Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Oh on the tv!! yeah u may be screwed there... i have a PC hooked up to my tv for that reason i havnt watched a advertisement in a very long time..

It's better than Drive if only because it doesn't cater to the expectations and tastes of the mainstream audience. Anyway, it oozes with orgone, so of course, it's a masterpiece.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I had to look up orgone but otherwise I agree with you completely.

The Artist (2011) -

I thought of giving this a 3.5/5, but I decided to give it a 4. It's a well-crafted and moving story (though one with few surprises) and the amount of effort put into it to resemble a silent film makes it a nice throwback to such, but it didn't quite provide enough for me to love it. I enjoyed some of the visuals, like the montage of Miller's name moving up in the credits, or the hallucinatory scenes which get into Valentin's headspace (the miniatures in the bar were a highlight). Also, the dog's scenes were pretty much all cute. However, I felt these aspects were underutilized and that the movie was just throwing me a bone from time to time. Still though, I found the final act very moving and the same goes for a few scenes which came before that, so I still enjoyed the film quite a bit and felt these issues were balanced out well enough. Also, bonus points for including a nightmare scene which doesn't feel unnecessary but actually acts as an omen for Valentin's future struggles, seeing how he's unable to "keep up" with the sounds.

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I watched Pearl (2022) today. Pearl is the prequel to X (also 2022) and focuses on the younger version of the character Pearl (played by Mia Goth in both films). Mia Goth is fantastic in this, even better than her wonderful dual performances in X. I loved the cinematography and it's got a really good score too. Pearl is entertaining and fun and captures a lot of the same retro energy and spirit as X, while still being its own thing. Not quite as great X, Pearl is still one of the best films of the year. My rating is .

First Cow, 2019

Cookie (John Magaro) is a quiet man who works as a cook for rough-and-tumble fur trappers, but dreams of opening his own bakery in San Francisco. Cookie meets up with King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant on the run after killing a man. Together they end up working together in a fort, illicitly stealing milk from a cow belonging to a powerful local trader (Toby Jones) in order to make baked goods to sell to the locals.

What an amazing, sweet, and potent little film.

I've had mixed luck with Reichardt's filmography. I thought that Wendy and Lucy was really strong, powered by Michelle Williams in the lead role. I also really enjoyed Meek's Cutoff. I overall liked Night Moves. I really struggled with Old Joy, trying two times to watch it but never actually clicking with it.

This one, though, may be my favorite of her films. It's a movie that mixes romance and serenity with a dose of melancholy, gently centering affection and friendship in a harsh and unforgiving setting.

Most movies that take place on the frontier tend to center the cruel and difficulty of living in such a hostile environment. The film doesn't pretend that the fort and its surroundings aren't a dangerous place to be. In both the beginning and end of the film, we see that this is a rough place to be. But the heart of the film is the friendship that Cookie and King-Lu find with one another, and the way that their friendship gives them hope for the future.

This is, I think, a really brilliant romance. Whether you watch this movie and decide that Cookie and King-Lu are "just friends", or whether you think there's a deeper attraction there, it doesn't impact the result, which is that these two men basically complete each other. When I say romance (for the record, I get a more than friends vibe), I mean that this is a story that shows how one person can bring out the best in the other. They listen to each other's hopes and dreams, both those that are actionable and those that are just pipe dreams. For the thrilling center of the film, their dreams begin to get traction.

Magaro and Lee have an easy chemistry with each other, the kind of dynamic where their enjoyment of each other's company is apparent when speaking or sitting in companionable silence. Toby Jones is also good as the wealthy landowner whose cow is being "poached" by Cookie and King-Lu. He seems affable enough, but you dread what will happen when he discovers the deception. And, of course, a huge shout-out to Evie the cow. She is adorable, and the little conversations that Cookie has with her during the midnight milkings are some of the sweetest scenes in the film.

The very opening scene lets us know a lot about how the film will end, but the journey there is very compelling. There are moments of difficulty and loss, but I stand by the word that keeps coming into my head about it. This is a really gentle film. It puts friendship and love at the center, showing how those things can enliven and enrich life in even the most trying of circumstances. That last moment in the film really sings.

I've only seen 3 Reichardts (Certain Women, Old Joy, Meek's Cutoff). I've like all of them. She almost seems like a really good short story writer, blown up big. She understands the tiny mysteries that lay at the heart of these narratives can be illuminated by how all the characters behave, and so never needs to completely reveal those mysteries. Just lets them live inside the movie, wondered and speculated over. Basically, exactly the kind of thing I love. Clearly I should be going deeper.

First Cow is very good. Its ending, in particular, is perfect. When I first watched the film, my initial reaction was "Wait, what?", but after I "understood" the ending, I eventually realized it was a perfect culmination to the relationship of the two men.

That's a great way of putting it.

I would highly recommend First Cow, though I'll concede that it has a very narrative story, which appeals to my sensibilities.

But it also has great performances, an incredible atmosphere, and a central relationship that feels very real in ways big and small.

I loved First Cow and gentle is a pretty good word to use to describe it. As to the ending I didn't read into it much. I guess it would make sense but at the time I just marveled at the devotion. It really got me in the feels.

What I meant is, when I first watched it, I was confused as to After I watched the opening scene again though, the ending made sense to me and I was able to marvel at it once I pondered over it some more.

Fletch, Confess


The most unfunny film I've seen in a while. In a word, incompetent.

A rewatch of a film I truly enjoy.

By The cover art can be obtained from Movieposterdb.com., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33879161

My Brilliant Career - (1979)

Gillian Armstrong chose Miles Franklin's classic Australian novel as an adaptation suitable for her feature directorial debut, and the result was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes - making it one of the preeminent films of the Australian New Wave. I really enjoyed watching it - it has many moments of quiet reflection, but the character of Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) is playful, flighty, brash, down to earth and refuses to be pigeon-holed as most women were in late 19th Century Australia. She's constantly paired off for marriage, and every proposal she fends off, because she knows that from that day forward her roles will be strictly defined and she'd be consigned to a life of drudgery. Most poignant is her love affair with Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) - her greatest test of independence. It's an empowering film, but at times sad and reflective. Sybylla seems to have been born too soon, into a world that won't accept "dreamers" but instead demands people do what's expected of them. Visually gorgeous, with many haunting melodies (our protagonist also plays the piano) - it's a great debut, and part of Australia's cinematic heritage.

8/10


By POV - Impawards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7620714

Taps - (1981)

I remember Taps being around when I was very young, but I never ended up seeing it, and the view I had in my mind of what it would be like was very different to the reality. The film takes place at a military academy that's about to be closed - sold off for redevelopment, much to the consternation of the academy's head, Brigadier General Harlan Bache (George C. Scott). When there's an accidental shooting involving a nearby resident, efforts to close the place down pick up pace, and Bache has a heart attack and ends up in hospital. All of the young students then decide to barricade themselves in, and use the considerable armaments the place has to make a stand and demand an investigation into the place's closure. The film features very young performances from the likes of Sean Penn, Tom Cruise and Timothy Hutton. The tension it builds is enough to consider it a well-made drama/thriller, and it raises interesting questions about the military, and the indoctrination of young minds. I found it more interesting than what I was expecting - but it was also slightly looser and less grounded than what I'd thought it would be. In the end, I liked it for not taking sides and instead exploring various societal and military issues.

7/10

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Becoming Jane has a similar dynamic. It's a pretty decent biopic about Jane Austen.

And from the director side of things, I recently watched and loved Armstrong's Starstruck.

Actually I was responding to Tak's speculating on whether or not there was a "deeper" meaning to Cookie and Kings's relationship.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

I watched this for the upcoming countdown because I've seen the title mentioned quite a bit over the last few years. For whatever reason I always thought it was a documentary, I couldn't have been more off on that. I like the general premise with the different appointments. I don't mind that there doesn't seem to be a central point, but I'm not generally a fan of surrealism. I enjoyed the characters and their more normal conversations the most. For whatever reason it reminded me of Playtime. I could potentially enjoy this more if I watched it again. I was never bored and it's technically sound.

It's been some time since I've seen it, but my interpretation for what the film is about and what type of themes run throughout it are that it's about the ways cinema has evolved throughout the years, as well as a mournful reflection on different technologies which have/will become outdated and prior relationships/roles the characters had in the past.

As the movie went on, I began to notice that after the entr'acte, the "appointments" (which I think represent different movie roles) Oscar went to appeared to blend into reality. The way they seemed to affect him (such as stumbling weakly into his limo after he's stabbed during one of the appointments) cause them to become harder to distinguish from reality, culminating in the final couple appointments where I'm not even sure if they were actual appointments or not. I think this showed how, as various types of movie equipment (cameras, lighting, sounds, etc.) improved over time, the images they captured grew more and more akin to reality, so I think that's what's being represented by this dynamic.

The film also makes a number of interesting references to other films. Edith Scob's character putting on the mask at the end is a reference to her own role in Eyes Without a Face (her most iconic role, I believe). I like to think of that as her reconnecting with one of her past roles as this fits with the film's themes pretty well. In addition, Lavant's character climbing out of the sewer is a reference to his role in Tokyo! (I haven't seen the film though, so I can't say a whole lot about what that means). The most interesting reference, however, comes in during the musical/romance segment about reunited lovers. After researching the film, I found that Kylie Minogue wasn't the original actress Carax wanted to play her role. He instead wanted to cast Juliette Binoche in the role. This would've been a reference to Lavant's and Bnioche's roles in The Lovers on the Bridge. Although Binoche dropped out of the role and Kylie Minogue got it, you can still see the original intent of the casting.

I also found a few other scenes in the film interesting, like the opening, ending, and a few smaller scenes within the film. However, this post is already pretty long, so I figured I'd cut it off here.