Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Miss Vicky]

https://www.angelfire.com/music6/walteregan/2010s/shadows.gif

What We Do In the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014)

After seeing the trailer for this, I had my reservations but I really like Jojo Rabbit and since this made the Comedy Countdown I thought I'd give it a shot. I think the concept is good - and certainly mockumentaries can work very well for me - but it relied a little too heavily on silliness and there just wasn't enough substance here for my tastes. I did chuckle a few times, but I mostly felt detached from the whole thing and were it any longer than its 86 minute runtime I don't know that I would've finished it.

Not a bad movie and amusing enough for one watch, but not something I'm likely to revisit and I definitely won't be voting for it in the 2010s countdown.

3

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Talented_mr_ripley.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/1999/talented_mr_ripley.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15190929

The Talented Mr. Ripley - (1999)

I've seen The Talented Mr. Ripley before, but this is the first time I've really watched it, if you get my meaning. It makes a lot of difference, and it was a tense and enjoyable experience. I've never seen any of the other Patricia Highsmith adaptations, but that's going to change. Luckily, the fact that I'd seen most of it didn't mean I knew where it was heading or what was going to happen, and that was a great benefit, because the twists and turns in this story are crucial to what makes it so compelling. I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman. I'm enjoying Jude Law performances more and more at the moment. Every actor happened to be really in the moment for this film - and no matter what horrible thing Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) does, we're kind of sympathetic with him. To hell with the rich elite!

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1f/Adoration_%282013_film%29.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50860889

Adoration (Adore) - 2013

Oh dear. This Australian tale can fairly easily be described as two middle-aged ladies, best friends since their school days, both having sons that are in their early 20s and best friends, and when one son is seduced by his friend's mother, the other one decides (out of revenge, or something) to seduce the other. It feels particularly icky, especially when both ladies, after initially admitting to the wrongness of the situation, decide to just go with it. Wrong or right, the film explores the issue in an uncomfortable way, and I can't say that I ever fully got on board with it. Melodramatic, and not really thoughtful enough for me.

4/10

[Takoma11]

The Talented Mr. Ripley - (1999)

I've seen The Talented Mr. Ripley before, but this is the first time I've really watched it, if you get my meaning. It makes a lot of difference, and it was a tense and enjoyable experience. I've never seen any of the other Patricia Highsmith adaptations, but that's going to change. Luckily, the fact that I'd seen most of it didn't mean I knew where it was heading or what was going to happen, and that was a great benefit, because the twists and turns in this story are crucial to what makes it so compelling. I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman. I'm enjoying Jude Law performances more and more at the moment. Every actor happened to be really in the moment for this film - and no matter what horrible thing Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) does, we're kind of sympathetic with him. To hell with the rich elite!

The good news is: there's another really good adaptation of this same story! Purple Noon!

If you've never read any of Highsmith's books, I would recommend them. She's an iffy person in terms of some of her views, but her novels are pretty aces.

The list of good or even great Highsmith adaptations that I'd recommend is pretty impressive:
Strangers on a Train
Purple Noon
The American Friend
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Ripley's Game
Carol

I've read Ripley Under Ground, but have yet to see the film version.

Adoration (Adore) - 2013

Oh dear. This Australian tale can fairly easily be described as two middle-aged ladies, best friends since their school days, both having sons that are in their early 20s and best friends, and when one son is seduced by his friend's mother, the other one decides (out of revenge, or something) to seduce the other. It feels particularly icky, especially when both ladies, after initially admitting to the wrongness of the situation, decide to just go with it. Wrong or right, the film explores the issue in an uncomfortable way, and I can't say that I ever fully got on board with it. Melodramatic, and not really thoughtful enough for me.

4/10

I found the premise of this film so icky that I never really wanted to check it out. The tepid responses from people who have seen it have only reinforced that choice.

[PHOENIX74]

The list of good or even great Highsmith adaptations that I'd recommend is pretty impressive:
Strangers on a Train
Purple Noon
The American Friend
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Ripley's Game
Carol

The only one of those I've seen is Carol, but that's a film I rate very highly and sought out on DVD. I'll definitely check out the other ones.

[Takoma11]

The only one of those I've seen is Carol, but that's a film I rate very highly and sought out on DVD. I'll definitely check out the other ones.

Strangers on a Train is one of my favorite Hitchcock films.

I watched The American Friend semi-recently, and it's a really interesting take on the Ripley character and the overall story. It's also got style to spare.

Carol is a slight aberration in the list because, despite having some light thriller elements, it's mostly a drama. All of the other films are much more crime-thriller.

[Wooley]

Ugh.
Looks like Amazon Prime has done a significant overhaul of their format.
I just went through my queue and I would say more than 50% of the films were either Free With Ads (which I will not do), required a second add-on subscription in addition to Prime, or were no longer available, period. Literally 50%, maybe more. If I had included all the films that had been converted to rental instead of Free With Prime, I would say 70-80% of my queue is effected.
While this isn't a huge deal, because I have numerous other streaming services, there were a TON of films that I haven't seen available anywhere else that I was looking forward to watching.
Bummer.

[LChimp]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzVlMmY2NTctODgwOC00NDMzLWEzMWYtM2RiYmIyNTNhMTI0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTAzNzgwNTg@._V1_.jpg


Nice, the story has a few twists that make it stand out and the action scenes are brutal and gruesome.

[Yoda]

Re: Tim's Vermeer.

Factors heavily in an essay I wrote a few years back, which you may find interesting:

Boyhood, Bears, and Roger Bannister (https://www.movieforums.com/essays/boyhood-bears-and-roger-bannister.html)

https://www.movieforums.com/images/essays/boyhood/tims_vermeer.jpg (https://www.movieforums.com/essays/boyhood-bears-and-roger-bannister.html)


Worth a watch, especially if you're interested in art or the intersection of art and technology.

4
I love this movie. I’m not somebody with an art background (beyond an art course in high school), so the ability to break down the actual work and problem solving involved in art is something that I find incredibly satisfying to my own thought process and also something that I don’t think many other movies offer insight into. At least not with as much humour as this. I was laughing out loud during parts of this.

[Stirchley]

When he decided he had to paint all the little dots to show the weave on the blanket.

And then spent five days just drawing little blanket dots, LOL.

I vaguely remember watching this & found it fascinating. IIRC, weren’t there several instances where there were lots of tedious repetitions? Wish I remembered this better.

[Stirchley]

88743

Weird indie movie I almost bailed out of, but slogged through to the end.

88744

Excellent movie. Really enjoyed it & highly recommend it.

[Takoma11]

I vaguely remember watching this & found it fascinating. IIRC, weren’t there several instances where there were lots of tedious repetitions? Wish I remembered this better.

Once Tim decides that he needs to replicate any detail that he can see through the camera obscura, he ends up doing a lot of tedious detail work.

[crumbsroom]

There are a handful of films that are invaluable documents in regards to the discussion about what art is and what it does. What the purpose of creation is. What is 'good' and what is 'bad' and if that distinction even matters. And Tim's Vermeer is definitely one of them.



The rest?



The Mystery of Picasso
F Is For Fake
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Crumb


These are not films that necessarily deify the process of making art, and are deeply critical about how art is perceived by the masses and critics. But they all seem to offer different ideas into what art offers us beyond the simple 'I like this' or 'I don't like this', which is the polarity which drives most of these conversations right into the dirt.

[Stirchley]

Once Tim decides that he needs to replicate any detail that he can see through the camera obscura, he ends up doing a lot of tedious detail work.

He had a lot of patience.

[Takoma11]

There are a handful of films that are invaluable documents in regards to the discussion about what art is and what it does. What the purpose of creation is. What is 'good' and what is 'bad' and if that distinction even matters. And Tim's Vermeer is definitely one of them.

The rest?

The Mystery of Picasso
F Is For Fake
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Crumb

These are not films that necessarily deify the process of making art, and are deeply critical about how art is perceived by the masses and critics. But they all seem to offer different ideas into what art offers us beyond the simple 'I like this' or 'I don't like this', which is the polarity which drives most of these conversations right into the dirt.

I might even add to that My Kid Could Paint That, where the value of the art is almost entirely hinged on who created it.

[Thursday Next]

The good news is: there's another really good adaptation of this same story! Purple Noon!


I really love Purple Noon, seconding that recommendation.

[crumbsroom]

I might even add to that My Kid Could Paint That, where the value of the art is almost entirely hinged on who created it.


I haven't seen that one, but if I can glean what its about from the title, this would definitely be the sort of thing that needs more thoughtful talk. A dis like this (repeated by so many people) is considered such a slam dunk of criticism against modern art, and yet, is both frequently wrong and misses the point.


First of all, maybe your kid could technically paint some of these things. But the point is in the choice to paint in such a way. A huge amount of weight has to be given to the choice to lose traditional technique.



Second of all, they actually probably can't paint most of these things, because there is is usually a subtle mastery of line and composition in these kinds of paintings that kids absolutely do not have a handle on at that age.


And thirdly, and most importantly, why is your kid being able to paint it make this a bad thing? I've always been struck by a thought uttered by Donald Sutherland's character in Six Degrees of Separation, how many children can almost exclusively paint masterpieces. And then something gets lost as soon as they start trying to live up to specific expectations. There is a freedom in the art of children that is almost unreplicatable. A purity many great artists spend their entire careers trying to get back to. A kid being able to paint these things is actually a part of the point.







And, yes, the modern art world has absolutely corrupted the notion of the name being more important than the actual art. No art form has been so corrupted by the influx of money than painting. It's like boxing (the sweet science), in that who can ever possibly trust the results of it anymore. It's a fix. It's value deserves to be questioned.

[Thursday Next]

Ugh.
Looks like Amazon Prime has done a significant overhaul of their format.
I just went through my queue and I would say more than 50% of the films were either Free With Ads (which I will not do), required a second add-on subscription in addition to Prime, or were no longer available, period. Literally 50%, maybe more. If I had included all the films that had been converted to rental instead of Free With Prime, I would say 70-80% of my queue is effected.
While this isn't a huge deal, because I have numerous other streaming services, there were a TON of films that I haven't seen available anywhere else that I was looking forward to watching.
Bummer.

I found the same thing recently. I signed up to Prime because it looked like it had a lot of films, but once I was actually signed up, it became apparent that most of those films were on a different subscription service that you also had to pay for - and not even the same one, at least 3 different extra subscriptions.

I do watch the free with ads for TV shows because it's actually fewer ads than some free channels.

[Takoma11]

I haven't seen that one, but if I can glean what its about from the title, this would definitely be the sort of thing that needs more thoughtful talk. A dis like this (repeated by so many people) is considered such a slam dunk of criticism against modern art, and yet, is both frequently wrong and misses the point.


First of all, maybe your kid could technically paint some of these things. But the point is in the choice to paint in such a way. A huge amount of weight has to be given to the choice to lose traditional technique.

Well, in the film it's about whether or not certain paintings were actually done by a child, or whether it was a hoax by her parents.

Why I find it interesting is that it's a case where the story around the art becomes part of the appeal of the art. It's why, in part, I think that Manos: Hands of Fate is so high profile. Not because it's actually the worst movie or whatever, but because of the story around it and how it intersects with what is on screen.

In Tim's Vermeer, an implicit question (or maybe not so implicit) is whether Vermeer's works lose "value" if it turns out he created them methodically with technology instead of just freehand.

And part of me can actually see why the answer might be "yes". Because for some viewers, the story around a work of art becomes part of the power of the art. And to change that story is to change the impact of the artwork, even if the literal piece itself is exactly the same.

[Pippo]

https://br.web.img3.acsta.net/pictures/22/07/18/11/00/5585620.jpg

Not the worst super-hero movie I've seen, but it's up there. Boring action scenes, boring and cliche story, plot twist you can see a mile away and doesn't really change anything.... a complete and total disaster. Avoid at all costs.


Totally agree with everything you said except "Avoid at all costs"
On top of what you said I also despise super hero movies but I kind of enjoyed that one, only because I'm a big Stallone fan


So, I'd say if you are a Sly fan, this is watchable, otherwise I'm with you don't bother

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/35/El-Mariachi-Poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27993446

El Mariachi - (1992)

I had one of those funny moments when I started watching El Mariachi - I thought I'd seen all three films in the series (the next two are Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico) but I hadn't. I still hadn't seen the first one - and boy, it surprised me. First of all, it had only cost a 24-year-old Robert Rodriguez a little over $7,000 to make, so I found myself watching a microbudget film when I was expecting something a little more. Secondly, Antonio Banderas was nowhere to be seen. Desperado was packed with stars, like Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi and Quentin Tarantino - but obviously, in El Mariachi we get mostly amateur actors in all of the roles. Saying all of that, it was surprisingly good. It held up as an entertaining film, and never dipped into the territory most microbudget films end up in - instead, Rodriguez let his love for cinematic craft lift this into action territory much the same way Sam Raimi lifted The Evil Dead into horror. It's fun, exciting and surprisingly well performed. Incredible for the budget. It serves now as an origin story for the El Mariachi character Antonio Banderas takes on in the next two films.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Desperado1.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7391199

Desperado - (1995)

I had seen Desperado before, and after being surprised by the low budget El Mariachi, I felt a little let down by this much larger budget follow-up. I can explain it like this - if El Mariachi is a nice, normal old photograph of a very pretty girl at home, then Desperado is the glossy, airbrushed print of a model who has had enhancements done on her. Stylized violence is the order of the day, and everything is posed to look "cool" - the best example of which is when Banderas and Salma Hayek stroll away from a huge explosion like fashion models on a catwalk. The first time I saw Desperado I really liked it, but after being charmed by the down-to-earth El Mariachi this came off as a little ugly and extravagant to me. I'm not sure where it stands now, so I'll just say that this has some great music in it, and perhaps is deserving of another viewing when I'm more in the mood for this kind of movie.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Vitaebella.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15892041

Life is Beautiful - (1997)

Here is what I said in my Letterboxd review yesterday : "This is a difficult one. I really don't think Life is Beautiful qualifies as a "great" cinematic work of art, and I also don't find that Roberto Benigni has a really profound grasp of comedy. It's solid, and it's heart is most definitely in the right place - but to be so light-hearted around the subject of concentration camps also veers towards indecency a little. The consensus votes this as one of the best - but to me this is middling fare." I wrote it during one of those moments when I captured my feelings about it concisely. At times Benigni seems to me a desperate comedian who throws every idea he has at an audience with such vigor that his desperation is what elicits the laughter, instead of the cleverness of the joke. I love his pure passion, and passion for filmmaking, but I think the sad reflection of a father saving his son from the Holocaust is what won Life is Beautiful so many plaudits, and that the movie itself is good to average, but not great.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Quartet-Poster.jpg
By http://www.filmofilia.com/category/movie-stills/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37494041

Quartet - (2012)

Strange that Dustin Hoffman could go so long being an actor and then be inspired to make a film at such a late age. Although I'm getting there, I think Quartet is more suited to people who can relate more to old age, and I found it extraordinarily dull. That said, I should mention that the performances in it are fantastic, especially from Tom Courtenay and Maggie Smith. It's very contemplative, and asks a question about whether you're still really you when you reach the latter stages of your life, and encourages people to still be themselves despite the large hurdles that come your way. I never found my way into this film, and since I couldn't connect I just found myself counting the minutes until it ended.

5/10

[SpelingError]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Vitaebella.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15892041

Life is Beautiful - (1997)

Here is what I said in my Letterboxd review yesterday : "This is a difficult one. I really don't think Life is Beautiful qualifies as a "great" cinematic work of art, and I also don't find that Roberto Benigni has a really profound grasp of comedy. It's solid, and it's heart is most definitely in the right place - but to be so light-hearted around the subject of concentration camps also veers towards indecency a little. The consensus votes this as one of the best - but to me this is middling fare." I wrote it during one of those moments when I captured my feelings about it concisely. At times Benigni seems to me a desperate comedian who throws every idea he has at an audience with such vigor that his desperation is what elicits the laughter, instead of the cleverness of the joke. I love his pure passion, and passion for filmmaking, but I think the sad reflection of a father saving his son from the Holocaust is what won Life is Beautiful so many plaudits, and that the movie itself is good to average, but not great.

6/10

I had a similar reaction to that one.

[xSookieStackhouse]

rating_5 rewatch cause avatar 2 is coming out in december this year and will watch the first avatar at the cinema on the 22nd of september :)
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c51e6f931d4dff5699e95ff/1574978149806-BHTGYFG5OG2DY2HEJLJU/91FKuRPgwCL._SL1500_.jpg

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Desperado1.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7391199

Desperado - (1995)

I had seen Desperado before, and after being surprised by the low budget El Mariachi, I felt a little let down by this much larger budget follow-up. I can explain it like this - if El Mariachi is a nice, normal old photograph of a very pretty girl at home, then Desperado is the glossy, airbrushed print of a model who has had enhancements done on her. Stylized violence is the order of the day, and everything is posed to look "cool" - the best example of which is when Banderas and Salma Hayek stroll away from a huge explosion like fashion models on a catwalk. The first time I saw Desperado I really liked it, but after being charmed by the down-to-earth El Mariachi this came off as a little ugly and extravagant to me. I'm not sure where it stands now, so I'll just say that this has some great music in it, and perhaps is deserving of another viewing when I'm more in the mood for this kind of movie.

6/10



I hear what you're saying but when I saw this in the theater in '95, there wasn't too much like it. Pulp Fiction had only been out a year and this felt pretty fresh.
Plus I fell in love with Salma and I've never fallen out.

[honeykid]

I hear what you're saying but when I saw this in the theater in '95, there wasn't too much like it. Pulp Fiction had only been out a year and this felt pretty fresh.

I went the other way. Saw this after loving El Mariachi (one of my favourite movies of the 90's back then) and was really excited (a sequel with Banderas and Hayek?) How could it fail? But fail it did. Just a soulless procession of scenes with too much money and 'cool' thrown at it, whilst also trying to be a remake and sequel.

A bit like the later neo-grindhouse stuff where they made whole films filled with 'woah, cool!" moments, without realising that they worked in the originals because there were only one of two.

[Wooley]

I went the other way. Saw this after loving El Mariachi (one of my favourite movies of the 90's back then) and was really excited (a sequel with Banderas and Hayek?) How could it fail? But fail it did. Just a soulless procession of scenes with too much money and 'cool' thrown at it, whilst also trying to be a remake and sequel.

A bit like the later neo-grindhouse stuff where they made whole films filled with 'woah, cool!" moments, without realising that they worked in the originals because there were only one of two.

I think that's my point though. I think Desperado is a really good movie on its own. If you're not comparing it to El Mariachi.
I saw El Mariachi after. Didn't make me like Desperado any less.

[honeykid]

I saw El Mariachi after. Didn't make me like Desperado any less.
I understand, this is just a difference of opinion. But I would add that that's usually how it works, isn't it? I'm sure we all have experience of liking a copy/remake/cover of something which we really like and then find out there's an 'original'. Whether we then like the original or not (or even prefer it) it rarely lessens our liking/love of the one we first saw/heard. Not in every case, of course, but for the most part I find that to be the case with myself and people I know.

Maybe it's just that, as much as I loved El Mariachi, my expectations for a sequel were too high? Especially with that cast. But I do feel that it lost what the original had and, maybe, leaned too heavily on the shiny news toys? I don't know. I really have to watch it again to be able to discuss it in any great detail.

[matt72582]

The Young One - 7/10
Not so black and white. Nuanced.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/LaJoven.jpg

[matt72582]

Weird indie movie I almost bailed out of, but slogged through to the end.

"good luck leo"

.


I've seen worse, but I wish I had avoided this. It felt too after-school special for me. The writing was embarrassing. The last 10 seconds of the movie was honest, lol.

[matt72582]

I saw "The Talented Mr. Ripley" first, and then "Purple Noon"... "Purple Noon" is SO much better.

[Wooley]

I understand, this is just a difference of opinion. But I would add that that's usually how it works, isn't it? I'm sure we all have experience of liking a copy/remake/cover of something which we really like and then find out there's an 'original'. Whether we then like the original or not (or even prefer it) it rarely lessens our liking/love of the one we first saw/heard. Not in every case, of course, but for the most part I find that to be the case with myself and people I know.

Maybe it's just that, as much as I loved El Mariachi, my expectations for a sequel were too high? Especially with that cast. But I do feel that it lost what the original had and, maybe, leaned too heavily on the shiny news toys? I don't know. I really have to watch it again to be able to discuss it in any great detail.

I totally get it.
To me, Desperado was just a lightning bolt out of the blue.
I didn't find out El Mariachi existed for several years after.

[Thief]

CINEMA PARADISO
(1988, Tornatore)
-- recommended by XRadioX Podcast (https://twitter.com/XRadioX1) --

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


"Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone."



Cinema Paradiso follows the friendship between Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), an aging projectionist at a small theater in Sicily, and Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio), an impressionable 8-year-old that finds himself mesmerized upon the world of cinema as well as Alfredo's job. Initially reluctant, the old man does end up taking the kid under his wing and teaches him the trade, which he embraces. But Alfredo's warning for him is to not get complacent in that fictitious world, but to go and make more of his life.

I've been trying to write this review for days, and I still can't find a thread to latch on to. But the more I think about it, the more I find myself in Salvatore's shoes. This was actually one of the first "foreign" films I saw when I was on my late teens and barely starting to get into films. So, much like Salvatore, I found myself amazed by the beauty of this story and the "wonder of cinema". I think I saw it a couple of times around that same time. Enough for it to get stuck in my mind, and for me to vote it at #1 in the recent Foreign Countdown.

But then I "left": a year, two years, 20 years. I just "came back" this month, and everything had changed. The beauty and wonder I felt when I was a teen wasn't exactly there, even if all the pieces were. Like adult Salvatore looking around at the same people he knew when he was a kid, everything was there, but everything's changed. The thread was broken.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2330530#post2330530)

[Thief]

Count me in as someone else who was a bit let down by Desperado after really enjoying El Mariachi first. Like it has been said before, I understand the appeal of the former, and I suppose it *works* but to me, it felt empty and devoid of the heart and grit that made the original work.

[Gideon58]

https://www.hidefninja.com/community/attachments/13362_tn-jpg.512244/


3.5

[beelzebubble]

Emergency (2022)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/Emergency_%282022_film%29.jpg
This is an exciting and biting movie starring Donald Elise Watkins as Kunle and R. J. Cyler as Shawn, two African-American college students come home to find a scantily clad white girl passed out on their living room floor. All hell then commences to break loose as Kunle, Shawn and their roommate (who has been home the whole time playing video games) try to figure out how best to handle this conundrum while fear of the police and concern for the girl take turns as the overwhelming reason behind their actions. The cast is wonderful especially Watkins and the very charming Cyler.
The adventure had me on the edge my seat until it culminates with the Shawn's van being stopped by the police and Kunle who has been giving the girl CPR being dragged out at gunpoint. You see the frightened face of Kunle crying as he repeats over and over that he was just trying to help. Luckily, Kunle is not shot but it feels like a near thingas we stare into the cop's gun barrel.
The movie loses its drive after that when Kunle and Shawn (who had bailed out of the situation some time earlier) rehash of the situation. this exposition is unnecessary as the audience has been with them and seen and heard all the arguments between the two along the way. Only Kunle's understanding of Shawn's position feels like it may be a necessary part of their resolution.
It returns to its mordant comedy when the young woman stops by to thank Kunle and her sister begins to apologize for her misunderstanding of the situation and Kunle quietly closes the door on her face.
Mostly enjoyable. I give it 3.5/5 popcorn boxes


https://https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?t=10846&page=3677

[Wooley]

Count me in as someone else who was a bit let down by Desperado after really enjoying El Mariachi first. Like it has been said before, I understand the appeal of the former, and I suppose it *works* but to me, it felt empty and devoid of the heart and grit that made the original work.

I can understand that.
But imagine a world in which El Mariachi didn't exist, because it was 1995 and the movie was only seen by critics and people with access to the few art-houses it may have played in the U.S. And then Desperado just comes to the theater with all its style and some barely known guy named Antonio Banderas and some unknown actress named Salma Hayek and all that film's swagger just a year after Pulp Fiction. It was a helluva thing, honestly.

[PHOENIX74]

I can understand that.
But imagine a world in which El Mariachi didn't exist, because it was 1995 and the movie was only seen by critics and people with access to the few art-houses it may have played in the U.S. And then Desperado just comes to the theater with all its style and some barely known guy named Antonio Banderas and some unknown actress named Salma Hayek and all that film's swagger just a year after Pulp Fiction. It was a helluva thing, honestly.

That's precisely why I enjoyed Desperado as much as I did when I first saw it.

[Thief]

I can understand that.
But imagine a world in which El Mariachi didn't exist, because it was 1995 and the movie was only seen by critics and people with access to the few art-houses it may have played in the U.S. And then Desperado just comes to the theater with all its style and some barely known guy named Antonio Banderas and some unknown actress named Salma Hayek and all that film's swagger just a year after Pulp Fiction. It was a helluva thing, honestly.

Oh yeah, like I said, I understand the appeal, but I can't divorce myself from the perspective under which I saw it.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Romancing_the_stone.jpg
By May be found at the following website: IMPAwards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7597974

Romancing the Stone - (1984)

This I remember as a good one from the 1980s, and going back to take a look at it, I see it's not quite up there as far as great cinematic adventures go. Producer Michael Douglas has cast himself as the dashing, gruff and handsome hero - but he fits the nerdy businessman role more than raffish lionheart. Kathleen Turner however, is wonderful - ever so beautiful and out-performing everyone in Romancing the Stone - the film was nominated for a Best Editing Oscar, but that's all, I don't think this film was serious enough for Kathy to get a nod. There are some fine stunts, but the action falls flat a little - mostly consisting of Turner and Douglas being shot at (all 2000 or so shots taken at them miss.) Danny De Vito (everywhere in the 80s, and that generation's Peter Lorre) turns up throughout, and tries to yuck up some laughs, but the screenplay isn't clever enough for that. Instead, this just turns out to be a solid adventure/romance film that's a little formulaic, but is shot in some great locations - mostly in Mexico.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Easy_A_poster.jpg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27888132

Easy A - (2010)

Well, this teen comedy aimed way higher than I was expecting it to, coming off as an intellectual romp which referenced works such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) feels the need change her virginal 'good girl' image for something a little more exciting and racy, but unfortunately her lies end up turning her into a high school tramp, looked down on by all. The effect snowballs as she agrees to let guys lie about sleeping with her, at first out of kindness and then financial gain. I found quite a bit genuinely funny, and a lot of it agreeable and pleasing, with interesting characters played by the likes of Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow and Stanley Tucci - adults trying their best to help confused kids with their sometimes quite awkward problems.

7/10

[Wooley]

Oh yeah, like I said, I understand the appeal, but I can't divorce myself from the perspective under which I saw it.

I suspect this is not unlike me and Mad Max/The Road Warrior.
I loved The Road Warrior (and still do/always will) but I saw Mad Max first and there is something about the deranged grit and almost guerrilla feel of that film that no other movie can live up to.
Toecutter > All Other Mad Max Villains

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Becks_2017_film_official_poster.jpg/220px-Becks_2017_film_official_poster.jpg

3

SF = Z


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

[Stirchley]

88783

Loved this final part of Joachim Trier’s trilogy & this movie is my favorite of the 3. Liked it so much I watched it twice on two consecutive days.

[Rockatansky]

I suspect this is not unlike me and Mad Max/The Road Warrior.
I loved The Road Warrior (and still do/always will) but I saw Mad Max first and there is something about the deranged grit and almost guerrilla feel of that film that no other movie can live up to.
Toecutter > All Other Mad Max Villains
Have you seen The Man From Hong Kong? It has the actor who played Toecutter in a very different role (even though he looks and sounds exactly the same).

[Wooley]

Have you seen The Man From Hong Kong? It has the actor who played Toecutter in a very different role (even though he looks and sounds exactly the same).

I had not but you have my attention.

[Allaby]

I watched The Funhouse (1981) on blu ray. I enjoyed it. The Funhouse is an entertaining and fun horror film about teens trapped in a carnival with a deformed killer after them. The main star, Elizabeth Berridge, is gorgeous (especially in the opening scene 😉). Although this wouldn't be my favourite of director Tobe Hopper's films, it is still a good time and worth checking out for fans of 80s horror. My rating is a 3.5.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Paradise_Faith.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43641691

Paradise : Faith - (2012)

This is part of an Ulrich Seidl trilogy (the other two films are Paradise : Love and Paradise : Hope.) It's the second film in it, so I don't know if I missed any kind of set-up in the first film, but I can say that it works quite well as a stand-alone film. So much so that I really want to see the other two now. It's the kind of movie where sitting back and pondering it, I found that it had opened up a kind of dialogue with me and made me think, which is always great. Anna Maria (Maria Hofstätter) is a middle aged Austrian lady who is a devout, fanatical Christian - the type that has recently converted and is obsessed. Her mission in life is to save as many people as she can, but behind closed doors she tortures herself as penance for imagined sins, and has an unhealthy fixation on Jesus Christ which is crossing over into the sexual realm. When her Muslim husband appears one day, who has lost the use of his legs, conflict erupts in her household. She refuses to sleep with him (in all senses of the word) and he begins to treat her more and more harshly - it's a conflict that sheds much light on Anna Maria. It also sheds light on people's relationship with their God, and with their fellow human beings - where honeymoon phases are often fleeting.

7.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Serenity_One_Sheet.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Universal Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2336760

Serenity - (2005)

On the back cover of my Serenity DVD it says "running time : 188 minutes" - which is misleading to say the least. Approaching the 2 hour mark of Serenity I was thinking, "there's over an hour left to go? This sure is epic sci-fi." A few minutes later and the film was over. I had to rethink the whole film, because I'd steeled myself for an epic 3 hour sci-fi movie, but this ended up being more normal than that. If that DVD is taking extra features into account, it still shouldn't say what it said, and should be clearer. Anyway, what can I say - Serenity was good, but would have been better being more epic. The fights and action are decent, and central government-conspiracy plot enough to be entertaining - but it fell well short of my expectations that were huge after thinking it was going to be a truly epic Lawrence of Arabia-sized science fiction classic. Psychic action heroes, space battles and futuristic cities are fine, but in that regard this doesn't stand out from the crowd.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/06/Magic_in_the_Moonlight_poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2014/magic_in_the_moonlight.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43096797

Magic in the Moonlight - (2014)

I like Woody Allen films, but after watching the awful A Rainy Day in New York I was pretty scared about getting back on the horse again. Thankfully enough, Magic in the Moonlight is good enough to pass the time without severe psychological consequences. There's nothing special here - but being set in the 1920s, and having a plot revolve around magicians and an acclaimed psychic at least made it interesting. Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth) is determined to prove psychic Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) a fraud, but they begin to fall in love, and Crawford starts to believe Sophie might actually be psychic - both events changing his world from that of a grumpy cynic to a happy man reintroduced to the wonders of the world. Both are engaged to other people however. I didn't love this movie, but I didn't hate it either - it's the kind of film that will fill in some time, but be forgotten a few weeks after watching it.

6/10

[Takoma11]

Serenity - (2005)

On the back cover of my Serenity DVD it says "running time : 188 minutes" - which is misleading to say the least. Approaching the 2 hour mark of Serenity I was thinking, "there's over an hour left to go? This sure is epic sci-fi." A few minutes later and the film was over. I had to rethink the whole film, because I'd steeled myself for an epic 3 hour sci-fi movie, but this ended up being more normal than that. If that DVD is taking extra features into account, it still shouldn't say what it said, and should be clearer. Anyway, what can I say - Serenity was good, but would have been better being more epic. The fights and action are decent, and central government-conspiracy plot enough to be entertaining - but it fell well short of my expectations that were huge after thinking it was going to be a truly epic Lawrence of Arabia-sized science fiction classic. Psychic action heroes, space battles and futuristic cities are fine, but in that regard this doesn't stand out from the crowd.

Did you ever watch Firefly? For me, Serenity was like a bigger, extended episode of the show. Then again, it's always a bit odd seeing a TV show jump to the big screen.

[PHOENIX74]

Did you ever watch Firefly? For me, Serenity was like a bigger, extended episode of the show. Then again, it's always a bit odd seeing a TV show jump to the big screen.

Ahh, now I see. I was looking for a Serenity television series at first - but it was called Firefly. It also must really add more of an impact for certain things that happen at the end of Serenity, which would affect people who watch the show a lot more than someone who has just stepped aboard.

[Takoma11]

Ahh, now I see. I was looking for a Serenity television series at first - but it was called Firefly. It also must really add more of an impact for certain things that happen at the end of Serenity, which would affect people who watch the show a lot more than someone who has just stepped aboard.

It was a show that ran for one season about two years before the movie was made.

Like a lot of TV-to-film movies, I think it had to try to both be accessible to people who hadn't seen the show, but rewarding for people who were fans.

I remember enjoying the film, but not loving it. I overall liked the show, but thought that it was uneven in a lot of ways. I will say that the deaths of certain characters in the film were definitely a surprise! And if you check out the TV show, you'll realize why.

[Miss Vicky]

88789

Ethel & Ernest (Roger Mainwood, 2016)

I saw this being suggested in GBG's 2010's Recommendations thread and I thought I'd give it a shot.

There's a lot to like here. The film is really beautifully animated and it details the lives of a very ordinary couple, from the late 1920s to the early 1970s, as they try to cope with the events of the world and the ever evolving technology and politics of their day. It was really neat to get that perspective.

Unfortunately, my ability to enjoy this film was all but destroyed by one thing: Ethel. Holy shit that woman was infuriating - always thinking herself better than the "common" people, while being in denial of her own place in the social hierarchy and remaining willfully ignorant of the realities of politics and world events. I hated her so much and every time I'd start to enjoy myself she'd do or say something else that irritated me and I was left very much detached from the whole thing as a result.

But I do have to give credit where it is due and this is a very well crafted film. It's just not one that I'm likely to ever watch again and it certainly won't be getting my vote for the countdown.

3

[Chypmunk]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Paradise_Faith.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43641691

Paradise : Faith - (2012)

This is part of an Ulrich Seidl trilogy (the other two films are Paradise : Love and Paradise : Hope.) It's the second film in it, so I don't know if I missed any kind of set-up in the first film, but I can say that it works quite well as a stand-alone film. So much so that I really want to see the other two now. It's the kind of movie where sitting back and pondering it, I found that it had opened up a kind of dialogue with me and made me think, which is always great. Anna Maria (Maria Hofstätter) is a middle aged Austrian lady who is a devout, fanatical Christian - the type that has recently converted and is obsessed. Her mission in life is to save as many people as she can, but behind closed doors she tortures herself as penance for imagined sins, and has an unhealthy fixation on Jesus Christ which is crossing over into the sexual realm. When her Muslim husband appears one day, who has lost the use of his legs, conflict erupts in her household. She refuses to sleep with him (in all senses of the word) and he begins to treat her more and more harshly - it's a conflict that sheds much light on Anna Maria. It also sheds light on people's relationship with their God, and with their fellow human beings - where honeymoon phases are often fleeting.

7.5/10
You missed no set-up, the three films are independent of each other. Recommend watching Love, I thought it was the best in the series. Hope is the weakest imo but still worth viewing even if only to round out the trilogy.

[Mr Minio]

Ethel & Ernest (Roger Mainwood, 2016) The ending is really heartbreaking, though. I know it's based on a comic book and portrays the author's parents, so it's not a story made up for the screen, but I think that too many contemporary filmmakers and/or screenwriters simply haven't lived their life, or at least haven't transposed their lives to the screen in a sincere way, and therefore do not write screenplays true to life and its vicissitudes, but rather spawn artificial thought-up stories that, while often tackling real-life issues, do not give you the sense of really embracing life with full understanding and apt portrayal of the way it is. Wow, that was the longest sentence I ever made. Anyway, I think that Ethel & Ernest is one of the films that actually manages to reach sincerity and portray life in that true way. Or at least its last third does.

[John-Connor]

Watching Serenity without having seen Firefly is a no no..

Also when it comes to Desperado I'm with Wooley..

[Chypmunk]

I wouldn't worry about having watched Serenity before Firefly, I did and still thoroughly enjoyed both.

[John-Connor]

I can also enjoy dessert before dinner but it's just not the order of things..

[Chypmunk]

You sure you're from Holland? All the other Dutch people I've met in life liked to be unconventional :D

[mark f]

Sacagawea (Rolf Forsberg, 2003) 2 5/10
Bring Him Back Dead (Mark Savage, 2022) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Low Life (Tyler Michael James, 2022) 2.5 6/10
A Soldier's Story (Norman Jewison, 1984) 3+ 6.5/10
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjU0MDBlN2EtMjNlZC00YTkwLTk1MDctMGZjYTdkMmI1MTg0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0, 47,500,281_.jpg
When black sergeant Adolph Caesar is found murdered outside his military base in the deep south during WWII, Washington sends black military lawyer Howard E. Rollins Jr. to investigate.
Letter to My Mother for My Son (Carla Simón, 2022) 2 5/10
Adopting Audrey AKA Porcupine (M. Cahill, 2021) 2.5 5.5/10
Summering (James Ponsoldt, 2022) 2 5/10
The Horse's Mouth (Ronald Neame, 1958) 3.5 7+/10
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DetwosPXUAAlaaR.jpg
Iconoclastic artist and SOB Gulley Jimson (Alec Guinness) wants to get some of his paintings back and paint a newer, bigger work before he's over the hill.
Wire Room (Matt Eskandari, 2022) 2 5/10
20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville, 2013) 3 6.5/10
One Way (Andrew Baird, 2022) 2 5/10
Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli, 1956) 3.5 7/10
https://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9woq77qpK1qedb29o1_500.gif
Vincent Van Gogh (Kirk Douglas) is expelled from seminary and seeks to preach among the peasants and is later rejected by a woman so he must find a different way to express his love for God.
Convicts 4 (Millard Kaufman, 1962) 2.5 5,5/10
Top Gunner: Danger Zone (Glenn Miller, 2022) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Friendship's Death (Peter Wollen, 1987) 2.5 6/10
Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961) 3.5 7/10
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/19/4d/97/194d97dd823ea6733e1df4f8246c25ce.gif
1928 Kansas high schoolers Bud (Warren Beatty) and Deanie (Natalie Wood) are so in love with each other that they can't live in real life without being together and away from their parents.
Oklahoma Crude (Stanley Kramer, 1973) 2.5 6/10
Shanks (William Castle, 1974) 2+ 5/10
Eyes of Laura Mars (Irvin Kershner, 1976) 2.5 5.5/10
Soundies: A Musical History Hosted by Michael Feinstein (Chris Lamson, 2007) 3.5 7/10
https://songbook1.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/dorothy-dandridge-1941-jig-in-the-jungle-soundie-ss-sh10.jpg
Dorothy Dandridge already a seasoned entertainer in one of her first soundies, the original short music films, which were shown on a jukebox screen. This is Cow-Cow Boogie.

[Allaby]

So I watched the new Pinocchio today on Disney+. First, I have to state the obvious. This is nowhere near as good as the original animated version. However, some of the reviews it has received have been pretty harsh. This isn't a bad film. Granted, I would not consider it a great one either, but the results are mixed, with some things I liked and some I didn't. I think Tom Hanks is underused here and was not the best choice for Geppetto. The boy voicing Pinocchio, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, is okay, but I think they could have found a kid whose voice better suited the character. And with all due respect to the lovely and talented Cynthia Erivo, but I feel she was the wrong choice for the Blue Fairy. Nothing to do with her race. She just didn't fit the character. I did like Keegan-Michael Key's performance as Honest John. I also really liked the cat. There were a few good songs too that I enjoyed and a couple fun moments. The ending was well done. Although this Pinocchio isn't as great as the original or even as good as some of the other live action versions of other animated films, it is still watchable with some enjoyable elements. My rating is 3.

[Gideon58]

https://rockandrollglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/image3A45158_Glitch2.jpg


3.5

[Ultraviolence]

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/w600_and_h900_bestv2/SEv6fj27Z5s2XP7qKJtbgKuivy.jpg
Japan has a very solid underground scene! :devil:
rating_3

[matt72582]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Paradise_Faith.jpg

This is part of an Ulrich Seidl trilogy (the other two films are Paradise : Love


"Paradise: Love" is one of my favorite movies from this century. Couldn't get into the other two. Should I try again?

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://media0.giphy.com/media/m0uyFt9ZCDyUFLALnS/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47lkzq34ppkczloiiab2jrhnne9kqjcm4abenxiaat&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
https://c.tenor.com/raOuQ56TePUAAAAC/red-rocket-sean-baker.gif

Red Rocket - I've only seen two of Sean Baker's movies but I really don't think you could describe them as "enjoyable" experiences. Entertaining? Yeah I suppose. But they're not what you would call "feel good" movies. The Florida Project had a charming performance from six year old Brooklynn Prince and an antithetical, warmhearted and Oscar nominated one from Willem Dafoe. And even though Simon Rex does an exceptionally superlative job as Mikey "Saber" Davies, his character is next to impossible to root for.

He's a washed up porn actor, forced to leave Los Angeles after his toxic personality manages to alienate his fellow bottom feeders. Having run out his string and nearly penniless, he takes a bus back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas. The first place he goes is to his ex-wife Lexi's (Bree Elrod) childhood home where she lives with her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). Turning on his not inconsiderable charm and gift of gab he talks them into letting him stay. But his job search turns out about how you'd expect for an ex-porn star.

So he goes to local weed dealer Leondria (Judy Weiss) whom he knew and worked for as a teenager and gets her to front him some weed. When he actually shows back up with her money she lets him start dealing on a full time basis. When pressed by Lexi and Lil to pitch in at home he volunteers to cover the monthly rent which buys him some breathing room. But it isn't long before his hustler ways and mile-wide amoral streak rears it's head. He runs into seventeen year old Strawberry (Suzanna Son) at the local donut shop and immediately starts trying to seduce her. It isn't long before he comes to see her as his way back into the adult fim business. Or maybe that was his impetus all along. Hard to tell with this guy.

This film contains stuff that's been shown to set people off. Mikey is basically "grooming" the underage Strawberry. The film has no qualms about making his intentions clear. He might not be the "hero" in the strictest sense but he is assuredly the leading man in the story. And as such are we expected to root for him? If not then what's the point?

This is admittedly my take after watching only two of his movies but it seems that Baker makes voyeuristic and ultimately depressing movies. From what I've read he had a completely normal childhood growing up and earned a degree in Film Studies at NYU. I really liked The Florida Project but I had a really hard time seeing any kind of upside or legitimate reason to recommend this outside of Rex's performance.

70/100

[Deschain]

I watched 1995 thriller Nick of Time starring Johnny Depp. It’s not great but it moves and is easy to watch. There’s some weird cuts and continuity errors and the villain’s plan is ludicrous. But Walken HAMS. IT. UP.

[Gideon58]

https://media0.giphy.com/media/m0uyFt9ZCDyUFLALnS/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47lkzq34ppkczloiiab2jrhnne9kqjcm4abenxiaat&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
https://c.tenor.com/raOuQ56TePUAAAAC/red-rocket-sean-baker.gif

70/100

I LOVED this movie...probably more than you did.

[Takoma11]

This film contains stuff that's been shown to set people off. Mikey is basically "grooming" the underage Strawberry. The film has no qualms about making his intentions clear. He might not be the "hero" in the strictest sense but he is assuredly the leading man in the story. And as such are we expected to root for him? If not then what's the point?

This is admittedly my take after watching only two of his movies but it seems that Baker makes voyeuristic and ultimately depressing movies. From what I've read he had a completely normal childhood growing up and earned a degree in Film Studies at NYU. I really liked The Florida Project but I had a really hard time seeing any kind of upside or legitimate reason to recommend this outside of Rex's performance.

I have seen The Florida Project and Tangerine, and my take on Baker's films is that he makes movies about people who are, to say the least, complicated. I think that he's often able to walk a fine line of having empathy for his characters without necessarily approving of their actions or expecting you to think they're good people.

It sounds like a main difference is that Red Rocket puts a more immoral character in the lead role instead of in a prominent secondary role. I still think that such films can be worth watching, though I think a lot of that depends on the extent to which you're being asked to condone the behavior of such a character as opposed to just witnessing it and maybe trying to understand it.

[PHOENIX74]

Red Rocket - I've only seen two of Sean Baker's movies but I really don't think you could describe them as "enjoyable" experiences. Entertaining? Yeah I suppose. But they're not what you would call "feel good" movies. The Florida Project had a charming performance from six year old Brooklynn Prince and an antithetical, warmhearted and Oscar nominated one from Willem Dafoe. And even though Simon Rex does an exceptionally superlative job as Mikey "Saber" Davies, his character is next to impossible to root for.

This film contains stuff that's been shown to set people off. Mikey is basically "grooming" the underage Strawberry. The film has no qualms about making his intentions clear. He might not be the "hero" in the strictest sense but he is assuredly the leading man in the story. And as such are we expected to root for him? If not then what's the point?

This is admittedly my take after watching only two of his movies but it seems that Baker makes voyeuristic and ultimately depressing movies. From what I've read he had a completely normal childhood growing up and earned a degree in Film Studies at NYU. I really liked The Florida Project but I had a really hard time seeing any kind of upside or legitimate reason to recommend this outside of Rex's performance.

70/100

I can't really give my take on all of this without giving away the ending to the film, so...

My joyous take from it was that in the end he got his just deserts - perhaps not the prison time he had coming to him, but his loss of everything else and knowledge that if he's to talk to Strawberry again she's going to know he's nothing but a lowly con-man who's let her down. That made me happy. For the entirety of the film I was cheering for this man's downfall, and the film delivered it. It was an inverse to the usual tale with a hero who comes up against adversity and overcomes it - here it's the antihero who works things his way and has good fortune throughout the whole film, but we're rooting against him, and we get his eventual defeat. I can understand if some people really don't enjoy those kind of films though.

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Serenity_One_Sheet.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Universal Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2336760

Serenity - (2005)

On the back cover of my Serenity DVD it says "running time : 188 minutes" - which is misleading to say the least. Approaching the 2 hour mark of Serenity I was thinking, "there's over an hour left to go? This sure is epic sci-fi." A few minutes later and the film was over. I had to rethink the whole film, because I'd steeled myself for an epic 3 hour sci-fi movie, but this ended up being more normal than that. If that DVD is taking extra features into account, it still shouldn't say what it said, and should be clearer. Anyway, what can I say - Serenity was good, but would have been better being more epic. The fights and action are decent, and central government-conspiracy plot enough to be entertaining - but it fell well short of my expectations that were huge after thinking it was going to be a truly epic Lawrence of Arabia-sized science fiction classic. Psychic action heroes, space battles and futuristic cities are fine, but in that regard this doesn't stand out from the crowd.

6/10



Expectations are a bitch.
I saw this movie not knowing anything about it and it fairly blew me away as an out-of-nowhere, lightning-in-a-bottle that was obviously punching way above its weight.
Because I hadn't even seen a trailer for it, it was just the next movie starting at the theater I had gone to, back when going to the theater at the standard movie start-time and choosing when you get there was just what people did.
I had never seen or heard of Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, or Chiwetel Ojiofor.
The movie is imaginative, entertaining, and excels at world-building.
I consider this an excellent Space-Western style Sci-Fi film with an endearing and engaging cast of characters and some fun surprises that I will watch any time with no convincing.
8/10

[Wooley]

Did you ever watch Firefly? For me, Serenity was like a bigger, extended episode of the show. Then again, it's always a bit odd seeing a TV show jump to the big screen.
I don't know if it's possible for someone who had seen the show to imagine what it was like to see it in the theater not knowing that a show like it had ever existed, but I can tell you that it worked amazingly as a standalone film to a Sci-Fi fan with no real expectations.

[Wooley]

Watching Serenity without having seen Firefly is a no no..

Also when it comes to Desperado I'm with Wooley..

Well we disagree and agree.
As I said above, I'd never even heard of Firefly when I saw Serenity in the theater and I absolutely loved it. I've watched it at least half a dozen times. And River's big scene is one of my favorite science-fiction movie scenes.
But cheers on Desperado.

[chawhee]

La La Land (2016)
https://tvovermind.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/La-La-Land.jpg
4
Wow, I am way late to this movie, because I thought it would be more heavy on the musical themes than the drama. The songs were indeed a bit much, but the aesthetics and emotion of this movie is unmatched. Subjectively, the fantastical portrayal of love here is pretty accurate. I loved the ending, where the heartburn I felt seemed so real (and unlike a fairy tale so to speak).

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Rain_Man_poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from United Artists., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2524371

Rain Man - (1988)

It had been a long time since I last saw Rain Man, but this last viewing was probably my warmest. My focus has always been on Dustin Hoffman's performance - and it's always been one I've thought of as the 'easy' one. Any performance that doesn't depend of subtlety I feel that way about - but his presence still commands the screen. This time I saw more of Charlie Babbitt's transformation throughout the film - one he's initially set up in as a horrible person using his newly discovered brother. It might be brutally passé in this modern era of film, but I still like that fact that his autistic brother changed him to some extent - and a genuine love grows between them, despite the fact that Raymond can't express it at all. I admire the film for not trying to force that expression of love from the character. I don't like Tom Cruise - but he did a really good job in Rain Man. Most people had never heard of "autism" before this film came out, and it did wonders for progressing some kind of understanding, no matter how incomplete.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/The_Good_Son_%28movie_poster%29.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9382103

The Good Son - (1993)

This film is kind of bizarre, but I always thought Macaulay Culkin was a creepy kid, so I was completely sold by his turn in The Good Son - it's the only film of his where I've thought he really inhabits his character. Examining that, I kind of enjoyed watching it - even factoring in the fact that this is a universally reviled film. I hear a lot of people had problems with a child comedy star being the villain in a horror film, and claimed it didn't work - but Culkin has always been what he embodies in this film to me, and it worked in my eyes. There are logical leaps that are hard to accept, making this one of those thrillers that you can't suspend disbelief in, for to play it all out these kids need a degree of freedom and autonomy which children simply don't have - but I just let it all go. Doing that, I had far more fun than most have watching it - and can only apologise to everyone for my taste this one time.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/Stir_of_Echoes.png
By http://www.impawards.com/1999/stir_of_echoes_ver1.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56684536

Stir of Echoes - (1999)

This was a really good horror/thriller that for some reason didn't move or scare me. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy watching and admiring it, and the fact is, I really wasn't expecting it to be as interesting as it was. It came out just weeks after The Sixth Sense, which is very unfortunate, because Stir of Echoes has a very similar plot-line. A kid can see dead people that need to be helped in some way, but here his dad (played by Kevin Bacon) is also plagued with the visions and is nearly sent mad trying to work it all out. It plays as a kind of 'haunted house/ghost story' at times, and other times just a straight horror/thriller - but it never goes all out trying to scare us. Instead, it invests more in it's storyline. I'm imagining this has a fair few fans.

6/10

[PHOENIX74]

Expectations are a bitch.
I saw this movie not knowing anything about it and it fairly blew me away as an out-of-nowhere, lightning-in-a-bottle that was obviously punching way above its weight.
Because I hadn't even seen a trailer for it, it was just the next movie starting at the theater I had gone to, back when going to the theater at the standard movie start-time and choosing when you get there was just what people did.
I had never seen or heard of Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, or Chiwetel Ojiofor.
The movie is imaginative, entertaining, and excels at world-building.
I consider this an excellent Space-Western style Sci-Fi film with an endearing and engaging cast of characters and some fun surprises that I will watch any time with no convincing.
8/10

Yeah, I got that 'Western' vibe from it myself, and thought that to myself many times. It's amazing how much I was enjoying it, but how badly expecting it was going to go for 3 hours messed with my mind in the end.

"Paradise: Love" is one of my favorite movies from this century. Couldn't get into the other two. Should I try again?

I'll let you know my opinion on that matter when I see the other two. I think Ulrich Seidl originally wanted all of it to be one film.

[gbgoodies]

88789

Ethel & Ernest (Roger Mainwood, 2016)

I saw this being suggested in GBG's 2010's Recommendations thread and I thought I'd give it a shot.

There's a lot to like here. The film is really beautifully animated and it details the lives of a very ordinary couple, from the late 1920s to the early 1970s, as they try to cope with the events of the world and the ever evolving technology and politics of their day. It was really neat to get that perspective.

Unfortunately, my ability to enjoy this film was all but destroyed by one thing: Ethel. Holy shit that woman was infuriating - always thinking herself better than the "common" people, while being in denial of her own place in the social hierarchy and remaining willfully ignorant of the realities of politics and world events. I hated her so much and every time I'd start to enjoy myself she'd do or say something else that irritated me and I was left very much detached from the whole thing as a result.

But I do have to give credit where it is due and this is a very well crafted film. It's just not one that I'm likely to ever watch again and it certainly won't be getting my vote for the countdown.

3


Ethel & Ernest is one of the movies that I put on my watchlist because it sounded interesting. Hopefully I'll like it more than you did.

[Takoma11]

Stir of Echoes - (1999)

This was a really good horror/thriller that for some reason didn't move or scare me. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy watching and admiring it, and the fact is, I really wasn't expecting it to be as interesting as it was. It came out just weeks after The Sixth Sense, which is very unfortunate, because Stir of Echoes has a very similar plot-line. A kid can see dead people that need to be helped in some way, but here his dad (played by Kevin Bacon) is also plagued with the visions and is nearly sent mad trying to work it all out. It plays as a kind of 'haunted house/ghost story' at times, and other times just a straight horror/thriller - but it never goes all out trying to scare us. Instead, it invests more in it's storyline. I'm imagining this has a fair few fans.

6/10

I liked it more than I expected when I finally got around to it. I think that coming out so close to The Sixth Sense, as you mention, diminished my interest in it and made it seem like a knockoff.

Part of why I liked it, though, was that it had a more central mystery plot, and I'm a sucker for a good mystery.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I LOVED this movie...probably more than you did.Like I said I really liked The Florida Project but just couldn't wrap my brain around making such a personable but amoral protagonist the centerpiece of your film. I was trying to think of another character like Mikey I had seen in the past. Barry Lyndon? Henry Hill from Goodfellas? Tony Soprano?

I have seen The Florida Project and Tangerine, and my take on Baker's films is that he makes movies about people who are, to say the least, complicated. I think that he's often able to walk a fine line of having empathy for his characters without necessarily approving of their actions or expecting you to think they're good people.

It sounds like a main difference is that Red Rocket puts a more immoral character in the lead role instead of in a prominent secondary role. I still think that such films can be worth watching, though I think a lot of that depends on the extent to which you're being asked to condone the behavior of such a character as opposed to opposed to just witnessing it and maybe trying to understand it. There's the rub. I get that this is who he is. But digging deeper and finding his motivations was just not in my wheelhouse.


My joyous take from it was that in the end he got his just deserts - perhaps not the prison time he had coming to him, but his loss of everything else and knowledge that if he's to talk to Strawberry again she's going to know he's nothing but a lowly con-man who's let her down. That made me happy. For the entirety of the film I was cheering for this man's downfall, and the film delivered it. It was an inverse to the usual tale with a hero who comes up against adversity and overcomes it - here it's the antihero who works things his way and has good fortune throughout the whole film, but we're rooting against him, and we get his eventual defeat. I can understand if some people really don't enjoy those kind of films though.I didn't end up rooting for or against him. I just ended up feeling like I was privy to some unsavory tableau. Hence the voyeuristic aspects. At least with The Florida Project I had an adorable little kid and Dafoe's Bobby as a buffer of sorts from all the misery tourism.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Part of why I liked it, though, was that it had a more central mystery plot, and I'm a sucker for a good mystery.I'm with you. I especially liked the murder mystery aspects. It put me in mind of Frequency.

[Deschain]

I liked it more than I expected when I finally got around to it. I think that coming out so close to The Sixth Sense, as you mention, diminished my interest in it and made it seem like a knockoff.

Part of why I liked it, though, was that it had a more central mystery plot, and I'm a sucker for a good mystery.

I remember when it came out the marketing was definitely riding the coattails of Sixth Sense. And it wasn’t until years later I finally watched it because I figured it was just a ripoff. But yeah it’s a decent little thriller.

[xSookieStackhouse]

https://media0.giphy.com/media/m0uyFt9ZCDyUFLALnS/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47lkzq34ppkczloiiab2jrhnne9kqjcm4abenxiaat&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
https://c.tenor.com/raOuQ56TePUAAAAC/red-rocket-sean-baker.gif

Red Rocket - I've only seen two of Sean Baker's movies but I really don't think you could describe them as "enjoyable" experiences. Entertaining? Yeah I suppose. But they're not what you would call "feel good" movies. The Florida Project had a charming performance from six year old Brooklynn Prince and an antithetical, warmhearted and Oscar nominated one from Willem Dafoe. And even though Simon Rex does an exceptionally superlative job as Mikey "Saber" Davies, his character is next to impossible to root for.

He's a washed up porn actor, forced to leave Los Angeles after his toxic personality manages to alienate his fellow bottom feeders. Having run out his string and nearly penniless, he takes a bus back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas. The first place he goes is to his ex-wife Lexi's (Bree Elrod) childhood home where she lives with her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). Turning on his not inconsiderable charm and gift of gab he talks them into letting him stay. But his job search turns out about how you'd expect for an ex-porn star.

So he goes to local weed dealer Leondria (Judy Weiss) whom he knew and worked for as a teenager and gets her to front him some weed. When he actually shows back up with her money she lets him start dealing on a full time basis. When pressed by Lexi and Lil to pitch in at home he volunteers to cover the monthly rent which buys him some breathing room. But it isn't long before his hustler ways and mile-wide amoral streak rears it's head. He runs into seventeen year old Strawberry (Suzanna Son) at the local donut shop and immediately starts trying to seduce her. It isn't long before he comes to see her as his way back into the adult fim business. Or maybe that was his impetus all along. Hard to tell with this guy.

This film contains stuff that's been shown to set people off. Mikey is basically "grooming" the underage Strawberry. The film has no qualms about making his intentions clear. He might not be the "hero" in the strictest sense but he is assuredly the leading man in the story. And as such are we expected to root for him? If not then what's the point?

This is admittedly my take after watching only two of his movies but it seems that Baker makes voyeuristic and ultimately depressing movies. From what I've read he had a completely normal childhood growing up and earned a degree in Film Studies at NYU. I really liked The Florida Project but I had a really hard time seeing any kind of upside or legitimate reason to recommend this outside of Rex's performance.

70/100
omg i havent seen simon rex since scary movie 3 :O

[Archisorcerus]

Arrival (2016): This was politically like The Arrival (1996), in that the Americans politically are the good guys and there are antagonised countries. In The Arrival, Mexico was giving shelter to the malign aliens; and in here, Russia and China (among others) are behaving in a way that doesn't please the good (?) Americans. How typical... Anyway, this was a very good movie; excellent entertainment, really. Even if I don't like the political aspects of such American movies, there's some plausibility in their reflection. At least, the Americans see the world like this. I respect that, eventually. 8.5/10

Dark Skies (2013): Another alien movie, but this time the beings are familiar: the Grey aliens! A fine film, though nothing spectacular. 7/10

Dream House (2011): Back to reality... Or does the perception of the protagonist reflect the actual reality? A decent mystery/thriller. Not a standout film, nonetheless. 6.5/10

[LChimp]

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/w3LxiVYdWWRvEVdn5RYq6jIqkb1.jpg

I laughed, I cried, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Stirchley]

Ethel & Ernest is one of the movies that I put on my watchlist because it sounded interesting. Hopefully I'll like it more than you did.

Never heard of this & I’ve put it in my Netflix Q though I never ever watch animated movies. Miss Vicky’s review has inspired me. Jim Broadbent & Brenda Blethyn play the voices of Ethel & Ernest.

You may have heard of the book & animation The Snowman. Also by Raymond Briggs whose parents were the real Ethel & Ernest.

Interestingly Mr. Briggs died exactly one month ago at age 88.

[Stirchley]

88801
88802

Both of them are not too bad.

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Rain_Man_poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from United Artists., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2524371

Rain Man - (1988)

It had been a long time since I last saw Rain Man, but this last viewing was probably my warmest. My focus has always been on Dustin Hoffman's performance - and it's always been one I've thought of as the 'easy' one. Any performance that doesn't depend of subtlety I feel that way about - but his presence still commands the screen. This time I saw more of Charlie Babbitt's transformation throughout the film - one he's initially set up in as a horrible person using his newly discovered brother. It might be brutally passé in this modern era of film, but I still like that fact that his autistic brother changed him to some extent - and a genuine love grows between them, despite the fact that Raymond can't express it at all. I admire the film for not trying to force that expression of love from the character. I don't like Tom Cruise - but he did a really good job in Rain Man. Most people had never heard of "autism" before this film came out, and it did wonders for progressing some kind of understanding, no matter how incomplete.

8/10



Agree with you 100% on the bolded.
I never gave Leo much credit for What's Eating Gilbert Grape and I never thought this was one of Hoffman's great performances except maybe when held against the diversity of other work he has done. It's like Hook just in the other direction.
As for Charlie I thought this was just another Cruise Role where a headstrong and self-centered young man goes through a modest personal journey and comes out a better man, in a plane, in a race-car, on a football field, in the court-room, on a road-trip, as a sports agent, whatever. Which, in retrospect, makes Lestat one of his better roles.

[Wooley]

So I watched the new Pinocchio today on Disney+. First, I have to state the obvious. This is nowhere near as good as the original animated version. However, some of the reviews it has received have been pretty harsh. This isn't a bad film. Granted, I would not consider it a great one either, but the results are mixed, with some things I liked and some I didn't. I think Tom Hanks is underused here and was not the best choice for Geppetto. The boy voicing Pinocchio, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, is okay, but I think they could have found a kid whose voice better suited the character. And with all due respect to the lovely and talented Cynthia Erivo, but I feel she was the wrong choice for the Blue Fairy. Nothing to do with her race. She just didn't fit the character. I did like Keegan-Michael Key's performance as Honest John. I also really liked the cat. There were a few good songs too that I enjoyed and a couple fun moments. The ending was well done. Although this Pinocchio isn't as great as the original or even as good as some of the other live action versions of other animated films, it is still watchable with some enjoyable elements. My rating is 3.

Definitely skipping this in favor of Del Toro's. Which probably won't be great either, honestly, I've kinda lost faith in him, but at least it'll be imaginative.

[Wooley]

Yeah, I got that 'Western' vibe from it myself, and thought that to myself many times. It's amazing how much I was enjoying it, but how badly expecting it was going to go for 3 hours messed with my mind in the end..

Yeah, cuz I think of it as a plucky little film that, like I said, punches way above its weight and you got stuck thinking it didn't deliver as much as you were set up to expect. That's a drag.

[Gideon58]

Like I said I really liked The Florida Project but just couldn't wrap my brain around making such a personable but amoral protagonist the centerpiece of your film. I was trying to think of another character like Mikey I had seen in the past. Barry Lyndon? Henry Hill from Goodfellas? Tony Soprano?

There's the rub. I get that this is who he is. But digging deeper and finding his motivations was just not in my wheelhouse.

I didn't end up rooting for or against him. I just ended up feeling like I was privy to some unsavory tableau. Hence the voyeuristic aspects. At least with The Florida Project I had an adorable little kid and Dafoe's Bobby as a buffer of sorts from all the misery tourism.

Actually, that was the best thing I liked about the movie...the fact that the central character was a piece of sh*t who deserved none of the sympathy the story attempts to give him, but more importantly, by the end of the movie, he has gotten exactly what he deserves, something you don't see too often at the movies these days.

[Gideon58]

La La Land (2016)
https://tvovermind.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/La-La-Land.jpg
4
Wow, I am way late to this movie, because I thought it would be more heavy on the musical themes than the drama. The songs were indeed a bit much, but the aesthetics and emotion of this movie is unmatched. Subjectively, the fantastical portrayal of love here is pretty accurate. I loved the ending, where the heartburn I felt seemed so real (and unlike a fairy tale so to speak).


just curious as to what you mean by the songs being "a bit much."

[chawhee]

just curious as to what you mean by the songs being "a bit much."

A couple of them didn't contribute much to the movie for me, but a couple of them were great. Its just generally not my thing (which I understand can make me seem a bit shallow from an appreciation perspective)

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWYzY2IwOGEtM2UxYi00MzFhLThkZTEtOGUzZmUzMjc2NTRmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAyMjQ3NzQ1._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg

2.5

[Gideon58]

88801
88802

Both of them are not too bad.

To Die For is my favorite Nicole Kidman performance. I think she was robbed of an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. On my list of sexiest female movie characters, Susanne Stone Maretto clocked in at #1.

[beelzebubble]

Definitely skipping this in favor of Del Toro's. Which probably won't be great either, honestly, I've kinda lost faith in him, but at least it'll be imaginative.
When did you start losing faith in Del Toro?

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Johnny_guitar.jpg


4

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/The_Good_Thief_%28film%29.jpg
By [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35013248

The Good Thief - (2002)

I'll just say at the outset here, I haven't seen Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob le flambeur (I will one day, I really like Melville's movies) - so I walked into The Good Thief with no idea where it would head. Principally, it's a heist film - and a complex one at that, with a good many characters to keep your eyes on. At the center of it all, a role that perfectly suits Nick Nolte - a heroin and gambling addict who haunts the French Riviera. He's a thief that still has a very upstanding moral compass, and as such French cop Roger (Tchéky Karyo) looks out for him as much as he keeps tabs on him. When he learns of an expensive art collection a casino owns, he gets himself clean and starts recruiting his crew. So begins an intricate plan - and if you know heist movies, you know that there's a plan behind the plan and then a twist. I love this film's style, and Nolte is better here than in just about any other film I've seen him in - but I felt a little left out in the cold by the film's end, where I ended up questioning every false direction we'd gone in. I'm going to watch the original, then rewatch this - because I think it's worth it, and this film is just such a pleasure to take in, no matter where it loses you. My rating will probably go up in time.

6.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Thevanishing1993poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from 20th Century Fox., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10680937

The Vanishing - (1993)

I'm really unsure what to say about watching this. I've seen the original several times and have it on Criterion. I'd seen this version once before as well, and remembered how inferior it was - but having seen the original again recently, I wanted to go back again and see just what Sluizer and 20th Century Fox had done to upset me. I remembered that the ending had been completely hijacked, with an unlikely happy conclusion really stealing all of the power the original ending had. Apart from that, the middle section of this remake drags a little. But when you look at it in isolation, and not in comparison with the great 1988 version (Spoorloos) then it's not a bad movie. It just drops back into the pack and doesn't distinguish itself enough to be worth remembering, apart from a memorable turn from Jeff Bridges - one so crazy that I'm not quite sure what he's trying to do. Whenever he's not onscreen though, this movie really grinds. I can see some people who are invested in these characters really ride this film to the end, and like it - but not those who loved what the original did.

5/10

[skizzerflake]

Short on choices, tonight was horror movie night - Barbarian, to be specific. No matter how many times this happens, when we, the movie audience, knows for sure that the star should never go into THAT house, they always do. It's Detroit, a bombed out area, and Tess has rented a house for the night, only to find that someone else is already there. She stays anyway, and, to make a long story short, the next day things go bad. It's not the other tenant, but that creepy stairway that goes down to the netherworld. There's screams and indications that someone was held captive there. Tess goes down the creepy stairs anyway. There's a "creature"....a zombie-like naked woman down there in this labyrinth of stone stairways underneath this place. There's lots of chasing, screaming and running by various characters, monsters popping out of dark passageways until it's over and all of those usual horror movie tropes like the big noises, bass drum crashes and flashing lights. I'm not saying who gets out alive (not everybody) and why this place is so awful, so beware.....if you dare.

Personally, I generally do NOT spend much time in bombed out neighborhoods in Detroit, just like I don't go into the spooky castle, or the abandoned coal mine or the boarded up house or the long closed store where the butcher butchered his family and customers. Sometimes I DO go to movies like this, however, and, if you like horror movies, you could do worse.

The cast is as good as they need to be (mainly running and screaming) and nobody will come to save you.

I really don't know what the title Barbarian, has to do with anything, but it's OK too.

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr89pmKrqkI

[Wooley]

When did you start losing faith in Del Toro?

I liked Pacific Rim but didn't think it was anywhere near things like Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, or Pan's Labyrinth. Then Crimson Peak I thought was a terrible miss and it looked like a filmmaker who got too much weight and nobody to reign him in (which we all need). Then I saw The Shape Of Water which was better than CP to be sure but still just felt like compared to something like Cronos or tDB, the magic was missing. I think this normal, I think most artists really have a period when they are most fruitful and it frequently fades once they have major success.
But then I also look at, ok, what is the production over the last 5 years or so? Even 7 or 8 years, has there been a work that truly says, "Yes, this guy is a master?"
I'm not saying he makes bad movies now, I'm just saying I've stopped banking on him doing something special.

[Takoma11]

The Vanishing - (1993)

I'm really unsure what to say about watching this. I've seen the original several times and have it on Criterion. I'd seen this version once before as well, and remembered how inferior it was - but having seen the original again recently, I wanted to go back again and see just what Sluizer and 20th Century Fox had done to upset me. I remembered that the ending had been completely hijacked, with an unlikely happy conclusion really stealing all of the power the original ending had. Apart from that, the middle section of this remake drags a little. But when you look at it in isolation, and not in comparison with the great 1988 version (Spoorloos) then it's not a bad movie. It just drops back into the pack and doesn't distinguish itself enough to be worth remembering, apart from a memorable turn from Jeff Bridges - one so crazy that I'm not quite sure what he's trying to do. Whenever he's not onscreen though, this movie really grinds. I can see some people who are invested in these characters really ride this film to the end, and like it - but not those who loved what the original did.

5/10

I saw this movie on TV when I was like 11 years old, and even then I realized that the ending was borderline parody. They survive, and the last scene is them being paid like a million dollars for a book deal, right?

Once I saw the original, many years later, the difference in the films was so stark.

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Thevanishing1993poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from 20th Century Fox., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10680937

The Vanishing - (1993)

I'm really unsure what to say about watching this. I've seen the original several times and have it on Criterion. I'd seen this version once before as well, and remembered how inferior it was - but having seen the original again recently, I wanted to go back again and see just what Sluizer and 20th Century Fox had done to upset me. I remembered that the ending had been completely hijacked, with an unlikely happy conclusion really stealing all of the power the original ending had. Apart from that, the middle section of this remake drags a little. But when you look at it in isolation, and not in comparison with the great 1988 version (Spoorloos) then it's not a bad movie. It just drops back into the pack and doesn't distinguish itself enough to be worth remembering, apart from a memorable turn from Jeff Bridges - one so crazy that I'm not quite sure what he's trying to do. Whenever he's not onscreen though, this movie really grinds. I can see some people who are invested in these characters really ride this film to the end, and like it - but not those who loved what the original did.

5/10
I have a funny relationship with this movie in that I was in college and I was willing to see a good foreign film even if they weren't really my thing yet, and I saw this film and decided that there was just no way that any version of this could really be that compelling. So I never saw the original.
And then at pretty much the same time, I guess a month or two later, I saw Point Of No Return and I was a pretty big fan of Nikita and I realized how badly Hollywood remade European films.
But for poor Spoorloos, the damage had been done. I mean, it's been almost 30 years and I've still never given it a shot because of how totally unremarkable The Vanishing is.

[Miss Vicky]

88807

Lilting (Hong Khaou, 2014)

This is another movie I saw being suggested in GBG's 2010's Recommendations thread. I hadn't even heard of it before then,

Although it's rather short, this is definitely a movie that requires patience and full engagement. It's a slow meditation on grief, guilt, obligation, and understanding. Ben Whishaw gives a particularly strong performance as a young man trying to connect with his dead boyfriend's Chinese-Cambodian mother - who doesn't like him, speaks no English, and doesn't know that her son was gay. Cheng Pei Pei is also excellent as the dead man's mother and gives a lot of humanity to a character that might otherwise have come off as cold, particularly in the film's earlier scenes.

It's a very moving film and one that I'll probably watch again, but my shortlist for the 2010s countdown is now at 82 films so its chances of making the final cut are pretty slim.

4

[PHOENIX74]

I saw this movie on TV when I was like 11 years old, and even then I realized that the ending was borderline parody. They survive, and the last scene is them being paid like a million dollars for a book deal, right?

Once I saw the original, many years later, the difference in the films was so stark.

They make a joke about the coffee and laugh I think - like the whole film has been this cheap half hour episode of some popular show.

I have a funny relationship with this movie in that I was in college and I was willing to see a good foreign film even if they weren't really my thing yet, and I saw this film and decided that there was just no way that any version of this could really be that compelling. So I never saw the original.
And then at pretty much the same time, I guess a month or two later, I saw Point Of No Return and I was a pretty big fan of Nikita and I realized how badly Hollywood remade European films.
But for poor Spoorloos, the damage had been done. I mean, it's been almost 30 years and I've still never given it a shot because of how totally unremarkable The Vanishing is.

You can see why I might have been so angry. I mean, it's one thing to remake your film and for it to have simply lost some of it's shine - but to turn it into something so off-putting was a shame.

[Takoma11]

But for poor Spoorloos, the damage had been done. I mean, it's been almost 30 years and I've still never given it a shot because of how totally unremarkable The Vanishing is.

They are completely different films, and you'll know it 5 minutes in. Highly recommended.

[LChimp]

https://terrigen-cdn-dev.marvel.com/content/prod/1x/bigsalad_genavailposter_pay1_presunrise_v3_lg.jpg

No bueno. Has too much silliness for my taste, which made it kinda boring midway through. Story is as basic as they come, the ending is very predictable and I only endure it for the post credits scenes.

[Takoma11]

88807

Lilting (Hong Khaou, 2014)

This is another movie I saw being suggested in GBG's 2010's Recommendations thread. I hadn't even heard of it before then,

Although it's rather short, this is definitely a movie that requires patience and full engagement. It's a slow meditation on grief, guilt, obligation, and understanding. Ben Whishaw gives a particularly strong performance as a young man trying to connect with his dead boyfriend's Chinese-Cambodian mother - who doesn't like him, speaks no English, and doesn't know that her son was gay. Cheng Pei Pei is also excellent as the dead man's mother and gives a lot of humanity to a character that might otherwise have come off as cold, particularly in the film's earlier scenes.

It's a very moving film and one that I'll probably watch again, but my shortlist for the 2010s countdown is now at 82 films so its chances of making the final cut are pretty slim.

4

This was a recent viewing for me, and I loved it. I'm excited to revisit it sometime. The performances are great, but there's also something really special about the way that the camera moves and how it connects to the different shifts in time.

[Wooley]

https://terrigen-cdn-dev.marvel.com/content/prod/1x/bigsalad_genavailposter_pay1_presunrise_v3_lg.jpg

No bueno. Has too much silliness for my taste, which made it kinda boring midway through. Story is as basic as they come, the ending is very predictable and I only endure it for the post credits scenes.

Yeah, I was a huge fan of Rangarok and this movie sucked.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eastman.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2F1229%2520-%2520Yankee%2520Doodle%2520Dandy%2520YD-55.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942

In this biographical musical, George Cohan (James Cagney) navigates the theatrical life from child stardom to producing his own musicals.

It's never a good thing--to me--when a film claiming to be biographical decides to take rampant liberties with the truth in order to drum up drama. But this film shows that the opposite can be true. Pretty much every hint of difficulty or conflict seems to resolve itself in about five minutes, and you could say "And everything was fine" after just about every moment of drama.

There are some fun musical numbers in the first third of the film as Cohan is making his rise through the industry, striking out on his own after his abrasive personality alienates the audience of his family's show.

But what's missing from this movie is heart. Cagney is fine in the lead role when it comes to the acting and the dancing, but his singing style is the good old speak-singing thing. This feels especially problematic when the people around him are out and out singing their parts.

I suppose the details of Cohan's life would be interesting to a fan of Broadway shows, but there wasn't much to hold me to the story. Cohan's life is never particularly difficult. The worst thing that happens to him is that he's a huge jerk and people don't want to work with him. But then he, you know, matures and that isn't a problem anymore. His relationship with his wife, Mary (Joan Leslie) is untroubled, as is his relationship with his family.

Having to cover the entirety of Cohan's life means taking big leaps in time and resolving situations in a matter of minutes. There's a lot of telling instead of showing. Nowhere is this more evident than in a late sequence where Cohan wins a Congressional Medal of Honor. We are shown a close up of the medal as the inscription is read aloud. Then the man presenting it to him ---the President!--gives a pat few lines about how patriotic music is just as powerful as any weapon.

This is by no means a slam on Cohan himself, who it sounds like worked hard and excelled in his profession. I did like a sequence where Cohan finds a parade singing one of his songs as they march.

I don't know. Overall this one just left me a bit cold.

3.5

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eastman.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2F1229%2520-%2520Yankee%2520Doodle%2520Dandy%2520YD-55.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942

In this biographical musical, George Cohan (James Cagney) navigates the theatrical life from child stardom to producing his own musicals.

It's never a good thing--to me--when a film claiming to be biographical decides to take rampant liberties with the truth in order to drum up drama. But this film shows that the opposite can be true. Pretty much every hint of difficulty or conflict seems to resolve itself in about five minutes, and you could say "And everything was fine" after just about every moment of drama.

There are some fun musical numbers in the first third of the film as Cohan is making his rise through the industry, striking out on his own after his abrasive personality alienates the audience of his family's show.

But what's missing from this movie is heart. Cagney is fine in the lead role when it comes to the acting and the dancing, but his singing style is the good old speak-singing thing. This feels especially problematic when the people around him are out and out singing their parts.

I suppose the details of Cohan's life would be interesting to a fan of Broadway shows, but there wasn't much to hold me to the story. Cohan's life is never particularly difficult. The worst thing that happens to him is that he's a huge jerk and people don't want to work with him. But then he, you know, matures and that isn't a problem anymore. His relationship with his wife, Mary (Joan Leslie) is untroubled, as is his relationship with his family.

Having to cover the entirety of Cohan's life means taking big leaps in time and resolving situations in a matter of minutes. There's a lot of telling instead of showing. Nowhere is this more evident than in a late sequence where Cohan wins a Congressional Medal of Honor. We are shown a close up of the medal as the inscription is read aloud. Then the man presenting it to him ---the President!--gives a pat few lines about how patriotic music is just as powerful as any weapon.

This is by no means a slam on Cohan himself, who it sounds like worked hard and excelled in his profession. I did like a sequence where Cohan finds a parade singing one of his songs as they march.

I don't know. Overall this one just left me a bit cold.

3.5

Bummer. I really like this one and have seen it at least a dozen times. This movie is all just about watching Cagney (although I thought Joan Leslie was great too). To watch The Public Enemy and then this really makes Cagney a legend to me. I'd seen YDD probably 6-10 times before I finally saw The Public Enemy in college for the first time (on the big screen, no less). And I was like, "What? George M. Cohan's a stone-cold killer?!" He was awesome in Ragtime too.
The other main thing about YDD is its relentless optimism and upbeat attitude. That always puts me right. Of course, I watch this on July 4th most years. Even though I am a firm believer that July 4th is celebrating a bunch of rich white slave-owning men who didn't want to pay their taxes.

[Takoma11]

Bummer. I really like this one and have seen it at least a dozen times. This movie is all just about watching Cagney (although I thought Joan Leslie was great too).

Cagney was fine. (Though Oscar winning? Meh.) The movie around him just felt too pat and simplistic.

The other main thing about YDD is its relentless optimism and upbeat attitude. That always puts me right. Of course, I watch this on July 4th most years. Even though I am a firm believer that July 4th is celebrating a bunch of rich white slave-owning men who didn't want to pay their taxes.

With very little genuine emotional connection, I had a mixed response to the rah-rah patriotic nature of the film. Especially when it's a film set in New York and Washington DC and there was one scene with Black characters and they were servants with no dialogue. It also totally sidelines its female characters, including talking about women who are dead or married in the same way ("gone"). I mean, I get that this is a biography about a white man, so I'm not like "Boo! Why was so much of this film centered on a white person?!?!". What I'm saying is that the film is so locked into his perspective and so oblivious to any other point of view or reality that I found it hard to connect. At times I sympathized with George. Mostly I found him annoying (when he was a kid) or just felt distanced and neutral about him. If asked to point to any compelling arc or character growth, I come up blank.

[Wooley]

Cagney was fine. (Though Oscar winning? Meh.) The movie around him just felt too pat and simplistic.



With very little genuine emotional connection, I had a mixed response to the rah-rah patriotic nature of the film. Especially when it's a film set in New York and Washington DC and there was one scene with Black characters and they were servants with no dialogue. It also totally sidelines its female characters, including talking about women who are dead or married in the same way ("gone"). I mean, I get that this is a biography about a white man, so I'm not like "Boo! Why was so much of this film centered on a white person?!?!". What I'm saying is that the film is so locked into his perspective and so oblivious to any other point of view or reality that I found it hard to connect. At times I sympathized with George. Mostly I found him annoying (when he was a kid) or just felt distanced and neutral about him. If asked to point to any compelling arc or character growth, I come up blank.

Oh, I don't care about the rah rah patriotic part it's more about Cohan's relentless optimism.

[Takoma11]

Oh, I don't care about the rah rah patriotic part it's more about Cohan's relentless optimism.

For me there wasn't enough hardship for me to find his character's outlook inspiring.

A talented person was successful in his career, and it didn't go much deeper than that for me.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthecinemaholic.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F05%2F01-6.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

American Beauty, 1999

Lester (Kevin Spacey) is in the throes of a midlife crisis, living with a wife named Carolyn (Annette Bening) who is materialistic and frustrated in her own job as a real estate agent. Their teenage daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), is also miserable--miserable with her body and miserable with her parents' endless sniping. But things shift dramatically when Lester becomes sexually fixated on Jane's friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and Jane becomes involved with a boy named Ricky (Wes Bentley) who just moved in next door.

I know that this movie is generally well regarded. Ehhhh . . .

For the entire runtime this film felt fractured--I was able to see it as a collection of parts, but it never totally cohered for me as a single entity.

My favorite aspect was the visual elements. I was very into the bold use of color, and specifically the repeated scheme of red bursts against white backgrounds. There were many stunning shots, including one of the house's red door in a rainstorm that I thought was really breathtaking. Overall I liked the direction.

Performance-wise, the film is really strong in a certain sense. These days I really struggle to immerse myself in films where every actor on screen is a big-name actor. Heck, even one of the no-dialogue bit parts was played by someone who is high profile (Jon Cho as a potential house buyer). Everyone is good in their roles, though really this is the Kevin Spacey Show. Get ready to clutch your pearls, my separate-the-art-from-the-artist friends, but knowing that Spacey engaged in sexually predatory behavior in real life made it less than fun to watch the camera lovingly document his every little quirk as his character engaged in sexually predatory behavior. At times was he really funny? Yes. But this is a movie full of capital-P Performances, something I find a bit exhausting at the best of times.

Ultimately, though, I did not care for the writing. The worst was the writing of the two teenage girls. How do you know that a middle-aged man is writing the dialogue for teen girls? Oh, I don't know. Maybe by having them reference Christy Turlington? Birch and Suvari were good in their roles, but my God did I cringe every time they had a conversation.

I also take issue with the last act for several reasons.

First I'm sorry, but Lester's last minute change of heart about Angela? I didn't buy it for a second. He goes from making out with her to wrapping her in a blanket (gag) and making her a meal (double gag)? It feels incredibly unearned and honestly gives the sense that the film is trying to pull a last minute redemption for a man who has been emotionally and borderline physically abusive to his wife and child.

Second, the reveal that Ricky's dad is gay (or bi-curious or whatever)? I know that some people love the line that homophobes are secretly gay. This view, in an of itself, is homophobic. It posits that the persecution and violence towards gay people is done . . . by gay people. This is exacerbated by the fact that Ricky's dad kills Lester seemingly not because his middle-aged neighbor was having sexual relations with his teenage son, but because he rejected him sexually.

Finally, I really hated the arc with Ricky's character. His stalking of Jane is romanticized and it's gross. Ricky is repeatedly positioned as the voice of reason and I don't even have words for how dumb I find that.

The comedy stuff worked for me, generally speaking, but the drama side of things was a hot--and occasionally offensive--mess. I'm still mulling over my feelings about the way that the film seemingly parodies the obsession with teenage girls and indulges in that obsession with the way that it portrays the body of its two young women leads.

3.5

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthecinemaholic.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F05%2F01-6.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

American Beauty, 1999

Lester (Kevin Spacey) is in the throes of a midlife crisis, living with a wife named Carolyn (Annette Bening) who is materialistic and frustrated in her own job as a real estate agent. Their teenage daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), is also miserable--miserable with her body and miserable with her parents' endless sniping. But things shift dramatically when Lester becomes sexually fixated on Jane's friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and Jane becomes involved with a boy named Ricky (Wes Bentley) who just moved in next door.

I know that this movie is generally well regarded. Ehhhh . . .

For the entire runtime this film felt fractured--I was able to see it as a collection of parts, but it never totally cohered for me as a single entity.

My favorite aspect was the visual elements. I was very into the bold use of color, and specifically the repeated scheme of red bursts against white backgrounds. There were many stunning shots, including one of the house's red door in a rainstorm that I thought was really breathtaking. Overall I liked the direction.

Performance-wise, the film is really strong in a certain sense. These days I really struggle to immerse myself in films where every actor on screen is a big-name actor. Heck, even one of the no-dialogue bit parts was played by someone who is high profile (Jon Cho as a potential house buyer). Everyone is good in their roles, though really this is the Kevin Spacey Show. Get ready to clutch your pearls, my separate-the-art-from-the-artist friends, but knowing that Spacey engaged in sexually predatory behavior in real life made it less than fun to watch the camera lovingly document his every little quirk as his character engaged in sexually predatory behavior. At times was he really funny? Yes. But this is a movie full of capital-P Performances, something I find a bit exhausting at the best of times.

Ultimately, though, I did not care for the writing. The worst was the writing of the two teenage girls. How do you know that a middle-aged man is writing the dialogue for teen girls? Oh, I don't know. Maybe by having them reference Christy Turlington? Birch and Suvari were good in their roles, but my God did I cringe every time they had a conversation.

I also take issue with the last act for several reasons.

First I'm sorry, but Lester's last minute change of heart about Angela? I didn't buy it for a second. He goes from making out with her to wrapping her in a blanket (gag) and making her a meal (double gag)? It feels incredibly unearned and honestly gives the sense that the film is trying to pull a last minute redemption for a man who has been emotionally and borderline physically abusive to his wife and child.

Second, the reveal that Ricky's dad is gay (or bi-curious or whatever)? I know that some people love the line that homophobes are secretly gay. This view, in an of itself, is homophobic. It posits that the persecution and violence towards gay people is done . . . by gay people. This is exacerbated by the fact that Ricky's dad kills Lester seemingly not because his middle-aged neighbor was having sexual relations with his teenage son, but because he rejected him sexually.

Finally, I really hated the arc with Ricky's character. His stalking of Jane is romanticized and it's gross. Ricky is repeatedly positioned as the voice of reason and I don't even have words for how dumb I find that.

The comedy stuff worked for me, generally speaking, but the drama side of things was a hot--and occasionally offensive--mess. I'm still mulling over my feelings about the way that the film seemingly parodies the obsession with teenage girls and indulges in that obsession with the way that it portrays the body of its two young women leads.

3.5

Yeah, this is a movie that I saw in the theater and thought was very good if kinda bizarre in its narrative to one that simply didn't pass the fridge test in about an hour or so for me.

[SpelingError]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthecinemaholic.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F05%2F01-6.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

American Beauty, 1999

Lester (Kevin Spacey) is in the throes of a midlife crisis, living with a wife named Carolyn (Annette Bening) who is materialistic and frustrated in her own job as a real estate agent. Their teenage daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), is also miserable--miserable with her body and miserable with her parents' endless sniping. But things shift dramatically when Lester becomes sexually fixated on Jane's friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and Jane becomes involved with a boy named Ricky (Wes Bentley) who just moved in next door.

I know that this movie is generally well regarded. Ehhhh . . .

For the entire runtime this film felt fractured--I was able to see it as a collection of parts, but it never totally cohered for me as a single entity.

My favorite aspect was the visual elements. I was very into the bold use of color, and specifically the repeated scheme of red bursts against white backgrounds. There were many stunning shots, including one of the house's red door in a rainstorm that I thought was really breathtaking. Overall I liked the direction.

Performance-wise, the film is really strong in a certain sense. These days I really struggle to immerse myself in films where every actor on screen is a big-name actor. Heck, even one of the no-dialogue bit parts was played by someone who is high profile (Jon Cho as a potential house buyer). Everyone is good in their roles, though really this is the Kevin Spacey Show. Get ready to clutch your pearls, my separate-the-art-from-the-artist friends, but knowing that Spacey engaged in sexually predatory behavior in real life made it less than fun to watch the camera lovingly document his every little quirk as his character engaged in sexually predatory behavior. At times was he really funny? Yes. But this is a movie full of capital-P Performances, something I find a bit exhausting at the best of times.

Ultimately, though, I did not care for the writing. The worst was the writing of the two teenage girls. How do you know that a middle-aged man is writing the dialogue for teen girls? Oh, I don't know. Maybe by having them reference Christy Turlington? Birch and Suvari were good in their roles, but my God did I cringe every time they had a conversation.

I also take issue with the last act for several reasons.

First I'm sorry, but Lester's last minute change of heart about Angela? I didn't buy it for a second. He goes from making out with her to wrapping her in a blanket (gag) and making her a meal (double gag)? It feels incredibly unearned and honestly gives the sense that the film is trying to pull a last minute redemption for a man who has been emotionally and borderline physically abusive to his wife and child.

Second, the reveal that Ricky's dad is gay (or bi-curious or whatever)? I know that some people love the line that homophobes are secretly gay. This view, in an of itself, is homophobic. It posits that the persecution and violence towards gay people is done . . . by gay people. This is exacerbated by the fact that Ricky's dad kills Lester seemingly not because his middle-aged neighbor was having sexual relations with his teenage son, but because he rejected him sexually.

Finally, I really hated the arc with Ricky's character. His stalking of Jane is romanticized and it's gross. Ricky is repeatedly positioned as the voice of reason and I don't even have words for how dumb I find that.

The comedy stuff worked for me, generally speaking, but the drama side of things was a hot--and occasionally offensive--mess. I'm still mulling over my feelings about the way that the film seemingly parodies the obsession with teenage girls and indulges in that obsession with the way that it portrays the body of its two young women leads.

3.5

Your review reflects a lot of my thoughts towards the film, except I'd probably rate it a bit lower.

[Captain Terror]

American Beauty, 1999

I know that this movie is generally well regarded. Ehhhh . . .

I think it was better regarded in '99 than it is now, if that helps.

As for the end,
when I saw this I was in my late 20s and an edgelord that thought that happy endings were for babies. This was the film that taught me that a depressing/downer ending can feel as cheap and unearned as a happy one. So that counts for something I guess.
I didn't hate it at the time, but haven't felt a strong urge to revisit. Spacey's thing didn't help of course.

[Takoma11]

Yeah, this is a movie that I saw in the theater and thought was very good if kinda bizarre in its narrative to one that simply didn't pass the fridge test in about an hour or so for me.

Your review reflects a lot of my thoughts towards the film, except I'd probably rate it a bit lower.

I almost scored it a 3, but visuals go a long way for me.

I think it was better regarded in '99 than it is now, if that helps.

As for the end,
when I saw this I was in my late 20s and an edgelord that thought that happy endings were for babies. This was the film that taught me that a depressing/downer ending can feel as cheap and unearned as a happy one. So that counts for something I guess.
I didn't hate it at the time, but haven't felt a strong urge to revisit. Spacey's thing didn't help of course.

It's not just that it's a downer ending, but rather the way that it so relentlessly centers Lester. And I agree totally with why it feels unearned. I think it comes down to that last minute 180 of Lester being decent and finding inner peace. I think that the film would have had more charge if he'd actually slept with Angela and then been killed. I do not like the way that the last few minutes try to drum of sympathy for Lester..

Currently my favorite thing about the film is the part where Annette Bening is standing in front of that "native stone" fireplace. I literally have the same thing in my house and I have a love-hate relationship with it. Now when I look at it I'll have to imagine Jon Cho silently judging it.

[Captain Terror]

It's not just that it's a downer ending, but rather the way that it so relentlessly centers Lester. And I agree totally with why it feels unearned. I think it comes down to that last minute 180 of Lester being decent and finding inner peace. I think that the film would have had more charge if he'd actually slept with Angela and then been killed. I do not like the way that the last few minutes try to drum of sympathy for Lester..

Right, it's borderline comedy in spots, and Lester has turned over a new leaf at the end, so to end it that way just seemed calculated to be shocking. But in an unearned way that struck me as dishonest at the time.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/My_Friend_Dahmer_film_poster.jpg
By https://twitter.com/mfdahmermovie, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54616958

My Friend Dahmer - (2017)

It's always hard to believe that notorious, infamous or hugely famous people once went to high school, were nobodies, and went through what we all go through. In the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, I had read about him a bit and knew about his childhood, but really didn't know much about what he did in high school. A cartoonist with a strange pseudonym, John "Derf" Backderf, was relatively "close" to him - as during his final year, Dahmer ended up joining his group of friends. He was something of an outcast at the time, but his mimicking of people with cerebral palsy (for a very lowbrow laugh - which would probably only work in childhood) brought him notoriety and he became part of their clique - pulling pranks and belonging in a way that was rare for him. His strange behaviour, however, eventually alienated him again by the time graduation had drawn near, his newfound friends still friendly but hanging out with him less and less.

This film version of the graphic novel "Backderf" (played here by Hereditary's Alex Wolff) wrote feels incredibly real - this isn't a Hollywood version of high school life - this is what it really felt like. Dahmer here is treated somewhat sympathetically - you can see he's drowning in a sea of adult apathy, and although everyone thinks he's weird (he is - very) his fascination with animal anatomy isn't dwelled on and picked up as a warning sign. It's just another strange Dahmer trait. You can see his agonized embarrassment when his new friends meet his eccentric parents, and when he gets an erection when examined by a doctor he has a kid crush on (he later sets his mind on killing this doctor.) He's so self-conscious he's a walking bundle of pain. It all culminates at a stage when he's about to start killing (his first murder occurred three weeks after graduating) - and that this is all true makes it more chilling than any thriller or serial killer-based film.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/Hero1992poster.jpg
By Columbia Pictures - MoviePoster.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11841603

Hero (Accidental Hero) - (1992)

I enjoyed watching this, and it constantly brought me back to Meet John Doe, even though the plot of both movies don't directly correlate. I have to say it doesn't quite firmly track as one thing or another - it's far too comedic to play as a straight drama, but feels like it's too serious and grounded to be your ordinary comedy. The screenplay is very good - you have a really nasty lowly con-man who happens to be a hero, Bernie LaPlante (Dustin Hoffman) - who rescues scores of people from a plane crash. John Bubber (Andy Garcia) comes along to steal the glory, and who will believe Bernie that he's the actual hero? Added to the mix is a journalist with few ethics, Gale Gayley (Geena Davis) who falls for Bubber. It has a few things to say about the media, cynicism, and those we elevate to hero status. It's a comedy/drama that rises above itself at times and I liked it. It doesn't have a natural, flowing feel to it, but many jokes land and it has a few interesting things to say.

6/10

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/54/The_Worst_Person_in_the_World_%28film%29.jpg/220px-The_Worst_Person_in_the_World_%28film%29.jpg
The Worst Person in the World

3

SF = Zzzz


[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

[Marco]

The Snowtown Murders (2011)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Snowtown_%28film%29.jpg

Factual drama about a series of murders perpetrated in a poor area of Adelaide in a supposed "vendetta" against paedophiles and general ne'er do wells,. Problem is, they are doing it for money and welfare cheques of the victims. It's quite harrowing especially how the poverty and hopelessness of the characters' situations make it possible for a fellow like John Bunting (wonderfully portrayed by Daniel Henshall) to waltz in and appear like an avenging angel. Gritty and authentic, this is a good, if uncomfortable watch.
4

[Mr Minio]

Decided to watch some cheesy, low-rated films. And Get Out. Let's see how much I liked them!

Get Out (2017)

https://gbhbl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/gif1.gif

Look, Get Out is my least favorite Peele out of the three he made so far. It's predictable and not very subtle. But it's crafted skilfully enough to make it a nice watch. VERDICT: Quite good

The Seduction (1982)

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTRjZTRiNTEtNjcxYi00NjJkLWI3MTItMDJmYjZhYmIwNzc5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MDI5NjE@._V1_.jpg

Such a nice source of inspiration for one of my favorite CAT III films, and a pretty good stalker thriller on its own, too! I loved how this psycho guy pestered the blonde. The prompter scene was evil genius! I wish the film was a little bit more atmospheric and rapey, tho. Nobody wants to see this guy being all nice and buying her presents. But leaving the rejected gift on her cupboard while peeking at her taking a bath is the perverted kind of sheet we all wanna see. The other blonde in love with the perv was such a nice touch. Haha! All in all, good cheesy time, and finally a stalker thriller that pulls its premise all the way to the end, as opposed to something like Stalking Laura that morphs into a mass murder anti-gun film in the second half, completely ignoring its premise. VERDICT: Good

Men (2022)

https://amplify.nabshow.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2022/05/Men.gif

Oh man. compared to Alex Garland, Jordan Peele is an auteur. I disliked Garland's two previous efforts. Ex Machina was a half-assed attempt at meaningful sci-fi, while Annihilation was Tarkovsky's Stalker for popcorn eaters. But those two films were somewhat watchable, acceptable, passable. Now, Men is something else. It's one of the most in-your-face predictable and obvious films I've seen. Also, it's just so ugly. It's been a while since I've seen a film as ugly as this one. There's not one aesthetic shot in the entire film, and those shots that aim to look good are just so off. I don't know what Garland's deal is, but his films just look so flat and uninteresting. Also, the only worthwhile little thing about the movie is the on-the-nose symbology of Gaia and whatnot. But these attempts at making Men partly a Folk Horror fail. VERDICT: Awful

Top Gun (1986)

https://youtu.be/-u4nw2QTCKs

This, along with the 1983 Breathless is one of the most cheesily 80s American films I've ever seen! It screams the 80s louder than MovieGal 's victims scream 'Help!'. Also, it looks good visually. Not great, but good. And my enjoyment of the overly 80s but, in fact just okay, visuals was only strengthened by the fact I watched the ugly-looking Men before. The music is so cheesy and corny, too. But it's enjoyable. There's not much to take from this film apart from the sanctification of the Air Force and purposed homosexual themes that I'm not really buying. Of course, I watched it in preparation for Top Gun: Maverick. I don't think I'd watch it otherwise. It's not a good film. But it's watchable enough to not be among the worst films ever made. VERDICT: Bad but passable

[Rockatansky]

Minio, you have to watch Iron Eagle next. It’s Top Gun if it was way cheaper to make and way more unhinged.

[Wooley]

Currently my favorite thing about the film is the part where Annette Bening is standing in front of that "native stone" fireplace. I literally have the same thing in my house and I have a love-hate relationship with it. Now when I look at it I'll have to imagine Jon Cho silently judging it.

One thing for this movie, it is the film that convinced me that Annette Penning, with whom I was not particularly impressed previously, was a great actor. Granted, her role was as a horrible shrew, but she convinced me that that shrew was a human.

[Takoma11]

One thing for this movie, it is the film that convinced me that Annette Penning, with whom I was not particularly impressed previously, was a great actor. Granted, her role was as a horrible shrew, but she convinced me that that shrew was a human.

I thought that she was funny, but her character sat just on the wrong side of caricature for me, despite her performance.

[Marco]

The Wee Man (2013)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/The_Wee_Man_poster.jpg

Had a bit invested in this knowing the story first hand, I was aware of it on the news at the time and locally as I regularly saw "Jr"...this film does not do credit to the fear that these arseholes left swathes of people and families under. The film itself is pretty mediocre, not terribly bad but nothing to really cut it apart from Craig Fairbrass territory.

Patrick Bergin's accent is hilarious.

1.5

[PHOENIX74]

The Snowtown Murders (2011)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Snowtown_%28film%29.jpg

Factual drama about a series of murders perpetrated in a poor area of Adelaide in a supposed "vendetta" against paedophiles and general ne'er do wells,. Problem is, they are doing it for money and welfare cheques of the victims. It's quite harrowing especially how the poverty and hopelessness of the characters' situations make it possible for a fellow like John Bunting (wonderfully portrayed by Daniel Henshall) to waltz in and appear like an avenging angel. Gritty and authentic, this is a good, if uncomfortable watch.
4

I remember when these murders were first discovered - how and where is probably too disturbing to relate here. We knew them as the "Bodies in the Barrels Murders" and some facts about it were too horrifying to even put in the film. Good film though.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/In_Harms_Way_Poster.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9753338

In Harm's Way - (1965)

I wasn't sure what I was going to get from Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way, but it was so different to what I was expecting that the exceeded expectations shaped my view of it. When John Wayne and Kirk Douglas head a cast, and the film is a war picture, you expect heroics and patriotism - but the film is far more complex than that. So much so that out of the blue there's a rape and suicide in it - and even if this is in James Bassett's novel (from which this is adapted) it's still very unusual for a war film headed by John Wayne. It's as if this straddles the gap between war films of old, and those more complex ones yet to come. It's a huge epic, and the likes of George Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Henry Fonda and Patricia Neal are in it. Hell, even the little dude from Shane, Brandon deWilde (he's not so little here) is in it. There are some great naval battle scenes (for it's time) and flawed human beings everywhere - making this far more complex than I was expecting. From Pearl Harbor to the naval battles that followed, this presents war in a more measured and less patriotic and gung-ho way, and that impressed me. I'd say, one of the best I've seen John Wayne in.

7.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/Downsizing.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55083848

Downsizing - (2017)

I don't know. I was kind of hoping this - Alexander Payne's first 'kind of bad' film - to be better than I was expecting, but it may have been slightly worse. It has a fruitful scope to explore, with the ability to shrink people giving those who decide to undergo the procedure both great benefits and costs. If you're shrunk, you're set for life. You need far, far less - and everything goes a lot further. You can live in a massive mansion which only costs as much as an elaborate dollhouse, and diamond necklaces and bracelets cost $80. You need never work again. But you're also divorcing yourself from the world you once knew - permanently. When Paul Safrânek (Matt Damon) goes through with the procedure, but his wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig) chickens out at the last moment, he's alone and adrift in a world he doesn't know. Unfortunately, the film kind of meanders after that, and all of the interesting directions it could go in it decides not to. Also, I hated the implication that Mexicans and foreign people would resign themselves to living in filthy slums for no good reason I could ascertain. I wanted to know why that was happening - but instead the film was making an obscure point which I got but didn't make sense at all.

5/10 (+1 because Udo Kier is in it)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/81/Kenny_the_Movie_Poster.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6866281

Kenny - (2006)

This is a mockumentary about a man who works for a business which hires out portable toilets. Directed by Clayton Jacobson, and written by both Clayton and main star Shane Jacobson, people generally find it very funny - but personally I find the comedy mediocre, and the kind of Australian wit it uses overly familiar. I don't want to put anyone off watching it, because going by what people generally say you might really enjoy it, but it's not for me. There are many wry observations about the toilet business (somebody has to do it) and if you feel like you might be into that kind of thing then by all means - give it a go. As far as mockumentaries go, it's not bad.

6/10

[mark f]

Hideous (Yann Gonzalez, 2022) 3 6.5/10
The Cathedral (Ricky D'Ambrose, 2021) 2.5 5.5/10
Partners (Fred Allen, 1932) 2 5/10
Thor: Love and Thunder (Taika Waititi, 2022) 3 6.5/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/76e3512f86a028733e64d05a36bed14b/a0b6b82419d77704-4b/s540x810/6691c2f65de2b956c7aaea0ec89cb6d7ef5b4695.gif
While at a party celebrating his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his friend Korg (Taika Waititi) discuss his ex-hammer [also there] when a possible replacement appears.
Pinocchio (Robert Zemeckis, 2022) 2.5 6/10
The Irish Connection (Danny Patrick, 2022) 2 5/10
*batteries not included (Matthew Robbins, 1987) 2.5 6/10
Driving Miss Daisy (Bruce Beresford, 1989) 3.5 7+/10
https://media1.giphy.com/media/Hx6JDG5RWp4uQ/giphy.gif
Wealthy, cantankerous Jew Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy) and her [new and first] knowledgeble chauffeur Hoke (Morgan Freeman) encounter racism great and small in the 1950s-1970s Deep South, but more than that, they encounter their common humanity.
Five Minutes to Live (Bill Karn, 1961) 2 5/10
Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman, 2022) 2.5 6/10
Look in Any Window (William Allandi, 1961) 2 5/10
Sorcerer (William Friedkin 1977) 3.5 7+/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/d57b75cc81ad0e911d5f9390d21f856f/09e771b5f1a210a1-e6/s540x810/7d0962c4cb3021c40942f2a07fd2111fba6b32e5.gif
Everything is pumped up in Friedkin's remake of The Wages of Fear - the music, sound, photography, action, surrealism and Roy Scheider's eyes.
Cruising (William Friedkin, 1980) 2.5 6/10
End of the Road (Millicent Shelton, 2022) 2 5/10
Hide in Plain Sight (James Caan, 1980) 2.5 6/10
Wild Men (Thomas Daneskov, 2021) 3+ 6.5/10
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYWYxOTI1NjUtZGQ4NC00ODczLTgwNGYtODhjM2JmODk1ODhiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM2MDY0OTYx._V1_.jpg
Calm, collected Norwegian police chief Bjørn Sundquist and Danish "Viking" criminal Rasmus Bjerg seem the opposite but are very helpful to each other when confronted by more violent men.
Maneater (Justin Lee, 2022) 1.5+ 4.5/10
American Masters: Mike Nichols (Elaine May, 2016) 3 6.5/10
Mack & Rita (Katie Aselton, 2022) 2.5 5.5/10
Page One: Inside the New York Times (Andrew Rossi, 2011) 3 6.5/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGSVUdvrXFg
Gives a historical perspective on how the Internet affected print journalism and in the case of the NYT, a look at the personalities trying to bring it into the 21st century.

[Fabulous]

Roberta (1935)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/j7Gf4gLZaEMXNR4KKmbolZEJ7Xo.jpg

[Death Proof]

Cobra Kai (season 5) - 9/10
The Help - 7/10

[Stirchley]

88833

Re-watch of a classic of American cinema.

88834

What.the.heck.did.I.just.watch?

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://wordman.neocities.org/deadofnight/dead6.gif
https://64.media.tumblr.com/08c20d5371434281cdf9292199438724/1a53a15e4b619e06-4d/s500x750/d07fd1c9ef3b51a460a0386b3810ac80ba154696.gifv

Dead of Night - 1945 Ealing Studios release. It's an anthology and directed respectively by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer.

Mervyn Johns (probably best known for playing Bob Cratchit in the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol) plays architect Walter Craig. He's been invited to the country cottage of Elliot Foley (Roland Culver) to consult on some planned renovations. When he arrives he can't shake a powerful feeling of deja vu and tells Foley's guests that, despite never having met them, he has seen them all in a reoccurring dream. He foretells numerous events that soon happen in the house and also warns of a terrible event to come. Foley's guest, psychiatrist Dr. van Straaten (Frederick Valk), reassures him that his anxiety is unwarranted and the rest of the guests share their own unusual or paranormal experiences. Race car driver Hugh Grainger (Anthony), teenager Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes), recently married Joan Cortland (Googie Withers) and host Foley takes turns recounting their own experiences. Dr. van Straaten chimes in with the case of a patient he treated named Maxwell Frere (Michael Redgrave), a ventriloquist.

This was pretty much the precursor to many other movies that have followed in it's wake with it's circular plotting and portmanteau framing used and reused countless times. It's atmospheric enough to draw you in and while not all the stories perform at quite the same level it does go out on a high note with the ventriloquist and his little associate.

80/100

[ApexPredator]

I wish I could say I liked The Snowton Murders. But outside of Henshall, I can't.

American Beauty is basically a quirky indie (voice over narration, dialogue that thinks itself more clever than it is) that got vaunted by the Academy into Best Picture. It is well acted and has its moments visually. But yeah, the ending wasn't good.

And I'm here because of A Beautiful Life (2011).

A contrived rom-com in its first 30 minutes or so (the lead female character is like a bad cross between a comedic Sandra Bullock in 28 Days and an imitation of Audrey Tautou in Amelie), it turns into a contrived melodrama for the rest of its runtime. I get bad things happen to people sometimes, but it feels like they piled problems on top of problems for both lead characters in an unnatural way. Thankfully, the lead female character has grown by that point.

Plusses? Some good chemistry between the leads. The film itself has a glossy, professional look by its director. And there are moments of effectiveness. Such as the dinner scene between the saintly cop, the struggling real estate agent, his autistic brother with his mute girlfriend and her mother.

The director? Andrew Lau of Infernal Affairs fame. I've had bad luck of late with name directors. D+

[Takoma11]

Dead of Night - 1945 Ealing Studios release. It's an anthology and directed respectively by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer.

This was pretty much the precursor to many other movies that have followed in it's wake with it's circular plotting and portmanteau framing used and reused countless times. It's atmospheric enough to draw you in and while not all the stories perform at quite the same level it does go out on a high note with the ventriloquist and his little associate.

80/100

I loved the wraparound story and all of the parts of the anthology except for the golfer one. It's literally one of the most painfully unfunny things I've ever seen and it nearly sinks the film for me.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://i.makeagif.com/media/9-20-2015/7-JiWp.gif

https://i.gifer.com/AxwN.gif

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man - If you were to ask me which W.C. Fields movie is my favorite chances are my answer would be whichever one I was watching at the moment. That's how much I like the man and his singular comedic talent. Granted I haven't seen all his movies but the ones I have seen I've loved. From his shorts like The Dentist and The Fatal Glass of Beer to his ensemble projects like International House, The Big Broadcast of 1938 and David Copperfield he always stood out. His starring roles in It's a Gift, Man on the Flying Trapeze, Poppy, My Little Chickadee (with Mae West), The Bank Dick and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break were all comedy gold and filled with countless throway lines delivered in his trademark mutter.

This one has him playing Larson E. Whipsnade, the owner of shabby and cash-strapped Circus Giganticus. They're perpetually one step ahead of the local law and untold creditors. His children Victoria (Constance Moore) and Phineas (John Arledge) attend a prestigious college and Vicky has attracted the attention of rich ne'er-do-well Roger Bel-Goodie (James Bush). Phineas sees him as the answer to their lack of funds but Victoria isn't feeling it. While visiting her father's circus she meets and falls for ventriloquist The Great Edgar (Edgar Bergen). He and his wooden partner Charlie (Charlie McCarthy) are perpetually on the outs with Mr. Whipsnade who takes a dim view of his daughter falling for The Great Edgar.

Like a lot of his movies the script was ghostwritten by Fields himself and his usual thin plot is just there as framing for his nonstop quips and insults. Those are usually being directed at Charlie McCarthy. There's also a hysterical dinner party scene where Larson meets the humorless and uber-snobbish Bel-Goodie family. If you're a fan of Fields you'll be captivated. If you're not a fan ... then maybe check and see if you have a pulse.

90/100

[WHITBISSELL!]

I loved the wraparound story and all of the parts of the anthology except for the golfer one. It's literally one of the most painfully unfunny things I've ever seen and it nearly sinks the film for me.I think that was the single biggest complaint from the movie going public when this was first released. It certainly threw off the film's rhythm. I couldn't get past their love interest not having anything to say about being relegated to trophy status. That segment was a misfire.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.rogerebert.com%2Fuploads%2Freview%2Fprimary_image%2Freviews%2Fminari-movie-review-2020%2Fminari-movie-review-2020.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Minari, 2020

Jacob (Steven Yeun) and his wife Monica (Yeri Han) and their two children, Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan Kim), move from California to rural Arkansas with the dream of owning and operating a successful farm to grow and sell Korean produce. With various stresses--including the arrival of grandmother Soonja (Youn Yuh-jung)--building on the family, the American dream begins to feel more and more elusive.

While I didn't think that this slice of family drama-comedy broke any major ground, it's an incredibly involving and emotionally grounded experience that's well anchored by strong performances and a distinct sense of place.

The film strongly takes on the point of view of David, the younger of the two siblings who suffers from a hole in his heart and--less threatening but far more embarrassing--a bedwetting problem. David is highly sensitive to fitting in, othered both in their wider community ("Why is your face so flat?" asks a boy in church) and within their own family unit, where everyone else gets to drink Mountain Dew while David has to drink a medicinal sludge brought from Korea by his grandmother. As the film goes on, David connects to others in the community but also to his grandmother, who he early on dislikes for being too Korean. Kim is good in the role, playing a child who is both age-appropriately petty and who feels things deeply.

Matching Kim nicely is Youn as grandmother Soonja. At first it almost seems as if she is being set up as a nemesis to David. She is intrusive--literally sleeping in David's bedroom--and embarrassed David repeatedly about his bedwetting. But as the film goes on, the two form a genuine bond. I found this character/relationship arc very endearing.

Han and Yeun are also very good as the parents, each under their own sense of pressure and trying to live up to expectations. (Sidenote: Yeun is so all-American looking that it's almost distracting, no?). Monica is constantly being reassured that she is "good enough for Arkansas" when she frets about her speed at work, something that comes off as well-meaning but patronizing. Jacob is clearly slightly out of his depth, at times prioritizing his dream over the wellbeing of his family.

Visually, the film has a soft look that I enjoyed. It manages to convey a sense of nostalgia that makes sense with the point of view leaning toward David's character.

A sweet little family film that more than earns the emotional beats at the end.

4

[Miss Vicky]

https://www.angelfire.com/music6/walteregan/2010s/ladymacbeth.gif

Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd, 2016)
(Rewatch)

Lady Macbeth is gorgeously shot with a palatte of earth tones and black, with just a little pop of color here and there. And it was really the look of this film that seduced me when I first saw its trailer back in 2016.

But that's not what really makes this a memorable experience. For that you must look to its central performance. Florence Pugh is absolutely chilling as Katherine - a woman who, once finding a taste of freedom in her otherwise stifling life, goes to increasingly cruel measures to keep it. She is calculating, remorseless, and will take out anyone who gets in her way.

Yet this is not a movie that is particularly violent. There are a few bursts of action and it clocks in at only about 90 minutes, but it burns at almost a snail's pace. It also almost completely lacks a score. There's virtually no music to instruct or manipulate your emotions. You are simply presented with a set of people and circumstances and are left to judge them for yourself.

As for me, I come away from it not knowing entirely how to feel about Katherine and her crimes, and I love that about it. It still remains to be seen if this will make the final cut for me, but its definitely not out of contention yet.

4

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Killing_Them_Softly_poster.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.impawards.com/2012/killing_them_softly_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35902116

Killing Them Softly - (2012)

Straightforward and brutal - Killing Them Softly has been pared down to 97 minutes, and thankfully makes perfect sense despite being made so lean. First comes the robbery, where heroin addicts Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) rob a poker game sponsored by Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) - Markie once robbed his own poker-playing pals, and Johnny “Squirrel” Amato (Vincent Curatola) figures those out for revenge will figure he did it again. Unfortunately Russell has a loose tongue, and Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is brought in to clean up the mess - which will involve a broken down, drunk hit-man called Mickey (James Gandolfini). This film doesn't play around with you, or aim to pull big twists out of nowhere - what happens, happens, and that's why I enjoyed it so much. The cast are marvelous to watch, and I enjoyed my time with everyone in this film - first rate stuff. Throughout, we're treated to a background of '08 financial crisis and election patter - corporate and political America being directly compared to that gangster business that goes on here. It has a fantastic last line from Pitt, and is a film I rate quite highly.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Alita_Battle_Angel_%282019_poster%29.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59771820

Alita : Battle Angel - (2019)

I can't help but feel a little too old for Alita : Battle Angel, a film that appears to have been made for a very young audience. There's some brilliant action and animation though, and a nicely realised futuristic sci-fi world. I spent quite a few minutes thinking the animated Rosa Salazar was actually Emma Stone - but that's just me. I'm an idiot, and I didn't take enough care reading the credits. The only real gripe I've got with it is the fact that this is another science fiction property which has a kind of game/sport as a central part of it's plot - one that, once again, doesn't seem to have any strict rules and one which lacks imagination and realism. The story is so-so, but visually it's a real treat.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Crazies_ver2.jpg
By Impawards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25535291

The Crazies - (2010)

I don't think I've seen the original 1973 version of The Crazies so I can't compare - but I imagine I'd like that version a little more. This has a few great scenes, full of considerable tension and horror - but those scenes are the best The Crazies has to offer, and the rest jogs forward in a very familiar way with absolutely nothing to really stick in your memory. The best is the build-up to the complete breakdown of Ogden Marsh, Iowa when a chemical weapon is accidentally released into the town's water supply. The mystery, and sudden unexpected violent outbursts from normally swell people, kept me interested. Once all hell breaks loose, it just becomes tiresome - but for those moments when you're on the edge of your seat.

6/10

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.rogerebert.com%2Fuploads%2Freview%2Fprimary_image%2Freviews%2Fminari-movie-review-2020%2Fminari-movie-review-2020.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Minari, 2020

Jacob (Steven Yeun) and his wife Monica (Yeri Han) and their two children, Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan Kim), move from California to rural Arkansas with the dream of owning and operating a successful farm to grow and sell Korean produce. With various stresses--including the arrival of grandmother Soonja (Youn Yuh-jung)--building on the family, the American dream begins to feel more and more elusive.

While I didn't think that this slice of family drama-comedy broke any major ground, it's an incredibly involving and emotionally grounded experience that's well anchored by strong performances and a distinct sense of place.

The film strongly takes on the point of view of David, the younger of the two siblings who suffers from a hole in his heart and--less threatening but far more embarrassing--a bedwetting problem. David is highly sensitive to fitting in, othered both in their wider community ("Why is your face so flat?" asks a boy in church) and within their own family unit, where everyone else gets to drink Mountain Dew while David has to drink a medicinal sludge brought from Korea by his grandmother. As the film goes on, David connects to others in the community but also to his grandmother, who he early on dislikes for being too Korean. Kim is good in the role, playing a child who is both age-appropriately petty and who feels things deeply.

Matching Kim nicely is Youn as grandmother Soonja. At first it almost seems as if she is being set up as a nemesis to David. She is intrusive--literally sleeping in David's bedroom--and embarrassed David repeatedly about his bedwetting. But as the film goes on, the two form a genuine bond. I found this character/relationship arc very endearing.

Han and Yeun are also very good as the parents, each under their own sense of pressure and trying to live up to expectations. (Sidenote: Yeun is so all-American looking that it's almost distracting, no?). Monica is constantly being reassured that she is "good enough for Arkansas" when she frets about her speed at work, something that comes off as well-meaning but patronizing. Jacob is clearly slightly out of his depth, at times prioritizing his dream over the wellbeing of his family.

Visually, the film has a soft look that I enjoyed. It manages to convey a sense of nostalgia that makes sense with the point of view leaning toward David's character.

A sweet little family film that more than earns the emotional beats at the end.

rating_4I couldn't agree more. While watching it I never got the feeling it was swinging for the fences. Very low key. But once it ended I found myself being drawn back to it and appreciating this approach. Yeun is someone I always look out for. And Will Patton turns in a small but worthwhile performance.

[cricket]

Plus One (2013)

3

https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/.a/6a0168ea36d6b2970c019b05026eb7970d-pi

There's a college party and everybody is having a blast except this one dude who's trying to get back with his girl. A meteor lands somewhere and temporary blackouts start occurring. Doubles of everyone at the party appear, only an hour earlier, and with every ensuing blackout, the time difference gets shorter. The big question is what happens when the time difference is gone and the partygoers and their doubles are facing off in real time. This is a Sci-fi horror supposedly, but to me it was a party movie. I like party movies, especially with such a high babe quotient.

[cricket]

I'm sorry, but Lester's last minute change of heart about Angela? I didn't buy it for a second.

I'm not saying it's the most likely outcome, but this is very believable.

I know that some people love the line that homophobes are secretly gay. This view, in an of itself, is homophobic.

I've also heard this many times, usually from people who are gay. So where does that leave us? As is often the case, a person criticizes painting with a broad brush, by painting with a broad brush.

[Takoma11]

I couldn't agree more. While watching it I never got the feeling it was swinging for the fences. Very low key. But once it ended I found myself being drawn back to it and appreciating this approach. Yeun is someone I always look out for. And Will Patton turns in a small but worthwhile performance.

Yes, it's a very intimate story and it doesn't try to do or say too much outside of the experiences of its characters.

[beelzebubble]

I remember when these murders were first discovered - how and where is probably too disturbing to relate here. We knew them as the "Bodies in the Barrels Murders" and some facts about it were too horrifying to even put in the film. Good film though.
It is hard to imagine they left some of the horror out of the movie. Very disturbing film.

[Gideon58]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZ5Ps16XgAAEphu.jpg


4

[Allaby]

I watched Barabarian today. My review: Barbarian does a good job of building suspense and getting to know characters before things start to happen. The film goes in some interesting and unexpected directions along the way. Score was very effective in helping set the mood. I liked the performances, although there were times when the characters' actions didn't seem believable enough and felt like they went against what the character should have done. Overall, this was an entertaining and memorable horror film. It's best not to read a lot about the film before seeing it. This is the type of film where the less you know, the better. My rating is 4

[MovieGal]

I watched Barabarian today.

I want to see it in the theatre but not sure if I will.

All the Skarsgård are amazing.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e9/Out_of_the_Blue_Film.jpg
By http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_n35PfUpWyak/TAKDIEiJHaI/AAAAAAAAV7w/rp9owPRfnV8/s1600/Out+of+the+Blue.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29392050

Out of the Blue - (1980)

From the drugged out, crazy mind of director Dennis Hopper and two barely heard of screenwriters (Leonard Yakir & Brenda Nielson) comes a strange and sometimes shocking tale of an abused, neglected tearaway kid who loves punk and rock 'n' roll. It has a lot of heart - and begins with a shocking scene where Hopper's Don drives a truck into a school bus filled with small children. Thus his disappearance from his daughter Cebe's (Linda Manz) and heroin addict wife Kathy's (Sharon Farrell) lives. The film picks up as Don is about to be released from prison - an event looked forward to with fervor from Cebe, who has become a tearaway menace - skipping school, stealing, hanging out with wild musicians and drug-takers. The thing is, Don and Kathy are as untamed and savage as Cebe, and we learn some terrible truths about this family as we follow the course of Don's return. Great music, a dream-like atmosphere and crazed but fantastic performances (especially from young Linda Manz) lead to a horrifying conclusion, and we can only reckon on the fact that these two people should never have had a daughter. Hopper's directorial style is out-there, but through the chaos and instability we really get a sense of what growing up with broken parents engenders in a kid's heart and soul. I thought this was quite good. A memorable howl into the wind.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Mr._Jones_%282019_film%29.jpg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59698104

Mr. Jones - (2019)

By 1933 the U.S.S.R. had become a complete mystery to the world - as the Nazis rose to power in Germany, Stalin sequestered all non-Russians in Moscow and forbade them to travel outside of the capital. Meanwhile, in the Ukraine, a famine directly attributable to the ruthless Russian dictator had turned into one of the most horrifying man-made disasters in history. 7 million people died, and the event went on to be given the name Holodomor, or Terror-Famine. This film is about one brave and plucky young journalist who found his way out of Moscow and to the Ukraine to see for himself what was happening - and what he saw was unspeakable horror. When he got back, nobody would believe him. This true-life tale of these events provide a compelling narrative, and if you haven't seen it, I recommend it. A solid movie about journalistic ethics, the Holodomor, George Orwell's Animal Farm and Gareth Jones - a man the Russians would hunt down and murder for exposing the truth of what happened.

7/10

[Fabulous]

Libeled Lady (1936)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/q1wED5N0hwcSj65ufDDiS81CIby.jpg

[Stirchley]

Libeled Lady (1936)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/q1wED5N0hwcSj65ufDDiS81CIby.jpg

Ugh, I hate colorization.

[Thief]

ENOUGH SAID
(2013, Holofcener)
-- recommended by Sylvie (https://slywit.wordpress.com/) --

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


"You can’t live in fear of making a mistake."



Enough Said follows Eva, a middle-aged divorced masseuse that begins a relationship with Albert (James Gandolfini), without realizing that he is the ex-husband of her new client and friend, Marianne (Catherine Keener). The thing is that Marianne has already shared some significant "inside scoops" on her ex-husband, i.e. Albert, unbeknownst to both, which Eva sees as an opportunity to find out more about his boyfriend and "protect" herself.

Director and writer Nicole Holofcener does a great job of presenting both perspectives on the script, but her point of view stays on Eva most of the time, which also puts us – the audience – in the same awkward situation. But as good of a script this is, the strength lies on the performances from Dreyfous and Gandolfini. Their relationship and interactions feel so real and honest, that you can't help but root for them.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2332765#post2332765)

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/Downsizing.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55083848

Downsizing - (2017)




6/10

Totally agree with you regarding Downsizing...strange little film that wasn't sure of what it was trying to say.

[Thief]

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
(1940, Hitchcock)

https://i.imgur.com/iMH1y0R.jpg


"I don't want any more economists, sages, or oracles bombinating over our cables. I want a reporter! Somebody who doesn't know the difference between an -ism and a kangaroo. A good, honest crime reporter. That's what the Globe needs. That's what Europe needs! There's a crime hatching on that bedeviled continent."



That's what newspaper editor Powers asks for, and that's what he gets with John Jones (Joel McCrea) when he sends him as "foreign correspondent" to Europe just before World War II starts. Jones is a no-nonsense crime reporter who approaches the task very much unlike his predecessor. This, in turn, puts him right in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy in this Hitchcock spy thriller.

This is my second watch of this film and I remember being quite impressed by it the first time. This time, it might have gone down a notch or two, but I still think it's a pretty good and thrilling film, and a showcase of Hitchcock's directing abilities. The whole sequence in the first act, starting with the shooting in the steps and ending at the windmill, is masterfully directed. And although it never goes back to that peak, all of the action setpieces are neatly handled and choreographed.

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2332842#post2332842)

[Gideon58]

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/URQAAOSwn9hh~mYr/s-l500.jpg



4

[Thief]

SHADOW OF A DOUBT
(1943, Hitchcock)

https://i.imgur.com/f6KSMx8.jpg


"You live in a dream. You're a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like?"



Shadow of a Doubt follows the relationship between both relatives as Uncle Charlie visits his sister in the "ordinary" small town of Santa Rosa, California. His intention is to lay low after realizing that some men are after him. But the visit puts a strain in the previously idyllic relationship as Young Charlie starts suspecting something's wrong with her uncle. Is it all a dream, or was it a dream before?

Like Foreign Correspondent, this is my second watch of this excellent thriller. But this rewatch managed to sneak into my Hitchcock Top 5, pushing FC out. The way that Hitchcock builds the suspense and intrigue in this film is masterful, as you find yourself in Young Charlie's shoes trying to figure out what's going on, what's a dream and what's not.

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2332849#post2332849)

[Takoma11]

SHADOW OF A DOUBT
(1943, Hitchcock)

https://i.imgur.com/f6KSMx8.jpg




Shadow of a Doubt follows the relationship between both relatives as Uncle Charlie visits his sister in the "ordinary" small town of Santa Rosa, California. His intention is to lay low after realizing that some men are after him. But the visit puts a strain in the previously idyllic relationship as Young Charlie starts suspecting something's wrong with her uncle. Is it all a dream, or was it a dream before?

Like Foreign Correspondent, this is my second watch of this excellent thriller. But this rewatch managed to sneak into my Hitchcock Top 5, pushing FC out. The way that Hitchcock builds the suspense and intrigue in this film is masterful, as you find yourself in Young Charlie's shoes trying to figure out what's going on, what's a dream and what's not.

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2332849#post2332849)

Shadow of a Doubt was the first "real" (ie not for kids) movie that we were allowed to watch in my house. We owned the VHS tape of it and my sister and I watched it quite a lot.

[Thief]

Shadow of a Doubt was the first "real" (ie not for kids) movie that we were allowed to watch in my house. We owned the VHS tape of it and my sister and I watched it quite a lot.

Nice! I discovered it several years ago, but this rewatch pushed it into my Top 5. So good. It's also rumored to be Hitchcock's personal favorite out of his filmography.

[StuSmallz]

Shadow of a Doubt was the first "real" (ie not for kids) movie that we were allowed to watch in my house. We owned the VHS tape of it and my sister and I watched it quite a lot.Whoa, what a weird (but unexpectedly cool) choice; your parents must have awesome taste in movies, yo.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/La_La_Land_%28film%29.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51066755

La La Land - (2016)

This was my second viewing of La La Land after picking up the DVD around a year ago. It's a very energizing musical, with a bright bustling spontaneity about it. Once upon a time I wasn't such a big fan of Emma Stone or Ryan Gosling, and the pairing of them I kept seeing never did much for me, obviously - but such is the quality of La La Land that I started to accept them both after finally seeing this. It's something that felt compulsory at the time - seeing this movie. I had to have my own opinion about it. Colourful and dazzling, it completely upends your expectations by portraying a very real romantic relationship instead of your standard fantasy - and you'd always expect the fantasy in a film such as this. You get glimpses of perfection and heaven, with a heavy dose of reality, and I really like it. The music is quite catchy and up-tempo. Really nice.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Hacksaw_Ridge_poster.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51542476

Hacksaw Ridge - (2016)

Another 2nd viewing - this time the U.S./Australian production Hacksaw Ridge, which is about Desmond Doss, the conscientious objector that nevertheless saved many lives as a medic in battle and was awarded the Medal of Honor. It was up against favourite La La Land for Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards, but neither film won. Personally, I might have been going for Manchester by the Sea - a favourite of mine. Anyway, this film - obviously massive, but it looks even better than it's $40 million budget would suggest, and Mel Gibson was very eager to prove himself again. I like Andrew Garfield, and he's fine here. I feel that I've been overexposed to battle scenes in films - but the ones we get here still stand out as far better than average. It's an interesting examination of killing people in the name of a just war - does that change the fact you're still killing? It took a special kind of bravery to resist what the army throws at Doss.

7.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/Pumping_Iron_movie_poster.jpg
By http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/2011/02/pumping-iron-1977-usa/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5817916

Okay, that was interesting - but not at all my thing. There's a point these muscle men get to where it stops looking good and starts to look weird, and most of the contestants in the competitions reviewed here have passed that stage. Arnold Schwarzenegger is meant to be the bad guy, but he just can't help but come off charming and really friendly regardless. He seems like your genuine nice guy. The others in this were a range of types, and Bud Cort decided, wisely, that he didn't want his scenes included in the film. You can see them in Raw Iron : The Making of Pumping Iron.

6/10

https://i.postimg.cc/FzGwsbZy/Gigi-1958-poster.jpg
By "Copyright © 1958 Loew's, Incorporated" - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86577837

GiGi - (1958)

There is a certain kind of Parisian wealth where you consider a young lady living in a palatial mansion with gold-leafed walls, diamond chandeliers and all kinds of furniture and jewelry as a potential match - but have to consider it carefully because you'd be marrying a poor girl. Poor? I thought the obviously poverty-stricken GiGi was some kind of princess - but apparently she's destitute and desperate. Let them all eat cake I suppose. I enjoyed the music in GiGi, and the production design was absolutely through the roof and gorgeous - not to mention the costumes - but the story left a few things to be desired, and all this fussing over stupidly wealthy people turns me off sometimes.

6/10

[this_is_the_ girl]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.moviemeter.nl%2Ftmdb%2Ft%2Fp%2Fw1920_and_h800_multi_faces%2F3eceYFkNcpvpGPIR N6S43JUeET5.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
Dead End (2003, Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa)
3
Some good dark humor and acting in this French-made low-budget mystery horror 'road movie'—Ray Wise (Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks) and Lin Shaye were especially good—but the black humor was a bit over-prevalent for my taste and took some of the edge off the creepy atmosphere this film potentially could have had. The reveal at the end was pretty good— predictable in hindsight but I didn't see it coming. Worth a watch.

[Rockatansky]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/Pumping_Iron_movie_poster.jpg
By http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com/2011/02/pumping-iron-1977-usa/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5817916

I nearly died during the part where Arnold tells us the “advice” he gave to the one guy to scream while posing.

[Wooley]

SHADOW OF A DOUBT
(1943, Hitchcock)

https://i.imgur.com/f6KSMx8.jpg




Shadow of a Doubt follows the relationship between both relatives as Uncle Charlie visits his sister in the "ordinary" small town of Santa Rosa, California. His intention is to lay low after realizing that some men are after him. But the visit puts a strain in the previously idyllic relationship as Young Charlie starts suspecting something's wrong with her uncle. Is it all a dream, or was it a dream before?

Like Foreign Correspondent, this is my second watch of this excellent thriller. But this rewatch managed to sneak into my Hitchcock Top 5, pushing FC out. The way that Hitchcock builds the suspense and intrigue in this film is masterful, as you find yourself in Young Charlie's shoes trying to figure out what's going on, what's a dream and what's not.

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2332849#post2332849)

The review is lost to time, but when I first saw this, I was underwhelmed and then on my second viewing I was like, "Damn, dude, what movie did you watch the first time, this is a borderline masterpiece of suspense!"

[cricket]

Certified Copy (2010)

4.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/w780/slNzn4E0XA1WE0yh9I53oIzXQ4e.jpg

[Wooley]

https://i.postimg.cc/FzGwsbZy/Gigi-1958-poster.jpg
By "Copyright © 1958 Loew's, Incorporated" - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86577837

GiGi - (1958)

There is a certain kind of Parisian wealth where you consider a young lady living in a palatial mansion with gold-leafed walls, diamond chandeliers and all kinds of furniture and jewelry as a potential match - but have to consider it carefully because you'd be marrying a poor girl. Poor? I thought the obviously poverty-stricken GiGi was some kind of princess - but apparently she's destitute and desperate. Let them all eat cake I suppose. I enjoyed the music in GiGi, and the production design was absolutely through the roof and gorgeous - not to mention the costumes - but the story left a few things to be desired, and all this fussing over stupidly wealthy people turns me off sometimes.

6/10

I think this is pretty much exactly how this movie plays today.

[Fabulous]

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

2.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/p9HpRPPmhFJejZ514gSkB6Co1t7.jpg

[Takoma11]

Whoa, what a weird (but unexpectedly cool) choice; your parents must have awesome taste in movies, yo.

Yeah, and my mom especially is a film buff. We also had the 50s Invasion of the Body Snatchers on tape.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I think this is pretty much exactly how this movie plays today.There were so many distasteful things to be found in this movie. It's like they had a laundry list of objectionable traits and behaviors. From Chevalier's "I keep my pimp hand strong" shtik to Jourdan's smug entitlement to Caron basically being groomed to be a "side piece". I watched it, registering the opulent costumes and catchy tunes, but running alongside all of this was a curdled sort of detachment.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYWUwZjNiMzQtNzZiOC00YjdjLWFiMTctOGNlMWI3ZDZkN2MxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDA4NzMyOA@@._V1_.jpg


3

[cricket]

Ernest & Celestine (2012)

4

https://64.media.tumblr.com/402a4da62aa8af1313cc0afbf666bd74/f78a5b34ff72f275-23/s640x960/702d9c4db82dc81432b110730dc36927ba5e80c0.gif

[Gideon58]

I think this is pretty much exactly how this movie plays today.

I have to agree...despite the music and all the elegant trappings, the actual story of Gigi contains a lot of unsavory elements...here's a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/1981537-gigi.html

[GulfportDoc]

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
(1940, Hitchcock)


That's what newspaper editor Powers asks for, and that's what he gets with John Jones (Joel McCrea) when he sends him as "foreign correspondent" to Europe just before World War II starts. Jones is a no-nonsense crime reporter who approaches the task very much unlike his predecessor. This, in turn, puts him right in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy in this Hitchcock spy thriller.

This is my second watch of this film and I remember being quite impressed by it the first time. This time, it might have gone down a notch or two, but I still think it's a pretty good and thrilling film, and a showcase of Hitchcock's directing abilities. The whole sequence in the first act, starting with the shooting in the steps and ending at the windmill, is masterfully directed. And although it never goes back to that peak, all of the action setpieces are neatly handled and choreographed.

Grade: rating_4_5

I love this film. IMO it's the best of Hitch's second tier pictures. As his second film in Hollywood after Rebecca, he was finally free of David O. Selznik, and he was eager to do a espionage thriller. Hitchcock stated that as soon as the script was finished he took it to Cary Grant. Grant refused to do a thriller, although later he told Hitch that he wished he'd done it. Hitch felt that Joel McCrea was too affable. I personally liked McCrea in the film.

I really like the scenes you mentioned. The important scene for Hitchcock was the entire windmill sequence, which was mesmerizing. I also was amazed at the plane crash scene; and the famous umbrella scene where the assassin is escaping through the bobbling umbrellas has been imitated several times. Great photography!

Oh, and I also love George Sanders. I could listen to him reading the phone book. I liked him in just about everything he did, with the possible exception of The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945). Although it was a good picture directed by the great Robert Siodmak, I thought he wasn't well cast to play that type of role.

[Takoma11]

I have to agree...despite the music and all the elegant trappings, the actual story of Gigi contains a lot of unsavory elements...here's a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/1981537-gigi.html

I actively disliked Gigi. It would be more like a 2 for me, those two popcorns reflecting only the lush set and costume design.

The way it romanticizes a predatory sex trade is awful. But don't worry, ladies. If you're pure of heart enough, someone might lower himself to make you his wife instead of just his side-piece.

[GulfportDoc]

Nice! I discovered it several years ago, but this rewatch pushed it into my Top 5. So good. It's also rumored to be Hitchcock's personal favorite out of his filmography.
One of his very best, for sure. I've probably watched it 15 times over the years.

Yes, I have the feeling SOD was his personal favorite, certainly the incestuous attraction between Charlie and Uncle Charlie. He loved that area of Calif. (film is shot in Santa Rosa). In fact he not only made 3 pictures there (SOD, The Birds, and Vertigo), but he bought a home there in the hills.

[Thief]

I love this film. IMO it's the best of Hitch's second tier pictures. As his second film in Hollywood after Rebecca, he was finally free of David O. Selznik, and he was eager to do a espionage thriller. Hitchcock stated that as soon as the script was finished he took it to Cary Grant. Grant refused to do a thriller, although later he told Hitch that he wished he'd done it. Hitch felt that Joel McCrea was too affable. I personally liked McCrea in the film.

I really like the scenes you mentioned. The important scene for Hitchcock was the entire windmill sequence, which was mesmerizing. I also was amazed at the plane crash scene; and the famous umbrella scene where the assassin is escaping through the bobbling umbrellas has been imitated several times. Great photography!

Oh, and I also love George Sanders. I could listen to him reading the phone book. I liked him in just about everything he did, with the possible exception of The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945). Although it was a good picture directed by the great Robert Siodmak, I thought he wasn't well cast to play that type of role.

I definitely agree on all accounts. If you click on my full review on my personal thread, I drool over Sanders quite a bit. He's great in everything I've seen him in, but I definitely need to check out more.

Re: Hitchcock and Selznick, they were definitely at odds with each other starting with Rebecca, but their relationship would continue all through the 40's, pretty much because there was a contract. But Hitchcock would find ways to walk in and out of it to do other stuff, like this. But they collaborated later on Spellbound, The Paradine Case, and Under Capricorn.

[Allaby]

I watched A Talking Cat!?! today. This wasn't that bad. The acting was pretty poor for the most part. I thought it was a cute and interesting story. Some of the dialogue and scenes were a little cheesy, but I have seen worse. Squeaky the cat who played Duffy the cat was clearly the best actor in the film. Eric Roberts was fine as the voice of the cat. I chuckled a couple times. I've only seen one other film by this director, which was Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988). I enjoyed that one and it was a better film than A Talking Cat. But this one was tolerable and mildly amusing. Meow! 3

[Thief]

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
(1975, Weir)
A film that starts with the letters O or P • A film set in school • A film with any of the words "Rock", "Paper", "Scissors" in its title
-- recommended by Tim Daugherty (https://twitter.com/tim_daugherty) --

https://i.imgur.com/Bj7eFzf.jpg


"There's some questions got answers and some haven't."



Set in 1900, Picnic at Hanging Rock follows a group of students from Appleyard College, a girls' private school, as they enjoy a, well, picnic at Hanging Rock, a rocky mountain in Australia. When some of the schoolgirls and a teacher disappear, those that remain have to deal with the aftermath.

This is one of Peter Weir's first films, but he directs it like a consumate veteran. He gives the film a certain mistifying feel to it; an ever-present ethereal vibe that hangs above every scene and every interaction. When the girls arrive at the titular mountain, it is as if they were being quietly watched by it. The rock becomes like another character; a millenial rock formation clashing with the youth and fragility of these girls, all propped up in their own facades of "decency".

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2333158#post2333158)

[Allaby]

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
(1975, Weir)
A film that starts with the letters O or P • A film set in school • A film with any of the words "Rock", "Paper", "Scissors" in its title
-- recommended by Tim Daugherty (https://twitter.com/tim_daugherty) --

https://i.imgur.com/Bj7eFzf.jpg




Set in 1900, Picnic at Hanging Rock follows a group of students from Appleyard College, a girls' private school, as they enjoy a, well, picnic at Hanging Rock, a rocky mountain in Australia. When some of the schoolgirls and a teacher disappear, those that remain have to deal with the aftermath.

This is one of Peter Weir's first films, but he directs it like a consumate veteran. He gives the film a certain mistifying feel to it; an ever-present ethereal vibe that hangs above every scene and every interaction. When the girls arrive at the titular mountain, it is as if they were being quietly watched by it. The rock becomes like another character; a millenial rock formation clashing with the youth and fragility of these girls, all propped up in their own facades of "decency".

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2333158#post2333158)

Fantastic film. I love this one.

[Takoma11]

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
(1975, Weir)
A film that starts with the letters O or P • A film set in school • A film with any of the words "Rock", "Paper", "Scissors" in its title
-- recommended by Tim Daugherty (https://twitter.com/tim_daugherty) --

https://i.imgur.com/Bj7eFzf.jpg




Set in 1900, Picnic at Hanging Rock follows a group of students from Appleyard College, a girls' private school, as they enjoy a, well, picnic at Hanging Rock, a rocky mountain in Australia. When some of the schoolgirls and a teacher disappear, those that remain have to deal with the aftermath.

This is one of Peter Weir's first films, but he directs it like a consumate veteran. He gives the film a certain mistifying feel to it; an ever-present ethereal vibe that hangs above every scene and every interaction. When the girls arrive at the titular mountain, it is as if they were being quietly watched by it. The rock becomes like another character; a millenial rock formation clashing with the youth and fragility of these girls, all propped up in their own facades of "decency".

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2333158#post2333158)

Aw yeah. This is one of my favorite movies. It's so deeply unsettling and sad on both a plot and a character level.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BZTI2ZTA1MDctMzM3NC00YjEyLTk0MGItMjY3Y2JlMGFkNTFiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyND k2ODc%40._V1_FMjpg_UX480_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Starstruck, 1982

Jackie (Joey Kennedy) works at her parents' financially troubled pub, but she dreams of being a big star. Together with her partner-in-crime cousin Angus (Ross O'Donovan) and her backup band the Wombats, Jackie pursues fame first through stunts and then through trying to land an appearance on a popular television show. But will a taste of fame fracture Jackie's relationship with her cousin and bandmates?

Oh my gosh. This was so much fun.

This was a Rockatansky recommendation after I enjoyed My Brilliant Career, also by director Gillian Armstrong, and I thought that this was an absolute blast.

Musicals are a real hit-or-miss genre for me. When they're great, they're great. And when they're not, well, many a time I've been tempted to hit the fast forward button.

Starstruck was a total hit for me, as a musical and just as a film in general. On the musical front, the songs are a lot of fun. I was surprised to learn that the songs were written for the film--a few of them were strong enough that I assumed they must be covers. I particularly liked the first song performed by Jackie, a number called "Temper, Temper," but they were all good. The performances are all high energy and colorful. A few of the scenes have an almost Rocky Horror vibe in a sort of organized disorganization. The staging of many of the numbers lands on a perfect note of camp, such as a sequence that takes place in a swimming pool featuring male and female synchronized swimmers and several shark inflatables.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP._QZvnT7gb7SYgGbIv4FQKAAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1
I mean come on.

It's also fun to watch a movie that really emphasizes family relationships over romance. Yes, there is a romantic subplot where Jackie develops a crush on the host of the television program (John O'May) and breaks up with her backup band player Robbie (Ned Lander). But the real heart of the movie is the friendship between Jackie and Angus. The chemistry between Kennedy and O'Donovan is absolutely fantastic, and it's really fun to see an engaging friendship get put at the center of a film.

I thought that this movie was really fun and really funny. It's anchored by a great lead performance from Kennedy, but everyone in the movie is good in their roles. The humor is incredibly good natured, and really there aren't villains here outside of the idea of compromising your art to be more palatable to a general audience. Full of color and outlandish musical numbers, I had a great time with this film.

No notes!

4.5

[PHOENIX74]

Great seeing all of this love for Picnic at Hanging Rock! One of my absolute all-time favourites.

I nearly died during the part where Arnold tells us the “advice” he gave to the one guy to scream while posing.

Throughout the whole film, Arnold projects a sense of humour and likeableness that's out of this world, and I'm sure nearly everyone walked away from Pumping Iron absolutely loving him.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/YCZdNL5M/himizu-dvd-movie-cover-md.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.qetic.jp/?p=73681, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34226524

Himizu - (2011)

Japanese angst and dismay over the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent disaster at the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant are captured painfully and quite beautifully by Himizu, which focuses on one teenage boy, Yuichi (Shôta Sometani) whose life was brutally hard before all of those things happened to his world. His father continually beats him, and when drunk tells him he wishes he'd died so he could collect on the insurance money. His mother is having an affair and has one foot out the door already. His neighbours inside the disaster zone all live in improvised huts, and the family is getting by hiring out boats. Yuichi also has to endure the attentions of a female classmate who has a crush on him - to an obsessive degree, and will stop at nothing to become part of his life. When Yuichi's rage finally erupts in devastating violence, his whole world is torn asunder and he becomes drawn to a pistol a Yakuza left for him - his only way out of this nightmare. I was quite taken by this film, which has an incredibly powerful ending that it builds towards in a crescendo of emotion, fury, sorrow and hopelessness. A little more of it's 129 minute running time could have been trimmed - but I was left with the impression I'd seen a premier Japanese film based around the events of 2011 - close to being a classic.

8/10

[Wooley]

Great seeing all of this love for Picnic at Hanging Rock! One of my absolute all-time favourites.



I was gonna watch it this month for my September thread but I adapted my thread into something else.
I'll have to find another good time. I don't feel like it's a movie I can just watch on a Sunday afternoon or something, I have too much invested in its possibility.

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BZTI2ZTA1MDctMzM3NC00YjEyLTk0MGItMjY3Y2JlMGFkNTFiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyND k2ODc%40._V1_FMjpg_UX480_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Starstruck, 1982

Jackie (Joey Kennedy) works at her parents' financially troubled pub, but she dreams of being a big star. Together with her partner-in-crime cousin Angus (Ross O'Donovan) and her backup band the Wombats, Jackie pursues fame first through stunts and then through trying to land an appearance on a popular television show. But will a taste of fame fracture Jackie's relationship with her cousin and bandmates?

Oh my gosh. This was so much fun.

This was a Rockatansky recommendation after I enjoyed My Brilliant Career, also by director Gillian Armstrong, and I thought that this was an absolute blast.

Musicals are a real hit-or-miss genre for me. When they're great, they're great. And when they're not, well, many a time I've been tempted to hit the fast forward button.

Starstruck was a total hit for me, as a musical and just as a film in general. On the musical front, the songs are a lot of fun. I was surprised to learn that the songs were written for the film--a few of them were strong enough that I assumed they must be covers. I particularly liked the first song performed by Jackie, a number called "Temper, Temper," but they were all good. The performances are all high energy and colorful. A few of the scenes have an almost Rocky Horror vibe in a sort of organized disorganization. The staging of many of the numbers lands on a perfect note of camp, such as a sequence that takes place in a swimming pool featuring male and female synchronized swimmers and several shark inflatables.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP._QZvnT7gb7SYgGbIv4FQKAAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1
I mean come on.

It's also fun to watch a movie that really emphasizes family relationships over romance. Yes, there is a romantic subplot where Jackie develops a crush on the host of the television program (John O'May) and breaks up with her backup band player Robbie (Ned Lander). But the real heart of the movie is the friendship between Jackie and Angus. The chemistry between Kennedy and O'Donovan is absolutely fantastic, and it's really fun to see an engaging friendship get put at the center of a film.

I thought that this movie was really fun and really funny. It's anchored by a great lead performance from Kennedy, but everyone in the movie is good in their roles. The humor is incredibly good natured, and really there aren't villains here outside of the idea of compromising your art to be more palatable to a general audience. Full of color and outlandish musical numbers, I had a great time with this film.

No notes!

4.5

This sounds way up my alley. What's it streaming on?

[Takoma11]

This sounds way up my alley. What's it streaming on?

I know it's on Tubi and Kanopy.

[ueno_station54]

https://i.postimg.cc/YCZdNL5M/himizu-dvd-movie-cover-md.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.qetic.jp/?p=73681, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34226524

Himizu - (2011)

Japanese angst and dismay over the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent disaster at the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant are captured painfully and quite beautifully by Himizu, which focuses on one teenage boy, Yuichi (Shôta Sometani) whose life was brutally hard before all of those things happened to his world. His father continually beats him, and when drunk tells him he wishes he'd died so he could collect on the insurance money. His mother is having an affair and has one foot out the door already. His neighbours inside the disaster zone all live in improvised huts, and the family is getting by hiring out boats. Yuichi also has to endure the attentions of a female classmate who has a crush on him - to an obsessive degree, and will stop at nothing to become part of his life. When Yuichi's rage finally erupts in devastating violence, his whole world is torn asunder and he becomes drawn to a pistol a Yakuza left for him - his only way out of this nightmare. I was quite taken by this film, which has an incredibly powerful ending that it builds towards in a crescendo of emotion, fury, sorrow and hopelessness. A little more of it's 129 minute running time could have been trimmed - but I was left with the impression I'd seen a premier Japanese film based around the events of 2011 - close to being a classic.

8/10
would be interesting to know what this film was originally supposed to be. apparently the script was written (as well as being based on a preexisting manga) before the earthquake and then rewritten afterwards. same director did a film specifically about the Fukushima nuclear disaster as well that i remember being pretty good.

[Wooley]

I know it's on Tubi and Kanopy.

Hmm, I have neither.

[Thief]

Hmm, I have neither.

Tubi is free and web-based.

[PHOENIX74]

I was gonna watch it this month for my September thread but I adapted my thread into something else.
I'll have to find another good time. I don't feel like it's a movie I can just watch on a Sunday afternoon or something, I have too much invested in its possibility.

High expectations are a real test of a movie's worth, so I hope you still enjoy it - and you were absolutely right to schedule a time to watch it where you can really settle and focus on everything.

would be interesting to know what this film was originally supposed to be. apparently the script was written (as well as being based on a preexisting manga) before the earthquake and then rewritten afterwards. same director did a film specifically about the Fukushima nuclear disaster as well that i remember being pretty good.

Reading a little of the manga online, it seems pretty close to what we got in the film, but it was a great idea to center everything around that real-life catastrophe - it really provides a fitting context for what happens. I'm going to keep an eye out for more Sion Sono films - after reading more about them after seeing this, they seem worth seeking out.

[ueno_station54]

Reading a little of the manga online, it seems pretty close to what we got in the film, but it was a great idea to center everything around that real-life catastrophe - it really provides a fitting context for what happens. I'm going to keep an eye out for more Sion Sono films - after reading more about them after seeing this, they seem worth seeking out.
The guy's a piece of shit but he's made some films that are really important to me lmao.

[PHOENIX74]

The guy's a piece of shit but he's made some films that are really important to me lmao.

Love Exposure looks like one I have to track down some time soon.

[Fabulous]

Patterns (1956)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/iltU2L4TKmG8E8A0PgeZINcztaA.jpg

[ScannerDarkly]

4/5 Popcorns



https://mikestakeonthemovies.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/it-all-came-true-card.jpg

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 not a fan of DC more marvel fan but this one with the pets i loved it i went on the 4DX to watch it and it was soo amazing and the movie is really funny =]
https://i0.wp.com/www.supermanhomepage.com/clickandbuilds/SupermanHomepage/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/DCLoSP-Poster-July29.jpg?fit=1382%2C2048&ssl=1

[cricket]

Blue Jay (2016)

4

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/42d/e2e/9ece87189ad09f27942b3ed4f86d653996-18-bluejay.2x.rsocial.w600.jpg

Never heard of it before it was mentioned is Goodies thread. It's a Netflix movie and it's still on so gave it a shot. Only 85 minutes long and except for a brief scene in a store, it's just 2 characters. High school sweethearts, and that seems to be underselling the relationship, bump into each other after many years and spend several hours together. There were and still are very strong feelings. It's nostalgic, humorous, and emotional. Change the last 15 minutes a little and this could have been a truly special film. I don't think I could have expected much more, it must have been made for shit money. Wifey enjoyed it as much as I did.

[Wooley]

Tubi is free and web-based.

Commercials?

[Thief]

Commercials?

As far as I remember, yes.

[Little Ash]

I was gonna watch it this month for my September thread but I adapted my thread into something else.
I'll have to find another good time. I don't feel like it's a movie I can just watch on a Sunday afternoon or something, I have too much invested in its possibility.



Have you not seen it before?


Weirdly, "a Sunday afternoon watch," of Picnic doesn't sound inappropriate. Though it'd probably fair better that way as a rewatch.
Granted, I guess the dreamlike state of the movie does mesh with my idea of how I am mentally on a Sunday afternoon.

[Stirchley]

88904

Excellent movie from 1958. Both leads are really good. A classic of British cinema.

[Takoma11]

Commercials?

Yes, but they are pretty spaced out.

It's free on Kanopy, which you can get free (no commercials) with a library card.

It's also a $2 rental on Amazon.

[Allaby]

The Woman King (2022) This was great! As expected, Viola Davis is very good and there are strong performances from Thuso Mbedu and Lashana Lynch. The film is entertaining and well directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Cinematography is really nice and the score is effective as well. The Woman King is an enjoyable and satisfying film and would make my current top 10 list of the year. My rating is 4.

[crumbsroom]

Love Exposure looks like one I have to track down some time soon.



Probably....second best movie I've seen this millenium? Unquestionably top 5.


It's a miracle.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/obsession1949.77941.jpg
https://jeffstafford76.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/couple-held-at-gunpoint.jpg

Obsession (The Hidden Room) - 1949 British crime thriller starring Robert Newton as psychiatrist Dr. Clive Riordan. He's unhappily married to serial adulteress Storm (Sally Gray) and has been biding his time in order to catch her in the act with her latest dalliance. That happens to be young American Bill Kronin (Phil Brown) and when Clive lies in wait and catches them in his own home it leads to a confrontation of sorts. I say "of sorts" because this being a British production it transpires in typical urbane fashion. Drinks are served and civil discourse is undertaken. The upshot being that Storm ... well, storms off. This is after Clive makes use of a pistol and fires a warning shot, then slaps his deceitful spouse. It's all part of his well considered plan to humiliate his wife. To further punish his wife the next step is to spirit Bill away to an undisclosed location and hold him prisoner. Clive taunts Bill and assures him that he will eventually kill him and even goes so far as to reveal how he will dispose of his body.

This was rather an effective mystery/thriller with the triumvirate of Newton, Gray and Brown contributing meaningfully to the proceedings. Naunton Wayne shows up more than halfway through and ups the ante as Scotland Yard Superintendent Finsbury. He's been alerted by way of an anonymous letter about Clive's dodgy behavior and it isn't long before the mild mannered Finsbury is hot on his trail. Newton does a fine job as the cuckolded husband and the movie never goes out of it's way to paint anyone as a true villain or victim. It finishes on an upbeat almost cheerful note and in truth the only one of the protagonists who ends up looking remotely unsympathetic is Storm Riordan. But they don't rub the viewer's face in it. It's more of a nonchalant, c'est la vie ending.

85/100

[pahaK]

The Woman King (2022) This was great! As expected, Viola Davis is very good and there are strong performances from Thuso Mbedu and Lashana Lynch. The film is entertaining and well directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Cinematography is really nice and the score is effective as well. The Woman King is an enjoyable and satisfying film and would make my current top 10 list of the year. My rating is 4.

I'm expecting this to be hilariously stupid and a complete rewriting of actual history.

[Allaby]

I'm expecting this to be hilariously stupid and a complete rewriting of actual history.

It's definitely not stupid. It may not be completely historically accurate, but it is well made and entertaining.

[pahaK]

It's definitely not stupid. It may not be completely historically accurate, but it is well made and entertaining.

If by "not completely historically accurate" you mean turning the slave-trading, human-sacrificing warmongers into protectors of the African freedom, then sure (at least that's the impression given by the trailer) :D

Oh, can you please spoil me and tell me which year the film happened and who the evil Europeans were?

[GulfportDoc]

[Foreign Correspondent] I definitely agree on all accounts. If you click on my full review on my personal thread, I drool over Sanders quite a bit. He's great in everything I've seen him in, but I definitely need to check out more.

Re: Hitchcock and Selznick, they were definitely at odds with each other starting with Rebecca, but their relationship would continue all through the 40's, pretty much because there was a contract. But Hitchcock would find ways to walk in and out of it to do other stuff, like this. But they collaborated later on Spellbound, The Paradine Case, and Under Capricorn.
Yes, I did read your review, and it was a good one. Selznick must have been a real pill. Hitchcock got pretty crafty when working with him. He said in his Truffaut interviews that since he primarily used story boards he could shoot only the film that he needed for his story. That prevented Selznick from coming in and editing it, changing the story.

He stated that in Rebecca, Selznick had actually wanted the smoke coming out of the smoke stack at Manderley (the mansion) to spell out "Rebecca"!! Hitchcock said he'd quit the film if that was added...:D

[Thief]

AMOUR
(2012, Haneke)
-- recommended by Jess --

https://i.imgur.com/UW82zg4.jpg


"Things will go on, and then one day it will all be over."



Amour follows Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), an old retired couple living alone in France. Their lives go on in a fairly normal way as they enjoy breakfasts and lunches together, and attend musical concerts from former students. But things take a turn for the worse when Anne suffers a stroke that progressively deteriorates her health, while Georges has to take care of her.

A big reason why this film succeeds in portraying that is on the excellent performances from Trintignant, but especially Riva. The way they both convey the intimacy and closeness between Georges and Anne, even while he's moving her from a wheelchair, feeding her dinner, or giving her a bath, it's something powerfully moving. To see the regression in that person you love, from a night dress to a diaper, from a wine glass to a sippy cup, from meaningful conversations to just uninteligible babbling, it is all the ultimate test of what is really to love someone... for better, worse, richer, poorer, in sickness, and in health.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2333536#post2333536)

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/XJw62BSM/bringing-up-baby.jpg
By Illustrator unknown; "Copyright 1938 RKO Radio Pictures, Inc." - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85946229

Bringing up Baby - (1938)

I got a massive surprise from Bringing up Baby, which defied a trend which usually makes older films less able to make me laugh out loud - it's a crazy film with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn going all-in and completely buying into what Howard Hawks wanted from them. I've really learned lately, just how well suited to comedy Cary Grant was early in his career - an actor who'd use his whole body to transmit a comical vibe from his character. Hepburn is a lot of fun too in this tale about a paleontologist who crosses paths with a screwy lady who derails his wedding, the delivery of a fossilized bone and a donation to his museum - but of course their misadventures shakes him out of the stuffy fun-free tree he's found himself in. This film had a whole load of laughs in it, and I've never before been as enthused by digging up old treasures from the 1930s and 1940s - especially after falling in love with such films as Make Way For Tomorrow and Double Indemnity.

9/10

[Citizen Rules]

Bringing up Baby - (1938)

...This film had a whole load of laughs in it, and I've never before been as enthused by digging up old treasures from the 1930s and 1940s...Try some Carole Lombard films for old screwball comedies that might work for you. Have you seen any of her films?

[chawhee]

Palm Springs (2020)
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e9/ec/63/e9ec63b1843275d39d9a173bab5e1a26.jpg
4
Rewatch so that my girl can watch it for the first time, and it holds up well. It drags a little in the 2nd half as the comedy dies down a bit for the more serious bits of the storyline, but everything flows splendidly. A couple parts still make me laugh out loud.

[PHOENIX74]

Try some Carole Lombard films for old screwball comedies that might work for you. Have you seen any of her films?

I remember being really impressed with My Man Godfrey, but I've been meaning to see more with her in for a while now.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/14/Tenet_movie_poster.jpg/220px-Tenet_movie_poster.jpg

4

SF = Z


https://cgiii.com/images/Gallery/My-First-Summer/My-First-Summer.jpg

3

SF = Zzz




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

[SpelingError]

I remember being really impressed with My Man Godfrey, but I've been meaning to see more with her in for a while now.

You should check out To Be or Not to Be. It's one of my favorites.

[Fabulous]

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/aFC3WobznJXjq9UgZT8AC1innhe.jpg

[pahaK]

Only God Forgives (2013)
2
Style over substance, and not very confident with its style either. Ryan Gosling is his usual stoic self. Drive is a better iteration of this concept.

--
Even the Wind is Afraid (1968)
3
I finally got a good-quality copy of this (the last time I watched this, it was a VHS-rip with terrible audio). It's a pretty traditional ghost story with a funny cast of characters. I think it would have benefitted from being scarier, though. Not nearly as good as Poison for the Fairies, but still above average.

--
The Nice guys (2016)
3.5
I was surprised how much I liked this comedy. Somehow Shane Black hasn't got the Hollywood PC memo and can still write funny jokes. The characters are good, Gosling has multiple different expressions on his face, and some of the dialogue is killer. Angourie Rice pretty much steals all her scenes.

--
The VVitch (2015)
4
This one got even better on the second watch. The atmosphere is excellent and it's just a marvelous debut for both Eggers and Taylor-Joy. Black Phillip is the GOAT.

[StuSmallz]

Only God Forgives (2013)
2
Style over substance, and not very confident with its style either.Eh, I'm not so sure about that...

[Raven73]

Blast from the past
7/10.
I usually don't enjoy rom-coms, but I like this one.
The funniest performance goes to Joey Slotnik, who has a minor role as a soda jerk/bartender/cult leader.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/BlastFromThePast.jpg
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNWE3MGYyMmMtZjM1NC00YWE2LThkYWUtNjc0ZmJhMDJmNzVkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODUyNDIwNTQ@._V1_.jpg

[Wooley]

As far as I remember, yes.

I knew there was a reason I didn't have Tubi.

[Wooley]

I'm expecting this to be hilariously stupid and a complete rewriting of actual history.

I suspect you're right about the history given Hollywood's long tradition of wildly inaccurate historical epics, from Spartacus to Braveheart, and the fact that the movie is openly fictional.
I don't know about stupid because I haven't seen it but the reviews I've read say well-acted and directed but, yes, a script that skirts a lot of nuance that would make these characters more complex but also a lot more morally ambiguous and harder to root for.

[Wooley]

Eh, I'm not so sure about that...

Agreed. One of my favorite films of that year and I actually preferred it to Drive. My best movie-buddy agrees.

[Wooley]

If by "not completely historically accurate" you mean turning the slave-trading, human-sacrificing warmongers into protectors of the African freedom, then sure (at least that's the impression given by the trailer) :D

Oh, can you please spoil me and tell me which year the film happened and who the evil Europeans were?

Oh, I see what you're doing. Never mind.

[ScannerDarkly]

I knew there was a reason I didn't have Tubi.


If you have no conscious such as i, Ad-blocker works great on tubi.

[Wooley]

https://i.postimg.cc/XJw62BSM/bringing-up-baby.jpg
By Illustrator unknown; "Copyright 1938 RKO Radio Pictures, Inc." - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85946229

Bringing up Baby - (1938)

I got a massive surprise from Bringing up Baby, which defied a trend which usually makes older films less able to make me laugh out loud - it's a crazy film with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn going all-in and completely buying into what Howard Hawks wanted from them. I've really learned lately, just how well suited to comedy Cary Grant was early in his career - an actor who'd use his whole body to transmit a comical vibe from his character. Hepburn is a lot of fun too in this tale about a paleontologist who crosses paths with a screwy lady who derails his wedding, the delivery of a fossilized bone and a donation to his museum - but of course their misadventures shakes him out of the stuffy fun-free tree he's found himself in. This film had a whole load of laughs in it, and I've never before been as enthused by digging up old treasures from the 1930s and 1940s - especially after falling in love with such films as Make Way For Tomorrow and Double Indemnity.

9/10

Hell yes.
So pleased to have another person fall to the Charms of Baby.
If you liked Grant's work here, you should put The Awful Truth (my actual favorite Romantic Comedy of all time) and Topper on your list. I can't promise you'll like them as much as Baby, as they don't quite go for that level of zany, but they're both really good fun.

[Wooley]

If you have no conscious such as i, Ad-blocker works great on tubi.

I'll have to do some reading on how to do that on my TV.
I simply will not watch commercials. Ruins films and even sporting events for me. I'd rather pay. Or even just not see a film.

[Wooley]

The VVitch (2015)
4
This one got even better on the second watch. The atmosphere is excellent and it's just a marvelous debut for both Eggers and Taylor-Joy. Black Phillip is the GOAT.

:D

[ScannerDarkly]

I'll have to do some reading on how to do that on my TV.
I simply will not watch commercials. Ruins films and even sporting events for me. I'd rather pay. Or even just not see a film.




Oh on the tv!! yeah u may be screwed there... i have a PC hooked up to my tv for that reason i havnt watched a advertisement in a very long time..

[Mr Minio]

Only God Forgives (2013)
2
Style over substance, and not very confident with its style either. Ryan Gosling is his usual stoic self. Drive is a better iteration of this concept. It's better than Drive if only because it doesn't cater to the expectations and tastes of the mainstream audience. Anyway, it oozes with orgone, so of course, it's a masterpiece.

[Wooley]

It's better than Drive if only because it doesn't cater to the expectations and tastes of the mainstream audience. Anyway, it oozes with orgone, so of course, it's a masterpiece.

I had to look up orgone but otherwise I agree with you completely.

[SpelingError]

The Artist (2011) - 4

I thought of giving this a 3.5/5, but I decided to give it a 4. It's a well-crafted and moving story (though one with few surprises) and the amount of effort put into it to resemble a silent film makes it a nice throwback to such, but it didn't quite provide enough for me to love it. I enjoyed some of the visuals, like the montage of Miller's name moving up in the credits, or the hallucinatory scenes which get into Valentin's headspace (the miniatures in the bar were a highlight). Also, the dog's scenes were pretty much all cute. However, I felt these aspects were underutilized and that the movie was just throwing me a bone from time to time. Still though, I found the final act very moving and the same goes for a few scenes which came before that, so I still enjoyed the film quite a bit and felt these issues were balanced out well enough. Also, bonus points for including a nightmare scene which doesn't feel unnecessary but actually acts as an omen for Valentin's future struggles, seeing how he's unable to "keep up" with the sounds.

[Allaby]

I watched Pearl (2022) today. Pearl is the prequel to X (also 2022) and focuses on the younger version of the character Pearl (played by Mia Goth in both films). Mia Goth is fantastic in this, even better than her wonderful dual performances in X. I loved the cinematography and it's got a really good score too. Pearl is entertaining and fun and captures a lot of the same retro energy and spirit as X, while still being its own thing. Not quite as great X, Pearl is still one of the best films of the year. My rating is 4.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.rogerebert.com%2Fuploads%2Freview%2Fprimary_image%2Freviews%2Ffirst-cow-movie-review-2020%2Fhero_first-cow-movie-review-2020.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

First Cow, 2019

Cookie (John Magaro) is a quiet man who works as a cook for rough-and-tumble fur trappers, but dreams of opening his own bakery in San Francisco. Cookie meets up with King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant on the run after killing a man. Together they end up working together in a fort, illicitly stealing milk from a cow belonging to a powerful local trader (Toby Jones) in order to make baked goods to sell to the locals.

What an amazing, sweet, and potent little film.

I've had mixed luck with Reichardt's filmography. I thought that Wendy and Lucy was really strong, powered by Michelle Williams in the lead role. I also really enjoyed Meek's Cutoff. I overall liked Night Moves. I really struggled with Old Joy, trying two times to watch it but never actually clicking with it.

This one, though, may be my favorite of her films. It's a movie that mixes romance and serenity with a dose of melancholy, gently centering affection and friendship in a harsh and unforgiving setting.

Most movies that take place on the frontier tend to center the cruel and difficulty of living in such a hostile environment. The film doesn't pretend that the fort and its surroundings aren't a dangerous place to be. In both the beginning and end of the film, we see that this is a rough place to be. But the heart of the film is the friendship that Cookie and King-Lu find with one another, and the way that their friendship gives them hope for the future.

This is, I think, a really brilliant romance. Whether you watch this movie and decide that Cookie and King-Lu are "just friends", or whether you think there's a deeper attraction there, it doesn't impact the result, which is that these two men basically complete each other. When I say romance (for the record, I get a more than friends vibe), I mean that this is a story that shows how one person can bring out the best in the other. They listen to each other's hopes and dreams, both those that are actionable and those that are just pipe dreams. For the thrilling center of the film, their dreams begin to get traction.

Magaro and Lee have an easy chemistry with each other, the kind of dynamic where their enjoyment of each other's company is apparent when speaking or sitting in companionable silence. Toby Jones is also good as the wealthy landowner whose cow is being "poached" by Cookie and King-Lu. He seems affable enough, but you dread what will happen when he discovers the deception. And, of course, a huge shout-out to Evie the cow. She is adorable, and the little conversations that Cookie has with her during the midnight milkings are some of the sweetest scenes in the film.

The very opening scene lets us know a lot about how the film will end, but the journey there is very compelling. There are moments of difficulty and loss, but I stand by the word that keeps coming into my head about it. This is a really gentle film. It puts friendship and love at the center, showing how those things can enliven and enrich life in even the most trying of circumstances. That last moment in the film really sings.

4.5

[crumbsroom]

I've only seen 3 Reichardts (Certain Women, Old Joy, Meek's Cutoff). I've like all of them. She almost seems like a really good short story writer, blown up big. She understands the tiny mysteries that lay at the heart of these narratives can be illuminated by how all the characters behave, and so never needs to completely reveal those mysteries. Just lets them live inside the movie, wondered and speculated over. Basically, exactly the kind of thing I love. Clearly I should be going deeper.

[SpelingError]

First Cow is very good. Its ending, in particular, is perfect. When I first watched the film, my initial reaction was "Wait, what?", but after I "understood" the ending, I eventually realized it was a perfect culmination to the relationship of the two men.

[Takoma11]

She almost seems like a really good short story writer, blown up big.

That's a great way of putting it.

I would highly recommend First Cow, though I'll concede that it has a very narrative story, which appeals to my sensibilities.

But it also has great performances, an incredible atmosphere, and a central relationship that feels very real in ways big and small.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I loved First Cow and gentle is a pretty good word to use to describe it. As to the ending I didn't read into it much. I guess it would make sense but at the time I just marveled at the devotion. It really got me in the feels.

[SpelingError]

I loved First Cow and gentle is a pretty good word to use to describe it. As to the ending I didn't read into it much. I guess it would make sense but at the time I just marveled at the devotion. It really got me in the feels.

What I meant is, when I first watched it, I was confused as to whether they lived or not. After I watched the opening scene again though, the ending made sense to me and I was able to marvel at it once I pondered over it some more.

[Corax]

Fletch, Confess


The most unfunny film I've seen in a while. In a word, incompetent.

[MovieGal]

88933
I Am Dina

A rewatch of a film I truly enjoy.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/My_Brilliant_Career_FilmPoster.jpeg
By The cover art can be obtained from Movieposterdb.com., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33879161

My Brilliant Career - (1979)

Gillian Armstrong chose Miles Franklin's classic Australian novel as an adaptation suitable for her feature directorial debut, and the result was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes - making it one of the preeminent films of the Australian New Wave. I really enjoyed watching it - it has many moments of quiet reflection, but the character of Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) is playful, flighty, brash, down to earth and refuses to be pigeon-holed as most women were in late 19th Century Australia. She's constantly paired off for marriage, and every proposal she fends off, because she knows that from that day forward her roles will be strictly defined and she'd be consigned to a life of drudgery. Most poignant is her love affair with Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) - her greatest test of independence. It's an empowering film, but at times sad and reflective. Sybylla seems to have been born too soon, into a world that won't accept "dreamers" but instead demands people do what's expected of them. Visually gorgeous, with many haunting melodies (our protagonist also plays the piano) - it's a great debut, and part of Australia's cinematic heritage.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Taps_movie.jpg
By POV - Impawards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7620714

Taps - (1981)

I remember Taps being around when I was very young, but I never ended up seeing it, and the view I had in my mind of what it would be like was very different to the reality. The film takes place at a military academy that's about to be closed - sold off for redevelopment, much to the consternation of the academy's head, Brigadier General Harlan Bache (George C. Scott). When there's an accidental shooting involving a nearby resident, efforts to close the place down pick up pace, and Bache has a heart attack and ends up in hospital. All of the young students then decide to barricade themselves in, and use the considerable armaments the place has to make a stand and demand an investigation into the place's closure. The film features very young performances from the likes of Sean Penn, Tom Cruise and Timothy Hutton. The tension it builds is enough to consider it a well-made drama/thriller, and it raises interesting questions about the military, and the indoctrination of young minds. I found it more interesting than what I was expecting - but it was also slightly looser and less grounded than what I'd thought it would be. In the end, I liked it for not taking sides and instead exploring various societal and military issues.

7/10

[Takoma11]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/My_Brilliant_Career_FilmPoster.jpeg
By The cover art can be obtained from Movieposterdb.com., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33879161

My Brilliant Career - (1979)

Most poignant is her love affair with Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) - her greatest test of independence. It's an empowering film, but at times sad and reflective. Sybylla seems to have been born too soon, into a world that won't accept "dreamers" but instead demands people do what's expected of them. Visually gorgeous, with many haunting melodies (our protagonist also plays the piano) - it's a great debut, and part of Australia's cinematic heritage.

Becoming Jane has a similar dynamic. It's a pretty decent biopic about Jane Austen.

And from the director side of things, I recently watched and loved Armstrong's Starstruck.

[WHITBISSELL!]

What I meant is, when I first watched it, I was confused as to whether they lived or not. After I watched the opening scene again though, the ending made sense to me and I was able to marvel at it once I pondered over it some more.Actually I was responding to Tak's speculating on whether or not there was a "deeper" meaning to Cookie and Kings's relationship.

[Fabulous]

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/oSKeCELvPCJ4Pp7cPyiIpMXfYop.jpg

[cricket]

Holy Motors (2012)

3

https://25.media.tumblr.com/e7157f05b13a471cbc07e8f74adbe814/tumblr_mgy0oxRA4H1qg39ewo1_500.gif

I watched this for the upcoming countdown because I've seen the title mentioned quite a bit over the last few years. For whatever reason I always thought it was a documentary, I couldn't have been more off on that. I like the general premise with the different appointments. I don't mind that there doesn't seem to be a central point, but I'm not generally a fan of surrealism. I enjoyed the characters and their more normal conversations the most. For whatever reason it reminded me of Playtime. I could potentially enjoy this more if I watched it again. I was never bored and it's technically sound.

[SpelingError]

Holy Motors (2012)

3

https://25.media.tumblr.com/e7157f05b13a471cbc07e8f74adbe814/tumblr_mgy0oxRA4H1qg39ewo1_500.gif

I watched this for the upcoming countdown because I've seen the title mentioned quite a bit over the last few years. For whatever reason I always thought it was a documentary, I couldn't have been more off on that. I like the general premise with the different appointments. I don't mind that there doesn't seem to be a central point, but I'm not generally a fan of surrealism. I enjoyed the characters and their more normal conversations the most. For whatever reason it reminded me of Playtime. I could potentially enjoy this more if I watched it again. I was never bored and it's technically sound.

It's been some time since I've seen it, but my interpretation for what the film is about and what type of themes run throughout it are that it's about the ways cinema has evolved throughout the years, as well as a mournful reflection on different technologies which have/will become outdated and prior relationships/roles the characters had in the past.

As the movie went on, I began to notice that after the entr'acte, the "appointments" (which I think represent different movie roles) Oscar went to appeared to blend into reality. The way they seemed to affect him (such as stumbling weakly into his limo after he's stabbed during one of the appointments) cause them to become harder to distinguish from reality, culminating in the final couple appointments where I'm not even sure if they were actual appointments or not. I think this showed how, as various types of movie equipment (cameras, lighting, sounds, etc.) improved over time, the images they captured grew more and more akin to reality, so I think that's what's being represented by this dynamic.

The film also makes a number of interesting references to other films. Edith Scob's character putting on the mask at the end is a reference to her own role in Eyes Without a Face (her most iconic role, I believe). I like to think of that as her reconnecting with one of her past roles as this fits with the film's themes pretty well. In addition, Lavant's character climbing out of the sewer is a reference to his role in Tokyo! (I haven't seen the film though, so I can't say a whole lot about what that means). The most interesting reference, however, comes in during the musical/romance segment about reunited lovers. After researching the film, I found that Kylie Minogue wasn't the original actress Carax wanted to play her role. He instead wanted to cast Juliette Binoche in the role. This would've been a reference to Lavant's and Bnioche's roles in The Lovers on the Bridge. Although Binoche dropped out of the role and Kylie Minogue got it, you can still see the original intent of the casting.

I also found a few other scenes in the film interesting, like the opening, ending, and a few smaller scenes within the film. However, this post is already pretty long, so I figured I'd cut it off here.

[Takoma11]

Actually I was responding to Tak's speculating on whether or not there was a "deeper" meaning to Cookie and Kings's relationship.

I honestly think you can read their relationship either way, but also:

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2x6f8casgsn31.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

[WHITBISSELL!]

I honestly think you can read their relationship either way, but also:

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2x6f8casgsn31.jpg&f=1&nofb=1I swear when I finished watching the thought never entered my mind. I remember thinking, "Wow, he wouldn't abandon his friend. That's a true friendship." I still find it mind-boggling.*

*is thick as a brick sometimes.

[Takoma11]

I swear when I finished watching the thought never entered my mind. I remember thinking, "Wow, he wouldn't abandon his friend. That's a true friendship." I still find it mind-boggling.*

Well, like I said I don't think that reading it as a friendship is necessarily wrong. If the story works better for you as a platonic friendship that includes love and devotion, so be it.

Since they never talk about their feelings for one another, the line between whether they love each other or whether they arein love with each other is never drawn.

At the same time . . . don't know a lot of friendships that would involve dying laying down together and holding hands. Especially since King-Lu was physically capable of leaving if Cookie had died.

[LChimp]

https://br.web.img2.acsta.net/pictures/18/05/08/12/27/3899667.jpg

Rewatch. Not as good as the first one, but still very much enjoyable.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimgsm.genvideos.org%2FPrey_2022_Full_Movie_-_HD_720p.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Prey, 2022

Naru (Amber Midthunder) is a young Comanche woman who dreams of being a valued hunter like her brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers). But those hopes take a strange and dangerous turn when an alien Predator lands in their area and begins taking out anything it sees as a threat.

I watched this with a little group and we had an absolute blast with it.

First and foremost, I thought that the film looked amazing. The Canadian scenery is breathtaking, and the different angles and camera moves highlight the landscape and the characters in a really cool way. One particular shot---an overhead spinning shot of Naru atop a tree--was a real highlight. This extends to the way that the action is shot, which is clear and easy to follow.

As Naru, Midthunder is very likable and easy to root for. Yes, the script makes a few nods to her frustration with not being taken seriously, but a lot of the film is just Naru out in the wilderness, trying to survive and figure out the mystery of what is decimating the local wildlife. The rest of the cast is also good, including Beavers as her brother and Stormee Kipp as a fellow tribesman who is more hostile toward Naru. Of course, any discussion of the cast has to include Naru's canine companion, Sarii, played by a former shelter dog called Coco. Coco is a total scene stealer, and we unabashedly cheered for her during the whole film.

I'm a fan of the Predator films, with the original and Predators being my personal favorites. I liked this addition to the Predator mythology. The Predator we see here is a less advanced version of what we get in later films. The technology is more pared-down, something that could be explained either by the Predators themselves being less advanced, or an intentional choice to use less powerful weapons, like a hunter using a bow-and-arrow instead of a gun.

I had very few complaints with this one. I wish that the antagonism between the Comanche and the French trappers had been a bit more established. I appreciate that doing so would have added to the run time, and it's not the worst thing to get the Cliff's Notes version. But it would have added a bit more charge to the scenes where those characters intersect.

As an action/horror, this one delivered for me.

4

[Rockatansky]

The Canadian scenery is breathtaking
Thank you.

[GulfportDoc]

88952
The Duke (2020, released 2022)

This is one of the most charming pictures I’ve seen in a long time. Starring the incomparable actors, Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, it mostly accurately tells the story of Kempton Bunton who confessed to stealing the Goya painting The Duke of Wellington from London’s National Art Gallery in 1961.

In a story so improbable that it had to be true, the painting was stolen not for personal gain, but for a means to fund TV licenses for the elderly. Just how this was supposed to work is anyone’s guess. In the British Isles TV licenses are required for watching live TV or VOD, the revenue from which funds the BBC. Mr. Bunton was offended that seniors had to pay for the service, and he both petitioned and picketed in hopes of getting that situation reversed.

The charm comes in equal parts from Broadbent’s canny and humorous portrayal of Bunton, and also Mirren’s complex representation of Mrs. Bunton, both in her criticism and understanding of Bunton’s philosophy and antics. Both characterizations were consummate, polished and award winning in scope.

The plot plays out in a way that is unexpected, and the ending of the tale is as unlikely as it is gratifyingly fitting.

Doc’s rating: 8/10

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/76049ad5268321e4eb00c8b413a48f48/7a88be810fede679-11/s500x750/e58db159e5364bd7bf960e93cffe159da531ad48.gifv
https://64.media.tumblr.com/da85e23ba6c7caaaa1d92aa9923e69cc/7a88be810fede679-72/s500x750/3c867124d15bc17aa78addd9fba8723a362a1702.gifv


All Through the Night - Filming for this 1942 Warner Bros release was wrapped two months before Pearl Harbor which would explain the somewhat ambiguous tenor of the jingoism on display. It's more of a warning about the threat posed by the Third Reich than an official call to arms. It's also an odd sort of movie with comedic elements jockeying for position alongside Runyonesque characters and a spy subplot.

Humphrey Bogart plays ex-mobster and now gambler and cheesecake aficionado Alfred "Gloves" Donahue. The death of his favorite baker sets him and his colorful cronies on a convoluted trajectory to solve his murder. By the time the movie wraps up you'll realize the title is spot on. As for the cast the opening features guys like a young Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason. They're sort of minor supporting characters but Donahue's crew also includes William Demarest and Frank McHugh. The bad guys include two of Bogart's costars from Casablanca, Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt along with Dame Judith Anderson. Kaaren Verne is the love interest and Jane Darwell plays Ma Donahue, who instigates the whole thing by asking her son to help find the missing baker.

I considered this a major find given the clever, snappy writing, star-studded cast and top-drawer production values. It always surprises me when I run across something that I'm convinced I should have heard about but hadn't. But I suppose that's what a "hidden gem" is all about. I don't think it's empty bragging to claim you've seen tons of Bogart movies but having run across this only convinces me that I've merely scratched the surface. As for downsides, so much happens and keeps happening that one might end up feeling the movie runs a little long. But the flamboyant characters and rapid-fire, trenchant dialogue helps keep things moving. I think this qualifies as a noteworthy movie.

80/100

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/First_Cow_poster.jpeg
By IMP Awards / 2020 Movie Poster Gallery / First Cow Poster (#1 of 3), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62778899

First Cow - (2019)

I'd borrowed First Cow from the library, so all this talk about it set me off a-watchin'. I entered the filth-encrusted world of Cookie and King-Lu, whose skeletal remains are dug up (in the present day, I'm guessing) and whose story is something of an analogy for the fraught kind of capitalism much of the world gets by with. Back in wild and untamed days, Cookie gets sick of flour and water-based bread (early Australian settlers called it 'damper') and King-Lu suggests he steal milk from the only cow in the region, brought in by the Chief Factor (played by Toby Jones). The resultant cakes are good enough to sell, and they become popular enough to attract the attention of the Chief Factor himself - which is where things become dangerous. The film moves at a very languid, deliberate pace and immerses you in it's setting while fully introducing you to it's characters. First Cow slowly soaks into you, with menace that has been brought with the desperate and dirty people exploring the untamed North West of America - all of whom make John Magaro and Orion Lee's sensitive characters particularly at risk of becoming ensnared and chewed up. They're intuitive, thoughtful and obviously care a great deal about each other - two delicate flowers in a rough kind of landscape.

Oh - and I got a huge kick from seeing Gary Farmer show up, having watched Dead Man just a few weeks ago.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/The_mummy.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/1999/mummy_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20132246

The Mummy - (1999)

Time hasn't been kind to the CGI effects used in The Mummy, and it's hard to believe this was a film with a massive budget that went on to earn nearly half a billion dollars. It's hard to believe that Brendan Fraser was once an A-lister (not that I mind him) - but as long as you're not expecting much, this Mummy delivers some trashy fun. It feels like a 125-minute wink at it's audience, and after enduring 1980 film The Awakening with Charlton Heston I'd take this kind of iteration any day.

7/10

[Takoma11]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/First_Cow_poster.jpeg
By IMP Awards / 2020 Movie Poster Gallery / First Cow Poster (#1 of 3), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62778899

First Cow - (2019)

I'd borrowed First Cow from the library

Me too! *library high five*

Thank you.

I humbly offer these 4 popcorns to you, the Canadian people.