Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Wonder Wheel (2017)

One of the most underrated films of 2017 and I totally agree with what you said about Willem Dafoe. Did you see him as Van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate...amazing performance.

I didn't read her biography but I did read her husband's, producer Robert Evans, and man was he hurt by it. He loved her, he never saw it coming, and he was devastated, at least per his report.

Exists, 2014 (F)

A found footage movie about bigfoot.

Straight up one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Like, top 2. Every 20 minutes, you feel like an hour has passed. I'm never one to root for the monster, and I don't here because the monster is crazy stupid, but every guy in that movie deserved to die, and the women are only there to scream. The camerawork is edited like garbage, and isn't even entirely found footage. There's a scene where a pig gets in the cabin, and for that total non-event, you get about 15 cuts in 10 seconds.

Right you are. Donna Reed won it that year for From Here to Eternity.

El sur (1983, Victor Erice)

One of the best films of the 21st Century:

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15892064


The Night of the Generals - (1967)

I've been aware of this film for decades, but just lately developed a curiosity about it. It has a very odd confluence of plots - the first being just a regular hunt for a serial killer, the other being the plot to kill Hitler that filmgoers will be familiar with in the film Valkyrie. If you're wondering how the hell those two things can converge, then you're starting to understand my curiosity. The second thing that stands out is the stellar cast, which includes Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Charles Gray, Christopher Plummer, Philippe Noiret and Donald Pleasence. It spans the years 1942 to 1965 and we go from Warsaw to Paris to Hamburg in search of someone killing and mutilating prostitutes who is suspecting of being (and having been) a German general during the Second World War. Major Grau (Omar Sharif) begins his hunt after it's revealed that the first murdered prostitute was actually a German agent.

There's an obvious parallel and problem inherent in hunting down a German General for murder : the fact that these Generals are murdering thousands of people all across Europe, often with barbaric methods, and with the full encouragement of their government. Many characters question why Major Grau is so determined to prosecute someone for one or two murders as opposed to countless others. "Justice" is something sacred to Grau - but what of justice for all of the others? I guess that's the question to ponder with The Night of the Generals - there does seem to be a three-way distinction made with the three General suspects in the film, played by Gray, Pleasence and O'Toole. One is a man of honor, one a man of dishonor and the other an outright murderer. It was an interesting film, and I'm glad I watched it. Although at times I thought it might have originally been in a foreign language (it wasn't - the dubbing was just a tad off) and the acting a bit stilted in a few cases. Still a heck of a story.

7/10

Yes, he was brilliant in At Eternity's Gate - it was a performance which raised him a level higher in my book as an actor, and he'd already been on the up-and-up with me for a long time up to that point. He's forging a rarified place with the real greats.

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Caravaggio (1986, Derek Jarman)

Hardcore Henry (2015)

Have had this on some kind of watch list for probably close to a decade. Story of a family who REALLY love the city they live in. Was completely unaware of how many iconic songs were going to be in this and they are all great. Wasn't as wrapped up in all the family drama as much as I liked the songs but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

On These Grounds (2021)


Terrific documentary about current state of policing in schools. Though it approaches the subject through a specific incident in South Carolina, it ultimately broadens the conversation to how the entire nation needs to learn from this. Both sides of the argument (less or more policing) are presented well, so even if you stand relatively firmly on one side of the debate, you will likely learn something here.

Louis CK: Sorry - 7.5/10


I refuse to watch a stand-up comedian who masturbates, but I'll make an exception for him.


I just left the "comedy" message board, and I've never seen more pious liars, saying things they don't believe in, because they think they're SUPPOSED to say it.. I've evaluated their comments, and it's ironic how they "change" along with the corporate approved line void of artistic license.


Not a great start (pedophilia), but COVID was good (the one thing that brought us together).. I especially loved the bits about those who write their own movies (Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting"), death, progressive generation, sex, and a great bit about guilt (seeing a black women over-evaluating bananas... "I could never ask my black friends who come if they want a banana"), and the mentioning a Jew doing the same thing, comparing Jews in America, and then asking, "But in Palestine, they're just killing people left and right"..



Not surprised this isn't on IMDB. Even though it's not great, I hope it makes a billion dollars so the liars die by choking on their crocodile tears.

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

The Power of the Dog (2021)

If one is familiar with the Biblical quote: “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog” (Psalm 22:20), or pays attention to the singular pertinent opening voice-over, then the ending twist in The Power of the Dog has been suggested.

Two brothers who own a Montana ranch --Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), an intense and scruffy bully; and George (Jesse Plemons), the shy, mannered business tender of the ranch-- have a monkey wrench thrown into their well worn relationship when George falls for, and marries the widow Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) who owns a frontier restaurant that is visited by the brothers and ranch hands during a cattle drive. George soon falls for and marries Rose, and brings her and her effeminate son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) home to the ranch.

Phil immediately resents Rose, and commences to try to ridicule and intimidate her. George is often away on business trips, leaving frequent opportunities for Phil to browbeat Rose. In addition both Phil and the ranch hands taunt Peter’s effeminate manor, activities, and clothes, although Peter seems content to ignore it. As a result of her predicament Rose takes to the bottle, and spends more time sheltered away in her bedroom.

However after awhile Phil suddenly takes an interest in Peter to the extent that he sets about showing him the ways of a cowboy in the manor that Phil learned from his deceased hero, Bronco Henry. Peter does learn to ride and wrangle, and takes some ranch survey trips with Phil. However Rose is suspicious and fearful that Phil has harmful intentions for Peter. Nevertheless her anxiety turns out to be unnecessary as the drama rolls into the final act.

To my taste the production excelled over the story. The facets that struck me most were the set design, costume design, and the cinematography of Ari Wegner. The picture didn’t quite rise to the epic level that the producers likely had in mind. Slow pacing in itself does not enhance nor promote majesty. Outside of the use of sweeping vistas and one scene of a large cattle drive, the picture was too confined to be a broad saga.

In truth the film has a similar atmosphere to There Will Be Blood (2007). There was the same underlying feel of dread and tension which was enhanced by Johnny Greenwood’s unusual musical score, who likewise scored TWBB. Also Phil’s character was reminiscent of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview in that picture. In fact I’d love to have seen Day-Lewis in Phil’s part. He would have been more consistent and believable portraying a flaky bully who tries to wreck a marriage. Cumberbatch’s previous memorable portrayals of various dandies, homosexuals, tortured scientists, and the like were a negative drag on his believability in this part. He could have used more swagger in this role.

Kirsten Dunst was superb as the wife thrust into the middle of an emotional triangle, who is not able to bear the pressure or to change her situation. That it’s not possible for a teetotalling innkeeper to degenerate into a closet alcoholic in a few week’s time does not detract from Dunst’s excellent portrayal. We can feel her anguish as she’s thrust into an impossible conflict.

Likewise Jesse Plemons provided solid and believable work representing the brother who does not like confrontation, who just wants everything to work out, and who believes that his wife is much stronger than she is. Kodi Smit-McPhee shines as Peter, the delicate son who prefers art and the study of medicine. One of the important focus points in the story, he turns out to be different than we expect.

I haven’t read the 1967 book by Thomas Savage, so it’s unknown how closely screenwriter/director Jane Campion stuck to it. The themes that were featured in the book that were fresh in 1967 are actually somewhat trite in 2021, and seemed relatively familiar. Still, it must have been a complex project to distill a lengthy novel down to a two hour film. Campion chose her home country of New Zealand to represent Montana, which visually served the movie well. Her work doesn’t quite carry the punch of her Oscar winning The Piano (1993), but here her efforts have fashioned a watchable if not memorable film which will surely attract some awards.

Available on Netfilx.

Doc’s rating: 7/10

Spider-Man: No Way Home
8/10.
I really enjoyed it....not so much intellectually, but emotionally so. This third installment in the franchise is definitely different: it is not as light, fun and quirky as the previous two Home movies... it is as dramatic as Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. This movie is way over the top. But I think fans of the Home franchise will like No Way Home, and I assume if you're going to see a third movie in the franchise, you'd be a fan. Fans of Dr. Strange (2016) should love this movie.

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Boldly going.

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I’ve watched a few more westerns:

Dances with Wolves: I’d not seen this since childhood and certainly not the 4 hour cut. For such a long movie, it certainly moves along gracefully and is executed with a deft hand behind and in front of the camera. It’s a sweeping epic whose white savior narrative isn’t quite as problematic as I’d been led to believer, given how much of the climax is an inverse of that dynamic. I’d go so far as too say it is both very good but far too long. Only a great film truly earns such a length but it’s still far more economical and effective than most modern TV series, which require at leas twice the time to accomplish half as much.

4/5

Rio Grande: A solid Ford/Wayne collaboration which is elevated by the family dynamic as Wayne plays an absentee military father whose son has been placed under his command. The stunt work is also quality and keeps it worth watching even when the narrative ultimately amounts to the same Cavalry vs. Apache tale Ford would tell many other times.

3.5/5

Chisum: Another Pat Garrett/Billy the Kid reimagining but it forgoes the usual assassination in favor of an earlier story in their lives. It’s pretty to look at, entertaining enough and John Wayne is at that point where he’s phoning it in but as become competent at his character so it still works.

3.5/5

Will Penny: Comes extremely close to being a realistic masterpiece of revisionist western and is likely Heston’s finest hour as a performer. The only reason it doesn’t reach a peak height comes from an unlikely source: the villains played brilliantly by Donald Pleasance and Bruce Dern. They would be utterly fantastic in a classic styled or even spaghetti western, but they feel garishly and comically at odds with the tone and style of the rest of the film.

4/5

Forty Guns: An odd reimagining of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone in which they postulate… What if Wyatt Earp was named Griff and the evil head honcho was actually woman he’d fallen in love with played by Barbara Stanwyck. It’s the kind of flagrant disregard for history that can result with a mess like the Outlaw but it the hands of Samuel Fuller’s sure hand, it becomes movie magic. Virtually every scene is a masterpiece of mise-en-scene, expertly filling the wide frame gorgeous high contrast imagery and gliding camera movement. There’s even an exceptional 3 min long take and close up of eyes that feel like precursors to Leone’s genre defining spaghetti westerns. Fantastic filmmaking elevating a merely decent narrative to pure cinema heights.

4.5/5

El Dorado: Another hangout western in the mold of the superior Rio Bravo, swapping Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson with the admittedly impressive Robert Mitchum and James Caan. It’s got a fun and twisty plot, a lot of vibrant imagery and a bombastic score courtesy of Nelson Riddle (of Lolita and Batman ‘66 fame). Solid genre fare.

4/5

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12798016

We Own the Night - (2007)

I found plenty to like about We Own the Night despite it garnering mixed reviews when it was released. I sought it out because I wanted to see all of the films James Gray has directed thus far, I loved The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra really won me over in the end - so I've gone back and found a well-acted cop drama/thriller with some really nice set-pieces. It takes place in New York during the 1980s, with Russian gangsters just starting to assert control over the drug trade. Two brothers, one a narcotics officer, the other a nightclub manager are at opposite ends of the spectrum - which causes their police officer father Burt (played by Robert Duvall) the usual grief. The brothers are played by Joaquin Phoenix (Bobby) and Mark Wahlberg (Joe) - Wahlberg having to tone down his usual forceful persona at a certain point, due to a trauma he goes through, and Phoenix undergoing a severe life turn-about due to events in the film. Eva Mendes appears as Bobby's girlfriend.

The film explores duty, (to your family - your friends - or the community) loyalty and bravery. It hits great heights with a terrific rain-swept car chase and shootouts, but it's main focus is it's characters - especially Bobby who undergoes a gradual change from start to end, from black sheep of the family and goof-off to something of a protector and savior. It's his presence we're drawn to and he gives the film most of it's dramatic impact. Eva Mendes really comes to the party as well, in a role that in another's hands might have been more forgettable - she's dynamic and very much alive. There's enough here to classify this as a good film that's worth watching.


7/10

Really liked this as well. I started it with no great expectations but found myself drawn in. Great performances by Phoenix and Duvall and Wahlberg. This is high on my list of NYC based cop movies.

P.S. I award extra points for any nightclub scene with Heart of Glass playing in the background.