Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Thought I would hate this, but it’s a slow-burn. I enjoyed it. Could Mel have ever been as handsome as he was in this movie?



A ton lost in translation (thank god for online notes), but an enjoyable movie. Interesting storyline & the lead actress is excellent. Apparently she made 2 earlier movies with these directors that I should check out.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Mel was gorgeous in The River and hopefully, you noticed that the camerawork in that film spends a lot of time focusing on Mel's body.

I liked him in his tighty-whities for a split second. Camera turned away at the last minute without revealing anything.

Only Lovers Left Alive - 2013



Watching this for the 3rd time I guess. One of the unique movies made by Jim Jarmusch. Tilda Swinton, Jeffrey Wright among the favourite actors distributed by Jarmusch in his movies. Also thinking of rewatching Broken Flowers, but maybe in a few days !

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I find sadness an exquisite part of the beautiful human experience, and I'd find Perfect Days an extraordinarily disappointing film if Hirayama was some happy idiot who lives for the banality you'd need to if you were that way by not letting the abyss be part of his life experience, or else living an insincere life. Note the specific songs he listens to and how they relate to all of that. I basically agree with a lot of what you said. The only time I found myself at odds with what you wrote there was when you alluded to the fact that Hirayama might be suffering from depression. There's no way he'd be able to do what he does in the film and be suffering from that - I don't think he has a single symptom of depression. I don't think I could watch the film and call Hirayama's happiness superficial, but the underlying sadness you talk about in what you wrote I'm definitely onboard with.

But that's probably what you meant when you said there was much more to the film than it just being some empty life-affirming bit of fluff. There's a lot of darkness in Hirayama for sure, and it was a big part of the whole this film was offering. He wouldn't have been a beautiful character without it.

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By Wham! (2023) impawards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74152726

Wham! - (2023)

I knew next to nothing about Wham! before I watched this documentary about the pop duo. It's kind of sad Andrew Ridgeley didn't have the songwriting or singing talent George Michael did (most of the members of most of the pop groups in the world didn't) and so to see him slowly get left behind while George Michael's star grew brighter and brighter left me feeling a lot of sympathy for him. It seems even worse when you watch just how much he accepted that, and was happy for his friend "Yog" - most people in show business would have been furious, and fought the other one until the bitter end. Then, as if this wasn't sad in an "aww" way enough, we see the group's history through the lens of the scrapbooks Andrew's mother made up as her son became a member of one of the biggest music sensations around at the time. Aww. I hope George Michael looked after his friend, and didn't drop him after becoming a member of that exclusive club. Anyway, now I know all about Wham! I wasn't into popular music at the time, but I obviously heard all of their hits - there was no avoiding them. How strange it must feel, becoming famous and meeting famous people. Really fun and enjoyable documentary.

7/10


By C@rtelesmix, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48656858

Oslo, August 31st - (2011)

Recovering drug addict Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) gets a day release from rehab and spends it trying to connect with past friends, revisiting old haunts, having a disastrous job interview and reliving his life up to this point in this confronting film about despair based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's novel Le feu follet. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

8/10

Amazing film. Best in the trilogy.

The Beekeeper - (2024)

Action packed, you hardly get a moment to breath.

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

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023) I watched this today. It's a documentary from Estonia about women in a sauna talking about their lives and experiences. This is a beautiful and compelling film. Highly recommended.

This could easily be the best set of documentaries made about any recent celebrity in recent years; the two feature-length parts are both engrossing and fascinating no matter how much you thought you knew about Martin.

I'll be honest - despite having seen all of his movies, I knew surprisingly little about the comedian's early days and had no idea how incredibly popular his act had become even before he made it to the big screen. And the first part of the documentary traces his roots in exquisite detail, all the way back to his early days working at Disneyland as a young kid - when he still was thinking he wanted to be a magician.

The second part is equally noteworthy because of the considerable output that Martin has produced outside of motion pictures; I'll bet not a lot of people are familiar with his plays, novellas, and other written works. Martin is understandably protective of his daughter (who appears in the film but is "blacked out" with an animated stick figure) and seemingly very happy with family life.

If you appreciate his work as an actor and comedian, this documentary is a must-see.

Popular Theory (2023) Charming and likeable performances from Sophia Reid-Gantzert and Lincoln Lambert are the highlight of this cute and amusing film.

5th Rewatch...Just love this sweet and silly romantic comedy that still provides laugh out loud entertainment. Ben Stiller plays a risk investment analyst named Ruben Pfeffer who is much like his job...buttoned up, tightly wound, germaphobe, unwilling to do anything that's not safe. Ruben marries his longtime girlfriend Lisa (Debra Messing), who has sex with a scuba instructor (Hank Azaria) on their honeymoon, so he leaves her there and soon reconnects with Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), who, of course, is the polar opposite of Ruben...a flaky airheaded slob who runs from anything that even smells of commitment. Stiller and Aniston are great together, but if the truth be told, the film is stolen by the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Ruben's BFF, who made a movie a million years ago and hasn't done anything since and has hired a film crew to film his E True Hollywood Story. Stiller proves to be a master of physical comedy here though, watch him in Polly's bathroom, or when he's learning how to Salsa. Very underrated comedy.

April 2, 2024

CABRINI (2024)
IMMACULATE (2024)

Well, this was certainly one of the most schizoid nights out at the movies I've ever experienced! I swear, though, I did not plan it that way. It just so happened that these were the two most interesting movies playing at my local theater, and I figured that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire would probably have enough staying power that I could wait at least another week. But watching these two movies back to back proved to be quite the... interesting experience. And like I said, more than just a little schizoid.

[in Strother Martin voice] "What we've got here..." are two stories. Both of them have lead characters who are nuns. Both of them are fish out of water. And speaking of water, both characters nearly drowned when they were very young. But beyond that, they could not be more different!

Cabrini was directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, who also directed the controversial Sound of Freedom (which I haven't yet seen). Taking place in 1889, it tells the true story of the Italian Catholic missionary Francesca Xavier Cabrini (movingly and powerfully played by Cristiana Dell'Anna), who is suffering from lung disease and has only been given a few years to live by the doctors of that time, but is nevertheless determined to establish a missionary order in China. Her proposals are rejected by her immediate superiors, so she goes directly to Pope Leo XIII (Giancarlo Giannini), and while he is intrigued and impressed by her ambition he suggests that she start off with something a bit smaller... namely, New York City. The Italian-American immigrant community is living in a state of abject poverty, its people having few opportunities aside from prostitution and petty crime, and with orphaned children inhabiting the sewers. Shocked and appalled by the living conditions, she and her fellow nuns establish an orphanage, and the rest of the story consists of her uphill yet determined struggle to aid the poor and desitute, attempting to establish a new hospital, and battling against the anti-Italian bigotry from people within the New York establishment, among them Mayor Gould (John Lithgow).

While this is the kind of story that could easily be made into something worthy yet boring, Cabrini is anything but. The story is told with simplicity and emotional directness without lapsing into sentimentality, and it almost never steps wrong. One might say that its virtues are "invisible," meaning there's nothing in the storytelling technique to draw attention to itself, but Alejandro Monteverde's direction is quite confident and assured, visually striking at times but not preoccupied with aesthetics purely for aesthetics' sake. I would recommend this one without reservation to anyone, and I don't think they'll be disappointed.

Immaculate, on the other hand... Before watching the movie, I was imagining that this would represent some sort of halfway house between the recent The Nun II and the upcoming The First Omen. But it's actually a bit different from the usual run-of-the-mill contemporary satanic franchise horror. It has much more in common with the "body horror" subgenre, with a sci-fi cloning element. Stylistically, it's something of a weird throwback to '70s horror, but not in any overtly obvious way. It actually reminds me a little bit of Dario Argento's original 1977 Suspiria, with its American heroine abroad in Europe. That heroine is Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a very young nun who has been invited to Italy to work in a convent which specializing in tending to the needs of elderly nuns in their final days. She starts noticing very odd occurrences in the convent, and eventually she discovers that she is pregnant - even though she is a virgin. Everybody starts to treat this as some sort of divine miracle, but everything is not as it seems and there are sinister machinations afoot! As I stated before, the movie kind of reminds me of Dario Argento, but the story kind of feels more like Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby filtered through the fractured-fairytale sensibility of Argento's supernaturally-themed work. Things get seriously bloody in this film, as well. It is what they call a "Hard R," truly not for the squeamish. The climax of the film, with Cecilia making her ultimate escape and finally giving birth, feels like a throwback to the heyday of Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven at their most ruthless.

Ultimately, however... Immaculate is not even half as good as any of the aforementioned horror classics. That's certainly no sin in and of itself. Anything half as good as Rosemary's Baby or Suspiria would still have to be pretty good. It's certainly quite eccentric in certain places, with a particularly amusing music cue (courtesy of Will Bates) playing during a montage of Cecilia learning the ropes and gradually getting into the day-to-day routine of the convent. The movie has a truly offbeat and off-kilter mixture of brutal horror with a somewhat warped sense of humor that mercifully avoids sliding into self-referential camp. (It's also got what is probably one of the funniest uses of the expression "Godd----t!" in a horror film.) Would I recommend it? Well, sure... But don't expect the next religious horror classic. Provided you've got a strong stomach and modest expectations, and if you're a fan of the genre, you'll probably find it reasonably entertaining.

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"Well, it's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid" - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)

"I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours" - Bob Dylan, Talkin' World War III Blues (1963)

Imaginary - 6/10

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By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2408243.../?ref_=tt_md_3, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74859164

20 Days in Mariupol - (2023)

For those about to watch 20 Days in Mariupol, make sure you're ready to feel extreme pain. One of the most unbearable things to sit and watch is parents grieving over the death of their children, especially after they race in to a hospital emergency department with their wounded baby in their arms. The professionalism of Mstyslav Chernov, and his bravery, are simply up to a standard that deserves international recognition of the highest order. To film from within Mariupol with the Russian army closing in during a siege is terrifying, and hope-draining. What is this war in aid of? Nobody can say. It seems utterly pointless. It seems, like all unjust wars, that it's for the benefit of one man. This documentary is relentless, and an effort I commend wholeheartedly.

9/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74859164

The League - (2023)

My interest in baseball is peripheral, and close to zero - but I am interested in the history of integration in the United States - and I am determined to watch all of the documentary nominations in this years MOFO FILM AWARDS so I can vote in an absolutely fair manner. Make sure you peek in and vote - get the movies you want to win up there. You need not have nominated, or seen every film. Anyway, this documentary kind of went forward in a very conventional style - so while it was interesting that fact along with it being about baseball made it so-so for me personally.

6/10


By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073722/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28285572

Smile - (1975)

A very intelligent, clever and incisive satire of beauty pageants that takes a close look at American culture and values much as a Robert Altman film would. Was very impressed with this. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

8/10

Girls State (2024) This is available now to stream on Apple tv+. I watched it today. Some really effective moments and I thought the girls were very interesting. I liked this one a bit more than Boys State.

I loved this documentary. The cover photo of the poor woman whose hip is shattered & her unborn baby dead is horrendous. (She later died.)

In WWII hospitals were generally left alone. Seeing the Red Cross was sufficient protection. No longer the case in Ukraine and Gaza & wherever else there is a war. Anything goes now.

The world is going bonkers.

Not bad. Sissy very lovely.