Rate The Last Movie You Saw

It's only not that graphic, it also doesn't contain that much sadistic or upsetting stuff. I was worried after the sequence in the grocery store, but that ended up being the most uncomfortable thing in the film.

Professional Sweetheart (1933) Pre-Hayes Code Ginger Rogers exposes humor and a zest for life.

Satirizing the living hell out of the marketing game of Hollywood, Ginger Rogers plays the "pure" spokesperson for a washcloth company. Per her contract, she can't smoke, drink, carouse, in short, have ANY kind of naughty fun - period. And she is sick of it. She wants to live, dance, wear sexy underwear, go to jazz clubs in Harlem, and the team of men who use her for advertising are beside themselves on what to do.
So, they compromise. The setup a marketing ploy to find a wholesome boyfriend/impending husband from one of her fans and bring him to New York.

I will not say I was burst out laughing, but I was very amused and continually smiled and chuckled throughout this film. Rogers' comedic timing equals her far more known dancing ability, and she is accompanied by several talents of the time. Including Allen Jenkins, Edgar Kennedy, Gregory Ratoff, Sterling Holloway (THE voice for Winnie the Pooh), Franklin Pangborn, and Theresa Harris (whom I feel never got the recognization she truly deserved from Hollywood) and as her professional sweetheart, Norman Foster.

While it does run the primary gambit of marketing savvy maneuvers and the discovery of love and the simple life outweighing the desire for the spoils of fame, it is still an entertaining, delightfully naughty satire that I had the pleasure of stumbling across.

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Wild at Heart - I don't know if this David Lynch's most problematic creation because I haven't seen either Inland Empire or Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. But I was surprised to find out that I've watched eight of his films since I don't really consider myself a dyed in the wool fan. He's not what you would call a prolific director since he's only made five films since this came out 31 years ago and only (what I consider his big) four preceded WaH starting with Eraserhead then The Elephant Man, Dune and Blue Velvet. But then I suppose auteur and prolific are mutually exclusive terms.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like here including the usual patented Lynchian weirdness for weirdness' sake. But you have to sift through some questionable acting choices from Diane Ladd, Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage. Dern and Cage play star crossed lovers Lula Fortune and Sailor Ripley and Dern's real life mother Ladd plays Lula's sociopathic mother Marietta. There's a lot to unpack so I won't attempt a deep dive but suffice it to say that the three take turns chewing the scenery. And I suppose that can be laid directly at Lynch's doorstep until Willem Dafoe puts in an appearance as Bobby Peru and you can sort of recognize the difference between actors overacting and whatever the hell it was Dafoe was doing. Maybe a whole two hours worth of Peru would have been too much and he instead had the luxury of swooping in and stealing the picture. Either way he comes in big and goes out even bigger. Did Lynch mean for this to be so absurd as to be risible? If he did then ... kudos. But if he didn't then ... I don't know what the hell to think.

My fuddy-duddy rating (with an additional 10 Bobby Peru points awarded) : 75/100

Did you see this at a theater or on the HIFF site? I've been waiting too long for this to have to watch it on my monitor.

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Captain's Log
My Collection

I watched it at home. There are HIFF apps for Apple, Amazon and Roku TV so you don't have to watch it on a monitor.

Seoul 1988, 1989

This documentary traces the action of the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul.

No, you aren't imagining things. This is the third feature-length documentary I've watched on the Seoul 1988 Olympic games in as many days.

Interestingly, this one landed somewhere between Beyond All Barriers and Hand in Hand for me.

On one hand, the film gives a more even-handed account of the games than the more positively spun Beyond All Barriers. It's a longer film, and it has more time to show events, past just a handful of highlights. It's also a bit more thorough in this respect than Hand in Hand.

On the downside, however, much of the intimacy and immediacy of Hand in Hand is missing here. The film traces the emotional ups and downs of the athletes but from a more removed point of view. The narrator expresses almost no emotion, and she announces an athlete's world-record setting run in the same tone that she uses to talk about athletes being disqualified for doping.

On the whole, this is a good overview of the games. It's reserve is not surprising considering its status as the "official" documentary of the games.

Found and downloaded! Thank you sir!

The Beat That My Heart Skipped aka De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté (2005) ++ A remake of Harvey Keitel's Fingers (1978) which I have never heard of and a bit curious regarding it having watched this.

Romain Duris plays a furious, emotionally calloused young man who is a bit of a real sh#t real estate man who beats people/squatters out of possible money-making buildings. With a con artist father and a deceased mother who was once a great pianist with severe mental issues. He is caught between the crashing influences of both as a chance meeting inspires him to, once more, take up the piano. He attempts to become a concert pianist like his mother while walking away from the criminal world that is his life.

This is in NO way one of those feel-good, inspirational flicks about following one's dreams, and everything will be lollipops and rainbows. Far from it. Nor is the pursuit of musical achievement a salve for his turbulent nature, as we discover throughout this edgy, uncompromising film of a conflicted man caught in the dangerous influences of both his father and mother.

A winner of some twenty-odd Awards, this is a finely constructed, dark sojourn and worthwhile cinematic experience.

The Call, 2020

Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) is visiting her hometown when she ends up finding and answering an old cordless phone. On the other end of the phone is Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), a young woman who suffers regular abuse at the hands of her adopted mother. Soon, Seo-yeon realizes that Young-sook is calling her from the same house . . . 20 years in the past. At first, the opportunity to prevent Seo-yeon's tragic loss of her father and to end Young-sook's abuse seems like a blessing for both women. But Young-sook is more damaged than Seo-yeon realizes and in Young-sook's hands, the power to change the future is very, very dangerous.

This film is definitely one that I would recommend to anyone who likes films like Timecrimes or Triangle. It's a time-travel thriller done incredibly well by creating a dynamic of cat-and-mouse across time. Usually in films like this, there's a lot of choreography to keep the identity of certain parties secret. Here, though, we know who everyone is, and we watch as the relationship between Seo-yeon and Young-sook devolves, each woman trying to wield her leverage over the other and the consequences growing ever more serious.

The performances are very solid across the board, but Jeon Jong-seo really stands out as the increasingly unhinged Young-sook. Park Shin-hye's relatively naive Seo-yeon is really no match for the intensity of the disturbed Young-sook, and a lot of tension arises from waiting to see just how far Young-sook will go to assert her dominance over the other woman.

When it comes to horror/thriller tropes, this film is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the main characters do often act more cleverly than is typical. On the other hand, a lot of secondary characters do a lot of "Huh? What?" when they are in danger, and it was really frustrating at times.

I will also admit that I am docking this film a full half star for not being able to resist one last twist, literally in the closing credits. Not only is it a real downer, it also doesn't make mechanical sense with the rules established in the film. It's the worst kind of indulgence--literally one last twist of the knife--and it soured me on the film in literally the last two minutes. Up to that point, this would have been a film I'd be talking up. As is, I'm now giving that recommendation with a grain of salt. I felt like the emotional investment I had in the film was somewhat wasted just for a chance for the film to be "edgy" in a completely unnecessary way. (Did I use the word "literally" three times in this paragraph? Yes. Yes I did. That's now annoyed I am with the end of the film, it's literally bringing out the 14 year old valley girl that lives in my soul.)

I think that my dislike of the ending is skewing my ability to analyze it. Up until the last two minutes, I was on the edge of my seat and really enjoying it. Recommended, but that ending is WOOF.

I quite enjoyed this movie, but it was intense enough that I haven't revisited it.

Judge Dredd(1995)

Love, Rosie (2014)

I just watched The Salvation, a western starring Mads Mikkelson, Eva Green and Jeffery Dean Morgan. With people’s affinity for these actors I’m surprised I never heard anyone mention this. Because it is dope af. Brutal and stylish without being gross or obnoxious. And it hits credits at just under 90 minutes. Excellent.

Well made little drama focusing on modern slavery in Brazil. A little disturbing in parts. The dog eat dog world of survival is heavily exposed.

7/10



A film that I've really wanted to see as it's not only from Wales, but it's in Welsh language too! It's a single location horror centred around the hypocrisy of politics and the modern day controversial issues of land drilling / mining. It has some lovely visuals, especially late on, but there are a few moments of weakness (the plot is largely very predictable) and the special effects were not really 1st rate. A fine effort though and so lovely to see films like this coming from Wales.

6/10


Bong Joon Ho really is just a freakish talent. A Man in an unhappy marriage starts to unravel as he tries to find out which dog is barking and and disturbing his life in a high rise apartment block. Before this debut feature Bong made just 3 shorts. Barking Dogs is a clever, very well directed film that has something to say about life choices, fate and monotony. Some of the little match cuts, editing and writing in this film show how Bong can inject so much charisma into his films with just a couple of neat tricks or a snippet of dialogue. It's also very funny in parts.

8.2/10

I really got a kick out of this film. It might even sneak into my Top 2000s films ballot. Who knows.

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Pretty much what I came away with.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - There's only so many ways you can trot out an origin story and this must have been different enough to satisfy a need. The surprising success of this and especially Black Panther must indicate that a large chunk of the viewing public are tired of the same old same old, white bread entries in the comic book movie universe. I guess some could retort by saying that a good movie is a good movie and will enjoy success no matter what. But that doesn't explain the new crop of Jurassic Park or two Amazing Spiderman films.

I'm not a Marvel fanboy but I thought this was pretty good. Simon Liu does a really good job in his first lead role and I'm admittedly a fan of Awkwafina so no complaints there. I liked the odd couple pairing and the matter of fact way it ended. No frills, no drama. Just two friends ready for whatever comes next. The requisite early fight scenes didn't involve firearms or otherworldly feats of strength and were nicely choreographed. If there are deficiencies they're in the usual places. The gluttonous amounts of CGI. The drawn out and largely predictable final battle.

It's hard to believe that I used to collect this self same comic book back when I was a kid. But it was called The Hands of Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu and his father was supposed to be Fu Manchu. There's very little left of that but it's still a reasonable adaptation and a respectable addition to the Marvel catalogue.

80/100

High Life - When I first caught the trailer for this I thought, "Oh wow, Robert Pattinson and a cute little baby in space. This could be an interesting get." But that's only a small part of this dark deliberation on ... I'm gonna be completely honest here and admit I don't know what the fudgsicles this was attempting to put forward. It somehow (or somewhat) works if the ultimate intent was to serve as a treatise on futility and hope. Or maybe it was just meant to show humanity distilled to it's grubbiest essence. I haven't seen any of director Claire Denis' previous films so I don't have any indication as to motivations or meanings.

An interstellar ship full of convicted criminals and death row inmates is traveling at nearly the speed of light towards what is the nearest black hole in our galaxy. The stated purpose is the exploitation of what is purported to be an inexhaustible energy supply. But it ultimately makes no sense given the years long voyage it takes to get there. However, there is a doctor onboard named Dibs (Juliette Binoche) whose aim is to somehow create and maintain life in the hostile void of space. She was also recruited from the prison population on Earth and her crime, which is ultimately revealed, lends an added weight to her work. Pattinson plays Monte, the lone holdout from Dibs' attempts at experimentation and insemination. There's a lot of bodily fluids in this. Blood and especially semen. Lots of semen. And, since all sexual activity is strictly prohibited, there's a booth the crew uses to masturbate that they've dubbed The Box. Which kept reminding me of the Orgasmatron from Woody Allen's Sleeper. It figures heavily in a prolonged (and we're talking prolonged) scene with Juliette Binoche.

And just in case you think I'm being unreasonably hostile to this type of storytelling there was another movie that was much like this one. I thought it largely shared the same narrative structure, cryptic characters and maybe even some of the same themes. It was called Under the Skin and starred Scarlett Johansson and I really enjoyed that one. This one may have had a point it was trying to get across but there was no discernible thread you could latch onto and tug. But I did ultimately enjoy Monte and his little daughter Willow's story arc and by the time the credits rolled I was wholly invested in their fate.

80/100

I thought that the film struggled a bit in how it balanced the bleak and optimistic elements of its story, but overall I really enjoyed it.

BUT! Oh, my gosh. Pattinson and that baby. It was his friend's child, and you can see it. They have such great chemistry, and it adds this amazing element to the film where in the middle of what is a horrifying situation you also get something genuinely wholesome.