Movies You've Seen Recently | June 2018

MidnightCowboy · Jun 28, 2018

Am I crazy in thinking that Hereditary's ending undermines its message with regards to mental health? It goes from a fascinating exploration of mental health across multiple generations of family to whatever haunted house shit it becomes. I guess I wanted more Woman Under the Influence, and less Rosemary's Baby.

Osahi · Jun 28, 2018

More_Badass said:
Goes to show how subjective horror is since I was very disappointed by It Follows and could barely finish it as well (but not because it was scary), while Hereditary was one of the most unsettling and dread-inducing horror films I've seen in years

For me, It Follows was never better than its first fifteen minutes and that one scene in the school with the old lady. That opening jump cut was more unsettling and disturbing than anything else in the film, a fantastic example of leaving things to the imagination.

Idd. Horror can be very subjective. A lot of times I hear how people were dreaded by a movie, while I don't understand what he fuzz was about (not coincidentially similar movies to Hereditary, like Rosemary's Baby and The Excorcist. I liked those, but they didn't scare me hat much).

It Follows was to me a relentless excercise in suspense. How in every almost shot there is at least somebody slowly walking towards the main characters made it almost too much to bear for me. Even when the movie should release tension, it keeps you tensed that way. It's something that's is really effective on me personally.

betheking · Jun 28, 2018

I just watched Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom last week. The plot does not attract me which make me feel a little disappointed. I think Ready Player One is the best one in this year.

SugarNoodles · Jun 28, 2018

I saw Oceans 8 tonight and it was delightful

Divius · Jun 28, 2018

Rewatched all the Jurassic Park films in preparation for the new one in theaters, but after revisiting Jurassic World I've decided not to go see JW2. What a steaming pile of dino droppings compared to the OG trilogy. The first movie is one of my childhood defining movies and I have nothing but love for it, 2 and 3 are both okay and each have their moments.

MidnightCowboy · Jun 28, 2018

Divius said:
Rewatched all the Jurassic Park films in preparation for the new one in theaters, but after revisiting Jurassic World I've decided not to go see JW2. What a steaming pile of dino droppings compared to the OG trilogy. The first movie is one of my childhood defining movies and I have nothing but love for it, 2 and 3 are both okay and each have their moments.

Divius · Jun 28, 2018

Definitely one of those moments ;)

captscience · Jun 28, 2018

Sounds like the Barnes and Noble Criterion sale is starting early on Friday 6/29. Get your wallets ready!

Deleted member 3542 · Jun 28, 2018

captscience said:
Sounds like the Barnes and Noble Criterion sale is starting early on Friday 6/29. Get your wallets ready!

Sheeeeeiiiiiittttttt....

Rhomega · Jun 28, 2018

Big Hero 6: Baymax is adorable, and San Fransokyo is gorgeous. Well-done action with technology-based powers. I wasn't expecting a superhero team, just Hiro and Baymax, which made me wonder about the title. Disney did a good job making a superhero movie without Pixar and Marvel Studios.

Flow · Jun 28, 2018

Wrote about Beach Rats for pride month.

Beach Rats was one of my most anticipated films of 2017, and it is a damn shame I waited till midway into 2018 to watch it. Call Me by Your Name might have been the premiere gay film of 2017, but if you haven't watched Beach Rats then you haven't seen all that 2017 had to offer.

Before I begin, I have to say Beach Rats is a beautifully shot film that almost feels as if it was made in a European setting. Director Eliza Hittman, a Brooklyn native, has a knack for capturing her hometown during the summer, and her darker lit scenes ooze pure atmosphere and intimacy. The film was even featured in The Playlist's best cinematography of 2017 list.

The opening of Beach Rats, directed by Hittman
The film focuses on a teenager named Frankie(Harris Dickinson) and his uncertainty towards his sexuality and overall identity. The film opens up with Frankie searching through an all-male hookup video chat room until he finds someone to talk to. All the men in the photos seem to be shirtless or outright naked, and we see that Frankie is fascinated by this. The older man asks him if he wants to hang out tonight, which Frankie turns down. Before the man exits the chat Frankie says, "Wait… let me see your dick." This one scene sets the tone of the film because we know Frankie is tempted by this gentleman, this desire, this urge, this outright fascination with the male body.

Later that night Frankie goes out with his group of guy friends to the Coney Island boardwalk, and while watching the fireworks he is hit on by Simone(Madeline Weinstein). What we see is something a little bit different from typical male/female encounters. It is a rare sight when the girl makes all the sexual advances and the guy is hesitant toward them. He really doesn't want to be left alone with her, nor does he have her viewpoints on romance. All of what I just described is in the first 10 minutes of Beach Rat, and from there the film blossoms.

Beach Rats is a dark erotic portrayal of a coming out story, and to an extent a coming of age story because it isn't romanticized, nor is their beauty in what Frankie experiences. As the film progresses, his courage grows in the chat rooms, and he starts to meet with these guys. His meetings with these men are always in dark places as if what they are doing is taboo. There is nothing pretty about how he interacts with these people. One thing I will never forget about this film is one of the conversations Frankie has with Simone. He asks Simone what she thinks about girls on girls, to which she responds, "When two girls make out it is hot but when two guys make out it is gay." That one single line is so devastating and haunting because you know it is an actual perception Americans have. Often times guys and even girls encourage sexual interactions between girls but flinch when guys do the same. That is why I like Beach Rats, because it doesn't flinch when capturing Frankie's sexual explorations. The film shows full-on male nudity from the beginning and doesn't shy away from guy on guy sex scenes.

I can't blame Frankie for how he feels; he doesn't have someone to talk to. His friends are all typical meatheads, his younger sister is too busy finding her own identity, and his mother is trying to balance adulthood and her husband being on his deathbed. Frankie is gay but clearly doesn't know anything about how to be gay or what is normal. All the gay activities are done in the dark. You honestly feel bad for him, because he is alienated from gays and straight people. He tries hard to fit in, but his voice and mannerisms give him away. The look in his eyes is tragic as he stares at straight couples and longs for what they have. Maybe that is what forces him to like Simone, because he associates happiness with straight people and ugliness with gay love.

Dickinson in Beach Rats
Earlier in the film, when Frankie first meets Simone, she mentions how romantic the fireworks are, which prompts Frankie to say, "There is nothing special about the them because it is the same show every Friday." He says they are the opposite of romantic, lending more power to the ending of the film, which ends with the same fireworks. The fireworks are a symbol of celebration, but it is clear there is nothing to celebrate, and that is what makes Beach Rats a dark portrayal of male masculinity and sexuality.

Messofanego · Jun 28, 2018

MidnightCowboy said:
Am I crazy in thinking that Hereditary's ending undermines its message with regards to mental health? It goes from a fascinating exploration of mental health across multiple generations of family to whatever haunted house shit it becomes. I guess I wanted more Woman Under the Influence, and less Rosemary's Baby.

Yes.

Messofanego said:
I got tricked with the subject matter of Hereditary. I was expecting a film about family secrets, repression, grief, mental illness, and intergenerational trauma. Could've been an awesome mix of It Follows and The Babadook. The editing, sound design, and cinematography are masterful. The motifs are memorable. The shot compositions of the scares are great, and it was fun watching my fiance and the audience jump at moments. The opening shot is amazing, made me want to find out how they did it. I was hoping the film would go more into the psychology of the characters, especially the dad, explaining why they react the way they do. Turns out that was all a lead up to a generic horror plotline that is below such a beautifully crafted film focused on performances, tension, and anxieties. Only Toni Collette's character is fully explored in depth while the rest are undercooked. She deserves awards for her performance. Can easily recommend watching this just because of the audiovisual feast and will follow whatever Ari Aster does next, but I was a bit disappointed.

Messofanego · Jun 28, 2018

Osahi said:
Idd. Horror can be very subjective. A lot of times I hear how people were dreaded by a movie, while I don't understand what he fuzz was about (not coincidentially similar movies to Hereditary, like Rosemary's Baby and The Excorcist. I liked those, but they didn't scare me hat much).

It Follows was to me a relentless excercise in suspense. How in every almost shot there is at least somebody slowly walking towards the main characters made it almost too much to bear for me. Even when the movie should release tension, it keeps you tensed that way. It's something that's is really effective on me personally.

Exactly. The dread is unending in It Follows, that's why it's special for me. The title card's placement is perfection. This is what I said back in 2015 when I saw it with a Q&A:

I've been praising this up and down since I saw it.

One of the best horror movies I've seen in a while. Closest comparisons could be The Ring and The Thing. Or Black Hole, if you've read the comic. Never had such a neverending uneasiness throughout during a horror movie. The unending dread had me shaking. Usually, even the best horror movies give you breaks. Exorcist, The Babadook, Antichrist. Little reprieve here.

Movie is very Lovecraftian in a way. You can never fully understand. I can see this sticking my head for a while. There's a whole lot of subtext about nightmares, sexual anxiety, paranoia, and diseases.

The setting is a hodgepodge of 80s and modern like the nerd girl has a polly pocket that doubles as a kindle, like we're in an out-of-time dimension to avoid dating the film. There's a bunch of subversion on 80s slasher stuff like how sex would be demonised there but here it's more positive. Even though you see the antagonist(s) and can easily escape, it's not about seeing a monster whose scariness would diminish once seen. It's knowing that the world is ultimately toying with you.

The steadicam and dolly camera 360° movements were unnerving and nail-biting. Disasterpeace's score was absolutely chilling, bringing out his scary side in accompaniment with his typical nostalgic charming style. The characters are believable and likeable where you get invested in them as they're trying their best to help. Maika Monroe (The Guest) was captivating to watch as she, along with the viewer, are on such an unpredictable and purgatorial suburban nightmare.

Could see this being a classic.

It's a shame his second feature doesn't seem to be as interesting, but will still see it.

andrew · Jun 28, 2018

Messofanego said:
It's a shame his second feature doesn't seem to be as interesting, but will still see it.

Third! People forget The Myth of the American Sleepover. Solid low-key debut.

MidnightCowboy · Jun 28, 2018

Messofanego said:
Yes.

Agree with pretty much everything you said. I still really enjoyed my time with it, it's masterfully crafted in numerous ways, but hard not to be a little disappointed when it was so close to greatness.

Messofanego · Jun 29, 2018

andrew said:
Third! People forget The Myth of the American Sleepover. Solid low-key debut.

My bad lol, I keep on forgetting I also saw that.

Flow · Jun 29, 2018

talked about it in the discord, but I am getting ready to start a Bergman marathon from beginning to end. I have only seen persona so I am excited for this.

I will cross post my thoughts in the new thread.

Ridley327 · Jun 29, 2018

Red Sparrow: A fun and occasionally nasty bit of spy thriller pulp, dressed to the nines like a major prestige project. One gets the feeling that the latter was the intention at one point, with its big, splashy cast and timely subject matter, but I suspect that by the time that the "whore school" training begins and we're treated to all kinds of various indignities that you definitely would not find in your average awards hopeful. Sure enough, this is the rare mainstream film that isn't afraid to get really messy with its content, with violence and sexuality pushed to disturbing extremes, made all the more effective with the film's stone-faced tone. The kind of solemnity the film trades does have the tendency to rub against the genre trappings that it feels more comfortable with, which isn't necessarily the worst problem in the world, but it does lead to a film where you may not be sure if it's punching above its weight or if it's a sleazy film that just happened to get a big budget. But as I said, getting a big budget film of this kind is its own kind of treat, and I think that it does do enough right to make up for the strange intentions throughout. Jennifer Lawrence reminds you why she was considered such a force in the first place with one of the strongest performances of her career, while her supporting cast do well in their parts, with a special mention to Matthias Schoenaerts for playing Putin in all but name, having all kinds of fun being the charming schemer you're bound to love to hate. The story is also twisty enough to keep you on your toes while not being too self-satisfied with its cleverness, leading to a final reveal that, if expected, does satisfy on a base level with how well it sticks the landing. And as I mentioned, the film looks like a million bucks (well, lots of million bucks), with some really nice interior work and a sense of authenticity with how much country hopping the plot winds up having to do. It's not a great film by any stretch, especially with how weak the FBI subplot is whenever it doesn't involve our heroine, but its a good night in all the same. Just remember to steel yourself for the brutality and you should be fine.

Boogs31 · Jun 29, 2018

I got my pick 3 from Channel5News

1) Goodnight Mommy

A really disturbing psychological thriller. It was really effective in its use of unreliable protagonists. Despite figuring out one of the twists pretty early on,

(That only one of the Twins was real/still alive)

it still kept me guessing as to whether the woman, who returned home following a cosmetic procedure, was actually the mother (this proved difficult to decipher due to the fact that you're not introduced to the character pre surgery). The final 30 or so minutes were extremely harrowing. There were a lot of neat visual themes sprinkled throughout.

2) The Eyes of My Mother

An absolutely beautiful film to look at (shot in black and white) that will no doubt haunt me for some time. Despite the brisk runtime, there are a lot of deliberately long, belabored takes that force you to stew in the horrific nature of the situation.

In particular, I loved one scene in which Charlie is trying to escape, and you watch from a window as Francisca slowly walks towards him with a knife.

3) Delicatessen

I was glad I was told to watch this last, as the heavy nature of the previous two films had me aching for some humor. This was a really fun dark comedy with plenty of visual flair and musical composition. This film certainly proves the concept that literally ANYTHING, in the right context, can be funny.

Aurore's consistent and unsuccessful suicide attempts were always good for a chuckle.

Despite some extremely dark themes, I would almost describe this as a feel good film. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks!

Flow · Jun 29, 2018

Hamnstad 1948
★★★½

Summer with Ingmar #2
Hamnstad translated to Port Town also called Port of Call for American audiences is the second film on Filmstruck's Bergman collection and the first of his that I actually consider well made. Bergman perfectly captures the scenery of the of the port, and visuals are outstanding.

The film is essentially about love in a port town between a sailor and young woman with a complicated past. Bergman seems to be developing a trend of telling his story through the eyes of a young woman and how older adults affect them.

Berit(Nine-Christine Jönsson) has a strained relationship with her mother(Berta Hall) and they argue back and forth. There is a great flashback in this film that greatly captures the family strife and main reason why Berit is the way she is now. Berit was sent to a reformatory and because of that, the town looks down on her. We later find out why she was sent and for how long. Berit meets a sailor( Gösta) on the dock is tired of sailing and wants to settle down in the town. Of course, they fall madly in love with each other. He later finds out about her past and her bad track record with men. This, of course, puts a strain on their relationship. His reaction and feelings seem to capture the way a lot of lovers feel when they discover the romantic past of their partners. They know they have nothing to worry about because they are with them but they can't help thinking about their partner's exes. This is what I like about the film, both lovers hope the other can bring them out of a pit of darkness, but in reality, they might sink together.

Hamnstad is of course a romance film but the social commentary on society's view of women during this era are amazing. Berit makes a great character study on how a fractured home can damage a child. I am not a fan of how the resolution is handled, but I still recommend Hamnstad strongly. If you liked this you would probably love Lola by Jacques Demy.
Kris 1946
★★½

Summer with Ingmar #1
Starting my marathon with Bergman's first film Kris which translates to Crisis. Not only was this his first film as director, but he also wrote the screenplay. I wasn't too hot on the film, but there were some scenes involving Jack(Stig Olin) that were all around great.

I like how the film starts off as if we were watching a single episode that makes up a season of tales from this small village. The opening narrator describes the village, and characters we are seeing, and then the film begins. The plot of the film is straightforward, A young girl raised by foster parents is taken away from her quiet town when her real mother from the city comes looking for her. Her real mother is accompanied by an eccentric figure named Jack.

Kris might center on the young girl named Nelly(Inga Landgré) but the most interesting stuff is actually the characters who affect her life. The two mother figures and their viewpoints on their daughter make for some heartfelt drama, but my favorite scenes are the ones involving Jack who falls madly in love with Nelly. The final act of Kris only strengthens the opening narration. After all, this is just a small tale in a small village within a large world.

More_Badass · Jun 30, 2018

Dark City
★★★★½
Dark City is the coolest sci-fi film I've seen in a long time. I can't believe I waited so long to finally watch it. I thought the movie would be less interesting because I already knew about some of its revelations but that didn't diminish the experience in the slightest. From the first frames, I knew it was something special.

Visually, Dark City felt like the spiritual successor to Blade Runner: a gorgeous immaculately-constructed densely-detailed urban nightmare of looming noir/deco architecture and perpetual night. I can't think of any other sci-fi films besides Blade Runner and Hard To Be A God that had such a dark and bleak yet richly detailed aesthetic, that feels like a window into another world. Fury Road and 2049 would be up there, but Dark City has this tangible gothic atmosphere compared to the more vivid and colorful worlds of those movies.

The shifting cityscapes and spatial distortion special effects here impressed me more than anything I've seen in Inception and Dr Strange; partially because the effects still looked great for a twenty-year old film but also because how the imagery was used. Inception and Dr Strange present their changing landscapes as moments of visual spectacle to awe viewers, while Dark City presents those moments as surreal nightmare imagery, a world so beyond our control that reality itself can be bent and manipulated and we don't even know it.

Outside of the amazing visual design, Dark City works both as a great thriller, part noir mystery and part cat-&-mouse chase, and as a fascinating unapologetically weird sci-fi story. The movie just drops you into its world, revealing its hand gradually and letting us soak in this reality with the same disorientation as our protagonist. I've seen Dark City compared to The Matrix, but purely talking about the science fiction, Dark City's overarching premise and plot felt more ambitious and unique than the digital world and machines of The Matrix.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
★½
It's almost poetic that what might be Spielberg's most iconic blockbusters were both constructed around and elevated by their special effects limitations. Jaws' animatronic issues led to the movie's Hitchcock-inspired suspense and only using the shark itself for precise effect. While Jurassic Park's combination of computer-melting early CGI and fussy animatronics, along with the plot-driven desire to wow audiences with the imagery of seeing dinosaurs for the first time, led to a similarly Hitchcockian approach to revealing the dinosaurs and staging suspense sequences.

So in many ways, that collision of limitations and effects milestone makes the continuing failures of the Jurassic Park sequels pretty understandable. The first movie was a cinematic moment that could never be replicated again, a film deliberately designed around the characters and audiences in sync through their awe of seeing dinosaurs onscreen. The story and its themes hinged on that awe, that sense of wonder. But that was lightning in a bottle; you can't make audiences wonder and gasp at dinos for the first time again. Thus the only thing that remains is the terror and the action and the spectacle, and it's hard to do those properly if you're also trying to present the monsters as awe-inspiring natural wonders. You saw it in The Lost World, where the Rex was both a caring parent to be studied and a monster that comes back for revenge and goes on a city-wrecking rampage. Each Jurassic Park sequel leaned further and further in that direction until you get to the cinematic mess that is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Even Jurassic World tried to present the dinosaurs as animals, but Fallen Kingdom sheds all of that. It may state those ideas but they're only surface level, shades of themes that the movie's schlocky plot only uses for nostalgic moments. Fallen Kingdom is a monster movie; you could replace the dinosaurs with alien fauna and nothing would change. The Indoraptor is practically an Alien Resurrection-style Xenomorph with a different skin.

Fallen Kingdom isn't solely without merit. Chris Pratt is more likable this time around, Bryce Dallas Howard has a role that fits the plot instead of feeling like she's there for exposition and to connect plot-lines. A lot of the imagery is cool or clever, especially with the use of lighting and shadow during some scenes. The movie wastes no time racing to the action; the opening sequence was actually my favorite part of the movie.

But beyond that? Fallen Kingdom is a mess. The plot is complete schlock, especially a last-second twist that could be seen from a mile away and is only there to allow the finale's nonsensical sequel set-up to occur. None of the characters are interesting in the slightest, the villains are cardboard cutouts and walking tropes, the humor never lands, and the dinosaurs kind of take a backseat action-wise for a franchise once called Jurassic Park in favor of what is essentially cat-and-mouse with a xenomorph.

It will be interesting to see where the franchise goes now, because whatever comes next is going to so far removed from anything that once resembled Jurassic Park

Edgar · Jun 30, 2018

A Ghost Story
It started promising and I always liked Rooney Mara performances. But it started rubbing me the wrong way when camera stayed on one shot for 5 min and barely anything you could take from that scene and it happened multiple times! And then the middle part just completely went in a direction I could not care less. I get it what they wanted to do with this film, but it's so cold and detached it felt like I was watching Kubrick film without all the great things Kubrick brings to his films. And that one super indulgent monologue by that one guy was pretty awful and the moment you think the movie is gonna end, it is still going. The films felt excessive and indulgent even tho it was only 1h 30min. And I took nothing from this film. But whatever, I do not hate it, but its just meh
3/5

xrnzaaas · Jun 30, 2018

The Quiet Place was quite horrible (probably even more overrated than Get Out ;)). First of all it's really hard to watch the film and to immerse yourself in its premise given the situation of the main family. It's not like 'can they survive', more like 'damn lucky bastards' and 'how soon will they have another fuckup'. But the biggest issue with the movie is the whole thing with

finding the monster's weakness. It's literally a step away from some blockbuster popcorn flick in which a hillbilly family finds a secret way to defeat the aliens. You mean to tell me the military didn't thought of testing any weapons to fight back knowing that the monsters rely on super hearing? And the timeline of the events in the movie makes the whole plot even less believable.

More_Badass · Jun 30, 2018

xrnzaaas said:
The Quiet Place was quite horrible (probably even more overrated than Get Out ;)). First of all it's really hard to watch the film given the situation of the main family. It's not like 'can they survive', more like 'how fast will they have another fuckup'. But the biggest issue with the movie is the whole thing with

finding the monster's weakness. It's literally a step away from some blockbuster popcorn flick in which a hillbilly family finds a secret way to defeat the aliens. You mean to tell me the military didn't thought of testing any (secret) weapons to fight back knowing that the monsters rely on super hearing?

Why would some random family in the middle of nowhere know what the military is testing or doing? This single family figuring out the weakness doesn't mean no one else is the entire world did; it's kind of like how in 28 Days Later, the entire world knows England is under quarantine but for the characters in the film, this is treated as a revelation because it's them discovering this fact.

Plus testing and engineering secret weapons makes a ton of noise before you can actually use them. You have to have machinery up and running to produce those weapons, tons of personnel to study and research, some kind of transports to move those weapons from our facility to soldiers

xrnzaaas · Jun 30, 2018

More_Badass said:
Why would some random family in the middle of nowhere know what the military is testing or doing? This single family figuring out the weakness doesn't mean no one else is the entire world did; it's kind of like how in 28 Days Later, the entire world knows England is in quarantine but for the characters in the film, this is treated as revelation because it's them discovering this fact.

Plus testing and engineering secret weapons makes a ton of noise before you can actually use them. You have to have machinery up and running to produce those weapons, tons of personnel to study and research, some kind of transports to move those weapons from our facility to soldiers

Yes, but since it's been 1.5 years you'd think that the rest of the world is fighting back by now. It's like I've said in my post, the timeline is the issue, if it was only 2-3 months I might react to the subject differently.

With 28 Days Later you've mentioned it's literally 28 days (28+28 at the end of the movie so still not a lot), not 472+.

lordxar · Jun 30, 2018

The secret death dealer was a shotgun to the face...sure the shrill sound slowed them but I doubt those things could hurt a tank or eat a heatseeker...

I hated how loose and convenient that whole thing was.

Deleted member 9486 · Jun 30, 2018

Murder on the Orient Express

A lot better than I expected, really solid performances.

xrnzaaas · Jun 30, 2018

lordxar said:
The secret death dealer was a shotgun to the face...sure the shrill sound slowed them but I doubt those things could hurt a tank or eat a heatseeker...

I hated how loose and convenient that whole thing was.

Wasn't it hinted that

she managed to blow the monster's head off because it was weakened? Or maybe I'm overthinking it? Anyway scenes with the axe and the shotgun definitely looked silly with how the movie was openly stating from the beginning that the monsters are indestructible.

More_Badass · Jun 30, 2018

xrnzaaas said:
Yes, but since it's been 1.5 years you'd think that the rest of the world is fighting back by now. It's like the said, the timeline is the issue, if it was only a few months I might react to the subject differently.

With 28 Days Later you've mentioned it's literally 28 days, not 472+.

True, but as a narrative device, it's the same principle of characters learning a fact that it is important to their personal struggle. What the rest of the world is doing doesn't matter one iota to a small confined story about a single family trying to survive. If the military already discovered that weakness has no bearing on whether this isolated family discovers that weakness on their own

And the timeline is clearly a narrative device for the pregnancy rather than something to dissect. It's like how I'Robot and Minority Report are set in 2035 and 2054 respectively; none of that tech or those worlds makes any sense to occur in a twenty year or forty year time gap but it's clearly understood as just being "the future" for which the stories to occur.

lordxar · Jun 30, 2018

xrnzaaas said:
Wasn't it hinted that

she managed to blow the monster's head off because it was weakened? Or maybe I'm overthinking it? Anyway scenes with the axe and the shotgun definitely looked silly with how the movie was openly stating from the beginning that the monsters are indestructible.

Maybe, but the whole thing was just so hoky

CloudWolf · Jun 30, 2018

A Quiet Place needed more Slim Whitman

Flow · Jun 30, 2018

Edgar said:
A Ghost Story
It started promising and I always liked Rooney Mara performances. But it started rubbing me the wrong way when camera stayed on one shot for 5 min and barely anything you could take from that scene and it happened multiple times! And then the middle part just completely went in a direction I could not care less. I get it what they wanted to do with this film, but it's so cold and detached it felt like I was watching Kubrick film without all the great things Kubrick brings to his films. And that one super indulgent monologue by that one guy was pretty awful and the moment you think the movie is gonna end, it is still going. The films felt excessive and indulgent even tho it was only 1h 30min. And I took nothing from this film. But whatever, I do not hate it, but its just meh
3/5

this man gets it.

shaneo632 · Jun 30, 2018

I just watched Gotti. Someone hug me, please.

Weasel · Jun 30, 2018

Finally conquered The Evil Dead trilogy this week. What a blast it was. Dare I say it gets better as it goes on despite how different Army of Darkness is to the rest.

Ridley327 · Jun 30, 2018

shaneo632 said:
I just watched Gotti. Someone hug me, please.

On a scale of bad to Wiseau, how do you think it fares?

kevin1025 · Jun 30, 2018

shaneo632 said:
I just watched Gotti. Someone hug me, please.

It's next level bad.

Also his son must be Dorian Gray.

shaneo632 · Jun 30, 2018

Ridley327 said:
On a scale of bad to Wiseau, how do you think it fares?

It's nowhere near as entertaining as The Room. It's just really fucking dull for the most part. I was glazed over by the mid-point.

Deleted member 11637 · Jun 30, 2018

Boogs31 said:
I got my pick 3 from Channel5News

Glad you enjoyed them!

My reasons for picking them:

Goodnight, Mommy

A perfect movie to showcase the difference between a "twist" and a "reveal." I saw a certain plot point coming very early on, and it seemed so obvious that I was just waiting for the reveal to happen. But then it comes...and then other things started to happen, at which point the tension ramped up significantly. It reminded me of "Audition" in that way.

Goodnight, Mommy

Visually stunning (most modern black-and-white movies tend to place far more care into framing and cinematography; see also A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) with many truly haunting moments throughout.

And yet, it has such a perfunctory, uninteresting end scene that it didn't haunt me the way I expected it would. While that disappointed me a lot, it's very much worth a watch; just go in with the right expectations.

Delicatessen

The City of Lost Children is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's weirdest and most ambitious film, and it has a special place in my heart for its bizarre sci-fi Grand Guignol aesthetic (I was nine years old and living in France when when it released, and it burrowed itself into my brain until I finally watched it in my mid-twenties. It holds up beautifully.)

But Delicatessen is his best film with regard to sheer "watchability." I never get tired of it.

TheBeardedOne · Jun 30, 2018

I Love You, Man - rewatch -

Not that great of a movie, but I love Paul Rudd. It's...okay.

meowdi gras · Jun 30, 2018

Flow said:
talked about it in the discord, but I am getting ready to start a Bergman marathon from beginning to end. I have only seen persona so I am excited for this.

I will cross post my thoughts in the new thread.

Awesome, Flow. I'm following your reviews of Bergman's oeuvre with interest!

Darth Finky Spunky · Jun 30, 2018

Sicario 2 - 2018

Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin's performances were all fantastic, but man the next Sicario (Hitman) I hope they really feed these guys some more action and bad guys because everything else is great here, (going dark, transitions etc.) def. one of those movies you'll have to watch if you're doing a del toro or brolin discography binge 5-10 years from now. 3/5

Darth Finky Spunky · Jun 30, 2018

Uncle Drew - 2018
The audience laughed at damn near everything in this movie, Kyrie was ridiculous as "Uncle Drew" and I enjoyed it for what it was, a feel-good extension to the Pepsi commercials. 4/5

The Incredibles 2 - Elastigirl being the main character was a welcome surprise and there's a lot of potential with Jack-Jack and his 17 different powers. 4/5

Ridley327 · Jun 30, 2018

Hereditary: A slippery little slice of authentically oppressive atmosphere and excellent acting that helps to keep you constantly at the edge of your seat and guessing at just how they're going to unnerve you next, though it's not entirely out of nowhere in terms of the direction that it goes in. That last point will probably surprise some, even a lot, with how divisive the ending appears to be, but as a longtime patron of the genre with a particular taste for the strange and unusual, there's at least one other film out there that this reminded me of that made me both right on board with where it appeared to be going early on and quite interested to see if the filmmakers were willing to go through with what was sure to be an ending that a lot of folks wouldn't vibe with. Personally, I felt like the film threw up enough hints early on that I would have been surprised if it didn't go in the direction that it does, though it does throw a big curveball or two early on that made me wonder if I had the film figured out wrong all along. Spooky things do happen from the word "go," but a big chunk of the film is dedicated to a straightforward and earnest personal family drama on how much grief can drive a family apart, making those key signals disappear almost entirely from view. I think it says a lot about how well this part of the film is executed that one might wish that it didn't eventually turn back into a horror film, with the strain of the tragedies that befall the family being expertly played out by the cast. It's impossible not to single out Toni Collette in an already widely praised performance as mother Annie, whose family history weighs heavily on her mind while having to deal with her current predicament. It's a very believable performance, where even the more explosive moments are reigned in tight enough to not devolve into histrionics. The rest of the Graham family play their roles very well, with vet Gabriel Bryne as the long suffering and very skeptical father Steve trying to keep his family together, Alex Wolff as son Peter, whose history with his mother makes up for a lot of the tension, as does he ability to emote through crippling grief and intense fear, and Milly Shapiro as little Charlie, an immediately sympathetic character with a dark side that's never overplayed. For everything else, Ari Aster is certainly a director of unusual talents, with the film's intentional dollhouse appearance and propensity to keep you off balance with its ability to go from smooth, slow pans to frame-perfect rapid transitions that can be measured in the single digits, which helps to add to the choking darkness. And his willingness to keep you guessing at whether or not you're ahead of the film or hopelessly lost in it is a strength for his writing as well as his directing, as it seems like that the film can come off as several different horror films depending on the scene that we're in. But it's also a surprisingly patient film, opting to slowly turn up the gas that ignites in the final half hour, rather than going for a grueling film the entire way through. It's that level of care that puts the film certainly among the best horror films of this decade, and while I think my heart belongs more to a pair of A24's other horror films in Under the Skin and The Witch, their pickup of this film is yet another reminder that this renaissance of the genre is defined not by what scares the kids in their seats, but what keeps the adults up at night.

In case anyone was wondering, the film that came to mind was The Perfume of the Lady in Black. It's not a 1:1 match, but me mentioning it in the context of Hereditary should be enough to clue you into the fact that the film does not remain a ghostly possession story by the end.

Flow · Jun 30, 2018

Thirst 1949
★★

Summer with Ingmar #3

Torst known as Thirst for American audiences and Three Strange Loves in the Uk is a film about an unhappy couple. Through flashbacks and words, we discover their previous failed relationships and how that molded them into the people we see before us. Unfortunately, I can't connect to these characters as I did in prior Bergman films for reasons listed below.

Thirst is a film that is hampered by the way the story is told. The way events are thrown at the audience makes it hard to follow. You could honestly take the scenes already made and rearrange them for a coherent story. The funny thing is Bergman's prior film Port of Call handles the flashbacks amazingly.

This might be the shortest film so far clocking in at sub 90 mins, but it felt like the longest because what was transpiring wasn't interesting. I appreciate Bergman for addressing things that were considered taboo like abortions, alcoholism, and cheating but again his prior film did it so much better. Also, I noticed a dip in quality when it comes to the visuals aspects of the film and I am not sure if this is a restoration issue or not.

and ty srsly? trust me I plan to write each day about my experiences with this Director.

TheBeardedOne · Jun 30, 2018

Scent of a Woman - rewatch -

Man, Al Pacino is great in this. He's incredible, really. Chris O'Donnell is good also.

Overall a very good movie, and something I hadn't watched in years since my friend introduced me to it back in high school.

lordxar · Jul 1, 2018

Some quick thoughts before I head off to bed. Have some more stuff to review, but I'm tired and will do those later.

Tomb Raider
Far, far, far too much like the 2013 game.

The People Under the Stairs
Dude in a gimp suit blasting away with a shotgun. This is Wes Craven at his finest. Check it out.

More_Badass · Jul 2, 2018

lordxar said:
Some quick thoughts before I head off to bed. Have some more stuff to review, but I'm tired and will do those later.

Tomb Raider
Far, far, far too much like the 2013 game.

I disagree completely with this. It was barely like the 2013 game. The only similarities were Lara's look, the very basic concept of "lost island with Himiko's tomb", and a few visual inspirations for the set-pieces like the plane wreck and parachute. The movie took those elements and threw out everything else. The tone, the story, Lara's personality, the villains, the style of action, what Himiko's tomb was hiding, etc...all of that was completely different from the game. The tone was traditional action-adventure fighting against mercenaries rather than violent supernatural horror and abandoned survivor cult, the action scenes were mostly chases and escapes and hand-to-hand fights in tombs rather than scrappy shootouts, Lara is a capable and clever heroine before she even reaches the island and the movie didn't touch the brutality of the game or the plot aspect of the violence hardening her, the "curse" was just a myth and ended up being nothing supernatural.

That's actually why I felt the movie was the best game adaptation yet. It took the basic concept, reimagined the story to make it work as a film and erased everything else that didn't.

That was actually kind of a disappointment too because a few action scenes that captured the scrappy brutal melee and stealth of the games could have been pretty cool.

Here were my thoughts when I saw it earlier in the year

Easily the best video game adaptation by far, mainly by not trying to adapt the game and instead doing what Marvel and other comic movies tend to do: take the central elements, premise, etc and making a different story that works for film. I never once got the sense that this was trying to be the game like so many other game adaptions do. If it didn't have the Tomb Raider name, it could have stood alone as its own mediocre action movie.

Ironically, maybe it should tried more to be like the games, because what the movie lacked was capturing the scrappy action of the games. By contrast, the fighting and encounters that are there felt anticlimactic in comparison, and there was barely any action with the bow or much with Lara at all. The standouts instead are the scenes of disaster and hectic survival.

lordxar · Jul 2, 2018

More_Badass said:
I disagree completely with this. It was barely like the 2013 game. The only similarities were Lara's look, the very basic concept of "lost island with Himiko's tomb", and a few visual inspirations for the set-pieces like the plane wreck and parachute. The movie took those elements and threw out everything else. The tone, the story, Lara's personality, the villains, the style of action, what Himiko's tomb was hiding, etc...all of that was completely different from the game. The tone was traditional action-adventure fighting against mercenaries rather than violent supernatural horror and abandoned survivor cult, the action scenes were mostly chases and escapes and hand-to-hand fights in tombs rather than scrappy shootouts, Lara is a capable and clever heroine before she even reaches the island and the movie didn't touch the brutality of the game or the plot aspect of the violence hardening her, the "curse" was just a myth and ended up being nothing supernatural.

That's actually why I felt the movie was the best game adaptation yet. It took the basic concept, reimagined the story to make it work as a film and erased everything else that didn't.

That was actually kind of a disappointment too because a few action scenes that captured the scrappy brutal melee and stealth of the games could have been pretty cool.

Here were my thoughts when I saw it earlier in the year

Story was a bit different, but I still felt like I was watching someone else play the game if you know what I mean. Video games are great to play but meh to watch someone else. That river and plane part was just missing the qte buttons to spam. Then you have Lara dressed with the right shirt, pants, arm bandage, bow, and rock climbing axe. Vikander did a great cosplay of the TR 2013 character. The Himiko idea was very cool. I dug the groundedness of that but too little too late. She played a good Lara for sure, but this needed to be a fresh story that didn't read like a checklist from the game as much.

Edit: fixed my stupidity in spelling...

Divius · Jul 2, 2018

New thread coming in a few hours, on the road atm. I asked someone to do it but I guess it slipped their mind.

saenima · Jul 2, 2018

lordxar said:
Laura

Opinion invalidated.

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