Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Tools    





Pretty much. Films should only be allowed to focus on certain events. History has no place in film, am I right?

In all sincerity, I hadn't seen the film mentioned on any lists I go to for recommendations, so since all I knew about the film was its length and its meme scene, it didn't attract my attention. It's on my watchlist now though.
Exactly my story. Now I have interest.
I am not into biographies, because the liberties that people take with such stories always sits as a big question mark in my mind.

I am not an expert on WW2, so I cannot personally attest to its accuracy. But I think that it pulls off a really delicate balancing act between telling true events (such as the timing and sequence of the military orders and the deaths of various characters) and feeling true in its emotional grounding. Like I wrote in my review, its best choice is the way that it de-centers Hitler himself and instead focuses on the horrific slow churn of dread as these people have their belief and hope shattered and how they each cope with that.

The film also doesn't waste time assuming that we need to understand that Hitler is a bad person and that his policies have done incredible harm to millions of people (including "his" people).

And while this is VERY subjective to each viewer, for me this was a very fast 2 1/2 hours of film.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Run for Cover (Richard W. Haines, 1995)
5/10
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (Brent Wilson, 2021)
- 7/10
Circle of Two AKA Obsession (Jules Dassin, 1981)
5/10
Mister Roberts (John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy, 1955)
7/10

Cargo ship executive officer Lieutenant Doug Roberts (Henry Fonda) decides how to get the captain (James Cagney) to approve his transfer orders during WWII.
Hi, Mom! (Brian De Palma, 1970)
5/10
When Women Kill (Lee Grant, 1983)
+ 6.5/10
Main Street Meats (Jeff Lyon, 2017)
5/10
The Adam Project (Shawn Levy, 2022)
6.5/10

12-year-old Adam Reed (Walker Scobell) works with his older self, time-traveling pilot Ryan Reynolds, to try to save his late father (Mark Ruffalo) and the world.
Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
6/10
Heartaches (Basil Wrangell, 1947)
5/10
General Orders No. 9 (Robert Persons, 2009)
5.5/10
Turning Red (Domee Shi, 2022)
6.5/10

Whenever she gets too excited, 13-year-old Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang) starts to turn into a giant red panda, something she desperately tries to keep away from her controlling mother (voice of Sandra Oh).
The Canterville Ghost (Jules Dassin, 1943)
5.5/10
Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979)
6.5/10
Julia (Fred Zinnemann, 1977)
6/10
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Pawo Choyning Dorji, 2019)
+ 6.5/10

A Bhutanese teacher (Sherab Dorji) who also wants to be a singer in Australia gets sent to a remote Himalayan village called Lunana where he learns life and teaching lessons from enthusiastic student Pem Zam and a yak who lives in his classroom.
Sex Madness (Dwain Esper, 1932)
4/10
Earth to Echo (Dave Green, 2014)
6/10
Who Is Killing the Cheerleaders? (Jeff Hare, 2020)
5/10
Summer of '42 (Robert Mulligan, 1971)
+ 7.5/10

During the Summer of '42, while he and his buddies try to get laid, 15-year-old Gary Grimes falls in love with war bride Jennifer O'Neill who worries about the fate of her husband.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



I just assumed he was going balls out **shrugs**
Please, don't tempt Fabfunk to show up here...



/RTin-joke







SF = 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



I forgot the opening line.

By their respective producers and/or distributors - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8800266/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61732147

Ema - (2019)

I have a habit of bumping into Pablo Larraín's films, for better or worse. Although Jackie has drawn mixed reviews from what I read here, I very much liked it (I don't really have much interest in seeing Spencer.) But it's his Chilean films that make the most interesting viewing. I managed to catch No a year or two ago, a fascinating glimpse into a society tip-toeing away from dictatorship like a burglar in the night - fretful that a spark will light the powder keg. Better yet, Neruda opened up a Larraín-loving district in my heart and became an instant favourite - turning a biographical film into a surrealist comedy about poet/politician Pablo Neruda. Yesterday I caught Ema.

Ema is one of those films that's really something in hindsight - but I was very unsure where it was headed until it's final act. Ema (played by Mariana Di Girolamo) and Gastón (Gael García Bernal from No and Neruda) are in the midst of a marital crisis. The child they had adopted a year ago is gone - he'd been uncontrollable, and had set fire to Ema's sister disfiguring her face. Ema feels a tremendous amount of guilt about giving up on the boy, and we follow her through her profession (dance) and her private life (mostly sex) where decisions that may seem very strange in the end all add up to something extraordinary. It's in that ending that you'll come to reconfigure everything you've already seen, and see it in a new light. If you're after something visually striking, you'll get that as well in spades from Ema, a film that's really grown on me.

7.5/10


By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6722726/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62935920

Come As You Are - (2019)

This felt a lot like a 'message movie' at points, but it handles it's subject really well. Three disabled young adults are heading for Canada on a road trip, breaking free of over-protective parents and looking for a brothel they've heard about which caters to people with disabilities so they can have their first sexual experience. I was really impressed in the end, and there's a sense of empowerment and joy to the whole proceedings. It was heading into 'typical road trip' territory and felt derivative at one stage, but as time went by I really did feel good and had to acknowledge how well it's screenplay, performances and general vibe mixed. I've only right now become aware that this is a remake of Belgian film Hasta la vista.

7/10
__________________
Remember - everything has an ending except hope, and sausages - they have two.
We miss you Takoma

Latest Review : Le Circle Rouge (1970)



You win the “describe noir like it’s a bad thing” award.
The dialogue in most Noirs (or at least in the good ones) tends to be more creative than just having a character tell us that someone is
WARNING: spoilers below
strangling
someone else when we can already clearly hear that for ourselves. And that's not getting into super "grimdark" try-hard lines like "I'm vengeance", or "I am the shadows", which would've seemed trite in a Superhero movie last decade, let alone in the year of our lord 2022...



The dialogue in most Noirs (or at least in the good ones) tends to be more creative than just having a character tell us that someone is
WARNING: spoilers below
strangling
someone else when we can already clearly hear that for ourselves. And that's not getting into super "grimdark" try-hard lines like "I'm vengeance", or "I am the shadows", which would've seemed trite in a Superhero movie last decade, let alone in the year of our lord 2022...
Yes. Other movies never have characters state what has occurred in an audio tape to remove ambiguity. There aren’t entire movies built around the premise of clarifying audio tapes.

And Batman said Batman things? Oh my. Next you’ll tell me Wolverine isn’t the best at what he does and it should be nice!



The Batman


Everybody loves this film. This is not an exaggeration. Ask your mom, ask your dad, ask your nephew, ask your cat. There is not a single soul on this planet who doesn't love this movie. Besides me.

I hate to be contrarian. I really, really do. It feels wrong to be an outsider, to not understand how much everyone else loves this thing. So why is it that I think this film, to put it bluntly, sucks?

Maybe it's my theater experience. Because in all fairness to this film, my experience at the theater was awful. The projection was really scuffed and dark, which is especially detrimental to a film shot like this one. The kid next to me sucked on his ICE-E straw at a volume previously unbeknownst to man. His father was on his phone the whole time, talking to his child about who knows what. And after the movie ended, I discovered someone had broken into my car.

However, I've had bad theater experiences before, and I've always been able to enjoy a film in spite of them. Therefore, it seems that the film itself is the problem. There are elements of this movie that, in my eyes, simply do not work. I will point out these qualities, and maybe somebody out there will agree with me. But before I move forward I must point out that, due to the praise The Batman has gotten from everyone who isn't me, I would still recommend it.

The biggest issue with this movie is structure. This plagues every faucet of this movie, from the screenplay to the characters. The most immediately noticeable structural weakness is in the development of Batman himself. We start at the low point of the character, and end at the low point of the character. Batman is flawed, mopey, and at times incompetent. This on it's own is fine. The very essence of Batman as a character is struggle, and the filmmakers clearly understand this. However, to relate to a character's struggles, we must know where they come from, and in this movie, we learn essentially nothing about who Bruce Wayne is. We learn some things about the people around him, sure but there's never a point where he himself feels relatable and just. He tells us his mission is vengeance, one of the movie's main themes. Indeed, he doesn't seem to really care about the people he's saving, because he rarely interacts with them.
WARNING: "The Batman" spoilers below
Yes, there's an ending scene of him saving children (I think they were orphans? If they were I think that's a nice way to point out him "saving himself"), but we don't ever get to see any shift in his actions before then that points to him gaining a care for humanity, so it feels a bit forced. Same idea with the speech at the end.
With this being the case, you'd expect the vengeance thing to come through more, and while he does indeed talk about it, you rarely see the vulnerability that would allow someone to block themselves off in such a manner. The most emotion he ever shows is apathy, save for a couple of yelling scenes. The most interesting thing about a mysterious character isn't the mystery itself, but rather, the discovery of what's being hidden, and in this sense, Batman fails as a character.

The same thing applies to all the other characters in the film, because they fail to have any meaningful relations with anyone besides themselves. They attempt to have a relationship between Batman and Catwoman, but it doesn't work at all, since they have no motivation to care for each other outside of solving a crime. There isn't any chemistry. Catwoman indeed has motivation stemming from another person, but that other person is never explored and feels more like a plot element. There's another revelation with her that gets into spoiler territory, but it also feels pretty underdeveloped and forced.

The editing is another structural issue. This movie is 3 hours long, and for a 3 hour movie to work, you must keep the audience engaged. Unfortunately, the order of scenes destroys any sense of narrative cohesion. Mystery movies often jump around from character to character, as things get revealed. This is a good thing, and can serve to heighten tension. But for it to work, you need to have each scene feel in tune with the overall thrust of the film. In this movie, the transition from scene to scene kills any tension. A character will find something out, and then that revelation will be completely untouched for 30 minutes. Instead, we explore other characters, and due their undeveloped nature, their actions never run parallel to the events and emotions of the plot. It's a lot easier to explain this concept with an example, and while I've tried to avoid comparing Batman films, The Dark Knight does this so much better. In TDK, whenever Batman is in a dire situation, so are the others. This is a generalization to avoid spoilers, but it always feels like the stories of all the characters are in some way cosmically connected. Their stories effect one another plot-wise, of course, and the same thing happens in The Batman, but they also have an emotional connective tissue scenes in The Batman lack.

This issue is further compounded by a general lack of urgency. Very rarely do we see things in motion before they happen, and when we do, the setup and the payoff happen in a very short window. Because of this, the characters never feel like they're in prolonged periods of danger, so the audience is never given a chance to worry for them.

The score is very understated, which I like in theory, but it also means scenes lack any auditory connection. There is a motif they play constantly, mostly near the beginning, but it never feels like it's signaling anything noteworthy.

There's nothing worse than walking out of a movie feeling nothing. We watch films because we want them to take us somewhere new, to give us a renewed sense of wonder and excitement. The Batman gave me nothing. No joy, no hope, not even hate. At least movies like Batman V. Superman are absurd enough to be somewhat amusing. This just feels like staring at a ceiling for three hours. I'm so glad other people love this movie, truly. And I hope my feelings are rarely echoed, because although it sucks to feel alone, I can't help but feel joy seeing people love film with such a passion, a passion I can relate to. If you loved this movie, continue to do so. Seeing your love might just give me the spark the film couldn't.




Everybody loves this film. This is not an exaggeration. Ask your mom, ask your dad, ask your nephew, ask your cat. There is not a single soul on this planet who doesn't love this movie. Besides me.
I wrote this before going back to check out the other reviews in this thread (I haven't logged on in quite some time), and apparently, at least TWO people who aren't me were at least reserved about it. Do with this information what you will.



"Old Henry"- (2021)
A rugged rural western set at the turn of the century. First act has a slower gait, yet keeps you interested. Love the reveal toward the end of the second act. In which draws you in completely to the third act. With all that said, will always see Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar. Yet, this is a dark "Delmar"...

8/10



The Eyes of Tammy Faye" - (2021)
All I knew coming into this what was read in the tabloids, in the checkout line of the grocery store. Now that it has been viewed, I am intrigued to look up their (The Bakkers) antics. Thought Jessica Chastain was wonderful in the role and came out of it just a little more disgusted toward the topic matter.

8/10



"The Many Saints of Newark"- (2021)
Never really watched "The Sopranos" when it was new, because of a very hectic life I had during that era. Now this is a prequel of young Tony. To be honest, wasn't all that impressed, yet that is most likely because of what I stated before.

7/10



Raven73's Avatar
Boldly going.
Solaris (1972) 5/10
and Solaris (2002) 6.5/10
So I read the book, then I watched both movies.
I found the 1972 movie so unwatchable, I had to shut it off after 20 minutes. It was mostly exposition. The 2002 movie was much better in terms of action, but it's still a very slow-moving movie. I kept waiting for a giant squid to lay eggs on the station... then the end credits were rolling. So I googled it and turns out the giant squid eggs are from the movie Sphere... which I will have to watch next.
I find it hilarious that every movie I see Jeremy Davies in, he plays a quirky, twitchy guy.
__________________
Boldly going.





The Girl on the Mountain, 2022

Jack (Daniel O'Reilly) lives in the wilderness following the tragic death of his daughter, for which he blames himself. One day he crosses paths with a mute girl, Aria (Makenzie Sconce) who is on the run from her mother's psychopathic boyfriend, Big Al (DT Carney).

This is a very by-the-numbers thriller, in a familiar model of "emotionally distant adult cares for child". Nothing in this movie will surprise anyone who has seen this type of thriller before, but it's not a bad variation on the theme.

The main positive of the movie is the solid rapport between O'Reilly and Sconce. On one hand, their scenes together are almost too chipper at times, happily romping around the mountain, fishing and hiking. It strains a bit of belief that a child who had witnessed and experienced serious abuse would so quickly trust a strange man. But the scenery in the film is really lovely, and the joy that the characters take in the wilderness feels genuine.

The downsides to the film are what you'd expect with a low-budget effort. Some of the acting is a bit spotty. There were a few plot points---especially around the death of Jack's daughter---that are handled a bit sloppily. It's frustrating when mediocre writing pulls down sequences of a movie, and that happens a few times: convenient plot points, unbelievable character actions, etc.

Not great, not bad. A way to pass an easy 90 minutes.




I forgot the opening line.

By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7664504/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57916243

Three Identical Strangers - (2018)

If you like a good documentary full of twists and turns, you might want to skip reading about this and just put it straight in your watchlist.

Imagine being an adopted young man, and suddenly finding out, by accident, that you have a twin - meeting that twin and becoming something of a minor celebrity. Imagine then, the two of you finding out that there's a third version of you out there - that you were in fact one of three triplets - and becoming something of a major celebrity on all the television talk shows and even scoring a cameo opposite Madonna in a feature film. This happened to three strangers in New York in the early 1980s - they opened a restaurant called "triplets", but mental health problems caused something of a rift in what appeared to be the perfect three-way relationship. Once all this is out in this Tim Wardle documentary, he drops a bomb on you...

WARNING: spoilers below
These three men had been part of a secret scientific study on twins and triplets - they'd been intentionally separated and adopted out to specific families who were told their adopted kids were going to be studied simply to find out how they adjust to adopted life. This was happening to twins and triplets in the U.S. - all of whom, parents included, knew nothing about the fact they were twins or were being studied in that sense. In fact, all the people involved were being closely watched - and the results of these tests, instead of being published as they were initially meant to be, were buried and classified until the year 2066.


What starts out as a feel-good doc turns into something rather creepy and often at times sad. I was absolutely astonished at some of the revelations. This is a great one to catch if you get the chance.

7.5/10



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
The Body Disappears (1941) - I watched this comedy mainly for Edward Everett Horton, who is always a pleasure to watch. This probably won't make my comedy list, but it's a fun movie about an invisible man.


__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.