Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Tools    





Un tranquillo posto di campagna (1968)
aka A Quiet Place in the Country

I spotted this one in another thread and gave the Youtube copy a whirl. It definitely wasn't the Giallo the other thread suggested, but something between psychological thriller and gothic ghost story. It's a bit incohesive and even dull at times. I don't know if I liked Franco Nero or not either - he's not very good at showing the more fragile side of the tormented artist, but he's great as a cold-eyed psychopath. Not bad but disappointing.
__________________





The American Soldier, 1970

Ricky (Karl Scheydt) is an American-German Vietnam War veteran who returns to his hometown where three police officers, under pressure from their boss, hire him to assassinate various local criminals. Along the way he also develops a relationship with Rosa (Elga Sorbas), the girlfriend of one of the police officers.

This is a weird take on a noir-type plot, and it was very hit-or-miss for me, though I really enjoyed some parts of it. I also have the feeling that I watched some part of this film at some point, because there was one scene that I remembered. Since I didn't remember like 98% of it, I am considering it a new watch.

It might be easiest to begin with what doesn't really work, which for me was mostly when the film hit stilted or lull points that didn't feel entirely intentional. At times there is an awkwardness to the film or the line deliveries that work well with the off-kilter vibe. But in other moments it felt like it dragged a bit. There's also very little character development, and the main character isn't enough of a stoic enigma to really grip my interest.

But what did work for me was the way that the film delved into stories just adjacent to the main plot. A brief sidepan in the police station to a woman telling her lover that she is pregnant. Later, as Ricky and Rosa fall into bed together, a forlorn hotel worker who has a crush on Ricky sits at the foot of their bed and delivers a monologue. Even later there is a scene where
WARNING: spoilers below
the same hotel worker is distraught over a phone call with her lover and stabs herself in the stomach as an indifferent Ricky and confused Rosa walk by in the hallway
.

It's also well, well worth mentioning that the monologue delivered by the hotel worker sounded familiar because, to a certain point, it is the plot of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul!!

This is one of those films that I was fine with watching and enjoyed in parts, but was ready for it to be done about 10 minutes from the end.








I Vitelloni - This is the sixth Federico Fellini film I've seen and I'd place it right up there with his best works. At least I ended up liking it much more the further along it went. I looked for the definition or English translation of the title and it means anything from the "layabouts" to the "young bulls" to the "slackers". All of which pretty much captures the five young men the story focuses on. Fausto, Moraldo, Alberto, Riccardo and Leopoldo are longtime friends aimlessly going through life in a small coastal Italian town. Fausto is the ringleader and an unabashed womanizer. He impregnates Moraldo's sister Sandra and is forced to marry her. Moraldo is the quiet one in the group and spends his time dreaming of a life away from his oppressive and humdrum existence. Alberto is the clown and is dependent on his mother and kind hearted sister to finance his daily indulgences. Riccardo is a singer with half formed aspirations of fame and success. Leopoldo is a wannabe playwright, perpetually at work on his magnum opus. They're all unformed to varying degrees with no real aspirations and the movie is an episodic narrative of them at a specific and pivotal point in their lives.

I may be dead wrong but even though Moraldo is the reasonable choice to be the director's proxy I think Fellini intended all five of the young men to represent some part of himself before he became the person we all know him as. This movie sort of sneaks up on you so that by the end you somehow come to care about these flawed yet still sympathetic characters. That's what makes this such an emblematic Fellini project.




Ah, Takoma has the Fassbinder bug.



About time an old RTer took a dive in.
It is one of the weirder artist/art experiences.

As with Varda last year, I am enjoying watching several films in a row and seeing the stylistic and thematic patterns that are emerging.

I'm not sure I've ever seen such overt angst on screen that at the same time is so technically and beautifully portrayed.



Victim of The Night
Friday the 13th Part II


(Film experience actually comes with all the accessories seen here.)

Format Viewed: VHS

Rating: "Campy"

I got to say. Viewing any of the films from this franchise on any other format other than VHS would be horrid. The terrible quality of VHS only complements the terrible quality of these films. It's like when two negative numbers equal a positive, it's a satisfying feeling.

Same Rules Apply with Howard the Duck.

But to the review:

What do you want me to say? Even Siskel and Ebert didn't really seriously review this film, and nor should anyone. These films are trash. They were cheaply made to make modest return on investment. That's, (mostly), it. It's the same schtick through most of them, "Is it the killer? NOPE faux spook, everyone has a laugh until it isn't and then scream, kill, knife, blah blah blah. Is the end of the film??? What until... Friday after Next in which a former rapper is in the hockey mask." ... chi iii ah ah ahhh.
Hmm. I have a different take on this film. I find it different from all the other ones in the series, grittier and scarier, and I found myself really caring about and pulling for the Final Girl. I've watched this dozens of times in my life.
I don't compare it to a lot of slashers because, even though this is the second one in the franchise, this is still pretty early in the nascent genre and a lot of these films still had teeth, including this one IMO.
I have watched S&E's review of it on YouTube and I just think they got this one wrong because of bias from the first one.



We Don't Deserve Dogs (2020) - 7/10.
The Marksman (2021) - 6/10.
Liam Neeson still proves that "he can" even though the movie's theme is not entirely new.



LOLITA--I started watching it this morning on TCM. I almost stayed home to watch it again. I always see something new in it. This time I noticed how sweeping romantic music was used to underscore Humbert's notion about himself and his feelings; just as Nabokov uses a similar romanticism when presenting Humbert's voice in the novel. Sorry I had to go to work.



It is one of the weirder artist/art experiences.

As with Varda last year, I am enjoying watching several films in a row and seeing the stylistic and thematic patterns that are emerging.

I'm not sure I've ever seen such overt angst on screen that at the same time is so technically and beautifully portrayed.

He is a filmmaker that can both completely embrace how beautiful the artificiality of cinema can be, but at the same time, his films always seem in a state of pure emotion, volatile to the point all of that passion and angst and violence may at any moment break through the staid surface.



He is a singular director. Always in state of change, yet always identifiable. Even with the handful of dogs he has in his filmography, they don't tarnish anything for me. As he has famously stated, he looks at his films all as being pieces of a home. Some are windows, others are doors, some are the plumbing, others the furnishings we put inside. Thinking this way, and accepting some of his movies are going to be more fun to contemplate than others, its comforting to think that together they build a place he could stay safely inside. Considering the painful vulnerability of his movies, he obviously needed it.





A very unassuming little indie movie. Very basic storyline with 3 excellent leads. It was quiet, but rather good.



Re-watch. Never could see why this movie was so acclaimed & I feel the same way now. . Pleasant enough rom-com though & the 2 leads are very good.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



Port of Shadows (1938)

-


This is a French romantic crime film that appears on the 30's list. Jean Gabin stars and he's become one of my favorite old time actors. It's an easy watch at less than 90 minutes long with good atmosphere and direction. The villains could have been more menacing but it's a good film.



LOLITA--I started watching it this morning on TCM. I almost stayed home to watch it again. I always see something new in it. This time I noticed how sweeping romantic music was used to underscore Humbert's notion about himself and his feelings; just as Nabokov uses a similar romanticism when presenting Humbert's voice in the novel. Sorry I had to go to work.
Presumably you're referring to the 1962 film. I agree with your comments. It was a fairly shocking film for '62, and James Mason was gutsy for playing Humbert in that era.

I haven't seen the 1997 version with Jeremy Irons, although I really admire him as an actor.



Sugar Daddy 2020

This one is relatively new.... it doesn't have a high rating on IMDB, but I would disagree and rate it as a 6 or 7/10, just for the Kelly McCormack's freshness and for director Wendy Morgan - touching this "sensitive" subject again
__________________
“Everyone should believe in something. I believe I will have another coffee...”
― Unknown



The signal (2014)

2/5 I guess they thought if they got Laurence Fishburne they could make a mind melter like The Matrix.

I didn't think the first half of the movie was that bad had me intrigued acting was pretty good and it went south so fast lol. Feels like they had a vague idea for a ending and just couldnt figure out how to get there, flimsy writing.





A very unassuming little indie movie. Very basic storyline with 3 excellent leads. It was quiet, but rather good.



Re-watch. Never could see why this movie was so acclaimed & I feel the same way now. . Pleasant enough rom-com though & the 2 leads are very good.
ahh i need to rewatch this movie one of my favorites from the 80s!!



Hmm. I have a different take on this film. I find it different from all the other ones in the series, grittier and scarier, and I found myself really caring about and pulling for the Final Girl. I've watched this dozens of times in my life.
I don't compare it to a lot of slashers because, even though this is the second one in the franchise, this is still pretty early in the nascent genre and a lot of these films still had teeth, including this one IMO.
I have watched S&E's review of it on YouTube and I just think they got this one wrong because of bias from the first one.
I was making a joke...

... I enjoyed my experience with this film too...
... but I don't see need to take it too seriously as the film itself doesn't take itself too seriously...

... we could have a serious discussion on the merits of Friday the 13th Part II and try to come to some objective aesthetic grounds of worth...
... but again I don't think it's worth my time... or yours...
... I think it's better left at "It's a 'campy' movie. Enjoyed myself for what it was, but moving beside that I'm moving on..."
__________________
Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?

-Stan Brakhage



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Cosmoball (Dzhanik Fayziev, 2020)
+ 5/10
Paris Honeymoon (Frank Tuttle, 1939)
5.5/10
Two Distant Strangers (Travon Free & Martin Desmond Roe, 2020)
6.5/10
Valley of Souls (Nicolás Rincón Gille, 2019)
6/10

Gorgeous widescreen photography and a powerful performance by José Arley de Jesús Carvallido Lobo highlight this overlong account of a fisherman trying to find his sons' bodies which were dumped in a river by a Colombian paramilitary group.
The Star Maker (Roy Del Ruth, 1939)
6/10
Cuatro paredes AKA Four Walls (Matthew Porterfield, 2021)
5/10
Duffy's Tavern (Hal Walker, 1945)
+ 6/10
Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis, 1995)
6.5/10

Two lost souls (man trying to literally drink himself to death Nicholas Cage and whore Elisabeth Shue) find a few minutes of true love.
The Hell-Fated Courtesan (Noboru Tanaka, 1973)
5/10
The Return (Malene Choi, 2018)
6/10
T11 Incomplete (Suzanne Guacci, 2020)
5/10
Night in Paradise (Park Hoon-jung, 2020)
6/10

Occasionally exciting and lyrical thriller is just way too long.
Spring Parade (Henry Koster, 1940)
6/10
Cold Blooded Killers AKA Killer Rose (Rickey Bird Jr., 2021)
4+/10
Red, Hot and Blue (John Farrow, 1949)
6/10
Lies My Father Told Me (Jan Kadar, 1975)
8/10

Lovely, intense, funny coming-of-age tale of Jeffrey Lynas learning from his grandfather Yossi Yadin in 1920s Montreal.
Paper Lives (Can Ulkay, 2021)
6/10
The Black Doll (Otis Garrett, 1934)
5/10
City of Lies (Brad Furman, 2018)
6/10
One Night in Miami... (Regina King, 2020)
- 7/10 Second Viewing

On February 25, 1964, Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) get together to talk about their friendship and the state of their world.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page