Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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Have you ever watched the show?

Nope. I was introduced to Raven and the Stargirl through this movie. But I looked up the characters later, and apparently they made radical changes to the series. Also, the titans that show up post credits are from the series, if I am not wrong.



Nope. I was introduced to Raven and the Stargirl through this movie. But I looked up the characters later, and apparently they made radical changes to the series. Also, the titans that show up post credits are from the series, if I am not wrong.
Gotcha. I've seen a few episodes of Teen Titans Go and enjoyed them. If you liked the film you might check it out.




Sunrise (1927, F. W. Murnau)

A simple but timeless story about the transformational power of love, beautifully shot and very much ahead of its time both visually and sonically. The ending is so unapologetically sentimental in its melodrama you'd think it would make me cringe at least slightly - but it never does. In fact, it gets me every time I watch it. The magic of cinema, pure and simple.



Mute Witness (1994)

Really interesting premise of a make-up artist that mistakenly comes across a Snuff film being made where she was just working. A bit of mystery and thriller but the chases just let it into slightly slapstick area unfortunately.
Ok though.



Terrorvision 1986

A family's new satellite starts receiving signals from another planet, and soon it becomes the passageway to an alien world

More comedy than a sci fi/horror, this certainly has its own thing going on and is utterly bonkers, I maybe found it a bit too silly at times




Blood Diner 1987

Two brothers are entrusted by their uncle to uphold the ritualistic cannibalism of the ancient cult of Sheetar. In order to do so, they have to prepare a feast of sacrifice for the resurrection of their goddess.

I didn't think it would be possible to up the wackiness of Terrorvision so soon but this just builds to a crescendo of utter beautiful insanity, cant believe I missed out on this one, funny..

+
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Do you know what a roller pigeon is, Barney? They climb high and fast, then roll over and fall just as fast toward the earth. There are shallow rollers and deep rollers. You can’t breed two deep rollers, or their young will roll all the way down, hit, and die. Officer Starling is a deep roller, Barney. We should hope one of her parents was not.





Horse Girl, 2020

I'm very torn on this film, and I'll have to think it over.

Sarah is a young woman who works as a clerk in a crafting store, goes religiously to her Zumba classes, and shares an apartment with a roommate. While Sarah is an introvert and obviously quirky, her birthday proves to be an inciting incident for her sense of reality to begin to crumble.

If you've seen The Swimmer, that's the kind of film this is. After a seemingly innocuous beginning, we slowly start to realize what the main character has lost and how it has truly impacted them.

Alison Brie, who stars as Sarah and also co-wrote the film, is a powerful center to the film. Sarah is such a well-realized character that when things begin to go off the rails, we still feel Sarah's heart at the core of the story. The film does a good job of both the little moments (such as Sarah chickening out on inviting a Zumba friend out for drinks on her birthday) and the more surreal ones (such as Sarah's vivid dreams of alien abduction).

I guess I should say that my one sense of reservation about the film was that at times there was humor being taken from Sarah's obvious mental health issues. Now, it's a really tricky line to walk here, because the film was based on personal experiences from Brie's life and who is to say that someone isn't allowed to laugh at their own experiences? I have a very negative reaction to characters with mental illness being used as quirky comic relief. While I don't think that was the intention of the film, there were certain sequences that played that way to me.

But the flip side of this is that the film offers a very thorough and painful look at someone whose grief and depression has reached a point where they actually begin to break with reality. Sarah takes extreme refuge in an old 90s supernatural TV show. She depends painfully on her horse, Willow, that she's long since sold to another couple who barely tolerate Sarah's constant, unwelcome visits. While I didn't entirely approve of the reactions of anyone in Sarah's life, I did understand their point of view and their actions. The "bad guy" in this movie isn't a mean roommate or an unsympathetic boss, it's the pain in Sarah's life that no one is able to help her resolve.

This movie definitely kept me on my toes. The performances were good, and the themes were clearly deeply personal. I need to think on it a bit more, but I'd recommend it.




28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Never seen it, but that tag line seems more ominous than the poster suggests. Creepy vibes.
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Suspect's Reviews



Sweet Country (2017)

Never heard the term before but apparently this is a "meat pie western"! It's good, the story concerns the differences in attitudes to the native aborigines between Sam Neill's god-fearing rancher and a new rancher just moved into the "locality" who was in the 1st WW and has mental problems. The acting is top notch and the story engaging. Bryan Brown inevitably (as the local copper) has his say too.




Originally Posted by Marco
Never heard the term before but apparently this is a "meat pie western"!
How can it be a western if it’s set in Australia?
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How can it be a western if it’s set in Australia?


EDIT: Clicked "post" without typing the words!!

There are a lot of films that do not take place in the American West that are considered Westerns or that pull strongly from the Western tradition. Australia, with its sandy outback and fraught history with the Aboriginal population has a lot of parallels with the American West. Both in terms of look and themes, Australia is an interesting setting for a Western film.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Correspondences (Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2016)
6/10
The Last Theft (Jirí Barta, 1987)
- 6.5/10
StageFright (Michele Soavi, 1987)
6/10
Howard (Don Hahn, 2018)
+ 6.5/10

Disney tribute to Academy Award-winning songwriter Howard Ashman who died from AIDS at age 40.
The Stunt Double (Damien Chazelle, 2020)
6.5/10
Rafiki (Wanuri Kahiu, 2018)
5/10
The Light on the Hill (Ricardo Velarde, 2016)
.6/10
Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (Waris Hussein, 1970)
+ 6.5/10

College student Margot Kidder catches the eye of horse manure collector Gene Wilder in Dublin.
The Tale of Tales (Yu. Norstein, 1979)
6.5/10
Spinster (Andrea Dorfman, 2019)
.6/10
Sedução da Carne (Júlio Bressane, 2018)
5/10
The Secret of My Success (Herbert Ross, 1987)
6.5/10

"Aunty Vera" (Margaret Whitton) helps up-and-comer Michael J. Fox make it in big business.
Woodland (Jon Silverberg, 2018)
5/10
Escape to Athena (George P. Cosmatos, 1979)
- 6.5/10
How to Fake a War (Rudolph Herzog, 2019)
+ 5/10
Mickybo and Me (Terry Loane, 2004)
- 6.5/10

At the start of The Troubles in Belfast, two friends share a love for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which leads them to run away on an adventure.
Alive and Kicking (Susan Glatzer, 2016)
- 6.5/10
Smorgasbord AKA Cracking Up (Jerry Lewis, 1983)
5/10
Made in Italy (James D'Arcy, 2020)
6/10
Waiting for the Barbarians (Ciro Guerra, 2019)
+ 5/10

Boring, sadistic film about colonialism by a good director with Mark Rylance providing most of the humanity.
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How can it be a western if it’s set in Australia?
Western Australia???



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
In the absence of Tenet, I went to see a showing of Inception. I have seen it a fair few times now and there's always something to enjoy and admire about it. I think it has probably crept up to be one of my favourite films. There was also a short behind the scenes thing which was interesting, about how and why Nolan and his crew use real locations and practical effects where possible.

4.5 ☆



It's two, two, two-for one!

I started two very different movies last night and this afternoon after I finished work I finished them both.



Sanjuro, 1962

A follow-up to Yojimbo, this is another film featuring Toshiro Mifune's swaggering samurai helping out those in need.

Tsubaki (though he's rarely called by name) just happens to seek shelter in the same place where a group of men have gathered to discuss their plans to take down several corrupt government officials. The corrupt politicians have kidnapped a local commissioner and plan to frame him for wrong-doing so that they can seize power. Realizing that the group of men is walking into the trap, the samurai helps them to survive an attack and then becomes joined to their cause.

This film was pretty . . . casual as far as samurai films go. There are rescues and skirmishes, but the film never has very heavy stakes. That's mostly not a criticism--clearly the film is meant to be enjoyable and light. There is a lot of humor at play, and it's fun to watch the samurai manipulate the bad guys into different situations.

And honestly, the lack of stakes was my only complaint. At times the film's low key vibe borders on boredom. I would have liked a twist or two, while the plot tends to move in a pretty linear (and predictable) fashion. I definitely liked it, but more as a feel-good fun film.





Sleepless in Seattle, 1993

A man named Sam (Tom Hanks) has just lost his wife to cancer. Needing a change, he moves himself and his son, Jonah, to Seattle. But a year and a half later, Sam is still depressed. One night, Jonah calls a radio advice program to seek help for his father. Across the country in Baltimore, newly engaged Annie (Meg Ryan) hears the radio program and finds herself drawn to Sam and his plight. Suddenly questioning her engagement (to a well-meaning guy who is perhaps a bit bland), Annie finds herself torn between thinking she has a chance at real love, or thinking that it's a flight of fancy.

This is a pretty well-known romantic comedy (a genre in which I am not super well versed), and I really enjoyed it. The entire film (aside from a few moments), keeps Sam and Annie apart, and it's such an interesting choice! The film isn't so much about two people falling in love, as it is about two people forced to take a hard look at what they want in their lives. This is a really cool approach to romance, because it's not just watching two people in a "honeymoon" phase. Sam and Annie both need to reflect on themselves and do work on themselves before they ever share the same room.

Another thing I really liked was how the film portrayed the love interests that Sam and Annie have. Annie's fiance, Walter (Bill Pullman), is a good guy. The woman that Sam ends up dating, Victoria (Barbara Garrick), is a nice person. It's too easy for romantic comedies to partner one (or both) of the leads with partners who are abusive, neglectful, cruel, disrespectful, dumb, etc. It's not about the leads being with "bad" people--it's about whether or not they are with the wrong people. As Annie says to Walter, "I wonder if we're like two rights that make a wrong". She means that they might be too similar and that the predictability means that there isn't a spark or spontaneity between them.

Overall this was a charming film. Maybe a minor complaint would be that there are a handful of dated moments with Jonah and a friend of his speaking in a form of slang that I don't think ever actually existed. But aside from that I didn't really find any faults with it. I'm glad I watched it and it holds up really well!






And the Whole Sky Fit in the Dead Cow's Eye, 2016

I didn't totally understand it, but I quite liked it!

This is a short film (~20 minutes) from a Chilean director.

A man finds his entire herd of cows mysteriously dead. While he goes off to deal with the issue, his elderly mother is shocked to discover that she's being visited by the ghost of her dead husband. When she learns why he has reappeared, she fears for her family.

For the first 3/4, the film plays like a straight drama, albeit with a supernatural element. But in the last quarter, it takes a turn toward magical realism and I just loved it. I didn't have a total handle on some of the meaning of what took place at the very end, but the imagery was compelling enough that I didn't care all that much whether or not I totally "got it".

This is on the Criterion Channel and I'd recommend it.