Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Sure, that makes sense. I quite like American Psycho, it’s not a masterpiece but pretty good, strikes the right balance. I tend to think what one views as a satire is extremely subjective. I think Fight Club, for instance, is very much a satire (to me) which still works marvellously as a thriller. Anyway, might rewatch the above as I had a mixed impression and have been thinking back to it.

That's the territorial claim from Alma (Vicky Krieps) to a client of his paramour, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis). We don't get a lot of background on what drives Alma, but this little exchange lets us know how much she craves this standing and this position, which is what drives this toxic relationship with Woodcock forward in Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece.

Phantom Thread follows the relationship between Woodcock and Alma since their "puppy love" meeting at a restaurant to their established, toxic relationship of love and hate. Woodcock, a meticulous and obsessive bachelor with deep-seated "mommy issues" is prone to pick up and discard lovers with ease, but Alma seems determined to stake her claim on his life.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Rafiki follows Kena (Samantha Mugatsia), a young woman whose father runs a small convenience store, while also running for a political seat in a local election. When Kena befriends Ziki (Sheila Munyiva), tensions arise about their relationship. Not only that, but Ziki also happens to be the daughter of the rival of Kena's father.

This film was recommended by a great Internet friend and I thought it was a very pleasant surprise. Being a romantic drama, there's little need for directorial "flair", so to speak, so director Wanuri Kahiu relies on the solid performances from Mugatsia and Munyiva. Both actress have great chemistry and sell the relationship really well.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

Encouraged by this thread, I decided to give a chance to a couple of modern B-actions. I guess it was a mistake.

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Ninja (2009)

Qualitywise, this is almost as bad as latter-day Seagals. For some reason, the ADR on this one was horrible, and the whole film felt like a poorly dubbed foreign movie despite most (all?) actors speaking English on the set. The writing seemed aimed at the tween boys, and the whole film just reeked of incompetence. On the positive note, Adkins is a physically able person (despite that the fights themselves were bad), and there was lots of gore (sadly of the CGI kind that vanishes mid-air, but still).

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Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013)

The best ninja movie around my butt. It's technically less inept than the first film was (e.g. it doesn't sound like a poor dub), but it also lacks what little charm the first one had. Gone are the excessive (CGI) blood and the goofy ninja bat-gliders, but the tween boy writing is still present with laughably telegraphed "twist" in the end. It's also the worst acting performance by Adkins I've seen, and the fights are again boring high kick barrages.

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Based on these two, I'm not at all surprised that Isaac Florentine hasn't got a chance to make a bigger budget film. Early Seagals are golden age timeless classics compared to these. Oh, and Ninja Assassin is still the best ninja movie from this century. I find it hard to rate the older ones, as there's a lot of nostalgia involved.

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Don't Look Up 0.5/10 Worthless film!

I prefer my action scenes to have talented martial artists, fluid editing, clear blocking and be actually visible (I.e. not hidden in darkness like it's AVP Requiem). It's a crazy notion but I stand by it.

This is a better action scene than anything in Ninja Assassin on a fraction of the budget.

Let's just say we disagree on almost everything when it comes to these Adkins ninjas movies? They're the worst of his films I've seen thus far.

I'll let the scene I posted stand as its own testimony against the "boring high kick barrage" description and would like to see a single fight from Ninja Assassin that compares. And I say that as a fan of Ninja Assassin.

Other than that, sure. Agree to disagree away, friendo.

Woman of the Ganges (Marguerite Duras, 1973)
First watch of the year and it was an definite banger. Just tailor-made for my aesthetic sensibilities and has a perfect vibe. Duras has immediately jumped to the top of my "directors I gotta see all the sh*t from" list.

Of the two films I've seen about the Bounty this is the better of the two by a slim margin. Bligh is pretty much a one note character, he's an impressive prick throughout and Laughton carries that one note well. Not once did I think Bligh was anything other than a prick. I always enjoy watching Gable and he's great here, sans stache, as the mutinous Fletcher Christian. Have yet to see him in a movie were I haven't liked him. The movies first half, the trip to Tahiti, was a little more interesting than the second half. After the mutiny things felt a little choppy but it was still very good.

Taste of Cherry (1997, Abbas Kiarostami)

Coming from Close-Up and Certified Copy, the old taxidermist's monologue toward the end, though filled with some profound worldly wisdom no doubt, felt to me just a little too simplistic and safe and kinda corny in its didacticism, so I was preparing to be thoroughly disappointed. I was like, "That's it? This is gonna make him change his mind and that's how it's going to end? Is Kiarostami really going to take this piece of unadorned luminous beauty he just created and ruin it with a banal happy ending?" He almost fooled me there but somewhere at the back of my mind I knew he is not that kind of filmmaker, I knew there must be more to come. And then comes that absolute stunner of an ending, a trick that changed my entire perception of the film and turned it on its head, adding a whole new dimension to everything that preceded it. It's one of those rare magical moments that show the true power of cinema as a medium.

Ha!

Here are my first couple viewings of the year:

Broadcast News: Not the biggest fan of romcoms, but I did enjoy this one quite a bit. I've seen the love triangle trope represented in other films of this ilk, but I felt this film handled that trope well enough so that it didn't feel too heavy-handed or weighed down by its clichés. Mainly though, I enjoyed how the three characters in it weren't 100% likable, yet were at least self-aware of each other's flaws. Aaron and (eventually) Jane were aware that Tom represented the decline of news media, Tom was willing to admit his flaws as a reporter, Aaron was aware that Jane could be a control freak (at one point, he tells her "Except for socially, you're my role model"), and Tom and Jane were aware that Aaron could be a prick. As a result, I strangely found myself drawn to the three characters given how honest they were about each other's flaws. In addition, the movie also works as a satire for the decline of news media. It explores the shift from proper and respectful journalism to a deceitful and dishonest business that values ratings and revenues above all else. In this film, your looks and your physical appearance are valued higher by your employers than any skill or talent you possess.

Run Lola Run: Glad to finally have this one under my belt, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I hoped I'd be. Looking around this forum a bit, I noticed that repetitive was a common criticism that some people were raising towards it, but I wasn't that bothered by this as I felt there was enough variation to the various running scenes to keep them entertaining (interestingly enough, the running scenes in the final "third" were easier to watch for me than those in the first "third"). With that being said though, this film mostly felt like an interesting gimmick in a pretty average film. In spite of all the style, I actually didn't find this film that fun and I felt like many other films I've seen were able to provide more fun with a less zany style. Plus, the story elements pretty much fell flat for me, especially in the moments the film tried to generate pathos for Lola and Manni as I didn't care much about the human angle of this film. In spite of these issues though, I still think this is a fine film, though one I probably won't watch again or check out any sequels if they were ever made. It's an average 80-minute speedrun of a videogame that's somewhat improved by some tongue-in-cheek humor, a good soundtrack, and a decent bit of suspense here and there.

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Dracula A.D. 1972 -

Drac's back - and in then-modern times, no less - in an entry I liked even though quite a bit of it left a bad taste in my mouth (not of blood, at least). For one, a lot of the movie comes across as attempts at padding the runtime. From the seemingly endless swinger party to the glacially paced police investigation scenes, it's as if everyone involved in the production knew there wasn't much "there" there. Case in point: the sum total of Christopher Lee might as well be less than one minute. Also, there are period touches that are dated, so much so that they likely even made audiences in 1972 smirk. This especially applies to the funky saxophone portions of the soundtrack, especially during the action-packed finale. Oh, and was it really necessary to spend so much time informing us that Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards? If anything, it makes you wonder how difficult it really is to be a vampire expert. But seriously, Peter Cushing's return to the series is very welcome from the class and dignity he brings to the production to the mythos of the Dracula/Van Helsing rivalry and the real stakes (no pun intended) it adds to the story. As for Dracula ally Alucard, Christopher Neame's performance may be over the top, but he adds much-needed fun, and considering his mostly dull swinging pals, personality. Again, despite my qualms, there are enough good things in this entry for me to recommend it. At the same time, though, I'm glad the series is almost over because this is the first entry to make it seem long in the tooth (no pun intended...well, maybe a little).

Hi everyone

The caps in the above review are unintentional. For some reason the transfer formatting causes them.

Have you seen Naked City or the G Men? I consider them a triumvirate of great noir era procedurals, alongside T Men.