Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Zulu - I hadn't seen Zulu in years but have been wanting to revisit it. I remember being super impressed with it the first time and am fully aware that the passage of time can alter your overall take. But it's held up remarkably well and recounts the events leading up to and the actual Battle of Rorke's Drift. Otherwise known as the English defence of the Christian mission station at Rorkes Drift in the British colony of Natal in south-eastern Africa. In January of 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War just over 150 British and Colonial troops held off attacks by Zulu warriors numbering between 3 and 4 thousand. Stanley Baker stars as Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers with a young Michael Caine as Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead of the 24th Regiment of Foot.

It's a workmanlike retelling with just enough details added to give it a jolt of authenticity. There are no outsized villains or saintly heroes to be found. Just the pall and the turmoil of battle. This surely made everyone sit up and take notice back in 1964.

85/100

Nope - Brother and sister OJ & Emerald Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya & Keke Palmer) are trying to keep their father Otis Sr.'s (Keith David) horse ranch in business. Neither character is what you might call noticeably likable. OJ is taciturn and closed off while Emerald is a glib sort of hustler, loquacious and seemingly untethered. Either way Peele doesn't spend much time, if any, delving into their motivations. I suppose he trusts his audience to discern that this is how each is processing and dealing with the sudden death of their patriarch. Problem being that this is how the film starts. Otis Sr. dies mysteriously after a series of unexplained events that end with a coin lodged in his brain. Like I said, it's over before there's any real setup and since the remainder of the film springs from that I think it's a legitimate gripe.

The mystery behind Otis Sr.'s death is gradually revealed and there are numerous supporting characters introduced including Brandon Perrea as Angel Torres. He's a Fry's Electronics grunt the siblings approach for help in capturing videographic evidence of the unexplained phenomenon. When that fails they try and entice famed documentarian Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) by appealing to his never ending pursuit of "the perfect shot". The other major player is Ricky 'Jupe" Park (Steven Yeun) a former child star who now owns and operates Jupiter's Claim, a Western theme park that abuts the Haywood's horse farm. Despite being played by one of my favorite actors I thought his was the most problematic character in terms of what he brought to the story. There's probably a point that Peele was trying to make but I wasn't sure it ever landed. (And yes, I've since read up on the "addiction to spectacle" angle and Jupe's part in it. I just felt it could have been a bit more clearly delineated.)

When I finished this I thought it was largely a misfire on the part of Jordan Peele. I felt there were too many disparate elements that didn't mesh so I immediately put it down to a weak script. But then after thinking about it I allowed for Peele's prodigious intellect. While it didn't clear up the nagging doubts I had I figured a lot of it simply went over my head.

80/100

Secret and Explicit (The Aims and Acts of Zionists)

__________________
https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Dear Zachary, 2008

In 2001, Andrew Bagby was found dead after arranging to meet the girlfriend he’d just broken up with in a state park. When his girlfriend, Shirley Turner, realized she was a suspect in his death, she fled to her home country of Canada. While the wheels of justice slowly turned, Andrew’s friends and family were shocked to learn that Shirley was pregnant with Andrew’s baby. Andrew’s childhood friend, Kurt, began assembling footage and interviews to create a film scrapbook about Andrew for the son he would never know, Zachary.

Highly emotional and full of rage, the film’s highly subjective bent is both its strength and its detriment.



Full review

Your review of this movie is pretty much on the money.

3 bags of popcorn? Seriously?

Well, more censorship. I should have titled it "The Aims and Acts of Arabs" and would have no problems.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)

Copyright held by the film company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30947465

The Offence - (1973)

What we have here is an extraordinary Sidney Lumet-directed film lost in my huge Lumet blind spot, for he really did have a long and prolific career. This is the first film Sean Connery appeared in after his last official outing as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever, and while at first the part of a misogynistic and violent Detective-Sergeant fits him like a glove, once you've seen the whole film you'll understand how unusual this role was for the actor. Wikipedia describes it as a "crime neo noir drama film" - but I'd just say it's psychological. It delves into an area I've thought about occasionally, namely 'what happens to detectives who are exposed to ghastly horrors during their career?' In it, Detective-Sergeant Johnson (Connery) kills a suspect, and what at first looked like a procedural focusing on a serial child rapist, instead turns into a procedural that deals with what happens to Johnson after killing a man in the interview room. Slowly, we get inside his head, and what's there isn't pretty at all. This film is pretty unusual, and not your usual crime caper - instead spiraling into madness in unexpected and interesting ways. Connery stretches himself more than I've ever seen him do before. Based on a stage play by John Hopkins.

8/10

__________________

The synchronicity is almost suspicious. I finished watching Face/Off 5 minutes ago.

So, either its a coincidence or one of us is mocking the other.

Face/Off (1997)

I've seen Face/Off several times but all I can remember is the epic ending scene from that church gunfight onward. Strange to have no recollection of the rest of the movie. Small things that annoy me about this movie are that they dont think, hey check fingerprints you dont need blood samples for proof and hey nobody would agree to switching faces if it were possible. But the movie is great. The hardest part is convincing yourself one is the other.

10/10

The House by the Cemetery

__________________
Letterboxd

Man With a Movie Camera, 1929

In a series of montage sequences, a man with a movie camera captures life in a city.

There’s something really delightful about a movie that is so overtly experimental and, for lack of a better word, “artsy.” The film wears on its sleeve the questions “what can a camera do?” and “what can I make you feel?”, and watching how the film explores those questions is really cool.



Full review

Thieves Like Us, 1974

Bowie (Keith Carradine) breaks out of prison with Chickamaw (John Schuck). The two later join forces with T-Dub (Bert Remsen) to commit a series of bold robberies. While laying low, Bowie meets the lovely Keechie (Shelley Duvall), but he has no intention of giving up his life of crime.

Glad I watched it, but just not my cup of tea. (Or should I say, not my bottle of Coca-Cola).



Full review

Ratings dump... if you want to talk about anything please reply!

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (Frank Capra, 1936)

Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (Benjamin Christensen, 1922)

Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)

The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928)

Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1966)

The Hanging Tree (Delmer Daves, 1959)

Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016)

Hell or High Water (David MacKenzie, 2016)

Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960)

Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang, 1944)

Lonely are the Brave (David Miller, 1962)

Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017)

The Little Mermaid (Rob Marshall, 2023)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller, 2018)

Shadows (John Cassevetes, 1958)

Life is Sweet (Mike Leigh, 1990)

__________________

I really enjoyed this film. I thought that the performances were really excellent, and it really put Andrew Garfield on my radar after also being like "Whoa" about his performance in tick tick BOOM.

I am a big fan of Boetticher's Westerns. Some of them have a lot more nuance than you might expect from the plot descriptions. Have you seen much else from him?

Kapana, 2020

George (Adriano Visagie) is an insurance broker who one night meets a kapana stall owner named Simeon (Simon Hanga). The two dive into a pretty hot and heavy relationship with the tacit approval of George’s friends and family. But when Simeon discovers that George has been hiding important information from him, the men experience a rift.

A low-key film with some surprising and endearing elements, this one was a pleasant surprise.



Full review

The Milky Way, 1936

Burleigh Sullivan (Harold Lloyd) is a milkman, who one night finds himself defending his sister, Mae (Helen Mack) against two men who are harassing her in the street. A scuffle ensues, and one of the men is knocked out when Burleigh ducks at an opportune moment. But the man he knocked out is Speed McFarland (William Gargan), the current middleweight champion. Soon, unscrupulous promoter Gabby Sloan (Adolphe Menjou) is arranging fights for Burleigh, who doesn’t realize all of his victories are rigged.

Very silly and mostly very sweet, this is a fun non-silent film from Lloyd.



Full review

I'm long overdue for a watching of Häxan.