Rate the last movie you've seen

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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#41

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Pickpocket - My first Bresson film. The first thing that struck me about it was how it reminded me of Camus' The Stranger, both in tone and plot. The protagonists goes through each in a strange emotionless way, as if their actions are outside of their control. It causes me to not necessarily empathize with them as characters, but rather I had the feeling that I was watching them. And in the end, when they finally facing the fate they couldn't help but make for themselves, they have a single outburst. Pickpocket's is particularly famous, and I can see why. It almost made me want to rewatch the film in light of it. Despite Bresson's desire for unperformancelike performances from his actors, I really liked Martin LaSalle as the main character Michel, he projects a sense of innocence that perhaps does not make him an enduring protagonist due to Bresson's style, but makes his actions in the film all the more interesting. Despite appreciating it's qualities as a film, and being a fan of the sort of stripped back approach it has in common with directors that I love, like Ozu for example, I wasn't super enamored with it and only rate it 7/10 with regards to personal enjoyment. But I do suspect I'll find something else of his I like more.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#42

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American Sniper- Holy cow was this movie intense. It's definitely not a pro-war propaganda-esque he-man war film. Clint Eastwood knows how to make a great film. I think it's a better depiction of PTSD and how war becomes something like a drug to some soldiers than The Hurt Locker. Hands down a great movie. Not sure how I'd rate it on my scale yet, but definitely great.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#43

Post by RadicalFuzz »

I work at a Studio Movie Grill, so I'm gonna be in here a lot, disclaimer.

Saw the Scorch Trials. Was really impressed with the first Maze Runner movie, so I had moderately high hopes for this one. It didn't disappoint, but it didn't blow me out of the water. A few scenes the main character would stand around shining his light at the approaching enemies for like 10 seconds, and it felt like the character in the movie was only doing that to give the audience a better camera shot, which is a bit annoying. Really good length at 130 minutes, and there's not very much "filler" where you feel your time is wasted, so that's a big plus. On a scale of 1-10, with 5 being average, I'd give it a 7. Not gonna be a movie I remember 10 years and strive to watch again, but it's a well-made movie.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#44

Post by a2thezebra »

The Walk - 8/10

Great film that flows beautifully and spends just the right amount of time with every scene and each character. The ending, not just the walk (that goes without saying), but the end of the monologue that flows through the film's entirety, is especially powerful.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#45

Post by Ricochet »

Oh, hey, I like watching movies!

I was worried that, at only 44 posts, this thread doesn't have enough Mongoose in it, but then I checked the first page and the ratio is still pretty alright. :biggrin:

I watched these movies last week:

Bergman's Winter Light (I should learn by heart its original name: Nattvardsgasterna). Piss-poor job I did to really focus on watching this, so a rewatch is compulsory, nonetheless there were gripping scenes even for such a superficial viewing. Seems intimate, profound and classic Bergman.

Avengers. Age of Ultron. Ugh, can it really be called bad? Thing is, I watched it for purposes of munching popcorn and tortilla chips, and even then the entertainment value felt pretty flat. The cast keeps expanding and the latest additions didn't impress me much. This particular franchise feels like it's about to explode completely out of proportions and lose any sense of direction. Meh/10

The Tribe or Plemya. Dangerously good movie, in its gimmick, realism and formalism - it's completely in sign language (and as far as I understand, Ukrainian sign language is pretty distinct on its own), with no subtitles, no nothing, so basically it's bound to redefine what watching a movie is supposed to mean!! - however I'm ultimately disappointed in the approach to the story: miserabilism, fairly hardcore violence and scenes, probably some moral deep within about inherent human cruelty, anyway stuff that should send chills down your spine, but also feeling ugly and shocking for the sake of ugliness and shock and quite exploitative. 6/10

One night Denis Villeneuve's Enemy was on TV and I didn't object to not change the channel and seeing it again. One of my favourite movies of 2013. Not only a good, if unsophisticated adaptation of Saramago's The Double, but also adding some new psychological extra details on its own. It's bleak, introverted and abstract, but for me it still works. With Villeneuve's oeuvre (Incendies, Prisoners, this one) now enrichened with Sicario, I'm starting to feel he can become one of my favourite current directors. 7/10

Stop Making Sense. Tina 10/10. Cool stuff otherwise, especially the Psycho Killer number.

Audition - wat. I was surprisingly less spooked or disturbed by the last 30 minutes (in a horror-shit-my-pants manner or anything) and it was still a bloody weird and near incomprehensible experience. The build up to all that is good, if only very slow and with several scenes feeling really hasty B-movie shlock-like (I mean, this is considered to be his masterpiece and the guy still made 4 or 5 more movies in that same year!). Anyway, I have no idea what I think of this / 10

Third Person (on TV) - oh god this pissed me off big time. First of all, Paul Haggis (Crash), the Oscar winner one) is completely obsessed with multi-story plots and filmmaking (he did the same in this year's Show Me a Hero TV series, which was ok). The film is pretty bland and soapy on its own, but then it lands a "tweeest" that I was stupid enough not to figure out from the freaking title of the movie, but it still made me go berserk when it happened. Seriously, bad feels. 3/10

----

BTW, I have a group on FB for discussing movies, currently dead because nobody cares. But if any of you would like to join and liven it up a bit, lemme know. :beer:
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#46

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The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel- Not quite as good as the original but it had me laughing pretty regularly. Maggie Smith and Dev Patel get all the best lines even though Judi Dench is sort of the film's anchor role. I'm usually not a Richard Gere fan but he was fine in his supporting role. The film doesn't do anything too outlandish, which is good. It's fun, thoughtful, and enjoyable. Just like the first one, this is a good date night kind of movie.

On my rating scale, I give a 3.5 out of 5
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#47

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Hotel Transylvania 2 was better-ish than I expected. I haven't seen the first one, but with the amount of alcohol I've had to run to showings I assumed it was bad. There were a few pretty funny parts but I was kinda disappointed by how the ending was handled. They build up a character the entire movie only for him to have a few lines and have literally less effect on the overall story than his henchmen.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#48

Post by RadicalFuzz »

Martian was pretty good. Lots of the monologues felt appropriate, he would be creating a video log as opposed to just talking to himself, and the movie wasn't bogged down with crazy amounts of "I'm the only man on Mars dear god why" depression. A few characters were introduced by name for the five minutes they affected the story and then promptly forgotten about. The characters the movie spends time on, however, feel pretty complete. Really solid, you feel empathy for Damon, and that's what sells the movie.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#49

Post by Dragon D. Luffy »

I went to watch Pan in the movies a few days ago. The film had terrible reviews and the premise sounded stupid, so I went with zero expectations. What I can say is... it's not that bad.

Well, it's incredibly cliche. Some of the actors are clearly in the wrong movie. The plot has multiple flaws. But the action scenes are pretty damn cool. I gotta give it, a battle between Luftwaffe and a Flying Pirate Ship was something I needed in my life and did not know. The final battle is also pretty cool. And though it has some bad acting, the acting for Cap. Hook and Blackbeard are pretty good, specially the later. The guy is incredibly hammy, and in a good way.

So 5/10, because it managed to entertain me, and I wasn't expecting anything more than that. Go watch it if you need some cheap fun.

Later on I watched Divergent at home. Based on a book series for young adults about a dystopia, which seems to be all the rage nowadays. Well, I actually liked the movie. Most of it. The plot is good, albeit very unrealistic, but it's original. Most of the acting is okay (the main character and the villain, mostly). My main problem with it is that the plot takes too long to start rolling. Like, WAY too long. The first act takes over half of the movie. It starts well, but at some point you just wish those characters stopped training and SOMETHING started happening. The second act is good but everything happens incredibly fast. And then we are at the third act which is the best part of the movie.

Compared to Hunger Games, I like the first HG movie a lot more. But Hunger Games, in subsequent films, quickly deteriorated into a story about one of the most useless protagonists I've ever seen. Divergent actually has a protagonist that shows she can quick ass, and she can do that even if there is no survival game going on. I actually have faith for the other movies in the series even though there some bad reviews.

So 7/10.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#50

Post by nutella »

RadicalFuzz wrote:Martian was pretty good. Lots of the monologues felt appropriate, he would be creating a video log as opposed to just talking to himself, and the movie wasn't bogged down with crazy amounts of "I'm the only man on Mars dear god why" depression. A few characters were introduced by name for the five minutes they affected the story and then promptly forgotten about. The characters the movie spends time on, however, feel pretty complete. Really solid, you feel empathy for Damon, and that's what sells the movie.
I loved The Martian. I had read the book, which was quite good, and the movie was totally true to it and brought the story to life in a terrifying, awe-inspiring way that brought me to tears more than once. Definitely recommend it.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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Ricochet wrote: Bergman's Winter Light (I should learn by heart its original name: Nattvardsgasterna). Piss-poor job I did to really focus on watching this, so a rewatch is compulsory, nonetheless there were gripping scenes even for such a superficial viewing. Seems intimate, profound and classic Bergman.

BTW, I have a group on FB for discussing movies, currently dead because nobody cares. But if any of you would like to join and liven it up a bit, lemme know. :beer:
Winter Light is my second favorite Bergman film of the ones I've seen right after Fanny and Alexander. Also I am down to join that FB group of yours.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#52

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Winter Light is possibly my favorite Bergman so far, although I've yet to watch Fanny and Alexander. Something about it really clicked with me.

Also I've added you to the group already.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#53

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A Person wrote: Also I've added you to the group already.
?
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#54

Post by nutella »

I went to see Crimson Peak the other night and it was quite good. Lots of cool visual motifs and stuff, excellent Victorian gothic aesthetic. I'd recommend it as long as you're okay with blood/gore/ghosts/creepy stuff (there weren't really jump scares, just some more generally disturbing things). I'm really not big on horror but this was an impressive piece of cinema.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#55

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I watched a lot of movies the past month, except I've been lazy to write anything about them. In fact, I can almost say I binged French cinema this November - starting with a local screening of this year's Palme D'Or winner, Dheepan; then there was a French Film Festival, at which I barely managed to go see two movies, but which inspired me to search for myself afterwards as many of the screened titles as possible.

There's really a lot of them, so I'll just put them in a spoiler tab:
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-- Now, as far as Dheepan is concerned, I went in with the expectations of it being a baitwin, considering the immigrants crisis situation (although I don't remember if said crisis boomed that much in Europe at the time of the Cannes awards) and, in this regard, my expectations were exceeded. This is a pretty solid social drama, although at the end it feels like it falls and breaks its note with an action-esque finale (think of the single-shot sequence towards the end of Children of Men).

-- At the Festival, I managed to see an adventurous-in-concept, but not very well executed futuristic satire called Gaz de France and a coming-of-age drama made by actress Melanie Laurent (the girl from Inglorious Basterds, if the reference helps), called Respire, quite melodramatic but also pertinent on the subject of friendships going south, self-destructive teenage behaviour and introvert emotional pressure, until the very last two or three minutes of the movie fell under a very annoying "sudden tweest" cliche.

Then at home, I enjoyed (or not) the following:

-- Une nouvelle amie (or The New Girlfriend), the most recent Francois Ozon movie - a hip & trendy current director that's not easy to describe, but he's mostly risky and creative and yet almost totally within cinematic normal boundaries (I liked his previous Dans le maison, hated his previous Jeune & Jolie and I only remember boobs from his otherwise fairly suspenseful earlier Swimming Pool). This one felt like an equally edgy, if also flimsy comedy. I enjoyed it.

-- Geronimo, a movie I watched half a month ago and totally forgot since. Ghetto tales, sort of. In fact, weirdly enough, perhaps a kind of Romeo & Juliet focusing more on the two rival families fighting each other - and with a female Mercutio-like protagonist that falls in the middle of this entire conflict. Idk the viewing didn't do much. That's... actually more words I managed to come up with for a movie I just said I totally forgot about, wow.

-- La chambre bleue, a new adaptation of a modern novel made by Mathieu Amalric (Bond villain from Boredom of Solace, if the reference helps; better yet, guy from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Pretty lean whodunit thriller, but again not much stuck in my head afterwards.

-- L'Etrangleur (The Strangler]), a 70s movie by Paul Vecchiali, this month's movie for me in which I did a piss poor job actually watching it. Some of it was interesting, with hints of Bresson-like repressed-acting-style, so I may do good by watching it a second time.

-- Love. Gaspar Noe's latest. It's shit. Actually, it's harmless shit, which kinda makes it worse. The acting is amateur forced nonsense and the sex is... well, abundant.

-- Bande de filles (also known as Girlhood, which abroad drew unnecessary parallels to Boyhood), another coming-of-age-under-ghetto-rules movie, but with stronger touches. Liked it.

-- Eden, pretty enjoyable drama based on the French touch & garage house trend in the 90s, therefore combined with lots of musical quotes and moments. Wait a minute, this director (Mia Hansen-Love) previously made a romantic movie I actually liked! (Goodbye First Love)

-- Hippocrate something something medical drama focusing on ethical issues and work tensions. Commendable, but hardly more interesting, on a technical and drammatic level, than any TV series episode.

-- J'ai pas sommeil, early movie by Claire Denis. Edgy, dark and sort of inaesthetic-like, but somehow it didn't move me, really.

-- La ceremonie by Claude Chabrol. Probably my favourite non-Godard (I'll get to those in a minute) movie from this bunch. Tense and borderline creepy thriller, with excellent performances from the lead actresses.

-- L'homme qu'on aimait trop (or In The Name of My Daughter) by Andre Techine. Something something drama thriller. Really generic.

-- Une place sur la terre (or A Place on Earth), about two unhappy souls connecting (although one of them is actually pushing for a connection more than the other). Unremarkable in style and some off-putting acting, which makes me downgrade it a bit to being irked by the whole melodrama.

-- Vivement dimanche, Truffaut's last film. Keeping it black & white, quirky & light on its feet and... quite Hitchcockian? The plot thickened a bit too much halfway through, but I still enjoyed Fanny Ardant's performance in particular.

-- And two Godards. Vivre sa vie, which I absolutely loved - cold, detached (brechtian) storytelling, drops of cinema verite, his usual cardboard cues and cuts, and yet a heartfelt and simple drama within this entire mix. Right now, probably my second favourite Godard movie, next to Week end. /// Also, Alphaville, which is even more Godardian in its mix of oddity, creative elements and visual cues, deadpan plot, (borderline bullsuit) philosophising etc, but which also left a good impression. Hell, it could actually rank quite high up the classic dystopian movies lists for me.
And somehow I managed even move movies, of the not-French type, in between the French type ones:
Spoiler: show

-- Il racconto dei racconti (Tale of Tales) a stupid and bloated fantasy squeeze-three-fairy-tales-into-one-flick movie from Matteo Garrone (who used to do a lot better in the past - Gomorra, Reality - but apparently lost it).

-- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Batshit 70s trippy stuff. (Old) Psychedelic (European) movies don't actually do very well in my book. I hated Sedmikrásky (Daisies), for instance.

-- What If, surprisingly borderline acceptable (read: not making me barf) quirk rom-com (starring Harry Potter in his eternal quest to de-Potter-ify himself and Zoe Kazan), although, yeah, not gonna work a second time.

-- 3 (or Drei or Three), by Tom Tykwer, surprisingly tucked between the fails that were The International and Cloud Atlas. Not bad, but very unbalanced between situational comedy and emotional drama.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#56

Post by Ricochet »

I wrote for an hour and a half about some new movies I watched, after which I clicked submit and suddenly I wasn't logged anymore WTF. So I'm going to go cry and sleep now. The movies were:

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
The End of the Tour
Mississippi Grind
The Stanford Prison Experiment
Huo Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice (Offret)! This is my fourth Tarkovsky after seeing Solaris, Stalker, and Andrei Rublev roughly a year ago and not being able to look past what I felt were fatal flaws in each of them. This is the first Tarkovsky film I've seen where I was completely immersed by the film from beginning to end, and the characters actually feel like real characters rather than mouthpieces for Tarkovsky's own monologues. The cinematography is masterful because of course it is (Sven Nykvist + Tarkovsky, you can't go wrong) and the acting is fantastic as well, Allan Edwall especially never fails to blow my damn mind. I'll have to rewatch it before I'm certain that I love it, but after one viewing I can't think of any issues I had with it, even of the nitpicking variety. 9 out of 10!
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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I've only seen Andrey Rublev, because I'm too much of a scaredy-cat to ready myself for serious Tarkovsky viewings. Then again, I might be overestimating the guy. Lem enthusiasts like to remind me from time to time that what he did to Solaris was a bit of a travesty. Rublev however was a 9/10 for me, the last fragment being one of the best things I've ever seen. What was its "fatal flaw" for you? - feel free to use spoilers.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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First I have to say regarding Solaris, Tarkovsky himself expressed disappointment with that film not because it wasn't faithful to the novel, but because it was too confined within the science fiction genre. My issue with it is not that it wasn't faithful (I think adaptations are more likely to fail when they are too faithful than when they betray the material they're adapting) or that it was confined to a single genre, but that it didn't seize any of the opportunities within the narrative. Once the audience leaves Earth, the film immediately loses the immersive power of the first act and never finds it again. That is Solaris' fatal flaw.

For Andrei Rublev, part of what hindered my enjoyment might have been that I saw it on TCM with a very weak and murky print, but ultimately my issue with it was the pacing. Unlike Solaris, I thought there were many great moments and sequences in Andrei Rublev spread out over the course of the runtime (the ending being one of them although it doesn't have the profound effect on me that it does many others) but I also felt that the narrative unravels in such a way where I never felt that I was given a reason to care about what was happening. In other words, the fatal flaw for me was that the parts were greater than the sum, rather than the other way around as I think it should be.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#60

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This week in I Watched Movies:


I watched a few Japanese (mostly old) movies on my own, plus the awards season kicked in, so I watched some new movies with my folks as well. Spoilers: the new ones are shit compared to the old ones.

Mizoguchi Kenji's Ugetsu monogatari (I don't know if it has an English title). Loved this one. Mizoguchi apparently wanted it to be a post-war reflection or allegory on the oppressive nature of war, but I perceived it as a simpler he-who-desires-too-much fable. Well acted, no dragging tempi whatsoever, spellbinding classic and surreal elements.

Ozu's Tokyo Chorus, one of his 30s silent films, dealing with depression-time Tokyo at a more basic and intimate level. Again, the acting (traditional, restrained, presumably well-rehearsed under da man's indications) was a very pleasant surprise (making by comparison most of the expressionist German silent actors look high on drugs). Simple, pleasant viewing. My only gripe was probably the ceaseless, redundant upright piano music.

Imamura Shohei's The Ballad of Narayama, which won the Palme d'Or in 1983. Wow, this one is intriguing to say the least and might prove an acquired taste, without even pushing the envelope too much. It focuses on rural traditions, relationships or unwritten bonds between humans and nature, in such a fashion that tempts words like "naturalistic" and uncompromising - a boiling mix of coarse acting, eery human-nature interspersed imagery and dark folk vibes. Most of the movie is intense and sprawling, but then it leads to a final 30-minute-or-so mostly wordless marvel that one just has to watch for himself.

The Woman in the Dunes. Read the book some years ago, which, to my current surprise, made me envision everything in it in a much more claustrophobic and bleaker way than the adaptation chooses to (although it's no less gripping itself). Abe's novel is absolutely haunting and the movie should fairly achieve the same effect. The copy I have looks pretty rough and aged, so I can't fully appreciate the stylistical choices, but for instance it almost seems to experiment with near pitch black lighting and such; also noteworthy is Takemitsu's great composing. That being said, as far as I remember the novel's content, this looks like a pretty strict cinematic transposition of it (Abe wrote the screenplay too, so it hardly deviates or leaves anything significant out).

---- Intermission ----

Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Wow, does this guy know how to crash and burn his own creations. To some extent, this started pretty well, even striving to rank as perhaps his least obnoxious and gaga pastiche of his recent ones (Basterds and Django), with manic dialogue and humor and what I would single out as a ballistic performance from Jennifer Jason Leigh (SLJ and Russell pretty much play out like in the trailer). Then the juvenile son of a gun inside QT takes over, leading to the worst kind of narrative solutions or quirks and messy, over-the-top resolutions which you've really seen a dozen times already from him. Any political underscore or visual greatness that this movie might boast can frankly go back up his butt, the way QT botches it, because I sure ain't giving no fucks.

Also on the subject of breathtakingly shot, blood-soaked epic movies with not much else underneath such layers, Inarritu's The Revenant. Now, he must have felt in the greatest shape after Birdman, yet I feel he should have mulled over a little longer on this one or maybe skip it altogether, because it's probably his first movie that reveals to me his limitations and grandeur air. He borrows Lubezki's staggering cinematography from Birdman, but also goes back to the basic, unrelenting bleakness of his earlier movies (such as Biutiful). He also emulates a lot of Herzog and Malick, but frankly he comes out looking like a fool out of it. Some sequences are downright incredible, no doubt (yes, the bear one is among those), still the flow of the movie is terribly choppy and episodic, to the point where I couldn't connect with any side of the story or focus on the whole experience anymore. Plus, if one would read the actual version of the events (or rather myth), there's even a chance of being disappointed by the changes Inarritu decided upon, because they're downright simplistic. DiCaprio's performance is incredibly physical and involved, but even with all this supreme effort (yes, I am acknowledging the what-must-a-Leo-do-to-get-an-Oscar meme), I still wouldn't call it the winning ticket of his career.

Finally, Bridge of Spies. By the book Spielbergian flick, to the point I can't even be bothered to say if it looks like another solid movie of his or one in which he can't step out of his element one bit. It really has all the clichees in it: epic length; noble heroic central figure; underlining morals (falling flat); crunchy imposing serious dialogue; exposition, foreshadowing, slowburn and/or juxtaposition of storylines.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#61

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a2thezebra wrote:First I have to say regarding Solaris, Tarkovsky himself expressed disappointment with that film not because it wasn't faithful to the novel, but because it was too confined within the science fiction genre. My issue with it is not that it wasn't faithful (I think adaptations are more likely to fail when they are too faithful than when they betray the material they're adapting) or that it was confined to a single genre, but that it didn't seize any of the opportunities within the narrative. Once the audience leaves Earth, the film immediately loses the immersive power of the first act and never finds it again. That is Solaris' fatal flaw.

For Andrei Rublev, part of what hindered my enjoyment might have been that I saw it on TCM with a very weak and murky print, but ultimately my issue with it was the pacing. Unlike Solaris, I thought there were many great moments and sequences in Andrei Rublev spread out over the course of the runtime (the ending being one of them although it doesn't have the profound effect on me that it does many others) but I also felt that the narrative unravels in such a way where I never felt that I was given a reason to care about what was happening. In other words, the fatal flaw for me was that the parts were greater than the sum, rather than the other way around as I think it should be.
What about Stalker? Also, might I suggest Nostalghia?
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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A Person wrote:
a2thezebra wrote:First I have to say regarding Solaris, Tarkovsky himself expressed disappointment with that film not because it wasn't faithful to the novel, but because it was too confined within the science fiction genre. My issue with it is not that it wasn't faithful (I think adaptations are more likely to fail when they are too faithful than when they betray the material they're adapting) or that it was confined to a single genre, but that it didn't seize any of the opportunities within the narrative. Once the audience leaves Earth, the film immediately loses the immersive power of the first act and never finds it again. That is Solaris' fatal flaw.

For Andrei Rublev, part of what hindered my enjoyment might have been that I saw it on TCM with a very weak and murky print, but ultimately my issue with it was the pacing. Unlike Solaris, I thought there were many great moments and sequences in Andrei Rublev spread out over the course of the runtime (the ending being one of them although it doesn't have the profound effect on me that it does many others) but I also felt that the narrative unravels in such a way where I never felt that I was given a reason to care about what was happening. In other words, the fatal flaw for me was that the parts were greater than the sum, rather than the other way around as I think it should be.
What about Stalker? Also, might I suggest Nostalghia?
It's funny that I hadn't seen this post until just now, since I actually did watch Nostalghia just before New Year's. It is now my second favorite of the Tarkovsky's I've seen and the only other one besides The Sacrifice that I don't have any major issues with.

For me, Stalker suffers from the characters being degraded to mouthpieces for Tarkovsky himself all too often. They just don't feel like fleshed out characters to me, at any point in the film. Which is a shame, since visually and viscerally I think it is Tarkovsky's most impressive work.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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a2thezebra wrote:For me, Stalker suffers from the characters being degraded to mouthpieces for Tarkovsky himself all too often. They just don't feel like fleshed out characters to me, at any point in the film. Which is a shame, since visually and viscerally I think it is Tarkovsky's most impressive work.
I guess that is fair, although personally I'm rabidly in love with every film of his that I've seen so far. His way of making films isn't going to appeal to everyone, although I will say that Stalker is at least a must-watch if only for the visual aspect like you mentioned.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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My plowing through the Americans-like-to-give-Golden-Statuettes season continues:

Creed - True story, this is the only Rocky movie I have ever seen, if watching an "Everything Wrong with Rocky IV" YouTube video doesn't count. XD Just to mention, I wasn't impressed or anything with the director's debut Fruitvale Station or with Michael B. Jordan at that time or at any point until now. As for Creed, not much I can say, it's a fairly solid revival flick, but it does stick to its revival formula nonetheless. Stallone is doing quite a solid performance, by his standards and by the fact that, as I understand it, he wasn't allowed to pen his lines this time, and Jordan can confidently carry the torch from here on out. My only gripe was how much fast-forwarding this story had to make its way towards an entirely predictable, but also entirely implausible "final boss" act. I would also go even as far as to question whether it feels right to build a revival-reboot-sequel thingy highly based on a death in a movie like Rocky IV that, back then, was a total cheeseball solution to pumping more drama into the franchise.

Carol - mixed feelings that, to the movie's credit, made me think it over and over. It feels too much like a throwback to the likes of Far From Heaven and I'm not sure why this one is supposed to be heralded as a revelatory, bolder, more impactful movie; it's a better drama, perhaps, one that Haynes is the perfect director to enrichen with craftsmanship, period details, emotion and balance. But it's still run by his old tropes nonetheless. To my surprise, Rooney Mara outshines Cate Blanchett (pretty sure it'll be the other way around, come awards time). I also fear this was probably the worst screener, in terms of quality, I got my hands on, because all the grainy visual style in which this was developed translated into sheer blur. Could definitely rewatch in better conditions. So good, but unsure if not also a bit cosmeticised.

Love & Mercy - twofolded biopic of Brian Wilson's artistic life and mental condition, split between him creating and recording Pet Sounds and meeting his second wife, whilst under the "therapeutic" influence of Dr. Landy, in the 1980s. The first part is good, it portrays Wilson more or less like a tormented visionary and it makes me think there is something special to the album, even more than when I actually listen to it - which feels maybe slightly tricksy on the movie's behalf; as far as I read it on Wikipedia, the artistic feud with Mike Love is totally overblown for dramatic purposes. Dano is quite at his best, that I can remember, but as for the second part of the story, both Cusack and Giamatti are overdoing it, frankly. Probably a better awards movie with Hallmark-like qualities, in recent memory, nonetheless that kind of a movie overall.

On New Year's Eve, I tricked my parents into watching The End of the Tour (the David Foster Wallace movie), even thought it wasn't on their checklist - as for me, it was my third viewing and still like it a lot. HBO's "surprise" midnight movie was Interstellar, so I rewatched that as well, heh.

Room, by the same director who previously did the wacky, guilty-pleasure-tbh Frank. This time, it's the sort of thriller that, if one really doesn't know anything about the book or the subject, could/should watch this without any spoilers or hints. There's a good 20 minutes in this movie that are truly unnerving. As for the rest: well, the psychological ramifications are as finely shaped as I could interpret them, and the main performances are great (the child actor is actually terrific, outshining even Brie Larson). Is everything else about this movie just as important and valorous? Not sure. A better, more arthouse vision, overall, could have helped.

Anomalisa... actually, nevermind, you can't really raw-first-view comment on a Charlie Kaufman movie, so I'll just rewatch this sometime soon and then try to say anything about it

Brooklyn with "Ser-sha, just like i-ner-tia" Ronan. I will admit, for roughly three quarters of it I enjoyed this saccharine mashup of immigration tale - femalecentric - tale of two worlds - bildungsroman - love triangle more than I thought I ever would; the storyline had a traditional, but pleasant development, there was good humor and emotion, veridic interactions between the characters. But by God if the last 20 minutes didn't make the entire movie tumble and break its note - literally the most rushed resolution of cinematic and narrative tension and the cheesiest addendum possible. My dad couldn't stand it at all, he kept asking "what's this movie supposed to be about" over and over.

Finally, The Big Short, which is billed as a comedy drama, but for all the jokes it cracks, the fourth-wall breaking humor and showing the 2007-2008 financial crisis through a witty, sarcastic lens, it leads up to an expectedly sour, realistic conclusion. Even the character's own disillusionment translates over to you, as a viewer. Then again, I think it's a valid alternative to simply watching dramas with William Hurt cast as Paulson trying to save the day, or Jeremy Irons as fictional CEO of a flopping bank in Margin Call. The ensemble cast (Bale, Carell, Gosling) is fairly ok, without anyone showing off more than he needs too (Bale is even slightly underused, in fact). The parallel narative is a bit choppy, taking its time to bring all storylines closer in the same direction; the jargon in the writing can be a bit chewy, if you aren't too hooked on the movie, despite several meta, smartass attempts to simplify its understanding. The director's past credentials (movies with Ferrell and Carell) don't inspire much and this movie itself could fade away from memory days after viewing, but I guess it's alright.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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The Revenant is jaw-droppingly good.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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John Wick was a disappointment. It can never decide how seriously it wants to take itself.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Predictable, even for someone who hasn't seen/read Pride & Prejudice. It was still a cute movie though.

7 (extra point for zombies)
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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I'm not sure if I should post this here or make a new thread for it, but this is the first in a series of my friends talking about movies we've recently seen. It's completely improvised and there's some funny off-topic banter about what we should do next for the night so let me know if you think that adds to the video or detracts from it, and what you think in general about the video. :)



This video does contain spoilers for the second film we talk about (The Cremator) so if you haven't seen that and don't want it spoiled for you then don't watch the second part. This is our first episode and we didn't know if we wanted to show our faces or not so the sound quality should be improved with future episodes.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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Deadpool 9/10 maybe 9.5
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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I gave Hail, Caesar a 4/5 on RYM. Very fun and entertaining Coen bros. film, but nothing exceptional from them. Coens on cruise control, which is still enough to be very good.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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This is far from the last movie I saw but I finally got back into writing movie reviews. I'm woefully behind right now but I hope to write a review each week to get caught up. This was the first movie I watched in 2014...

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)- 2.75 out of 5

It's the most complete story you'll get from a Twilight movie and is the best one of the series. Too bad being the best Twilight movie means you're just an okay movie.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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I'm bored and haven't written regular logs in two months, so might as well touch upon a few notable ones tonight.

The Lobster - oh wow I really, really liked this. It's not nearly as hardcore as Dogtooth (never saw Alps, a local reviewer found it so distasteful and derivative, I never felt compelled at that time), but it's not a step back for an English-language feature at all - unlike saaaaay Sorrentino's This Must Be All Over the Freaking Place or even Youth, even though I enjoyed the latter. The story structure and inner absurdity even have, I'd dare say, something kafka-esque to it and it hits with its social commentary fairly well. Some said the second half runs in circles thematically, but to me it was the flip side to a closed circuit. Not much room for a good resolution in a Lanthimos movie, anyway.

Victoria - high achievement with its single continuous take during almost two hours around Berlin, from clubs to apartments and hotel elevators rooms and back on the streets, but damn if the ad lib improv acting didn't get on my nerves real bad. Some say it's genuine, but I find it so unlikely for even the drunkest teenagers facing language barrier, with nothing but small talk, flirty exchanges and getting into a shitton of trouble at 5 in the morning in a big city to carry such clumsy conversations.

Taxi or Taxi Teheran or Jafar Panahi's Taxi. Seriously, why is Panahi such a genius? His classic films are legit 10/10 and dissident, critical statements of the highest, most genuine quality. And ever since he's been banned from filmmaking and leaving his country, he keeps coming back with inventive ways to bypass that or basically flipping the bird at the regime. Not sure if this counts as a spoiler, but this movie is likely mostly fictional (as in staged, rehearsed, prepared at least a fair bit), with just a few sequences that give the subtle impression of being unscripted or unexpected, which would normally take a bit away from the originality of this movie idea, but this being Panahi, it hits so well on everything it intends to actually address or express.

Mustang - French-Turkish movie about five orphaned sisters raised in a very conservative village by their next to kins (grandmother and uncle), gradually rebelling, each in their own way, against what life, customs and society requires of them. The clashes between the adults' narrowmindedness and the girls' wild spirit can get real overwhelming in some sequences. I don't think this movie is necessarily judgmental, but it's certainly partial and the ruling adults are sort of hardly fully fledged as characters. But other that that, this is really strong and emotional and well handled, especially for a debut film. Liked it.

Macbeth - oh god this was advertised as the darkest, most sanguine adaptation since Polanski's, but I fear that apart from the stylised looks, it felt like a real bore and chewy in its parlance.

45 Years - ideal enduring relationship story. No wait, it's actually a slow and meticulous U-turn on that. Abort, abort, abort! But seriously, this was incredibly conducted and gradually overwhelming chamber like piece. The most gut-wrenching moments happen to be wordless, in a movie full of polished, well timed and ultimately tense dialogue. The performances are absolutely splendid and Charlotte Rampling's one comes down to minimal, but intense gestures. It was a bit late come Oscars for me to comment in any relevant way on her nomination, but imo she blew away the competition in her category.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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99 Homes - labelled as an underrated (come award season) Michael Shannon performance and companion piece to The Big Short on the subject of the '06-'08 estate crisis, with an antihero taking full advantage of people having their homes seized by the banks. Honestly, though, post-awards fatigue did nothing to make me interested in this fairly non-spectacular flick.

Krigen (A War) - Nominated for Best Foreign Language. I'm personally not a fan of having to watch a new bulk of war movies every year. This one was sort of good, complicated and messy in a sort of think-piece way (but also having its share of melodrama). Hurt Locker mixed with procedural drama, I guess?

Le tout nouveau testament - Belgian comedy / satire / something with ha-ha to it about God living in modern times and uhm having a family and uhm her daughter rebelling against Him and searching out for new apostoles. Confused already? Well, the good thing I can tell you is that, despite the very volative, extroverted type of comedy (I'd say typical of mainstream or TV French comedies which I normally can't stand), cuckoo fantasy telling and sometimes cheap CGI and stuff, it kinda has its moments.

Queen of the Desert - absolutely dull new movie by Herzog, biopic about Gertrude Bell, full of cheese and ham.

Ruined Heart, or Another Lovestory Between a Criminal and a Whore - erm. Well, I follow this local blogger, who usually takes pleasure in shitting on 90% of the movies that are hyped or relevant, but he recently posted a top 2015 full of quite alternative preferences and this was rather high up. Anyway, this can indeed be quite the bewildering experience, almost wordless acting (the actors are just filmed doing their scenes), but with so much music put into it, it could almost qualify as a musical. Or a tone poem. It's both psychedelic, chaotic, kaleidoscopic in sequences (to the point of non-linearity or nonsensical), sensual and sensorial. It definitely has stuff to appreciate, but I also felt that I'm losing interest halfway through.

World of Tomorrow oh oh god oh god oh god oh my god holy mother of god oh oh oh oh god. First of all, if you're not familiar with Don Hertzfeldt, go correct that. I've already viewed this five times, because it's so easy to find 15 minutes to rewatch it. And it frankly gets better and better with each viewing. At first I thought this isn't better than It's Such a Beautiful Day, but (whilst I still relate more to the other movie, because parts of it have me in stitches at every watch), upon thinking, some of the details in this one can win you over: it goes back to character interaction rather than omniscient narration, the four-year old girl in it is the most adorable thing about it (sort of like the small boy is the pivotal, enhancing performance in Room) and where most of the humor works at its best, the animation is varied and at times gorgeous, it seems to focus more on shaping up its fantasy than (at least judging by the ending) underlining too earnestly its message. Plus, it's Hertzfeldt still in top form. Funny, bittersweet, thoughtful. WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 - This is (allegedly) a movie and I watched it on a lazy night.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence - It's well-nigh impossible to try to describe or recommend one of Roy Andersson's experimental movies, but here it is, the last of his "Living Trilogy" (I only saw this and Songs from the Second Floor and I think I like this one more). It's like a montage of incredibly dry, deadpan, syncopated absurdist narrative, a bit theatrical in a way too, like a fictional city in which the people are either marionettes or emotionally weightless. Nonetheless, if you can handle its high levels of detached and style-frozen arthouse, this can be a very interesting, absurd, comical and uncanny experience.

Ich seh, ich seh or Goodnight Mommy - Another recent horror getting praise for its tension, psychological "darc" and craftsmanship - co-made by Severin Fiala and the wife of Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, who is also renowned as not exactly sane in his membrane with his movies - and it's indeed quite stylish and growingly disturbing, but I either didn't watch it too passionately or it didn't truly grip me. Plus, if you happen to be a horror geek, you might see the twist being signaled with big letters way before any actual resolution act - I didn't, but then again I'm a total nub. :p

Illegitimate, a new 'Nauruan' film which I saw on a Sunday afternoon in a total wreck of a local cinema, with just five people and the projectionist being literally an old man who inserted a disc into the computer and screened it on a tiny projector device. God I hate my town.

Anyway, this movie intends to be a controversial piece mixing pro-choice/pro-life, incest and dysfunctional family dillemas in the same pot - the sort of stuff the highly acclaimed, Palme d'Or-laureate 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days once did, at least on the first abovementioned subject, but I'm afraid it's not a very good result at all. From what I understand, much of the movie has been conceived in an ad lib way - mostly amateur actors, improvised dialogues, low-budget and low-rate technical filmmaking decisions etc. - but it just adds to a clunky narrative and frustrating viewing, in which all the characters give you the "they-can't-be-this-daft, can-they?" impression all the time, and all the ideas the movie might try to debate are wasted away, due to lack of character development, intelligent conflicts and a baffling ending.

Hungry Hearts, an English-language movie directed by an Italian filmmaker, starring Alba Rohrwacher and Darth Emo Adam Driver, about a couple who fall in love (after the rather strangest goofy encounter ever filmed, I might add) and start a family, only for the mother/wife's restrictive vegan views to start affecting the child's health and send the relationships spiralling downwards. Good acting, even from our hipster friend, but the movie could get frustrating due to how quickly it loses any levity for intense psychological drama and due to incessantly oblique and narrow-minded the characters turn out trying to cope with the situation and communicate with each other. Plus the ending kinda blows it.

The Look of Silence, the counterpart documentary by Joshua Oppenheimer to The Act of Killing, about the '60s Indonesian Genocide. While the first one was told from the POV of the perpetrators, this one sort of deals with the common victims and survivors. In fact the main protagonist is the brother of a victim (who suffered a most gruesome execution) and is shown watching footage from The Act of Killing, in which the killers reenact or retell the stories, or even meeting up with some of the ex-vigilantes/murderers or their families. This can get very gripping, especially when said families only then find out about what their relative(s) have done. Heartwrenching stuff. Anyway, if The Act of Killing is downright bewildering and haunting, this one should be the part where you can actually empathise on a human level with someone - and I even tend to think it's the slightly better of the two.

Mountains May Depart by Jia Zhangke. A tryptic movie that boils down to a romantic love triangle story, meant to affect over time decisions, relationships and bonds between people. The last of the three parts switches to English and it's kind of clunky and derisive, but the first two parts are superlative and make me realise further that Chinese cinema might often hide some real gems. Not long ago, in 2014 I think, Black Coal, Thin Ice was kinda my MOTY.

Bitter Lake, another good documentary made by Adam Curtis for BBC, dealing with the bonds between Western and Middle East countries (particularly Saudi Arabia) throughout the 20th and 21st Century and the implications and repercussions. It naturally also covers the wars in Iraq or Afganistan, the uprising of terrorist groups such as Al-Queda or ISIL and the strenuous fight against them. For everyone waving "Team USA" charts, for instance, this might be a tough movie to sit through, because what it basically says is that, for the past 70 years, the modern states have collaborated or aided countries in the Middle East only for it to backfire time and again and create grave conflicts or for them to end up being used, plus that the same mistakes keep being repeated, such as in trying to fight terrorism but inadvertedly creating alliances with equally dubious or unlawful regimes, building the most simplistic "good vs evil" mentality in the ongoing war against terror or being incredulous in their attempts to "download" democracy in the Middle East and hoping it would stick.

So yeah, pretty much a "You dun goofd" moral to 70 years of diplomacy and war, particularly involving the US and the UK. If you're interested after reading this shoddy summary I attempted, go check it out. The documentary is kinda long to sit through and "trippy" in its visuals, music choices and montage (it often cuts real quick between polished and raw scenes), but I think it nevertheless presented its theme in a lucid manner.

Loin des Hommes or Far from Men, an adaptation of a story by Camus, set in Algeria, starring Viggo Mortensen with some admirable polyglot and composed acting skills, mixing existential drama with a bit of western, cultural and war touches. Well balanced, very humane, understated psychology, I quite liked this movie.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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The Conversation - 8/10

Not as good as Blow-Up which it clearly took inspiration from, but as far as Coppola films go it's the best I've seen yet. The final act is flawless and the buildup to it, while not consistently compelling (unlike Blow-Up) is very innovative with how it uses sound editing to unravel the mystery.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#76

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Hunt for the Wilderpeople - 8/10

As far as New Zealand movies go, this is a real gem. I don't really know how well it translates to an international audience, but I feel like it's definitely worth a shot from people. Taika Waititi is a talented filmmaker.

I think it managed to be both pretty funny and pretty touching standing outside of just the kiwi culture aspect. But, it didn't hurt that there were some moments that really connect to my 'Kiwi identity'.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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So I set out to get some maintenance done on my car today which left me with a lot of time to kill so I stopped in at the theater today and watched "The Boss" which is a Comedy Staring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, and Peter Dinklage. The movie is Rated R, and runs about an hour and thirty minutes. An hour and Thirty minutes I would like to take back. LOL

I'm kind of sorry that I spent money on this film, its not one that I would recommend for the big screen. Though I did get a few laughs out of the movie I really didn't think that it was that funny. Not to rate even a 9$ ticket. The character chemistry was good, the store itself was decent but could have been better. There were parts that didn't make sense to me but I believe that that may have been on purpose. I honestly think it should have ended differently but that is my opinion.

Its not a very hard "R" in my opinion so it wouldn't be terribly bad for someone 13 years and over just because its mostly crap you hear about in Public Schools anyhow. Lots of sexual suggestions though so be aware.

If I had to rate the movie on a 1-10 scale I would say its maybe a 4. I would wait till its on demand/DVD/Streaming before considering going to see it in a theater. Just my opinion.

Happy watching!
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

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Not sure this is the right place for this but why not. Check this out. Not that any of us need to be reminded that movies are awesome, but they made some great choices. I've seen 64 of the 101 films used.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've see

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Pretty generic, tbqh, both in selection (which is not to say that some of these movies are not legit masterpieces - especially 300 - or at least influential/inspiring, if that's the main theme of the montage) and iconic scenery. I counted around 40-45 I've see, but it's only because he put so much predictable stuff in the last decade or so; otherwise, this list rather proves how lazy I still am in watching old cinema.

Plus, he phrased it as "100 years of cinema", but com'on, this is barely taking any peek outside the Hollywood windows. And no, some of the exceptions early on don't make up for it (although Roma, citta aperta is a small surprise).
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#80

Post by Ricochet »

Ok, let's see, where did I last leave things off...

The Forbidden Room, a new project by versatile, eccentric and frankly bit cuckoo Canadian director Guy Maddin, that has the looks of countless old B-movies (silent or otherwise) mashed up together in a movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie kaleidoscopic format. That's about as coherent as this can be described, for indeed there is no real coherence in this exercise, only visual and montage proficiency. Either arthouse candy or gristle, depending on your acquired taste blood levels, but I myself did find a few scenes memorable and I have them in my head even now, after half a month.

Deadpool - Neat... and that's about it. I didn't find the mix of setpieces that genre redefining. I'm a fan of meta and deadpan, but since I'm the suck at comic geekery, this is not quite my kind of meta and deadpan, either. I liked the small scope of this story, but it still felt like the story of who-cares.

Hail, Ceasar! - the new Coen Brothers movie, sort of a gentle ode to the Golden Age Hollywood times the way some of Barton Fink also was, with goofy shenanigans the way O Brother, Where Art Thou? was (and yes, Clooney is indeed the direct characterial link here). Felt really undercooked and like losing its steam halfway through. Ensemble cast was too big and scrambled. Attention to detail and dialogue is always there, in a Coens movie, but it doesn't make the whole experience complete. If the focus is on the comedy side of it, then I think it comes off even worse. Anyway, I didn't truly hate it or anything, I was moreover indifferent, it's very familiar stuff under their signature and feels like a really minor movie.

The Falling - British drama (starring "Arya Stark" bravely embracing arthouse acting) that was raved by a few critics that I follow, such as Kermode, enough to warrant a watch, yet I was mildly vexed by it, to be honest. Seemed to combine psychedelic, coming-of-age, period drama, in a mysterious but unfulfilling fashion. One thing that really bothered me was that the "mysterious affliction" part evolved into a 30-minute stretch or so of happenings that had absolutely no variation. By the end of it, I was rather rolling my eyes at every reoccurence, rather than trying to understand what keeps happening. Anyway, I think there was visual and directorial panache to this movie that was simply misshapen

Catch Me Daddy - on another spectrum of British contemporary cinema, gloomy drama/thrillers with a socio-cultural touch to it, set in obscure low-class remote parts of the island. The kind similar to Fish Tank or The Selfish Giant or Mike Leigh/Ken Loach old movies. In this one, a Pakistani girl in hiding with her Scottish bf is chased around by her family, to serious consequences. Here, the visual panache enhances the atmosphere and the chills of the action. Plus, if a goofy dance sequence with Patti Smith's Horses blasting manages to make me go into serious headbanging (...although mostly because of Patti Smith), that's quite the achievement.

After the Wedding - sheer coincidence, but I planned to see this (and did so) on Mongoose's birthday, which is funny, because her and I don't feel the same about Susanne Bier's achievements and this is the movie she's pitched me countless times to make me reconsider. And well... this sort of both works better, out of all her films, and displays the issues I usually have with them. It was interesting to see a younger Mads Mikkelsen with slightly different acting chops than the mannerisms we're used to nowadays (Hannibal, The Hunt and others). Some of the drama was real good, especially early on, but then it kept reaching for more plot development to fill up the other acts and the focus shifted so wildly from one character to another.

Son of Saul - finally saw this at a special screening at the Philharmonic. ok wow, big one and lot of feelings around it. So this is the Oscar-, Globes- and Cannes-laureate Holocast movie, focusing entirely and also literally on a Sonderkommando member, tasked to burn the dead, who then becomes rather possessed by the idea of trying to give a deceased boy a proper Jewish burial and facing the challenges to achieve that. There's also an aspect that he might take the boy to be his (illegitimate?) son - hence the title - but to me it was never made clear if that's pretextual, realistic or symbolic. His attempt would be easier to interpret, though: redemptive act, religious burden, symbol of hope, etc. Anyway, the host said before the screening "I won't wish you to enjoy the viewing, because that seems unlikely...", which sounded a bit corny, still... this being Auschwitz '44, it is an understandably hard sit and an uncompromising, brutal, grim depiction. I didn't feel truly wowed by the technical aspects, although I acknowledge that they are vital and masterful (academic ratio, camera always locked on the protagonist, so that everything else in the fore- or background is merely fragmentary, blurry or suggestive, etc.). The level of immersion also slightly dropped for me, once the storyline contained a lot of providential things falling into place for the protagonist during his quest and also how "well-connected" he seemed to be with different factions inside the concentration camp. Then again, and without wanting to spoil much [hence incoming spoiler tags], by the time the movie ended, I still felt suddenly overwhelmed and gasping for air and even emotional self-control,
Spoiler: show
not because of the predictability of the outcome, but because of the sisyphic absurdity of it all.
Recommended, even relevant, but not without some mixed feelings about its virtues.

Moj rower (My Father's Bike) - I fell asleep to this... both times I tried to watch it. Yeah, it's that sort of sappy family drama. How did I even get to watch this?

Sunset Song - adaptation by Terrence Davies of a Scottish novel about the coming-of-age of a farmer's daughter at the turn of century, right about when the First World War kicks in. Very aesthetic, slowly brewed, picturesque directing and narrative, with a lot of understated language, tension, emotions. Less sure what it amounts to, though. Sure, it's a fine period melodrama and it can almost go as the Brooklyn version that's less filled with clichés and with ambitious arches, but at times it also felt strained. The ending also spiked and spiralled, compared to the rest of the movie's tone.

Winter Light - second viewing, still couldn't feel the grace of our lord Bergman descending upon me and I still missed a ton of subtext, like an idiot. This time, I followed more of the second half - the first time I watched, past a certain important scene, it felt strangely filler-esque - but again, I had done a shit job of watching this back then and this time was a mere mild improvement.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#81

Post by A Person »

Ricochet wrote:After the Wedding - sheer coincidence, but I planned to see this (and did so) on Mongoose's birthday, which is funny, because her and I don't feel the same about Susanne Bier's achievements and this is the movie she's pitched me countless times to make me reconsider. And well... this sort of both works better, out of all her films, and displays the issues I usually have with them. It was interesting to see a younger Mads Mikkelsen with slightly different acting chops than the mannerisms we're used to nowadays (Hannibal, The Hunt and others). Some of the drama was real good, especially early on, but then it kept reaching for more plot development to fill up the other acts and the focus shifted so wildly from one character to another.
I did like Mads Mikkelsen in this film, and thought the drama at parts was a highlight (imo) of Bier's filmography that I've seen.

Very very bad Vic though, with that review of Winter Light.

I've just watched Is the Man Who is Tall Happy? last night/this afternoon and it was alright, the best parts were just listneing to Chomsky speak, the animation was neat at times but really doesn't add a whole lot apart from one instance.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#82

Post by Ricochet »

<review

ok

Well you said it yourself. "At parts".
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#83

Post by a2thezebra »

Ricochet wrote: Winter Light - second viewing, still couldn't feel the grace of our lord Bergman descending upon me and I still missed a ton of subtext, like an idiot. This time, I followed more of the second half - the first time I watched, past a certain important scene, it felt strangely filler-esque - but again, I had done a shit job of watching this back then and this time was a mere mild improvement.
This is my second favorite film from Bergman!
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#84

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I'm not sure where else to put this but I was at a party the other night and I watched at least two-thirds of Into the Wild with the sound off and recent hip hop (a lot of Jay-Z) playing. I cannot exaggerate how well-synchronized it was. 100,000/10.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#85

Post by insertnamehere »

Dead Man

4/5 Stars

This is the second Jarmusch film I've seen, after randomly coming across Coffee & Cigarettes and absolutely loving it. Dead Man is a hypnotic existential crawl through black and white forest landscapes peppered with dialogue made up of 90% non-sequiters. It's also an ostensible Western, although it mainly mines the stereotypical "Wild West" atmosphere for social commentary, surrealism, and a contradictory sense of absurdity and spirituality. Neil Young turns in some amazing work with the simplistic score; a single distorted reverb laced electric guitar chord never felt as appropriate in a movie score as it does here. I enjoyed the first half more than the second. The opening scene with the train car and Crispin Hellion Glover was probably my favorite part of the entire movie; I immediately rewatched just that sequence after the credits started rolling. Overall, the pacing felt intentionally sluggish at times. I appreciate and recognize what Jarmusch was trying to do, but it doesn't change my fact that I checked my phone throughout and almost fell asleep at one point.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#86

Post by Ricochet »

This week in Remember Movies?
The past week was the first in a very long time in which I managed to resume my movie watching habits, so I thought I'd resume writing a bit about them as well.

A/A- / B+ / B / B- / C / D / F / No rating

The Neon Demon, the new movie from Nicolas Winding Refn, the bonker chic filmmaker of Valhalla Rising, Drive and Only God Forgives, this one going along with the trend of the latter two and fitting in nicely - and in the middle, quality-wise, I'd say: theatrical minimalism and emotion-unclad portraits, visual aesthetics cranked up, jabbing moments of visceral violence or horror fantasia, shock value or sensorial bewitchery. As a counterpiece to the more masculine previous movies, this delves into the theme of the devilish female fashion industry, with both characterisations and symbolism about on the nose as it can get. As for the final act, whether it's a culmination of every theme and symbol Refn has been trying to shape or something gone totally wheels up, it's up to everyone to decide, but it's entirely in Refn's nature. Dunno what more to add; at the end of this list, I'd almost feel surprised to consider this the best of all these movies this week. It has a couple of great set pieces, it's overall good and trippy, but also not something worth throwing superlatives at or, on the contrary, get worked up about.

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, an Israeli(-French) movie (part of a whole trilogy that I myself did not check, although I sense the movie works more than fine on its own) about a women trying to obtain official separation from the husband, with almost nothing but her own unhappiness fueling this desire, and the long-term tribulation she has to face in order to achieve that. More of a "bottle" film in which the story, the characters and their interactions are the high points. It easily taps into generating empathy for the main character's uphill battle, fueling the melodrama or subtilizing human conflict, marriage customs, prejudices, religious law issues. I think this is a tasteful, strongly scripted chamber drama.

Julieta, the new Pedro Almodovar movie, adapting a tryptich of short stories by Alice Munro into, arguably, a more cohesive story, though still marked by timeline jumps. Centering it on feminine portrayal (a quality throwback all the way to his Volver, in that regard), lush visuals (always a constant), a far diminished incentive to veer into darkly humoristic twists and trickery (a la The Skin I Live In) and restraint, elegant drama (probably in stark contrast with the total charade that he intended I'm So Excited to be), this almost feels like a return to form and a seriously crafted work... yet I didn't felt too compelled by it. Despite what a piquant, refined experience and immersive, well-performed story it can be, it still ends up feeling somewhat minor.

Cafe Society, the 100-millionth Woody Allen new movie released in quick succession, that might earn a better grade in the eternal "is it a dud or actually good" reviewing game of his recent filmography, without it really amounting to anything. It's as cozy of a period piece and quirky moral tale as he makes 'em (movie makers! stars! gangsters! complicated love triangles! aspiring youthful lad who's the spitting alter-ego of Allen!). But for all the talk about how visually polished this one is and how the performances (mostly) hold, it's really nothing to survive after a viewing. Heck, it might even be a tad too sterile, even for Woody's standards.

The Sea of Trees, the much scorned new Gus van Sant, who apparently has fully lost himself into the genre of dramatic cheeseball. Frankly, it's not in the so bad it's inconceivable category, as much as it is so dull and poorly made, it's hardly worth trying to find the words as to why it's such a misfire.

Swamp Water, a 1941 film by Jean Renoir. Entertaining.

Love & Friendship, a new Jane Austen adaptation (though the title is misleading, since the short novel Lady Susan is the adapted material) by Whit Stillman of 90s fame (but whose previous, mumblecore-ish Damsels in Distress I couldn't care less about). Not sure if the source happens to be a comedy of manners, but this is what this film aims for. And it happens to be a very pleasant watch at that, besides the light, savory period setting and vocabulary and the subtle, mannered performances (nothing too tremendous from lead Kate Beckinsale, I should say, still well done). I chuckled or even laughed out loud at some of the situations or even characters altogether.

Horse Money, latest from Portuguese Pedro Costa, a really stern and impenetrable project, with perhaps both minimalist theatrical and docufiction elements, in which the heavily discursive, stream-of-consciousness-like lines from old characters are meant to contain reflections of the past, musings and grievings altogether. It's certainly arthouse candy, alas I tried and failed, to the point of lulling.

Self-Portrait of a Dutiful Daughter, a Romanian indie flick about a young woman stuck in existential limbo, finishing up her degree, getting to live in her own apartment although not entirely independent from her parents, having an affair with a married man and having either pompous discussions or casual hangouts with the few friends she has, and whose main issue that actually seems to trouble her in all of this is that she'd like to get a dog, but it's too expensive and papa isn't willing to help her out with some money, either. Uhm yeah. This is just the sophomore movie from this young female filmmaker, with at least some interesting elements of autobiographical projection - the cast happens to be a mix of pro and amateurs, with the protagonist's parents being the filmmaker's own. The movie is representative of our New Wave heavy realism - the filmmaker being in fact a protege of New Wave titan Cristi Puiu - and it shows both the deep style and annoying limitations of the genre. Critic fans of the New Wave that I read are calling this, at least in its form, impeccable, but honestly, it's a "nothing-happens" kind of movie, most of the dialogue is cringe and most of the characters are as interesting as a pineapple, and besides, I also didn't feel good about watching myself in the mirror, a few years from now on. Except that I'm not a woman. And I'd like to have a cat.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#87

Post by Ricochet »

A/A- / B+ / B / B- / C / D / F / No rating

El Club - Chilean director Pablo Larrain is likely set to be Oscar contender this year with the biopic Jackie and four years ago he made No, a delectable, impassionate media-political drama that also got Oscar nomination, but this movie here proves he doesn't shy away from edgier subjects, shot in an impervious style, either. Story revolves around a group of disgraced Catholic priests living in seclusion until a newly joined member is tagged along by a victim of his dark past and an incident makes the whole group come under the scrutiny of the clerical administration. An interesting aspect of this movie, perhaps, is that, for the most part, the themes of remorse, redemption and such are not even close to applicable. The movie has a minimalist, obscure start, after which things go sideways and it's chilling all the way through. One thing I was struck by was how much of the dialogue unsettled me, down to the (well-acted) monotone and insensitive voices and dictions of some of the characters. The cinematography is as chilling and bleak in colours as the mood and lives that are to be beheld. With the Vatican abuses still a hot topic these past years, it's inevitable to see this movie as a strong invective and a judgemental piece - oddly enough, I thought of Spotlight as a companion piece - but I think it manages to be a resolute dissent, with dramatic purposes of raising questions and challenging the viewers' empathy or revulsion, rather than be a merely sensationalist, disagreeable ride.

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) - a documentary centered on the migrant crossings and crisis happening on the island of Lampedusa, in Italy, intertwined with scenes from the lives and day-to-day activities of the locals, both old and new - although the movie does switch from one story to another in such a way, that it's either a thematic implication of how most Europeans are both aware and passive in light of the situation, or a rather concerning disconnect. The colour of my rating reflects that it's not quite perfect at making this clear. Nevertheless, just like Dheepan having won the Palme d'Or (2014), this winning the Golden Bear last year might look a little on the nose as far as political-fueled awards go, but it evades the perception of being just an art project fishing for accolades at the right time and can stand out as a relevant movie, engrossing and small in details and reflections.

Metropolis - Fritz Lang's epic 1927 silent film, which I had on hold for a long time, but finally indulged in watching during my birthday. To my understanding, this is the restoration of the sole original (but damaged) copy found in Argentina(?). As always, not the best genre for me to pass on judgement, but am I ready instead to join the chorus praising this as an all-time classic? Well, the visuals and set-designs are all grandiose and A++. As expected from German expressionism, the acting (body language, facial expression) is very striking, overt, extravagant and at times even silly - culminating with the machine-woman's multitude of loose gesture, squints, crazed looks and so on. The lenghts of the scenes are Wagnerian-like - I laughed out loud when, 40 minutes into it, an intertitle signaled "the end of the Prelude" - with certain stretches that could count as redundant, including in the music, which at one point drummed hard on a dissonant version of La Marseillaise. Still, no doubt a spectacle of a classic movie.

---And from here on I found myself alone at home for a week and dropped the cinephilic standards by watching several movies airing on TV (HBO, Cinemax, this kind of stuff mostly), some of them with real interest, others just to have time pass by---

Mistress America, a 2015 Noah Baumbach movie that could count as a follow-up to his Frances Ha, especially given the reappearance of his muse Greta Gerwig in it, but with less creative fuel in the same stylistic tank, although not stagnant either, as I'll point out further along. The angsty, adrift young female protagonist figure, trying to find her voice and connect with people, is played this time by Lola Kirke (in a quite adorable way, truth be told), while Gerwig's character is a more accomplished, versatile, prolific (while also narcissistic, troubled and at times...well, full of s**t) person that becomes the former's model and sucks the young woman into her orbit. To some degree of an element of surprise, much of the second half of the movie steps away from the New York mumblecore cornucopia to a more chamber-like act filled with comedy of manners and screwball moments.

Star Trek Beyond - I don't think I'll need to spoiler this, as I'm not enough of a fan to get into detail or ranting (did watch a lot of TNG back in the days, though). I thought it was enjoyable. It does look indeed televisual - in the sense of a "quest/adventure/challenge of the week" that doesn't translate too well for our modern, multiplex-manipulated perception of how heavy in meaning a SF standalone movie should be (its thinness is basically amplified by the Lin-esque heavy action set pieces) - but I rather prefer this to either of the mind- and space-time-bending from ST or the dark-brooding confrontations (and meta gross rip-off-isms) from Into Darkness. Some secondary characters do get a bit too many lines, I sensed; by the second half my interest was halved, I'd say; and the villain with his backstory and twist didn't pay off too much. But I've got no beef with it, otherwise, for it was exactly the type of popcorn movie I had planned for the evening. It not taking itself (or its reboot mythology) too serious and keeping the story and challenge straight to the chase is definitely a better road.

Kalifornia - 90s thriller, highlighting Brad Pitt in his talented, daring youth (not that he's not still a very inspired actor at times) and, oh wow, Admiral Helena Cain. Unfortunately, both Pitt and Juliette Lewis chew a bit too much into their off-center characters, plus I never noticed this much before how dull David Duchovny comes off in movies, as opposed to TV series (although I hardly payed attention to Californication, past a few episodes of "oh look, douche guy being douche"). There are both some noir and road movie sensibilities in this one, but frankly, not that great of a watch.

Zipper - House of Cards meets... uhm, Shame? Patrick Wilson with a sex addiction. Nekid women. Stupid mistakes and "oh no my life is falling apart" moments. Blah.

13 Hours - The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Apparently a more serious attempt at drama and action from Michael Bay (yes a Bay movie was on TV and I didn't switch to something else fml!), but I think the penchant he has for certain things still betrays him. A hack like myself would be able to tell. The script is dogballs, nothing but bro-style dialogue or shouting during action scenes. There's even that sideline guy prototype Bay tends to insert in all his movies, whose role is to be mildly irate and say quippy, over-the-top lines. Plus, I counted like three climaxes, each one looking and playing out the same. If there's one thing, the action doesn't shy away from violence and gory details - but even here, there's such a blockbuster/popcorn quality to it, instead of any authentic real combat misery.

5 to 7 (with no connection to Agnes Varda's "Cléo from 5 to 7", which for a sec I thought it would be :confused: ) A heavily syruped romantic story between an aspiring writer (RIP Anton Yelchin) going into a coup de foudre driven affair with an older, married French woman, who fully embraces however the style of her open marriage, to the point in which her husband does it as well and not even their kids find it odd or controversial. The sole conflict resides in how enamoured the protagonist becomes and what desires (read: wishful thinking) arise from this. There's elegance to how this romance plays out, although it's also very artificial and heavily scripted, making it all less plausible. Unfortunately the last act drives into total cheese, including music cues that made me want to slice my ears off. Speaking of which, the movie is so pompous, it gets to have Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic, in a cameo.

Sleeping Giant, a 2015 Canadian film, which I'm actually surprised of it not being a Scandinavian one, because it certainly looks made out of that fabric: beautiful wildlife scenery, the impression of a community in which everyone is running smoothly and relaxed, the coming of age of a group of kids marked by competing with each other, trash talking, stealing beer and trying pot or falling in love with girls, until introversion, deeper issues and immaturity start creating ripples and lead to more serious consequences. The title alone made me think of the British movie The Selfish Giant by Clio Barnard (which I absolutely love) and they do turn out to share sort of the same moral tale, except the Brits tend to add poverty and broken home to highlight what influences the kids' lives, whereas here it's just the dark undertones in the relationships surrounding family or close friendships. It was a good watch, but it also had its predictable set pieces.

Recordações da Casa Amarela (Recollections of the Yellow House), a 1989 movie by João César Monteiro that I didn't manage to watch as part of my Portugal trip playlist back in August and which I'd describe at first viewing as "The Life of Vompatti at 60". No joke.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice was also on one night and, by god, did it feel a whole lot better on second viewing (I'd describe the first to have been a disaster and a bore). Sure, a lot of it still feels hazy, but much of the humor and the logic of the narrative flow suddenly clicked this time. And I still don't know what makes Joaquin Phoenix tick, but god bless him.
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#88

Post by Ricochet »

So the past two weeks of my movie watching activities could have been almost described as lax, touching upon a few auteur movies before wanting to descend into popcorn/weaksauce zone for a change, if not for the past two evenings (or rather nights) in which a nocturnal marathon screening of Cannes movies organized in my hometown sent me into cinephilic overdrive. With the exception of two new movies I watched (the most irrelevant ones, too), the Cannes thread will prove common to both the ones I went to see at the screenings and the ones I involuntarily picked to watch in the comfort zone of my kino lair.

A/A- / B+ / B / B- / C / D / F / No rating

Le dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust) [Cannes-screened 2013], a documentary by Claude Lanzmann, of Shoah fame, about Benjamin Murmelstein, the last surviving Elder of the Jewish Council in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, thus a partial focus on the life and activities in that ghetto, from its formation in 1941 till its liberation towards the end of the World War II (when the Nazis nevertheless attempted mass liquidation of the camp via deportation). Murmelstein served as the third and last of the Elders, after his predecessors were executed, his pragmatic if unpopular actions leading to his ill repute of a perceived collaborator. The documentary is split between the footage of Lanzmann interviewing Murmelstein in 1975 and Lanzmann himself, much later, well into his 80s, revisiting places from the camp whilst quoting from Murmelstein's memoir and musing himself at the horrors of the events. The documentary is technically very long - over three hours and a half - which is perhaps not surprising from the creator of the 10-hour Shoah, but the feel is that it all flows much quicker, because the discussions go on at length on various subjects and the montage is thus sparser. Back in 1975, Lanzmann is shown prodding Murmelstein at times for answers or certain details, but the final form of this documentary inspires the approach of (re)evaluating Murmelstein's actions as tough but necessary and the man as more of a heroic figure. To any uninformed viewer, the stories about the Theresienstadt camp should prove shocking and moving. Of course, one only needs to check the links on the film's English wikipedia page to also find articles that raise issues with Lanzmann's one-sided investigation and occasionally self-indulgent research.

The Handmaiden (Agassi) [Cannes-competing 2016], bit hard to describe this one, but since it's a Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Vengeance trilogy), one can luckily get away with such excuse. One thing the movie does is subvert every expectation (but again, Park Chan-wook here, duh) and ramp it up at every switch, as well: at first it seems a period drama, then wham, it turns out it's a confidence trick thriller; then a subtle romance going on kinky; then halfway through it decides to basically rewind the story and fill in the gaps from a different perspective, the reveals in this process being about as fucked up as it can get; then Chan-wook realizes the violence jar has not been even remotely filled up, so yeah, let's take care of that as well. I notice the American press, in particular, is head over heels for this movie's lush aesthetic and actual romanticism. Regarding the former, now that I find myself halfway into having checked this year's Cannes slot, I could definitely describe its style and craziness as memorable. But at the same time, if, say, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was a movie that actually moved me and Oldboy one I accepted for its cult swag (and... yeah, my Chan-wook checklist stops there), this one was tad too silly for my own immersion to prove an accomplished one.

The Price of Desire, a pretty cheesy and lazy-ass biopic I caught on TV, about famed female architect Eileen Gray, her relationship with Jean Badovici and her collaboration with Le Corbusier (complete with unrequited sentiments from the latter, although I found no such details in his actual bio) in designing the modernist E-1027 house. The acting from the first two proves fairly limited and pedantic, while the third gave me the impression he would not do a half bad Truman Capote impression, especially with the fourth wall break ramblings he's been invested with in this one.

Suicide Squad - Completely laughable. Compared to the BvS debacle, this one truly looks like a train wreck and hopefully the rock bottom of DC's misguided capeshit making. I refuse to believe this is the product of a filmmaker who at least pointed at some directorial signature with End of Watch or Fury, a few years ago (although his penchant for movies involving task force action sort of explain the SWAT-iness of the action set pieces in here as well). If this is the result of the reshoots that were decided by management, after Deadpool made them piss their pants, it shows how botched the whole thing is. The ensemble comic cast is a complete caricature. The characters' abilities were pretty much exhausted from fight level 1-1, which made the other five levels up to the boss fight repetitive and uninteresting. I cannot even praise Margot Robbie, despite the work she puts into capturing Harley Quinn, simply because she is given lines after lines of quip. The only one you could be invested in would be Will Smith, but that would basically make it a Will-Smith-is-decent-hero movie. Is there someone else I'm forgetting...? Well, thing is, I'm hardly upset about that part, it had disaster written all over it. The movie probably did as well, although what this one settles for good is that trailer/promo coolness is now completely separate from actual movie expectations, since they do require more brains and less franchise gluttony to work out at all.

Would also mention rewatching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, after A Person rustled my Jimmies in the Chatzy by dissing it without even having watched it properly. I won't get into much details, but this is one hella stylish spy thriller. Granted, it's rather no fat compared to Le Carre's book (I'm just finishing up the Karla trilogy these days), perhaps with a lot less verbal dueling than the book can charm you with, but its tension and detective set pieces are well-tailored, otherwise. Excellent Gary Oldman performance, the less is more type.

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And now let me tell you about how I spent the past Friday and Saturday nights at my local Philharmonic hall, watching three movies from the Cannes '16 each day (err night) at ungodly late hours. The organizers' conception was baffling, in that they thought it was ok to start session each day (err night) at 10 or 11pm, screen three (3!) movies and basically run the whole thing into the night. A fortunate aspect was to make it all free, so that people actually showed up, at least for the first movie - trust me, the difference between a special screening that's free and one that would cost as little as the equivalent of two dollars fifty is yuge in this town. Yesterday (Sunday) morning I found myself wobbling back home at 6am, because it all started at 11pm, the first movie was three (3!) hours long and the last one started at 4am. I did the math and that was 20 minutes shy of watching Satantango in one sitting (spoilers: it's a 7-hour 15-minute long movie).

Anyway, here are the movies:

Night 1

Albüm [Cannes-awarded, separate section, 2016], a feature film debut from Mehmet Can Mertoglu, who graced us with his presence for Q&A, which proved a bit more illuminating than the movie's own clarity at first watch. Essentially a movie about how much of a taboo and a source for social anxiety the issue of adopting is in Turkey, although it opts to depict in a both humorous and revolting way the movie's main couple's concern with their own image rather than their parenthood. Again, without the director explaining afterwards that his message is borderline realistic, I would have taken it to be a more absurd, dystopian depiction, with several scenes making me feel I'm watching one of Roy Andersson's cuckoo movies. This movie was also shot and co-produced by several Romanian artists, which at times gave me the vibe that several minimalist or slow-paced scenes are referential in that regard (a la "watching people eat soup for minutes", which is a running gag about most of the heavy New Wave Romanian movies). Anyway, fairly good stuff, I'd almost inclined to bump the color of this rating, if not for the feeling that certain stylistic choice and narrative elaborations from this director could ripen with his next endeavors.

Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon [Cannes-competing 2016], which was the only movie from this selection that I had seen already. Reviewed it here already: silly and unsubtle, but aesthetic candy and most pleasant of his since Drive. One thing I felt at second viewing is that the third act is quite slow to get through - or was it merely my 1am urge to get to the next one?

I, Daniel Blake [Cannes - Palme d'Or, 2016] Most critics have struggled to greet the news of this taking away the big prize as anything but a bit of an upset and to define what exactly makes it so "Palme d'Or-able" (except for Mark Kermode, who apparently loves any sentimental character-driven movie that makes him tear up), and I don't really have any positive answer either. There's almost a whiff of a topical award-giving to it (just like Dheepan won Palme d'Or or Fuocoammare won the Golden Bear in 2015, both about migrants' issues), with austerity still problematic in most countries, including the UK. But Ken Loach's movie is the kind of drama with some degree of political charge that he's done before, plus the kind of drama which, split into bits, you could feel you've seen it in other movies before, as well: an old protagonist recovering from serious medical issues, but then finding himself stuck in a bureaucratic maze with no solution with the institution that assesses his eligibility for sickness benefit (yeah, I'm copying a bit from wiki here) - and all this proves to be truly Kafka slash Catch-22 nasty stuff - while also bonding with a young mother of two, facing the same support issues, plus relocation, work and financial hardships. That it was the sort of Cannes year in which the jury decided to go with the unsophisticated movie that spoke more to the heart is perfectly fine - and Loach's movie is no doubt good, with impressive character acting (to the point of identifying real humans) and, at best, making you rage at every scene of social injustice. But it doesn't quite steal the show, either.

Night 2

Toni Erdmann [Cannes-competing 2016] The German comedy by Maren Ade that earned rave responses from everyone... except, apparently, for the nine people that were in the jury and gave it nada. Now, the stone-hearted me probably also desired more meaningfulness and formal shininess from a drama about a father trying to get back in touch with his daughter and cheer her up from the stress, alienation and depression of her business work abroad, but that's really what this movie is at its core, while developed meticulously and ramping up the father's appeal to practical jokes and incorrigible silliness. Most of the times, the humor is so minutely timed and gestural, then the last hour turns up the hilarity to eleven.

Just la fin du monde (It's Only the End of the World) [Cannes - Grand Prix 2016] New drama by Canadian enfant terrible Xavier Dolan, derided as always by critics if not even more than usual. Adapted from a French stage play by Lagarce, Dolan seems to only exacerbate its theatrical qualities and stark tone to suit his own filmmaking moods quite to perfection: chamber piece, tight interior shots, close ups galore, logorrheic dialogue mixed with anxious silence or navel-gazing musical interludes, plus the gamut of emotions. But boy, does it all feel vexing and shallow. Compared to this, I almost want to go back and declare his 2014 Mommy a hyper-emotional, balls to the walls masterwork. The levels of hysteria in this movie aren't as severe as critics made me fear (although kudos to anyone going through how much Vincent Cassel can simply lose his shit without grimacing), but it's nigh impossible to relate to the dysfunctionality of the family depicted as a whole or even the members you could relate to in theory (the protagonist's inability to react to his relatives' tantrums or open up did not make him any less infuriating to me). Overall, this felt like a bit of an aesthetically rich served dish of drama bull.

The Salesman [Cannes - Best Actor and Screenplay 2016] Probably too serious of a movie at the end of such a marathon, and for its 4am startup time that night, but if there's a filmmaker who cannot be swayed from building highly poignant family vignettes with wonderful visual balance and moving dramatical stories or conflicts, it's probably Iranian Asghar Farhadi. At least after his A Separation, which is superb, and The Past, which was also good but kinda lost me towards the end, this feels like grasping at and weaving a simpler subject - a married couple's struggles after they move into a new home and the wife is attacked by an old visitor of the previous, apparently promiscuous female tenant. The movie also revolves around the couple performing in an adaptation of Miller's Death to a Salesman, although the parallels with their drama and the movie title are less clear. It seems I finally dozed off during what some critics described as a suffocating climax. Oh well.
Ricochet
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#89

Post by Ricochet »

Addendum:

Elle, a new film by Paul Verhoeven (his first in six years, if we discard some 2012 project he made), with both elements that one could find to be unexpected (like a level of artisty and stylishness that could hardly rhyme with his pulpy, messy banger filmmaking days of RoboCop, Basic Instinct or Total Recall, decades ago) or that resurface as his trademarks (like... the pulpiness and the messiness). To describe any bit what this movie tries to go for, as far as premise or story would be concerned, would feel spoilery in itself, so I'll just note that Isabelle Huppert gets to play with outstanding panache a total bitch of a woman, and yet one you could still follow around for two whole hours. Her delivery of deadpan dark humor is a true delight at times, at least for someone like me. The other characters around her aren't quite as full-fledged, but each are revealed deeply flawed in their own way, whether they're wearing it on their sleeves or hiding it behind a facade. So a lot of Verhoeven's flavors (the vibe of a wicked thriller ride, femme fatale-ism, messy violence) shine through and, while I wouldn't say there is something deeper than that (unless it's emphasing the "French are fken weirdos" theme), it still proved an exciting, provocative, twisted pleasure.
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DharmaHelper
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Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

#90

Post by DharmaHelper »

Dr Strange 7/10
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