Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Red Rocket - I've only seen two of Sean Baker's movies but I really don't think you could describe them as "enjoyable" experiences. Entertaining? Yeah I suppose. But they're not what you would call "feel good" movies. The Florida Project had a charming performance from six year old Brooklynn Prince and an antithetical, warmhearted and Oscar nominated one from Willem Dafoe. And even though Simon Rex does an exceptionally superlative job as Mikey "Saber" Davies, his character is next to impossible to root for.

He's a washed up porn actor, forced to leave Los Angeles after his toxic personality manages to alienate his fellow bottom feeders. Having run out his string and nearly penniless, he takes a bus back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas. The first place he goes is to his ex-wife Lexi's (Bree Elrod) childhood home where she lives with her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). Turning on his not inconsiderable charm and gift of gab he talks them into letting him stay. But his job search turns out about how you'd expect for an ex-porn star.

So he goes to local weed dealer Leondria (Judy Weiss) whom he knew and worked for as a teenager and gets her to front him some weed. When he actually shows back up with her money she lets him start dealing on a full time basis. When pressed by Lexi and Lil to pitch in at home he volunteers to cover the monthly rent which buys him some breathing room. But it isn't long before his hustler ways and mile-wide amoral streak rears it's head. He runs into seventeen year old Strawberry (Suzanna Son) at the local donut shop and immediately starts trying to seduce her. It isn't long before he comes to see her as his way back into the adult fim business. Or maybe that was his impetus all along. Hard to tell with this guy.

This film contains stuff that's been shown to set people off. Mikey is basically "grooming" the underage Strawberry. The film has no qualms about making his intentions clear. He might not be the "hero" in the strictest sense but he is assuredly the leading man in the story. And as such are we expected to root for him? If not then what's the point?

This is admittedly my take after watching only two of his movies but it seems that Baker makes voyeuristic and ultimately depressing movies. From what I've read he had a completely normal childhood growing up and earned a degree in Film Studies at NYU. I really liked The Florida Project but I had a really hard time seeing any kind of upside or legitimate reason to recommend this outside of Rex's performance.

70/100

I watched 1995 thriller Nick of Time starring Johnny Depp. It’s not great but it moves and is easy to watch. There’s some weird cuts and continuity errors and the villain’s plan is ludicrous. But Walken HAMS. IT. UP.

I LOVED this movie...probably more than you did.

I have seen The Florida Project and Tangerine, and my take on Baker's films is that he makes movies about people who are, to say the least, complicated. I think that he's often able to walk a fine line of having empathy for his characters without necessarily approving of their actions or expecting you to think they're good people.

It sounds like a main difference is that Red Rocket puts a more immoral character in the lead role instead of in a prominent secondary role. I still think that such films can be worth watching, though I think a lot of that depends on the extent to which you're being asked to condone the behavior of such a character as opposed to just witnessing it and maybe trying to understand it.

I can't really give my take on all of this without giving away the ending to the film, so...

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Expectations are a bitch.
I saw this movie not knowing anything about it and it fairly blew me away as an out-of-nowhere, lightning-in-a-bottle that was obviously punching way above its weight.
Because I hadn't even seen a trailer for it, it was just the next movie starting at the theater I had gone to, back when going to the theater at the standard movie start-time and choosing when you get there was just what people did.
I had never seen or heard of Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, or Chiwetel Ojiofor.
The movie is imaginative, entertaining, and excels at world-building.
I consider this an excellent Space-Western style Sci-Fi film with an endearing and engaging cast of characters and some fun surprises that I will watch any time with no convincing.
8/10

I don't know if it's possible for someone who had seen the show to imagine what it was like to see it in the theater not knowing that a show like it had ever existed, but I can tell you that it worked amazingly as a standalone film to a Sci-Fi fan with no real expectations.

Well we disagree and agree.
As I said above, I'd never even heard of Firefly when I saw Serenity in the theater and I absolutely loved it. I've watched it at least half a dozen times. And River's big scene is one of my favorite science-fiction movie scenes.
But cheers on Desperado.

La La Land (2016)


Wow, I am way late to this movie, because I thought it would be more heavy on the musical themes than the drama. The songs were indeed a bit much, but the aesthetics and emotion of this movie is unmatched. Subjectively, the fantastical portrayal of love here is pretty accurate. I loved the ending, where the heartburn I felt seemed so real (and unlike a fairy tale so to speak).

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Rain Man - (1988)

It had been a long time since I last saw Rain Man, but this last viewing was probably my warmest. My focus has always been on Dustin Hoffman's performance - and it's always been one I've thought of as the 'easy' one. Any performance that doesn't depend of subtlety I feel that way about - but his presence still commands the screen. This time I saw more of Charlie Babbitt's transformation throughout the film - one he's initially set up in as a horrible person using his newly discovered brother. It might be brutally passé in this modern era of film, but I still like that fact that his autistic brother changed him to some extent - and a genuine love grows between them, despite the fact that Raymond can't express it at all. I admire the film for not trying to force that expression of love from the character. I don't like Tom Cruise - but he did a really good job in Rain Man. Most people had never heard of "autism" before this film came out, and it did wonders for progressing some kind of understanding, no matter how incomplete.

8/10


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The Good Son - (1993)

This film is kind of bizarre, but I always thought Macaulay Culkin was a creepy kid, so I was completely sold by his turn in The Good Son - it's the only film of his where I've thought he really inhabits his character. Examining that, I kind of enjoyed watching it - even factoring in the fact that this is a universally reviled film. I hear a lot of people had problems with a child comedy star being the villain in a horror film, and claimed it didn't work - but Culkin has always been what he embodies in this film to me, and it worked in my eyes. There are logical leaps that are hard to accept, making this one of those thrillers that you can't suspend disbelief in, for to play it all out these kids need a degree of freedom and autonomy which children simply don't have - but I just let it all go. Doing that, I had far more fun than most have watching it - and can only apologise to everyone for my taste this one time.

7/10


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Stir of Echoes - (1999)

This was a really good horror/thriller that for some reason didn't move or scare me. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy watching and admiring it, and the fact is, I really wasn't expecting it to be as interesting as it was. It came out just weeks after The Sixth Sense, which is very unfortunate, because Stir of Echoes has a very similar plot-line. A kid can see dead people that need to be helped in some way, but here his dad (played by Kevin Bacon) is also plagued with the visions and is nearly sent mad trying to work it all out. It plays as a kind of 'haunted house/ghost story' at times, and other times just a straight horror/thriller - but it never goes all out trying to scare us. Instead, it invests more in it's storyline. I'm imagining this has a fair few fans.

6/10

Yeah, I got that 'Western' vibe from it myself, and thought that to myself many times. It's amazing how much I was enjoying it, but how badly expecting it was going to go for 3 hours messed with my mind in the end.

I'll let you know my opinion on that matter when I see the other two. I think Ulrich Seidl originally wanted all of it to be one film.

Ethel & Ernest is one of the movies that I put on my watchlist because it sounded interesting. Hopefully I'll like it more than you did.

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OPEN FLOOR.

I liked it more than I expected when I finally got around to it. I think that coming out so close to The Sixth Sense, as you mention, diminished my interest in it and made it seem like a knockoff.

Part of why I liked it, though, was that it had a more central mystery plot, and I'm a sucker for a good mystery.

Like I said I really liked The Florida Project but just couldn't wrap my brain around making such a personable but amoral protagonist the centerpiece of your film. I was trying to think of another character like Mikey I had seen in the past. Barry Lyndon? Henry Hill from Goodfellas? Tony Soprano?

There's the rub. I get that this is who he is. But digging deeper and finding his motivations was just not in my wheelhouse.

I didn't end up rooting for or against him. I just ended up feeling like I was privy to some unsavory tableau. Hence the voyeuristic aspects. At least with The Florida Project I had an adorable little kid and Dafoe's Bobby as a buffer of sorts from all the misery tourism.

I'm with you. I especially liked the aspects. It put me in mind of Frequency.

I remember when it came out the marketing was definitely riding the coattails of Sixth Sense. And it wasn’t until years later I finally watched it because I figured it was just a ripoff. But yeah it’s a decent little thriller.

omg i havent seen simon rex since scary movie 3 :O

Arrival (2016): This was politically like The Arrival (1996), in that the Americans politically are the good guys and there are antagonised countries. In The Arrival, Mexico was giving shelter to the malign aliens; and in here, Russia and China (among others) are behaving in a way that doesn't please the good (?) Americans. How typical... Anyway, this was a very good movie; excellent entertainment, really. Even if I don't like the political aspects of such American movies, there's some plausibility in their reflection. At least, the Americans see the world like this. I respect that, eventually. 8.5/10

Dark Skies (2013): Another alien movie, but this time the beings are familiar: the Grey aliens! A fine film, though nothing spectacular. 7/10

Dream House (2011): Back to reality... Or does the perception of the protagonist reflect the actual reality? A decent mystery/thriller. Not a standout film, nonetheless. 6.5/10

I laughed, I cried, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

Never heard of this & I’ve put it in my Netflix Q though I never ever watch animated movies. @Miss Vicky’s review has inspired me. Jim Broadbent & Brenda Blethyn play the voices of Ethel & Ernest.

You may have heard of the book & animation The Snowman. Also by Raymond Briggs whose parents were the real Ethel & Ernest.

Interestingly Mr. Briggs died exactly one month ago at age 88.

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