Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I held off on The Red Shoes for so long because some part of me was like "A dancing/ballet movie? Meh." But it is truly awesome in that way where you're like "Oh, right! The topic almost doesn't matter when a movie is this good!"

All of their movies look gorgeous which is usually enough for me, so I don't have any excuses.

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Ya know, it's a good question on who I would have preferred to be CM. A lot of people I like are too old for it (considering what the character's age is supposed to be) and I'm not that familiar with a lot of the actors in their 20s. I will contemplate this.
Yeah, I was also underwhelmed by Doctor Strange but man do I love me some Black Panther. I really enjoyed the world they built, I thought the acting was uniformly excellent (especially from Boseman who I preferred greatly to Jordan, who was also good, but also Lupita, Daniel Kaluuya, a great turn from Andy Serkis, and the show-stealing performance, to me, from Winston Duke, who I now want to be in everything), I thought the conflict was actually powerful and meaningful, and I thought it was full of good humor and genuinely touching moments. The action was good enough too (despite some very spotty CGI late) but there's always action in these movies that's not what I come for or I would watch DC more.
Endgame is what it is. It's the culmination of a 21 film investment and all the stories and characters that have been built coming together. It's silly enough that I think you have to be invested but if you are then I think it delivers on many fronts.

I also held off many years on The Red Shoes because, despite all the praise, I just didn't think it would work for me. I was wrong. But I also think so much of it is in the dream-like dance sequences. The rest of the movie is good enough but obviously it's those scenes that push it over the top.

Sister My Sister, 1994

Christine (Joely Richardson) is delighted when her sister, Lea (Jodhi May) joins her in the job of domestic work for a wealthy woman, Madame Danzard (Julie Walters) and her daughter, Isabelle (Sophie Thursfield). But the two sisters have more than a healthy dose of trauma and mental illness, and in the isolation of the home, both sets of women move to an unhealthy place of mistrust and anger.

Finally, a movie to shake me out of the underwhelming rut of the last few films!

This film is based on the infamous true story of two sisters who, after worsening relations with their employers, committed a scandalous act of violence against them. There are several film tellings of this story (I just watched The Maids last year), and it's not hard to see why: violence, class conflict, lesbians, and the monocle-dropping element of incest.

This isn't a perfect film, but there were many aspects of it that I thought were very interesting!

To begin with, there are multiple levels on which this film evokes the isolation of both sets of women. Aside from a handful of dialogue-less background characters, the film belongs entirely to the four main characters. There are figures that loom large in the narrative who never appear on screen (the sisters' mother, a man Isabelle is possibly going to marry), and their absences--and the characters' longing for them--are deeply felt.

And pushing this even further, the two pairs of women rarely interact directly. When Madame Danzard and Isabelle speak about the sisters, they never use their names. They refer to them as "the older one" or "the younger one"--as if they were animals and not people. The conversation between the sisters likewise puts the other women in a bubble. Christine notes that Madame Danzard doesn't come into the kitchen because "she knows her place." While they all live under the same roof (the sisters live in an attic apartment of the home), they live in very different worlds. And as the film goes on, the rift between those two world widens.

Further, the film shows the way that unhealthily dependent relationships can gain momentum through a sort of see-saw dynamic. While at first it seems that Lea is a bit unhinged and Christine is the "calm" one, through the film we watch the sisters trade these roles: perpetually in a state of one of them freaking out and the other soothing her. It becomes a sort of role play--the uncomfortable line that is blurred between a parent/child relationship and the relationship between lovers--but it is a role play that escalates as their freakouts become more and more hysterical and the solutions to their problems become more extreme. Likewise, the wealthy mother and daughter take turns praising and then criticizing the sisters, using the sisters' paychecks as leverage.

Maybe the best-realized aspect of the film is its understanding of the way that, in such a closed, isolated situation, people can fall into an unhealthy, toxic web of attention and affection. The house is rife with jealousies, and it makes sense: there is only so much attention to go around. It hurts to feel that you are no longer someone's priority, especially when they are literally the only ally you have. The sister's have an intense history of abandonment, and so they respond with particular fear to the threat of being left behind. The two actresses playing the sisters do a fantastic job of portraying the physical side of this intensity--they tremble with the intensity of their emotions.

On the negative side, I thought that the film leaned a bit much on the lesbian incest scandalous hook of the story. The film does a good job of helping you understand how such a relationship could begin, and also how the physical intensity of their relationship only heightens their feelings about each other and their dependence. The sex scenes were generally kept "classy", but it also felt like there were a few more of them than were needed. The story on its own is interesting enough, and at times it felt as if the sex scenes were being used to "amp up" the film and it just wasn't necessary. I thought that the more subdued moments of tension--the sisters exchanging glances as they try to hem a dress under the insults of their boss--were far more effective.

It is an interesting sidenote that this film is totally female-dominated both in front of and behind the camera: actors, writers, the director--all women.

I would say that I liked this film a bit more than The Maids, though they are both interesting takes on the true story.

loved her on american horror story!

Saratoga Trunk (1945)
D: Sam Wood
Starring: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Flora Robson, Jerry Austin

Period drama/romance from the novel by Edna Ferber. This well produced film brings together two characters by chance who are each in the pursuit of righting past wrongs against their families. A powerful attraction is inevitable, but conflicting personal interests create sparks in their volatile relationship. Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman both give very good performances, Bergman particularly dynamic and radiant. Some elements would no doubt be considered beyond tolerable for today, not least of which includes Dame Flora Robson in dark makeup as a Haitian maid, and dwarf character actor Jerry Austin serving up much of the comedy relief.

Thought the photography was particularly good and well thought out, well directed. Wonderfully elaborate costumes and sets throughout, and the reasonably long runtime of 135 minutes given the high standard of production feels like time well spent. As is often the case one gets the impression that Warner Bros really knew how to make a good picture. Of interest, although the film was shot in 1943 it was not released until late 1945 due to the high number of war films in production. It was also the second occasion that veteran director Sam Wood had worked with stars Cooper and Bergman together, the previous entry being Paramount's highly successful production of For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943).

8/10

A Late Quartet (2012)

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step up all in 10/10 cause love to rewatch it cause ryan guzman from 9-1-1 is in it

Enjoyed your review and agree with everything you said. This was an alleged comedy classic that did not live up to its reputation IMO.

Ditte Menneskebarn - 7/10


Simple director mistakes, plot holes, jump in chronology without explanation, but it's good to finally complete a movie. <sigh of relief>

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None of the other films had anything as bad as the Oddjob fight or Bond saving the day via rape

Octopussy (John Glen, 1983)
Ngl I'm running out of things to say about these films but this is a fun entry with a good amount of laughs mixed in with the action scenes and some real creative ideas. This one's solid.


A View to a Kill (John Glen, 1985)
The John Glen run of Bond films all seem have more or less the same visual approach (ie nothing) but they all manage to be fun, if unspectacular, entries to the series and Moore's final outing is no different. The team of Christopher Walken and Grace Jones as the villains is some inspired casting and are responsible for a lot of the standout moments here including the climax of the film which some may find underwhelming but I dug it. Also can't believe they got Duran Duran for the theme and it sucked


Current Bond rankings:
01. From Russia with Love
02. Thunderball
03. The Spy Who Loved Me
04. Diamonds are Forever
05. Moonraker
06. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
07. Dr. No
08. The Man with the Golden Gun
09. Octopussy
10. A View to a Kill
11. For Your Eyes Only
12. Live and Let Die
13. You Only Live Twice
14. Goldfinger

Small Axe: Mangrove (2020) - 6.8/10. A very very good film from Steve McQueen. Went under the radar a bit for me. But liked the story very much. I will go over the other four movies pretty soon.

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My Favorite Films

Black Christmas (1974)

I finally fixed one of the bigger holes in my horror expertise. Yeah, it's a slasher, but fortunately one of the better ones. It's kind of Giallo-like, which is a bonus (I especially liked the murder using the glass unicorn). Like many slashers, it does drag a little, but at least it builds an atmosphere. Some nice shots and creepier than normal phone calls make it almost good (which isn't shabby for the genre).

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I recently watched Snowpiercer. It is a film I had been ignoring for a long, long time, for a reason I can't really explain other than - the cover looks real serious and boring. I liked it though. A lot, in fact. I would highly recommend it.

Tangerines, 2013

Ivo (Lembit Ulfsak) lives and works in a small village that is all but abandoned as an armed conflict gains momentum nearby. Along with his friend Margus (Elmo Nuganen), Ivo hopes to harvest an orchard full of tangerines before being forced to move away. When two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict, Nika (Misha Meskhi) and Ahmed (Giorgi Nakashidze), end up wounded and staying in Ivo's home, Ivo must walk a delicate line between the two sides.

This film is a great example of a simple but powerful story.

As with some international films, I am not very familiar with the conflict portrayed in this movie. And yet I do not feel that understanding that conflict is a requirement for picking up on the film's very clear themes about violence and decency. At one point a character literally says of the soldiers on both sides, "What if they just picked tangerines?".

So many elements of this movie fall into the category of simple-but-effective. And nothing anchors the film more than Lembit Ulfsak's performance as Ivo, a man in whom decency is so ingrained that it compels similar decency in others just out of pure expectation. In his treatment of Nika and Ahmed, Ivo becomes a mix of a father figure and a friend. He sees people, all people, as being human above all else: above nationality, above occupation, above age.

In my review of God's Own Country I talked about the gentle power of kindness and the way it can effect change on others. This is another film that shows that dynamic very well. Ivo cares about other people. He asks them questions and really listens to the answers. For both Nika and Ahmed, you can see the way that Ivo's simple expectation of reciprocal respect impact their behavior and, eventually, their attitudes.

Zooming out, the film as a whole walks a lovely line between optimism and realism. The tangerine grove looks like a little slice of heaven, and the firing of guns and explosions feels borderline sacrilegious in a place of such peace and beauty. But many of those who fight do not see such beauty, or have had to shut themselves off from caring about it in order to survive. At its heart, there is tragedy in this film. For all that characters change and grow and mature, kindness alone cannot stop the beating of war drums. What we do see of the fighting between the two groups is messy, disjoint, and wasteful.

Something I have not fully thought through yet is the way that this film explores the idea of violence and war as erasing identity. There are no women in the film, at all (save a sometimes-discussed photo of Ivo's granddaughter). And with Ivo's family all gone, his own identity has become more abstract. The relationships that define who these men are (fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, etc) are conspicuously absent until the different characters tease it out of each other.

I had no complaints about this film. It is a simple story told with a strong eye for characterization. The performances are good and the scenery is gorgeous.

Casablanca (rewatch)