Rate The Last Movie You Saw

The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel)

Seeing La Ciénaga a few years ago immediately put Martel on my radar as a director worth delving deeper into. The Headless Woman is another astounding piece of filmmaking from her. The depiction of post-traumatic amnesia (or is it something else?) and the resulting social disorientation is just mesmerising all the way through, and of course there's more than one layer of interpretation at play in the film. Martel's masterfully nuanced, sensitive direction aided by Bárbara Álvarez's pitch-perfect camera work prod the viewer to pay attention to small details and things left unsaid between the lines (we saw that in La Ciénaga as well), creating a work of great psychological depth and mystery.
Highly recommended!

Inception (2010)


It's a 5/5, and I can't mention much here that hasn't been mentioned before. Simply terrific cast and spectacular plot. Watching some of the behind the scenes stuff, I always forget how Nolan mentions it took years to really develop every detail needed to make this work.

Bacurau (2019)


I'll not lie, the comparison of this to Tarantino films had me seeking this one out. It didn't disappoint and although I can see why its likened to QT, I wouldn't advertise it, unless every film with this extent of violence is compared. Bacurau is a very good film, with an even stronger message. Cinematography is what made it stand out for me. Some of the scenes are absolutely stunning.


Go watch.


+



Ema (2019)


Style over substance? Maybe. Probably. Still great to watch, with an excellent score and great choreography. If you liked Noe's Climax, then this should keep you entertained.

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

Totally agree.

And the whole framing where is a pretty damning message about social privilege. The question of what the amnesia is (something you don't remember or something you don't want to remember) juts adds another layer to it.

^ On it, welcome back!

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Exactly. It's a continuation of the theme of the decay and estrangement of the upper class we saw in La Cienaga.

Snooze factor = Zzz


[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

American Hustle (2013)

I couldn't find who had earlier brought up this film, but I appreciate it, since there's so much crud having been put out in the past several years, that's it's nice to see a well acted interesting story! We re-watched it last night.

What a cast! Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Jennifer Lawrence.

Based upon the Abscam scandal of the 1970s/80s, Bale and Adams play a pair of conmen who team up with FBI's Bradley Cooper to entrap Congressmen, city councilmen, mobsters, and a big city mayor, as they took bribes to effectuate casino licenses in Atlantic City, among other activities.

A very engaging 138 minutes, it's chief attraction is the superb acting by Christina Bale. Although I'm not a fan, Lawrence found a perfect role for her talents, given her somewhat limited effective range. Cooper was good, but either he over acted, or the part was over written. This is a black comedy so his work was absorbed into the nature of the story.

Once the viewer got used to Renner's silly hair style it was enjoyable to watch his first rate performance. He was 42 at the time, but actually he looked a little young for his part. Healthy, I guess.

Director David O. Russell held the whole thing together and deftly steered what must have been a tricky production. Danny Elfman provided the music, yet the chief attractions were the actual period popular songs of the 1970s.

This is a very captivating picture, with all involved at the top of their games.

Doc's rating: 9/10

Yes, and there's something to say about the privilege of being allowed to forget.

I think that it connects to a lot of struggles (racism, classism)

The Others has one of my favorite "simple" horror moments. It's when

The Old Guard (2020)



This was right up my street. The whole dynamic of the group of supernatural characters appealed to me a lot; it's a sci-fi-ish action movie but it cares about its characters and I liked that. I also loved that this film had several scenes in which women, as rounded characters, interact with each other, which shouldn't be something rare enough to be worth commenting on but somehow still is. Visually it was nothing special and there were bits that look cheap which was a shame, it could have been more stylised, especially as it was adapted from a comic book. There's also more potential in the backstory that could have been explored further than the brief flashbacks, although perhaps not within the scope of the runtime. Great cast though (I'd watch Chiwetel Ejiofor in pretty much anything).

F is for the Family => Just great

Spring Breakers (2012).






A neon fantasy and a florescent nightmare, this film is hot, sexy, shallow, deluded and bonkers (just like my ex girlfriend). I found the editing irritating, the characters dull and annoying and the story underwhelming but the copious amounts of bikini clad women and James Franco's bizarre performance kept me interested. A feast for the eyes but a hunger strike for the mind.


2.5/5 Stars.

Bugsy (1991)

Brother Bear

Didn't really rewatch this just now, but I was listening to Phil Collins singing his heart out about regret over letting one's brother bear down, and I realized how silly Koda's ultimate reaction in the end felt, how conventional and trite, even for a Disney cartoon. Like I just couldn't really buy that after thinking about it, that a kid who loves his mother that much would react so casually. I also felt that if Koda wasn't a bear and was a human, people wouldn't be so forgiving of Kenai's actions. But hey, animals, right? They deserve to be hunted.

I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday (2017)

On paper, this is a film that I love. A low-budget horror/drama about a woman and her son living desperately in a bunker after an unspecified apocalypse with a dwindling food supply while the little boy waits for the arrival of Christmas.

Now, the estimated budget for this movie is $10,000. I was impressed with the set design and effects that they pulled off for this amount of money. The acting wasn't stellar, but it was perfectly passable (though really choppy in one scene).

The best part of the film is probably the way that it manages to pull off some compelling imagery, some of it very simple. For example, after her son writes a letter to Santa, his mother tells him that she knows a way to get the letter to the North Pole, and as her son watches she sets the paper on fire. The boy watches as the letter burns bright and then curls in on itself on the floor. A final special effect uses a neat practical effect.

There were two issues that I had with the film: pacing and tone. The movie is only 71 minutes long, and there were some times where it felt like the film was being padded to get to that feature length. At one point, we watch the mother slowly examine various items from a backpack.

I also struggled a bit with the tone of the film. There were sequences that I think were meant to be serious, but that almost bordered on the comical. For example, a sequence in which the mother contemplates various ways to kill herself and her son (sharp can lid? poison?).

The final act (and specifically the final 15 minutes) goes in an interesting direction. I'm not sure how well the ending is supported what came before it. Ultimately to me this felt like what should have been a short film stretched to feature length.

Thanks JC. Glad to be back! Enjoy, I'll keep an eye out for your thoughts.