Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Barbara, 2012

Barbara (Nina Hoss) is a doctor who has been punished for trying to relocate to West Berlin by being relocated to a small town hospital and enduring debasing, constant harassment and "monitoring" by the Stasi. Though Barbara still has her heart set on escape, she begins to get drawn into the lives of the people in her town, including fellow doctor Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld) and labor camp patient Stella (Jasna Bauer).

While this film did not reach the heights for me of Phoenix (another Christian Petzold/Nina Hoss collab), but I still thought it was an excellent drama.

Hoss brings her incredible presence to the role of Barbara, a woman who endures an enforced mundane day-to-day life, punctuated by abuse and humiliation. Despite the small-town setting, Barbara must always be vigilant. She does not know if she can trust Andre, who seems romantically interested in her, but could for all she knows be an informant. The abusive treatment of Stella mirrors her own maltreatment. Hoss manages to convey desperation lingering under the surface of calm patience.

A point that the film makes quite well is that Barbara is really good at what she does. While Andre is very skilled from a technical point of view, it is Barbara's empathy and attention to the human side of her patients that allows her to provide superior care. The idea of maintaining humanity even in challenging circumstances reflects Barbara's struggles against an oppressive state.

I didn't see the ending coming--though maybe I should have--and when it arrives it packs a delicate wallop.

my of the most favorite French directors ever. I just love his moral tales that are so universal. No one did it better than him so far.

__________________
You can call it the art of fighting without fighting.

Titane, 2021

Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) was in a violent car crash as a child, leaving her with a titanium plate welded to her skull. Now working as a car show dancer, Alexia deals with strange and violent urges related to both the people and vehicles around her. When things get out of control Alexia ends up crossing paths with Vincent (Vincent Lindon), a firefighter whose son went missing many years earlier.

This was certainly . . . something.

Interestingly, it's hard to talk much about this film because while it was an experience, that's almost where I end with it.

Rousselle gives the kind of performance that you often see referred to as "brave", which is usually code for "looks unattractive in many scenes" and/or "gets naked a lot". And, yes, both of those thing apply here. But the performance really stuck with me. Not for the weirdness of it all or for the undoubtedly bizarre things she was tasked with performing, but because she creates this character who is both unlikable yet compelling, to such an extent that she begins to feel almost inhuman. Lindon makes a good other half to the film, also creating a character who is at once sympathetic and monstrous.

The way that the movie is shot fits the same tone as the characters. It is at once removed and intensely (often unpleasantly) visceral. Sometimes the colors go sterile, while other times they go deeply saturated. The effect is kind of nauseating, intentionally so I'm sure.

The plot progression is okay if you consider it mainly as a vehicle for certain character moments and visual sequences. I never felt like I had a handle on Alexia--and I'm not sure that even Alexia is meant to have a handle on herself--and it kept me at a bit of a distance from the story. I was definitely engaged and stayed on my toes because the plot took some really radical turns at points.

(And this isn't really a complaint, but the CPR featured two times in this movie was so bad. Wimpy chest compressions. Giving someone CPR on a soft cushy bed?!).

Set in 1969 Ireland, Belfast follows Buddy (Jude Hill), a 9-year old kid growing up during the beginning of "The Troubles". With tensions rising in the country, the kid has to deal with the usual hardships of growing up as well as the threats of violence in the streets, and the possibility of having to leave the country.

The film follows Buddy's point of view, so there's a certain childlike and sometimes surreal vibe to the events of the film. For the most part it works, but there are certain points where it falls flat. There's a certain conflict with a local agitator that becomes a focal point towards the end, but ultimately feels forced and tacked on to try to add some tension.

What does work is the family dynamics, especially between Buddy, his mom (Caitriona Balfe), and his grandparents (Ciáran Hinds and Judi Dench). I thought Balfe and Hinds were pretty good in their roles, especially Balfe. She did a great job conveying a certain strength mixed with despair in the middle of this chaos; a despair that she tries hard to restrain for the sake of the family. Jamie Dornan, who plays Buddy's dad, was serviceable, but still managed to pull some solid moments.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

__________________

Halloween II picks up right after the original, as Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is taken to the hospital while Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) tries to find Michael Myers. What he finds out is that Myers is, of course, headed to the hospital determined to kill Laurie, who we learn here is her sister.

Laurie doesn't get much to do until the end, and most of the new characters are inconsequential, with the exception of Deputy Gary Hunt (Hunter von Leer), who seems to be one of the few with common sense around town. But it is Loomis the one that's at the forefront most of the time, and Pleasance does a pretty good job walking that fine line between obsession and genuine care for Laurie and others.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Quite possibly my favorite movie of last year. Ducorneau has such beautiful control over her wild stories that despite her influences being clear (Lynch, Noe, Refn, Cronenberg), she’s developed a distinct and brilliant style with just two films.

Similar to the director’s above, her films are experiences first and foremost, and narratives second. On that front, I can think of few more surehanded films in recent years, treading into absolutely audacious territory.

What strikes me the most about this and Raw is that beyond all the provocative weirdness and violence, there’s a tenderness and compassion in her films that feels thoughtful and genuine. Her ability to find genuine and sweet moments among the absurdity without them feeling sarcastic or campy is something that drops my jaw.

This is what makes the shifting focus from “will she be caught” to “will she be accepted” and “who will she become” so potent. One of the greatest “coming out” or “transitioning” films ever made through allegory and pure cinema.

Her characters are, despite the audaciousness of the plot surrounding them (or *gulp* inside them!) human at the core.

For example, the moment

I'm still turning it all over in my head. I'm resisting reading any analysis of it, because it feels like something is cohering in my thoughts and I don't want to be swayed by any explanations. Something something reality something something perception something something how we are defined by our relationships something something sexy firetruck dance.

I’ll abstain from my analysis except for the briefest statement that I expected this film to deliver on a sensory level (that opening dance sequence long take set to Doin It To Death by the Kills is just cinema MAGIC). I didn’t expect it to emotional affect me with its rumination on the acceptance of genuine love.

She used that stabby metal chopstick to penetrate brains AND hearts.

I suspect it’s one that will grow on you the more you think on it. And it gets even better on a rewatch.

Yes, I think that there was a lot to unpack that was hard to process the first time around just because of the shock of the various developments.

I do have to say that the rapid evolution of our understanding of her character from is pretty incredible.

I also was reminded of the documentary

By IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5311542/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58010385

Never Look Away - (2018)

Those who get a bit antsy when their drama runs northward of 180 minutes should pass Never Look Away (In German Werk ohne Autor - Work Without Author) and definitely look away. I don't know if this piece of cinema really needed to be as long as it is (there is plenty they could have trimmed) but I was interested, seeing as this was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar - and is one of only two German films (the other being Das Boot) nominated for multiple Oscars (it's other nomination was for cinematography.) It's also written and directed by the same person who made the unbelievably brilliant The Lives of Others - Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Based on a true story, it tells the tale of Kurt Barnert (in real life, artist Gerhard Richter) whose sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia and killed by the Nazis because they considered the mentally ill a waste to society. Barnert comes of age in East Germany, and falls in love with a girl whose father just happens to have been the SS doctor who sterilized and then euthanized his sister. It focuses mostly on Barnert's journey as an artist - trying to find his particular voice after being taught by the strict communists then the wild abstract ones in the West after he crosses the border. I had a particular vision of how this was going to end, but the movie really defied my expectations and holds off from the norm which pleased me. I don't mind long movies, but Never Look Away is really good without quite being great and far too long.

Barnert considers his art to be saying something without saying anything, but he himself doesn't realize just how freakishly interconnected and meaningful his own work is - only the audience has a God-like insight into the patterns and essence working through this young man.

7/10

__________________

Her rapidly shifting identity and our rapidly shifting understanding of her is one of the great and most unique things about the film. I struggle to think of anything that’s quite like it. Mulholland Dr. Maybe?

And yes. Absolutely got…

The Disciple (2020)

What you didn't do here, which I like, is compare Halloween II to the original.
I find that if you compare it to the original, you find it woefully lacking. But if you compare it to the average slasher in 1981, it's actually pretty good, even very good.
So, personally, I enjoy this one.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

To be fair, I did mention the original in the full review, although briefly. But overall, I agree. It's a pretty solid slasher.

Attica chronicles the events surrounding a riot at Attica Correctional Facility in 1971. Sparked by the prisoners requests for better living conditions, it quickly spiraled into a 4-day mess with 40+ hostages and heavy socio-political implications for those involved. The prison had a 75% "black and brown population" at the time, while the guard force was entirely white, and occurring a few years after the civil rights movement, it's expected that racial tension would play heavily into what happened.

To take us in the journey, directors Stanley Nelson and Traci Curry interview former prisoners, employees at the correctional facility, relatives of the hostages, mediators and negotiators, and reporters that covered the event. Not being entirely aware of the events, I really appreciated the way that they unfolded everything until its unfortunate ending. Not every documentary filmmaker has the ability to build up tension as the film progresses, but this is what happens here. You feel the burden of things mounting up, until they inevitably break down.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

My pick for best nominated documentary, though Flee and Ascension were also quite good.