Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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Valhalla Rising (2009)

Graphic and brutal story from Nicolas Winding Refn...must may I didn't get the historical references but it was a decent story of "One-eye". Think this was a bit between "Rome" the TV series and Refn's usual observational films.

Adolescents (2019), French documentary about two teenage girls. I rated it a 6/10. It felt too long and was only moderately interesting.

With Six You Get Eggroll (1968), comedy with Doris Day, Brian Keith, Barbara Hershey, George Carlin, and others. I rated it an 8/10. This was an enjoyable cute and funny film. I loved the ending, very sweet.

Impact (1949)

Dial M for Murder

Very entertaining (as can be expected from the Master of Suspense), but I think different casting might have taken this to the next level for me. Ray Milland is very good as the conniving husband, but he's not exactly easy to identify with, and I think someone like Cary Grant (who Hitchcock used brilliantly in a such a capacity in Suspicion) could have complicated the audience's sympathies with his immense charisma. Placing the heroine in the wrong man role is pretty novel at least, and Grace Kelly is very easy to root for. As for John Williams, at first I was thinking I would have liked Jimmy Stewart in the role, but I think his fogey-ishness nicely subverts our expectations of his intelligence (I understand he played the same role in the stage version).

Hitchcock's visual direction is astute as always but also somewhat low-key (the film's stage origins are pretty evident), which makes it interesting that the film was originally made in 3-D. There are a few scenes that obviously would play well in the format (the best known scene, Grace Kelly's trial scene) but given how much of the movie is set in the same house, I'm curious how he would have handled those interior scenes. Definitely would like to see the film in that format eventually.

Beasts of the Southern Wild, 2012

This is a rewatch for me, and I haven't seen the film since around the time of its original release.

Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) is a 6 year old girl living in a small, ramshackle bayou community called the Bathtub with her father, Wink (Dwight Henry). But Wink's failing health and a natural disaster that threatens the Bathtub forces Hushpuppy to grow up faster than her years.

This is one of those films that got a ton of praise and then a moderate amount of backlash. I liked it when it first came out and I liked it on this rewatch.

A lot of this is due to Wallis and her natural charisma. Whether it's her natural talents or just director Behn Zeitlin skillfully finding ways to capture her youthful moods, Hushpuppy comes across as someone who is both world-weary and yet still naive when it comes to certain things.

A huge focus of the film is on Hushpuppy's relationship with Wink. Hushpuppy's mother has left them, and it has caused a breach in the relationship between father and daughter. Wink's treatment of Hushpuppy often veers into an interesting shaping of her personality--he frequently refers to her using masculine pronouns, including telling her that she will be the king of the Bathtub one day. Wink's education of Hushpuppy is largely confined to a way of life that functions in the Bathtub--how to catch a catfish by hand, or breaking a crab in half. There is a desperation and determination in Wink to toughen Hushpuppy up before he is physically unable to care for her anymore. This element is incredibly relatable--he has so much to teach her and not enough time for it. Without him she will be without family, and every scene between them is fraught with a mix of fear and anger about this situation.

As for the magical realism, I kind of wish that the film had leaned into it a bit more. As it stands, it feels a bit haphazard. I liked the way that the film depicted these sequences--products of Hushpuppy's imagination--such as a "memory" of her mother lighting the stove just by walking by. In terms of the "beasts" themselves, prehistoric creatures who emerge from melting ice caps and descend on the Bathtub, I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret them. Are they meant to symbolize natural forces (like her father's illness or the storms) that are out of Hushpuppy's control? Are we supposed to see them as symbols of toughness and realize that Hushpuppy is getting in touch with her inner "beast"? Regardless of their meaning, they look great, and I enjoyed the sequences with them even if their purpose in the narrative wasn't wholly clear to me.

I'd say that on the whole, most of the reviews I've read of this one in the last few years have been on the middling or negative side. I wondered if I would still enjoy it and was pleased to find that I did.

The Man from Nowhere, 2010

Another rewatch.

Cha Tae-sik (Won Bin) is a reclusive pawnshop owner who has a tentative friendship with a little girl, So-mi (Sae-Ron Kim), who lives in an apartment above his with her drug-addicted mother. When So-mi's mother steals drugs from a ruthless gang, So-mi and Cha end up in the middle of a nasty feud between rival drug dealers and the police.

I watch this movie quite a lot, actually, but I always watch the last hour or so (for those who have seen it, I usually start watching at the nightclub scene). I had totally forgotten about many sequences from the first hour.

The only real criticism that I have of this film is that its narrative is built entirely on cliches: little girl in danger? Check. Man with mysterious and violent past? Check. Tragic backstory involving loved one? Check. Outrageous villains? Check. Bumbling "comic relief" detective? Check. Cynical chain-smoking detective? Check. Right-hand man to the villains? Check.

But it doesn't really bother me because so many aspects of the plot, even at its most cliched, are executed so well. Won Bin (and it blows my mind that within a year or so he also starred in Bong Joon-ho's Mother) is a solid anchor for both the emotional and the physical aspects of the story. He emotes as well or better than almost any other action lead I can think of, and he is also convincing in the various action sequences. Sae-Ron Kim is also really solid as So-mi, and it's a credit to the writing that she is a very likable child (with a palpable need for acknowledgement and affection), but manages not to trip into being too cutesy or feel like an adult writing for a child.

And the action sequences are really what keep me coming back to this film. Sometimes I come back to the movie just to watch certain fight scenes. The knife fight in the bathroom, the chase through the building that includes the shot where . It's all well-choreographed but the sequences are distinct from each other so it doesn't just feel like the same action scene over and over.

The movie is graphically violent, and it does deal with some heavy topics like child labor and even organ harvesting. But while the movie can be bleak at times, for me personally it never crosses a line into wallowing or exploitation.

I still hugely prefer the second half, but I really enjoyed rewatching the entire film. It's on my shortlist of favorite action movies ever.

I really need to rewatch The Man From Nowhere. I meant to catch it when it was in my Netflix queue but it left and I kicked myself for procrastinating. But now it's on Amazon and on my watchlist. I don't know how it got there but thanks for reminding me.

Oh and The Chaser. Also on Prime. Need to rewatch that one as well.

Oedipus Rex (1967)

Wonderfully powerful, basic and poetic telling of the Sophocles tragedy. Updated by Pasolini, but not to a major degree that it loses its resonance. Franco Citti is incredible in this. Funnilly enough I reckon that if Pasolini was around and making films today his spartan aesthetic would still be the same despite the technological advances in film making. This was very satisfying.

Refn is obsessed with the one eye / all seeing eye theme - he's used it to good effect in V Rising, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon and Too Old to Die Young

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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

Dir.: Mike Leigh

A woman decides to find out who her biological mother is. The film explores pain, grief, identity, loneliness, family cycles, do we turn into our parents? Beautiful almost overbearing score by Andrew Dickson works well. Tim Spall and Brenda Blethyn are exceptional, especially Spall (despite all the plaudits that seemed to go Blethyn's way - her performance was a little cartoony at times, which probably helped to quell the dourness). The long take in the cafe is brilliant, and the scene at the BBQ outside where they are all talking over is brilliantly directed. There is alot going on, lots of little things like the character Paul being responsible for the make up assistant's disfigurement, as he is banned from driving.

Life is rarely perfect. It mostly sucks. But Mike Leigh films make it better.

First, I finished my rewatches yesterday.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

It's slightly more entertaining than the previous film, and it has some decent Palpatine/Sith action. It also has the worst propaganda the series has to offer, but it still manages to beat two other SW movies (kind of sad, really).

So, after rewatching all three trilogies I'd rank them as follows: V > IV > VI > I > III > VII > IX > II = VIII

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Tenet (2020)

Nolan does what Nolan has done for ages; technically brilliant films that are clinical, unemotional, and empty. The story is typical B-tier SciFi that's probably written for the sole purpose of putting certain effects on screen. Back in the day, someone described TDK as "Twilight for the boys" and it feels quite adequate for Tenet as well. Still, it was better than I expected (can you guess if I'm a Nolan fan?).

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Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020) 8/10. Directed by April Wright, this action documentary focuses on stuntwomen and their experiences from the early days of cinema to today. The film features insightful and entertaining interviews with a lot of talented and hardworking stuntwomen, from different different backgrounds and different ages. There is also behind the scenes footage and clips from a variety of films interwoven. This is an enjoyable and informative documentary that does a good job celebrating these amazing women and all the work they do. Definitely worth checking out.

Mind Game -

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Watched Super 8. What a fun little flick this is.

@Takoma11
Love Man from Nowhere myself. It had an average Indian remake (Rocky Handsome) whose final fight scene was surprisingly better than the original(though less realistic).
Also, agree on that window scene. It's marvellously creative.

Village of the Damned (1960)

I was a bit underwhelmed by The Chaser, but I didn't dislike it.

I have to mention I saw the Devil if we are speaking of violent South Korean movies with serial killer plot (like the Chaser).


Though the best SK serial killer flick has to be Memories of Murder.