Movies You've Seen Recently | March 2020

[bomma man]

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - 4/5

I hadn't seen this in a very long time. It's not Miyazaki's best - the dialogue (or at least the localisation) is a bit artlessly expository in the same way a video game's can be (apparently everyone in this world talks to themselves incessantly!), at least at the start where the world's being established. But calling this a dry run for Mononoke - a better movie with similar themes - would be doing it a massive disservice.

The movie centres on a planet (earth?) that is being slowly engulfed by a toxic jungle, which began spreading after a catastrophic war that basically glassed the planet and ended industrialised civilisation. The anti-nuclear and environmentalist message is not subtle, but it's handled subtly. Its depiction of nationalist squabbling in the face of an environmental catastrophe that requires collective action and a radical change in our relationship with nature is, unfortunately, probably more relevant now than when the movie was released.

The art has this real 70s prog sci-fi vibe that distinguishes itself from almost everything else in Miyazaki's oeuvre, and seems like it it was blatantly lifted by,, like, every JRPG in the 90s (Lavos just straight up is an Ohm), not to mention BOTW (which is just, aesthetically if not thematically, a synthesis of this, Mononoke and Laputa). That the ostensibly horrific giant bugs are made sympathetic, and, in a weird kinda way, almost cute, is an incredible testament to the artistry on display here.

I generally think the music is the weakest part of Ghibli movies - some hotel bar-arse piano - but Hisaishi does great work here. I've been listening to the theme non-stop since last night:

 

[lazybones18]

TCM Film Festival cancelled this year

 

[MidnightCowboy]

Dark Habits

Technique isn't as refined as his later work, but I simply adore Almodóvar's silly machinations. No dramatic thrust whatsoever, but that rarely bothers me, as I prefer moments over plot, and there are a lot of wonderful moments here. Sister Rat is the highlight, she's got excellent comedic timing and the thread about her smut alter-ego "Concha Torres" never ceased to amuse me. Also dug everything involving the tiger, what a handsome boy. I think what I admire most about this is how casual it is, there's a matter-of-factness that curbs the silliness while also managing to elevate it.

 

[Sean C.]

You'll Never Get Rich (1941): The first of two films teaming Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, which revived Astaire's box office drawing power after a post-Rogers stretch of doldrums. I've always been a bit iffy on Astaire as a movie star, as there's often a rather condescending edge to his characters that Golden Age Hollywood movies seldom addressed and often actively endorsed (Funny Face, which cast him opposite Audrey Hepburn, being the worst example of this, and that's on top of him looking more like her father than her love interest). I'm also, I think, just not a huge fan of Golden Age plotless musicals in general, and a lot of the Astaire/Rogers films fall into that camp. This film is okay (there are, as you'd expect, some good dance numbers), particularly as Hayworth is a magnetic performer, and it has some screwball comedy elements particularly in the early going before the some convoluted transformation into an army comedy.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015): I have a vague recollection of trying to watch this on a streaming service once before but stopping early on because I wasn't really in the modd to watch a film, and it took a while to get around to giving another shot at it -- in the intervening time I've seen director Marielle Heller's two subsequent films (Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), and enjoyed both of them a fair bit. The most interesting thing about Diary is that it takes a premise (a teenager who begins a sexual relationship with her mother's boyfriend) but avoids being either salacious or approaching the whole thing as overly tragic (it's clearly shown as exploitative, but not doom or anything like that).

Cold Mountain (2003): Since Renee Zellweger won a second Oscar recently, I decided to make a point of finally seeing the film she won her first for (I never saw it in theatres at the time, for reasons I don't precisely recall - I generally like historical epics). Anyway, looking back on this from the better part of two decades, this feels more and more like a remnant of another era in studio filmmaking, representing the tail end of a period where this sort of historical prestige epic was relatively common. Indeed, director Anthony Minghella had swept the Oscars with The English Patient only seven years earlier.

Cold Mountain is by no means one of the strongest examples of the genre, mainly because of its two main story threads, one (Nicole Kidman's city girl learning to run a farm after all the guys go off to war and her father dies) is clearly much more interesting than the other (Jude Law's odyssey back home after deserting the Confederate Army after the Battle of the Crater). As well, the relationship between Kidman and Law and is meant to be the emotional crux of the movie never feels all that substantial -- that is deliberate, to some extent, since the characters themselves vocalize how little time they really had together, but this is the sort of situation where strong actor chemistry and writing is necessary to bridge the gap, and Cold Mountain is tepid on that score.

Zellweger's Ruby, a tough-talkin', pants-wearin' woman who shows up to help Kidman, is well-acted, if very obviously written as a scene-stealer role; I could pick a number of other, better movies previously that she should arguably have won an Oscar for, but then that's not uncommon. There's quite a few notable actors popping up for one-scene or one-sequence roles, mainly in Law's saga, which can at times be distracting (such as Philip Seymour Hoffman being thoroughly wasted as a character given a really detestable introduction but then weirdly treated more sympathetically later with no real change of behaviour).

Hardcore (1979): Paul Schrader's second film as a writer-director, starring George C. Scott as a stereotypical midwestern dad whose daughter goes missing in California; preliminary investigations find her involved in the burgeoning pornography trade, prompting Scott to go searching for her himself and being drawn deeper in the seamy side of Los Angeles. Compelling for most of the way through, particularly in the middle, but the ending deflates it more than a bit, feeling both too simplistic and rushing character resolutions that hang too much on a character/relationship the film has heretofore not done enough with to have much weight.

Worth it to see Marc Alaimo, the future Gul Dukat, with an awesome 70s pornstache.

Weathering with You (2019): A searing critique of mankind's inability to make the necessary sacrifices to fight climate change.

Well, not really, it's Makoto Shinkai following up the huge success of Your Name (my favourite film of 2016), another romantic dramedy about two kids who get mixed up in magical shenanigans -- though in this case with a much heavier dose of assorted real-world concerns that lend the movie a somewhat inconsistent tone. This isn't as good as Your Name, by any means, but it's consistently interesting and the animation is truly stunning. The ending simultaneously is kind of jarring in terms of the narrative lurch involved, but the basic premise of the choice made by the characters is fascinatingly at odd with what most people would expect the moral of this sort of story to be.

 

[swoon]

Since everything is canceled, anyone want to do a pick 3 with me?

 

[Deleted member 6769]

Sweet Smell of Success - Really loved this, already an instant classic for me. Everything works in favor of this film, from the evocative black-&-white cinematography to the stellar jazz score. The tone and atmosphere of Sweet Smell of Success is the epitome of what comes to mind when I think of 50s NYC: clubs and cabs drenched in neon light with writers scrambling to shore up whatever the story of the night is. The best part of the movie is easily the incredibly sharp script. It not only has great, acidic one-liners, it also reveals the characters as economically as possible. We immediately know who these characters are within the first few lines of dialogue, not because they are lazy stereotypes, but because the writing distills their character down to the essentials. This is boosted by the stellar performances from everyone, especially Burt Lancaster's J.J. Hunsecker. Despite all the cynicism, there is still a heart to the film that really pulls everything together. The love story between Susan Hunsecker and Steve Dallas stops the story from drowning in its own disillusionment and gives it a moral center that deepens the story and themes of the film. Truly great stuff here!

 

[Brews]

I'm new here. Figured I'd introduce myself!

1. What's your favorite Movie? The Shining (1980)
2. Who's your favorite director? I'm not ... Sure. I like Stanley Kubrick, Satoshi Kon, Quentin Tarantino and Charlie Kaufman.
3. Who are your favorite actors/actresses? Jack Nicholson, Scarlett Johansson.
4. Favorite Genre(s)? Horror, Thrillers, Musicals and anything animated, really.
5. What's your favorite performance in film? No idea.

Top 5 Movies Watched in February:
5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
4. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
3. Uncut Gems
2. Parasite
And 1...

I ended last month by watching The Happiness Of The Katakuris (カタクリ家の幸福 ) (2001) - Genre: Comedy-Drama, Musical, Horror, Experimental.
Plot: Four generations of the Katakuri family decide to leave everything behind and live in the mountains, where they open a holiday guest house. Things are harsh from the get-go, with bad storms and no customers for some time. When the first one finally arrives, he commits suicide during his stay. From there, the family is catapulted into increasingly more morbid and disturbing events, where they're forced to put aside their inner conflicts and stick together to make it through.

This movie is nuts. It's a blend of live-action and hyper-realistic clay animation. The CGI is really dated but works as a channelizer for the absolute amount non-sense and chaos that happens in the movie. A lot of sequences are really dream-like and the music was amazing.
I give it a 10/10. It's not a movie; it's an experience.

 

[Window]

Begin Again - Holy shit how is Keira Knightly so good at singing? I love the way this film looks and captures Manhattan or any metro western city really in the early 2010s era. The music and characters are delightful enough to allow for the thin plot and cheesy dialogue scenes to slide. I need to watch Once don't I?

 

[qssm]

I ended last month by watching The Happiness Of The Katakuris (カタクリ家の幸福 ) (2001) ...

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One of my favorites from Miike. I watched this and Visitor Q in the same day, both of them were pretty insane experiences.

 

[BringBackSonics]

Hey fam,

Monos is now available on Hulu.

 

[Quaker]

Begin Again - Holy shit how is Keira Knightly so good at singing? I love the way this film looks and captures Manhattan or any metro western city really in the early 2010s era. The music and characters are delightful enough to allow for the thin plot and cheesy dialogue scenes to slide. I need to watch Once don't I?

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That and Sing Street, yes.

 

[Sean C.]

Begin Again - Holy shit how is Keira Knightly so good at singing? I love the way this film looks and captures Manhattan or any metro western city really in the early 2010s era. The music and characters are delightful enough to allow for the thin plot and cheesy dialogue scenes to slide. I need to watch Once don't I?

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If you haven't seen his next film, Sing Street, I highly recommend that one too.

 

[Osahi]

Begin Again - Holy shit how is Keira Knightly so good at singing? I love the way this film looks and captures Manhattan or any metro western city really in the early 2010s era. The music and characters are delightful enough to allow for the thin plot and cheesy dialogue scenes to slide. I need to watch Once don't I?

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If you like this you'll love Once and Sing Street. Also check out Wild Rose. Different director, but great musical drama

Spoiler

All those are actually good movies. I couldn't get through Begin Again. Hated the cheesyness and hated Knightley in it :P

 

[MidnightCowboy]

What Have I Done To Deserve This?

Amphetamines, pedophilia, erectile dysfunction, prostitution, forgery, Hitler, and a telekinetic little girl. To call this scattershot would be an understatement, it's well and truly all over the place and never coalesces (read: TELEKINESIS), but it's held together by an undeniably suffocating social/familial environment and all the frustration and sadness that comes with it, best expressed via claustrophobic interiors and an excellent performance from Carmen Maura. That said, for me Chus Lampreave is once again the MVP. Everything she says and does cracks me up. I'm giddy just knowing she's in more of Almodóvar's movies. 🦎

Since everything is canceled, anyone want to do a pick 3 with me?

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Let's do it!

 

[THEVOID]

Begin Again - Holy shit how is Keira Knightly so good at singing? I love the way this film looks and captures Manhattan or any metro western city really in the early 2010s era. The music and characters are delightful enough to allow for the thin plot and cheesy dialogue scenes to slide. I need to watch Once don't I?

Click to shrink...

See Once and Sing Street immediately! Both are better than Begin Again.

 

[Window]

Yep yep intend to watch Sing Street too.

 

[shaneo632]

Final cinema trip for a good while this afternoon - gonna go see Misbehaviour. Only 4 people booked into the screen, heh.

 

[Ravelle]

Stargirl.

Quite enjoyed it.

 

[Fuhgeddit]

It's hard to keep up with these every month.

Saw Uncut Gems last night and thought it was really good. Gave it 8/10, due to not feeling some of the parts where everyone was screaming over each other and I just couldn't follow.

 

[Sean C.]

Man on the Moon (1999): The only one of Jim Carrey's major acclaimed "serious" roles that I hadn't seen until now, in this case a biopic of 1970s entertainer Andy Kaufman. Most of the film is restaging various Kaufman acts (which I generally didn't find especially funny), not much insight into the character. Didn't do much for me, on the whole. Though it does have an awesome soundtrack courtesy of R.E.M.

The Magician (1958): Another collaboration between Ingmar Bergman and actor Max von Sydow, this is less remembered today than the films Bergman had made just before and just after it. The tale of a troupe of performers in mid-19th century Europe whose supposed supernatural abilities are investigated by some local authorities, the Criterion Collection includes a video essay from a film scholar about how the whole thing is Bergman's dramatization of his own feelings as a creator towards critics and audiences; but on a story level I didn't find the movie particularly coherent. There are great sequences, undoubtedly, as Bergman dips into the well of horror movie staging.

 

[hydruxo]

Swiss Army Man (2016) | Directed by Daniels - Wonderfully creative movie but the message it was trying to get across didn't really do much for me in the end. Also didn't like how Dano's character

Spoiler

ended up just being a weird dude who takes pics of a girl on a bus because he's lonely.

I feel like that kind of undercut what they were going for. Great performances from Paul Dano & Daniel Radcliffe though, and overall I enjoyed it. Have to give it props for the unconventional way they went about it and it's a really entertaining film for sure. 7/10

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964) | Directed by Stanley Kubrick - Bought the Criterion blu-ray a few weeks ago. Loved this and it's still extremely relevant today. The humor aged like a fine wine too. Peter Sellers played all three of his characters perfectly. A lot of hilarious moments in this. The President's constant phone calls with the Soviet president, Mandrake and Ripper's interactions, "Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!", etc. This will definitely be a movie I revisit. 10/10

Moonlight (2016) | Directed by Barry Jenkins - I've been meaning to watch this for ages now but I finally got around to it a few days ago. I don't have much to say that other people haven't said at this point, but I really loved it. Easy to see why it got so much praise. Full of excellent performances (Mahershala Ali and Andre Holland really made the most out of their limited screen time; Ashton Sanders & Naomie Harris were also standouts), beautiful cinematography and score, and an intimate and heartbreaking story. Really liked the scene where Kevin cooks for Chiron and everything that followed. Just a very heartfelt film. 10/10

The Terrorizers (1986) | Directed by Edward Yang - This is the first film by Edward Yang that I've seen. I own A Brighter Summer Day and Yi Yi but they're both over three hours (over four hours for ABSD), so I haven't been able to find a good time to sit down and watch those. The Terrorizers was on Amazon Prime and it's considerably shorter, so I figured I'd check it out. It's a very interesting movie. The story is told in a rather jumbled fashion and features three couples whose lives are unknowingly intertwined in ways that come together by the end. It's a slow burn and can be confusing for the first half, but it really comes together in the second half and has one of the best endings I've seen in a very long time. Worth checking out if you have Prime. 9/10

Dr Strangelove and Moonlight both pretty much instantly became two of my favorites now.

 

[patientzero]

Swiss Army Man (2016) | Directed by Daniels - Wonderfully creative movie but the message it was trying to get across didn't really do much for me in the end. Also didn't like how Dano's character

Spoiler

ended up just being a weird dude who takes pics of a girl on a bus because he's lonely.

I feel like that kind of undercut what they were going for. Great performances from Paul Dano & Daniel Radcliffe though, and overall I enjoyed it. Have to give it props for the unconventional way they went about it and it's a really entertaining film for sure. 7/10

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I've long described (saw it in theaters) Swiss Army Man as 2/3 of a perfect film, with the final act being a crater it cannot recover from.

 

[Theorry]

Men in Black: International - Thought it was pretty good and was surprised it got low reviews scores. Really liked Thompson her acting

Birds of Prey - Pretty fun. More a "easier" to watch comic book movie. Robbie is still amazing as Harley

Star Wars - Rise of the Skywalker - Was oke i guess. Not a big Star Wars fun or something. But watch every movie at some point. Didnt hate it, didnt love it

Jumanji 2 - Hart and Rock playing the old dudes was amazing. Laughed hard a couple of times. Movie was enjoyable. Think i liked the first one abit more because it was more new. This was more of the "same" wich is logical. But i enjoyed it

Wolf of Wallstreet - No idea why i watched it again.. Guess thats Netflix for you. But still amazing movie

I watched more movies in two days then i did in 3 months lol. Guess that is staying inside for you.

 

[Kyuuji]

Wolf of Wallstreet - No idea why i watched it again.. Guess thats Netflix for you. But still amazing movie

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I quote the "who, who? What are you a fuckin' owl?" scene more than most classics lol.

 

[Divius]

I quote the "who, who? What are you a fuckin' owl?" scene more than most classics lol.

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I thought that sounded familiar...

 

[hydruxo]

I've long described (saw it in theaters) Swiss Army Man as 2/3 of a perfect film, with the final act being a crater it cannot recover from.

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So true. It's so close to being great.

 

[Kyuuji]

I thought that sounded familiar...

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Nice catch. One of a number of highly regarded classics still on my watchlist. Frankly too many good films and too little time, this nets it a bump though.

 

[meowdi gras]

The Terrorizers (1986) | Directed by Andrew Yang - This is the first film by Andrew Yang that I've seen.

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Lol

 

[Valkerion]

Sonic The Hedgehog - Wasn't planning on seeing it but I sat down and gave it a watch. It's fun! I mostly enjoyed it and thought it found its legs in the action scenes especially. The intro was good then got boring then got interesting then got boring then got interesting again! Wasn't a fan of Sonic's ADD kid personality or the weird one liners that will be dated in 6 months but it was fun. Jim Carry was great as Eggman. It was definitely a kids movie that was some how banking off the nostalgia of older people but I'd be down for a sequel for sure. The whole side story of sonic looking for friends/family was a bit whack and I wish the various moves of sonic were a bit more stylized like his spin dash. For some reason seeing him curl up like that was more off putting considering how fast it is in the games and you don't see him actually curl up and hold the position etc lol.

But yeah, fun little movie.

Jumanji Next Level - More of the same but I really enjoyed the first one randomly and this was no different. Seeing these actors act like other people that are not in their trope is fun. Rock and Kevin Heart being old men was fun. I also loved Jack Black's variety of personalities here. The overall story wasn't interesting but I think they know that with these movies and the action tends to be meh but the subversion of that with fun renditions of people is great.

 

[Borgnine]

Of Human Bondage: 7/10. God what a psycho. 1934 Bette Davis can GET THIS DICK.
Bad Lieutenant: 7/10. This was not nearly as funny as the Nicholas Cage one. The traffic stop scene was something.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch: 7/10. Actually pretty touching and very funny at times. Really carefully constructed dialogue like "it was the late mid eighties and I was in my early mid twenties" which had me rolling. The music and songs are actually not bad but it lost a lot of steam for me near then end when it just turned in to a lengthy musical spectacular. But really how else would you end a movie like this.
The Legend of Billie Jean: 7/10. The film Terminator Dark Fate wishes it could be. This movie stars Supergirl as Billie Jean, a rebel who inspires the entire nation to get Jean Seberg haircuts. Definitely a cause I can get behind. If you never lived through the 80s and you want to know what it was like, this is it. Contains no less than the following: a mall, Christian Slater, sexual assault, KC Lights, feathered everything, a station wagon, child abuse, and Betamax. Probably most remembered now for the Pat Benatar song "Invincible," which is the theme. Also the haircut reveal scene which is honestly stunning: https://youtu.be/thfbA7zLMsA

 

[RedHand]

Caught Portrait of a Lady on Fire last weekend. It's without a doubt a 10/10. I've been thinking about it all week.

Spoiler

The movie's arc is best summed up by the length of time its two leads are able to look at each other. Quick glances lead to longing looks, which lead to intimate stares, which leads right into the film's genius final shot: intense tunnel vision that's at once passionate and painfully distant.

Though it's shot in a beautiful, fittingly painterly manner, this isn't a showy film. It gives its characters time to think and observe as they navigate the facets of their limiting circumstances they can quietly circumvent and those they can't. It's matter-of-fact without becoming dry and detached. Easily the best film I've seen this year (though it technically had a very limited release last year). If I'd seen it in 2019 it would've absolutely been in my top 5 movies of the year, which is really saying something given the number of incredible movies that came out last year.

 

[RedHand]

Oops, double post

 

[Messofanego]

The Terrorizers (1986) | Directed by Andrew Yang - This is the first film by Andrew Yang that I've seen. I own A Brighter Summer Day and Yi Yi but they're both over three hours (over four hours for ABSD), so I haven't been able to find a good time to sit down and watch those. The Terrorizers was on Amazon Prime and it's considerably shorter, so I figured I'd check it out. It's a very interesting movie. The story is told in a rather jumbled fashion and features three couples whose lives are unknowingly intertwined in ways that come together by the end. It's a slow burn and can be confusing for the first half, but it really comes together in the second half and has one of the best endings I've seen in a very long time. Worth checking out if you have Prime. 9/10

Dr Strangelove and Moonlight both pretty much instantly became two of my favorites now.

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A shame none of Edward Yang's films are on Prime here in UK. Still have yet to see Taipei Story or Yi Yi.

 

[Flow]

Edward Yang is one of the GOATS but after watching all of them Taipei Story is still my personal favorite.

 

[lazybones18]

King Kong (1933)

I wasn't gonna let this pandemic stop me from going this at a movie theater. Granted, the audience count was pretty low (10-20), but it was still worth seeing.

Nothing else really to add really. I had already seen seen the movie before and it's a pretty good movie. But I think Peter Jackson's version is a better movie.

 

[skrskg]

I saw a couple of movies from last years during the weekend that I've been sort of interested in for a while, but hadn't found the time for.

A cure for wellness - The visuals in this were amazing, with some great shots and scenery. I was pretty much captivated from beginning to end. Overall it reminded me of Shutter Island, but with more disturbing imagery - 7/10

Sorry to bother you - This was also really good, another movie with some great visuals. I liked the fantastical elements and loved, you know, that reveal. There could be some cuts in the story, but I had a great time watching this - 7/10

Next up on the list is Blindspotting.

 

[AwesomeSauce]

I need to get back to consistently watching films. This thread is a good reminder.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

I need to get back to consistently watching films. This thread is a good reminder.

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Quarantine should help lol

 

[hydruxo]

Lol

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hahaha fucking auto correct must've done that, didn't even notice it

fixed it now

 

[Teenage Fansub]

The Legend of Billie Jean: 7/10. The film Terminator Dark Fate wishes it could be. This movie stars Supergirl as Billie Jean, a rebel who inspires the entire nation to get Jean Seberg haircuts. Definitely a cause I can get behind. If you never lived through the 80s and you want to know what it was like, this is it. Contains no less than the following: a mall, Christian Slater, sexual assault, KC Lights, feathered everything, a station wagon, child abuse, and Betamax. Probably most remembered now for the Pat Benatar song "Invincible," which is the theme. Also the haircut reveal scene which is honestly stunning: https://youtu.be/thfbA7zLMsA

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And human Lisa Simpson.
TLoBJ rocks.

 

[Blader]

Drunken Angel
Rewatch. This is a lot better than I remembered it. For his first major role, Mifune makes a hell of an impression right away, and the way he and an equally fiery Takeshi Shimura bounce off each other is just great cinema. For some reason I remembered this movie being more of a chamber piece, but it's actually pretty expansive in terms of sets and other characters being involved; there's a whole yakuza subplot I forgot about. A killer start to the Kurosawa/Mifune era.
8/10

Stray Dog
Rewatch. This one on the other hand was as good as I remembered. The trail of pickpockets leading to gun racketeers leading to Travis Bickle-type psychos is a bit hard to follow at times, but there's an intensity and a desperation to Mifune's search across this underworld for his gun, and his mounting guilt at the harm it's causing, that he and Kurosawa pull off so well. Filming looks like it was hot as fuck, and you can feel that heat as palpably as anything else. One thing I did not appreciate about either of these films the first time around is how they double as an exploration of post-war Japan, and just how utterly wrecked certain segments of society still are, both physically dilapidated and socially frayed.
8/10

In Cold Blood
Based on letterboxed reviews, I get the sense that people really like the editing in this movie, but I found it a distraction that was unnecessarily confusing a pretty straightforward narrative in the first section of the movie. Tbh the whole first half felt awfully dull and meandering to me, but it picks up a lot in the back half and the depiction of the killings toward the end is effectively chilling. It came together for me ultimately but I think Capote is the superior version of this story. Nice score, which is the main thing that drew me to it in the first place.
7/10

Scandal
One of the few Kurosawa/Mifune films I hadn't seen before. Maybe it's a cultural difference, maybe it's that this movie was made 70 years ago, made it's a combo of the two, but the 'scandal' at the heart of this film is laughably pedestrian: two single adults are photograhed standing next to each other, which immediately sweeps the nation in a frenzy of gossip. There are a few arresting scenes throughout the film -- Ichiro and Miyako performing silent night is an especially surprisingly lovely moment, as is Ichiro and Hiruta's New Year's Eve bender. And I like Shimura's playing against type role. But there's an overall 'what is the big deal' issue at the heart of the film for me that I couldn't get past.
6/10

Harlan County, USA
A good, if disjointed, snapshot in time that is still painfully timeless in a lot of ways -- even more painful given the shift away from unions even among white, socially conservative, rural communities like this. I am morbidly curious about what a 40-years-later follow-up would look like and how many of these workers, or their kids/grandkids, feel about the unions and going against management now. There are brief snippets throughout that are really fascinating -- like the conversation between a striking miner and a NYC cop where the latter is just baffled by how shitty the miners have it in terms of pay and benefits -- and the film tends to gloss over race whenever it starts to bubble up (which is rarely). But as is, it's an interesting portrait of a struggle that feels all but lost today.
7/10

A Place in the Sun
Shelley Winters is fantastic. Elizabeth Taylor is very good, though not given all that much material despite being second billed (and above Winters). Monty Clift, eh, I've never really thought much of any of his performances except maybe Red River, and this one didn't really change that, but he's fine. The first third of the film feels like typical creaky old Hollywood romance, but once the squeeze between the two relationships begins, things get immensely interesting and engaging right away. Much better film than Giant imo.
8/10

 

[MidnightCowboy]

Die Hard

Aside from the Deputy Chief and the FBI agents who exist solely to fuck things up and create more conflict (minor complaint really), this is as exciting, well-acted, and structurally sound as I'd been lead to believe. The thing that impressed me the most was the production design/use of space and how it creates a believable, multi-tiered environment, with the 30th floor offices, the ground floor lobby, the unconstructed upper floors, the surrounding area with all the cops. Just a really great sense of location, and it feeds into the most surprising aspect for me, which is that this a beautiful movie, and it starts from the very first frame (gotta love those LA sunsets). Lots of great blocking, aerial shots, etc.

What elevates this over most, if not all, action movies though is that the action is secondary to the character work. John and Holly's potential reconciliation is what matters most, not the set-pieces (though they are great), and it's bolstered by his vulnerability and budding friendship/radio correspondence with Al. Plus, you don't need me to tell you how great Alan Rickman is. The fact that John is barefoot for 95% of the movie is the cherry on top. Glad my guy Argyle made it out unscathed.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

This your first time watching Die Hard??? What the hell you been waiting for dawg

 

[MidnightCowboy]

This your first time watching Die Hard??? What the hell you been waiting for dawg

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It's one of those movies where I'd seen scenes here and there over the years on TV, but never sat down to fully watch it. Someone gifted me the blu ray for Secret Santa last year, so I finally decided it was time. But I won't hide from it, it was a definite source of shame. Glad to put it behind me. Any of the sequels worth it? I've heard 3 is solid.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

It's one of those movies where I'd seen scenes here and there over the years on TV, but never sat down to fully watch it. Someone gifted me the blu ray for Secret Santa last year, so I finally decided it was time. But I won't hide from it, it was a definite source of shame. Glad to put it behind me. Any of the sequels worth it? I've heard 3 is solid.

Click to shrink...

3 is solid, although it goes looney tunes in the second half

2 and 4 are aight

5....we don't talk about die hard 5

 

[Bor Gullet]

It's one of those movies where I'd seen scenes here and there over the years on TV, but never sat down to fully watch it. Someone gifted me the blu ray for Secret Santa last year, so I finally decided it was time. But I won't hide from it, it was a definite source of shame. Glad to put it behind me. Any of the sequels worth it? I've heard 3 is solid.

Click to shrink...

3 has a strong first half but peters out during the second half

2 is okay

4 is a good action film, but not very Die Hard esque.

5 is an unmitigated disaster, a terrible film by any measure.

 

[Blader]

Only watch 3.


The Swimmer
What a trip this was. For the first 30 minutes I kept thinking, is it me or is this really terrible? The dialogue is so bad. The way the characters are speaking to each other sounds so contrived. There's some weird shit, like this 5 minute sequence of Burt Lancaster and a teenage girl running around these horse jumps in slow-mo. Is this supposed to be camp? What is going on?! But the more the film goes, the more Ned's self-delusion and how it collides against his community (which, having been to Westport many times, is pretty hilarious) becomes apparent, and you see that this journey across the 'Lucinda river' is really one big odyssey of unraveling. The 10-15 minute scene where he runs into a former lover, and the two are operating on entirely different wavelengths for the conversation, is just fantastic. Overall the film is quite odd, but in the end I liked it way more than I expected to given how badly the opening half hour rubbed me. Burt Lancaster looks incredible for being 52!
7/10

 

[Sean C.]

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009): Second viewing, several years since the first, and this is yet another Wes Anderson film where my impression of it improved the second time around. On first viewing I ranked this as a middling effort, and while it's still not one of my top-tier Anderson films, it's better than I remembered it being. I think a lot of my initial view of it probably related to the somewhat jarring effect of seeing Anderson's unique aesthetic superimposed over Roald Dahl's own very distinctive storytelling style (and the book was a childhood favourite of mine).

It feels like "That's just weak songwriting -- you wrote a bad song, Petey!" should have become a meme.

Paddington 2 (2017): The greatest midcredits scene of all time?

Fear (1996): Toward the end of the post-Fatal Attraction era of 1990s stalker thrillers, we get a relatively rare male villain variant (which is perhaps even more surprising when you consider the real-world gender ratio of violent stalkers -- or actually, maybe that is the reason) in which a young Reese Witherspoon quickly falls in love with Mark Wahlberg only to discover that he is a violent criminal, a role Marky Mark presumably didn't have to dig too deep to get into. Witherspoon is really great here, selling both the early romantic stuff and her terror when he shows his true colours. There are definite moments where the film strains credulity at the inability to get the police involved, such as when Wahlberg vandalizes Witherspoon's dad's car and leaves a note that clearly indicates it was him. I also feel that giving Wahlberg a gang of thug minions at the climax somewhat dilutes the specific primal fear of the romance-gone-bad scenario. There's a reason Alex Forrest didn't have lackeys.

 

[Excuse me]

Dead don't die. I wasn't expecting much, maybe funny'ish love letter to zombie genre, but I guess even that was too much to ask for. This movie was just plain bad. Didn't work as comedy nor even as zombie film. There really was nothing there. Well except for all star cast but everybody was basically underused. Adam Driver and his smart car were only bright lights in the movie, but hardly makes the movie worth the watch. Tilda Swinton especially was wasted on the movie :( Also, breaking the 4th wall stuff was totally unnecessary.

Btw, I might have zoned out from the movie and didn't notice but did the kids in the jail plot line go anywhere?

 

[MidnightCowboy]

it's such a bummer that Jarmusch made a zombie comedy with a stacked cast and it turned out to be ass