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The Tin Star (1957)

I prefer my westerns a bit (actually quite a lot) more cynic and nihilistic. Instructions to young sheriff sounded quite silly and marriage advice was about as smart.

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The Book Of Henry (Colin Trevorrow, 2017)
+
Beyond childish





Interesting signature movie of Chantal Ackerman. Much prefer Jeanne Dielman.
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The Wild Bunch (1969)

In regards to my previous snippet about The Tin Star this one surely doesn't lack cynicism and nihilism. In Peckinpah's world human life has very little value and violence is everywhere. There's nostalgia for the old days when man's word was worth something but even such pride is quickly drowning on greed and blood.

Stylistically The Wild Bunch is somewhere between traditional American westerns and Leone with Peckinpah's trademark violence. It feels little too long and little too interested on some meaningless details (like how Pike got the scar in his leg). A big plus for the starting credits (Peckinpah is quite a master with these) and the use of children. Not as good as Leone's best but still very formidable western.







Motherless Brooklyn


So this might be my most conflicted film I've seen in a while. This is very similar to Inherent Vice that came out years ago which is a period piece mystery with this massive cast that feels like they just do a little bit for their credit role. It fails as a mystery and as an epic but it succeeds as a period piece drama.



Parts of this film are really good but Norton just indulges himself to much in the lead role. He's basically a PI in a firm but he suffer tourettes and OCD. Many times in the film we're told about events that would have been better to have been seen. Also the body count kinda sucks so a lot of threads are just hanging around.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Good Boys (Gene Stupnitsky, 2019)
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Santa Fe Trail (Michael Curtiz, 1940)

Dora and the Lost City of Gold (James Bobin, 2019)
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The Charge of the Light Brigade (Michael Curtiz, 1936)


Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

The Art of Racing in the Rain (Simon Curtis, 2019)
+
Johnny Eager (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942)

The Man Without Gravity (Marco Bonfanti, 2019)

Bye Bye Birdie (George Sidney, 1963)
-

Teenager Ann-Margret enjoys being a girl but she also thinks how lovely to be a woman.
Black Gunn (Robert Hartford-Davis, 1972)

El doctor (Suzan Pitt, 2006)

The Take (Robert Hartford-Davis, 1974)

The Great War (Mario Monicelli, 1959)


Italian conscriptees Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi have intense and comedic encounters with the Austrians during WWI.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974)

Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)

Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)
+
Honeygiver Among the Dogs (Dechen Roder, 2006)
+

Mystery with supernatural overtones has Bhutan inspector Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk going undercover trying to solve what's happening with his prime suspect (Sonam Tashi Choden) and how she's connected to a missing Buddhist abbess.
Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962)
+
A Paper Tiger (Luis Ospina, 2008)

Balangiga: Howling Wilderness (Khavn, 2017)

Glory (Edward Zwick, 1989)


Former slave Denzel Washington is flogged for going AWOL while his commanding officer (Matthew Broderick) looks on.
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the samoan lawyer's Avatar
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I thought parts were good and others weak. The ending was jawdropping. My rating on a par with yours SL.

Agreed Marco. Not an easy film to get through and at times frustrating but worth sticking with. Suppose that can be applied to a lot of Haneke's filmography.
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"Honor is not in the Weapon. It is in the Man"

The Shed (Frank Sabatella, 2019)
A throwback to 80's monster films like The Pit, where a bullied teen discovers a vampire-like creature in his tool shed. He doesn't want anything to do with the monster after he kills the teen's abusive grandfather but his buddy, who has also been bullied, has other plans. Some nice twists and turns throughout the film and adds a tinge of comedy when it comes to our hero Stan and his crush, Rosie. The young cast (Jay Jay Warren, Sofia Happonen, Cody Kostro) did a really good job with veterans Timothy Bottoms, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, and Frank Whaley (as the creature himself) really elevating the youngsters' performances.
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Mike Wallace Is Here (2019)


This is a mostly absorbing 90 minutes that goes by quickly. I think the producers/writers were pretty pleased that they'd been able to showcase some of Wallace's emotional side, and it is illuminating to learn a little about the man behind the sword and shield.

Wallace evidently debuted his attack style interview methods in the 1950s on the old Night Beat TV show in NYC then again on ABC with Mike Wallace Interview. Later during the long run of 60 Minutes on CBS, the inquisition type interview was honed to a fine art, which unfortunately has lead to today's "gotcha" type interviews masquerading as journalism that those in the industry have apparently come to believe is absolutely necessary.

Wallace quickly became an icon of the "tough interview". Looking back it's surprising that many of the interviewee's subjected themselves to that type of exposure. Perhaps it's akin to a defendant wanting to get on the witness stand to make the jury see their side of the story, only to learn too late that the prosecutor is very adept at making the witness look like a guilty fool.

Nowadays it's common to see questions along the lines of, "Do you still beat your wife?" That type of shoddy journalism is a direct descendant of Wallace's work. But in the early days it was fresh, fascinating and fun to see him skewer previously hidden subjects. Wallace was seemingly a fearless interrogator, with black shark-like eyes who always seemed to be looking for the checkmate. The documentary is able to examine both sides of the man and provide a testament to his legacy.

Doc's rating: 7/10



Soldier Blue (1970)

Another western that pushed the limits of movie violence. Its bloodshed is more bloody than The Wild Bunch but it can't match Peckinpah's brutal cynicism and misanthropy. Instead it leaves a preachy impression and paints the world too black and white.

Soldier Blue is rather an odd film. It's like a romantic comedy with massacres at both ends. There's not much chemistry between the leads (mostly because the soldier is such a wuss). The ending could have been effective but now the film doesn't build into it; all we get is a glance of unadulterated evil shown from the safety of the moral high ground.

Maybe it'll grow on me but for now...




the samoan lawyer's Avatar
Unregistered User

Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)


Another excellent film by Almodóvar. Not sure whether I'm watching better films of his or else just appreciating his work much more now. Was never much of a fan a few years back. Carmen Maura absolutely stole the show here.






Manta Ray (2018)


Nice visuals but really slow. Felt a tad too cryptic for me.





Eshtebak [Clash] (Mohamed Diab, 2016)

Revolutionary I suppose, though I'm surprised there aren't more rave reviews about the use of lasers

Goat (Andrew Neel, 2016)

All about beatings and bleatings




DOCTOR SLEEP
(2019)



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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
@mark f all one needs to do is leave you unguarded for a year, and you switch from Movie Tab II (the patrician zone) to Rate The Last Movie You Saw (the pleb zone). What's next, switching from art cinema to mindless Spielberg fun? Oh, wait...
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.