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The Vampires of Poverty (1978) -

I frequently thought about Cannibal Holocaust while watching this as both films are similar in the sense they criticize the opportunism of documentarians and the media for going too far for commercial gain. By the time I finished this film though, it was clear to me that Mayolo and Ospina made the scathing critique of opportunism which Deodato's film fell short of. Like, not to crap on Cannibal Holocaust or anything - I find the film decently interesting. It just doesn't hold a candle to this film. Given the unsimulated animal cruelty throughout it, it was too hypocritical for me to take its points seriously. It's an insincere film. This film, on the other hand, displays far more sincerity towards these themes (the mockumentary aspect is a large part of why it works so well since it prevents it from becoming what it criticizes), giving them a strong bite in the process. The tv film crew in this film, though they denied the accusations of exploitation thrown at them from the Columbian citizens, clearly embodied them as they were more concerned with creating a spectacle out of their misery (searching for prostitutes and 'crazy' people to film) than showing any concern about their living conditions. In fact, a scene where the film crew paid young boys to take off their clothes in front of the camera was downright disturbing to watch. Also, since the film crew's treatment of the Columbian citizens doesn't get half as extreme as what we see from the characters in Cannibal Holocaust, its critique feels lived-in since their behavior feels eerily akin to the type of misery porn which regularly goes on in real life. So, in short, if you found Cannibal Holocaust interesting but felt that its hypocrisy caused its points to fall apart, do yourself a favor and watch this film. It's a near-masterpiece of mockumentary filmmaking.

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I Married a Monster from Outer Space, 1958

Marge (Gloria Talbott) is engaged to Bill (Tom Tyron), but the night before their wedding Bill is ambushed on his drive home and his body is taken over by an unseen alien creature. The creature wears Bill’s body like a suit, gaining access to his memories, and goes through with marrying Marge. Sowly, Marge becomes more and more unsettled by Bill’s strange behavior and mannerisms. But as she starts to seek help from her friends in their small town, she comes to realize that Bill might not be the only one who is not who he seems to be.

Full of surprisingly disturbing moments and imagery, this is an effective story about paranoia and conspiracy.



Full review

Breakfast At Tiffany's - 1961

Well I can see why this movie was so iconic. You can feel it every time you see Audrey dressed up. She murdered that role. The role also hit a little close to home . The ending really hit me. I know this is dialed up but the end really worked for me. It's a shame the yellowface by Rooney sort of takes some shine off the movie lately because it was really enjoyable. It was obviously bad but he wasn't in it enough to take me out of the movie with it. Anyways I really liked it and I see all the fuss over Hepburn I couldn't take my eyes off her. Might have to add this to the collection.

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I came here to do two things, drink some beer and kick some ass, looks like we are almost outta beer - Dazed and Confused

101 Favorite Movies (2019)

Hearts Beat Loud, 2018

Frank (Nick Offerman) runs a record store that is on the brink of closing, and he himself is experiencing something of a crisis as his only daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons) prepares to leave for college. Convincing Sam to record a few songs with him, one of their tracks becomes a minor hit on Spotify and Frank seriously begins to ask Sam to consider staying put and pursuing a music career with him. Also complicating things for Sam is a new romance that sparks between her and a young woman named Rose (Sasha Lane).

This heartwarming drama-comedy gets plenty of emotion out of watching its two leads navigate major changes in their lives.



Full review

The Vanishing (1988) - A

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Touching the Void - (2003)

It continues to astonish me what human beings can do to stay alive - what that essential instinct demands of us. In the docudrama Touching the Void we meet Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, who climb the icy face of the Siula Grande mountain in Peru. Simpson falls, and completely separates his tibia/fibula from his femur. I never even heard of that happening before, and I imagine it hurts quite a bit. There's nothing else to do but attach him to a rope and have Yates lower him down the various slopes, every bump causing Simpson agony - but it's when the latter falls down a crevasse that their story becomes an incredible one. Told by the real people and reenacted in tense and agonizing detail, this is a story that couldn't have been made up, for fear of people dismissing it as too incredible. I found it engrossing, and powerful - well made, and well worth watching.

8/10


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Barbie - (2023)

Oh Barbie, what a huge mixed bag you were. I can't deny that there were parts of this movie I absolutely loved, but I was surprised to find that there were parts I absolutely hated as well. The production design and art direction were incredible, and the entire film dazzles the eye and bewitches visually, but I found the screenplay dropped a few too many dud jokes and lacked the subtle edge that all artistic endeavor I like has. When Ryan Gosling was singing his " I'm Just Ken" song near the end (loved it - along with most of the other songs on the soundtrack) I was wishing this had of been a rock musical. The performances were fine, but Will Ferrell and the Mattel board just sunk like a stone. Barbie is like a pizza with one ingredient on it that I can't stand, but unlike a pizza, I can't pick the bad bits off Barbie. Overall it was a really great/terrible movie that I loved/hated. I wish it all the best - a lot of people love it, so it doesn't need my solid unwavering support. When it was good though, it was really good.

6/10

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - 8.5/10

I saw this documentary around the time it came out and it's pretty incredible. Truly a terrible "what would you do?" scenario on both sides.

I also thought that Simpson's personal revelations when he thought he was going to die---specifically about his religious faith---were very powerful.

Coherence -

This low budget, high concept sci-fi thriller recalls ones like it such as Primer and The Man from Earth and it is just as worthy of praise. On the night of a comet passing by Earth, old friends gather for a dinner party in a posh California house. Shortly after discussing unexplained events that happened during other comet flybys, the power goes out and all electric communication becomes disabled. That is ordinary compared to what happens next, which makes the friends question how much they really know each other and eventually reality itself.

Like those other movies I mentioned, this one also demonstrates how little you need to pull off great sci-fi. It is also reassuring that after a lifetime of seeing every manner of special effect that a cracked cell phone, someone flipping a light switch or even a glow stick can still have an impact. The performances can make or break a movie like this one, and the former very much applies here, my favorite performances being Hugo Armstrong's not-so-put together husband as we're first led to believe, Emily Baldoni's for how she conveys doubt about her friends' and partner's honesty and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Nicholas Brendon despite his role being uncomfortably true to life. I also enjoyed feeling just as paranoid about whether everyone is who they claim to be as the friends are, strange as that may seem. The movie strains credulity here and there - I mean, what are the odds that more than one person knows so much about theoretical physics - but it remains a uniquely told sci-fi story about whether it is possible to completely know anyone, and if it isn't, does it matter? I can only hope it inspires others who have similarly great ideas and helps them realize that putting them on film (or video) is more achievable than they think.

Sixty years+ since this came out & it’s amazing how up-to-date Audrey looks in this most iconic of outfits. Her hair, her pearls, her shades (!) all very modern these days.

Seen this a couple of times. Most engrossing. I always think only my fellow Brits could do something as nutty as this.

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Part 1 is excellent & can stand alone. Tilda (Rosalind) acts the mother of her real-life daughter Honor (Julie) (who is very good in I and II). The dog(s) are Tilda’s own devoted dogs.

Part II features the exact same two characters played by Tilda & Honor. People in their reviews on IMDb seem to like this very much, but I thought it was rather a hot mess. It does not stand alone.

Part III (though it’s not called this) is possibly my favorite. Tilda acts her grown-up daughter (Julie) & she also acts her elderly mother (Rosalind). Amazing.

I liked Inside Llewyn Davis. Also I'm excited for upcoming Ethan Coen's movie Drive-Away Dolls.

Bobby Deerfield (1977)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Dune (2021) - 8.5/10. In general, I thought they totally nailed it

Godard's Breathless---6/10

(Hopefully future viewings will improve this score...)

I saw Barbenheimer this weekend. Barbie was quite funny. I imagine right-leaning people are triggered by the word patriarchy. It’s the only thing that really explains the hate it gets from that quarter. Ken who lives in Barbieland, a world by and for Barbies, embraces patriarchy when he learns about it. He recreates Barbieland into Kendom, a very bro-oriented place. All the Barbies fall in line while Stereotypical Barbie is in the real world.
Ken basically has the traditional chick part. He is in love with and incomplete without Barbie who has no interest in him. Ryan Gosling, plays Ken with abandon. He wears his love for Barbie on his sleeve and pretty much makes the movie. It was quite fun. There is a Barbie played by a famous trans model, which is a subtle reference to all the effeminate boys who loved and love Barbie. There are fat Barbies, not that there have ever been fat Barbies but it reminded me of a Body Shop campaign in the 90s that featured a fat fashion doll named Ruby. A campaign which Mattel put the kibosh on.
Be that as it may, Barbie was delightful.

Oppenheimer was quite an undertaking. I think Nolan bit off more than he could chew. I am not sure I like the way he constructed the screenplay around the animus between Oppenheimer and Lewis Strauss. I think ending the film earlier in Opppenheimer’s life would have served the massive amount of information Nolan packed into the screenplay better.
It is a beautiful looking film especially during the scenes in which we are in Oppenheimer’s feelings, his heart, if you will. Nolan shows us Oppenheimer and his dead mistress naked and having sex right in front of a hostile government committee and his wife as he is questioned about that affair. Nolan creates another strong scene when Oppenheimer informs his coworkers of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This is a much more complex scene in which Nolan cuts back and forth from Oppenheimer and the coworkers in the bleachers. Nolan gives us the flavor of the combination of elation that the war has ended, and that the work they have done was successful, but also the horror of what that work wrought.
I believe that if Oppenheimer wins awards for nothing else, It will win for its soundtrack and sound design. This was the real engine of the movie rather than the visual film itself. I noticed while watching that though the influx of information and dialogue almost never stopped the soundtrack slowed or quickened or changed in other ways to give the viewer a sense of rhythm that the constant dialogue could have destroyed. In fact, the only time I remember there being quiet is when the bomb explodes. Hear Nolan really takes his time to give us an appreciation for the enormity of what his happening through silence.
I didn’t admire the movie unreservedly but the soundtrack was incredible.

Les Miserables, 1935

In this adaptation of Hugo’s novel, Jean Valjean (Fredric March) steals a loaf of bread for his hungry family and is sentenced to a decade of hard labor aboard galley ships. While there, he and the other prisoners endure punishments and a total lack of empathy at the hands of Javert (Charles Laughton), a military man who believes in following regulations no matter the circumstances. After his release from prison, Valjean starts a new life with a new identity and becomes very successful, at one point rescuing a young girl and raising her as his own. Unfortunately Javert ends up assigned to the town where Valjean now lives and soon becomes suspicious.

A solid and powerful telling of Hugo’s classic tale, this adaptation makes some rewarding changes to the plot.



https://www.movieforums.com/communit...23#post2404123

Took your tip and went back to watch this nicely done film. I hadn't watched it since when it came out!! Evidently it was produced to be half of a double feature with The Blob yet I vividly remember The Blob and Steve McQueen, but had to strain to recall a lot from "I Married...".

The picture obviously took it's overall theme from 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was one of the great 50's alien/ invasion movies. I instantly recognized Gloria Talbott, and less so Tom Tryon (Tyron put me in mind a little of Michael Rennie for some reason). Talbott was in so many mostly "B" movies and a boatload of TV shows, that she was pretty much the girl next door.

It was a good film in a very small package.

Thinking about The Blob, and also about other films like The War of the Worlds (1953), it caused me to remember as a kid the feeling of hopelessness or powerlessness that there was simply no way to stop these overwhelming threats, and that it was such a relief when they were defeated.

Since you're a teacher (I don't know which age level) you might be able to say whether today's kids have the same feeling when they watch movies of that type in modern times. Do they have similar feelings like what I mentioned, or do they think they're silly, or other...?