Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Glad you liked it!

Yeah, I'm not sure that the film entirely earns the ending.

After all

Alice, 1988

In this stop-motion/live-action adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, young Alice (Kristýna Kohoutová) follows a re-animated taxidermy rabbit into a strange world where all of the creatures are made up of found objects and an awful lot of small animal skulls.

Alice in Wonderland is already a pretty weird story that, at times, really leans into a kind of dream logic. This film seems to take that energy and perpetually say, "Right, but could it be a little more upsetting?".

Generally speaking I really enjoy the kind of stop motion employed by this film. I'm a big fan of Blood Tea and Red String and many of the shorts I've seen from Svankmajer. A conceit of many movies where the child protagonist has maybe imagined/dreamed the events is that the ideas are inspired by their bedroom/surroundings. This film takes that to an extreme by having the creatures appear as animated everyday objects like socks or playing cards.

One of the best things about any adaptation of this story is the ability to play around with scale. This film does that not only in resizing Alice in various ways, but also switching between her larger self being played by a real girl and her smaller self portrayed as an animated doll. This also leads to some very memorable (and disturbing! very disturbing!) visuals, such as Alice's real eyes peering out from the doll's face or the real Alice emerging from the belly of her doll-self.

There are lots of other fun and whimsical visuals, though each has its own share of nightmare fuel. This movie's version of the caterpillar has glass eyes, dentures for teeth, and when it's ready for bed it sews its own eyes shut. So, yeah, plenty to take in on the imagery front.

This is a film that you mainly enjoy as a sort of free-flowing sequence of events. The already-abstract narrative of Alice in Wonderland is further abstracted here, as the film really embraces the dream-logic element of the story. This means that the movie doesn't conform to the typical narrative rhythms and pacing, but that's also sort of the point.

A very enjoyable take on a classic story.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=86862743

The Awful Truth - (1937)

After seeing quite a few old films with Cary Grant in them like Bringing up Baby and Arsenic and Old Lace last year, not to mention films by the likes of Leo McCarey (Make Way For Tomorrow) I have a whole line-up that I want to get through this year. The Awful Truth was pretty high up on the list, and it really is one of the good ones. The big surprise for me was Irene Dunne, who I don't think I've ever seen before, and seemed to match Cary Grant as well as have some kind of comedic connection with him that gave the pair great chemistry. She was quite funny - and of course Grant had just found himself as a comedian and romantic lead. These films open further doors, because Grant and Dunne also starred in My Favorite Wife and Penny Serenade together. I thought The Awful Truth was extremely funny, and McCarey seems to get the absolute most even out of actors who play peripheral characters - getting them to shine. Lucy and Jerry Warriner (Dunne and Grant) divorce because of their dishonesty with each other, but can't help but meddle in each other's love life because of the love they still have for each other. It's a simple plot that opens the door for a lot of fun, for the post-divorce romantic interests for each character have many flaws. Next up for me is Love Affair.

8/10

__________________

The Cincinnati Kid (1965) + Steve McQueen is the upcoming Stud Poker Challenger sitting down with the King, Edward G. Robinson in the ennobled rendition of the age-old tale of epic card playing while still displaying the flaws of its characters.

Set in New Orleans, I was pretty much hooked right from the get-go, the opening backroom dive card game with Dub Taylor dealing.

continuing from there with many secondary favorites along with the leads mentioned above Karl Malden (Shooter), the Kid's father figure and fellow card sharp; Joan Blondell with the moniker Lady Fingers; Rip Torn as a Southern gentleman who doesn't take too lightly being "gutted" by Edward G. Robinson's character. Tuesday Weld is the sweet girl waiting on the Kid to show her the devotion he has for cards. And finally, dear lord almighty, one of the MOST sizzlingly diabolically mischievous kittens purring in pleasure at the havoc they cause is Ann-Margret as Karl Malden's wife, Melba.


Her introduction includes this little tiff between hubby and wife:

[Shooter's wife Melba is altering a jigsaw puzzle piece with a nail file]
Shooter: Melba, why do you do that?
Melba: So it'll fit, stupid.
Shooter: No, I'm not talking about that. What I'm asking is, do you have to cheat at everything?
Melba: At everything?
Shooter: Yes. At... solitaire. I've yet to see you play one game of solitaire without cheating.
Melba: So what?
Shooter: Look, you're just cheating yourself, don't you understand? You'll be the loser, no one else but yourself!... You've ruined the puzzle; that doesn't go in there.
[She forces the altered piece into place]
Melba: Does now.

Tack on a very satisfying ending making for a mighty fine enjoyment.

__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

I loved the montage with Danny trying a bunch of different sports. The best part was watching the coach figure out what to do with Danny each time he tried fighting with his teammates.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I think this is one of those movies that you just have to sit back and enjoy it without reading too much into it. It's just supposed to be fun, not a heavy drama where the little details matter.

__________________
.
If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

It's been ages since I've posted my recent watches, so here it goes. There are also surprisingly few of them.

__________________

Is it weird that this is one of my perennial comfort watches? Like when I deliberately want to peacefully doze off on the couch?

Violent Night (2022)

Alice was my first Svankmajer and my favorite. I didn't even know a thing about it when I rented it some twenty five years ago (still my preferred way to go into a movie even if I've softened a bit... there was a time when I considered knowing a films genre or even it's running time as a spoiler). And while I don't remember a lot about any of the films particulars, the effect of the film has never left me. It immediately put Svankmajer in the league of cinematic geniuses, as far as I was concerned. One of my great blind watches of that time (of many many blind watches)

One of my favorite Romantic Comedies of all time, if not No.1, and probably my second-favorite Cary Grant film.
And yes, Irene Dunne is truly great.

Rewatch. Yes, both of them, back to back. Huge Jackie Chan fan, but these movies haven't aged well. The fighting/action scenes are still awesome thou

__________________
There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

Alice in Wonderland is not a “weird story”. It’s one of the most beautiful books ever written for children & it just so happens that it’s the first book I ever read by myself as a child. I was totally enchanted by it as I still am today.

__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

It is weird, I think. "Weird" is not a word that I use as a pejorative. It is wonderfully weird. There's a baby that turns into a pig and a hookah-smoking caterpillar that lectures a little girl on grammar usage.

I was trying to sit back and enjoy it! It's why I put it on. But when a movie fails to grip me, those little details start to pop out.

Heavy Metal, 1981

In a series of stories connected by the presence of a mysterious glowing green sphere that seems to bring out the worst in people, aliens and space explorers and sexually adequate robots work their way through a series of conflicts.

Ah, yes. One of those works of art that seems to testify as to both the creativity and utter lack of imagination of people working in the fantasy/sci-fi realm.

There's certainly plenty of talent on display here, including some really cool visuals and some winning voice performances. The absolute highlight is John Candy's "gee whiz!" performance as a bookish guy who is somehow transported across the galaxy and into the lumbering, muscular purple frame of an alien warrior who must rescue a statuesque Earth woman who is slated for human sacrifice.

But, to be blunt, it's hard to enjoy a movie like this when your eyes are rolling so much. There's a kind of self-awareness in some of the earlier segments that at least bring some humor to the rampant horniness, like the average Joe cab driver saying he must have "really turned on" the very obvious femme fatale who inexplicably decides to bed him. Or the "golly gee!" attitude of Candy's character.

But as the film goes on, the sameness of the adolescent jerk-off material starts to get really old. It's not that there's a lot of nudity so much as the fact that it's the same nudity over and over and over. Every story in this film has exactly one or two women, and they've all been traced from the same well-worn porn magazine. (Oh, they are also all white, because apparently in the future you can be purple but not Latino or Black). What starts out feeling indulgent and juvenile (but maybe in a fun way?) takes this turn into being pathetic. When the alien queen is revealed to be doing a human sacrifice in a cape and mask but also topless, I groaned. By the time the last segment began with a very familiar looking body putting on a g-string, I just felt embarrassed for the people making the film.

There is real talent involved in the different aspects of the film, but boy did it mostly feel wasted. By the second half, the word "boring" started rearing its head. This should have been a lot better.

How is Alice in Wonderland not a weird story? It's one of the sturdiest and most important tent poles for the entire surrealistic movement?

It sounds like it is exactly what I thought it was. Glad I missed it back in the olden times.

I went in with a pretty generous mentality and it was NOT rewarded, LOL.

IMO Irene Dunne was one of the best comedic actresses of the 20th Century, even though she thought of herself as a serious dramatic actress. But she was so good at comedy that they kept putting her in those type roles. Good picture.

Bad Girls Go to Hell, 1965

Meg (Gigi Darlene) is home alone when she is sexually assaulted by her apartment building's janitor. When he comes after her again a short while later, she hits and kills him. Afraid that no one will believe she acted in self-defense, Meg flees the city and goes on the run. But at every turn she finds herself at the mercy of people who want to take advantage of her.

Doris Wishman really is her own little cinematic island, isn't she? And that island is full of people wearing full-body fishnets and an askew houseplant, isn't it?

In my writing about Indecent Desires, I said that it was hard for me to get a read on exactly what Wishman was thinking as she smashed together a pretty disturbing horror/fantasy plot with some very silly nudie-cutie content. Having watched this film, I only feel more confident in saying that there is a stronger sense of intent to be disturbing while offering up the requisite cheesecake sequences.

The premise at the beginning is a bit goofy, even for a Wishman film. Meg deciding that she needs to up and leave her husband because "no one would believe" that she was attacked by the janitor, but rather . . . seduced and murdered him? Doesn't wash. Still, once she hits the road, things go in a grungy, slightly-surreal direction and the film really picks up steam.

My favorite sequence was probably the first, in which Meg is picked up by a man named Al (Sam Stewart). While Meg---and probably every audience member watching--is wary of his intentions, he is shockingly not interested in her. And when she realizes this, she deliberately provokes his anger.

This is a real turning point in the film, because despite Meg's seemingly helpless situation, she's maybe not exactly the story of someone who is an innocent victim. The emphasis in the different sequences is not on the sex itself, but the scenarios around the sex. Repeated shots, like a certain angle on clothing being removed, cast this more as Meg's fantasy than the fantasy of someone objectifying her. As the film goes on, the scenarios become more "high-end" for lack of a better word, in the way that they are shot, the colors used, etc. (I also think the people playing her attackers got more attractive, but that might be a very subjective observation).

And this is very interesting in light of the final 10 minutes or so, where

But something that the film does that I really appreciated, despite it being kind of disturbing, is at the very end where (MAJOR SPOILERS)

This is probably my favorite thing that I've seen from Wishman. While I definitely enjoyed Double Agent 73 in a laughing-at-it kind of way, this film was genuinely involving, with the thriller and sexploitation elements sitting much closer together thematically. Yes, this one has all of the usual things you expect in her films---like the same room being used multiple times as different locations, or the wild zooms---but here it almost universally elevates and fits the nightmarish vibes.