Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I am watching Spanish movies to learn Spanish because of professional reasons. So I am not understanding all the dialogue at this point, but this movie was a moderately entertaining comedy. 6/10

Small world. I watch documentaries so I can learn to be taken seriously.

For the last time, Real Housewives doesn’t count as a documentary!

Crush (2020) This is fairly predictable and safe in a lot of ways. The girls are cute and charming and there are some funny moments though.

What if his professional ambition is to become a real housewife?

Limite, 1931

A man (Raul Schnoor) and two women (Olga Breno and Tatiana Rey) are adrift in a lifeboat, and a clear sense of despair has settled over them. In flashbacks we learn about their lives before the lifeboat, each its own brand of sorrow.

I know that films are an inherently visual medium, but I've realized over the last few years that most of what I absorb from a film is not visual, but rather verbal. I glean most of my meaning from listening and reading the subtitles. This makes silent films particularly challenging for me, and experimental silent films are basically my Everest. Which is to say that it took me seven or eight attempts to watch Limite, because I would realize I was not looking at the screen but just listening to the music. And when I'd return my eyes to the screen I would find the camera lingering on an image with no sense of why. Stop. Rewind.

But once I got myself into the flow of the film, I was incredibly enchanted and moved by what it had to offer.

The style of the film is very evocative of a Soviet montage style, but with more of an emphasis on emotional symbolism. It's the kind of film that is hard to review, because the degree to which it's just operating on emotional frequency makes it inadequate to use words to explain its impact. It seems silly to type that a shot of a woman's arms gently swaying in the water that then transitioned to an askew shot of a field of grass blowing in the wind affected me emotionally, but it did. The images in this film are powerful because they don't demand a literal symbolic meaning. Yes, some of the images have obvious interpretations (like a fish gasping for air or a solitary tree that then transforms into an image of a woman), but many of the images seem there to be felt with no sense or worry that you're reading them incorrectly.

In addition to the images themselves, the movement of the camera is also worth noting. It seems to transition between something like a human point of view---moving along at ground level with the characters--to something more omniscient---swooping over trees and in and around the characters. In one great shot, the camera is mounted to the wheel of a train as it begins to accelerate, the camera rising and falling as the wheel circles.

Despite what sounds like a very abstract basis, the film actually has a pretty strong central narrative for each character: one of the women has escaped from prison, likely with the help of a guard. One of the women has left her husband. The man cheated on his wife with tragic outcomes. The film is almost entirely without dialogue/titles. At first I thought that this was because of the difficulty in restoring it, but I read in another review that this was intentional. There are only two sequences where we see translations/dialogue, and both are in service of explaining parts of the character backgrounds that might not be grasped by the imagery alone.

The emotions explore here, if they hit you the right way, are intense. This is a film about hope (or the lack/loss thereof) and confinement and escape that might not really be escape. As one character stares over the edge of the lifeboat, it's unclear whether she's looking for rescue or thinking about jumping. It often seems to post a question about what our limits are, and suggests just how horrible it might be to actually find out the answer to that question.

For me, this movie really worked. I am really aware that films in this style can read as silly or pretentious to some people. You'll know in the first 10 minutes if this film is for you. I found it incredibly rewarding and moving.

By https://xl.movieposterdb.com/12_10/2...6_a0791425.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17818396

Yi Yi - (2000)

I was initially daunted by it's length, but Yi Yi's final scene left me with a deep impression of everything that had gone before it - a reflection on one family, with it's hopes and dreams mixed with a certain nostalgia depending on which family member is being focused on. Love and life in Taipei doesn't sound all too different from what I experience, but there's a deep undercurrent of sadness in the Jian family - offset by little Yang-Yang who really gets his share of the limelight, and it's an idea he has which explains why so much of the promotional stuff for this film only shows the backs of people's heads. There were many comedic things happening in the opening wedding scene, but as the film goes on there's less humour and more tragedy and angst. It settled deep inside of me, and as I said, that last scene brings it home. It's a shame Edward Yang is no longer with us.

8/10

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Wanted to like that one more, but found it just ok. We'll always have A Brighter Summer Day tho

That sounds like something I should keep an eye out for.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

Late Night (2019)

I watched it on Criterion, and it looks like that's the only place it is streaming. But I do recommend adding it to your watchlist and seeing if it pops up somewhere you have access to.

SF = Zzz


[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

Limite may well still be on YT, that's where I watched it last year anyway.

Citizen X (1995)

An HBO movie about a Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. It focuses too much on the personal life of the lead investigator and has quite a bit of pacing issues (its approach may have worked better as a series). The film also takes unnecessary liberties with the story. My favorite thing about it was the main protagonist's children, who didn't age a bit in the ten years or so the film covered.

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The Black House (1999)

All the reviews spoke of a combination of a proto J-horror and Noir. Unfortunately, the truth was more like a B-tier Miike without his unrestrained violence. Sluggishly paced and poorly acted film with only a handful of decent scenes. Can I sue the people who reviewed this positively on IMDb or Letterboxd?

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The Boogens (1981)

A run-of-the-mill American horror with an apparent target audience in teenagers. It's not bad, but I'm not into this "let's drink some beer and have a laugh while watching a horror film" subgenre that lessens the value of US horror as a whole. The monster itself is pathetic. Can I sue the people in here who told me this is better than The Strangeness?

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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

This rewatch wasn't really worth it. There are few laughs to be had, but there's so little content or effort. Austin is basically a sketch character and half of the jokes are basically copy-pastas from Bonds (or Angel of H.E.A.T.). I kinda remember the other two are better so maybe I'll give them a go at some point.

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Hell House LLC (2015)

A pretty standard found-footage horror. Again, it has these American things that don't open up to me (the whole Halloween shebang) but at least it tries to be somewhat serious. I'd say it's above average for its kind, but not worth the raving reviews I read (don't want to sue anyone on this, though).

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Charlie Zone (2011)

A Canadian low-budget action-thriller. Like most films on this post, this one's also extremely average. It's somewhat violent and gritty, and its ending doesn't fit there at all.

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FleshEater (1988)

Stop the press! We have a new worst film seen in 2022. Apparently playing a zombie in Romero's film doesn't make you a proper filmmaker. The only thing that doesn't absolutely suck balls in this one is the soundtrack, which is pretty decent. It's technically one of the most inept movies I've ever seen and it also lacks any other redeeming factors. Why on earth was this released on a Bluray? A special mention goes to the audio which is filled with all sorts of buzzes and hisses and other random noises. Can I sue God for allowing this film to happen?

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I Was Born, But . . ., 1932

Brothers Keiji (Tomio Aoki) and Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) have a rough time of things when their family moves to a new town for their father Yoshi's (Tatsuo Saito) work. Picked on at school and realizing that their father isn't a fancy business man both take a toll on the boys. Yoshi and his wife, Haha (Mitsuko Yoshikawa) gently steer their boys toward a more even-keeled outlook on life.

This is an early film from Ozu, and it has his very familiar comfortable family interactions dynamic. Whereas I more associate Ozu's films with relationships between older children and their parents, the examination of a family ecosystem works nicely even with the younger kids.

The comedy and the drama in this film nicely capture the kind of highs and lows that feel much more potent to a child. The boys are picked on by a group of local schoolchildren, one of whom turns out to be their father's boss's son. In a moment of problem solving, they attempt to "hire" a local to be on their side in these confrontations. Later, when they are angry with their parents, they decide to go on a hunger strike.

I enjoyed the different levels that are played with in this film. We spend most of our time watching interactions between the two boys. But we also get moments of interaction between their parents, and between the parents and the boys. The film really captures the multiple perspectives at play, especially when there is inter-generational conflict. The parents must "come down" to the level of their sons to understand how to help them move past their upset.

The mood of the film is very light, and the whole setting feels very lived in. The performances are really good, and the film benefits tremendously from the brotherly chemistry between the two child actors. At one point the two wordlessly exchange glances as they watch home movies taken by their father's boss, and those moments of significant eye contact capture a sibling dynamic to great degree.

I had no complaints about this film. It is a film that has "low stakes", to be sure, which is part of its charm. I'm not sure it's a film I would revisit, but I thought it was very charming.

By [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4035442

The Jerk - (1979)

I watched this yesterday before submitting my votes for the Comedy top 100 Countdown, as it has been ages since seeing either this or The Man With Two Brains. Now, I was expecting something pretty lackluster with dated jokes - something that wouldn't hold up to how I felt about it back in the day. Boy, was I wrong. Although some moments fall flat, especially at the start, this has enough goofy charm and funny moments to still be worth watching. That complicated my list even further, with several films vying to break into a 25 I'm pretty solid on. It'll be even worse if The Man With Two Brains holds up (used to be a favourite of mine) although somehow I'm doubting Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Laughed quite a bit watching The Jerk without really expecting to.

7/10


By Studio and or Graphic Artist - Can be obtained from film’s distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63154341

Never Rarely Sometimes Always - (2020)

I'm not female, but that doesn't mean I didn't live this movie through character Autumn Callahan (Sidney Flanigan) - this film has a really simple premise, but Sidney Flanigan plays the part so well, with some excellent direction from Eliza Hittman, that every moment counts. Callahan has just discovered that she's pregnant, and simply cannot let her parents find out. Desperate for an abortion, she steals away to New York, but complications arise. She though she was 10 weeks, but she's actually 18 - and hanging around in the dangerous city is required to go all the way through the painful procedure. Her cousin, Skyler (Talia Ryder) is there to help, but the two of them receive plenty of unwanted attention. In fact, the whole film is full of creepy guys (one who works at the same supermarket they do, a superior, insists on giving their hands two kisses each time they hand money over - which makes them shudder - and another decides to open his fly and fondle himself when he attracts eye contact with another.) Above all that is the inner torment of knowing what's going on in Autumn's body, and the enormity that the decision to terminate the process so far along is. Much is subtle - these aren't girls who display their emotions - which I thought makes everything all the more powerful - but there's one harrowing scene, where difficult questions are asked and answered, that opens the floodgates. This film was hard-hitting and character driven - it made a huge impact with me.

9/10

I recall being dragged to this when I was a kid and my parents wanted to go to the Drive-In, a re-run of Hitchcock's The Rear Window. It's truly brilliant. A news photographer (Jimmy Stewart) has a broken leg. It's hot summer in the West Village in New York and he's watching life across the alley from his rear window. It's a Hitchcock movie, so murder has to happen. The photog is observing the wake of a crime, murder, along with parties, people doing calisthenics and regular life, while his girlfriend (Grace Kelley) gets interested. He can see more with the long lens on his camera. What happens when the murderer realizes that he's been spied? The photographer is in a wheelchair with a broken leg.

The whole thing is a brilliant conceit, a complete alley set built on a back lot, complete with the rear window and the interior of the rooms behind the windows. A pianist (a resident of the street), is rehearsing what will be the musical soundtrack of the movie, music coming from one of the windows. Neighbors are having loud parties and the police don't believe the photographer.

Jimmy Stewart doesn't do much acting but he's great at being Jimmy Stewart in this situation. Grace Kelley is sleek and elegant, and will become the Princess of Monaco after her real life marriage.

It's really a terrific period piece and one of Hitchcock's finest. Instead of a trailer, here's the first six minutes...one long sequence.

I can't see how it wouldn't. It's got some of the most quotable lines of any comedy including this one ...

The Meddler staring Susan Sarandon 10/10 I m a fan.