Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Hirokazu Kore-eda has done it again. He continues to churn out emotional family dramas time after time. After two films in English and then Korean he’s back to Japanese cinema, with a slightly bigger budget and this is what he does best – Japanese stories based on family with superb performances by young actors.

Based on a screenplay by Yuji Sakamoto and with a score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, Monster packs an emotional punch as it follows the story of Minato, a boy who has a few challenges at school. He seems to have a confrontational relationship with Yori, a newcomer to the school. What transpires is an event where Minato is mistreated by a teacher which results in his single parent mother having to complain formally to the school. After this, Kore-eda masterfully shows the event from multiple points of view in an almost ‘Rashomon’ style. The film then transitions into an ethical tale that asks us who the ‘Monster’ is in the scenario – is it one or more of the characters? Is it people who idly stand by? Is it all of us?

Kore-eda then wonderfully weaves the story back to a timeline of pure beauty and humanity that none of my words could justify. It’s a shame that the legendary composer Sakamoto never got to see the finished film with his score as it accompanies the film so well. But Monster is a real treat for fans of Japanese cinema and anyone who enjoys a family drama.

Kore-eda is a master of his craft and one of the best directors working today.

Feast of the Seven Fishes 7/10 - A very underrated Christmas gem of a movie, heartwarming and amusing
The Holdovers 8.5/10 - A wonderful movie with fantastic acting by all 3 main players
Dream Scenario 7.5/10 - Bizarre but fun, nic cage is great
Killers of the Flower Moon 9/10 - It's a bit hard to watch this movie but i highly recommend you do, everyone involved in this does a fantastic job

Casino (1995)


Vegas preparation continues with this classic. Really makes me wish I could have been alive in the 70's and 80's to see what it was like back then.

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (2023) This documentary about poet Nikki Giovanni made the Oscar short list and could get nominated for best documentary feature. I thought it was interesting and had some really effective moments. It could have gone a bit more in depth though. Worth a watch. It is currently streaming on Crave/Max (depending on your country).

6th Rewatch...The 1973 instant classic that angered, repelled, and terrified moviegoers everywhere is still the heart-stopping experience it was back in '73. This story of a 12-year old girl who becomes possessed by the devil and eventually causing the death of three people angered religious purists and was making moviegoers physically sick at the often disgusting imagery employed by director William Friedkin in order to bring William Peter Blatty's fact-based novel to the screen. It should be mentioned that this is one of the few times that this reviewer actually read the book before seeing the movie and Friedkin's skill and care at bringing this book to the screen should have earned him the Oscar for Best Director. The film was robbed of the Best Picture Oscar and Ellen Burstyn was also robbed of the Best Actress Oscar for her flawless performance as the little girl's mother. A singular motion picture experience that is still one of the hardest films to watch in the history of cinema.

2nd Rewatch...this episodic road trip comedy about fraternal twins (Owen Wilson, Ed Helms) who go on a road trip in search of their biological father suffers from a few too many subplots that weaken a solid premise, but the film does provide a serious dose of star power. Glenn Close is lovely as the guy's mom, who was a bit of a tramp during the 70's and claims not to know who the boys' father is. Terry Bradshaw, Ving Rhames, Christopher Walken, JK Simmons, Katt Williams, Harry Shearer, and Ali Wong are also along for this wild ride that runs out of gas before it should.

I'm not a horror fan, but The Exorcist is one of the great movies. And IMO the poster is probably the most iconic of all time. I don't know if it was the art director or someone else who designed that poster, but whoever it was sure earned their money!

As is usual with many animated short films, especially these very early ones, the story in Plane Crazy is quite simple. Mickey wants to be like Charles Lindbergh so he and other animals build a plane. When it crashes on the test flight, Mickey decides to build another one with some unorthodox parts. When it's done, he takes Minnie on his first flight.

All of those things offer directors Disney and Ub Iwerks ample chance to create some cool animated setpieces, especially for the time being. I thought the scene when the plane is trying to take off and its running down a road was beautifully animated, and to think it was done by hand? That just makes it more amazing.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

__________________

i really enjoyed it, im so happy that they used a real life deaf disability actress, loved the casting and the music and culture and Alaqua Cox did an amazing job as echo and all the haters are not real marvel fans, females deserves to stay with marvel comics

The Last Rifleman - 3/5



I nice, bittersweet tale of not letting old age beat you. But it's a fanciful telling of the true story and I'm not sure Pierce Brosnan can pull off a 92-year-old. Here's a few more words on it from me.

__________________
Looking for a bigger boat | My latest movie lists and reviews | Find me on Letterboxd

The Holdovers
It takes some time to spring to life, but once it does it ends up being a wonderful film.

I am mildly amused at Alexander Payne not being happy with people calling this a feel good Christmas film. I agree with the people, despite the bleak premise & sad, broken characters.

Fans of Mr. Payne will recognise few familiar plot or character traits which he has reutilised in this movie. To a good effect. He was also aided by an exceptionally talented cast in Dominic Sessa, De'Vine Joy Randolph & Paul Giamatti.

Insomnia (1997)

__________________

[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

This is a lollapalooza of a noir based on Mickey Spillane’s 1952 novel of the same name featuring a two-fisted Mike Hammer. Directed by Robert Aldrich, and photographed by the noir veteran Ernest Laszlo, screen writer A.I. Bezzerides changed the basis of the novel from an organized crime story to an espionage thriller featuring a mysterious valuable box. Spillane was not happy about the screenplay.

The picture opens with a thrilling scene. As Hammer drives along a highway a woman named Christina, clad only in a trench coat, runs into the car’s path, causing Hammer to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting her. He invites her into his car. She is escaping from a mental hospital having been held against her will, and implores to him that whatever happens, to “remember me”. Presently some gangsters overtake Hammer’s car, drag the woman out, and trying to force information out of her, she is killed. The scene sets up the whole story, and is played beautifully by Cloris Leachman in her first screen role. They subsequently knock out Hammer, and along with the woman’s body, and push the two of them over a cliff in Hammer’s car.

Days later Hammer wakes up in the hospital with his assistant/lover Velda standing over him. Hammer is intrigued about the incident and decides to find out what mystery Christina held, that it’s “something big”. He first seeks out Christina’s roommate Gabrielle, and finds out that she is somehow in league with a group of people who are all involved in seeking out the valuable box. As Mike proceeds to investigate he comes into contact with a dizzying array of con men, gangsters and thieves. It all comes to head at a lavish beach house where the content of the box is revealed, and provides one of the most memorable of noir endings.

The movie is filled with indelible participants played by great character actors such as Jack Elam, Jack Lambert, Paul Stewart, Strother Martin, and Albert Dekker. Ralph Meeker’s Mike Hammer is written as more of a sleaze than Spillane characterizes him in the novels, although he still has a violent streak. The picture was a landmark film which influenced everyone from Francois Truffaut to Quentin Tarantino.

Doc's rating: 8/10

Le Corbeau, 1943

In a small village in France, doctor Remy Germain (Pierre Fresnay) has a somewhat suspect reputation due to his tendency to save the lives of pregnant women, even at the expense of their unborn fetuses. Germain has a mutual crush on Laura (Micheline Francey), the young wife of one of his co-workers, but is also in a relationship with Denise (Ginette Leclerc), a woman who prides herself on her sexual conquests. The whole situation is a powder keg, and an anonymous person lights a match when they send a series of anonymous poison pen letters, many of them directly targeting Germain. But who is the letter writer? And what secret past is Germain hiding?

This isn’t what I was expecting in terms of a mystery/thriller, but it ended up being a very interesting drama and examination of small town dynamics. Leclerc’s character and performance really grew on me as the film went on, and Denise went from feeling like a caricature to perhaps the most interesting character in the film.



FULL REVIEW

52 Pick-Up, 1986

Successful construction businessman Harry (Roy Scheider) is living a pretty great life until three masked strangers pull him into a room and reveal that they have damning footage of him fooling around with his decades-younger mistress, Cini (Kelly Preston). Despite the fact that his wife, Barbara (Ann-Margret) is about to run for office, Harry makes the bold decision to anger the blackmailers by only pretending to deliver the money they want. In retaliation, the blackmailers commit a horrific act of violence against Cini and threaten to frame Harry for it. With his back against the wall, Harry attempts to turn the blackmailers against one another.

I did like the way that the film was shot, and at times the way that Harry attempts to double and triple-cross the blackmailers was very engaging. But overall I couldn’t get past the lack of empathy and the treatment of its female characters as punching bags.



FULL REVIEW

By May be found at the following website: http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/d60ec5fc, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30632359

Touki Bouki - (1973)

A warning to anyone who might fancy watching Touki Bouki - a cow is slaughtered in the film's opening scenes, and it's not a quick death either. Later we have to endure the same, this time with a goat. Aside from having to endure that, this Senegalese film provides a lot of food for thought in relation to low budget, avant-garde filmmaking that shares a lot of the traits Jamaican classic The Harder They Come has. Basically you'd have every right to expect that films coming from these nations would direct their attentions towards the hopeless and nightmarish scope of escaping poverty by any means necessary - and so often these needs involve having to break established rules and customs. In Touki Bouki there's a concrete destination aside from the more immaterial one - France, and Paris. Mory (Magaye Niang) and Anta's (Mareme Niang) trials and tribulations on the road to getting there feel a little dream-like, and this film as a whole has the right attitude for having a direct effect on our subconscious. It's another "out there", interestingly original title rescued from obscurity by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project. Outside of my comfort zone, and definitely a film I won't forget in a hurry.

8/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30632359

Redes - (1936)

Redes is a Mexican film, and interesting because of the way it mixes documentary and drama together in an early "docu-drama" experiment detailing the lives of poor fishermen who are routinely cheated by the wealthy and powerful elite. Alone I would have thought the results to be marvelous, but it sinks somewhat and seems awkward when it goes full bore towards 'Socialist Revolution' type propaganda. During those moments the whole thing seems heavy handed and even somewhat naïve. Worth seeing though, just because of how rare Mexican films from this period are, and how the technique works.

6/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7392271

Scarecrow - (1973)

An acting masterclass by two of the best in their prime - Al Pacino and Gene Hackman feature as an odd couple who form a close friendship on the road. Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond is wonderful. Worth checking out - my watchlist review for Scarecrow is here.

8/10


By http://www.movieposterdb.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1809422

Kansas City Confidential - (1952)

Rough and gritty noir which features Joe Rolfe (John Payne) trying to find and get even with a group of robbers who framed him. My review is on my watchlist thread here.

__________________

Wanda (1970)