Toy Story 4 - When this was first announced I thought what a lot of other people did. That it was an unnecessary cash grab by Pixar. I should have had more faith in the studio because this is on equal footing with the other entries in the franchise and in some ways better. The animation for one. It's light years ahead of the original which, to be fair, was made during the outset of computer animation. It also injects a lot more humor into the proceedings and the list of voice talents in this is truly staggering. The writing is inspired as well with the story able to build on what was a very satisfying culmination in part 3. This ending felt more elegiac and consequential, like a true farewell. Having said all that I'm still not sure how they did it. How they took something that had been reverently and skillfully closed out, revisited it, and actually improved on it. If you were loathe to see this because of any concerns that it would somehow debase the trilogy then have no fear. Pixar really came through on this.
Rate The Last Movie You Saw
Toy Story 4 - When this was first announced I thought what a lot of other people did. That it was an unnecessary cash grab by Pixar. I should have had more faith in the studio because this is on equal footing with the other entries in the franchise and in some ways better. The animation for one. It's light years ahead of the original which, to be fair, was made during the outset of computer animation. It also injects a lot more humor into the proceedings and the list of voice talents in this is truly staggering. The writing is inspired as well with the story able to build on what was a very satisfying culmination in part 3. This ending felt more elegiac and consequential, like a true farewell. Having said all that I'm still not sure how they did it. How they took something that had been reverently and skillfully closed out, revisited it, and actually improved on it. If you were loathe to see this because of any concerns that it would somehow debase the trilogy then have no fear. Pixar really came through on this.
Another Round (2020)
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I don't watch many new movies but I noticed a couple of members raving about this. It's Danish and nominated for a couple of Oscars. I could very much relate to the characters and it's alcohol driven story. Loved the concept and Mads was great in it. Highly recommended.
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I keep hearing this is really good. One of these days...
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A zombie movie. It has some comedy going for it, but otherwise it doesn't bring anything new to the table.
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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?
There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?
The Dead Center, 2018
After committing suicide, a John Doe (Jeremy Childs) wakes up in the hospital morgue and eventually makes his way to the hospital's psychiatric ward where he is admitted by Daniel (Shane Carruth). Already under pressure from his boss (Poorna Jagannathan) for his bending of the rules, things begin to go off the rails in serious fashion when Daniel realizes that the new patient is possessed by someone or something dangerous.
I am on a kick of watching movies with the very superficial stipulation that I really like their titles, posters, or both. While this resulted in the very pleasant surprise that was Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker, I'm sure it won't surprise anyone out there that there are plenty of films with neat titles/posters that just don't live up to these aspects.
The Dead Center is fine, but nothing particularly special. Its the kind of movie that you can tell came from a perfectly good central concept, but never got fully developed. The film is littered with subplots and ideas that could have been neat if they had been more fleshed out. For example, we learn a bit about Daniel's own past with mental illness and violence. But ultimately this is used just as a way for one character to be like "Yup, he's kind of messed up!".
There is also a strangely unresolved element of the relationship between Daniel and his boss/supervisor. At times it seems as if the implication is that they were romantically involved, but that remains frustratingly vague. Many times, the film just seems to want to leverage the tired trope of the leading male character with the shrill female boss (even though, you know, she is right about literally everything she says and he does an abysmal job of explaining himself).
The horror scenes themselves are not badly done. I liked some of the use of a subjective camera and some of the way that the sound design was used. The concept itself is fun and interesting, just underdeveloped. The ending is way too predictable. There is also some inconsistency in the way things work in the film, again something that just needed to be better thought out.
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The Devils, 1971
In 17th Century France, a charismatic and worldly priest named Grandier (Oliver Reed) oversees the town of Loudun. While not above callously sleeping with and discarding the women in his orbit, Grandier sincerely defends the town's autonomy, something that earns him some powerful political enemies. When a nun named Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) speaks of Grandier's hold over her--she is erotically obsessed with him--this claim easily gets twisted into a witch hunt and Grandier is investigated for witchcraft.
Right up front I want to say that I have, of course, heard about this film for many years. I have never read too much about it out of fear of spoilers. If you are in the same boat, I want to say one thing: this movie is indeed crazy and intense, but it is not fun crazy and intense. It is darkly, darkly comic and upsetting crazy and intense. It is kind of brilliant, but know what you are getting into.
In terms of quality, The Devils mostly lived up to my expectations, which after so many years were pretty high. Having already seen and liked Russell's Women in Love, I knew that I appreciated his craft. In this film, which is incredibly intense and violent, he displays the rare ability to take a film past the normal boundaries of comfort and "decency" while still retaining a heart of humanity. "Nuns having orgies" is such a pseudo-porn premise and one that could easily have devolved into very cheap exploitation. While the film is obviously, notoriously graphic, it resists the easy objectification of its characters.
This is the kind of movie I could say a lot about. The main thing that sticks out to me at this point in terms of what I most liked about it was the parallel entrapment of the main characters. What happens to Grandier is for the most part straightforward. He is being railroaded in a sham trial for political purposes. Maddeningly, the more reasonable he is in the face of everything, the worse it gets. But there's an arc to what happens to Sister Jeanne that is not all that different. Her role as someone who is possessed gives her power and care and attention. Like Grandier, even in her moments of clarity and honesty, her words are twisted. If she says Grandier is actually innocent, this is simply reported as a sign of her continued possession. As Grandier's trial brings him a certain clarity about the kind of life he has led to this point, Jeanne's experiences drive her to madness. While I found both main characters off-putting in their own ways, it is admirable that the film finds space for empathy for both of them.
In terms of criticism, I thought it was a little convenient that the woman Grandier impregnates and then dumps turns out to be so awful. It feels a bit like letting him off of the hook for some horrendous behavior. While I liked the fantasy sequences in which Jeanne imagines herself and a Christ-like Grandier as lovers, the conceit of every woman in the whole town being gaga over Grandier felt like a bit much. I also thought that some of the characters looked distractingly modern, especially Michael Gothard, who plays a witch hunter whose main specialty seems to be torture and humiliation. His performance was fantastic, but I found the styling of his character distracting.
I'll also admit that there were some parts I didn't watch and, in the case of a sequence later in the film, just ended up fast-forwarding past. Torture is hard for me to watch, and the second half of the film in particular is pretty rough on this front.
Overall a really powerful and intense viewing experience.
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I need y'all's assistance, please.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
I need y'all's assistance, please.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
La La Land
Moonlight
Hell or High Water
A Ghost Story
Phantom Thread
First Reformed
It Comes at Night
The Big Sick
Luce
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Us
Sound of Metal
The Lighthouse
Uncut Gems
Hereditary
BlacKkKlansmen
Annihilation
Cameraperson
That's in no order. Also, I intentionally avoided franchises, but Spiderverse, Last Jedi, and Rogue One could've also been up there.
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I need y'all's assistance, please.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
https://www.listchallenges.com/top-2...s-of-the-2010s
Not all of these fit what you're looking for, but this should get you a decent amount of recs.
Also, as for 2020, I'd recommend First Cow, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Da 5 Bloods, and Dick Johnson is Dead.
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Yeah, you're right about the raid comparisons for sure.
And I don't necessarily think it was gender backlash but it did raise the question to me. Especially since the BP winner was also a political thriller so the genre-snobbery seems less of an argument.
And I don't necessarily think it was gender backlash but it did raise the question to me. Especially since the BP winner was also a political thriller so the genre-snobbery seems less of an argument.
In January 2013, on the brink of the movie's wider release, three politically active members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Martin Sheen, David Clennon and Edward Asner, announced they were organizing a public condemnation of Zero Dark Thirty (2012) for what they termed its "tolerance" of torture.
Psssh...
I need y'all's assistance, please.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
I have a friend that is arguing with me that the best of streaming television is actually better than the best of contemporary film.
I don't actually want to have that debate here, at all, but I do need a little help since I watch a lot more "classic" (old) film than I do contemporary (though I do watch some of the latter).
Could you guys please give me your short lists of the best American films (he likes Kurosawa but it's hard to get him to watch a lot of other foreign films and the argument is also largely about American film) of the last 2-5 years.
I would be most grateful.
That is all.
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May give this a go then Samoan Lawyer, wee man 12 and I love the pixar.
Yes Marco, I think 12 would be a better age. Great score too, enjoy.
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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
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I’ve seen this movie cover a million times, but it only dawned on me last night that it’s a play on Maria receiving communion. Some Catholic I am.
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Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?
-Stan Brakhage
Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?
-Stan Brakhage
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