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

[kihei]

Knife in the Water / Nóz w wodzie (Roman Polanski, 1962)

On their way to go sailing, a couple picks up a young man hitchhiking and invites him along. Over their journey the two men begin to compete for the wife’s attention leading to dangerous consequences. The first film of controversial (to put it lightly) director Roman Polanski and it is a clever one. It is simultaneously mundane and thrilling. Not too much happens here: the couple goes about their routine setting up to go sailing and are interrupted by an inexperienced young man. The three people go boating and flirt and compete with each other. The danger comes in that they are in the middle of nowhere surrounded by water and the young hitchhiker may or may not know how to swim. Every display of bravado between the two men and every glance caught eyeing the girl becomes thrilling due to the possibility of danger on the open water. It’s a dangerous game they’re playing. Simply shot but with some creative shots and use of blocking, Polanski’s film is an excellent suspense film that shows that sometimes less is more and to trust your audience’s imagination of outcomes.

An excellent example of what an extraordinary director can do in a confined space.

 

[Osprey]

An excellent example of what an extraordinary director can do in a confined space.

I watched it last night and was very impressed with the filmmaking. It was clearly filmed on a real boat on location, which surprised me a little for a 1962 film. Many of the shots made me wonder how they positioned the camera to get them. Also, the takes were really long, which must've added to the challenge for Polanski and the actors, especially since two of them had never acted before. The fact that such a challenging film to shoot was Polanski's directorial debut is most impressive. I can see why it's his only Polish language film. All he needed was one and foreign studios came calling.

 

[Sentinel]

Knife in the Water / Nóz w wodzie (Roman Polanski, 1962)

On their way to go sailing, a couple picks up a young man hitchhiking and invites him along. Over their journey the two men begin to compete for the wife’s attention leading to dangerous consequences. The first film of controversial (to put it lightly) director Roman Polanski and it is a clever one. It is simultaneously mundane and thrilling. Not too much happens here: the couple goes about their routine setting up to go sailing and are interrupted by an inexperienced young man. The three people go boating and flirt and compete with each other. The danger comes in that they are in the middle of nowhere surrounded by water and the young hitchhiker may or may not know how to swim. Every display of bravado between the two men and every glance caught eyeing the girl becomes thrilling due to the possibility of danger on the open water. It’s a dangerous game they’re playing. Simply shot but with some creative shots and use of blocking, Polanski’s film is an excellent suspense film that shows that sometimes less is more and to trust your audience’s imagination of outcomes.

I watched it like 15 years ago and remember liking it a great deal.

 

[Sentinel]

Being the Ricardos (2021). The story behind "I Love Lucy," arguably most popular American TV show of all time. I never watched it but luckily my wife did, and she could provide the background. This film has two things going for it: fantastic acting and brilliant dialogues. In fact, since I fell in love with 1950s movies and their amazing dialogues, this is the first modern film with comparable dialogues. Clearly, the screenwriters put in some effort. The acting is even better: Nicole Kidman (Golden Globe winner for this role), Javier Bardem (Golden Globe nominee for this role), JK Simmons (always great), and Nina Arianda who in a perfect world would be a household name (her performance in "Venus in Furs" is the best Broadway acting I have ever seen, and she is just as strong in this film, even if underutilized) are all top-notch. The story and the conflict are not particularly groundbreaking but these two aspects are enough to make it worth watching. 8/10

The Hidden Figures (2016). Many of you already saw it. It's a solid movie and obviously a story that should be told, but the sheer number of cliches (walking in slo-mo, out of the opening doors, trivial launch shots, facial expressions, and dialogues) makes it merely "enjoyable" and not "great." The tale of the contribution of black women to the US space program is both informative and inspirational, and the visual depictions of racism are emotional. Octavia Spencer is always good, although her acting range is yet to be established (she was essentially the same in The Shape of Water) and Kevin Kostner is the most engaging he's been in years (although I can't help but think he watched Harrison Ford in 42). Overall, a typical Hollywood flick. 6/10

 

[Sentinel]

The Seventh Seal, 1957

This is the second Bergman film I have seen and it is my favorite so far - the 1st Bergman film I watched was Wild Strawberries.

The Seventh Seal is a fascinating and surprisingly hopeful exploration of shaken faith and coming to terms with the absence of God. The hopefulness that Bergman communicates in the film is that even if God does not exist, the simple pleasures of life - companionship, family, community - is what gives life meaning and makes it worth living. As somebody who is still trying to come to grips with my own faith, it really spoke to me.

I watched it in college. I was captivated by the idea and the visuals, but always thought there could be more: more direct references to chess / real life, more character development, etc. When I rewatched it again ten years ago, I felt the same thing. It could be been more.

Btw, they never burned witches in Sweden.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

this is the first modern film with comparable dialogues

You seem to be a knowledgeable cinéphile with pretty good tastes, but I can't take this type of broad strokes really seriously!

 

[Hoglander]

Family Vanished. B movie that just happened to be playing when I turned the TV on, and it grabbed my attention right away. The performances were actually pretty good, and there was some good laughs to be had watching the couple getting terrorized and humiliated, then to see their anger take the wheel.

If you are into serious movies that unintentionally make you laugh, then ignore the critic ratings, spark one up, and enjoy this pleasant little surprise...

 

[Sentinel]

You seem to be a knowledgeable cinéphile with pretty good tastes, but I can't take this type of broad strokes really seriously!

"Since I fell in love with the 50." It's a subjective timeframe.

But if you can recommend any modern movie with comparable quality of dialogues -- I am all eyes

 

[Sentinel]

The Party (Sally Potter, 2017)

The set-up of a party being used to show the façade of the bourgeoisie is a fairly common set-up in a lot of films. Buñuel is most famous for this type of set-up with two of the great master’s films using this type of set-up (The Exterminating Angel, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), Vinterberg’s The Celebration is another film in this tradition; there’s a lot of great wealthy “dinner party” movies. Murder mysteries have also made a cottage industry out of this type of set-up. Sally Potter’s The Party very much is influenced by this Buñuelian set-up of the dinner party. In the party, four couples meet up for a dinner party to celebrate the assignment of one of them to being the Shadow Minister of Health in the UK government. However, throughout the tight 71 minute runtime guests reveal information to each other that leads to chaotic consequences. Featuring a star-studded cast (Timothy Spall, Kristen Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson – the weakest link in the cast, Bruno Gaz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy), is a good not great comedy that is fairly clever film that is fun for its brief runtime. Anything much longer would have overstayed its welcome a bit, but it's not a bad way to spend an hour.

1. Never heard any of these names (actors, obviously, not Bunuel).
2. What's your rating?

 

[NyQuil]

The Hidden Figures (2016). Many of you already saw it. It's a solid movie and obviously a story that should be told, but the sheer number of cliches (walking in slo-mo, out of the opening doors, trivial launch shots, facial expressions, and dialogues) makes it merely "enjoyable" and not "great." The tale of the contribution of black women to the US space program is both informative and inspirational, and the visual depictions of racism are emotional. Octavia Spencer is always good, although her acting range is yet to be established (she was essentially the same in The Shape of Water) and Kevin Kostner is the most engaging he's been in years (although I can't help but think he watched Harrison Ford in 42). Overall, a typical Hollywood flick. 6/10

It's a victim of the "biopic" formula that haunts Hollywood.

There's always some kind of "gotcha" moment where someone who didn't believe in them gets their come-uppance.

If it's a musical one, there's always some elaborate story about how they came up with their most famous song.

Unfortunately, they are getting so similar that it really undermines the actual true stories that they are based on.

 

[kihei]

I watched it last night and was very impressed with the filmmaking. It was clearly filmed on a real boat on location, which surprised me a little for a 1962 film. Many of the shots made me wonder how they positioned the camera to get them. Also, the takes were really long, which must've added to the challenge for Polanski and the actors, especially since two of them had never acted before. The fact that such a challenging film to shoot was Polanski's directorial debut is most impressive. I can see why it's his only Polish language film. All he needed was one and foreign studios came calling.

Actually before Knife in the Water, a short film called Two Men and a Wardrobe made something of a splash and placed Polanski as a director of note in the future. Two Men and a Wardrobe, an homage to silent films, remains an apt calling card because of its imaginative technique (check out the fish on the mirror), its humour, and its casual cruelty and brutality (the cat sequence hasn't worn well and is edited out of some versions). Even in this early work, one has to say that Polanski possessed from the beginning a very strange way of looking at things.

 

[Pink Mist]

1. Never heard any of these names (actors, obviously, not Bunuel).
2. What's your rating?

1) Most of them are fairly famous British actors. Timothy Spall's most famous role is one of the supporting characters in the Harry Potter series but he's in a lot of British drama, most recently as one of the main characters in Spencer. Cillian Murphy shows up in a lot of Christopher Nolan films (Batman, Inception, Dunkirk), he's also the lead in the TV show Peaky Blinders. Kristin Scott Thomas is in a lot of British and French films. Bruno Gaz is a German actor who was in Wings of Desire but he's probably most known in pop culture for his role as Hitler in Downfall (which was infamously made that Hitler meme).

2) Rating would be a 6/10. It's good but kind of a slight minor work

 

[Pink Mist]

The Color of Lies / Au cœur du mensonge (Claude Chabrol, 1999)

The best murder mysteries are never about the crime itself, they’re always about the fallout of the murder or the psychological profile of those solving the crime. At least to me those are what makes the more interesting murder mysteries. In Claude Chabrol’s The Color of Lies the murder mystery in the story comes secondary to the rich characterization and atmosphere he constructs in his film. In a quiet village in France’s Breton coast, a ten year old girl is found murdered. She was last seen at her art teacher’s home (Jacques Gamblin) a depressed man with a bad leg who lives with a beautiful wife who is the local nurse (Sandrine Bonnaire). When the girl is found murdered all eyes fall on the art teacher and he becomes a bit of an outcast in the village as the police investigate his life. Meanwhile, his wife is involved in a secret affair with a famous author who has a home in the area, adding a few dashes of jealousy to the art teacher’s complicated life.

The Color of Lies feels like a mix of Vinterbeg’s The Hunt mixed with a psycho-sexual thriller as his life simultaneously becomes clouded by jealousy and revenge. There is one or two too many balls being balanced in the film but it is always engaging despite the messiness of its plot, and both Gamblin and Bonnaire are impressive in their roles as husband and wife navigating the accusations (in both the murderous and adulterous sense). A bit of an underseen film from Chabrol and worth checking out if you love murder mysteries rich in atmosphere (there is one scene in particular that takes place on a fog filled night that is very foreboding and effective), however the abrupt ending leaves something to be desired.

 

[guinness]

It's a victim of the "biopic" formula that haunts Hollywood.

There's always some kind of "gotcha" moment where someone who didn't believe in them gets their come-uppance.

If it's a musical one, there's always some elaborate story about how they came up with their most famous song.

Unfortunately, they are getting so similar that it really undermines the actual true stories that they are based on.

TBF, I don't think I would be that interested in watching a biopic about Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or Mark Zuckerberg.

While all talented, they didn't have exactly have rags to riches backgrounds. I think audiences want to see that person overcome life's challenges, although as said, so many lazy tropes at this point. It's schmaltz, but it must keep working for the tickets continuing to be sold.

 

[Chili]

The Visitor-2008

A widower (Richard Jenkins) returns to his NY apartment to find a young couple living there, duped by someone into paying rent. He lets them stay and before long they hit it off and Tarek is teaching the widower to play the drums. The drum circle in the park is a cool scene. Things get complicated though when the young couples resident status becomes apparent. Such a human story, RJ is top notch (as are the other leads), vwell done, really enjoyed it.

Annie Hall-1975

Woody telling what seems like his life story, including flash backs. Really appreciate the writing, so many great one liners. Get a kick out of him talking to the camera at times. Diane Keaton is very good as she usually is, she can sing. As a mild Woody fan, like this film, very funny.

Foreign Correspondent-1940

August 1939 and war in Europe seems imminent, The NY Globe newspaper sends a young reporter to get some close up coverage. He lands in the middle of a conspiracy and kidnapping. Lots of Hitch touches and some great action, especially the plane crash. Interesting that his choices as the leads were Gary Cooper and either Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Fontaine. They missed a vgood one. Well done.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Always Be My Maybe (2019)

The one criteria I have for any romantic comedy: make the characters relatable. Once the film was done, I still had no idea WHO would want to date these people, including each other. The Keanu Reeves cameo was funny, what a jerk.

Score: 3/10


Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

This one was better, sort of reminded me of the dime a dozen rom coms of the late 90s and 2000s, but there were a few decent flourishes here and there. Felt like the film ended abruptly, a more "complete" finish would could have tipped the scales to "recommended" on my end.

Score: 5/10

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

It Follows (Mitchell, 2014) - Simple, yet beautiful little film. Simple, yet effective horror tale (not as effective on a rewatch, but still pace and atmosphere are better than most horror films). 7/10

The Dead Don't Die (Jarmusch, 2019) - I don't think I've seen more than 6 or 7 films by Jarmusch. I'm not much of a fan, but this one is just pretty bad. Unfazed deadpan humor doesn't work, the "I've read the script" reflexivity brings nothing but a joke about Jim being a dick to his friend Bill, and Tom Waits' zombie social and political commentary is only rehashing other more interesting zombie films. 3.5/10

 

[nameless1]

The Party (Sally Potter, 2017)

The set-up of a party being used to show the façade of the bourgeoisie is a fairly common set-up in a lot of films. Buñuel is most famous for this type of set-up with two of the great master’s films using this type of set-up (The Exterminating Angel, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), Vinterberg’s The Celebration is another film in this tradition; there’s a lot of great wealthy “dinner party” movies. Murder mysteries have also made a cottage industry out of this type of set-up. Sally Potter’s The Party very much is influenced by this Buñuelian set-up of the dinner party. In the party, four couples meet up for a dinner party to celebrate the assignment of one of them to being the Shadow Minister of Health in the UK government. However, throughout the tight 71 minute runtime guests reveal information to each other that leads to chaotic consequences. Featuring a star-studded cast (Timothy Spall, Kristen Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson – the weakest link in the cast, Bruno Gaz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy), is a good not great comedy that is fairly clever film that is fun for its brief runtime. Anything much longer would have overstayed its welcome a bit, but it's not a bad way to spend an hour.

Due to its use of only one set, it is likely a play-turned-movie, and in these types of movies, the actors become very important, because they can make-or-break the movie. Luckily, they are all well-cast, as they are pretty much a version or another of their best roles, so everything seemed to be tailor-made for them in mind. As a result, with the help of very sharp dialogue and writing, the chemistry is great, and I have a lot of fun with this one. It might have been more interesting if they played against type, because they are all talented enough to do it, but that is a minor complaint. Why fix something that is not broken? I rate it 7/10.

 

[Osprey]

Elevator to the Gallows (1958). B
A wonderfully splashy introduction to our film's stars, and we're off! The movie has a well-paced and engaging first act. Where it really starts to drag is when extended time is devoted to the subplot involving the young couple. There is a fine line between "cool/disinterested" and "flat" and Georges Poujouly as Louis falls mostly into the latter category. There are a few distracting plot holes (all forgivable, save one). The handling of Florence and Julien's relationship was very interesting and well-executed.

As previously stated, the film drags big time in the latter 3rd and ultimately feels longer than its 91 min runtime. Still though, there are few finer uses of film than a forlorn Jeanne Moreau wandering around beautiful rain-soaked streets at night to Miles Davis' mournful trumpet.

I watched this last night and liked it, but I agree completely with all of your observations. I found the first act really intriguing and Hitchcockian and wanted that drama to escalate, but then the film dropped it and turned its attention to the other characters, whose own dilemmas weren't nearly as interesting to me. The young couple, especially, eventually annoyed me with how dumb they were, the boy for making so many bad decisions and the girl for going along with him. When it all came together in the end, it wasn't as satisfying as I would've liked. That said, the first act, the cinematography, the editing and the score all made it worth watching.

 

[heatnikki]

The Father (2020)

Hadn't heard of it until it came up as suggested on the Fire TV. I took a punt on it as it starred Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins, two actors I love watching.
Glad I did. A rather sad and short story, about a man suffering from dementia being looked after by his daughter, but an excellent watch with some outstanding acting. Really highlights how terrifying it must be to suffer from dementia. One of the best films I've seen over the past year or so.

9/10.​

 

[Pink Mist]

Last Child / 살아남은 아이 (Shin Dong-seok, 2017)

South Korea is perhaps best known in international cinema in recent decades for being the undisputed masters of genre films such as thrillers, crime dramas, and horrors. What gets lost in this attention to their genre films is that they also make some pretty good dramas too. Last Child is a social realism drama heavily influenced by the Dardenne brothers. The film follows a couple whose son drowned saving another boy. They then take in the saved child who is struggling with the grief of surviving and teach them how to become a licensed wallpaperer (as in wallpapering people’s homes, didn’t know that was a thing you need a license for but apparently it is in Korea). The first two thirds of the film I thought it was a fairly run of the mill social realist film as we root for this couple and this kid and they become a bit of a family unit overcoming the grief of their son/friend. Good but nothing remarkable. However, in the final third there is a drastic tonal shift in the film (with superb subtle use of music) as we find things weren’t as we seemed and the film transitions into becoming a light thriller film. A really effective and confident move that elevated the film above your typical Dardenne brothers' knockoff. Wonderful first effort from a first-time director.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The Last of Sheila (1973) - 6.5/10

Rian Johnson said this was part of the inspiration for Knives Out but Knives Out thankfully had much better directing. This whodunnit takes a while to get going and features the typical chaotic direction of the 70s with scenes overstuffed with multiple characters walking around and talking without focus or tight editing. The biggest fault of the film however is near-complete lack of any suspense. It's quite watchable and the mystery once it does come together is believable but not very enticing. Really feels like more of a drama with some mystery in the background rather than the other way round. Mysteries build momentum, this is quite weak at doing that. Spending a boating trip with a bunch of people playing Hollywood elites isn't fun either, some nice scenery though.

Also I can finally say I've seen a film with Raquel Welch in it....she was quite awful and the weakest link by far.

Promising Young Woman (2020) - 7/10

I guess I'm supposed to have a strong opinion on this but I just thought it was a solid film. Had some squirmy parts there more for shock value than anything else but a decent revenge flick with mixed writing. One thing it did really well though as compared to other revenge movies is making revenge seem wasteful and destructive rather than falling down the path of making it look cool as films so often do, despite not being able to resist itself in the ending.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Movies: - Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | Wintertime Blues Edition

New thread up.

 

[Sentinel]

Also I can finally say I've seen a film with Raquel Welch in it....she was quite awful and the weakest link by far.

You didn't see Legally Blonde?

On a separate topic:

Crisis (2021). Another typical Hollywood flick, this time – of the latter day variety. All gray and cold, no colors, synthwave music. Three storylines: a professor (Gary Oldman, who is even better looking now, when he is, indeed, an old man) battling the Big Pharma, an undercover G-man (Armie Hammer) battling the Canadian and Armenian (?) drug mafia (an “Armie of One,” so to speak… battling “the Armie-nians,” so to speak), and a mother of a dead drug victim (Evangeline Lilly) looking for revenge. It’s painting-by-the-numbers, and all plot developments are seen a kilometer (since the climax takes place in Montreal) away. The multi-plot drug drama, obviously, recalls Traffic, but instead of scorching southern deserts here we get the northern freeze. The movie is reasonably well made and has a nice pacing, but its generic predictability detracts from any serious enjoyment.

 

[Puck]

Best Sellers, Directed by Lina Roessler, 6.5

Film Summary: Lucy Stanbridge (Aubrey Plaza) has inherited her father's publishing house, but the ambitious would-be editor has nearly sunk it with failing titles. She discovers she is owed a book by Harris Shaw (Michael Caine), a reclusive, cantankerous, booze-addled author who originally put the company on the map decades earlier. In a last-ditch effort to save it, Lucy and Harris release his new book and embark on a tour from hell that changes them both in ways they didn't expect.

Well, in a not-so-good year for cinema as a whole this one is not bad. It is getting dumped on in several reviews I have seen previously but my viewing experience was good. The bad reviews are all saying the plot is predictable, the narrative is uneven, a compendium of clichés etc.. Maybe so but they still praise the work of Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza, even if the screenplay is mediocre. If I had to pay to see it I might be a tad disappointed, but I saw it for free and it was very entertaining. It's a good-hearted dark comedy and Caine is in top form. I think older folks might enjoy this more than a younger crowd though. (as a sidebar, the film is set in New York but it is a Canadian production)