Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.


Women Who Loved Cinema, Parts I & II (Marianne Khoury, 2002)
6.5/10
Bad Girls from Mars (Fred Olen Ray, 1990)
3/10
The Argument (Robert Schwartzman, 2000)
6/10
Unpregnant (Rachel Lee Goldenberg, 2020)
6.5/10

Road trip from Missouri to Albuquerque by two former best friends (Haley Lu Richardson & Barbie Ferreira) to get an abortion is mostly played for laughs and it earns them.
Guest House (Sam Macaroni, 2020)
5/10
Blackbird (Roger Michell, 2020)
+ 6/10
Rogue (MJ Bassett, 2020)
5/10
You Don't Nomi (Jeffrey McHale, 2019)
+ 6.5/10

Examination of Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls from multiple angles is just as entertaining as the movie.
Lost Girls and Love Hotels (William Olsson, 2020)
5/10
Silent Heart (Bille August, 2014)
+ 6/10
Guilt (Karl Jenner & Lyndsay Sarah, 2020)
5/10
The Grizzlies (Miranda de Pencier, 2018)
- 7/10

Hopeless Inuit tribe members learn self-respect and hard work by training to become a lacrosse team.
The Big Ugly (Scott Wiper, 2020)
5/10
Luxury Car (Chao Wang, 2006)
6/10
Fear Pharm (Dante Yore, 2020)
- 5/10
Beats (Brian Welsh, 2019)
6.5/10

Scotland, 1994. At the height of the rave scene, two friends (Cristian Ortega & Lorn Macdonald) grow closer and trip out on drugs.
Sivas (Kaan Müjdeci, 2014)
+ 6/10
Primal (Nicholas Powell, 2019)
5/10
Krane's Confectionery (Astrid Henning-Jensen, 1951)
6/10
The Juniper Tree (Nietzchka Keene, 1990)
6.5/10

Witch Björk uses her powers to control her adopted son (Geirlaug Sunna Þormar), among others.
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matt72582's Avatar
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The Fidel Castro Tapes
Pretty amazing that Castro withstood over 600 (admitted) attempts on his life by the CIA, economic embargo, you name it, and yet still able to provide health care to all its citizens (and around the world).. I should look for documentaries made by Cuba as opposed to the constant one-sided stuff.




Survivor 5s #2 Bitch
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)



I quite liked Hittman's first two films, It Felt Like Love and Beach Rats. Both had an ethereal, dream like quality to them whilst feeling very raw and very real too. It's the same sorta situation here. There's not a lot of dialogue, but it was a very raw, compelling and confronting film and a great character study. Hittman is definitely one to watch and I can't wait to see what she does next.




The Juniper Tree (Nietzchka Keene, 1990)
6.5/10

Witch Björk uses her powers to control her adopted son (Geirlaug Sunna Þormar), among others.
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I really dig The Juniper Tree. Especially the way that their actions begin as survival and then morph into something else.

Enola Holmes (2020)

Quite amusing and brainless fun is too often dragged down by heavy-handed feminism. Other than that I enjoyed it more than I expected.
I love a good Holmes adaptation, and I don't care if creators take liberties with the character or original stories (for example I really like Laurie King's series that starts with The Beekeeper's Apprentice). So I've been sad to see the "C+" consensus about this one. I haven't heard anyone say it's bad, per se, just consistently people are like "yeah, it's okay."



Run Silent, Run Deep 1958 Robert Wise

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The Final Countdown 1980 Don Taylor

Great watch, flawed but still very enjoyable, recommended for eighties time travel flick fans, it felt like a long big budget episode of the Twilight Zone, really cool!


Gardens of Stone 1987 Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola was having a rough time in his personal life during the making of this film yet he still managed to deliver a solid drama. A film that ironically deals with the same issues he was going through, the loss of a young loved one.


Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987 John Hughes (RE-Watch)

Re-watch so I knew what was coming, still Hughes managed to gut punch me right in the feels with the final scenes.



Gully Boy (Zoya Akhtar, 2019)

More like 800 Yards than 8 Mile but doesn't really miss a beat (or a cliché)



the samoan lawyer's Avatar
Unregistered User
This film deserves more attention from the horror movie fandom. Especially for that nervy ending.



Aw, I liked this one.

The concept alone that these
WARNING: spoilers below
sea creatures evolved or something through unethical scientific experimentation and then used old medical footage to cobble together a sick version of in-virto fertilization
is worth at least two stars!

Agree on both points Takoma. ADS is one of the best occultist films I've watched in a while and took me by surprise how good it was. Very atmospheric.


With Evolution, it just totally dragged for me. Great to look at and like you say, nice concept but for me that was as far as it went. Really unsatisfying for me.
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Leaving Las Vegas, 1995

I'm sick, work is sucking the life out of me, and two of the children I've been teaching in person are currently quarantining because they've been exposed to COVID.

So why did I decide to watch a movie about a man dying of alcohol addiction and his complicated, fraught relationship with an abused Vegas sex worker? No idea. You may not be shocked to learn that the film was kind of intense and a bit too much for me right now. LOL.

Ben (Nicholas Cage) is a former Hollywood screenwriter in the late stages of alcoholism. He forms an uneasy bond with Sera (Elizabeth Shue), a sex worker living a dangerous life working the strip. The two of them are able to be with each other because they develop a mutual understanding: she won't try to make him stop drinking, he won't try to make her stop working.

Most of the praise for this film has to go to Cage and Shue for their fearless performances. Whatever charm Ben used to possess has long since drowned in a sea of booze, and yet Sera still sees the fragments and unwisely pins hopes on them. Sera has developed a veneer of non-judgement, which is just what Ben needs--someone to look the other way while he drinks in the shower just so that he can calm his jitters enough to put away a basic meal. They are two lost souls who, in a romantic comedy, would save each other. But this is not a romantic comedy.

Mike Figgis's direction sometimes leans toward the melodramatic, especially in the repeated use of slow motion accompanied by somber jazz, but overall I liked the way that the film was shot. When it comes to Ben's withdraw or the humiliations that Sear suffers in her job, Figgis repeatedly walks just the right line between showing enough to help us understand their pain and suffering without showing so much that it feels like exploitation. Whether it's Ben violently experiencing withdraw or a violent, harrowing assault that Sear endures at the hands of a trio of men, Figgis draws the line at empathy. It keeps the intense events feeling real and doesn't force the actors to go to extremes--something that could have tripped the film into self-parody.

The way that the film is shot also makes Vegas itself into a third main character. Ben and Sera live perpetually on the fringe of people who are living much better lives. It made me think a bit of the dynamic in The Florida Project, where the degree of prosperity and escapism by the characters around them only heighten the plight of the central figures.

This was an emotionally brutal film, but one that I couldn't look away from.

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Cant blame you for watching it. These types of films are my go to when times are hard, in fact the more intense the better lol



the samoan lawyer's Avatar
Unregistered User

A Taxi Driver (2017)


Based on the true story of the Gwangju Uprising, this is a tragic but uplifting film with the always-brilliant Kang-ho Song as lead character. Thoroughly recommended.






Unquiet Graves (2018)


Powerful documentary on the notorious Glenanne Gang who were involved in over 120 murders in the north and the exposure of collusion within the British government. I know there are few here that are interested in The Troubles, so make sure and look into this one.





The ending was pure madness! Can easily see how it could ruin the film but I liked it.
Agreed, going from the relatively sombre to that ending could have ruined the film but it didn't!



You folks all liked A Dark Song more than I did, I could only give it a
back in '17. Mebbe I'll give it a second chance if it comes on the gogglebox.



Finally joined Netflix after meaning to for a few years now, desperately wanted to see this film so joined, definitely worth it as this was a lot of fun:






Snooze factor = 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



With Evolution, it just totally dragged for me. Great to look at and like you say, nice concept but for me that was as far as it went. Really unsatisfying for me.
I seem to have liked it much more than any of my sci-fi or horror friends.

I completely acknowledge that it is a slow film. I found that it evoked a lot of thoughts and feelings in me, but I recognize that many of the things I liked about it "weren't on the page". I enjoyed the imagery and the performances and I have a bit more tolerance for a slow burn. Certainly not a film that most people are going to love.

Cant blame you for watching it. These types of films are my go to when times are hard, in fact the more intense the better lol
What I really wanted was something light and fluffy, but in lieu of a baking show or something I went with a Good Film.



Run Silent, Run Deep 1958 Robert Wise

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Both thumbs way up! The granddaddy of the good submarine films. Gable and Lancaster-- what a pairing. And there's even a nice part by the young Don Rickles.





Orpheus, 1950

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that the 1950s blessed us with two different, awesome takes on the Orpheus myth?

In this version of the story Orpheus is a nationally renowned poet living with his pregnant wife, Euridyce. One day he witnesses the killing of a young man--another poet--and is whisked into a car by a mysterious woman who he later discovers is Death. Obsessed with the mysterious woman, her car (through which the dead poet transmits powerful verses), Orpheus fails to realize that Death's interest in him has put Euridyce in danger.

Easily the best thing about this film is the use of visual effects and the mood generated by the visual and audio design. This is hardly a shock considering it's Cocteau behind the camera. The film utilizes many tricks: slow motion, reverse motion, deceptive angles, layered imagery, and more. The sense of the unnatural intruding into real life is powerful and unnerving, such as when a pair of gloves seem to put themselves on a man's hands, or when an unseen wind pushes against one man while not affecting another. The performances are also solid, especially Maria Casares as Death and Francois Perier as Heurtebise, her assistant who does not approve of the way that she meddles with the living.

I am a huge fan of Black Orpheus and its terrifying portrayal of Death as a masked killer who stalks Euridyce through Carnaval. This film takes an entirely different approach, positing the tension in the story as a love, well, square. The four corners are Orpheus (who loves Death and Euridyce), Death (who loves Orpheus), Euridyce (who loves Orpheus), and Heurtebise (who loves Euridyce but also seems to have some borderline romantic feelings about Orpheus at certain moments). Both Death and Orpheus act out of selfishness, and the conflict in the film mostly stems from their choices and actions.

Something that is kind of bold in this interpretation of the myth is just how unsympathetic Orpheus is. The guy is, to put it bluntly, kind of a self-centered jerk. At one point, Heurtebise tells him that Euridyce (yes, his pregnant wife) is dying, and Orpheus, listening to the car radio, replies that it's a "trick" that she's pulling to get his attention. A strange element of the movie, to me, was how often Orpheus references Euridyce/women as being tricky or playing games or being manipulative. I'm not sure if this was done to illustrate him being self-centered, or if we were to actually believe that this is true of Euridyce. She is probably the least developed character, and it was a bit hard to get a read on her.

Overall I really enjoyed the way that the story was adapted. Small touches, like Death's motorcycle-riding violent henchmen were fun. But I also enjoyed larger changes, such as the "don't look at her" rule extending beyond their return from the underworld. There's a ridiculous, basically screwball sequence in the house when they return and Orpheus can't look at her but keeps almost looking at her. It seems a fitting punishment that in paying the price for ignoring his wife, he is now forbidden to look at her.

I do wish that Euridyce had been a little better developed as a character. For a lot of the film she's just nice and pretty and generally affable. She gets a bit more heft in the final act--especially in a sequence where she considers just dying so that she and Orpheus don't have to play the "don't look" game anymore. I also felt like the sequence in which the judges of the afterlife make their decisions needed a bit more elaboration. The judgement that Orpheus can't look at Euridyce feels kind of arbitrary, and I would have liked more explanation. But these are pretty minor quibbles, and didn't majorly impact my enjoyment of the film.

Big thumbs up from me, and about tied with Black Orpheus in terms of a great adaptation of the story.