Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | {Insert Appropriate Seasonal Greeting Here}

[Pink Mist]

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion / Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (Elio Petri, 1970)

On the day before becoming Chief of the Roman police’s political crimes department and leaving his post as Chief of the Homicide Department, the ultra confident and fascist police chief Gian Maria Volonté decides to murder his mistress and leave overt clues that direct back to him to see if it really is true that cops can get away with anything. Ends up they can. Volonté’s character leaves a web of obvious clues for his former colleagues’ investigation that should make him a clear suspect, yet no one wants to direct the investigation towards him despite the overwhelming evidence. Frustrated that no one is suspicious of him, he begins to try to actively get arrested by his colleagues to no avail.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is a satirical look at the fascist tendencies of the Italian police and political system. The film has a subversive streak of seeing just how far this fascist can go before someone, anyone, will believe that he could be the murderer. Volonté is a lot of fun in this one, with his role here ranging from explosive fascist ranting to flirtatious and playful and to complete vulnerability. Petri’s script and direction are strong here and it is a really clever premise for a film (a murderer doing everything to get caught, an inversion of the typical trying to get away with it) paired with biting satire. The weakest thing to me in the film is the score by Ennio Morricone. A rare bad score by the legendary Morricone here, I know some people like it but I found his score too out of place and did not fit the film at all. Of the political crime/thriller films of the 1960s and 70s, this is among the best (and there were a lot of them).

 

[PocketNines]

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion / Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (Elio Petri, 1970)

On the day before becoming Chief of the Roman police’s political crimes department and leaving his post as Chief of the Homicide Department, the ultra confident and fascist police chief Gian Maria Volonté decides to murder his mistress and leave overt clues that direct back to him to see if it really is true that cops can get away with anything. Ends up they can. Volonté’s character leaves a web of obvious clues for his former colleagues’ investigation that should make him a clear suspect, yet no one wants to direct the investigation towards him despite the overwhelming evidence. Frustrated that no one is suspicious of him, he begins to try to actively get arrested by his colleagues to no avail.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is a satirical look at the fascist tendencies of the Italian police and political system. The film has a subversive streak of seeing just how far this fascist can go before someone, anyone, will believe that he could be the murderer. Volonté is a lot of fun in this one, with his role here ranging from explosive fascist ranting to flirtatious and playful and to complete vulnerability. Petri’s script and direction are strong here and it is a really clever premise for a film (a murderer doing everything to get caught, an inversion of the typical trying to get away with it) paired with biting satire. The weakest thing to me in the film is the score by Ennio Morricone. A rare bad score by the legendary Morricone here, I know some people like it but I found his score too out of place and did not fit the film at all. Of the political crime/thriller films of the 1960s and 70s, this is among the best (and there were a lot of them).

This film has been on my list to evaluate for doom noir style & substance. I'm hoping it becomes available on one of the streaming platforms.

 

[PocketNines]

One of my biggest movie pet peeves is bad drunk/stoned acting. Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut is the queen. It's especially frustrating when it's an otherwise great (and widely praised) performance. Elizabeth Moss in Her Smell is another one. Really pulls me out of the movie.

Posting this reply from the Emerald Triangle of California: the antidote for all these scenes is the Josh Brolin-Joaquin Phoenix scene at the end of Inherent Vice

 

[Pink Mist]

This film has been on my list to evaluate for doom noir style & substance. I'm hoping it becomes available on one of the streaming platforms.

If you live in the US or have access to a VPN, its available to stream for free on Plex: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Posting this reply from the Emerald Triangle of California: the antidote for all these scenes is the Josh Brolin-Joaquin Phoenix scene at the end of Inherent Vice

Absolutely.

 

[OzzyFan]

I've been going through a bunch of recommended films. Since they've all been reviewed recently, I won't bother with plot summaries.

Nightmare Alley (1947) - 7/10

I wish that I had watched this before the remake. I enjoyed it quite a bit more, though it was spoiled a bit because I knew the whole story. I didn't expect the 75-year-old vfilm to be so similar in story to the new version, but I suppose that that's because they're adaptations of a novel, and close ones, presumably. I'm not sure if that increases or decreases my appreciation for Guillermo del Toro's remake. On the one hand, good on him for not changing the story much at all. On the other, he didn't have to do much but add his own unique style to an existing story. The circus portion of this original adaptation isn't as bizarre or atmospheric as remake's, but the rest of the film is leaner and the overall pacing is better. Instead of 2.5 hours long, it's less than 2 hours. I liked Tyrone Power's portrayal of the main character a little more than Bradley Cooper's, though some of that may have to do with not being a big fan of Cooper. The film isn't quite as dark as the remake, but it's honestly pretty dark for 1947 and actually makes me wonder how it passed the Hays Code. Thanks to guinness for the encouragement to watch it and pointing out that it's available on YouTube.

The Hitch-Hiker (1953) - 5/10

I was hoping to enjoy this, but was a bit underwhelmed. It's brisk and lean, but a little too "simple." It felt like a 'B' picture (i.e. the shorter and cheaper half of a double feature), which it probably was. OzzyFan noted the repetitiveness of the scenes, likely due to the low budget. The fact that that the three principle actors are men of the same age and build felt a bit same-y, as well. I could've really used Ida Lupino in front of the camera rather than behind it. The plot also didn't make sense. The hitchhiker keeps two men capable of overpowering him alive when it would've been much safer to simply add them to his kill count and steal their car. Perhaps partly because of that, the film wasn't as suspenseful as I would've liked, which is probably my main issue. I can forgive most everything else, but I was hoping for it to be more gripping and less predictable. It could be that I'm spoiled by seeing so many later hostage thrillers. I found it to be watchable, but maybe not something that I'll watch again.

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) - 5/10

Well, it happened. I finally didn't really like a movie that Chili recommended. How will I be able to trust him ever again? Seriously, most reviews of the film are good, so I'm the weirdo in the minority. It just didn't do much for me. It's bleak, none of the bank robbers are likable or even interesting and not much happens until the final 15 minutes. It's gritty and racially charged, but it didn't feel like there was much of a point being made in either. With not a lot happening, it felt less like an attempt to tell a good story and more an experiment in setting a mood (whether with camera angles, lighting or the rather intrusive jazz soundtrack), a style over substance project, if you will. Those kinds of films just aren't my cup of tea. To its credit, the final 15 minutes (the robbery) are the best part and the film is only 95 minutes.

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) - 8/10

What a great surprise, though maybe it shouldn't have been, since John Sturges rarely disappoints. It was very reminiscent of High Noon in location, plot and tension. I loved that and the cinematography in Cinemascope. I enjoyed all of the familiar faces (Tracy, Ryan, Brennan, Marvin and Borgnine), as well. It was neat to have a "Western" set in 1945. I was digging the mystery of why Tracy's character arrived in town and why everyone was acting so suspiciously. I do share OzzyFan's feeling that the reasons weren't quite so interesting, and the climax wasn't as exciting as I was hoping for, but I agree with him that the film is just so entertaining and of such quality that it didn't matter much. Also, it's only 81 minutes, so it's super lean and well paced. Discovering films like this (even if it means watching some that I don't find so entertaining) is why I love this thread.

Glad you enjoyed Bad Day at Black Rock a lot. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I've been floating on the original Nightmare Alley for a while but always say to myself that I have "more preferable/personally important things to watch". It's really hard to push me to watch something that I know exactly how it's gonna play out without some big hook or reason, and after seeing Del Toro's I don't have real interest to see the original aside from a comparison's sake. If there is 1 thing in this world I want it's more time, tis the most valuable thing in life aside from health and family/friends. Sounds like for you on comparing both Nightmare Alley's: first half of each movie, edge Del Toro, 2nd half of each movie, big edge Goulding's.

 

[Osprey]

Film noir is not for all, it is often dark. There is a clip of Harry Belafonte talking about the film that I posted a couple of pages back, sheds light. They were influenced by The Defiant Ones, wanted to tell a different story. I`m more surprised when someone likes a film that I do, so it`s all good.

I like film noir, especially when it's dark, which is why I watched it in the first place and why I was high on Nightmare Alley. One can't expect to like every film in a style, though, or every recommended film. I often won't review one if I didn't like it as much, but I figured that I could tease you about it because I've enjoyed everything else that I've watched thanks to you.

Glad you enjoyed Bad Day at Black Rock a lot. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I've been floating on the original Nightmare Alley for a while but always say to myself that I have "more preferable/personally important things to watch". It's really hard to push me to watch something that I know exactly how it's gonna play out without some big hook or reason, and after seeing Del Toro's I don't have real interest to see the original aside from a comparison's sake. If there is 1 thing in this world I want it's more time, tis the most valuable thing in life aside from health and family/friends. Sounds like for you on comparing both Nightmare Alley's: first half of each movie, edge Del Toro, 2nd half of each movie, big edge Goulding's.

That's an accurate reading of my feelings toward the two versions. You might care to wait on the original until the story isn't so fresh in your head and you can enjoy it without comparing scenes.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Texas Chainsaw 3D (Luessenhop, 2013) – Kind of like Halloween H20 did, this one opens up a parallel timeline to the series. It's a sequel to the original film (with everything that came after scrapped), but it's not even a faithful one: the opening credits mixing images from the original film with some new material in order to replace some of the actors. So you've got a direct sequel, but that doesn't match the original (there's like 4-5 new members to the Sawyer family, including a baby who'll grow into a sexy main protagonist). It's a pretty dumb story where a mob can go on and kill and burn a whole family right in front of the Sheriff, or where you can kill a deputy with a chainsaw, no problem man, you're free to go. Leatherface is somehow turned into some kind of good guy too, and still, it's not as dumb as Hooper's sequel. I guess this was released in 3D, for some reason. 2.5/10

 

[kihei]

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion / Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (Elio Petri, 1970)

On the day before becoming Chief of the Roman police’s political crimes department and leaving his post as Chief of the Homicide Department, the ultra confident and fascist police chief Gian Maria Volonté decides to murder his mistress and leave overt clues that direct back to him to see if it really is true that cops can get away with anything. Ends up they can. Volonté’s character leaves a web of obvious clues for his former colleagues’ investigation that should make him a clear suspect, yet no one wants to direct the investigation towards him despite the overwhelming evidence. Frustrated that no one is suspicious of him, he begins to try to actively get arrested by his colleagues to no avail.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is a satirical look at the fascist tendencies of the Italian police and political system. The film has a subversive streak of seeing just how far this fascist can go before someone, anyone, will believe that he could be the murderer. Volonté is a lot of fun in this one, with his role here ranging from explosive fascist ranting to flirtatious and playful and to complete vulnerability. Petri’s script and direction are strong here and it is a really clever premise for a film (a murderer doing everything to get caught, an inversion of the typical trying to get away with it) paired with biting satire. The weakest thing to me in the film is the score by Ennio Morricone. A rare bad score by the legendary Morricone here, I know some people like it but I found his score too out of place and did not fit the film at all. Of the political crime/thriller films of the 1960s and 70s, this is among the best (and there were a lot of them).

Gian Maria Volante's absolutely ferocious performance is one of my all-time favorites.

 

[Pink Mist]

Madame Bovary (Claude Chabrol, 1991)

An attractive young woman in rural France, Emma Bovary (Isabelle Huppert), marries a local doctor and moves to the city. Realizing the man she has married is a total bore and unexciting and that she is drawn to the high life, Madame Bovary begins a series of affairs with other men and racks up major debts from fine clothes and her trips to visit her lovers. Full disclosure, I have not read Flaubert’s classic French novel, so I can’t say how well Chabrol’s script matches up to the source material and I am not a huge fan of period drama, but I found it a decent film. The film is long and it does drag at time, and I found myself lost in the plot and relationships occasionally, but the look of the film and the acting by Huppert is exquisite. The production design and cinematography in this film is incredible; the French countryside has never looked more serene and beautiful, and the costumes were rightly nominated for an Oscar in 1991. Isabelle Huppert is the ice queen, the master of playing cold characters, and she makes the obvious choice for playing Bovary in the 1990s. She is great here, though that comes to no surprise as she is great in everything she acts in. The oddest directorial decision in Chabrol’s script is adding a voiceover narration over some of Huppert’s internal thoughts as Huppert is a master at display internalized feelings through her expressive face and certainly did not need the help of a voiceover from a narrator to tell us what she was feeling. Madame Bovary is mostly good, although it runs a little long and drags at times, not essential viewing by any means but worth watching for fans of Huppert.

 

[Pink Mist]

The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet, 1966)

I’m currently working through John le Carré's series of George Smiley novels, so expect some sporadic reviews of adaptations of his work. The Deadly Affair is an adaptation of le Carré’s first novel Call for the Dead which is about a Foreign Officer who mysteriously commits suicide after Smiley clears him from an investigation over his ties to the Communist Party during his student days at Oxford. The novel, which was released one year before the first James Bond film, Dr No, is a stark contrast to the espionage world of Bond. Smiley’s character is old and kind of chubby, a bureaucratic and not great in a fight, and is cuckolded by his unfaithful wife. Really a pathetic character compared to the suave Mr. Bond. The Deadly Affair is also not much of a spy film, at least not what you come to expect from le Carré's later more famous works and adaptations, it has more of a mystery and noir plot. Directed by Lumet, the film moves at a decent pace and he does a good job matching the drab London colours of grey and browns to the protagonist’s drab life, giving the film a nice noirish element despite being filmed in colour. The swinging 60s in London this is not. The mystery is fairly slow going up until the last half hour or so when it ramps up towards its conclusion with a tense finale. However, the film is dragged down by Lumet’s inclusion of a domestic plot involving Smiley’s relationship with his wife. Whenever it reappears, it brings the film to a screeching halt. Harriet Andersson, who is part of Ingmar Bergman’s trope of regular actors and is normally great, puts in an awful performance that I’m sure what not helped by the script. Still, the film is solid and kind of an underseen noir/spy thriller. It also has a great bossa nova score by Quincy Jones.

 

[Osprey]

Against the Ice (2022) - 6/10 (Liked it)

In 1909, Danish explorers (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Joe Cole) embark on a trek across Greenland to discover what happened to a previous expedition. It's a true story about two men battling the elements, facing setbacks and getting along. It's an Icelandic production, but in English and, besides starring in it, Coster-Waldau (who is Danish) co-wrote and produced it, so it was probably a passion project of his. It was filmed on location in Greenland and the scenery is stunning. I love it when survival films, especially historical ones and those set in the arctic, are filmed on location. Only a few times is CGI used, which I appreciated. The acting is good by the two leads and Charles Dance has a small supporting role, making for two Lannisters in one movie. The story and directing felt average. I was never on the edge of my seat or attached to the characters, but I was interested enough that I wasn't bored. I found myself liking it more as it went along and got darker. It's reminiscent of other docudramas and arctic survival films and isn't the most memorable, but I still enjoyed it and recommend it as long as you like wilderness survival films and hate dogs (kidding, but a dog lover's movie it is not). It's new on Netflix.

 

[Savi]

Fooling around with lists on a slow winter day. Here are my gold, silver and bronze winners in order for each year of the century:

2000

In the Mood for Love, Wong, Hong Kong
Werckmeister Harmonies, Tarr, Hungary
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee, Hong Kong

2001

Mulholland Drive, Lynch, US
Spirited Away, Miyazaki, Japan
Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuaron, Mexico

2002

City of God, Meireilles, Brazil
Irreversible, Noe, France
Talk to Her, Almodovar, Spain

2003

Old Boy, Park, South Korea
Memories of Murder, Bong, South Korea
Lost in Translation, S. Coppola, US

2004

Tropical Malady, Weerasethakul, Thailand
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gondry, France/US
Kung Fu Hustle, Chow, Hong Kong

2005

L’enfant, Dardenne brothers, Belgium
The Death of Mr. Lazerescu, Puiu, Romania
Munich, Spielberg, US

2006

I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Tsai, Taiwan
Still Life, Jia, China
Pan’s Labrynth, Del Toro, Mexico/Spain

2007

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, Mungiu, Romania
No Country for Old Men, Coen brothers, US
You, the Living, Andersson, Sweden

2008

Revanche, Spielmann, Austria
Alexandra, Sokurov, Russia
In Bruges, McDonagh, UK

2009

Police, Adjective, Porumboiu, Romania
Antichrist, Von Trier, Denmark
dead heat for the bronze medal: Love Exposure, Sono, Japan; Dogtooth, Lanthimos, Greece

2010

Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Weerasethakul, Thailand
Somewhere, S. Coppola, US
Poetry, Lee, South Korea

2011

Once upon a Time in Anatolia, Ceylan, Turkey
Café de Flore, Vallee, Canada
Tomboy, Sciamma, France

2012

Amour, Haneke, Austria/France
A Simple Life, Hui, Hong Kong
Norwegian Wood, Tran, Viet Nam/Japan

2013

Gravity, Cuaron, Mexico/US
Like Father, Like Son, Kore-eda, Japan
Upstream Color, Carruth, US

2014

Mommy, Dolan, Canada
Horse Money, Costa, Portugal
Only Lovers Left Alive, Jarmusch, US

2015

Assassin, Hou, Taiwan
Victoria, Schipper, Germany
Phoenix, Petzold, Germany

2016

Elle, Verhoeven, Netherlands/France
Moonlight, Jenkins, US
Manchester by the Sea, Lonergan, US

2017

Loveless, Zvyagintsev, Russia
24 Frames, Kiarostami, Iran
dead hear for the bronze medal: Dragonfly Eyes, Xu, China; The Death of Louis IVX, Serra, Spain

2018

Roma, Cuaron, Mexico
The Image Book, Godard, France
Burning, Lee, South Korea

2019

An Elephant Sitting Still, Hu, China
Parasite, Bong, South Korea
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Sciamma, France

2020

Nomadland, Zhao, US
First Cow, Reichardt, US
The Father, Zeller, UK

2021

Memoria, Weerasethakul, Thailand/Columbia
The Power of the Dog, Campion, New Zealand
Drive My Car, Hamaguchi, Japan

This seemed like a daunting task but it's actually a great way to see if you missed any gems over the years, I did mine as well and I hope a few others will follow.
It's good to see Belgium at least represented a little bit in your lists with In Bruges and also the Dardenne Brothers. Their movies are pretty good albeit really depressing most of the time, I'm not a huge fan of them.

Anyway here's my take. This is actually pretty hard. Some years (especially 2013 and 2014) were so deep that I could fit about 9 movies each in my top 3 of the year. Also it's pretty much a given if N.W. Refn releases a movie it will be #1 of the year for me

Spoiler

2000

1. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, US)
2. Suzhou River (Ye Lou, China)
3. Malena (Guiseppe Tornatore, Italy)

2001

1. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
2. Amélie (J-P Jeunet, France)
3. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, US)

2002

1. Lilja 4-ever (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden)
2. Irréversible (Gaspar Noe, France)
3. City of God (F. Meirelles & K. Lund, Brasil)

2003

1. The Best of Youth (Marco Tullio Giordana, Italy)
2. Last Life in the Universe (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Thailand)
3. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, US)

2004

1. 3-iron (Ki-duk Kim, South Korea)
2. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, US)
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, US)

2005

1. Frozen Days (Danny Lerner, Israel)
2. Su-ki-da (Hiroshi Ishikawa, Japan)
3. Frozen Land (Aku Louhimies, Finland)

2006

1. Isabella (Ho-Cheung Pang, Hong Kong)
2. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, Spain)
3. Fireworks Wednesday (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)

2007

1. No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers, US)
2. Into the Wild (Sean Penn, US)
3. 5 Centimers per Second (Makoto Shinkai, Japan)

2008

1. In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, US)
2. Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes, Portugal)
3. Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, Israel)

2009

1. About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)
2. Castaway on the Moon (Hae-jun Lee, South Korea)
3. Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, France)

2010

1. Confessions (Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan)
2. The Secret World of Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Japan)
3. The Man From Nowhere (Jeong-beom Lee, South Korea)

2011

1. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, US)
2. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)
T-3. Another Earth (Cahill, US) and Café de Flore (Vallée, Canada)

2012

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, US)
2. Postcards from the Zoo (Edwin, Indonesia)
3. Elena (Petra Costa, Brasil)

2013

1. Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark)
2. Blue is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, France)
3. Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, Canada)

2014

1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, US)
2. I Origins (Mike Cahill, US)
3. Ex Machina (Alex Garland, US)

2015

1. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper, Germany)
2. Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Turkey)
3. Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, US)

2016

1. The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, France)
2. Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, US)
3. Home (Fien Troch, Belgium)

2017

1. Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, US)
2. Thelma (Joachim Trier, Norway)
3. The Vanishing of Sydney Hall (Shawn Christensen, US)

2018

1. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Gan Bi, China)
2. Climax (Gaspar Noe, France)
3. Angel (Koen Mortier, Belgium)

2019

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma, France)
2. Adoration (Fabrice du Welz, Belgium)
3. Paris is us (Elisabeth Vogler, France)

2020

1. Better Days (Derek Tsang, China)
2. Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic, Bosnia)
3. Gagarine (F. Liatard & J. Trouillh, France)

2021

1. Paris, 13th district (Jacques Audiard, France)
2. Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
3. The Innocents (Eskil Vogt, Norway)

Btw @kihei if you have more boring winter days coming up, here's another idea. How about 3 movies from each year, (that didn't make your top 3) you feel were underrated.

 

[OzzyFan]

Out of the Past (1947)
3.35 out of 4stars

"A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger and criminals."
A great femme fatale noir with a very elaborate story, told from the past, present, and proceeding future through almost entirely Robert Mitchum's point of view. It's well acted, but Mitchum's performance stands out with Greer as a close second. Mitchum's Jeff Bailey is charismatic, super smooth with criminals and women, cool, smart, tall, and tough as he chain smokes and pulls off the unthinkable time and time again in here. Not to mention, perfectly dressed to the part. Don't know what it is about Mitchum, but the few movies I've seen him in he's more than impressed me. Greer as the femme fatale is seductive, manipulative, crazy, and has a violent streak. The story itself is entertainingly complex, always keeping the audience on it's feet guessing what will happen next and who is behind what actions/schemes going on. The themes here seem to be fate, obsession, and be careful who you surround yourself/mingle with. Obsession is the cause of everything in the movie, and some fates are inescapable after you've done certain things or created relationships with certain people. Last but not least, the visuals for the genre are great with a variety of settings, lighting contrasts, and apparently iconic smoke clouds.

Titane (2021) (Subtitles)
2.75 out of 4stars

"Following a series of unexplained murders, Alexia, a young woman that has sex with cars and a conspicuous head scar with a titanium plate underneath, goes into hiding to evade the police as a father's long lost son who has been missing for 10 years."
A good sci fi drama horror that uses a bizarre plot to cover a story about the universal need of human companionship. Saw this on Hulu and decided to give it a try, and I'd say it was worth my time. It's definitely an odd genre mash up, but it works. Some interesting body horror, odd fetish-ism/rangy sexuality, and gender notes that goes along with it's fantastical plot twists that maintain notable side story interest, but the main story itself is very human and real. The movie does a good job of showing our need for close reciprocal human relationships from a person that deeply desires one and another person that appears to be the definition of a sociopath. Platonic love here is the acceptance and aiding of someone in any way they need or want, even if they don't quite know it at first or even realize the flaws/oddities humans have under the surface that are involved with this type of relationship. The only gripe for me is the under-writing of the female main character's background, which causes me to whether she is a "from birth" full blown psychopath or just someone dealing with past trauma/other issues causing her to act like she does (maybe even brain damage from the car accident at the beginning during young childhood). Then again, both main characters are a bit abstract without fully detailed histories, which isn't the point of the story anyway, so maybe I'm being overly nitpicky there.

The Uninvited (1944)
2.60 out of 4stars

"While vacationing on the English coast, a man and his sister find an an abandoned 18th-century house and decide to buy it. The owner associates it with the tragic death of his daughter and is willing to part with it despite his granddaughter Stella's objection. The Fitzgeralds move in and soon find themselves, with the help of Stella, battling it out with two very prickly ghosts."
A good haunted house film that is tonally awkward. Not quite what I expected when I read the premise. Imo, it's too often surprisingly light and airy with a good amount of a romantic storyline throw in the mix which hurts the film. Even early on in the paranormal occurrences, the characters shake off the happenings in such a mostly lighthearted logical way that doesn't feel right. It could just be me though. That said, it does have a lot of redeeming qualities, the later half of the movie especially. There's a solid mix of ghostly haunting occurrences, provoked and non-provoked, and a few nice surprises along the way that I won't ruin.

Cyrano (2021)
2.50 out of 4stars

"Too self-conscious to woo Roxanne himself, wordsmith Cyrano de Bergerac helps young Christian nab her heart through love letters."
A decent musical about one of history's quintessential love tragedy stories that centers on the topic of self-conscious anxieties. First and foremost, this is Peter Dinklage's movie and he's nothing short of excellent for this oscar nomination worthy turn. His expressiveness and range here are as good as you're gonna get in the role he is given. Of mention, Bennett is great too and does some quality singing here. The costumes and set designs are also visual treats. That said, the movie isn't up to Dinklage's level. A few of the songs don't quite work correctly. They either don't flow properly, or feel oddly timed, or feel oddly displayed, or don't overwhelm the viewer with certain emotions like they should when you hear the lyrics of them, if that is makes sense. The rest of the film works on and off, but more on than off. Never saw the older versions of this movie, but supposedly they are superior.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Leatherface (Bustillo & Maury, 2017) – With the new timeline created with the previous film, I guess Leatherface really needed a new origin story too. Continuing from the good-guys wear human skin joyous feelings of the 3D film, this one goes out of his ways to explain that our good friend Leather is really just a neglected child and a good boy at heart – he was forced into killing, into medication, and really is a product of the system (and poor parental skills). Worse, in trying to create some kind of intrigue in figuring out which one of these kids will indeed become the infamous chainsaw wielding *****, they go in total silliness. Of course, it's not the towering fat guy who american-story-x's a random psychomoron, too obvious an answer. Nah, at 17 years old, Leatherface was a very articulate, gentle 5'10”, 160 lbs with a temper (he'll grow to 6'6” in a Summer or two). Very bland film that doesn't feel like it belongs with the rest of the series. It's probably the less fun one apart from part 2 (the 1986 one). They managed to convince Stephen Dorff and Lili Taylor (two actors I like a lot), and even Iron Fist (an actor nobody likes), that this was a good idea – and that's impressive. 3/10

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) – The 3D Chainsaw film opened a new timeline, but that wasn't enough, we needed the full Chainsaw multiverse. Let's just do as Halloween does: the Michael Myers franchise has 3 timelines, plus the remake and its sequel. Leatherface just got even. Not only that, but this new timeline is a clear variation on the last one in the Halloween franchise: Sally Hardesty, only surviving victim of Hooper's original Massacre, returns fully armed and trained, ready to stop that giant crossdresser once and for all. Now Sally ain't no Laurie Strode (or Sarah Connor), nobody cares about her, and the film really would have done better without her tedious revenge plot (the IMDB trivia page for the movie says that she's patiently waiting for her comeback in Rambo's movie farm set – you can't make up things like that). What the movie does apart from that silly subplot is somewhat unsettling: not because of the horror (it's a pretty gory movie, if nothing else), and not because of the suspense (though the crashed police truck scene is nicely done), but because of its political puzzling position. The horror is initiated by different things, including an interracial group of woke gentrifu**ers (says the southern white man) moving into the white settings of the Texas Massacres, but mostly by the taking down of the confederate flag on an old lady's legitimate home. At some point, it's clear they shouldn't have done that. The newcomers are obviously against the second amendment (they make it very clear very fast that they hate guns), one of them even being a survivor of a school shooting, with a bullet wound and everything. Flashbacks show her lying on the floor helpless and gunless while her friends are dying, but this time, the movie gives her a chance for empowerment: a shotgun. It's all very unsubtle, up to the final confrontation between the hippy-yuppie woke girl and the southern 6'7” real man and their tools: an electric self-driving car and a gasoline powered chainsaw. I hate most of what this film does, but I still have some respect for it for doing it – and in the end, it's a lot more fun than most of the entries in this franchise. 4/10

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Final ranking of the Chainsaw franchise:

1) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) - 7.5/10

-- there's really only one film worth watching in this series

2) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (Liebesman, 2006) - 4/10
3) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) - 4/10
4) Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (Burr, 1990) - 3.5/10
5) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Nispel, 2003) - 3/10

-- this is the point where a movie that's so bad it's almost kinda fun gets in

6) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (Henkel, 1994) - 1/10

-- now two films so bland you'll forget they exist within a few hours

7) Texas Chainsaw 3D (Luessenhop, 2013) - 3/10
8) Leatherface (Bustillo & Maury, 2017) - 3/10

-- and finally the worst sequel known to movie history

9) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Hooper, 1986) - 1.5/10

 

[Osprey]

What the movie does apart from that silly subplot is somewhat unsettling: not because of the horror (it's a pretty gory movie, if nothing else), and not because of the suspense (though the crashed police truck scene is nicely done), but because of its political puzzling position. The horror is initiated by different things, including an interracial group of woke gentrifu**ers (says the southern white man) moving into the white settings of the Texas Massacres, but mostly by the taking down of the confederate flag on an old lady's legitimate home. At some point, it's clear they shouldn't have done that. The newcomers are obviously against the second amendment (they make it very clear very fast that they hate guns), one of them even being a survivor of a school shooting, with a bullet wound and everything. Flashbacks show her lying on the floor helpless and gunless while her friends are dying, but this time, the movie gives her a chance for empowerment: a shotgun. It's all very unsubtle, up to the final confrontation between the hippy-yuppie woke girl and the southern 6'7” real man and their tools: an electric self-driving car and a gasoline powered chainsaw.

I agree that that whole police van scene was the best part. It's too bad that the rest of the movie wasn't more like that.

As for the politics, it seemed to me by the end that the writers didn't actually have any kind of message and were just lazily using social issues to appear relevant and add drama to the story.

Spoiler

For example, the gun loving, Confederate flag-loving white guy that we're meant to dislike turns out to be a good guy who sacrifices himself for the out-of-towner, and the gun-hating, school shooting victim ends up going Rambo.

It seemed to me that the writers weren't condemning anyone or anything and, instead, were just trying to use our prejudices against us for the sake of surprising us. It really didn't work, IMO.

I hate most of what this film does, but I still have some respect for it for doing it – and in the end, it's a lot more fun than most of the entries in this franchise. 4/10

I can see how you might be a little generous after watching 7 entries that were even worse.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I agree that that whole police van scene was the best part. It's too bad that the rest of the movie wasn't more like that.

As for the politics, it seemed to me by the end that the writers didn't actually have any kind of message and were just lazily using social issues to appear relevant and add drama to the story.

Spoiler

For example, the gun loving, Confederate flag-loving white guy that we're meant to dislike turns out to be a good guy who sacrifices himself for the out-of-towner, and the gun-hating, school shooting victim ends up going Rambo.

It seemed to me that the writers weren't condemning anyone or anything and, instead, were just trying to use our prejudices against us for the sake of surprising us. It really didn't work, IMO.


I can see how you might be a little generous after watching 7 entries that were even worse.

Well, I hope you're right, even f it means a lesser movie. I read it as going far off to the right, with the confederate flag-loving white male we're meant to dislike as a good guy, the vengeful lady with the guns as a good gal, the gun-hating shooting victim turning Rambo as a good thing (compared to her non-response during the school shooting), and the bunch of woke people as a freakin' bunch of dumbass losers (loving the "poor town" cachet and taking their phones out to film the killer instead of either fleeing or fighting: the fight or flight or film response!). Even Leatherface is made righteous in going after the woke people who wrongfully took his mama out of her home and therefore killed her.

 

[kihei]

Btw @kihei if you have more boring winter days coming up, here's another idea. How about 3 movies from each year, (that didn't make your top 3) you feel were underrated.

Too massive a task to do three per year. But here are a couple lists of "underrateds" that should cover the top candidates (and did not make my original "best of" list').


International

Paradise Now, Abu-Assad, Palestine, 2005
The Band's Visit, Kolirin, Israel, 2007
Waltz with Bashir, Folman, Israel, 2008
Mother, Bong, South Korea, 2009
Submarino, Vinterberg, Denmark, 2010
The Skin I Live In. Almodovar, Spain, 2011
Ida, Pawlikowski, 2013
Timbuktu, Sissako, Mauritania, 2014
Far from Men, Oelhoffen, France 2014
Cemetary of Splendour, Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2016
Boris without Beatrice, Cote, Canada, 2016
Ash Is the Purest White, Jia, China, 2018
November, Sarnet, Estonia, 2018
Hope, Sodahl, Norway, 2019
Identifying Features, Valdez, Mexico, 2021

Most underrated: Hope, November. Far from Men

English-language

Things We Lost in the Fire, 2003
Away from Her, 2006
Gone Baby Gone, 2007
Wendy and Lucy, 2008
Blue Valentine, 2010
Certified Copy, 2010
Enemy, 2013
Housebound, 2014
Closet Monster, 2015
Two Lovers and a Bear, 2016
Hello Destroyer, 2016
You Were Never Really Here, 2017
A Hidden Life, 2019
Leave No Trace, 2019
Babyteeth, 2019

Most underrated: Closet Monster; Hello Destroyer, Two Lovers and a Bear; Leave No Trace

Most underrated on my original list: A Simple Life

 

[Osprey]

Fresh (2022) - 5/10

A young woman (Daisy Edgar-Jones) meets and starts dating a nice, charming guy (Sebastian Stan) who turns out to have a really dark side. The first half hour is a little slow and could be from any of a thousand movies about dating, but then the film takes not so much a hard left turn as a complete u-turn. I have to keep it vague to not spoil it, but it gets rather macabre. It reminded me quite a bit of a few French new wave horror films, so much that I have to imagine that it was inspired by them. That said, and though the premise is horrific, it's not as suspenseful or scary as you'd expect from a horror. Instead, it leans into the absurdity of its premise and is more of a horror comedy, though it felt more awkward to me than funny. I was certainly not bored, though. It had my attention and I wanted to see where it all went. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere and has a rather disappointing, cliched ending, as if the writers were afraid of taking their premise too far and didn't know what to do except go with a generic horror movie ending. Overall, I wanted to like it, but it came up a little short for me. If it sounds interesting to you, though, just watch it without reading any more about it because it's the kind of film that you want to go into without knowing too much. It's on Hulu (I suppose because Disney didn't want to put it on Disney+, understandably ).

 

[kihei]

Winter on Fire (2017) Directed by Evgeni Afineevsky 8A (documentary)

Anyone interested in getting some context on the present situation in the Ukraine should check out Winter on Fire on Netflix. It is a fairly raw documentary about the people's revolution that took place in Maidan Square in Kyiv in 2014. The square became a gathering point for people because of a growing national protest in the wake of the fact that Ukraine's leader Viktor Yanukovych reneged on a promise to seek closer ties with Europe and instead stealthly moved the coutry closer to Russia. At first the gatherings were peaceful, but then the government decided to forcibly disperse its own citizens and events turned violent....as one commentator pointed out, a real life Les Miserables, only with snipers included. Winter on Fire is a compelling document. It also almost incidentally gives powerful evidence why Ukraininas will be no easy people to occupy.

Netflix

Sidenote: For an even more raw, virtually unedited, look at these events, check out Maidan (2014) by documentarian/director Serge Loznitsa.

 

[OzzyFan]

Question, anyone heard of how or when this movie is getting distributed streaming or theatrically? I know it said a month ago IFC/Shudder bought the rights to it and will stream/VOD the movie, but I can't find any dates anywhere for this. Thanks ahead of time for any information:

Resurrection (2022)
"Margaret's life is in order. She is capable, disciplined, and successful. Everything is under control. That is, until David returns, carrying with him the horrors of Margaret's past"
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11540726/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_t_2

 

[HansonBro]

Just recently finished re watching Oz, the HBO series. So not technically a movie

It's been a while so I still found it entertaining. I wasn't sure what I was getting out of each episode, but it still had me wanting to hit the play button again everytime.

Still would suggest it to anyone who hasn't seen it, and doesn't mind a bit of blood and violence....it is prison after all

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Antlers

with depressed people, such as a portly Todd from Breaking Bad as well as the main chick from the Americans tv show.

Small town Oregon, meth lab central (apparently). A couple of guys learn the hard way not to cook meth in one particular abandoned mine when a big bad thingie shows up one day, possesses one of them and eats the other. Weeks later, this guy's kid is ringing all kinds of alarm bells to his teacher, herself recently returned to their hometown having fled an abusive father decades earlier. Clearly malnourished and making endless drawings of monsters and blood, his after school routine involved finding roadkill and trapping animals, then serving their disemboweled remains to something loud on the other side of a very securely locked door in his house. Uh-oh. Graham Greene shows up to deliver some exposition: the aliment afflicting the hood is in fact a wendigo, sort of a cannibal/vampire thing of Native lore and legend. It really makes a mess of the place, that's for sure. Suspense and the occasional jumpscare happen.

Your basic monster of the small town premise, here poorly defined and realized. It sends antlers out of your mouth before it kills you? I think? Antlers are involved somehow. Not sure of the biology there. Too many people are stupidly obsessed with tracking this obviously dangerous creature in the dark with a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other. Americans, go figure. Jesse Plemons and Keri Russel are both good in their roles, but the movie plods along predictably. Meh. Forgettable.

Just got Disney+ and wanted to see if there were any watchable movies on it. I doubt we'll keep up the subscription now having seen the Mandalorian, Boba Fett show and Wandavision.

"So...you're telling me the assignment wasn't to draw existential terror?"

 

[Pink Mist]

News of the World (Paul Greengrass, 2020)

In Tom Hanks' middle age he has acted in more or less the same type of film where he plays the same type of roll. Generally, they are risk free crowd pleaser films where he plays a good guy who is an everyday man who is good at his job. “America’s Dad” he has been dubbed because of these roles. News of the World is one of the more recent of these films. In this one he plays a newsreader in the Texas frontier, someone who goes town to town to read the news stories written in the latest papers to illiterate folk – a kind of early radio or television news anchor, who on his travels stumbles upon a little blonde girl abandoned in the woods. He finds that the girl is a German girl who has become a double orphan as she lost her biological parents when her homesteading family was slaughtered by a Kiowa indigenous tribe that also kidnapped her, and she lost her Kiowa family who raised her when they were slaughtered by white settlers. Tom Hanks decides to take her in to deliver her to her only living kin, her aunt and uncle in Castroville. News of the World is a perfectly decent western, it has action, bad guys with tough faces, and tells a morality story of a post Civil War Texas in the period of reunification (the latter point here, the moralizing, has a really cringy moment here where Greengrass uses Tom Hanks reading the news of the bravery of workers at a coal mine to start a worker revolt against a powerful businessman in a company town). News of the World is fine as a western, its not impressive by any means but its not bad, it just doesn’t take any risks and I don’t think it will be very memorable for me. Hanks is also fine, but as I said, its just another film in a long list of Tom Hanks playing the same type of character.

All this film did was get me thinking, since this is a western, is that as Tom Hanks is the closest thing we have to a Henry Fonda actor today, some casting director really needs to cast him to do a heel turn like Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West where Hanks can play a villain.