Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I too have rejected watching it, although it's surely a well made picture. But I assumed it was full of gore, which I don't like.

I sure agree with you about Birdman though. One of the great films. A dream cast and a fresh story.

Yes, exactly!

I thought that the sheer number of believable emotional attachments and resentments helped to overcome this element of his performances. For example, the sequence where (MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!). And I felt that way about a lot of the key scenes in the film.

I also think that his non-verbal work is stronger, and this film gives him a lot of opportunities to dig into the physical side of things without the burden of line deliveries.

If the Oscar was mostly given to him on the basis of the effort put in . . . well, I'm not mad about it. However we all feel about his acting, he was clearly all in with this role and I'm sure it upped everyone's game.

At one point, that scene took on almost They Live levels of seeming infinity. At one point I actually said out loud "How is he still being mauled by this bear?!?!"

The Revenant is my possibly favorite from both Inarritu and DiCaprio. It's the kind of artistically driven, virtuoso filmmaking mixed with genre and existentialism that hits the cinematic sweet spot for me. It's as if Malick and Peckinpah decided to adapt McCarthy. It even has imagery that compliments the themes of Birdman and makes them companion films in way that Innaritu's previous films aren't.

In a lot of ways it feels like a really effective blend of a lot of elements. I think that its momentum (for 2.5 hours!) is really something else.

I appreciate your take on his performance, but from what I remember, I only felt what you felt for a couple of the more dramatic scenes in the film (to a lesser degree, the bear attack was another one). Most of the time when I watched the film though, he gave me the "I'm just watching an actor act" impression. It's been some time since I've seen the film, so another viewing may change my mind, but this is what I remember.

I also think that many people (not you, by the way) were willing to give whatever DiCaprio did a free pass before he won Best Actor for The Revenant. People should win Oscars because they deserve them. Not because we think their Oscar win is long overdue and that they've been snubbed for Best Actor in the past, and I think this was the prevailing attitude which many people felt for a while. Mainly "He should win an Oscar, because he's been snubbed for one in the past" as opposed to "He should win an Oscar, because he gave the best performance by any male actor this year".

I don't dislike DiCaprio per se. Like, he's watchable and I did enjoy a bit of his work in The Revenant. However, I don't think he gave the best performance of that particular year, so I don't agree with his Oscar win.

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Exactly! I think the film manages to hit those character and existential beats but it's all stitching these elaborate and effective sequences that are simply gripping. The way the film fluctuates between beautiful, harrowing and surreal within the context of one of these sequences (the opening battle between the fur traders and the natives exemplifies this) is the kind of thing too few films even attempt, let alone attain.

I think DiCaprio said more with his eyes in a single scene than most actors could manage with a monologue. Compared to previous winners, it's a more than deserving win. His work here, Wolf of Wall Street, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are simply outstanding.

It's been a while since I've seen TWoWS, so I don't remember much about his performance. I liked his performance in OUaTiH quite a bit better though, even though, yeah, his performance in The Revenant has its moments here and there. Just not enough for me to have the same connection that you did.

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The Physician - (2013)

Noah Gordon's The Physician was far more popular in Europe than his native United States, and thus the Germans saw fit to adapt his novel - the version I saw was the 150 minute version, but on television this was expanded to 180 minutes. It starts in the year 1021, where a child (Rob Cole, played by Tom Payne) latches on to a man only known as 'Barber' (the excellent Stellan Skarsgård) - these were the days where all your ailments, from cancer to the plague, were sorted out by barbers. Unsuccessfully. Cole becomes his apprentice, but is unhappy about how little they know about medicine, and how all their 'cures' just seem to make patients worse. He sets off for the world's only medical school - disguising himself as a Jew in the Far East.

I find this topic fascinating, but I never felt this film was reliably giving me any correct information. It depicts the Persians as having a medical knowledge beyond that which you'd expect a doctor to have in the year 1900 - and the exhortations of 'this is a true story' are conspicuously absent. Aside from Stellan Skarsgård, the actors seem to walk this job through - and it's a long walk, even at the reduced running time. Still, it captured my attention and left me hungry for more information. A highlight being what appears to be the World's first ever surgery - an appendectomy on the Shah. When were the first ever surgeries performed? Who brought medical knowledge to the rest of the world? The Physician gives us a melodramatic, and perhaps completely made up, answer.

5/10


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Portrait of a Lady on Fire - (2019) - France

Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel disappear into their characters in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, so completely I forget they're actors. This is a bright, beautifully filmed tale about really seeing another person, completely, with penetration. With questioning eyes. It doesn't need big loud lesbian sex scenes - the real power lies in the way the two characters look at each other. Writer and director Céline Sciamma finds the perfect way to show us this with Marianne (Merlant) charged with painting a portrait of Héloïse (Haenel) in secret. Her long looks as she accompanies the latter on walks along a Brittany coast unleashes a kind of communication lacking if she didn't intend to find the soul of her subject, which indeed, at the start, she doesn't.

You really need the trailer though, to appreciate the beauty :



I look forward to seeing this film again, this time allowing my eyes to take everything I didn't see the first or second time. I found it hard to take my attention away from the two actor's expressive faces - especially Haenel. Céline Sciamma won 'Best Screenplay' for this at Cannes (it is good) as well as the 'Queer Palm' - an award I feel is odd. Very good movie.

8/10



Butterfly on a Wheel - (2007) - (aka - Shattered, aka - Desperate Hours)

I caught this on television, 30 minutes in, and it held my attention well enough right to the finish - mainly due to a particularly strong performance by Pierce Brosnan. He kept on reminding me of the small part he played in The Long Good Friday way back in 1980. Although also an antagonist in this, he is at times far more fragile and wounded than a crazy gunman - when we come across his character's son (played by Dustin Milligan) his motivations for doing what he's doing become fascinating. I was already fascinated just by what he was doing at that stage.

I won't say much more, except that on a second viewing this fell more into the 'average thriller' range instead of something I insist everyone see. Gerard Butler and Maria Bello don't rise to the challenge as much as Brosnan does in this, and once you know what everything is about it doesn't hold the edge of anticipation it does on a first viewing.

5/10

I've seen this film twice and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. First put on to it from a great review in Empire. As you mentioned, the dancing scene in the pub is a highlight.

Vice Squad

Vicious, relentless, gritty and thoroughly engaging. Would pair nicely with either Taxi Driver or the Terminator. My kinda flick.

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Come out to play-ay.

I will concede that his "best acting ever" scene in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood was impressive and was probably the first time I ever liked him as an actor or thought he was worthy of all the work he gets. But I kinda felt like, "See, Buckaroo! You can do this!"

One of my personal favorites for the last 35 years or so. Another one I did a significant write-up of, in part out of the pleasure of it and part to shine a light on the film, that was lost to the death of Corri.
Wings Hauser is just so ****ing vicious in this. The movie, to me, has a real credibility to it.

Hell House LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel (D)

Better than the original, but still very bad. I don't get why the original got a sequel, and why this one did as well. This one is at least corny ina 2000s/2010s kind of way.

Set in 1983, the film follows Dr. Barry Nyle (Michael Rogers), the director at a New Age research facility that's selling itself as a haven for those wanting to find true happiness. However, in reality what he's doing is experimenting on unsuspecting patients, primarily a young woman called Elena (Eva Allan), who seems to have some level of telekinetic powers.

But anyway, Cosmatos makes an effort of conveying uneasiness, uncomfortability, dread, and mystery with pretty much every image. His clever use of colors and sterile aesthetics along with a very appropriate set design, a hypnotic 80s-synth score, and some odd, unique directorial choices certainly make this film one that will stick with you afterwards.

Grade:

(Tempted to go as high as 4.5, but I will let it sit for a while)

Full review on my Movie Loot

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I came across this after watching the director's Flesh Meat Dolls, an extremely vile 15 minute short. I said hey this kind of looks like a normal movie. Well not quite as it's full of hardcore sex-not a complaint, just an observation. It's too low budget to be truly decent, but it effectively shows how some poor girls are preyed upon and taken advantage of in horrible ways.

In the Heights -

I saw this musical, which is about the Hispanic residents of Washington Heights coping with oncoming gentrification, on HBO Max, but I encourage you to see it in a theater while you still can. It is a visual delight in every way, especially in terms of color. Everything on screen from the apartment buildings to the dancers' outfits to the products on the shelves at protagonist Usnavi's bodega make the movie burst with life. The emotional tone also has a lot to do with this, which I would describe and unashamedly and unabashedly sincere. The best thing of all, though, is that unlike other modern movies that fit this description, I never felt bombarded by the visuals or that I was forced to maintain a smile for the entire running time. Other things I appreciate about the movie are the song and dance numbers - each of which are fun, memorable and have just enough surreality to them - and that we never see the villains. The incoming "rich people and hipsters," as Usnavi refers to them, are only mentioned in passing, and I approve because it lets us spend more time with him, his friends, his family, etc. With all that said, this is no Hamilton (but what is) and it has an odd "siloed" quality that is also a problem in Jon M. Chu's last movie, Crazy Rich Asians. By that, I mean that some of the stories involving the supporting characters, pal Benny and just returned home love interest Nina in particular, often seem so removed from the main narrative that they might as well be in another movie. I get that this is an ensemble movie with many players, many stories, etc., but I would have liked for there to be a bit more interconnectedness. I still think this is the best movie I've seen so far this year and would not be surprised if it remains at or near the top by the end of it. Oh, and it may have the best scene that takes place on a subway train since the original The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.