Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Cinema at the End of the World Edition

[Pink Mist]

Merci pour le Chocolat / Nightcap (Claude Chabrol, 2000)

Isabelle Huppert is the queen of playing ice cold people who are subtly insane. In this she is a chocolatier who is married to a pianist and has a fail son 18 year old step-son. One day, a young woman comes to her home who had learned that she was born at the same hospital as the step-son and was almost accidently switched at birth with him. She is also a pianist like her almost-father, which raises suspicions if she is actually his daughter. Her entrance into their household causes Huppert’s character to go icily unhinged. The plot to this film is a little convoluted. Chabrol is considered to be the French Hitchcock and he has made a career of making suspenseful thrillers, but in this one he goes in the opposite direction, taking what could make a thrilling situation and making it an anti-thriller. There aren’t many thrills to be found here and the result of this convoluted situation feels a little undercooked and unfulfilling. Huppert, as always, is great in her role, but she can only carry the film so far.

 

[kihei]

Don't Look Up (2021) Directed by Adam McKay 4A

Don't Look Up is broad satire and pretty much a dud. A Michigan State Ph.D student (Jennifer Lawrence) and her astronomy professor (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover that a huge comet is hurtling through space with Earth as its eventual target precipitating a full extinction event that will wipe out all life on the planet. They and an ally try to sound the alarm but nobody wants to hear it including the President of the United States (Meryl Streep), the established media both print and electronic, and the military, none of whom can adjust to bad news, much less do something effective about it. Director Adam McKay lines up his numerous targets but unlike in The Big Short, the end result seems scattershot and anything but insightful. For a movie that is two hours and twenty minutes long one would think some scenes have to work, but I can't think of a single really memorable one at the moment. Almost unrecognizable as a New Age tech entrepeneur, Mark Rylance steals the show in almost every scene he is in, and Meryl Streep has fun with her Sarah Palin-take on the Presidency. However, there is neither much wit here nor even borderline effective humour. The United States gets painted as a society of superficial, venal imbeciles, so Don't Look Up is unlikely to attract many viewers despite its star-studded cast.

Netflix

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Merci pour le Chocolat / Nightcap (Claude Chabrol, 2000)

Isabelle Huppert is the queen of playing ice cold people who are subtly insane. In this she is a chocolatier who is married to a pianist and has a fail son 18 year old step-son. One day, a young woman comes to her home who had learned that she was born at the same hospital as the step-son and was almost accidently switched at birth with him. She is also a pianist like her almost-father, which raises suspicions if she is actually his daughter. Her entrance into their household causes Huppert’s character to go icily unhinged. The plot to this film is a little convoluted. Chabrol is considered to be the French Hitchcock and he has made a career of making suspenseful thrillers, but in this one he goes in the opposite direction, taking what could make a thrilling situation and making it an anti-thriller. There aren’t many thrills to be found here and the result of this convoluted situation feels a little undercooked and unfulfilling. Huppert, as always, is great in her role, but she can only carry the film so far.

Can't say I enjoy much of Chabrol, but I remember liking that one more than his usual stuff.

 

[kihei]

Can't say I enjoy much of Chabrol, but I remember liking that one more than his usual stuff.

To me despite the fact that he adapts so many mystery novels to the screen, his dry approach seems to wring most of the suspense right out of them. I grant there are a lot of exceptions, and I do like several of his films (Le Boucher; Les Biches; La Ceremonie; and others), but he often seems to play against the possibilities for suspense that Hitchcock plays up.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Christmas bullshit:

The Night Before. I laughed enough. Think Michael Shannon is legit great in this. Joseph Gordon Levitt feels out of place and is the weak leg of this Xmas party stool.

Silent Night Deadly Night 2. Don't worry if you haven't seen the first because the first 40 minutes of this literally recaps it. You want to see an actor make BOLD PERFORMANCE CHOICES, this is ... that.

Blood Beat. Xmas in timing only. A ghostly samurai is haunting a family in rural Wisconsin... because? Has a few low budget horror charms, especially in the 2nd half. But mostly bad and cheap.

Bad Santa. A nice, extremely crass antidote to saccharine Xmas stuff that manages to have just a small enough heart to still qualify as legit seasonal viewing. Deeply vulgar but consistently hilarious dialogue.

Deadly Games (aka Dial Code Santa Claus). A bonkers late 80s French film predating Home Alone pitting a kid best described as rich baby Rambo versus a psychotic dude in a Santa suit. Much better made than the description implies. I genuinely enjoyed the hell out of it

 

[peate]

Don't Look Up (2021) Directed by Adam McKay 4A

Don't Look Up is broad satire and pretty much a dud. A Michigan State Ph.D student (Jennifer Lawrence) and her astronomy professor (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover that a huge comet is hurtling through space with Earth as its eventual target precipitating a full extinction event that will wipe out all life on the planet. They and an ally try to sound the alarm but nobody wants to hear it including the President of the United States (Meryl Streep), the established media both print and electronic, and the military, none of whom can adjust to bad news, much less do something effective about it. Director Adam McKay lines up his numerous targets but unlike in The Big Short, the end result seems scattershot and anything but insightful. For a movie that is two hours and twenty minutes long one would think some scenes have to work, but I can't think of a single really memorable one at the moment. Almost unrecognizable as a New Age tech entrepeneur, Mark Rylance steals the show in almost every scene he is in, and Meryl Streep has fun with her Sarah Palin-take on the Presidency. However, there is neither much wit here nor even borderline effective humour. The United States gets painted aqs a society of superficial, venal imbeciles, so Don't Look Up is unlikely to attract many viewers despite its star-studded cast.

Netflix

Saw it last night. Was expecting better but enjoyed it for the most part. Streep was funny, reminded me of Veep. It does paint a rather unflattering portrait of Americans. Pretty close to the truth though. The ending was good. Ooops! wrong planet.

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

Don't Look Up (2021) Directed by Adam McKay 4A

Don't Look Up is broad satire and pretty much a dud. A Michigan State Ph.D student (Jennifer Lawrence) and her astronomy professor (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover that a huge comet is hurtling through space with Earth as its eventual target precipitating a full extinction event that will wipe out all life on the planet. They and an ally try to sound the alarm but nobody wants to hear it including the President of the United States (Meryl Streep), the established media both print and electronic, and the military, none of whom can adjust to bad news, much less do something effective about it. Director Adam McKay lines up his numerous targets but unlike in The Big Short, the end result seems scattershot and anything but insightful. For a movie that is two hours and twenty minutes long one would think some scenes have to work, but I can't think of a single really memorable one at the moment. Almost unrecognizable as a New Age tech entrepeneur, Mark Rylance steals the show in almost every scene he is in, and Meryl Streep has fun with her Sarah Palin-take on the Presidency. However, there is neither much wit here nor even borderline effective humour. The United States gets painted as a society of superficial, venal imbeciles, so Don't Look Up is unlikely to attract many viewers despite its star-studded cast.

Netflix

loved it. smart satire.

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

Saw it last night. Was expecting better but enjoyed it for the most part. Streep was funny, reminded me of Veep. It does paint a rather unflattering portrait of Americans. Pretty close to the truth though. The ending was good. Ooops! wrong planet.

whhhhhhy would u put something like this?

 

[Sentinel]

The Apartment (1960). Oscar winner in the Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing categories, with nominations in Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor categories. Bloody brilliant. Everything about this film is perfect: directing, acting (Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine), storyline, and dialogs. A man lets his work bosses use his apartment as a lovers’ den in hope for a promotion. It’s a perfect blend of comedy, melodrama, and witty social criticism. Watching this movie I can’t help but think of real degradation not just of intelligence (if you recall my recent post) but of cinema as well. They simply don’t make masterpieces like this anymore. In fact, the last Oscar winner that comes close to The Apartment is American Beauty (1999). The body language and the facial expression, the subtleties and the atmosphere are, pretty much, lost art. If you need an excuse to dive into the Golden Age of Cinema, this is it. 10/10

 

[Sentinel]

Hologram for the King (2016). Pretty much, the exact opposite. A snoozefest that’s only a step above the much-disdained Lost in Translation, the emperor of snoozefests. What’s worse is that the director here is Tom Tykwer, whom I used to absolutely adore for films like Run Lola Run, Heaven, and even Perfume and Cloud Atlas (all the best parts in it are his). While he still uses some of his trademark tricks here, the story is so boring that even the ever-compelling Tom Hanks can’t save it. A troubled IT specialist travels to Saudi Arabia to make a sales pitch, but takes all of his problems with him plus acquires some new ones. For the duration of the movie I could not force myself to care about any of it. A hard “pass.” 3/10

 

[Devilsfan992]

Don't Look Up (2021) Directed by Adam McKay 4A

Don't Look Up is broad satire and pretty much a dud. A Michigan State Ph.D student (Jennifer Lawrence) and her astronomy professor (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover that a huge comet is hurtling through space with Earth as its eventual target precipitating a full extinction event that will wipe out all life on the planet. They and an ally try to sound the alarm but nobody wants to hear it including the President of the United States (Meryl Streep), the established media both print and electronic, and the military, none of whom can adjust to bad news, much less do something effective about it. Director Adam McKay lines up his numerous targets but unlike in The Big Short, the end result seems scattershot and anything but insightful. For a movie that is two hours and twenty minutes long one would think some scenes have to work, but I can't think of a single really memorable one at the moment. Almost unrecognizable as a New Age tech entrepeneur, Mark Rylance steals the show in almost every scene he is in, and Meryl Streep has fun with her Sarah Palin-take on the Presidency. However, there is neither much wit here nor even borderline effective humour. The United States gets painted as a society of superficial, venal imbeciles, so Don't Look Up is unlikely to attract many viewers despite its star-studded cast.

Netflix

Yeah this was pretty bad. Not only is it an overreaction of current events, it's not even an accurate depiction of the reactions to such events. For example the media laughing it off as a joke, yet most of US media is the opposite, rather using fear to attract viewers. Even in today's political climate, the majority of the county would take a comet which has a 99.7% chance of ending the world seriously, let alone political office.

Even if viewers can overlook the hyperbole, the movie just wasn't funny. A lot of it felt like rehashed jokes you would see on South Park or SNL, except South Park and SNL were funny.

 

[The don godfather]

Green inferno 9 out of 10. Edge of your seat gore fest thriller. Just dont eat meat while watching it. Just a must see.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Adam McKay has always struck me as someone who thinks he's waaaay more clever and talented than he actually is. I haven't seen his latest but he never shows restraint for what are ultimately really simple movies and writing that aren't nearly as witty as he appears to think they are. Bubblegum to the max without ever the consciousness of how bubblegum it is. Bubblegum can have style but he's too enamored with himself to see it. At least from what I can tell. I don't know the man, just his movies. And I think his early raunchy stuff is actually kind of worth a shit (though it always ends up petering out within 50-60% of its runtime). His transition has been awful though, IMO.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Green inferno 9 out of 10. Edge of your seat gore fest thriller. Just dont eat meat while watching it. Just a must see.

Isn't that just a tame version of the films it tries to emulate, 30 + years too late? Just not a big fan of Roth. I have it at 3/10.

 

[kihei]

The Last Duel (2021) Directed by Ridley Scott 5A

If I had not seen Kurosawa's Roshomon, I would have undoubtedly liked The Last Duel better. Some narrative devices, executed perfectly the first time like Agatha Christie's trick of perspective in her break-out mystery The Mysterious Affair at Styles, should be attempted once, and when done perfectly, immediately retired permanently. Such is the case with the multiple perspective storytelling device that gives structure to The Last Duel. All it accomplishes is to draw an invidious comparison with Kurosawa's seminal work. Another big problem is Matt Damon: not since Jack Lemmon has an actor been so utterly impossible to believe in historical dramas (imagine Lemmon in a toga). Damon might get away with a Western (Lemmon couldn't even do that) but in any other historical period, Damon has neither the look, the voice, the manner, or the fit to be anything but modern. Howeven, if one can just sort of block out this pair of distractions, The Last Duel is a pretty good account of maybe the first serious rape trial in history. For Scott, the movie is definitely woke, but in a positive way. Jodie Comer is very good as the assaulted wife and Ben Affleck, virtually unrecognizable, is equally effective as is a powerful French count. As the film is far more art-house than action, I can see why it didn't draw much of an audience. However, as a bit of a history lesson, The Last Duel does its job quite well, assuming one can take its flaws in stride.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Green inferno 9 out of 10. Edge of your seat gore fest thriller. Just dont eat meat while watching it. Just a must see.

I was going to catch this one awhile back, but read the synopsis and it sounded like a dumb ass remake of Cannibal Holocaust.

 

[The don godfather]

I was going to catch this one awhile back, but read the synopsis and it sounded like a dumb ass remake of Cannibal Holocaust.

Worth the 90 minutes. I watched it like 3 times and the main actress was quite eye catching .

 

[Sentinel]

Don’t Look Up (2021). A biting political satire about the end of the world with, possibly, the most star-studded cast ever assembled. A giant comet is about to hit earth, but the governments, the media, and the people are too busy chasing votes, views, and likes. There is exactly zero nuance, subtlety, and the like: the movie is scorched earth about scorched earth. Meryl Streep (as Trump-like president), Jennifer Lawrence (as a pot-smoking grad student with temper issues), Leonardo DiCaprio (as an astronomer with sex issues and limited social skills), Cate Blanchett (as a Megyn Kelly-like talk show bimbo), Jonah Hill (as Trump Jr.-like Chief of Staff), Ariana Grande (as, essentially, herself), Ron Perlman (as a redneck space pilot, a clear spoof of the entire Armageddon cast), Mark Rylance (as a blend of Elon Mask, Mark Zuckerberg, and himself from the recent Ready Player One film), and Timothee Chalamet (as a punk renegade / secret Evangelical): has a a credits run ever been more impressive? Not since Expendables, that’s for sure. Some jokes are brilliant (“Poor people should pick better lottery numbers”), some are too hamfisted. One of our society’s biggest problems – distrust of experts – is uncovered with scalpel-like precision and mercilessness. At some point, Grande’s ridiculously outfitted character croons “Listen to the goddamn qualified scientists!” Excellent pace, editing, and special effects kindly recall the era of Independence Day, Armageddon, and Deep Impact, when there was not just hope but confidence in humanity uniting in face of clear and present danger. Sadly, those days are gone. 7/10

 

[Sentinel]

The Last Duel (2021). This movie received very positive reviews but I suspect it has more to do with the zeitgeist, than with the actual merits. It falls nicely into the metoo narrative that all men are bad, so if you have an inherent aversion to all things woke, you will probably not like it. But on its own, it's actually pretty decent. Its main problem is the length: it is just too damn long. Then again: when weren't Ridley Scott's movies long? But at least in Blade Runner we didn't have to sit through entire sequences of events repeated several times over. The "arm's length" cinematography here is very similar to Gladiator: Russell Crowe might have even been a better casting choice for Jean de Carrouges than Matt "Holy shit, it's Jason Bourne" Damon.

Anyway, the film is based on a story from the Hundred Years War era, involving Carrouges's wife (Jodie Comer) being raped by Carrouges's ex-friend and competitor LeGris (Adam Driver). The same events are told from three different perspectives, Roshamon-style. But, unlike in Roshamon, there is no ambiguity as to whose version is correct: the wife's. The most controversial aspect of the film is that the rape scene viewed by LeGris and by Lady Carrouges are almost identical, yet LeGris vehemently denies his guilt and is, most likely, genuine in his denial. He clearly doesn't think he's done anything wrong. The movie is absolutely correct in picturing how terrible the life of medieval women (although, arguably, not much worse than life of medieval men). Comer's performance is very inspirational, she achieves much with little. A fine costume drama but a good deal longer than it should have been. 6/10

 

[Sweetpotato]

Spiderman: No way home

9.5/10

I won't spoil much and I can't put my finger on certain things. It's the first Tom Holland spiderman that felt like a spiderman movie and also a marvel movie. They changed the lighting style and the overall tone to be more "grown up". The ending is literal perfection for a super hero movie.

 

[peate]

Yeah this was pretty bad. Not only is it an overreaction of current events, it's not even an accurate depiction of the reactions to such events. For example the media laughing it off as a joke, yet most of US media is the opposite, rather using fear to attract viewers. Even in today's political climate, the majority of the county would take a comet which has a 99.7% chance of ending the world seriously, let alone political office.

Even if viewers can overlook the hyperbole, the movie just wasn't funny. A lot of it felt like rehashed jokes you would see on South Park or SNL, except South Park and SNL were funny.

Sounds to me like you found it a bit too close to the truth, or you work for FOX.

 

[guinness]

Penthouse (1933).

6/10. I honestly can't remember much, other than seeing a young Myrna Loy; to that end, I liked her character's interplay with Warner Baxter's. Something something gangsters, the damsel in distress, and the bad guys loose in the end.

 

[kihei]

The Last Duel (2021). This movie received very positive reviews but I suspect it has more to do with the zeitgeist, than with the actual merits. It falls nicely into the metoo narrative that all men are bad, so if you have an inherent aversion to all things woke, you will probably not like it. But on its own, it's actually pretty decent. Its main problem is the length: it is just too damn long. Then again: when weren't Ridley Scott's movies long? But at least in Blade Runner we didn't have to sit through entire sequences of events repeated several times over. The "arm's length" cinematography here is very similar to Gladiator: Russell Crowe might have even been a better casting choice for Jean de Carrouges than Matt "Holy shit, it's Jason Bourne" Damon.

Anyway, the film is based on a story from the Hundred Years War era, involving Carrouges's wife (Jodie Comer) being raped by Carrouges's ex-friend and competitor LeGris (Adam Driver). The same events are told from three different perspectives, Roshamon-style. But, unlike in Roshamon, there is no ambiguity as to whose version is correct: the wife's. The most controversial aspect of the film is that the rape scene viewed by LeGris and by are almost identical, yet LeGris vehemently denies his guilt and is, most likely, genuine in his denial. He clearly doesn't think he's done anything wrong. The movie is absolutely correct in picturing how terrible the life of medieval women (although, arguably, not much worse than life of medieval men). Comer's performance is very inspirational, she achieves much with little. A fine costume drama but a good deal longer than it should have been. 6/10

I agree with much of this review but have to take issue with one comfortably fraudulent assertion and one over-simplification. I suspect that you know as well as I do what the "metoo" movement is really about and that its purpose isn't to bolster the narrative that "all men are bad" but to provide (mostly) women with some platform in regard to the sexual violence, assault and harassment that too many of them have experienced.

Secondly, while medieval men and women shared wretched lives in most material ways, I would argue that who had the power and who raped whom was pretty one-sided, no? Or to take a slightly different example from the movie: on at least a couple of occasions the Count and his lords drop their pants and have organized orgies with the prettier peasant girls. Let's turn that around. Lets imagine the ladies of the Court dropping their panties and publicly having orgies with the better-looking pages. How long do you think that would be tolerated before a few sexually-active women got burned as witches?

 

[holy]

Don’t Look Up -

I wish they would’ve added adults cramming in movie theatres to go see superhero movies during a pandemic, oh wait, this movie has something else going on in it, never mind.

Also Jennifer Lawrence can barely act.

7.5/10

 

[Sentinel]

I agree with much of this review but have to take issue with one comfortably fraudulent assertion and one over-simplification. I suspect that you know as well as I do what the "metoo" movement is really about and that its purpose isn't to bolster the narrative that "all men are bad" but to provide (mostly) women with some platform in regard to the sexual violence, assault and harassment that too many of them have experienced.

Secondly, while medieval men and women shared wretched lives in most material ways, I would argue that who had the power and who raped whom was pretty one-sided, no? Or to take a slightly different example from the movie: on at least a couple of occasions the Count and his lords drop their pants and have organized orgies with the prettier peasant girls. Let's turn that around. Lets imagine the ladies of the Court dropping their panties and publicly having orgies with the better-looking pages. How long do you think that would be tolerated before a few sexually-active women got burned as witches?

You can take issue with whatever you want.

Find me a positive male character in this movie. There aren't any.

The rapes were pretty one-sided. But wars were pretty one-sided too. Women were raped. Men were killed and maimed in wars. I daresay one is worse than another and happened more frequently. Sure, men had the power (or, I should say, "men were a tad less powerless than women"). Doesn't mean their lives were *that* much better than women's.

Btw, witch burnings were not as common in the Middle Ages as you seem to think, but that's a very minor point.