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Departures this is a rewatch after many years, but always provokes strong feelings. Score is wonderful, and leads are all a great mix of humor and grief. It’s a great depiction of grief and finding some beauty in saying goodbye to our loved ones in death. One thing that stood out to me was the strong traditional values. The wife’s whole arc is just to support his job change and find a way to be proud of him in his new career. She does get some good lines in saying she doesn’t ask much of him, why can’t he find a more honorable job. And she does help him with his dad. But ultimately she ends up having to come back to him without him chasing. Great movie that I should own.
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Aug 5, 2023 16:15
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Beau is Afraid - Total mindblower, a mashup of so many different influences that I don't really know if they were deliberate or not, but there was some Coen Brothers, Charlie Kaufman and maybe even some Lars Von Trier. I laughed, I cried, I was on the edge of my seat and every time you think maybe there will be some reprieve or a good outcome, of course there won't be. There never is, it's an Ari Aster movie. I kinda loved it, and I'm definitely going to revisit it some day. Just maybe not any day soon.
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Aug 6, 2023 01:41
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Well, this was our Friday night: Warning Sign (1985) Fairly competent viral outbreak movie but nothing much to write home about. Swamp Thing (1982) oh my god why would you ever decide to shoot that costume in full daylight RIP Bruno aka that guy we recognized from Darkman Hard Boiled (1992) Righting Wrongs has been my gold standard for Hong Kong action for a while now. I knew this one would give it a run for it’s money based on reputation alone and goddrat did it deliver. No notes. A+, 10/10, will absolutely rewatch again and again.
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Aug 6, 2023 07:22
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The Haunted Mansion(2023) Enjoyed the mansion itself and the cast of characters were fun to watch The filmmakers definitely made this with a lot of love for the ride Danny Devito is always great. I felt like there was too much product name-dropping that took me out of the film at times and the way the characters came together felt clumsy and forced I still enjoyed it very much for what it was - more than the Eddie Murphy version (which I do enjoy) but less than the Muppets Haunted Mansion Worth seeing if you like family-friendly scary movies
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Aug 6, 2023 09:55
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Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, 2022) Saw this at a surprisingly busy screening at my local single screen independent - the audience was lots of older people, so I do wonder if they were expecting a very different film. I found the languid pacing and slightly affected performances to be quite interesting at the start, and Joel Edgerton was very good. However, the third act was spectacularly misjudged: I don't think Maya's attraction to Norville rang true, even before she sees his white supremacist tattoos - and when she does she almost immediately forgives him. I think their relationship worked better when it was more of a father/daughter situation early on. And I'm not sure if it was due to COVID restrictions but the house party that he storms into looked like the lamest ever - there was only five people there!
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Aug 6, 2023 13:13
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Rashomon — had this in my list for a while, and I'm glad I finally got it under my belt so I can understand all the later remakes and homages. It feels like a more "modern" and complicated story in all the framing actors' dialogue than I might have expected; I think I imagined it being more oblique and Shakespearean than it is, i.e. more straightforward in the narrative(s) but more philosophical in the commentary. Of course there's plenty of that there too (all the running threads about faith in man and lying to oneself and human weakness etc). But I always enjoy watching something from many decades ago and finding that the characters are plenty approachable and (for lack of a better word) "normal" to modern eyes, in their interactions and motivations and dialogue, than they could have been (archetypical, didactic, one-dimensional, unrealistic). One thing that struck me in light of my recent hand-wringing about adaptation and language and death-of-the-author is how Kurosawa apparently intended the film to end on an ominous downer note by having a dark thundercloud rolling in over the gate as the guy takes the baby home; but the weather didn't cooperate and they got good weather on the last day of shooting and now the movie ends on a happy sunshiney hopeful tone. What do we do with that? Evaluate the film's message in context of its production circumstances? Disregard the director's intention and very best efforts? lmao e: also it's funny to see a "samurai" character presented not as some kind of superhuman swordsman, but just some rich toff who has a sword to show off like a sportscar but can barely use it. The final "duel" scene where there's no music and they're just crawling around in the mud throwing leaves and poo poo at each other like a couple of kids wrestling on the playground is one of the most believable fights I've ever seen on film Data Graham fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Aug 6, 2023 |
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Aug 6, 2023 20:08
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Oppenheimer Starts with about an hour and 15 minutes of what feels like an endless movie trailer. Jumping all over the place, introducing way too many characters to keep track of without giving them any actual traits, no room to breathe, and told out of sequence, leaving you to constantly piece together in your head when each scene is happening. Because that is the sign of a Very Smart Movie - you must watch it twice to fully understand it. Then about 30 minutes of what feels like an actual movie with artistic direction and emotions - the 15 or so minutes leading up to detonation and the 15 minutes afterward. Then another hour of endless court proceedings after it feels like the film already reached its climax. An absolute chore to sit through with a few memorable parts in the middle. Like most Nolan films, if you turned off the endless Hans Zimmer droning score and re-edited it to be straightforward, people would realize it's boring. But instead, everyone is predictably tripping over themselves to say that it's a good film because Christopher Nolan makes Smart Films for Very Smart People.
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Aug 6, 2023 21:33
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The Graduate - didn't love this like so many seem to. Mrs Robinson is a great character, but Benjamin is so odd (almost got Taxi Driver vibes at various moments). The rest of the cast felt almost robotic (including the daughter at times), a sort of omnipresent being that Benjamin struggles to wriggle free of. He shows a lot of character growth, perhaps not in a great direction, I guess Mrs Robinson is to blame for that. Some killer lines too (Mrs Robinson, having just taken her dress off in front of Benjamin: "Benjamin, I am not trying to seduce you")
distortion park fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Aug 6, 2023 |
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Aug 6, 2023 22:34
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:... This hypothetical other film would be very different, yes.
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Aug 6, 2023 22:39
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They Cloned Tyrone I'm a sucker for this kind of soft sci-fi, where the explanation behind the science isn't more important than the messages it contains. The acting by the three stars is top-tier, and I love Yo-Yo's interest in Nancy Drew. I'll always be impressed by how well John Boyega does an American accent. Also, a big lol that Kiefer Sutherland plays Nixon, the highest-ranking government actor we meet in the movie. It's a fun movie that gets you to think while also letting you laugh.
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Aug 6, 2023 23:18
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Mission impossible rogue nation is a great movie. Superb mix of action and spy-ish bits. We kept trying to figure out when the face would happen and when it did it was so well used.
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Aug 6, 2023 23:34
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distortion park posted:The Graduate - didn't love this like so many seem to. Mrs Robinson is a great character, but Benjamin is so odd (almost got Taxi Driver vibes at various moments). The rest of the cast felt almost robotic (including the daughter at times), a sort of omnipresent being that Benjamin struggles to wriggle free of. He shows a lot of character growth, perhaps not in a great direction, I guess Mrs Robinson is to blame for that. Some killer lines too (Mrs Robinson, having just taken her dress off in front of Benjamin: "Benjamin, I am not trying to seduce you") Benjamin's "robotic" nature is part of the appeal - he is a deeply directionless and depressed kid who was shuffled into a future that was decided for him, and the moment he finds a way to break out of it and make his own choices he ends up making things even worse. Don't get me wrong, I don't love the movie as much as I wish I did, but it's mostly because it peaks early for me with everything up to and including the drowning and seduction scenes and the second half loses me until the ending and I wish it was almost even darker, but like...yeah.
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Aug 6, 2023 23:58
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Erin M. Fiasco posted:Benjamin's "robotic" nature is part of the appeal - he is a deeply directionless and depressed kid who was shuffled into a future that was decided for him, and the moment he finds a way to break out of it and make his own choices he ends up making things even worse. Yeah, it all felt super intentional and we'll put together but didn't grab me. Was probably mind blowing in the 60s though
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Aug 7, 2023 08:41
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I remember my dad telling me that the opening shot of him on the moving walkway at the airport (where it's tight-in and looks like he's just standing still and floating along without moving, then pulls out to show the context) made audiences go what the fuuuuuck. That plus the "plastics" business made it all feel like a weird commentary on the dehumanizing nature of the incipient Future
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Aug 7, 2023 11:06
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Daliland pretentious poo poo and tedious nothingness full of exhausting people. Watching that felt life draining. I was done with the movie by the half way point, but stuck with it since I was at the cimena with friends and we were probably going drinking afterwards. But by the end I felt so exhausted that I didn't even do that. Worst movie I've seen all year.
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Aug 7, 2023 21:35
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La Haine is very good but the cliff is pretty steep if any of the elements hadn't worked (and looking back a lot of the story beats aren't exactly fresh). Cassel is incredible, the other two guys were good but he nailed it.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:03
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Gran Turismo (Neill Blomkamp, 2023) Caught a preview screening of this. Well shot, and it sounded good, but the lead character was boring with no personality. It tried to set up a conflict with his father (the only race he attends in person is the last one of the film) just to have an emotional moment at the end. Otherwise a rather formulaic story though I might have appreciated it more if I'd known more about the real life gamer-to-race driver it's based on - they missed off a load of his early races* so it seems like he goes in a few weeks from playing video games in his bedroom to racing at Le Mans, but he did actually finish 3rd at Le Mans in his first race there with fellow GT Academy team mates, and was involved in a crash at Nurburgring which killed a spectator. Also if people thought Barbie was bad enough of a commercial for a brand, the entire first 30 minutes feels like an extended ad for Sony, Gran Turismo, and Nissan. *which is reminiscent of the Florence Pugh based-on-a-true-story wrestling film Fighting With My Family, which also skipped over her extensive career in Europe before signing for the WWE.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:41
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distortion park posted:La Haine is very good but the cliff is pretty steep if any of the elements hadn't worked (and looking back a lot of the story beats aren't exactly fresh). Cassel is incredible, the other two guys were good but he nailed it. I'd argue it was pretty fresh in 1995. I should rewatch this, it's been years.
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Aug 8, 2023 10:44
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Mega Comrade posted:I'd argue it was pretty fresh in 1995. It would be an interesting rewatch, I bet almost all the tension is still there even when you've seen it before.
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Aug 8, 2023 15:54
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distortion park posted:The Graduate - didn't love this like so many seem to. Mrs Robinson is a great character, but Benjamin is so odd (almost got Taxi Driver vibes at various moments). The rest of the cast felt almost robotic (including the daughter at times), a sort of omnipresent being that Benjamin struggles to wriggle free of. He shows a lot of character growth, perhaps not in a great direction, I guess Mrs Robinson is to blame for that. Some killer lines too (Mrs Robinson, having just taken her dress off in front of Benjamin: "Benjamin, I am not trying to seduce you") We watched this in my undergrad film class and I sort of feel like that's the best modern framing for it. It clearly was unlike anything else at the time, but everything it does has just been done so much better ever since. Hard to look past the clunkiness of it all with a modern context.
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Aug 8, 2023 16:57
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Nimona: I liked this one despite myself. If you can get through the first half hour it presents a much needed message about accepting our differences and not letting evil people use our fear to divide us against ourselves. I've got a low tolerance for nonsense though; so was very happy to be interrupted three times during that first half hour.
LLSix fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 19:03
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Carpet posted:Gran Turismo (Neill Blomkamp, 2023) Just remembered something which really annoyed me and took me out of the film - the lead, Jann, is shown working at a railway depot and the locomotives and wagons shown are obviously not those seen on British railways, which is proabably due to the fact lots of the film was shot in Hungary.
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Aug 8, 2023 19:52
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Aftersun (2022) A divorced father takes his daughter on a vacation, intercut with camcorder footage of the trip and brief scenes of the daughter, many years later, considering her father from an adult perspective. Brilliant movie. Joyful without being cloying. Devastating without being heavy-handed. Light on plotting, while telling a very specific story. A perfectly distilled slice of life.
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Aug 8, 2023 20:25
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matrix resurrections was way better than i expected. some really beautiful shots, great sound design, the plot made about as much sense as any of the original trilogy. some very cringey call backs but i appreciate that the movie kind of set its own external context very early with the conversation about how they were going to make the new matrix game with or without him. dude who plays smith and neil patrick harris were really good performances. solid 3 and a half stars.
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Aug 9, 2023 05:59
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Impossible Voyage Bit of a retread of Trip to the Moon, but still funny as hell, plus the set work is even better. Man deserves his place in the pantheon To Live and Die in LA One of the all time great cop movie endings, I love how absolute zero fucks Friedkin gives towards convention or towards presenting the law enforcement apparatus in a positive, non corrupt, way. Popeye at least you could feel that he was so balls deep in the Heroin case because he had nothing else to live for, William Petersen might use his partners death as justification, but the truth is he gets off on being a hotdogging maverick not afraid to gently caress around and hope he doesn't find out. Looking at young Dafoe is bizarre, couple years later in Streets of Fire he looks normal, but in this one he looks like a totally different person who just happens to share his distinct bone structure.
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Aug 9, 2023 08:28
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Carpet posted:Just remembered something which really annoyed me and took me out of the film - the lead, Jann, is shown working at a railway depot and the locomotives and wagons shown are obviously not those seen on British railways, which is proabably due to the fact lots of the film was shot in Hungary. Same thing with Midsommar. They did a great job with the Swedish actors and the props, but the surrounding nature and the structures did not feel Scandinavian at all, because it was also shot in Hungary.
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Aug 9, 2023 09:25
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cant cook creole bream posted:Daliland pretentious poo poo and tedious nothingness full of exhausting people. Watching that felt life draining. Haven't seen it but it sounds like it captured what hanging out with Dali irl was apparently like
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Aug 9, 2023 17:56
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Cleo from 5 to 7 this is the first Agnes Varda I have seen, and I have to say, I’m sorry for doubting you Cleo. I thought she was a spoiled girl whining about doctors, but she’s got the same fears and desires to be loved and respected like the rest of us. I love the way this was shot and just touring Paris. Also what a nice, sweet ending with her really connecting to the soldier.
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Aug 9, 2023 19:54
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Earthquake (1974) with Charlton Heston.
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Aug 9, 2023 23:29
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70s disaster films didn't even pretend to be serious about the human tragedy, it's just "Man that poo poo blowed up real nice didn't it?"
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Aug 9, 2023 23:31
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Check out Towering Inferno where every few minutes someone either gets set on fire or thrown out a window.
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Aug 10, 2023 00:05
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Was it Earthquake or Towering Inferno that had a whirling animated blood splat come at the camera when an elevator full of people fell to the bottom of the shaft? (The only full-on belly laugh I've had from what I've seen of the MST3K revival was the avalanche sequence from Avalanche, and that was all on the original movie and not the riffs.)
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Aug 10, 2023 08:17
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TMNT: Mutant Mayhem - Didn't expect much but my son loves 'm. Have to say I was enjoying it a lot! Great artstyle, cool soundtrack and I lolled a bunch of times at the juvenile bickering among the turtles. Wouldn't mind watching it again!
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Aug 10, 2023 08:35
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interstellar: felt weird watching the second half of this one on my phone because it was choc full of space stuff that would have looked incredible in the cinema. i fell asleep on the couch and hurt my neck and had to go lie down in bed but didnt want to watch the rest later because i was hooked. i had a lot of trouble figuring out major plot beats ahead of time but it was surprising without feeling like it was trying super hard to out smart me. very satisfying movie to watch for the first time. i dont know if id watch it again for a while unless it came to a theatre but i really regret not seeing this when it first came out. i like that it was one of the few attempts at hard sci fi ive ever seen in a movie. there was obviously a lot of bullshit and macguffins towards the end of the movie and the wormhole is a bit of a soft sci fi conceit but it felt very grounded in our reality in concept. 5 out of 5 i want to kiss matt mcconaughey on the mouth
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Aug 10, 2023 09:01
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Payndz posted:Was it Earthquake or Towering Inferno that had a whirling animated blood splat come at the camera when an elevator full of people fell to the bottom of the shaft? That scene was in Earthquake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHXxHje_Ezc Pope Corky the IX fucked around with this message at 09:55 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Aug 10, 2023 09:53
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Jezza of OZPOS posted:interstellar: felt weird watching the second half of this one on my phone because it was choc full of space stuff that would have looked incredible in the cinema. i fell asleep on the couch and hurt my neck and had to go lie down in bed but didnt want to watch the rest later because i was hooked. i had a lot of trouble figuring out major plot beats ahead of time but it was surprising without feeling like it was trying super hard to out smart me. very satisfying movie to watch for the first time. i dont know if id watch it again for a while unless it came to a theatre but i really regret I saw Interstellar in an IMAX theater and it owned. Agree that it's a pretty good movie overall; even the macguffins and handwavey stuff at the end don't really lower my estimation of it. On the other hand I could not have rolled my eyes harder at all the scenes on the future space station between when McConaughey wakes up and when he takes off to find Brand. You mean to tell me humanity went through a multi generation environmental disaster extinction level event, finally heaved ourselves up into the stars through a literal miracle of scientific innovation, and promptly recreated the most environmentally and culturally corrosive form of physical infrastructure to ever exist on a large scale - the late twentieth century American suburb. Falls completely flat.
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Aug 10, 2023 21:54
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The Eric Red draft of Alien 3 featured an enormous space station with a giant dome... inside which they'd built a full-scale replica of a small midwestern farm town for people to live in. I don't know if it was his idea or a mandate to keep the budget low, but it was a real  moment in a script full of them.
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Aug 11, 2023 08:48
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Mat Cauthon posted:I saw Interstellar in an IMAX theater and it owned. Agree that it's a pretty good movie overall; even the macguffins and handwavey stuff at the end don't really lower my estimation of it. One can't find this annoying if they're not a socialist 
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Aug 11, 2023 14:36
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Kill List (Ben Wheatley, 2011) Well this went from gritty domestic drama, to hitman buddy movie, to revenge killing, to full on folk horror all in the space of 90 minutes. I always enjoy when Neil Maskell turns up in stuff, and in this film we had him and Michael Smiley playing off each other. Not having watched this before, I can see traces of things that would turn up in Wheatley's later works especially those later horror scenes in the woods. Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012) While Kill List was a drama with comedic elements, this felt more like a straight up comedy* with dramatic elements. Very accurate depictions of going to a local museum in the British countryside on wet day on holiday, while it was also delightfully gruesome in places (and always good to see Madeline Wool back on screen). *This scene in particular had me in stitches (poor quality but the only version of this scene I could find) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDd97Q935Dw
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Aug 11, 2023 20:33
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Von Pluring posted:Same thing with Midsommar. They did a great job with the Swedish actors and the props, but the surrounding nature and the structures did not feel Scandinavian at all, because it was also shot in Hungary. Related, I know it wasn't really the movie’s fault, because they didn’t have the budget to do better, but the movie feels like it takes place at a summer camp, the village doesn’t feel lived in at all.
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Aug 12, 2023 06:46
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