Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I'd say it's certainly an allegory, much in the same way or Plato's cave. Every pool adds to his disillusionment and the death of the childish optimism that comes with aging.

I haven't read the book yet as I've heard it's a lot worse than the film, but I might still get to it someday.

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The Earrings of Madame De...

A perfectly constructed and executed period piece romantic drama. The long take photography is among the best I've ever seen and accentuates every emotion the characters are feeling. Just top notch stuff and I need to see more Ophuls immediately.

5/5

I haven't read Rum Punch yet, so I don't know if I agree with that yet, but even if that's true, so what? I mean, the Coens barely changed any of the major details from McCarthy's book when they adapted No Country For Old Men, but that still doesn't take away any of what they achieved with that movie, with the way they choose to "fill in" the original sparse prose with their film's emphasis on long, excruciating silences. It still takes skill to know what to retain when adapting a book, and to make it work the best in another medium, otherwise, you could just park a great screenplay in front of Brett Ratner or any other random Hollywood hack, and end up with a masterpiece at the end of the process every single time.Are you fan of Jackie Brown too, by the way Rock?

True dat; I mean, that feeling of relief when they finally kissed? Cinematic perfection:

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Gummo - (1997)

There's a story about why I watched Gummo, and how I became aware of it. A couple of years ago I was with a bunch of friends and we were at the Luna cinemas - which are kind of half-way between mainstream and arthouse. Their walls were plastered with silhouettes of famous movie characters, and we went through them ticking them all off, which wasn't too hard - we know them all well...until we got to one. It was the only silhouette we couldn't place, though we tried and tried, and eventually just had to quizz the lady at the ticket booth to see if she knew. "Oh, that's from Gummo of course!" Of course! Gummo? We had to look it up on our phones, and since that day I've always been curious about it. I mean, it struck somebody enough that when it came time to decorate the walls of the cinema that person thought Gummo had a place among the classics.

So, what is Gummo and what is it like? Wikipedia describes it as an "experimental drama film" - and it kind of has the feel of a faux documentary, set in really poor town in the U.S. Midwest full of disgusting people living in filthy houses. It started with a couple of boys terrorizing and killing a cat - which wasn't a great place to start with me. I could barely watch. These kids go around killing feral cats, because a townsman pays them to, and also drop in on a guy who prostitutes his intellectually disabled relative. We don't stick with these two kids, but roam around the town, dropping in on simple people doing awful things while in the background there's narration by various other people describing terrible things that have happened to them (along the lines of being sexually abused as children, attempting suicide and what happened when a tornado hit the town.) At a certain stage however, you do sense there is a kind of kinship and brotherhood these people have for those they respect - even if many are desperate to escape their life of poverty and hopelessness. There's a matter-of-fact honesty that you wouldn't get from others. For what it is, and what it's trying to say, I think Gummo does a good job - and it's interesting - but it's also repelling, depressing and ugly.

6/10


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The Illusionist - (2006)

Films often come in pairs, probably because studios invest a lot in their scripts and when one enemy begins production on a film while another studio has a similar-themed project sitting there, a race begins to finish first. At least that's what I've heard. Anyway, The Illusionist came out the same year The Prestige did, and while The Illusionist did well, I wasn't really aware of it until now. It earned only slightly less than The Prestige did. I thought it was pretty good, without singling anything out that had me breathless (except for Crown Prince Leopold's threats to sue a magician for fraud - dude, that's what they do. That's what magic tricks are all about - tricking people.) I personally had Ed Norton's Eisenheim pegged as an outright mystic. With CGI the impossible is possible. But I won't go down any avenues that might give away this film's plot. It's a good looking film with plenty of spark - a high stakes game involving royalty and power. The only down point for me was the lack of chemistry between Norton and Jessica Biel, but it has been explained to me that Eisenheim is meant to be inscrutable and his not showing emotions is part of the character. So there. Complaint nullified. Paul Giamatti does most of the heavy lifting acting-wise.

7/10


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The Tin Drum - (1979)

I think I'd seen this before (although if I had, little had remained in my memory.) I feel almost compelled to get this on Criterion and listen to a commentary, not to mention read the book (apparently this give a person a much better understanding of some things in the film.) A kid (Oskar - played by David Bennent) decides to stop growing, and simply must have his tin drum with him at all times. That would be a poor excuse for a film alone, but this kid happens to live in Danzig during the fraught war years, and has a unique perspective on the rise of the Nazis and the war - especially considering one of his relatives (and perhaps this person is really his father) is Polish, and works at Danzig's Polish post office - a terrible place to work come September 1939. What disturbed some, disturbed me - and that was the sexual activity Oskar is involved in, which is okay in theory (he's lived long enough - his mind is of age) but in practice means a young boy doing things which are simply wrong. For this, the film was banned in certain places - and it's Oklahoma banning was even the subject of a 2004 documentary. I'm still not sure about this film.

?/10 - if I'm pushed I'd say 6, but I have a feeling there's a lot more to unearth than I see on the surface - and I'm going to watch this again one day.


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In the Heart of the Sea - (2015)

This was a big flop, but I didn't think it was that bad. Out of all the films I watched yesterday, I enjoyed this the most - and it so happens that this was the least critically acclaimed film I saw. I say "boo" to the CGI whales - no matter how close they get to reality, my mind just sees cartoons. But as a tale of survival and brutal conflict it had me really buying into it and going on the journey with it's characters. Whaling is a horrible business though, and I hated seeing these men slowly kill whales for their oil - so, apparently, did a giant white whale which proceeded to sink their ship, setting them adrift in their whaling boats. The true voyage of their trip (that of Essex) is full of animal cruelty and even some extinctions. This was a time when man considered the domination of nature a natural human proclivity. This was a whopping $100 million production which sunk like a stone. The whole incident inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. Apparently I was in the mood for cinematic rubbish yesterday - as I am from time to time.

7/10

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Muriel's Wedding (1994)

I love Gummo. It initially made my favorites list, but I removed it a while ago for whatever reason. I should revisit it to see if it bounces back in there.

LOVED this movie. Saw it about a year ago and wrote this about it:

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Some movies / performances just make you re-assess your opinion of certain actors and The Swimmer did that for me with Burt Lancaster. He was perfect as you say and I've been a fan ever since watching this despite not liking him much when I was younger. Same deal with Victor Mature in My Darling Clementine, a part he totally owned.

Someone ran a poll online recently that popped up in my FB feed asking you to nominate the most unsettling film you've ever watched and my input was The Tin Drum. It's such a disturbing film and one that really lingers, Oskar's scream for example, there's no forgetting that or indeed some of the questionable scenes you allude to. I saw it on the big screen though in the 80's and it went straight into my top 20 and stayed there for many years.

Eraserhead won that poll by the way, a film that would have been my next choice, well that or 1984 which is the only film I've ever walked out of.

Oui, monsieur.

I Am Twenty (1967) - Woow, This must be watched a short documentary about some youth in their independence time.10/10
Bro daddy- After a long time a stress-release comedy movie .
Pather/Apu/Aprajito - can not describe this movie. Every Indian need to watch this movie.10/10(It recommended by One friend in Forum)

Charulatha- One-word marvelous poetry masterpiece by satyajithray

Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965, Otto Preminger)

Hmm... to say this was a mixed bag would be an understatement. Liked the cinematography, Laurence Olivier as Superintendent Newhouse, and overall, the mystery was pretty interesting. But I would agree with the reviewers who said the ending was a letdown - I felt the same (contrived, ridiculous, and not scary at all). Also, the score was way too distracting at times and grating on the ears, especially in those opening scenes.
Still a good movie overall, despite the flaws.

So did the bunnies just hop away, or how did this unnatural lake manage to disappear?

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I don't remember the details of the plot all that well, but I was actually shocked by how much I liked Triangle (I even gave it a 4 out of 5, for pure entertainment value). The loop structure and the overall overarching subtext just made sense to me. It's a plot driven movie, and yes, it's not a cinematic masterpiece by any means - not by a long shot - but when it comes to that subgenre (time loop/paradox movies), it's one of the best, kinda underrated too imo.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines presents us a family that's pretty much going through those struggles and insecurities. Nevermind the machine apocalypse, the core of the film is how this family has to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, external and internal, to save their lives, yes, but most importantly, their relationships and their bond. They might have "no idea what they're doing", but they're still pushing through.

The focus of the film is on the daughter, Katie (Abbi Jacobson), who frequently clashes with her "old school" father Rick (Danny McBride). Because of this, she's anxious to leave for film school in California. But after a particularly bitter argument, Rick decides to cancel her plane ticket and take the family in a cross-country trip from Michigan to California, in an attempt to have one final chance at bonding. Along for the ride are mother Linda (Maya Rudolph), little brother Aaron (Mike Rianda), and their pet dog, Monchi.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

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Oh, I agree. Lancaster was so good in his films that it's hard to think of a bad job. He was in several great noirs.

Mature too was in some good noirs. I also recall seeing him in Samson and Delilah (1949) as a kid, and was knocked out by him, the drop dead gorgeous Hedy Lamarr, and the movie in general.

It's interesting that Mature always maintained that he was a lousy actor, but he was so good looking that no one noticed..