Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I’m Not Scared (2003)



Rewatch. Love this film.

Whoa! Flashback!! I remember renting this movie when it first came out.

Work It, 2020

This was a fun little bit of teen-dance-romance fluff.

Perfect student Quinn has her heart set on going to Duke University. At her admissions interview, she ends up backing herself into a corner when she leads the interviewer to believe that she is a member of her high school's award-winning dance team. Having alienated the dance team over an unfortunate lighting mishap, Quinn ends up forming her own rag-tag dance team with the help of her talented film Jas. Along the way, Quinn ends up romancing a former dancer who she hopes will help the team choreograph their performances.

This was an example of a solid teen flick for me. It's absent of any gross-out or mean-spirited humor. The emphasis is on the main characters doing well and working together, not on humiliating their opponents. The actors are all perfectly likable, and the performances are all fine.

The dance sequences are all pretty fun, and there's a range of styles on display. I also really loved a sequence that featured dancers with disabilities, including a one-legged breakdancer named B-Boy Samuka. The music is fun, and generally the whole cast looks like they are having a good time.

The only complaints I had are pretty mild. There's a total lack of character development for the other dancers in the group. I can literally not remember their names (Bollywood dance girl, soccer player, karate kid, mix tape guy, goth girl). The film is so focused on Quinn that the idea that she and the group are bonding doesn't come across as very convincing. The film's plot is almost comically predictable. Not a single thing in the entire movie will surprise you.

This isn't the most memorable movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. If you're at all in to dance and you need a little pick-me-up, you might consider checking it out.

Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)

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Out of the Blue -

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Like the fact you have a "Horror Friend" Takoma, we should have friends for all genres... "My film noir buddy"

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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

I have several horror friends. I have one silent films friend. I have one weird movies friend. I actually do have a film noir buddy--he and I did the TCM online noir class "Into the Darkness" together a few years back.

I like having people whose taste roughly aligns to mine because they're such a great source of recommendations.

I also like having some people who have very different taste. I know one guy who really liked the end to Haute Tension. And yet somehow we're still friends, despite this obvious mark against his character.

Huh, and here I was thinking...



The Revenant -

This movie just gets uglier and emptier each time I watch it.

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A Secret Love, 2020

Wow--this is like three excellent documentaries rolled into one.

Terry and Pat are a lesbian couple who met in the 1940s, when Terry came down from Canada to play in the female baseball league (immortalized in the film A League of Their Own). The film explores Terry's experience in the baseball league, the two women and their forbidden love, and the struggles they have as they age and begin to experience medical issues.

The least amount of time is spent on the baseball league, though the details are fascinating. It's true that the women in the league had to go to charm school. Their mandatory uniform was a skirt and it had to go at least 6 inches above the knee. They had to apply makeup before every game. It's an interesting (and slightly frustrating) look at the way that female athletes were regarded. Pat herself was a hockey player, and it's really cool to see their passion for sports.

The second aspect of the film is understanding what it was like for a lesbian couple in the 1940s. Both women were pursued by male suitors, and they had to actively keep their relationship a secret. Because of their sports careers, both were sometimes featured in the newspaper, and they had to worry that they would be recognized if they stole away to a hotel for a weekend. The movie does not belabor the point, but a few key historical clips and comments make clear the homophobia they faced. Terry's brother would often say that she just "needed to be f*cked by a big black guy to set her straight." We watch a clip of a hall of college students being told "There might be some girls in here who are lesbian. You will be caught. You will be found out. And the rest of your life will be a living hell."

But most of the film actually focuses on the decisions that the couple has to make as they age. In that sense, there's a wonderful universal element to the story. As Terry becomes more frail, a clear rift begins to form between Pat, who wants to stay in the house where she and Terry have lived for 21 years, and Terry's family, who want the couple to move back to Canada and/or move into a retirement home.

I had a great-aunt who was very determined that she wanted to live out her life at home. So I really understood Pat's point of view. At the same time, you can understand the anxiety that Terry's family feels as her health declines.

Something that was interesting to me was the undercurrent (and sometimes it's very on the surface) tension between Pat and Terry's family. Several members of Terry's family say that Pat has "stolen" Terry away or has been keeping Terry all to herself. The family just does not seem to connect the homophobia that Terry and Pat have faced with their decision to be isolated from the family. Terry, heartbreakingly, says that she hid her sexuality from her niece Diana because "I didn't want to lose her love." Even as Terry's family acts grumpy about Terry and Pat being secretive, they turn around and concede that Terry might have been disowned for it. The family resents that Terry and Pat have a "secret life" (complete with *gasp* gay friends), while at the same time expressing masked discomfort with them being gay and acknowledging that they will face pushback. Pat's brother tells her that she can't get married because it will "hurt the family". These women have lived with so much fear that it's no surprise they retreat into themselves.

This film was really powerful and emotional. As a look at forbidden love, and as a look at what it means for elderly people to make choices about their final years, I thought it was incredibly compelling.

Highly, highly recommended.

Choke, 2020

It's been a while since I saw a movie that was genuinely, enjoyably bad.

Let's start with the two nice things I can say about this movie: (1) the actors seem to genuinely be trying their best and (2) there is almost an interesting theme underneath it all.

Serial killer Brandon makes a habit of choking women to death and filming them as he kills them. One day he strikes up a conversation with a teenage girl on a train, Jeanie. The other side of the film follows depressed police detective Robert(?), who employs a dominatrix/prostitute/therapist, Stephanie, who incorporates choking into her sessions with him. When Jeanie ends up meeting and working for Stephanie, she crosses paths with Robert.

This is not a good film. The acting is spotty, the writing is odd, and a series of fantasy sequences do not generate enough emotion to justify their existence. But let me tell you why you might find it to be an enjoyably not good film.

The Poor Actors

There are a lot of scenes in this film where I got the distinct impression that the director gave only a handful of suggestions and then started the camera and said "Go!". The actors end up doing these sequences (which, God, I almost hope weren't scripted) that look more like acting exercises than scenes. Things like Brandon laughing and giggling maniacally while he hugs a lava lamp, or a scene where Jeanie's mother berates her for becoming a whore! a whore! a whore!.

The Writing

In the scenes that do seem written, the language is just . . . off. Characters use odd turns of phrase, like a 17 year old saying "I haven't seen him for many years." Or the detective saying "Yes, this is a terrible situation." Much of the dialogue as a feel as if it were translated.

The Settings/Props

I have a few friends who make films, so I don't as a rule make much fun of films on a budget. But there's a level of almost disregard for making things look good or realistic. And maybe the best example of this is when Jeanie's mother is throwing her "dirty money" at her. Guys, IT'S ALL IN FIVES AND ONES!!! Jeanie is supposedly being paid like $500 for her sessions with Robert, and he's paying her in singles?!?!?!? It's like the cast and crew just grabbed whatever they had in their wallets.

What's frustrating here is that the film actually sets up a scenario where there could have been some compelling parallels between the characters. Robert seeks out choking because it allows him to relinquish control--Brandon uses choking to control women. Instead the film seems more interested in a surface-level, fetish-y portrayal of choking, not delving at all into why either of the characters feel this compulsion or how it actually helps or hurts them.

The film also shies away form nudity (especially male nudity), and there's something baffling about a movie that's like "Young women being choked to death with clear sexual overtones? YES! Penis? NO!".

Skip, unless you want a so-bad-it's-good laugh.

Juliet, Naked, 2018

This was maybe the most mature of the romantic comedies I've been watching lately, though I wish it had had the nerve to do something more unexpected in its final act.

Annie (Rose Byrne) lives an underwhelming small town life with her boyfriend Duncan (Chris O'Dowd), who is OBSESSED with an American indie music artist called Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke). Tucker disappeared suddenly in the middle of a show in the late 90s, and hasn't been seen since. One day, Annie writes an honest critical review of some of Crowe's music, and is shocked when the man himself reaches out to her. The two begin a correspondence and it forces Annie to reconsider her life and priorities.

Hands down the best thing about this film is Rose Bryne's performance as Annie. She is able to portray someone who is intelligent and kind but also a bit indecisive. Instead of coming off as wishy-washy, Bryne infuses Annie with a real sense of a person who just isn't sure what she wants her life to look like, or if she can have everything she wants.

The most interesting dynamic of the film is how it positions the two male romantic interests. Duncan is obsessed with Tucker, to the point that he neglects or talks over Annie and berates her if she doesn't align with his point of view. His entire understanding of their relationship is filtered through what will make him feel good or comfortable.

Tucker, on the other hand, is a more subdued person, but he brings along a lot of baggage: namely multiple children by multiple women. While Tucker constantly tries to frame his many fractured relationships as the byproduct of poor choices in his younger years, it's clear that he continues to make selfish choices that undermine the trust of his ex-partners and his children. There was one element of his past (I'll stay vague because it's revealed later in the movie) that I personally thought bordered on being unforgivable.

Both male love interests have their flaws, and I really applaud the film for doing something that romance movies almost *never* do: introducing the third option. Something that the film, and Annie, seriously consider is neither of them. This is such a rarity in romantic comedies. Maybe neither guy is the right one for Annie, and it was really nice to see that in a film and in a character. The idea that a character (and especially a woman) needs to "pick the best one" is something that plagues a lot of romantic stories about women.

And this brings me to my main complaint about the film, namely that .

Overall a pretty good film and I was even more impressed to discover that Rose Byrne was six months pregnant while filming.

Tully (2018)





An umpteenth rewatch. I have a fondness for this one, although it does paint a dreary picture of motherhood, which if you’ve worked with children and have spent enough time around them and their parents doesn’t seem entirely fair (or at least, entirely balanced). It occasionally feels like a cautionary tale which... wants to warn women that having kids will wreck their lives and bodies?.. I’m a bit conflicted here. That said, I appreciate Reitman was probably aiming for that bittersweet feeling. The acting is top-notch and the end twist is brilliantly done, not really predictable and well-justified in terms of character development (probably the only example I can think of where that is the case, too). As an aside, I’m always amazed at how diverse and unpredictable Reitman Jr’s portfolio is as a filmmaker.

To echo what Iroquois said above, I think that the ending is pretty brilliant.

Straight Up, 2019

I do not say this often, but this movie needed to be like 15 minutes longer.

A young man named Todd (James Sweeney, who also wrote and directed) has moderate OCD. His discomfort with body fluids means that he's had very little experience with sex. Having always assumed that he was gay, a conversation with his therapist leads him to believe that he may actually be bisexual or even straight. When he meets aspiring actress Rory (Katie Findlay) with whom he has a lot in common, the two strike up a friendship that soon turns romantic. Rory has her own reasons that she may not prefer sexual contact, and so the two settle into a sexless romantic relationship. This is all complicated by Todd's friends who believe he is in denial about being gay, and by Rory struggling to figure out what she really wants from a relationship.

The idea of a sexless romantic relationship is an interesting premise for a romantic comedy. For the character of Todd, the arrangement makes a lot of sense. He has severe phobias about body fluids (male or female), and he is satisfied by physical (if not sexual) intimacy. What they choose to do with Rory is a bit more complicated. We learn in very vague terms that Rory has been the victim of sexual violence in the past. The film keeps her history vague, and I actually appreciated the approach which felt respectful and not exploitative or dismissive. We see her unintentionally out herself as a victim to her acting class; then we see that she is sent into a panic attack when someone at a party kisses her without her permission; and finally we see (but do not hear) her explain what happened to Todd. For Rory, it's clear that this arrangement is a mixed blessing--despite her trauma, a sexless relationship maybe isn't what she's really after, and it's sad to think that a negative sexual experience as a younger person would stop her from having an enjoyable sex life as an adult. Given all the scenes of Todd in therapy, I just wanted to see Rory get some professional help. Still, it was nice that despite this history, I never felt like Rory was being defined by her past, just as I never felt that Todd was being defined solely by his OCD.

It's hard to explain this without getting spoiler-y, so I'll just say that with about 8 minutes left in the movie I was starting to panic about how they were going to wrap things up in a satisfying way. While the movie did offer up an ending that I thought was very interesting and optimistic, it was pushed on screen in about the space of a minute. I wish that we'd been more privy to watching the characters find their resolution. Too much of what must have been very interesting conversations and decisions were left off-screen. And it's a shame, because the ending is actually pretty cool.

Sweeney and Findlay have excellent chemistry as two people who have come to love each other. They have strong "old married couple" energy, and their personalities work well with each other. Both of them have good comic timing, and the writing of their characters is pretty good. Hat tip to Randall Park for his performance as Todd's (racist) father--he's funny, but more importantly, he is an uncanny match for Sweeney.

The only thing that I didn't like about the film were the characters of Ryder and Meg, Todd's friends. I say "friends", but . . . how were these people ever friends? Ryder and Meg are crude and assertive and they just don't make sense with Todd's character. As the film goes on, their characters get more and more extreme. I understand their function in the film: they are provocateurs who push Todd and Rory into discomfort and conflict. But I found them so thoroughly unpleasant. They are, to put it bluntly, bad people. Romantic comedies can have wacky comic relief sidekicks, but these two often went too far for me. No kindness--just nothing to explain why Todd would be friends with them. Todd and Rory are both nice people in their own way, and it was weird to me that they didn't seem to know any nice people.

This was an incredibly unconventional romantic comedy. It took two categories of people (someone with serious mental health issues and someone who is a survivor of sexual abuse/assault) who could easily have been exploited or patronized and makes them fully realized, sympathetic, and likable leads.

Despite a few missteps (the friend characters and a handful of gross-out scenes, including a really poorly conceived scene of Todd trying to sleep with an 18 year old girl), this was a unique and compelling romantic comedy that is, for lack of a better word, very modern in its sensibilities.

Running On Empty (1988, Sidney Lumet)

Low-key, gentle family drama with an angular, almost awkward - endearingly so - performance from River Phoenix (very James Dean-like in a way). Solid, with some touching moments, but nothing outstanding.

City For Conquest - 6.5/10

The Color of Pomegranates (1969)






Monkey Business (1931)






Small Time Crooks (2000)

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