Movies You've Seen Recently | July 2021

MidnightCowboy · Jul 1, 2021

Welcome
Hello and welcome to the monthly Movies You've Seen Recently thread. The place to hang out with fellow movie lovers!

Thread rules
1. Be nice, be civil, use common sense
2. Respect the opinions of other members, no matter how wrong they are
3. Use spoiler tags accordingly
4. Have fun, we're all here because we love movies

Want to introduce yourself?
New to the Movies You've Seen Recently community? Let us know a bit about yourself:
1. What's your favorite Movie?
2. Who's your favorite director?
3. Who are your favorite actors/actresses?
4. Favorite Genre(s)?
5. What's your favorite performance in film?

- Post your top 5 new viewings from the previous month!

Useful external links:
Letterboxd
ICheckMovies
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes
Metacritic

Last Month's Poll: When it comes to action, which do you prefer?

Melee 30
Guns 8
Don't make me choose 4

If you want to be added to the list above, shoot a PM to me and you'll be added.

Unsure of what to watch? Just ask for recommendations in here. We don't bite!

MidnightCowboy · Jul 1, 2021

Fairly thin June for me, only got 12 watches in.

Favorite New: Hero, Blind Chance, Adoption, La Piscine, Paper Moon

Dan-o · Jul 1, 2021

I finally watched my 4K copy of Apocalypse Now. Specifically, the "Final" cut.
I haven't seen the original (or Redux) in a long time (probably since Redux was released on DVD, if I'm not mistaken), so it was difficult to be fully aware of what changes were made. Anyway, I thought this cut worked pretty well, all things considered. I do intend to watch Redux and the theatrical cut again eventually.

I also watched my 4K copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey. There's not much to say... it's just such an excellent film and it looks/sounds better than ever. I got to see it theatrically a couple years ago, and this was almost as good as that; only downside being that I don't currently have a decent sound system, so that's where the theatrical experience won out.

BlueTsunami · Jul 2, 2021

Anyone catching 'Zola'? I'm surprised they actually adapted that crazy story and being received well critically.

Akumatica · Jul 2, 2021

Top 5 films I saw in June-
-Snowpiercer (2013)
-Housebound (2014)
-Kill List (2011)
-Reincarnation (2005)
-A History of Violence (2005)

Slither (2006)
James Gunn writes and directs this slight and derivative horror film about an alien parasitic invasion which causes havoc in a southern town. It takes liberally from Shivers, Night of the Creeps, Society, Night of the Living Dead and more.

The CGI isn't good and the gore is average. The whole movie just kind of happened. Nothing is terrible & I wasn't bored, I just wasn't moved by anything.
= 2.5 out of 5

DaleCooper · Jul 2, 2021

Watched Tenet twice on HBO. I can appreciate the concepts, but I think I'm growing out of Nolan's style. The movie was definitely lacking some emotional weight. It was really hard to care about any of the main characters and there was also something weird about the pacing.

Strings · Jul 2, 2021

Got around to the feature length version of Dumplings (2005) for the first time last month. Basically a weaker version of the Three... Extremes (2004) short (which I already thought was just okay).

Y'know a film isn't working for you when even Christopher Doyle at the height of his power fails to make it particularly interesting.

Conditional-Pancakes · Jul 2, 2021

If you've already watched Love and Monsters (2020) – and you should, it's a super fun movie – The Commentary Cast released an amazing commentary track for this film with director Michael Matthews. I just finished listening to it and it's absolutely wonderful.

LOVE & MONSTERS // MICHAEL MATTHEWS — The Commentary Cast

Director Michael Matthew provides a commentary for his film LOVE & MONSTERS.

www.thecommentarycast.com

Edit:
The episode released just a few hours ago, and it seems the widget on the episode's page didn't update yet. So in the meantime you can listen to the episode here:

Podcasts | Pandora

Discover your favorite Podcasts from a variety of categories including Daily News, Music, Business, True Crime, Comedy, Politics and more. Listen to Podcasts on Pandora.

www.stitcher.com

Akumatica · Jul 2, 2021

Strings said:
Got around to the feature length version of Dumplings (2005) for the first time last month. Basically a weaker version of the Three... Extremes (2004) short (which I already thought was just okay).

Y'know a film isn't working for you when even Christopher Doyle at the height of his power fails to make it particularly interesting.

Yeah, I felt the segment in Three Extremes was more effective. The full movie losses the jolt and shock the original short had.

Director Fruit Chan's The Midnight After (2014) is another interesting if uneven full length film.

meowdi gras · Jul 2, 2021

Manhunter (1986) - Dir: Michael Mann

All style and no substance, but it's Michael Mann so that's to be expected. And he seems unable to--or uninterested in--trying to elevate Thomas Harris's story from the sordid trash pulp that it is. As always, Mann's flourishes come across as only incidentally connected to whatever material he's shooting: his images don't seem to emerge entirely organically from the ideas presented, but rather to hype them, like a shiny wrapper. (Like many filmmakers who began to come up during that era, the syntax is more that of the extended showreel than the fully-developed structures historically associated with quality feature-length moviemaking.) Since Mann never seems to have developed his cinematic toolkit beyond this film school notion of craft, his work lives or dies on their visuals. As ever, they're dazzling, but fall short of comprising a very satisfying viewing experience.

All that said, I still prefer Mann's neon take on Harris's grimy world of Hannibal Lector and grisly atrocities than, say, Demme's. Both filmmakers present us with a mere heightened-cartoon vision of the desperate hunt for a serial killer (which may be all that's possible paying respect to such lurid grist). But not being a horror fan, I appreciate how Mann foregrounds the suspense vs Demme, whom resorts to too many gore-ific shock visuals.

Teenage Fansub · Jul 2, 2021

Saw the Sparks documentary last night. A lot of Edgar Wright's stylistic choices got on my nerves like all of the direct visual metaphors using stock footage to punctuate what people were saying, and it felt too long for one feature, but the brothers' history, music and charm is too great to really screw up too much. It all still shines through for a great time.
It probably would have been better as a three or four part doco series covering each era or something.

20 watches in July. Pretty good month. Saw lots of classics for the first time and spent a lot of time in cinemas 😊

New watches:
Army of Shadows
Chungking Express
La Notte
Out of Sight
Carnal Knowledge
Luca
Lapsis
Secret Ceremony
Le Cercle Rouge
Labyrinth of Cinema
The Outsiders
Joint Security Area
Terms of Endearment
Madonna: Truth or Dare
Cruella
Bell from Hell
In the Heights
Noise (Olivier Assayas concert film)
An American Pickle

Rewatch:
Hairspray (Waters ver)

Sean C. · Jul 2, 2021

16 films logged in June of 2021, which is lower than usual for me, between the Stanley Cup playoffs and television taking up a lot of time. I only had a couple of rewatches.

Top 5 new viewings
1. Luca (2021)
2. To Sleep with Anger (1990)
3. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
4. The Children's Hour (1961)
5. In the Heights (2021)

Body Double (1984): 1980s Brian De Palma, so you know you're in for a lot of lurid sexuality and Hitchcock homage/ripoff (depending on how generous or critical you're inclined to be). Here he gets especially obvious with the latter, some of the scenes even have deliberately fake-looking back-projection in the manner that technology of the time forced Hitchcock to use. This is also a bit of a Hollywood showbiz satire, which would seem to be fertile ground for De Palma and does generate some of the more memorable bits. Memorable, but doesn't get into classic status, partly because of how slow the first half is, and partly because most of the acting is quite dull, including from lead actor Craig Wasson.

Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021): The first part of Netflix's R.L. Stine-adapted horror trilogy, set in 1994 (other than a few music choices and the lack of cell phones, very little effort is made to make this seem like 1994, for the record). This feels more like a thriller than a horror film in a lot of ways, particularly because the major kills are heavily backloaded, so there's quite a long stretch where nobody apart from random extras are getting knifed; at a certain point I was wondering if none of the main characters were going to die at all. While there's nothing revelatory here, lead actresses Kiana Madeira and Olivia Scott Welch do a solid job of anchoring the story and making you root for them.

MidnightCowboy · Jul 2, 2021

Had the pleasure of seeing a 70MM print of Malcolm X last night, my first time. It's a behemoth of a movie, part gangster flick, part prison movie, part political/religious thriller, but because of that it never drags, always offering something new and exciting on the horizon. Malcolm's pilgrimage to Mecca is as awe-inspiring as you'd expect. I don't have a ton to add right now, so I'm just going to post some screenshots because Ernest Dickerson fucking deserves his flowers. I can't overstate how gorgeous this movie looks.

swoon · Jul 2, 2021

i didn't even know that there was a 70mm version of that. dickerson is pretty underrated as a cinematographer as well as a director. we need to really re-evaluate juice. his work on bosch is very obviously better than the other folks.

MidnightCowboy · Jul 2, 2021

swoon said:
i didn't even know that there was a 70mm version of that. dickerson is pretty underrated as a cinematographer as well as a director. we need to really re-evaluate juice. his work on bosch is very obviously better than the other folks.

No one is better at capturing the orange yellow glow of sunlight, especially through windows. You can see it in the third picture, it pops up in Mo' Better Blues, and of course it dominates the aesthetic of Do The Right Thing. Such rich color. I knew he'd directed some movies, but wow I didn't know he had such an extensive TV career.

overcast · Jul 3, 2021

BlueTsunami said:
Anyone catching 'Zola'? I'm surprised they actually adapted that crazy story and being received well critically.

I was looking forward to this one, being it was the first A24 produced flick I've seen in theaters since uncut gems. I thought it was pretty mediocre, honestly. Expected a fun time, read a few folks compare it to Spring Breakers. Not even close.

My issues were that it had very little sense of atmosphere apart from one or two scenes. Tension never escalated to an exciting level. The characterization across the board was weak; overall it just felt like they literallly translated the tweet to film.. which just isn't enough. It wore out its welcome by the end of its short run time.

Sean C. · Jul 4, 2021

Braveheart (1995): History as told by the guy sitting next to you at a bar; in error, but with gusto. This isn't a movie I can ever (to the extent that it's possible) be objective about, because it was a huge deal to me as a child in the late 1990s, back when my family owned the double-VHS set of it and I watched it a lot. A rowdy, enthusiastic epic that has all of Gibson's strengths as a filmmaker, as well as things reflecting his weaknesses (the questionable implications of its portrayal of the Prince of Wales, for instance, have only grown more obvious given some of Gibson's subsequent history). It's easy to see why this has had such an enduring legacy in pop culture. Rewatching it, for the first time in years, also reminded me how much this influenced both George R.R. Martin in the initial writing of A Song of Ice and Fire and Benioff & Weiss in the adaptation (they wholesale rip off key moments of the depiction of the Battle of Falkirk for the Battle of the Bastards).

Outlaw King (2018): In the leadup to Black Widow I decided to look over Florence Pugh's filmography; this was one of the two notable films she's made that I hadn't seen yet, which is odd in some ways because I really like historical dramas and I can't recall why I hadn't made a point of watching this before now. Having decided on this, I then decided to pair it with Braveheart, because this Robert the Bruce biopic is very obviously in dialogue with that earlier film. Much of that dialogue being a whole raft of obvious correctives -- now the Prince of Wales isn't effeminate and a weakling, he's a sword-wielding bully boy! No anachronistic wode or kilts, all historically accurate costumes! Robert's father isn't a leper for some reason! And so on. This is a full hour shorter than Braveheart, which I don't think is to its advantage; at certain points it feels like a Cliff Notes of events, and the narrative kind of peters out at the end (the climax is Robert's victory at Loudon Hill in 1307, at which point it jumps ahead to 1314 after Bannockburn when Robert and his wife were reunited). This would have been best-served as either a real epic or as a miniseries that had more time for everything. But as it is, it's solid entertainment. Pugh, as Robert's wife Elizabeth, is good, though she doesn't have much to do in the movie's second half.

Naijaboy · Jul 5, 2021

Back to School (1986) This is one of those movies where one actor dues most of the heavy lifting when it comes to acting. Not that most of the other actors have much to work with (including a young RDJ as an anti-social Marxist). I think the main reason that this film is a cult classic is not just due to Rodney Dangerfield, but also the fact that it addresses the concept of rich donors pretty frankly. He basically put in funds for a new school and used that to get in with some faculty enthusiastically accepting that (with the consequences beginning to rear its ugly head now). Older folks can also reminisce on their past lives on college. With that said, there's more than a few jokes that aged terribly over the years. That and the fact of how little everyone else stands out besides the British antagonist makes me think it won't stand the tests of time soon. 6/10

Sudden Fear (1952) This is far from a classic film noir from what I've seen so far, but man does Joan Crawford give it her all in this one. Lenore J. Coffee and Robert Smith deserve some credit too for using some interesting ideas to showcase what's on Joan's mind throughout the film. To this film's credit, the rest of the cast fair better with the other actors delivering some good performances. And the climax is one of the better ones of the genre. 7.5/10

Dead Poets Society (1989) This one hurt. I don't think I've heard of the movie before which feels ridiculous as I remember Robin William's suicide news vividly. And it's just that kind of movie that hurts watching, both for the theme and for feeling a bit of the same as the boys myself. It's just a great film from top to bottom. 8.5/10

Sean C. · Jul 6, 2021

Naijaboy said:
Dead Poets Society (1989) This one hurt. I don't think I've heard of the movie before which feels ridiculous as I remember Robin William's suicide news vividly.

Wow, really? I thought everyone had to watch this multiple times in the course of K-12 schooling in most places.

Great movie, though.

Naijaboy · Jul 6, 2021

Sean C. said:
Wow, really? I thought everyone had to watch this multiple times in the course of K-12 schooling in most places.

Great movie, though.

I had Goldbergs to thank for that.

Akumatica · Jul 7, 2021

The Grudge 2 (2006)
Middling entry in the series picks up after the 1st film and presents 3 entwining stories of people affected by the curse while taking place in Japan and Chicago.

Only slightly creepy, there's some poor acting, an overbearing score, unneeded backstory for Kayako and establishing ||her American counterpart|| (which the third film ignores).

A few effective scenes and the trademark bleak fatalistic tone keep it from being awful.
=2 out of 5

The Grudge 3 (2009)
Direct to video sequel that continues the story of the 1st two American entries. Now all but one scene takes place in Chicago and most of that is in one apartment building which is a poor replacement for the original house in Japan.

Kayako's backstory is even more pointlessly developed with the introduction of a sister as is the premise of a sealing ceremony to contain the curse.

Kayako's scenes work better here than in 2 for creepiness, it's just everything else that is rote. The acting, dialogue and theme song are all bad. It ditches the non-linearity of the previous films and tacks on well worn melodrama.
=2 out of 5

Bloody Chainsaw Girl (2016)
Above average when compared to a lot of the genre, it's still a bit lackluster when it comes to what you expect from a good Japanese splatter comedy. A few good props and lots of blood try to cover up the lack of quality gore effects and the plot is dead simple-

"A chainsaw wielding juvenile delinquent, trying complete a test in order to graduate, is constantly challenged at school by other students who've been turned into the cyborg enhanced undead."

A small budget might be the reason for its' brevity but it could have been more creative.
=3 out of 5

The Exterminating Angel (1962)
A dinner party for wealthy guests becomes a surreal nightmare when none of them can leave.

Only the second film I've seen from Luis Bunuel after Un Chien Andalou and it pulls you in as the descent of these supposedly sophisticated upper class people quickly reveal their ugly sides. A number of them are moral people which helps contrast the behaviors and attitudes on display. Thankfully they're not all selfish assholes as I suspect a modern version of this would have made them out to be.

I'm reading that Bunuel had aimed this as a satire of Spain's ruling class and even without knowing much of the history you feel it's point much like Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.
=4 out of 5

Borgnine · Jul 8, 2021

Is there a reason No Sudden Move is shot like a fucking skate video?

Sean C. said:
I decided to look over Florence Pugh

Nice.

ElephantShell · Jul 8, 2021

Watched Burnt Offerings on Shudder the other night home alone in the dark. The smiling dude scared the shit out of me. Overall great movie that I'm surprised I hadn't seen yet.

wafflebrain · Jul 8, 2021

Watched some movies today off of one of Indiewire's 2021 lists:

Penguin Bloom (Netflix): Based on a real life story of a woman that was paralyzed from the chest down after falling off a balcony on a trip to Thailand. Andrew Lincoln and Naomi Watts star. She forms a bond with a magpie that is initially flightless that one of her children find on a beach. It's a heartwarming movie if a bit saccharine at times. The bird truly, unironically steals the show. It's cute and a bit of tear jerker.

Night of the Kings (Hulu): Set in the Ivory Coast's MACA prison this revolves around one night in the prison in which the leader of the prison demands a new inmate to be a storyteller for the duration of the evening due to the appearance of a blood moon. If he finishes his story before sunrise he is to be killed. I don't want to spoil too much about this, it's a really exceptional picture. Lots of detail put into the prison environment and the acting is off the fucking charts. The sociological aspects of this particular prison culture and their hierarchies and rituals is executed really well. Highly recommended!

Next on my to watch list will be Little Fish, Minari, and The Father.

MidnightCowboy · Jul 8, 2021

This is the Night
Humor, romance, Cary Grant's chin—all the ingredients for a great picture are here, but the final result is too thin to have any staying power. The scenario is reminiscent of a Preston Sturges joint, romantic entanglement muddled by a deceptive, madcap scheme, only it lacks a certain chutzpah. The first half employs some bizzaro musicality, utilizing song and rhythm for comedic sake, editing to the beat, which is neat and all...but the film drops the conceit pretty damn fast, making you wonder why it was ever used in the first place. Methinks the entire movie should have been like that. Thelma Todd is the standout performer, but unfortunately she's underutilized, lingering mostly in the background. A blue tint is used for night scenes and it gives the Venice canals a nice ethereal feel. Lastly, it's always fun seeing risqué innuendo in pre-code movies.

MidnightCowboy · Jul 8, 2021

Borgnine said:
Is there a reason No Sudden Move is shot like a fucking skate video?

Soderbergh's current phase is "what if movies looked bad?"

BlueTsunami · Jul 10, 2021

Rented this yesterday based on the suggestion from a friend. Essentially ruined my night. Has to be one of the bleakest films I've ever watched and it had no qualms about lingering on it. There's this penultimate scene that's actually sticking with me due to how brutal it was and it just kept going. It's one of those films that drains you.

Blader · Jul 10, 2021

MidnightCowboy said:
Soderbergh's current phase is "what if movies looked bad?"

I liked the iPhone look in Unsane, but it gave me a headache in High Flying Bird. Though that could just be the movie itself.

TaySan · Jul 10, 2021

ElephantShell said:
Watched Burnt Offerings on Shudder the other night home alone in the dark. The smiling dude scared the shit out of me. Overall great movie that I'm surprised I hadn't seen yet.

Watched it yesterday for the first time and yea it gave me the creeps. lol

Naijaboy · Jul 13, 2021

Finished with the Terry Gilliam trilogy.

Time Bandits (1981): The social commentary here isn't as clear here as it is in Brazil, but the visual wizardry is a amazing as ever. I can see why people had faith in him to perform a sequel. There's also plenty of funny bits spread throughout the movie. It does end in a bit of a deus ex machima and the plot itself feels a bit scatterbrained. Still, the movie should be watched just to see how Terry pulls off all those special effects. 7/10

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989) Like with Brazil, the theme itself is more clear than in Time Bandits. It's a last hurrah for a group of old friends who have extraordinary abilities (or even powers) and have amazing stories to tell. It's probably the best portrayal of superpowers since Reeves Superman and it's just awe-inspiring to watch. 8/10

Conditional-Pancakes · Jul 14, 2021

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)

I saw this appear on Netflix today, and I had no idea what it was. I had never heard of it. So I did a quick search to learn a bit more about it, and the first thing I stumbled upon was a Reddit thread about the film where some guys were proclaiming that feminism is a sham because women will always need a man each time they want to move their fridge.

So I quickly closed my browser, (nearly) threw my laptop out the window, and decided to just watch the film.

And wow, I'm glad I did! I find very interesting to see movies being clearly and directly inspired by John Wick this year. There was Nobody back in March, and now this one. But Gunpowder Milkshake is letting itself be inspired by completely different aspects of John Wick than what we saw with Nobody.

This film is gorgeous. The color palette throughout the film is beautiful, and the cinematography is very stylish, even complete with a fair amount of split diopter shots if you can imagine. I think the main draw of this film is definitely its style. And while the story is very serviceable with a lot of good moments, the movie was clearly made to be fun and stylish above all. It's a bit of a style over substance affair, but it really succeeds in what it tries to do.

It was really fun to see Karen Gillan in the main role, especially after the last film I saw her in, which was very different. And seeing Carla Gugino in a secondary role was fantastic after having seen her in... well, a lot of the stuff I had to watch for this thread. Honestly, Carla is so magnificent. I could watch her watching paint dry. She is absolutely fabulous.

I had a lot of fun with this movie.

Recommended.

BlueTsunami · Jul 15, 2021

Final third of this film had me like

I already really dug what I witnessed but the more I read people's deconstructions and opinions the more I love what the film allows to exist in ones imagination due to its abstract nature. One things for sure, I adore the cinematography so much and I wish more filmmakers would do more horror from this era.

MidnightCowboy · Jul 15, 2021

Intimate Lighting
Wonderfully digressive and unassuming, this is a magnificent slice of provincial humor that thrives on lively characterization and understated whimsy. As a weekend hangout movie at its core, it eschews plot for gesture and image, preferring to let its delightful cast and a handful of small moments dictate the tempo. When I think back on it, the first thing that comes to mind is the gentle tickle of a drunk man's neck, an inconsequential but nonetheless essential moment in my eyes. Next is the sight of a lone chicken standing proudly atop the roof of a car, followed by a swarm of them that would feel right at home in a Zelda game. There's also the look of genuine surprise and panic upon the grandfather's face when he realizes he won't be getting a drumstick, grandma's tummy exercises, a pair of cute kittens, Bambas double-fisting a midnight snack, and of course the riotous final scene. I know I'm just listing moments and not really explaining why the movie works, but I simply enjoy being around these people, spending time in their chaotic, genial abode. The spirit/tone just strikes a chord with me, it's not an ostentatious product, it's not aiming for gut buster after gut buster like some comedies. It's content with a constant stream of soft chuckles, and I admire that about it.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Can't quite sustain the magic of the first act all the way through, Dreyfus going crazy bogs the film down a bit despite highlighting the domestic strife that fuels his decision at the end, but it rebounds with a wondrous finale. Immaculate production design, gorgeous use of color, just an all around visual feast. Vilmos the god.

Black Widow
C-Grade Mission Impossible with an exceptionally ugly (read: fake) last act, but I have to admit I did enjoy the cast and (some) of their banter.

Stoney Mason · Jul 16, 2021

Sean C. said:
Braveheart (1995): History as told by the guy sitting next to you at a bar; in error, but with gusto. This isn't a movie I can ever (to the extent that it's possible) be objective about, because it was a huge deal to me as a child in the late 1990s, back when my family owned the double-VHS set of it and I watched it a lot. A rowdy, enthusiastic epic that has all of Gibson's strengths as a filmmaker, as well as things reflecting his weaknesses (the questionable implications of its portrayal of the Prince of Wales, for instance, have only grown more obvious given some of Gibson's subsequent history). It's easy to see why this has had such an enduring legacy in pop culture. Rewatching it, for the first time in years, also reminded me how much this influenced both George R.R. Martin in the initial writing of A Song of Ice and Fire and Benioff & Weiss in the adaptation (they wholesale rip off key moments of the depiction of the Battle of Falkirk for the Battle of the Bastards).

It would be interesting to watch Braveheart today. It also had a huge impact on me when I saw it as a young person but I wonder if it would have the same hold on me as an adult for many reasons including who Mel Gibson is as a person now that we know who he really is. And some of the simplicity of the story. I feel like we demand more from that kind of movie now than what we did in the past.

Stoney Mason · Jul 16, 2021

Some of the recent movies I've seen and thoughts.

Commando

I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid. As a kid I watched it because Arnold was a god and I knew he would do alot of great killing and it was actually a taboo kind of movie for its time because my parents wouldn't have wanted me to watch it. To watch it as an adult I had a feeling coming in, I wouldn't like it and would think its a piece of shit. It was actually a better experience than I thought going in. Watching it now feels sort of similar to how you feel watching an early Jackie Chan film. It's so specifically of its time and era that while its completely cheesy, there is also a charm there. The movie flows really well. Knows what it is. Doesn't overstay its welcome. It's not an all time great action movie or anything but its fun and isn't dragged down by some of tropes of the era that kind of feel unwatchable nowadays.

Chronicles of Riddick

Hated it when it originally came out after really liking Pitch Black back in the day. I like it a smidge more now because I can appreciate some of the weirdness more now and scene chewing that a lot of the actors are doing. Thandie Newton for example is terrifically hilarious and I mean that as a total compliment. The movie has plenty of issues but really I think the big issue is Vin Diesel. He's just to sleepy to play this kind of wanna be bad ass character. The movie would never be great but a real charming rapscallion actor would kind of lift everything about the movie. You need somebody to match the energy Thandie Newton is bringing from her role in the lead role. But instead Vin does his version of sleepy cool and that may work in the Fast and Furious but it feels wrong here. It's an interesting comparison actually to Commando but because neither Vin or Arnold are "good" actors but Arnold just brings more energy to commando while Vin brings his ambien approach and energy is generally better for b tier schlock kind of movies like these imo.

8 1/2

I don't think I've ever seen a Fellini film before or if I did, I was arguably too young to appreciate that kind of work or for it stick in my mind. It's of course an interesting film and a very attractive film. I like how it blends between the real and the dream like stuff. It's definitely "artsy" but I never felt overly lost like can you during a movie that is dealing with a lot of allegory like say the Seventh Seal which I struggled mightily with, when I saw it as a young person. I definitely liked it. Maybe not as much as the historical weight the film has but I did like it and will check out more Fellini moving forward.

shaneo632 · Jul 16, 2021

Just watched Space Jam 2 and am about to go watch Escape Room 2 and then The Purge 5. Trinity of Shit, here we go!

Peco · Jul 16, 2021

Day of the Evil Gun; damn fine movie

Sanctuary · Jul 17, 2021

Just finished PG: Psycho Goreman, and if you enjoyed Kung Fury or Turbo Kid, it's a must watch. It's completely absurd and over the top in a Troma kind of way. Or maybe just the NC-17 version of Power Rangers.

Previous viewings of the month:

1. Werewolves Within - basically a supernatural Knives Out.

2. Black Widow - As someone else already said, it's basically Mission Impossible (with some nods to Bourne), but nowhere near as good.

3. Bloodthirsty - Think Perfect Blue, but with much more red.

4. Fear Street trilogy. Enjoyed the first film the most, followed by the second. The third film was fine, but not nearly as entertaining to me.

Akumatica · Jul 17, 2021

The Straight Story (1999)
David Lynch's most conventional and mainstream film about a 73 year old man who drives a lawn mower more than 300 miles to see his stroke addled estranged brother to make amends, is still filled with hallmarks of his work. Slightly surreal and humorous with regret and pain, it's very involving.

Mini-episodes with people he encounters mostly stay away from tropes and conventional conflict which is a big plus.

Fine acting & great camera work, the only real nitpick I have is with some of the score which does often feel familiar.
=4 out of 5

The Third Man (1949)
An amazingly made noir on just about every level & it never goes to far into the details of the mystery as we know as much as the protagonist. The use of post war Vienna as the setting, expressionistic lighting, elaborate sets, Dutch angles and multiple un-subtitled languages all adds to the experience.

Orson Welles' role if brief but his character evokes malevolence well.
=5 out of 5

Adder7806 · Jul 18, 2021

Jut saw Edge of Tomorrow.

I think it's my favorite Tom Cruise movie. Really enjoyed it.

Sean C. · Jul 18, 2021

Manhunter (1986): Michael Mann's third feature film, made on the heels of the success of Miami Vice, remains interesting as the first adaptation of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels, because aesthetically it's nothing like any of the subsequent adaptations, and the same can be said of Brian Cox's performance as Lecter (excuse me, "Lektor"). It has some cool moments, and it's funny to see William Petersen as Will Graham 15 years before CSI, but fundamentally this is still a Harris adaptation that ends on a freeze-frame of triumph set to a power ballad.

Bringing Up Baby (1938): My latest acquisition from the Criterion Collection now that it's out of Blu-ray (the booklet includes the short story this was adapted from, which is an interesting point of comparison), I hadn't watched this in at least a decade, back when I was still buying DVDs. I recall that I found it a bit strange at the time, mainly in terms of how Hepburn's character is written; in the intervening time I've had a lot more experience with screwball comedies, etc., so I have a much better understanding of where this stands in the history of the genre. It's still not my favourite of the Hepburn/Grant collaborations, but it's more interesting to me this time, also in the context of Grant's career, where it's almost an opposite to his later His Girl Friday in terms of the relationship dynamics.

Black Widow (2021): Discussed in the review thread, but overall I liked it.

Fear Street: 1978 (2021): Each new entry in this trilogy made me more and more of the mindset that this should really have been a miniseries, because that's how it's structured moreso than a trilogy of films. But this is a solid take on the 70s slasher prototype, and it continues the most surprising strength of these movies, namely, that it puts more emphasis than usual on character relationships. I did end up caring about the sisters and even their obviously doomed friend. Developments in the next movie shed an even creepier light on some of the events herein.

No Sudden Move (2021): I reacted to this the same way I do to a lot of Steven Soderbergh's work, in that there's a lot of obvious craft here and a talented ensemble of actors, but I never felt much reason to care about anything that was happening. Matt Damon continues his habit of getting strong cameo roles in films.

Marie Antoinette (2006): There was a period in the 2000s where I was really annoyed that I didn't like Sofia Coppola more, because she was the most talked-about female auteur in those years (especially in English-language filmmaking), and that was a pretty short list. But so many of her movies I just find boring. Marie Antoinette has more energy than a lot of others, but it has a similar problem that I find in many of her films, in that she doesn't really do much to develop the theme/concept beyond its basic form. Here, we're shown right off the bat that Versailles is a fantasyland cocoon removed from the problems in the rest of France, and virtually every scene restates this point, but without doing anything more with it. Fantastic production design and costumes, as you would expect.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943): Rewatching this Hitchcock film for the first time in several years. Features an uncle-niece relationship so creepy that the fact that nobody else in this supposedly wholesome Middle America setting thinks there's anything weird about it casts doubt on the whole setting. We know from the famous anecdote about the making of The Birds that Hitchcock did not concern himself with "but why would the character do this?" type questions, but even by his standards this film has a lot of those. It's a shame that Teresa Wright's career was smothered by the studios after she tried to buck the system, because she was a real talent.

To Catch a Thief (1955): Another rewatch. Probably the best-looking film Hitchcock ever made, and Grant and Kelly are great onscreen together. The story doesn't measure up to his best, including the later North by Northwest, in terms of memorable setpieces.

Fear Street: 1666 (2021): When I mentioned earlier that this really should be a miniseries, 1666 is the prime example of that, because it's really two distinct episodes neatly divided almost down the middle. A solid denouement for the story, particularly the title portion, which is a decent riff on The VVitch. When we return to the 1990s we indulge in some more nostalgia (Super Soakers!). Tonally by the end this has shifted away from horror somewhat, but I liked it. Kiana Madeira gets to show a lot of range here, I hope this leads to more roles for her.

bomma man · Jul 19, 2021

Duck, You Sucker! 4.5/5

Despite being a Leone stan for about 15 years (fuck) I somehow didn't even realise this was him, despite seeing it on the shelf at the Video City every time I browsed - I think I assumed (by virtue of the alt title Fistful of Dynamite) that it was a Leone parody or copycat rather than the real deal. In some ways I'm glad I waited, because the themes of this movie would've gone completely over my head when I was 16. Tonaly all over the place from the start - intentionally so - the movie begins with a Mao quote about revolution and the lead character pissing on an ant hill immediately after. The best propagandists of the USSR couldn't come up with a better caricature of the elite than what Leone does in the first set piece, which includes the truly grotesque culmination of his trade mark ultra ultra ultra close ups. There's a lot of silliness and humour, but also pathos and thematic depth. Leone can barely disguise his contempt for the Mexican Army (like GB&U, this starts off as a western but it's really a war movie) - the main antagonist doesn't even have any lines, he doesn't need any - but the revolutionary movement that opposes them is hardly depicted uncritically. Making the traitor to the cause a doctor, and explicitly referencing Bakunin, makes that obvious. And by making John a former IRA fighter, with flashbacks, Leone's telling us that he means this as a critique of all revolutions and resistance movements, rather than the Mexican Revolution specifically. But, despite his reservations and bitterness, I think that he's ultimately saying that there is no choice but to fight.

Rob Steiger is incredible, managing to completely sell the tonal shifts, despite having one of the worst attempts at a Mexican accent ever committed to film.

Three of the sickest explosions, too.

I think I'm going to watch the Dollars trilogy again now, it's been so long. Started Fistful last night, and it was immediately apparent how far Leone's confidence and style (and to be fair, budget) had come between the two.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire 4.5/5

Just... gorgeous.

Blow Out 3.5/5

I thought the script sagged a bit in places, but almost everything else was excellent: Travolta, Philly, the camera work, that ending. It really skewers the American myth in a way I was really not expecting going in repackaging and profiting from collective trauma, chef's kiss.

Brazil 4/5

Highly derivative of 1984, but much better, as Gilliam (like Verhoeven) understands the inherent absurdity of taking the Thatcher/Reagan ideology to its logical end point (and, well...). The single office repurposed as two, including the furniture, is such a great gag. I saw someone else mention that another was that it was Christmas everyday, to maximise superfluous consumption, but I just thought it was the Christmas season?

Apocalypse Now (original cut) 4.5/5

Hadn't seen this in a very long time, and I think I'd only seen Redux before. Probably not much to say that hasn't been said before by people way smarter than me, but what stood out to me was the beauty of it, fuck it's a good looking movie. I'm glad Brando turned up to the shoot fat if those low-light scenes are what we got out of it!

MidnightCowboy · Jul 19, 2021

Duck, You Sucker is definitely the most affecting Leone movie. I was surprised at how moving it was.

djinn · Jul 19, 2021

About Elly, an Iranian film about these friends inviting the kindy teacher of their kids to a weekend away at the beach. Then the kindy teacher drowns and plot ensues. Really good, very natural acting and scenes.

bomma man · Jul 19, 2021

MidnightCowboy said:
Duck, You Sucker is definitely the most affecting Leone movie. I was surprised at how moving it was.

The scene in the cave and the scene in the rain are real gut punches, especially after the twin triumphs of freeing the prison and blowing up the bridge (with one of the aforementioned sick explosions).

andrew · Jul 19, 2021

Bad Day at Black Rock ****1/2 Damn this was good. Lean, mean, no-nonsense thriller with hardbitten dialogue and a million great character actors that asks whether the soul of post WW2 America can still be saved. Wanted to watch it again the second it ended.

djinn said:
About Elly, an Iranian film about these friends inviting the kindy teacher of their kids to a weekend away at the beach. Then the kindy teacher drowns and plot ensues. Really good, very natural acting and scenes.

Isn't this a huge spoiler? I recall the film hinging on not being sure whether Elly drowned or not. Been a while though. Fantastic movie.

djinn · Jul 19, 2021

andrew said:
Isn't this a huge spoiler? I recall the film hinging on not being sure whether Elly drowned or not. Been a while though. Fantastic movie.

I can hide it sorry. I figured since the movie revolved around this point that I could share it, otherwise it's difficult to describe what the movie's about.

andrew · Jul 19, 2021

djinn said:
I can hide it sorry. I figured since the movie revolved around this point that I could share it, otherwise it's difficult to describe what the movie's about.

No no worries, I genuinely didn't remember for sure. I thought it was clear she disappears but for the rest of the movie you're not sure whether she drowned or ran away (until the end at least), but looking back at the plot now the mystery is more whether she agreed to come with them to the beach or was pressured into it.

If you haven't seen other Farhadi movies he's well worth a look. A Separation is one of the best movies of the 2010s.

djinn · Jul 19, 2021

andrew said:
No no worries, I genuinely didn't remember for sure. I thought it was clear she disappears but for the rest of the movie you're not sure whether she drowned or ran away (until the end at least), but looking back at the plot now the mystery is more whether she agreed to come with them to the beach or was pressured into it.

If you haven't seen other Farhadi movies he's well worth a look. A Separation is one of the best movies of the 2010s.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for it.

Quaker · Jul 19, 2021

djinn said:
About Elly, an Iranian film about these friends inviting the kindy teacher of their kids to a weekend away at the beach. Then the kindy teacher drowns and plot ensues. Really good, very natural acting and scenes.

Oh, this is the "A Separation" guy. Will add to the queue.

Recently watched Tehran Taboo and There is No Evil, two recent *Iranian movies that deal with the death penalty/government in Iran in different ways. The former was a little half-baked but would definitely recommend the latter.

(*Actually, they're both fairly critical of the government so they might not strictly be Iranian productions.)

Oddly enough I remember watching an older Iranian movie(maybe Close Up) and being very impressed by the way they seemed to handle civil matters in court as far as mediation goes.

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