-paced. Every word of Singer's baby-doll whisper voice made me want to mute the darn thing and just read the subtitles instead.

By the end I just couldn't with this movie. Normally when I dislike something this way, I go read a few positive reviews to see why some people like/love it. I can't right now. I'm too annoyed. I feel like people with real talent just wasted two hours of my time.

2.5
I recently watched this as well, and also didn’t care for it. Like….at all.

Only positive I had was Divine, out of drag, actually turning out the only believable performance in the whole film.

Can you believe this film is so highly rated?

[Miss Vicky]

87938

Nash Bridges (T.V. Movie, 2021)

I didn't even know this existed until a couple of days ago, when a friend of mine told me about it. I was a big fan of the show Nash Bridges back in the 90s when it was on the air. I watched it religiously and loved every minute of it (well, maybe not so much the minutes with Yasmine Bleeth, but the rest of it). So I was pretty excited when my friend told me about this.

Now that I've watched it, I'm... a bit torn. I didn't care at all for any of the new characters and the story was a bit far fetched, but overall it felt kind of like watching an overly long Nash Bridges episode. I got a kick out of seeing Nash and Joe back at it - even if it was a stretch trying to buy the idea of these 70-somethings doing what they were doing - and it struck all the right nostalgic cords. But I really wished for more. I also wish they hadn't done what they did with Jeff Perry's Harvey Leek. Harvey was always my favorite character and I was really excited when I saw Perry's name in the cast list for this, so it really irked me to see him turned into a ridiculous buffoon.

Oh well, it was entertaining enough for what it was and now I've got an itch to revisit the series.

3

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/House_obayashi.jpg
By http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/fca44a52, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20418173

House - (1977)

Okay, so you mix Poltergeist with Evil Dead in a bowl with light-hearted Japanese sentiments, add a dash of witchy fantasy and absurdity and put it in an oven set to maximum weird and you've got House - a film that really surprised me by being more horror than comedy, because it just showed up on the Comedy Countdown thread unexpectedly. But really, every scene is kind of surprising in House, which is a cornucopia of experimentation in film effects and fantastical ideas. A group of schoolgirls visit a friend's aunt, but find that the house she lives in wants to eat them alive - but most of it is so silly it charms more than scares, and I never really laughed, so it's comedic aspect just doesn't engage me in that way. But it's not a boring watch - Nobuhiko Obayashi is always on the verge of trying something new, most of which are things you may have never seen before.

7/10

[ueno_station54]

https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/09/baahubali-prequel-.jpg
Baahubali: The Beginning (S. S. Rajamouli, 2015)

i'm slowly working through Rajamouli's filmography now and so far this is my least favourite, though that's partly just because period epics aren't super my thing. I really do love the just go for it attitude big budget masala films have but admittedly this one bites off more than it can chew at points most notably here is whatever that avalanche scene is supposed to be. That being said, when this shit hits it hits hard and there's a few big pop off moments that you can't help just yell "yoooooooooooooo" and that cliffhanger ending got me good. On top of that the songs are A+.
3.5

[ThatDarnMKS]

https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/09/baahubali-prequel-.jpg
Baahubali: The Beginning (S. S. Rajamouli, 2015)

i'm slowly working through Rajamouli's filmography now and so far this is my least favourite, though that's partly just because period epics aren't super my thing. I really do love the just go for it attitude big budget masala films have but admittedly this one bites off more than it can chew at points most notably here is whatever that avalanche scene is supposed to be. That being said, when this shit hits it hits hard and there's a few big pop off moments that you can't help just yell "yoooooooooooooo" and that cliffhanger ending got me good. On top of that the songs are A+.
3.5
I much preferred the second one, though the first was enjoyable enough.

[ueno_station54]

I much preferred the second one, though the first was enjoyable enough.
i'm stoked!!!

[WHITBISSELL!]

Trouble in Mind, 1985
rating_2_5I had to read most of your review before I remembered actually watching this. It was your take on Carradine's increasingly ridiculous hair that finally jogged my memory. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to signify his growing success or his burgeoning slide into criminality. I also remember the campy fashion and the film in general being somewhat stilted. I felt it was something you got through but not necessarily enjoyed.

[xSookieStackhouse]

rating_5 final episode 5 was so good i loved the music and omg loved post credit scene and its a special scene one of the original character from previous marvel movies is in it :). make sure to watch ms marvel cause its before the marvels that release next year
https://terrigen-cdn-dev.marvel.com/content/prod/1x/ms_marvel_0.jpg

[matt72582]

Bill Burr: Live At Red Rocks - 7.5/10
The first act = good
The second act = "The Trip" = one of his best
The third act = lesbians (very weak, it's going on too long)


Final 5 minutes is very "current" and good. This special is better than his last couple. I think his first specials were his best, getting better until the b&w one hitting his peak, and then not able to hit.



It helps if you also hear the podcast, because you'll recognize a real "true story"


https://youtu.be/GzFBZY_wEMQ

[Allaby]

Trauma (1978) Directed by León Klimovsky. Not one of the best Giallo films, but enough style and sexy shenanigans to keep things interesting. It was a little predictable and the story could have been better, but I did enjoy the performances. Watched on blu ray as part of Vinegar Syndrome's Forgotten Gialli set. 3.5

[Stirchley]

87950

Not interested in lesbian love affairs as a movie theme, but the movie is quite good though overlong. I really like Waterston & she was excellent. Kirby good too.

87951

Jolly bunch of Welsh characters in a true-story movie. Predictable kind of feel-good movie, but quite enjoyable. Toni Collette playing a Welsh woman was very convincing. And I didn’t know Damian Lewis’s paternal grands were Welsh so his Welsh accent was also convincing.

Did ScarletLion see this movie?

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmRmNWJjODMtMTdhOC00YTg5LTljNDItMWVmMTFlZTU1MTYxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTAyODkwOQ@@._V1_.jpg


4

[Gideon58]

https://www.criticsinc.com/photos/movieposters/h/hustle22.jpg

4

[Takoma11]

I recently watched this as well, and also didn’t care for it. Like….at all.

Only positive I had was Divine, out of drag, actually turning out the only believable performance in the whole film.

Can you believe this film is so highly rated?

I had to read most of your review before I remembered actually watching this. It was your take on Carradine's increasingly ridiculous hair that finally jogged my memory. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to signify his growing success or his burgeoning slide into criminality. I also remember the campy fashion and the film in general being somewhat stilted. I felt it was something you got through but not necessarily enjoyed.

So I went and read Ebert's 4-Star(?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!) review of it, and I still don't really understand why I am meant to enjoy this film.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2FxyeDoHPhOgnzIdDofeg44CMiHsf.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

With Byrd at the South Pole, 1930

This documentary follows the exploration and challenges of Admiral Richard Byrd's expedition to the South Pole.

Sometimes, I just have to watch a movie as more of a historic document and less a piece of art, and that was certainly the case here.

First and foremost, I find it pretty amazing that the filmmakers were able to shoot as much footage as they did. And some of the shots are absolutely stunning, helped along by a landscape that is beautiful and daunting from any angle. Some of the footage, especially of the whales surfacing through holes in the ice, or of the penguins waddling around are really gorgeous.

I also appreciate that the film covers the range of scientific endeavors undertaken by the crew.

But where I part from the film in spirit is in the act itself of being a film.

Take it or leave it, but I'm not a fan of jaunty, cute little intertitles. At one point there are several written as if the penguins are talking to each other and, woof, cutesy puns are not what I want in my documentary. (SAMPLE: "Hey does that guy look familiar? I hear his name is Byrd." Please do not put such mediocre words in the beaks of such amusing animals.)

Further, while I understand and do not mind that certain sequences were clearly staged for the camera, at times this practice felt unethical to me. In one sequence, a litter of newborn puppies is pulled out of their mother's kennel so that they can jokingly attach them all to a little sled. The worried mother frantically moves them back into the shelter and out of the freezing air. I wish I could have found a screencap of this look the dog gets, chained and protective over her puppies. It is a look that says, "I have had enough of this crap." Worse, there's a scene later where a limping dog runs out to join its peers who are pulling a sled. Realizing the dog is injured, the men decide to take it out on the ice and shoot it. While this may well reflect the reality of handling a disabled animal in such an extreme setting, it's also obvious that someone knew the dog was running and let it keep going to get footage. Then we get a bunch more footage of the limping dog. Like, why? Why are you letting this animal continue to suffer just for a great shot? Why did they let it get to that point? When the intertitle declares this the last "great act of a brave soldier" I was like, very much over it.

Some of the images are gorgeous, but my conflicted feelings about how it's all put together (and how some of the footage was obtained) kept me from enjoying it all that much. It gets an extra half point for historical significance.

3.5

[Stirchley]

Further, while I understand and do not mind that certain sequences were clearly staged for the camera, at times this practice felt unethical to me. In one sequence, a litter of newborn puppies is pulled out of their mother's kennel so that they can jokingly attach them all to a little sled. The worried mother frantically moves them back into the shelter and out of the freezing air. I wish I could have found a screencap of this look the dog gets, chained and protective over her puppies. It is a look that says, "I have had enough of this crap." Worse, there's a scene later where a limping dog runs out to join its peers who are pulling a sled. Realizing the dog is injured, the men decide to take it out on the ice and shoot it. While this may well reflect the reality of handling a disabled animal in such an extreme setting, it's also obvious that someone knew the dog was running and let it keep going to get footage. Then we get a bunch more footage of the limping dog. Like, why? Why are you letting this animal continue to suffer just for a great shot? Why did they let it get to that point? When the intertitle declares this the last "great act of a brave soldier" I was like, very much over it.

Some of the images are gorgeous, but my conflicted feelings about how it's all put together (and how some of the footage was obtained) kept me from enjoying it all that much. It gets an extra half point for historical significance.

3.5

Ugh, I could never watch this. Funny how humans think only we have emotions. :rolleyes:

[EndlessDream]

Each entry in the Ip Man quadrilogy features some excellently choreographed fight scenes, but the stories and characters are a mixed bag. The first Ip Man is easily the best because it successfully builds up the rivalry between Master Ip and the Japanese oppressors, which pays off in the climactic fight with their general. The first half of Ip Man 2 is fantastic, but it lost me in the second half. Going from fights against Sammo Hung on a wobbly table and against dozens of guys with knives to one-on-one boxing matches left me underwhelmed.


I felt that all of the sequels had disjointed storytelling. After a big fight, a story arc will just end and the movie will shift focus elsewhere. That makes sense for biopics like these, but the stories portrayed are mostly untrue. Someone came up with the idea of turning the real-life kung fu master of Bruce Lee into an action hero just like him. Every non-Chinese character is cartoonishly evil and its up to Ip Man to show them the superiority of Chinese martial arts. I don't mind one-dimensional villains, but this series has way too many and it gets old. Ip Man is worth watching in its entirety; the sequels are only worth watching for the action scenes.

[Takoma11]

Ugh, I could never watch this. Funny how humans think only we have emotions. :rolleyes:

Yeah, I hear you.

While nothing is overly graphic, the indifference of the men toward the nature around them (one of them ties a bow tie around a penguin's neck, which the penguin clearly hates and is trying to get out of) and the animals they brought along is just disheartening.

[Gideon58]

https://cdn.cinematerial.com/p/297x/ia4tsslp/morning-glory-movie-poster-md.jpg?v=1456257553


3

[Stirchley]

Yeah, I hear you.

While nothing is overly graphic, the indifference of the men toward the nature around them (one of them ties a bow tie around a penguin's neck, which the penguin clearly hates and is trying to get out of) and the animals they brought along is just disheartening.

Sounds ghastly. Recently re-watched Amores Perros. Horrid dog-fighting scenes, really brutal, but the director says none of it was real. Had to believe him in order to watch this very good movie again.

[beelzebubble]

Bill Burr: Live At Red Rocks - 7.5/10
The first act = good
The second act = "The Trip" = one of his best
The third act = lesbians (very weak, it's going on too long)


Final 5 minutes is very "current" and good. This special is better than his last couple. I think his first specials were his best, getting better until the b&w one hitting his peak, and then not able to hit.



It helps if you also hear the podcast, because you'll recognize a real "true story"


https://youtu.be/GzFBZY_wEMQ
Nice! New stand-up from Bill Burr!

[Takoma11]

Sounds ghastly. Recently re-watched Amores Perros. Horrid dog-fighting scenes, really brutal, but the director says none of it was real. Had to believe him in order to watch this very good movie again.

While I really struggle with any animal cruelty/mistreatment in movies, it's always horrid when it's real/unsimulated.

Like, I don't even think that shooting a sick/disabled animal in such a harsh environment is cruel, per se. Our horse vet, who we loved, said that until recently ("recently" being like mid-2000s) she felt that the most humane method of euthanasia was a well placed bullet. It's the sense I have that the animal's pain was prolonged (and possibly caused if they intentionally let him run for so long after the sled) just to create a "scene".

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/Braveheart_imp.jpg
By May be found at the following website: =source:www.impawards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8288426

Braveheart - (1995)

It's funny how sometimes you see bits of a film over time, and pretty much reckon that you've seen it for the most part. That's been my experience with Braveheart, but wanting to be able to tick it off my list I decided to watch it properly, from start to finish, and realised that I'd only ever really seen 5% of it. I thought it was good, and although I suspected it was no way near to being historically accurate I'd advise those complaining to acknowledge the fact that if people made these films 100% accurate they wouldn't work as movies - there are things a movie needs to flow for 2 or 3 hours, and as such, a dry recitation of facts would mean hardly anyone would like it, and it would lose millions of dollars. This was your standard epic, with hero, villains, action and romance - and it works fairly well as that, keeping me interested and entertained. It has blockbuster written all over it, giving us some idea of who William Wallace was, and gave two actors who I really like - Sophie Marceau and Angus Macfadyen - more exposure to a wide audience. The battle scenes are great, and so is the lush photography. Finally seen it.

8/10

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcinesocialuk.files.wordpress.com%2F2021%2F07%2Fgene-tierney-stare-leave-her-to-heaven.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Leave Her to Heaven, 1945

Novelist Richard (Cornel Wilde) meets Ellen (Gene Tierney) by chance on a trip and the two engage in a strange, brief courtship before marrying. But very soon into the marriage, Richard discovers that Ellen's love is a dangerous beast, and she has no patience for anyone or anything that might come between them. This includes Richard's little brother, Danny (Darryl Hickman) and Ellen's own sister, Ruth (Jeanne Crain).

I mean . . . dang Gene Tierney!

There's nothing like watching a few middling films in a row and then watching something that just totally knocks your socks off. And a certain sequence in this film may have blasted my socks into the neighboring county.

The icy heart of the movie is Tierney's turn as Ellen, a woman who seems to have some issues from the start---including an unhealthy fixation on her deceased father---but before our eyes (and, more slowly, before Richard's eyes) morphs into a stone-cold sociopath. Everything about it is perfect. Tierney's performance, which somehow creates a stomach-turning mix of ferocity and blankness, is utterly compelling. Many images of this film include an iconic shot of Ellen wearing red-rimmed sunglasses. But I love the shot at the top of this review because it captures a perfect stillness that just doesn't belong on a human being. The makeup and styling of Ellen also does wonders for the character: everything is just too perfect, too in its place.

While the film makes no bones about Ellen's status as villain, I did appreciate that there seem to be some nods toward the way that Richard--and to a lesser extent Ruth--behave in ways that seem almost engineered to upset her. I realize that might sound like victim blaming, but how can you not facepalm when Richard, knowing Ellen's obsession with her father AND her hatred of surprises, decides to surprise her by dismantling her father's laboratory?! Richard, ya big dummy! What are you doing? Likewise, Ellen gives up her honeymoon to care for Richard's brother, and yet Richard totally fails to make any gesture toward finding them some time alone together. While Ellen's reactions to these transgressions are totally out of scale, it does slightly do a job of putting you in her shoes and feeling some of her frustration. It keeps her just human enough, whereas a character being cruel for truly no reason would have felt unrealistic.

The look of the movie is also just splendid. Wide open spaces and deep color saturation. The more vivid the colors around Ellen become--including the ruby red of her own mouth--the more blanched and icy her eyes seem to become.

The supporting performances are all quite good, including a young Vincent Price as Ellen's former fiance.

I have one qualm with the film, something that I think is a symptom of its age, that I cannot discuss without MAJOR SPOILERS. If you haven't seen this movie yet but are reading this review, I really really urge you to skip what is in the spoiler text, as it would rob you of one of the most breathtaking, out-of-nowhere moments of the entire movie. The decision to put Ellen's induced miscarriage after her killing of Danny didn't play that well for me. I think that they should be in the opposite order, and the movie implies that the former should be more horrifying and it just isn't. I'm sorry, but a depressed, upset, pregnant woman throwing herself down the stairs is nowhere near as upsetting in terms of a "crime" as the cold-blooded murder of a person thrashing and pleading for help in a lake. I'm absolutely not wanting to start any kind of conversation about abortion here, but a woman being forced to carry a fetus she doesn't want in her body is something that makes me sympathetic toward her, even if her reasons for not wanting the baby are totally selfish and warped. Additionally, throwing yourself down the stairs is really dangerous, meaning Ellen herself could have been killed or seriously injured in the attempt. It overall makes for a far less upsetting scenario than what happens in the lake. This isn't helped by the film not being willing to make Ellen look very pregnant at all. Dialogue later suggests that the baby might have been far enough along to be viable(?), but she doesn't look like a woman any further along than a first trimester.

I do see how the miscarriage attempt shows an escalation in Ellen's behavior in the sense that she is willing to endanger herself, something that then pays off in the last act. I just think that the lake scene is so searing and intense that it would have played better after something less intense.

But these are minor, minor quibbles.

What a scorcher. Am I gonna give it a perfect score? I think I just might!

5

[ThatDarnMKS]

I prefer Leave Her To Heaven to Laura if I'm getting my Tierney noir on.

[Rockatansky]

I prefer Leave Her To Heaven to Laura if I'm getting my Tierney noir on.

The academic term is Tiernoir.

[ScarletLion]

87950

Not interested in lesbian love affairs as a movie theme, but the movie is quite good though overlong. I really like Waterston & she was excellent. Kirby good too.

87951

Jolly bunch of Welsh characters in a true-story movie. Predictable kind of feel-good movie, but quite enjoyable. Toni Collette playing a Welsh woman was very convincing. And I didn’t know Damian Lewis’s paternal grands were Welsh so his Welsh accent was also convincing.

Did ScarletLion see this movie?

Ah y'know what - I haven't. I struggle with non welsh actors trying to do welsh accents as they are mostly terrible. Even though I really like Toni Collette - I can't bring myself to watch it. I'm, familliar with the story, and I think I'll stick to the documentary on it.

The world to come is good too.

[Raven73]

Thor Love and Thunder
Meh... It's no Thor Ragnarok.
7/10.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmMxZWRiMTgtZjM0Ny00NDQxLWIxYWQtZDdlNDNkOTEzYTdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTkxNjUyNQ@@._V1_.jpg

[Torgo]

Thor: Love and Thunder - 3

The third Thor sequel is not the shot in the arm to the MCU that Ragnarok is, but I still had a fun time with it and believe that it shares that entry's appeals. Like that movie, many of them result from Taika Waititi's imagination and sense of humor. His direction adds spontaneity and unpredictably, which at this point this franchise could always use more of. When the movie gets serious, however, it tones down the silliness before you even realize it, which is a feat worth calling out since the story covers deicide, child abduction, severe illness, i.e., some not so funny stuff. While Waititi deserves credit for this, the cast does as well, which besides the regulars who could play their roles in their sleep at this point features the return and addition of some familiar faces. The main returner is Natalie Portman, whose Jane Foster I and a lot of people don't love in the first two Thor movies, but her turn in this one improved my opinion of the character. Christian Bale also elevates his role of Gorr beyond what could have been a stock villain, and Russell Crowe's turn as the hedonistic and less than helpful Zeus, which could be my favorite performance in the movie, is another one of his strange - that's the good kind of strange, mind you - supporting roles. My admiration for the performances of course has to do with how good they are, but since I haven't been a regular theater goer in over two years, the family reunion-like appeal of simply getting to see actors and actresses who I've spent much of my life watching made their appearances even more special. As for the visuals, if the cool and unique look and feel of Thor: Ragnarok made you excited about this entry, they won't let you down. I especially like the look of the Omnipotence Realm, which is the home of Gods like Zeus and Quetzalcoatl, which manages to mash up ancient Rome with a metropolis like Akira's Neo Tokyo. There's also a fun ride through space featuring flying whales that would neither be out of place in a modern Star Trek episode nor on a Lisa Frank notebook cover.

Despite having a good time, I wish my enjoyment were more substantive. It's closer to the appeal of downing a box of candy - which I proudly did during the movie - than the appeal of a full course meal that the MCU's best entries like The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and again, Thor: Ragnorok have. This is partly due to the action, while exciting overall, has too many fights involving obviously CGI and thus weightless monsters. Also, the middle, despite some visual tricks like a shift from color to black and white, drags so much that I almost nodded off. With that said, the main culprit is my current impression of the MCU, which is of an album I finished listening to, with this movie and the others that have come out since Avengers: Endgame coming across like demos or bonus tracks. To be fair, we didn't know what the MCU was leading up to when it started way back in the late 2000s, so the problem may be that whatever the goal of this phase may be, it doesn't matter to me that much. As my indifference to outright contempt for the DC League of Super-Pets and Black Adam trailers indicates, the problem may be that every superhero movie these days might as well be a demo or bonus track. I don't know what the next prevailing trend in the movie industry should be, but I'm very much ready for another one, and as much as I've enjoyed the MCU, I'd probably just shrug if Thor: Love and Thunder was the last one for a very long time. Again, I did have fun, and if you also look forward to anything with Taika Waititi's name on it, this movie is bound to maintain your enthusiasm. I just wish that fun didn't have to be so superficial or tinged with a longing for something different.

[Allaby]

The Killer is One of 13 (1973) This didn't feel like a Giallo film and took a while to get warmed up. Once things started happening, it was pretty good and there was some stuff I enjoyed. I would rate the first hour a 3 and the last 35 minutes a 4, so my total rating for the film is a 3.5

[doubledenim]

Thor: Love and Thunder - 3

…There's also a fun ride through space featuring flying whales that would neither be out of place in a modern Star Trek episode nor on a Lisa Frank notebook cover.



🦄 🦋 🦄

[Torgo]

🦄 🦋 🦄Yep, this is what the MCU has been reduced/elevated to. Take your pick.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDcwZGQwMWEtYjczZi00MDUxLWFmNDctOTFkZmI5ZGE2MDAwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODQ0MDQ0NTI@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


2

[SpelingError]

29th Hall of Fame (REWATCH)

Das Boot (1981) - 3.5

This is a really good film which flies by surprisingly quickly, in spite of its nearly 3.5 hour runtime. I must confess though that it leaves me somewhat cold since it falls in the 'characters feel like props amidst the action/suspense set pieces' category. With the exception of the Captain and (to a smaller extent) Johann, most of the other characters (the Chief Engineer, the 2nd Watch Officer, and Ullmann) are given only one character trait to stand out, and the movie doesn't even do much with that character trait to begin with. Also, Werner, who I think is intended to be the main character, is easily the blandest of the bunch. In spite of this, I do enjoy the movie quite a bit as, judging the film through the lens of the suspense and claustrophobia it creates, it's pretty fantastic. The sounds and visuals (the radar showing the ship's depth, the ship creaking from water pressure, the darkness of the cabin) work in harmony to make the film technically outstanding. The highlight of the film is when their ship faces a British fleet and are forced to dive well below the sub's test depth. The various large and small scale set pieces within that sequence are highly memorable and the conclusion clinches it as one of the greatest stretches of cinema I've ever seen. I also like how you never get the sense that the U-boat is at an advantage against the enemy ships. After all, the opening text says all that's needed to be said about how the crew was basically sent on a suicide mission. From what we see, their boat seems rather flimsy given how often they have to take shelter and only by carefully sneaking up to an enemy ship will they have a chance of sinking it. Overall, I have a ton of respect for this film's technical craft. I just wish it would grab me more on an emotional level. I might watch the mini series someday though as it may do a better job with that.

[Takoma11]

I prefer Leave Her To Heaven to Laura if I'm getting my Tierney noir on.

I'm a little shocked that I wasn't more aware of it!

Though that might partly be that the title sounds a little more like a romance than a thriller. Maybe I've just always glossed over it when it was mentioned.

[Gideon58]

The academic term is Tiernoir.


LOVED Leave Her to Heaven...I think Joan Crawford robbed her of the Best Actress Oscar that year,

[Thief]

UN OBUS PARTOUT
(2015, Najjar)

https://i.imgur.com/Hy683Hf.jpg


"You want to die"
"No, I want to live"



It is in that setting that Un obus partout takes place. It follows Gabriel (Arthur Dupont), a young man desperate to see his fiancée in the other side of the city. The problem? To get there, he has to cross a bridge heavily guarded by enemy snipers. The plan? He recruits his friend Mokhtar (Thomas Blumenthal) to make a mad dash through the bridge in an old car as the snipers are distracted watching the 1982 World Cup.

Director Zaven Najjar does a great job with a sleek animation style that uses silhouette-like figures. This serves to accentuate the kinetic nature of the story and makes the visuals pop out more. I also thought that the use of a soccer game to contrast against the violence of the setting was an effective choice, while also highlighting two elements that define our humanity: our desire to have fun and our need to love.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2316750#post2316750) and the 5th Short Film HoF thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2316751#post2316751).

[Takoma11]

https://www.trigon-film.org/en/movies/Silent_Souls/photos/1200/Silentsouls_5.jpg

Silent Souls, 2010

Miron (Yuriy Tsurilo) has just lost his wife, Tanya (Yuliya Aug), and asks one of his workers, an aspiring writer/ethnographer named Aist (Igor Sergeev) to help him with the funeral rites. Identifying as Maryan, an ancient tribe from the upper Volga, the men take a road trip to a small seaside town to cremate her. In conversation and their own thoughts, the two men grapple with existential angst and grief.

Not knowing much about this film before watching it, and so close on the heels of watching Departures, it's interesting to have watched two films in such short order about the rituals around death and how the force a kind of reflection on the past, present, and future.

A theme both literal and figurative in the film is drowning, with the unusual twist that it is often framed as a positive. Culturally, it is explained, dying in the water is the "best" death, and only bodies of those who drown are not cremated. As Miron mourns Tanya's death, we see the way that he desires to "drown"--in his memories of his wife, in the distraction of a night with a sex worker. Aist, likewise, seeks escape, at first by surrounding himself in information about his culture, and later through flashbacks to his own youth.

Love and/or sex as drowning is the source of some of the film's most memorable imagery and sequences. We watch, in a flashback, as Miron pours bottles of water over Tanya so that she can bathe in a washbasin in their home. Later, two sex workers are shown nude, laid out against a carpet whose pattern strongly evokes river currents.

This is a movie where you can feel the slow and steady press of emotional weight on the characters. The men bring two birds in a cage on their trip, and while it at first seems like the birds might be meant to evoke Miron and Tanya, it soon becomes clear that their agitated fluttering is mirroring Miron and Aist. It's hard to find the right word to put to it. "Sad" or "bleak" don't seem to hit the note I'm thinking of. It is a film about mourning and sorrow, but it's after something a bit more than that. It is not uplifting or optimistic by any means--please don't get that impression. This movie is a real downer. But it's interested in the mechanics of grief as much as the accurate portrayal of it.

Everyone knows that animal stuff is one of my movie no-nos, and as soon as the birds were introduced (in a horribly too-small cage), my anxiety amped way up. It was a very unpleasant suspense for me with a frustrating resolution.

This is also a film that is unapologetically locked in the male gaze. While most of the time it works, especially in those moments where we are operating strongly from the memory and/or point of view of the main characters, by the fifth shot of a fully nude woman the lack of any male nudity starts to become conspicuous. Multiple sequences involve nude women and fully dressed men and, come on. It starts to feel a little silly.

This is a very engaging, immersive film about loss and how we define ourselves within relationships and with the outside world, and how that balance can get thrown off. It's also a really interesting twist on a road trip film, with loads of gorgeous imagery along the way.

4

[Thief]

GOODBYE MOMMY
(2019, Wedge)

https://i.imgur.com/9D654JH.png


"Like I said, I don't really fit into this world. Misunderstood. So I pushed my own mind at telling my story; and then at the end, I'll be saying goodbye."



A down-on-his-luck detective is hired by a Queen to find her husband and baby, but shady elements threaten his mission. Think you've seen this story done before? Well, think again, cause writer and director Jack Wedge takes that story and grinds it through an acid-trip kaleidoscope of color, noir-ish vibes, and bizarre CGI animation.

Goodbye Mommy is the third short film from Wedge, whose father Chris achieved fame by directing the first Ice Age film and for voicing the ill-fated squirrel Scrat all through the franchise. But the apple couldn't have fallen further from the tree, at least in terms of style. This short film is a dizzying and disorienting experience, not only because of the way the camera frantically moves around the environment, but also because of how convoluted the story is.

But to be clear, I don't mean any of that in a bad way. There is a hypnotizing quality to it that doesn't let you look away, and there is a certain melancholy to the way the story unfolds, even if you're not really sure what is happening. The lead detective (voiced by Chris Wedge) feels misunderstood and like he "doesn't really fit into this world", but much like this short film, this job will turn out to be not what he (or us!) expected.

Grade: 3

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/kGY9BQgy/How-Green-Was-My-Valley-1941-poster-Style-A.jpg
By "Copyright by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. MCMXLI" - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from original image., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86243596

How Green Was My Valley - (1941)

There was no Kanye West in 1942 to interrupt, say "I'mma let you finish" and proclaim Citizen Kane one of the best movies "of all time!" But that's the manner John Ford's How Green Was My Valley is always remembered, winning the Best Picture Oscar and denying Orson Welles (who also lost the Best Actor category to Gary Cooper) - most shockingly, Valley also won Best Cinematography from Kane. But How Green Was My Valley is no Green Book or Crash - it's a mighty achievement in itself, and the cinematography is far beyond what you'd expect from a feature in 1941 - wonderful shots throughout the whole film, weaving a literary and visual tapestry from Richard Llewellyn's novel. The performances in it are great (perhaps actually shading Kane in that department) with Donald Crisp winning Best Supporting Actor - and a very young Roddy McDowall performing one of the best 'child actor' roles ever on screen. It's an honest, forthright, and emotionally winning film - as is typical with John Ford, I came away knowing that one day I'll see this again. Worth visiting if you've never seen it.

8/10

[StuSmallz]

I liked that better than Kane, to be honest with you...

[lightnbuttery]

Censor: 7/10

[ThatDarnMKS]

I liked that better than Kane, to be honest with you...

Well, I just got done arguing that opinions on art can't be objectively wrong and dang it, Stu! Why you gotta provide evidence for the opposition!!!

[ScarletLion]

'Prayers for the Stolen' (2022)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mlLqfk_OFAA/hqdefault.jpg

Another of those south / central American films that focus on the direction of the country as a backdrop (the more the merrier) such as Bacarau, Monos. Prayers for the stolen is a tale of 3 girls who live in a remote Mexican village that seems to have no purpose other than to serve as a function of a local drug war, providing both the narcotics and women. Living in this place is a constant battle against fear.

The film is presented in 2 separate timelines - both when the girls are very young, and again when they are in early teens. Nothing has changed in either timeline. The gangsters still plunder. There are little spots of hope, mainly manifested in the characters resilience but this is a film that isn't a fairytale. It's one firmly rooted in reality, and that reality comes with grimness that is clearly close to director Tatiana Huezo's heart. The friendship between the girls is lovely to see unfold but moving and heart-breaking as they endure the daily perils of the drug war that exists around them. The gangsters basically use them as slaves and when they feel like it, cherry pick a young girl who'll never be seen again. The performances are terrific, especially from the mother of our central character played by Mayra Batalla.

Prayers for the stolen offers a reminder as to why we're so lucky to live in any near normal form of society but is also another in the long list of terrific films to come from the region in recent years.

7.8/10

4

[Marco]

The Black Phone (2021)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/The_Black_Phone.jpg
Dunno why but this reminded me a lot of "The Lovely Bones", a film I didn't really take to. It concerns a hostage taker/murderer in the 70s (I think) called "The Grabber" and his scary methods in a small-ish community. Overall pretty good with a few surprising jump scares.

3

[Stirchley]

Ah y'know what - I haven't. I struggle with non welsh actors trying to do welsh accents as they are mostly terrible. Even though I really like Toni Collette - I can't bring myself to watch it. I'm, familliar with the story, and I think I'll stick to the documentary on it.

I admit I was slightly shocked at first to hear Toni with a Welsh accent. But it seemed very good to me - she had a light touch & didn’t clobber us with the accent. Damian to me sounded very good too & I took it as a sort of homage to his paternal grands.

Prayers for the stolen offers a reminder as to why we're so lucky to live in any near normal form of society but is also another in the long list of terrific films to come from the region in recent years.

Definitely want to see this movie. For some reason I hadn’t put it in my Netflix Q yet. Remedied that.

America, to me, is becoming less & less a “near normal form of society”.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWFhYjliNjYtYjNhNS00OGExLWFhMjQtNDgwOWYyNWJiYzhmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTMxODk2OTU@._V1_.jpg


2nd Rewatch...the third look at Baz Lurhman's masterpiece was just as intoxicating as the first. I've found this is one of those movies where I notice things with each rewatch that I never noticed before. Despite a mostly unoriginal score, the musical numbers work beautifully with "Come What May", "Like a Virgin", "The Show Must Go On". and especially "Roxanne", one of the best examples of a musical number that advances story. Kidman and McGregor still light up the screen, but this time I noticed how easy it is to overlook the work of Jim Broadbent and especially Richard Roxburgh as the Duke, who not only brings the obsessive jealousy of the character to the screen, but a sliver of insanity as well, which really fuels the romantic triangle at the surface of this eye-popping musical fantasy that is just as entertaining now as it was 21 years ago. 4

[Gideon58]

The Black Phone (2021)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/The_Black_Phone.jpg
Dunno why but this reminded me a lot of "The Lovely Bones", a film I didn't really take to. It concerns a hostage taker/murderer in the 70s (I think) called "The Grabber" and his scary methods in a small-ish community. Overall pretty good with a few surprising jump scares.

3

I really liked The Lovely Bones even if the story cops out a bit, so I guess I'm going to have to check this out.