Rate The Last Movie You Saw

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes
I recommend checking this out. Even if you barely know about her like myself.



__________________

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Some Almodovar's films:





I rate the first 6/10 and the second 7/10. Both are decent but not special films.

I just finished watching Cuties (2020). This was my 3rd time watching the film. Directed by Maïmouna Doucouré, Cuties is a controversial coming of age drama. Fathia Youssouf stars as Amy, an 11 year old Muslim girl torn between the values and traditions of her family and the Cuties, a dance group of "cool girls" at her school.

First, I want to say that I apologetically love this film. Cuties is a powerful and beautiful film that isn't afraid to make some bold choices and take risks. It is challenging and provocative. Fathia Youssouf is a revelation and I absolutely loved her beautiful, brave performance. Médina El Aidi-Azouni is fantastic too and the other girls in the film are good too. The film has depth, heart, and is always engaging and compelling. The opening shot is wonderful and captivating and the final shot is fantastic.

There was a lot of controversy that started even before the film was released. Netflix mishandled the marketing and some people got the wrong impression and made assumptions about the film without seeing it. I remember when I posted my review of the film on Facebook in some movie groups and got a lot of insults and called nasty names from people who didn't know me and hadn't even seen the film. Cuties is absolutely not child pornography. It is not an exploitation film. It was not made for paedophiles. Cuties is an excellent, well crafted film that raises important questions and intentionally doesn't provide easy answers.

One Day (2011)

Kimi - An updated Rear Window style suspense film where a stream analyst for an 'alexa' like device hears a murder and tries to bring about justice. The issue is she is an agoraphobic and must overcome that fear. Well acted by Zoe Kravitz and well written with little set-ups littered throughout. Directed by Soderbergh and shot during the pandemic, which does play a role in her agoraphobia.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage - - One of the most "meh" movies I've seen in a long time. No room to breathe, no set-ups, just plot point to plot point. It moves at a quick pace and at 97 minutes, she's a short one. Didn't care for the bromance between Brock and Venom. The comedy fell flat and despite some well shot sequences, the film was kind of boring.

I Want You Back - Charlie Day and Jenny Slate are broken up by their respective partners, whom they thought they were going to spend the rest of their lives with. They meet up and hatch a plan to break-up their exes new relationships...but will they fall in love along the way??? Classic rom-com set up and execution. Fine for a time killer and nothing new brought to the table. It was enjoyable for what it wanted to achieve,

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Turning Red (2022) Rewatched on blu ray with the audio commentary. Still my favourite film of the year so far. Turning Red is cute and funny. I really enjoyed the story and the characters.

L'Atalante, 1934

Jean (Jean Daste) marries Juliette (Dita Parlo) and then brings her to live on his canal boat with two of his workers, including the eccentric Jules (Michael Simon). But the figurative honeymoon is soon over as Juliette feels penned in and Jean can't control his jealousy, leading to a catastrophic blow-up when the canal boat temporarily docks in Paris.

This was the last film made by Jean Vigo before he died, and his only feature film. It really speaks to a strong visual talent.

The best thing about the film is the way that it exists at once in a grubby sort of reality and in a borderline-dream reality. There are some lovely strange or surreal touches, like a sequence where Jean, having jumped into the river, is suddenly taken with a vision of Juliette floating in the water in her wedding dress. Later, the two lovers (in different beds) awaken covered by the same shadow pattern, each physically longing for the other. Through the whole film the presence of dozens of cats who overrun the boat add a sense of whimsy, including a sequence where they surround a phonograph as it plays music.

From a story point of view, the film shows a very realistic dynamic whereby two people don't really bring out the best in each other. The performances are very good, to be sure. Especially Michael Simon as the odd ship hand.

One of the challenges I had with this film was that I found it hard to root for anyone in it, and especially hard to root for the relationship between Jean and Juliette. Jean is controlling and abusive. And not in some nuanced, "that was then" way. When he doesn't like how Juliette behaves, he hits her. When he doesn't like someone flirting with her, he drags her back to the boat and orders her to stay there while HE gets to go out and enjoy the Paris night life. When she goes out anyway, he pulls up the anchor and abandons her with no resources in Paris. Jean, to put it mildly, is a grade A jerk, and we see little of his "nice side" to balance out all the crappy stuff he does to Juliette. Juliette is better than Jean, but she also, you know, throws around racial slurs. It's hard to tell if we are meant to find Juliette to be a flirt or what. She enjoys getting attention from Jules and a peddler who compliments her, but who wouldn't want a little attention after being locked away on a boat with a husband who spends most of his time berating her?

Even Jules, who at first seems like a harmless eccentric was a bit over the edge for me. If you'd like me to pinpoint the moment he crossed the line, well, I'd say it was around the time that . And while there isn't as much animal mishandling as I anticipated given the number of cats, there's still quite a bit of rough handling or throwing them around in dangerous ways.

Despite feeling like a lot of the characters were the worst, I still really enjoyed this film. Jean and Juliette are clearly that couple who has great sex and is also terrible to each other for the entire duration of their relationship. I'm glad I don't have to share a canal boat with them, to put it mildly. Overall, this was a good watch. It was an engaging story with a real visual flair.

I agree with you. It's one of Hitchcock's best, and IMO one of the great films of all time-- a near perfect film in every aspect. In fact after watching the clip you posted I'm about ready for another re-watch..

I didn't realize until a few years ago that the screen play was based on the great Cornell Woolrich's It Had to be Murder. Woolrich of course was one of the most go-to guys for source material for some of the great noirs in the 1940s (e.g. Phantom Lady, The Black Angel, and dozens of others.). He was a sad case in real life, but what a writer!

By http://www.activitaly.it/immaginicin...ages/paisa.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11288934

Paisan - (1946)

Wow, okay, this was more like it - the brilliant stuff I was expecting from Rossellini. Rome, Open City got all of the attention when it comes to these early films, but Paisan really is a work of complexity, yet simplicity. The film is made up of six episodes which detail the clashes of culture and language that occurred when Americans fought the Nazis and Italian fascists from South to North Italy during the Second World War. Gradually, the stories have Americans and Italians getting closer to each other until the film ends with a stunning act of sacrifice and brotherhood. Language barriers, mistrust, hatred and cultural differences prove to be tough barrier to cross, and some of the early stories have the Italians regarding the Americans as not so different from the Germans, but slowly they learn about each other. Each story has a very impactful ending, with poverty, lost love, tragic death and religious inspiration all playing roles. I enjoyed this film very much, and I'm looking forward to watching Germany Year Zero tonight.

8/10

__________________

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)


My favorite movie of 2017, and the person I wanted to show this to for the first time fell asleep during it....I can't blame her, it is a slow burn. That might be its only fault, if it even qualifies. The world, the acting...everything is terrific.

So thanks to some car trouble last week and me having to follow up on it multiple times since then (long story short, I’m getting a brand new engine at no cost to myself), I built up quite the backlog (about one week’s worth by the look of it). And since there’s no way I can catch up with it the way that things currently stand… lightning round!

Bitter Rice (1949) —
The Mill on the Po (1949) —

Variety Lights (1950) —
Bright Road (1953) —
I Vitelloni (1953) —
The Cousins (1959) —

Zaziw Dans Metro (1960) —
Doctor Dolittle (1967) —

Amityville II: The Possession (1982) —
Top Secret! (1984) —
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) —
The Little Mermaid (1989) —

Predator 2 (1990) —
Aladdin (1992) —
Basic Instinct (1992) —
Finding Christa (1992) —
The Hours and Times (1992) —
The Inland Sea (1992) —
Billy Madison (1995) —
Hercules (1997) —
Mulan (1998) —

Lilo & Stitch (2002) —
Punch Drunk Love (2002) —
Resident Evil (2002) —
One Missed Call (2003) —
Stitch! The Movie (2003) —
The Incredibles (2004) —
The Great Yokai War (2005) —

Jack and Jill (2011) —
Brave (2012) —
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) —
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) x2 —
Moana (2016) —

The Night House (2020) —
The French Dispatch (2021) —
Inside (2021) —
Onward (2021) —
Rurouni Kenshin (2021) —
Alice (2022) —
The Batman (2022) —

Small Town Crime (2017)

i loved it soo much. as a elizabeth olsen and scarlet witch fan elizabeth olsen is such a bad ass as scarlet witch, she did amazing job. hope theres gonna solo movie of scarlet witch like she said if they have a good storyline she definitely will be there!!! . amazing movie!!!! i loved it. bendict cumberbatch always does amazing job in his movies .

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood -

This is a sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying and always entertaining love letter to that era of cinema Tarantino adores so well: the late '60s, which he undoubtedly loves for having as many classic studio movies as classic B movies. Our hero, much to his chagrin, is in the latter camp: fictional actor Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), who headlined a popular Western series in the 1950s, but now scrounges for guest spots and lead roles in spaghetti westerns. His best friend and assistant is stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt), who's been with him since his heyday. Rick lives on Cielo Drive and is neighbors with the very real Sharon Tate (Robbie).

Like a talkative guest on a podcast whom the host cannot talk over such as, well, Tarantino tends to be, the director's movies exhaust me when his crew cannot keep his excesses under control. This is why I can take or leave his two westerns. Despite what this one's runtime would lead you to believe, more of it is spent in service of what I like about his movies than what I don't. DiCaprio and Pitt earn their Oscar recognition, the former for how Rick transitions from a prima donna to accepting of his new lot in life. The scene where he tearfully talks to a child co-star about a book he’s reading and how its main character's sad state resembles his own is easily my favorite and features what could be the best acting in DiCaprio's career. As for Pitt, he's convincing as the best friend anyone could hope for and a man who has quit trying to rid himself of his bad habit of picking fights. Both veterans also demonstrate that there is no more reliable comedy than when the handsomest or most beautiful performers play roles that take their egos down a notch, the highlights being when Rick gives a passionate monologue while wearing a ridiculous moustache and Booth's acid trip. None of what they, Robbie, et al do would be convincing if the movie didn't look and feel like '60s Hollywood, which is never a problem. It resembles the paradise Tarantino imagines it to be, so much so that there are moments when I wondered how they did it, especially when Pitt drives down a road covered with historically accurate signage, Rick appears in The Great Escape and the TV series FBI and of course that breathtaking moment when the lights turn on at landmarks like Cinerama and El Coyote. This is not all just a nostalgia trip, though: when Dalton and Booth get involved with Tate's unwelcome visitors, Tarantino delivers the chills. The moments when Cliff is subject to the dead-eyed glares of the residents of Spahn Ranch would not be out of a place in a horror movie.

Besides its history lesson, what else did I get out of this movie? The question "why don't the good times last" and all the bittersweet vibes that come from asking it, if anything. It's a question the movie asks in many ways from it being on Rick's mind half the time to the heinous crime that Tarantino argues ended these good times. I'm late to the party on this movie considering social media users barely share its best shots and memes anymore, but I'm glad I watched it now because the question would not have resonated during the miserable times when it came out like it would have during today's much more miserable ones. The movie is not perfect: there is a scene with Bruce Lee that rings false and whenever Tarantino reveals his most notorious fetish, it distracts much more than it contributes. I still rank it as one of his best, particularly for how it made me appreciate late '60s cinema even more than I already do, but especially for how its conclusion optimistically rephrases that big question: "what would it have been like if these good times lasted forever?"

Damon Wayans as boxing's Heavyweight Champion of the World, James "The Grim Reaper" Roper, looking like "a half sucked milk dud" as he weighs in for the fight of his career in The Great White Hype.

After a string of successful but lackluster payday championship fights, Wayans promoter, The Sultan (Samuel L. Jackson), decides that the only way to reinvigorate the heavyweight division is to find a white challenger. Good luck. "White Heavyweight? The words don't even go together." Well, if there's money to be made the Sultan will figure it out. What follows is a hilarious ride through the world of boxing promotion.

The film is bookended by in the ring action but that's all your gonna get to see about the Sweet Science. What you will see in the manipulation of everybody by the Sultan and his crew as he promotes this sham of a fight and it's glorious. On the sidelines we have Jamie Foxx, as the camera shy promoter for Marvin Shabazz, the number one contender, complaining about ducks and merlot bro-hams, Jeff Goldblum as an investigative journalist with a binder full of compromising pics of the Sultan, trying to expose the Sultan as a charlatan and Peter Berg as Irish "I'm NOT Irish" Terry Conklin, a burned out former amateur boxer with an explosive overhand right, "no significant brain damage," the last person to defeat Roper (as an amateur) and who has been spending the last ten years in Cleveland, fronting a band and living the dream?

This is written by Ron Shelton of Bull Durham, Tin Cup and White Men Can't Jump fame and directed by Reginald Hudlin, who does a great job of selling the hype in Shelton's script. The cast, which also includes Cheech Marin, Jon Lovitz, Corbin Bernsen, John Rhys-Davies and Salli Richardson-Whitfield, is running on all comedic cylinders. They each have their time to shine but Jackson, Goldblum and Foxx are really delivering. Can't remember if this is on my comedy ballot but it should be.

As for the Bruce Lee scene, while I understand why Lee's family took offense to it, I wasn't bothered by it. Since the movie takes place in a fantasy universe and is about not trusting the mythology of Hollywood, I don't think it's far off to say that theme extends to Bruce Lee's scene. Also, that the fight is told via flashback by Cliff, who may be an unreliable narrator, brings doubt to whether the scene happened the same way it was shown, or if that was Cliff's version of the events.

Still though, great review. It's definitely one of my top 3 Tarantino films.

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

I need to re-watch this.
I really didn't like it but I am a massive, life-long fan of the OG.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

This pleases me.
I don't know if we've ever talked about it but I grew up a fan of Scarlet Witch from the 70s comics (when I was a little kid) and she has always been one of my favorite Marvel characters and therefore one of my favorite characters, period, since I grew up a Marvel addict in the 70s and 80s.
I was a little disappointed in the on-screen representation of her in the first two films she appeared in (not because of Olsen who I think is a genuinely excellent actor but because the films kinda rushed through her minimal story-lines... or maybe minimized her existing story-lines) but the show really brought her into focus (even if I was let down by the finale).
I am so ready for her to really emerge.

(Honestly, I could give a shit about Cumberbatch's bland Doctor Strange, that's another character I grew up on and I think Marvel's desperation to replace Tony Stark led to them really norming this character to a point where he's not very interesting to me.)