Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Tools    





That sounds like a problem with the people watching the movies, rather than the movie itself; I mean, I'm not a poor, gay African-American kid growing up in Miami, but that didn't stop me at all from empathizing with Chiron in Moonlight, after all..
That's what I'm saying: that it may have been a consideration in writing/casting the part that audiences would need a white lead.





Re-watch. Terrific movie. PSH was so amazing in this. He gave it 500%.



Zero interest in baseball & had never seen this movie before. Not bad at all. Very endearing & sweet. Costner was majorly hot. Did you know he had a part in The Big Chill that was subsequently deleted?

So nice to see some love for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead...great movie.







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







The Curse of the Cat People - Anyone expecting more of the same or for this to emulate it's predecessor, Cat People, might end up disappointed. It's an odd film in that three of the main actors return playing the same roles but in a completely different milieu. Jacques Tourneur isn't back as director and the atmosphere isn't as steeped in dread. It is instead a gentle sort of children's fable about a lonely little girl. Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) and Alice Moore's (Jane Randolph) child Amy (Ann Carter) to be exact. But Oliver is having trouble letting go of the past and his first wife Irena (Simone Simon) is an enduring presence in his life. His daughter Amy, in her loneliness, has somehow evoked the dead woman and Oliver is terrified that Irena's emotional instability will somehow be passed on to his child.

It's a relatively short (70 minute) film so not much screentime is used up on extemporaneous detail or a gradual buildup of tension. Amy meets an eccentric older neighbor and her extravagantly sinister daughter. And before you know it the picture is over. But it is an effectively sentimental film and you'll be glad you watched it. I was. Got me right in the feels.




'Rome, Open City' (1944)

Sometimes, you're in the middle of something and you know you're experiencing something a little bit special. I had the feeling with this film. It is one of the best films I've seen in my entire life. It's a masterpiece. Rossellini makes them dark and devastating. It's a stunner. He filmed it in secret before the war even ended.

10 out of 10.



'Rome, Open City' (1944)

Sometimes, you're in the middle of something and you know you're experiencing something a little bit special. I had the feeling with this film. It is one of the best films I've seen in my entire life. It's a masterpiece. Rossellini makes them dark and devastating. It's a stunner. He filmed it in secret before the war even ended.

10 out of 10.
Yeah, it is excellent. Not 15 minutes ago, this film was a question on a quiz show and I felt so dumb because I couldn't remember who directed it and I watched both this one and Germany Year Zero in the last few months or so.

Also, I am shocked that its only Oscar nod was a nomination for the screenplay.



The '73 Jack Palance version is pretty great as well.
I agree. If you haven't seen his The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), I think you'd enjoy it. Palance portrayed the most believable evil total psychopathic Mr. Hyde that I've ever seen. I recall that it was a TV movie.



The Curse of the Cat People - Anyone expecting more of the same or for this to emulate it's predecessor, Cat People, might end up disappointed. It's an odd film in that three of the main actors return playing the same roles but in a completely different milieu. Jacques Tourneur isn't back as director and the atmosphere isn't as steeped in dread. It is instead a gentle sort of children's fable about a lonely little girl. Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) and Alice Moore's (Jane Randolph) child Amy (Ann Carter) to be exact. But Oliver is having trouble letting go of the past and his first wife Irena (Simone Simon) is an enduring presence in his life. His daughter Amy, in her loneliness, has somehow evoked the dead woman and Oliver is terrified that Irena's emotional instability will somehow be passed on to his child.

It's a relatively short (70 minute) film so not much screentime is used up on extemporaneous detail or a gradual buildup of tension. Amy meets an eccentric older neighbor and her extravagantly sinister daughter. And before you know it the picture is over. But it is an effectively sentimental film and you'll be glad you watched it. I was. Got me right in the feels.

Funny that you should mention these films, Whit. I had just decided to re-watch both Cat People (1942) and The Leopard Man (1943) for Halloween. I got the idea from listening to an Eddie Muller podcast, where he said that he's going to feature these films on the closest to Halloween airing of Noir Alley on TCM, which I believe is on Sat. nights at 10 PM and again Sunday mornings.

Can't recall if I've seen "Curse", but I'll be looking for it.





Within Our Gates, 1919

Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer) lives in the South and is moved by the plight of a school for Black children that is woefully underfunded. Venturing north to Boston to find funding for the school, Sylvia meets the dashing Dr. Vivian (Charles Lucas), who through meeting Sylvia's cousin learns more about the tragic history of Sylvia's family.

This film is the oldest (known) surviving film by an African American director. Not only am I ashamed that I had not heard of it before this year, I think that it is essential viewing.

To begin with, it is frankly jarring to see not only an older film in which all of the leads are Black, but also one in which the acting from the Black actors is so natural (relative to the conventions of silent film performance). This is not a place for bulging eyes, open-mouthed double-takes, or exaggerated walks. The Black characters are . . . brace yourself . . . fully realized human beings with complex inner lives and relationships. Sylvia in particular is a charming mix of understated personality with grit and determination to do what is right. In fact, the film DOES make use of the racial stereotypes, but they occur in two distinct contexts: the first is a Black preacher who is scamming his flock, and the other is in a flashback as imagined by white people, in which a violent Black man attacks a white man for no reason. In these cases, the acting makes a point about how Black people are viewed by white people or how they may choose to represent themselves.

The film is also notable for tackling several social issues impacting Black citizens at the time: the underfunding of Black schools; the attempt to take away the Black vote (I had to look up if a senator referenced in the film was real. Not only was he real, but the quote most famously attributed to him is "If it is necessary every Negro in the state will be lynched; it will be done to maintain white supremacy."); the oppression of Black people under the guise of helping them find religion; the lynching violence faced by so many. These issues are spoken of bluntly and matter-of-factly by the characters, who equally voice the impact of such things.

And yet the film is not a unilateral screed against white people. One key character is a wealthy woman in Boston to whom Sylvia appeals for money. This woman is moved by Sylvia's plea that education is needed to lift Black people up. One of the wealthy woman's friends tries to convince her to donate to a church fund for a Black preacher instead, and their conversation is one of the most interesting in the film. And on the flip side, there are Black characters who are shown to be dishonest, or willing to go along with oppressive behavior if it is to their personal benefit.

The story is engaging, and the final act is interesting as it departs from the main story to give us an extended flashback into Sylvia's youth and the fate of her family. This is a harrowing sequence, and it speaks to the trauma that many Black people carried with them even after slavery and Reconstruction. The writer and director of the film, Oscar Michaeux, was the son of a man who had been a slave. He clearly brings first-hand understanding of these experiences to bear on his story.

Overall a good film and one of historical import. I think that watching this film will only make me more hypercritical of the portrayal of Black characters (whether via blackface or Black actors) in more conventional Hollywood fare from this era. Highly recommended.




The trick is not minding



The Green Knight

I was a little worried about this one. The first 15-20 minutes are so rote, conventional like a lesser Game of Thrones episode coyly, and self-consciously, sprinkled with what feels like a parody of A24isms (the early intertitles are particularly art school precious). But, as Sir John Cleese once declared, "It got better". I think a second viewing may show some intention to the stuffy conventions of the early parts of the film, in slippingly striking contrast to the more moody and ethereal second half of the film, reaching its pinnacle in the lovely extended set piece in the Lord and Lady's manor, exulting in the kind of rich atmosphere that was so conspicuously absent in the first act. I'm a little confused by some of the reviews which talk about "deconstructing myth". I feel quite the opposite. It revels in the slow intoxication of mythic construction. I was much happier the more the film indulged its surrealism, and much less impressed with its attempts at any kind of realism. David Lowery is a young filmmaker, and still a tad too self-conscious in his postures, but with quite an interesting career so far, with only Pete's Dragon being a complete misfire.

9/10
I really loved this movie, and, of the dozen or so 2021 films released I’ve seen so far, is my top film so far. I didn’t find the beginning rote, myself, although I do acknowledge a few scenes do drag a little too long. Still, fantastic film to look at.



Funny that you should mention these films, Whit. I had just decided to re-watch both Cat People (1942) and The Leopard Man (1943) for Halloween. I got the idea from listening to an Eddie Muller podcast, where he said that he's going to feature these films on the closest to Halloween airing of Noir Alley on TCM, which I believe is on Sat. nights at 10 PM and again Sunday mornings.

Can't recall if I've seen "Curse", but I'll be looking for it.
I think it's worth a watch. Very different from Cat People but literally both short and sweet. I liked it. And I like watching Eddie Muller. He's so knowledgeable about noir and Hollywood history and films in general. I've got Cat People DVR'd and also have The Seventh Victim and I Walked with a Zombie programmed in a week or so. Even though I've watched them both a number of times. I'll also be watching out for The Leopard Man. Good stuff all of it.



The Green Knight

I'm a little confused by some of the reviews which talk about "deconstructing myth". I feel quite the opposite. It revels in the slow intoxication of mythic construction.
I went through some more reviews on this last night, and this point still seems muddled for me. The reviews I've seen that talk about this deconstruction of myth tend to more or less be surrounding how the film subverts the specifc myth of the "hero journey" and all of the chivalric hubris and stoic honor, etc etc. I mean, sure it does. But the problem is that all of these elements are fully evident in the source material as well, so this is not some kind of radical reinterpretation of the text. The film adds a number of fanciful additions to these themes, which mostly enhance the themes, but the film does not subvert what was already the subversive integrity of the original poem.
WARNING: spoilers below
The green sash, specifically, is one of the classical symbols of this convergence of honor/weakness, loyalty/duplicity, pride/principle, purity/corruption that exists in literature. Any hero's nobility is already compromised in the text itself.
Such a subversion of the mythical hero is not some modern conceit, and has been the backbone of this poem as well as classics from Don Quixote to Moby Dick, which outright mock the pretense of heroism in any kind of childbook sense. I think this may be an example of modern audiences not fully appreciating the thematic complexity of classical literature, due to whatever educational resentments they may have had to suffer.


I will add the one part of the film that disappointed me,
WARNING: spoilers below
the elimination of Morgana le Fay, the sorceress who originally set Gawain on his journey. I was hoping that Vikander's Lady Bertilak, whose monologue about the color green is the essence of Morgana's myth, would be revealed as her avatar, much as Lord Bertilak is revealed to be the Green Knight himself (the blindfolded woman is clearly Morgana, but her purpose becomes confused in this context), these twin antagonists, tempters, adversaries of the game.


Instead, Lowery chose to make Morgana into Gawain's mother, being ths witch and the instigator of his trial. I'm not sure why, as it adds nothing of thematic value to the tale. My initial understanding is that it was done for two stated reasons: because Lowery himself has had a complicated relationship with his own mother, and that he was so impressed by actress Sarita Choudhury that he decided to write her additional scenes. Neither the Freudian/Oedipal inclusion nor Choudhury's skills are enough justification and give no extra weight to the story or myth, and this may be the weakest deviation from the source text that the film offers. Talking foxes are the least of my concerns. "I have to prove myself to mom" is a poor excuse for pathos.



I didn’t find the beginning rote, myself, although I do acknowledge a few scenes do drag a little too long.
I think that the intention was to go for a hyperreal tone as a contrast against the later stages of the film. It didn't work for me.



Yeah, it is excellent. Not 15 minutes ago, this film was a question on a quiz show and I felt so dumb because I couldn't remember who directed it and I watched both this one and Germany Year Zero in the last few months or so.

Also, I am shocked that its only Oscar nod was a nomination for the screenplay.
Now watch Paisan to get a free submarine sandwich...I mean, finish the trilogy.


It's probably the clunkiest of the three but still worthwhile if you like the other two. I think you can see his neorealist style getting more extreme over the course of the three movies, and in Paisan I think it plays interestingly between the more artificial, vignette-based framing device and the immediacy provided by his approach.



Malignant (2021)
8.5/10



I forgot the opening line.

By May be found at the following website: Grainandnoise, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9254807

St. Elmo's Fire - (1985)

This movie got a lot of flack and hatred thrown at it when it was released - and it gets a lot of flack and hatred thrown at it today. I didn't think it was that bad, though Judd Nelson is horribly miscast. I'd have swapped roles between Emilio Estevez and Nelson - I think things would have gone down smoother that way, but I've been pretty wrong in the past (pretty often.) I thought it captured that feeling after graduation - when you really don't want the fun to stop. Why should it? Unwanted babies, drug addiction, alcoholism, having affairs, getting into financial difficulties, keeping a job and a constant pressure to get married arrive on the scene and wreck the good thing you had going for nearly 20 years. The hot and cold Joel Schumacher delivers something lukewarm - if you don't like entitled, needy and spoiled adult kids then for goodness sake don't watch.

6/10


By Copied from http://impawards.com/1982/tron.html web site, and intellectual property owned by Buena Vista Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34283486

Tron - (1982)

Tron just didn't do it for me - although I like the idea of sentient electronic impulses that argue amongst themselves whether there is a creator or not (the creator is us - the person who made the programs which live inside computers and networks.) At the end, we notice that the cityscape is much like the interior world of Tron, and so we ponder...But as far as the movie itself goes, the plot is too drab to support all the computer graphics and cool effects. It's the same old quest dressed up in fancy garb, and a lot of technological mumbo-jumbo is thrown about just to confuse us. It gave me a headache.

5/10
__________________
Remember - everything has an ending except hope, and sausages - they have two.
We miss you Takoma

Latest Review : Le Circle Rouge (1970)



Predestination (2014) - Sci-fi/Action - 9/10



predestination(2014) - Sci-fi/Action- 9/10