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Berberian Sound Studio: First Peter Strickland film I've seen but loved this despite also never having seen a giallo film before. Enjoyed the oppressive atmosphere of the sound design, and Toby Jones' performance was great. Followed by an in-person Q&A with the director as well! New Religion: Enjoyed this debut Japanese horror film from writer/director Keishi Konto. It is about a mother who turns to sex work after the death of her young daughter, but meets a mysterious client who only wants to take Polaroids of her, and only speaks through a voice box connected to speakers. Inspired by Davids Lynch (and towards the end) Cronenberg, though probably thanks to the budget (apparently under $20k) we never see anything explicit, apart from a few interludes of CGI 'growths' which gradually form into human bodies. I felt it was also referencing the fear of a cult such as Aum Shinrikyo, and the seemingly drone-like actions of its members. Looked great, and another one with good sound design despite the low budget. Sadly I don't think this one has even got a streaming distribution deal yet. Flux Gourmet: Second Peter Strickland film and another post film Q&A. Loved this, much more tasteful than I was expecting - very funny without relying on grossness well, it teased something more a couple of times. Some great performances too, like the head of the sonic culinary group Fatma Mohamed, who went harder during the 'abbatoir' performance than even the director was asking for, Gwendoline Christie of course, and the doctor constantly expecting everyone else to have the same encyclopedic knowledge of Greek poets as him (apparently it's something the actor does irl, and Strickland wrote the part to get his revenge).
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Oct 23, 2022 03:01
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Watched Corsage at the local indie and wish I'd gone to see Avatar a second time in Dolby 3D. The film felt very slow and I found it annoying that I was being asked to sympathise with how hard the literal Empress has it, when she has unimaginable wealth and servants waiting on her hand and foot. Some odd anachronisms too which didn't quite work like a plastic mop and bucket, and modern light switch fittings, and at one point an, at the latest, 1950s tractor, plus it made the cardinal sin of portraying the earliest film footage as widescreen - if you're actually shooting on film in 2022, then it should be easy enough to shoot 1.33. Oh and whoever wrote the IMDB trivia page for the film apparently really does not like it - full of "actor Vicky Krieps, while promoting the film, said she does not smoke. However, she has previously been seen smoking in public".
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Dec 27, 2022 22:29
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Resurrection: (with a Men (2022) spoiler) What with this and Men, 2022 was a pretty good year for mpreg. Anyway, loved the look and vibe of this one, glad they went all the way with the baby actually being in there. Not sure just yet what the final shot is supposed to be though, was expecting something to happen as it was giving off that 'fake happy ending' feel. Beautifully shot film, annoying that it never got a theatrical release in the UK, but snapped it up on Blu-ray as everyone in the horror thread was raving about it. And that monologue was 
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Jan 2, 2023 08:44
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Saw The Squeeze at the Electric Birmingham, presented by a local cult film festival group*. A gritty 70s London crime thriller, Stacy Keach plays the alcoholic ex-Met copper who must rescue his ex-wife (Cathy Come Home's Carol White) who has been taken hostage along with her daughter by a crime boss to extort her new husband (Edward Fox), who owns a money transport company. Really enjoyed it and I think it compares favourably to films like Get Carter, although the lead is a bit more of a lovable drunk than a cold hearted killer. Some really good shots of multicultural 70s London street life, with a good selection of charming-but-violent thugs (including Blow Up's David Hemmings). *Cine Excess, who put on monthly screenings at the Electric and other events at local venues (they had a Q&A with Ti West last year and brought over Pam Grier to introduce Jackie Brown and Coffey).
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Jan 25, 2023 23:30
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First time watching The Shining, and on 35mm. Seemed very derivative, I'm sure it copied at least three scenes from The Simpsons alone. Aside from that, annoyed it took me this long to see it, will have to pick up the 4K now. Ridiculous to think it didn't get any notable award nominations, Duvall was good despite having to put up with Kubrick's bullshit.
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Feb 19, 2023 18:48
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Anime double bill at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square yesterday, while I'm down here to watch Dunkirk on 15/700 IMAX this morning. First up was Perfect Blue (1997) - I think there was about five different fake outs in this movie, ranging from 'it was a dream', to 'you're actually watching a scene from an in-film TV show'. And in the end, there were three different characters having psychotic breaks - I enjoyed it, and didn't see the end coming. The film looked amazing, the establishing shots were so beautiful and melancholy. (Oh, and the scenes where Mena was setting up her Macintosh for the internet and painstakingly typing in h t t p : / / got some laughs.) Second up, a 4K presentation of Akira. I've only seen this film once, and it was the DVD version about 20 yearsl ago while I was half asleep, so I was watching it for the first time. Another amazing looking and sounding film, and like Perfect Blue it played to an almost fully packed house. I've now realised that I have spent years believing Akira was the name of the protagonist, so good to sort that out.
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Mar 12, 2023 11:50
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Yeah I've ended up buying a membership there, because with trips for work, and going down for gigs, over the last year I would've more than made the annual £15 fee back.
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Mar 12, 2023 20:03
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Dunkirk on 15/70mm IMAX. I found the switches to IMAX framing more distracting in this one, at least compared to Interstellar and TENET. Seemed to be a big picture quality difference as well, thought I was watching 35mm blown up instead of 70mm. Odd. Anyway, first time watching Dunkirk (despite having owned the 4k for a year) and felt like the least-Nolan Nolan film yet. Great cinematography from van Hoytema, as always, and appreciated the use of practical effects - I'm not sure they even changed the shots with Dunkirk town in the background, as some of the buildings looked more post-war. The sound and music design was also great, I picked up on the ticking effect and had that catharsis of it ending when they go to sleep on the train. And despite being a relatively straight forward wartime story, we can't help but get Nolan's obsession with time, but the way the three narrative threads converged was also very satisfying. And then this afternoon I went and saw a 30th anniversary (to the day, as it turns out) screening of Sally Potter's Orlando, with a pre recorded discussion with Tilda Swinton. The director herself introduced the film, and I realised while I was standing in line at the popcorn counter that I was waiting behind her and the film's costume designer (and repeat Scorsese collaborator, and multiple Oscar winner, and recent Bafta fellowship-receiever) Sandy Powell, which was a pretty cool "oh yeah, I'm visiting London, and famous people actually live here" moment. I ended up sat a few seats down from her, and next to the film's foley artist, and apparently quite a few other members of the film's crew were present. I only became aware of the film recently because someone, somewhere mentioned it, probably in a YouTube film video essay, and I'm glad I booked a ticket to see it - it was very fun, and I could see how it might have influenced things like Fleabag, what with its 4th wall-breaking looks to camera. Billy Zane even put in a decent performance, and I enjoyed playing "oh I recognise that face", though the only one I knew was a young Toby Jones.
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Mar 12, 2023 20:47
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Rye Lane (2022) - delightful, funny, joyful South London-set romcom, with two Black British leads that had me leaving the cinema with a big smile on my face. Wide wide camera angles and a colour palette that just pops off the screen, portraying 2020s Britain. No idea if this will get a US release as sadly it's only had a more limited release in the UK so far - had to travel to see it at a not-so-local independent cinema but am glad I did. Debut feature of the director, and it came in at 82 minutes, which was the perfect length, and had a great cameo from an Oscar-winning British star as the chef of a burrito joint called Love Guactually. Want to go and watch it again!
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Mar 26, 2023 19:48
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Back in London and at the BFI Southbank (seeing Interstellar at the big IMAX tomorrow morning) so booked up some more films while I'm down here, starting with the 1935 Rogers and Astaire film Shall We Dance, showing from a 35mm archive print. It was introduced with an informative talk from an expert on this era of musicals, and I actually quite enjoyed it despite it not being a genre I usually watch - and the rest of the audience was really into it too. Followed this up with Empire Records at the Prince Charles, also showing on 35mm, and on Rex Manning Day as well. I only heard about this film a few weeks ago but it sounded fun so booked a ticket - however, it turns out the film I actually did hear about a few weeks ago was That Thing You Do!, which in my defense does share two of the leads. Aside from not being the film I thought I was going to see, it was really fun - had some die hard fans of it in the audience as well - the guy sat in front of me was really into it, his date perhaps not so much.
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Apr 8, 2023 19:43
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Saw the French underground moto stunt riding drama Rodeo at the very nice Curzon Soho in London (excellent auditorium and screen, at least compared to my local Cineworld, though the ticket price does reflect this). It's a film following a young woman who joins a motorbike gang, and the lengths she goes to to be accepted as one of them. Hard to believe the lead actress is a first time non-professional (apparently the director found her on Instagram where she posts videos of her own stunt riding) along with nearly all of the cast, who acquitted themselves well. Some fantastic shots of real riders riding bikes fast. I'd heard about it from Mark Kemode's review, and I'm glad I caught it while I'm down in London - the cinematography looked amazing on the big screen, and although shot digitally had lots of lovely grain (which I'm assuming was a post processing filter), so along with the fantastic engine foley it's really worth seeing on the big screen if you can.
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Apr 30, 2023 15:33
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Black Lighter posted:This made me look up when it was opening in the US, and it looks like it opened and closed after a week last month with no fanfare. Indie distribution in the US loving sucks. Well even in the UK it's mostly limited to the Curzon cinema chain, plus a few of the regional arts centres that have also have a cinema screen.
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Apr 30, 2023 16:34
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Suzume - what a fantastic looking film, so many nice little touches with the animation, landscapes, and background details, and the audience I saw it with was well into it. Ended up blind buying Weathering With You on Blu-ray for a fiver after seeing it. Return to Seoul - another fantastic looking film, with a great central performance from Park Ji-Min in her first acting role ever. The first half of the film was what I was expecting from the trailer (which I saw about three times before other films last week) and while the second half went in a slightly different direction, I was still entirely on board for it.
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May 7, 2023 22:57
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Orphan: First Kill - I only saw the first Orphan around the time this one was in cinemas, though I missed my chance to see it there, and having now seen the prequel I'm slightly disappointed as I had a load of fun watching this. It would have been good to have experienced that twist with other people, but as it was, I was laughing my head off watching it at home. I also loved how obvious the forced perspective and child double shots were, though a weak part was the crappy CGI roof and flames when the house is burning down - could they really not spare the budget to build a proper sized piece of that roof and burn it for real? Thief - got the Arrow Video Blu-ray and it looks fantastic - had thought there was a 4K release, but I don't know that there would be much improvement - the use of light and darkness was great. Even in his first feature film, I can clearly see touches that would become Mann staples, and also the influence it has had on later films from other directors.
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May 9, 2023 12:48
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"off-brand Michael Sera" You mean Andy Samberg?
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May 16, 2023 10:04
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Working Girls, 1931. Just watched a brand new 35mm print from the 1997 restoration (which was funded by Jodie Foster no less) here at the BFI Film on Film Festival. It's a pre-code film directed by the only female film director in Hollywood at the time, Dorothy Arzner. It's about two sisters who move to New York to find work and husbands, with a number of possible suitors. Interesting to see the frank (for the time) references to pre-marital sex and pregnancy, and some actually funny moments. 1/13 films watched.
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Jun 8, 2023 20:20
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Far and Away (Ron Howard, 1992). Saw this at 11am, as part of the BFI Film on Film Festival, projected using a changeover system and from a pristine original print that has never been publicly projected until now. It was shot on Panavision Super 70, and it looked fantastic up there. The film itself was quite silly, and the introduction from the programmer prepared us for that, and the audience was well into it. It had some classic Tom Cruise running, Nicole Kidman exclaiming "my spoons!!!" well before The Room ever did, and some admittedly solid feeling fight scenes. Cruise's character is thrown off his father's land in 19th century Ireland after he dies, and after attempting to murder his landlord, he meets Kidman. They board a ship to America and try to make a life for themselves in Boston, with Cruise making money bare knuckle boxing. The last act takes place in Oklahoma, which is where the 70mm really shines - there's some fantastic shots of the wide open landscape, and horses and wagons charging along. You could tell the 70mm projectors haven't been used that much which is a shame - this is because at one reel changeover, the new projector took a while to get up to speed, meaning we saw and heard some of the leader film with the countdown, and could hear the slowed down audio - no Dolby Digital here. Later on, on what I suspect is the same projector, the audio was rather muffled. But it all added to the experience of watching film on film.
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Jun 9, 2023 14:28
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Hondo (1953). Saw this on 35mm 3D from a 1953 print, my film number 7 of the BFI Film on Film Festival. They had brought in a literal silver screen for screening, and had an intermission halfway (about 40 minutes) to change the reels over for the second half - this was actually baked into the print as a 3D 'intermission' card came up. We were given IMAX 3D glasses for the screening which made me chuckle - that we can watch 70 year old films with 'modern' 3D glasses. My first John Wayne western so I can't really say how it holds up compared to his other works, but I enjoyed it. Wayne's character Hondo is a former part-Apache cavalryman who turns up at a remote farmstead located in Apache territory, where a mother and her child live, his father presumed dead. He helps out around the farm and gets a bed for a few nights, and borrows and breaks in a horse to ride back to the cavalry camp - these scenes nicely show off the 3D without being flashy about it. A local Apache chief is on the war path after the 'whites' have broken a peace treaty and shows up himself at the farmstead, but he admires the boy's bravery and starts training him in place of his father. Without going too much into the story, eventually conflict ensues between the Apaches and the Cavalry, which leads to an epic battle scene at the end with some great stunt horse riding (my second film in two days featuring that and the cavalry). There's a few too many 'arrows flying directly at the screen' towards the end, but overall the 3D effects hold up nicely once I got over the initial discomfort of the disparity between the condition of each wheel (dirt on one obviously isn't replicated on the other). The picture was nice and bright too - originally shot in technicolour it was given to the BFI as prints that could each be shown on their own for non-3D screenings. I also laughed the hardest at a particular scene than any other film I've watched recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT2KROiSXDg
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Jun 10, 2023 16:11
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In Training posted:I don't think I've ever seen 70 on a changeover system, I wonder what the equipment looked like. That is some herculean poo poo for the projectionist to deal with. I'm not sure I've ever watched a film on a changeover system before now - I presume any films I watched before digital protection took over were on single spliced reels. I believe everything showing at this festival will be on changeover as well to keep the archive prints in best condition. And with every introduction they've been naming and thanking the projectionists and there's always been at least two.
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Jun 10, 2023 16:14
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Jaws - yes, I've never seen Jaws before, but watching it at a sold out BFI NFT1, from an original dye colour Technicolour print is probably the best way to do it. The audience was well into it, cheering and applauding at the end when the shark was blown up, and laughing at the appropriate moments. Apparently the print has only been shown publicly twice before, and it looked amazing, such great colours and detail with no hint of fading. Anyway, watching the film I was constantly going "oh, that's what the Simpsons were referencing" or "that's where that reaction gif meme is from" but putting that aside the film itself was great - really did jump at the diving part where Hooper is checking the hull of that boat, and all the other bits were suitably tense. The mixture of real shots of a real shark, and the practical animatronic was well handled, hard to believe Spielberg was only 26 when he directed this.
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Jun 11, 2023 23:20
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Mission Impossible (Brian de Palma, 1996) Starting a rewatch of the entire series prior to the new one coming out - I say rewatch though I've only ever seen the first one. It must also have been around 15 years since I've seen M:I1 and I'm pretty sure I also saw it in the cinema at time of release. However this time at least, I was able to follow what had seemed like a rather convoluted plot - I remember as a kid not understanding quite what was going on in the opening scene, or with the double/triple crosses. There's less use of the fake faces than I remember, but the infiltration and action scenes still hold up, with the exception of the final Chunnel chase which seems a bit ridiculous now - I don't know how I ever believed a helicopter could fly through it (and now I notice the lack of overhead wiring or third rail. The CIA heist and vault scene though were still very tense to watch, and there's plenty of great Dutch angles throughout the film. I forgot Henry Czerny played the main antagonist - as with Clear and Present Danger he plays that slimy government man role really well - looking forward to seeing him in the new one. Hunt himself is still a bit of an enigma, we don't really get a sense of who he is or what he believes, will be interested to see if that gets developed in any of the sequels.
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Jun 17, 2023 22:09
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No Hard Feelings (2023) Watched a preview screening of this last night and had a fun time. Felt like a welcome return to the teen sex comedies of the 2000s, though this was more along the lines of The Girl Next Door than American Pie. No great surprises with the plot, it hit all the beats you'd expect but still I laughed plenty, even if they did include some of the best lines in the trailer. However, there was one particular sequence which wasn't in the trailer where Jennifer Lawrence goes all in for comedic effect, so that at least came as a surprise.
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Jun 20, 2023 11:04
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The Three Colours trilogy (1993-1994) Watched the 4K restoration of the trilogy at my local arts centre and had a really good time - it's very hot and sunny today, so it was nice to get out of the heat as well. I enjoyed all three, even if I wasn't quite sure at first what the films were going for, but then got more into them as I realised they were deliberately different genres and weren't all going to be the same film. With Blue I was getting Tár vibes seeing a composer struggle to finish a score, and the sudden bursts of music. The comedic scenes in White were fun, and help to neatly blindside me with that tragic ending. Finally, with Red I got the impression that it was straying into magical realism - either the advocate and judge had both experienced very similar incidents with the study book and their relationships, or the retired judge was supposed to be an older version of the younger man? Or am I reading too much into it, and it's just supposed to lead to a meet cute between the two neighbours? I had fun spotting the references to the other films though that bit at the end of Red almost felt a bit too gratuitous, but I guess that was the final thread linking the three stories together. All of the films looked fantastic, great fine details, tidy grain and colours, and although Blue had a rather yellowish tinge I believe this is how it looked originally. Might have to splash out for the 4K set.
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Jun 25, 2023 19:49
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The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) This has been on my watchlist for a while, since seeing the synopsis on Netflix. I never got around to watching it but did get the Blu-ray a few months and I've finally got around to watching it. I had no real idea of the plot, except it was horror-adjacent, and I had thought the title was literal, so did spend the first 30 minutes waiting for the titular deer to turn up. So I wasn't expecting the whole revenge murder pact thing, but despite the heavy sense of expectant dread over the runtime it was surprisingly funny in places. I also hadn't realised Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone and Bill Camp were in it, so that was a pleasant surprise. And I felt like the trademark Yorgos Lanthimos flat delivery of lines was subverted half way through after the ultimatum, I read it as perhaps the characters were finally living . And does that make three films with both Colin Farrell and Barry Keoghan?
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Jul 1, 2023 23:02
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Mission: Impossible II (2000) Continuing my catch-up of the Mission Impossible series, I just finished watching this and... yeah, what an absolutely insane film. After a very slow start, with a silly mountain road car chase/battle and numerous gratuitous shots of Thandie Newton's cleavage, we finally get some action. The abseil line drop down into the bio weapons facility seemed a bit like a retread of the CIA scene in the first one, but then we get a full on John Woo shootout, complete with dual-wield diving from Tom Cruise. The Splinter Cell type infiltration of a bunker facility, was fun, complete with a stupid number of pigeons/doves (do they not have covers on the air vents?) and some guard knockouts almost played for comedic effect. I'm pretty Cruise invented ghost riding his whip in the 10 minute motorbike chase, which ended with two bikes flying into the air and crashing into each other. And then that final beach fight scene, which was possibly the most over the top thing in the movie yet; that kicking pick up of the gun, followed by Cruise spinning around to fire it, was the cherry on top.
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Jul 2, 2023 02:16
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Mission Impossible III (2006) Now this is more like it. Great, tense, opening scene with the king Philip Seymour Hoffman, followed by a proper rescue mission, very Splinter Cell. Shame they killed off Keri Russell's character so early, but at least we some more of her in flashbacks. The Vatican City infiltration was great, it felt like a multiplayer Hitman level, and I love the way they cleanly switched between Hoffman and Cruise wearing each other's faces. Having now seen that Shanghai roof abseil/jump I can see how it must have inspired the Dark Knight. I really liked the look of this film, with some good long shots in the action sequences. and I also think they handled Ethan's personal life really well and glad the 'killing off the wife' was a fakeout. Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol (2011) After the great use of a villain in PSH, I was never quite sure who was the ultimate bad guy in this one, like No Time To Die the focus seemed to be more on the IMF family rather than the villain. But the corridor scent and the entire Burj Khalifa sequence were fantastic, annoyed I never saw that in IMAX. The whole satellite sequence was a bit silly, are we to believe that the US would not have detected an intercontinental nuclear missile launch and taken retaliatory measures? Stopping it just in time felt a bit too convenient. It annoyed me that they'd off screen fridged Ethan's wife, so I was glad they avoided that trope at the end. And I'm guessing BMW paid handsomely for their cars to be featured, as I doubt they sell one capable of surviving 100ft vertical drops. Carpet fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jul 7, 2023 |
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Jul 7, 2023 23:38
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Joy Ride (2023) This was tonight's Cineworld 'Secret Screening' (and Odeon's I believe). Very fun, and funny film - the trailers were pretty accurate in portraying the tone of the film. What with this and No Hard Feelings I'm feeling like the sex/gross out comedy is back (surprisingly graphic in one particular part). And after seeing Return to Seoul a couple of months ago, this is now the second film where an American adoptee of East Asian descent goes to her country of birth to find her mother, except (big spoilers) in this case she's of Chinese descent until nope, she's also of Korean descent! Nice cameo from Daniel Dae-Kim, in a touching scene at the end..
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Jul 8, 2023 23:31
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Speaking of Magnolia, I saw in HMV a 2023 reissue of it, though I can't find any information about it online. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) Saw a 35mm print of the 3 hour cut at the Prince Charles, which was also my first time seeing it, and I really enjoyed it. Amazing cinematography (such rich blue skies) and an iconic score, though I immediately noticed all the musical cues Tarantino has borrowed. Felt it dragged a little near the end with the Union camp bit, though it did lead to blowing up that bridge with a kick rear end explosion. The Master (2012) I've only ever watched this once and on Netflix before, so instead of going around a museum I just had to watch a 70mm print this afternoon, again at the Prince Charles, Got a lot more out of it this time, and just loved every scene where Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman were sat down talking to each other. Great supports too, from a very well cast Jesse Plemons, to Amy Adam's cynical wife, to true believer Laura Dern. And yeah, I shed a few tears when PSH sings that song to Freddie during their final scene together.
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Jul 10, 2023 21:04
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Tetsuo: Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989) Finally got around to watching this after buying the two film Blu-ray set ages ago and what a trip. Loved the 16mm cinematography, and think the special and stop motion effects worked really well considering the budget they were working with. Great soundtrack as well.
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Jul 29, 2023 00:59
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TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Loved this, lots of fun, and having the four actual teenagers playing the turtles record their lines in the same booth together really worked, they felt like actual brothers. The animation style was great - as with the animated Spiderverse films it looks so much better than just trying to make photorealistic CGI. Also the score kicked rear end, like the first NIN music in a few years.
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Aug 2, 2023 00:34
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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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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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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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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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The_Doctor posted:Do they mention at all that Jann is actually the third person who came from the GT Academy competition? I did have a draft post written up until the app swallowed it, but yeah this film changes the timeline around - it's set in the present day, not 2011, and it's the first GT Academy so everyone's job is on the line if it fails. I believe David Harbour's character was invented for the film as well as a rivalry with the other academy drivers. Also, bizarrely, all the drivers are shown sharing a dorm at the race track where the competition takes place.
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Aug 15, 2023 14:03
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Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021) I've never seen an Ingmar Bergman film (although I have got the 4K of The Seventh Seal sitting on the shelf) but I did see Hansen-Løve's One Fine Morning a few months ago and for me she's now two for two. Loved this, it was beautifully shot and I think unlike some I enjoyed the film within a film within a film framing in the second half. I need to get OFM on Blu-ray along with some of her earlier films, plus a ferry to Fårö. Oh, and I should probably also watch some of Bergman's own films.
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Aug 16, 2023 03:14
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Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) The local independent had this on and as I've only seen it once, about 15 years ago, I went and watched it again on the big screen. The first half felt a bit like the teenage boy edgy fantasy of telling your boss to go gently caress himself that it's got a reputation for, but I felt like it hit its stride once it got into the second half. The reveal came sooner than I remembered, I could recall the garage fight scene as seen on CCTV, but not much else, and it definitely works not having it right at the end. Kicking score as well.
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Aug 17, 2023 22:29
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A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, 2013) Really enjoyed this. THAT tent scene though, the look on Reece Shearsmith's face plus the use of Blanck Mass' Chernobyl was perfection (also the first of two films using that track and with Michael Smiley and Richard Glover, the other being Censor). It felt like a Ben Wheatley film - I can see the similarities between this and Wheatley's In The Earth, eg mushroom trips and strobic effects. The Blu-ray extras were really good and thorough as well, which isn't usual these days. The Meg 2: The Trench (Ben Wheatley, 2023) This however, did not feel like a Ben Wheatley film. I'd hoped he might put more of his personal touch on it, but I guess he wasn't allowed to put the gore it really deserved into a 12A/PG-13 movie. There were some interesting shots, like the practical POV shot from a shark's mouth as it swam towards swimmers but otherwise it took a bit too long to get to the fun part. The Chinese businessman character felt a bit forced and every time he appeared on screen I remembered he was probably only in the script because the film was partially funded by a Chinese film company - but at least he and his niece do actually talk Mandarin to each other.
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Aug 21, 2023 19:41
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Following (Christopher Nolan, 1998) Watched the new 101 Films Blu-ray release of this (first time on BD in the UK). Really enjoyed it, very tense burglary scenes and great use of the limited budget with the borrowed on-location sets. Nice snapshot of late 90s London, but of the types of places regular people would live and spend time in, rather than the tourist spots or high end bars. Some of the acting didn't quite land but it was mostly his mates from uni and the uni film society. Also you know it's a Chris Nolan film because of course the mad lad had to include split timelines in what was his first feature length film. I'm surprised the actor who played Cobb (yes, Cobb) didn't act in anything else after this - his performance was the strongest of the cast - reminds me of Tom Burke - but he became an architect instead.
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Sep 19, 2023 04:14
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 15:50 |
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I bounced off Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002) the first time I watched it on Netflix, abandoned it 1/3 of the way through as I was tired and it seemed to be going so slowly. However, on a work trip to London tonight, my train was delayed and I missed my booking for Passages (Ira Sachs, 2023) on 35mm, so I looked for alternative entertainment, and I found it on a pristine 35mm screening of GoNY. Maybe it's because I've seen quite a few films pushing 3 hours in the last couple of years, or because being in a cinema I could really settle down and enjoy it, but yeah it really clicked for me this time. The sets were fantastic (that one crane shot of the inside of the mission early on was one highlight) and it was full of great character actors I love (we really didn't need that flashback of John C. Reilly to remind us it was him). It's a shame there's no 4K release as I bet it would look fantastic.
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Sep 25, 2023 23:07
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