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

[fin8]

Gladiator 2
A worthy enough successor to the first one. I love Denzel, but he was miscast in this one.
6.5/10

I was very disappointed. 5/10 at best.

 

[Osprey]

In fairness, many of the Christmas classics people love today initially fell flat - Christmas Story and It’s a Wonderful Life come to mind.

A Wonderful Life was a dud after its initial release.

If I recall correctly, it took 30 years until the film became public domain in the mid 70s and got played on the major networks.

This was the catalyst that gave the film a new lease on life and launched it into the beloved classic it is today.

I do agree with the thought that rewatching The Holdovers isn’t something I would want to do every Christmas.

I absolutely loved this movie, but much like Manchester by the Sea (which I adore as well), it’s a very depressing plot that I’m not sure I’d care to rewatch.

So I admit it isn’t fit with the uplifting spirit of Christmas in my opinion.

True, but The Holdovers didn't fall flat and what helped It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to eventually become beloved is that they do fit the uplifting spirit of Christmas and are appealing to watch every year around the holiday. I'm not sure that people are going to feel like watching The Holdovers every Christmas.

The Holdovers may have more in common with Christmas films like It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947) and Christmas Holiday (1944) which were also moderately successful at the time of their release (certainly more so than It's a Wonderful Life was), but have been largely forgotten since. I'm not arguing that it will face the same fate, but just as initial failure doesn't prevent a film from becoming a classic, being initially praised doesn't ensure becoming one, either.

Anyways, I'm not trying to argue with anyone who loves the movie. I was just giving the reasons why I, personally, didn't and won't be adding it to my Christmas rotation, even though I still did like it enough and was happy to see it once.

 

[Nakatomi]

True, but The Holdovers didn't fall flat and what helped It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to eventually become beloved is that they do fit the uplifting spirit of Christmas and are appealing to watch every year around the holiday. I'm not sure that people are going to feel like watching The Holdovers every Christmas.

The Holdovers may have more in common with Christmas films like It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947) and Christmas Holiday (1944) which were also moderately successful at the time of their release (certainly more so than It's a Wonderful Life was), but have been largely forgotten since. I'm not arguing that it will face the same fate, but just as initial failure doesn't prevent a film from becoming a classic, being initially praised doesn't ensure becoming one, either.

Anyways, I'm not trying to argue with anyone who loves the movie. I was just giving the reasons why I, personally, didn't and won't be adding it to my Christmas rotation, even though I still did like it enough and was happy to see it once.

Interestingly enough I have had It Happened on 5th Avenue on my "to watch" list for some time but have never heard of Christmas Holiday before your post. It seems to not be available digitally anywhere and only ever had a DVD physical release. Wow. Now I feel compelled to see it, haha.

 

[Osprey]

Interestingly enough I have had It Happened on 5th Avenue on my "to watch" list for some time but have never heard of Christmas Holiday before your post. It seems to not be available digitally anywhere and only ever had a DVD physical release. Wow. Now I feel compelled to see it, haha.

Honestly, I had never heard of Christmas Holiday until today, either. I just wanted another example of a successful but forgotten Christmas film to try to make my point and saw it at the top of a list. I haven't seen it, so I can't recommend it or not, but it has a decent score at IMDb and is on YouTube, so I may check it out. I have seen It Happened on 5th Avenue, though, and you might've added it to your watch list after I reviewed and recommended it last Christmas.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

True, but The Holdovers didn't fall flat

Ya that was my point - success at the box office/with critics doesn’t necessarily mean a movie will become a Christmas classic, and vice versa.

It has to first and foremost stand the test of time, and as we both agreed it has to have an uplifting message to fit the optimistic spirit of the season.

Holdovers is one of those films like Manchester by the Sea that is a great experience to watch once, but the depressing nature of both films makes it difficult to enjoy watching again.

As much as I enjoyed The Holdovers, I doubt I’ll ever rewatch it, let alone at Christmas time.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Beau is Afraid - Directed by Ari Aster ???/10

Been putting off reviewing this film because I just really didn't know what to think of it, to be honest... My wife hounded me to watch this movie for a few weeks, and when I eventually subjected myself to it, I wish I hadn't. She's a big Ari Aster fan, for whatever reason... Beau Is Afraid is an absolutely exhausting viewing experience. Basically nothing that 'happens' in the film actually 'happens'.

The basic synopsis of Beau is Afraid is that Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is afraid..... of everything. He's afraid of his apartment, he's afraid of his neighbor, he's afraid of the city he lives in, he's afraid of his mom, he's afraid of his feelings, he's afraid of the bees, he's afraid of the trees... he's afraid of everything.

Basically all of the events of the film are figments of Beau's imagination, there is a hell of an interlude in which Beau experiences a stage play which he sort of inserts himself into the narrative and experiences the story as his own life. This was one of the most striking moments of the film for me.

All in all, I can't even give this film a rating. It's so far out there and so bizarre that after viewing it, my main thought pattern is "what the f***???". Phoenix puts in a hell of a performance, as always, but I just don't get the point. Maybe the movie went over my head, but as I said earlier, I found it to be a rather exhausting experience.

Spoiler: Ending

What the f*** was up with that penis monster???? Why tf did Ari Aster have to include a CGI Penis monster at the end of this movie? This scene added such a deeply unsettling "what the f***" moment, to an already "what the f***" type of film. Absolutely hated that part.

 

[kihei]

A Complete Unknown (2024) Directed by James Mangold 5A

A more conventional and less ambitious Dylan biopic than 2007's I'm Not There, A Complete Unknown is noteworthy for Timothee Chalamet's excellent impersonation of Bob Dylan but very little else. Much like the earlier film, A Complete Unknown, best described as a musical containing a greatest hits collection of the singer's most iconic acoustic works, considers Dylan inscrutable, unfathomable, and is content to genuflect in the direction of the well-established mystique of its culture-altering musician. The non-musical sections of the movie seem like little more than a connect-the-dots exercise, combining known dots, speculative but well grounded dots and and wholly fictional dots in a way that provides no fresh insights whatsoever into Dylan's elusive character. If not quite the equal of Daniel Craig in Queer or Adrien Brody in The Bruatlist, Chalamet's performance is among the best of the year. He obviously possessed the chops to have gone deeper within the character, but the script didn't really require him to do so.

 

[RandV]

View attachment 953842
Beau is Afraid - Directed by Ari Aster ???/10

Been putting off reviewing this film because I just really didn't know what to think of it, to be honest... My wife hounded me to watch this movie for a few weeks, and when I eventually subjected myself to it, I wish I hadn't. She's a big Ari Aster fan, for whatever reason... Beau Is Afraid is an absolutely exhausting viewing experience. Basically nothing that 'happens' in the film actually 'happens'.

The basic synopsis of Beau is Afraid is that Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is afraid..... of everything. He's afraid of his apartment, he's afraid of his neighbor, he's afraid of the city he lives in, he's afraid of his mom, he's afraid of his feelings, he's afraid of the bees, he's afraid of the trees... he's afraid of everything.

Sounds like it would have been better if he learned to take baby steps and later went sailing.

 

[Osprey]

Sounds like it would have been better if he learned to take baby steps and later went sailing.

It does sound like he could use a vacation from his problems... and maybe a little death therapy.

 

[kihei]

Nosferatu (2024) Directed by Robert Eggers 8B

I went into this thinking, do we really need a third Nosferatu; do we need to revisit the same basic Dracula story again for at least the 50th time (likely more, much more). Safe to say, I was not expecting to be blown away, but blown away I was. Director Robert Eggers uses every single technical aspect of film making to perfection. Little things that I normally don't notice, like, for instance, how he manipulates depth of focus in various shots, all contributed to the overall effect, which was not just creepy but unsettling in a way that I found disturbing. In its own way, this Nosferatu, a film of shadows, mist and very dark places, is a gorgeous piece of cinematic brilliance. The story has a few new wrinkles, especially in the second half, but it is basically the tale with which we are familiar. The major innovation is the striking changes in two of its central characters, Nosferatu and his preferred victim Ellen. This Nosferatu is no effete romantic lead, but a cruel warrior type, Vlad, the Empaler come to life, an uncultured Romanian barbarian with a bad attitude. Meanwhile, this Ellen has been haunted for years by a dream in which her fate seems already sealed. That she meets that fate with a combination of hysteria, desire and eventual agency gives Nosferatu a wildly unconventional erotic charge that transports this movie well beyond being a visual tour de force into a totally different psychological realm. Kudos to both Bill Skarsgard and Lily-Rose Depp for performances that will stay in my memory long after those of this year's likely award winners fade.


Best of '24 so far

1. Flow, Zilbalodis, Latvia
2. Anora, Baker, US
3. Caught by the Tides, Jia, China
4. All We Imagine as Light, Kapadia, India
5. Nosferatu, Eggers, US
6. Green Border, Holland, Poland
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Jude, Romania
8. Bird, Arnold, UK
9. The Room Next Door, Almodovar, US
10. The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Rasoulof, Germany

 

[Nakatomi]

Nosferatu (2024) Directed by Robert Eggers 8B

I went into this thinking, do we really need a third Nosferatu; do we need to revisit the same basic Dracula story again for at least the 50th time (likely more, much more). Safe to say, I was not expecting to be blown away, but blown away I was. Director Robert Eggers uses every single technical aspect of film making to perfection. Little things that I normally don't notice, like, for instance, how he manipulates depth of focus in various shots, all contributed to the overall effect, which was not just creepy but unsettling in a way that I found disturbing. In its own way, this Nosferatu, a film of shadows, mist and very dark places, is a gorgeous piece of cinematic brilliance. The story has a few new wrinkles, especially in the second half, but it is basically the tale with which we are familiar. The major innovation is the striking changes in two of its central characters, Nosferatu and his preferred victim Ellen. This Nosferatu is no effete romantic lead, but a cruel warrior type, Vlad, the Empaler come to life, an uncultured Romanian barbarian with a bad attitude. Meanwhile, this Ellen has been haunted for years by a dream in which her fate seems already sealed. That she meets that fate with a combination of hysteria, desire and eventual agency gives Nosferatu a wildly unconventional erotic charge that transports this movie well beyond being a visual tour de force into a totally different psychological realm. Kudos to both Bill Skarsgard and Lily-Rose Depp for performances that will stay in my memory long after those of this year's likely award winners fade.


Best of '24 so far

1. Flow, Zilbalodis, Latvia
2. Anora, Baker, US
3. Caught by the Tides, Jia, China
4. All We Imagine as Light, Kapadia, India
5. Nosferatu, Eggers, US
6. Green Border, Holland, Poland
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Jude, Romania
8. Bird, Arnold, UK
9. The Room Next Door, Almodovar, US
10. The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Rasoulof, Germany

Thanks for the great review. Anymore I generally wait to watch movies in 4K at home on my OLED, but this review inspired me to look for a showing near me in Dolby Digital sometime these next few days. Looks great!

 

[Fantomas]

During the holidays I watched Jackie Chan and Louis de Funes movies to cheer me up. I feel great! My ratings:

Chan
Project A - 4/5
Police Story - 4.5/5
Armor of God - 3.5/5

De Funes
Hibernatus - 3.5/5
La Grande Vadrouille - 5/5
Delusions of Grandeur - 4.5/5

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Watched a few too:

Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness, Breillat, 2013) – Catherine Breillat is a very special filmmaker to me – the only one with the total range of my rating scale (scoring from 1/10 to 10/10). She had an AVC in 2005, managed to keep making movies, but her next three films were misses for me so I lost interest and wasn't even aware of what was happening to her during that time – a very weird story that became Abus de faiblesse, a film I never cared watching until now. I don't usually go through the films synopsis, but I think it's worth a few lines here (especially since I doubt any of you will ever watch it!). Neve Campbell contacted Breillat because she wanted to work with her and Breillat wrote a film in which a huge star (Campbell) would fall in love with a common crook who'd end up killing her. That movie was never made, but that's what Breillat was working on after Une vieille maîtresse. One night, she saw Christophe Rocancourt interviewed in a talk show and she had a stroke of genius (the same kind she had when she decided to cast Rocco Siffredi in Romance): that's the guy she needed to play the crook in her film! Rocancourt is a real life con artist who after getting out of jail in 2005 (one of many stays, that time in the US), seduced France with his story and bad boy charisma. He published 2 books, was invited to all TV shows and events, married Miss France. Breillat met with him, and convinced him to play in her next film. It really would have been a brilliant idea, had it not turn into a nightmarish one. Abus de faiblesse tells a slightly romanced version of the whole thing, from Breillat's AVC to the moment where she reports Rocancourt to the police, after he swindled her out of over 800 000 Euros. It's not a great film, but it's fascinating – both disturbing as a self-portrait (she does not pretend she can explain her weakness nor tries to portrait Rocancourt as either smart or charming) and very interesting when the film echoes the one to be made (Isabelle Huppert is – as always – fantastic as Breillat's alter ego and she manages to translate a state of both gullibility and resignation, showing without ever saying that part of her understands what's going on and is willingly a victim, just like Neve Campbell's character in the scenes she repeats with the crook... this communication between the process and the object of creation is something that was more (and better) exploited by Breillat in Sex Is Comedy). 4.5/10

Now that I was reconciled with Breillat, I also gave a chance to L'été dernier, her film from last year. But first...

Dronningen (Queen of Hearts, el-Toukhy, 2019) – It's about a woman that sleeps with her husband's teenage son. I'll comment on this one just below. 5/10

L'été dernier (Last Summer, Breillat, 2023) – This film is a surprise on quite a few levels. First, it's a comeback to film for Breillat after a 10 years gap. Second, it's a remake of the Danish film just above, which is a first from a director who's very much an author in the strong sense of the word. Three, the adaptation is co-signed by Pascal Bonitzer (who might just be the greatest screenwriter / dialogue writer of all time), not a bad surprise for sure, but still suprising from someone who wrote all of her best stuff alone. Four, her remake is softer than the original, less raw and less explicit (for those who are familiar with her work, that's something). Five, well, the original film stands very much on its own, did well in its festival run, and certainly didn't appear as needing a remake. And six, Breillat already did a film with kind of similar themes with Brève traversée – a forgotten little film made for TV – with much better results. The intention certainly appears uncertain, but the result is pretty interesting. On its own, L'été dernier is a minor Breillat film, though not a bad one at all. It's in comparaison to the original that the film gets interesting, becoming some kind of an appeal against the moralistic tone given to our discourses about sex. What appears at first like a very faithful remake starts showing little signs of wandering off, an incomplete scene, a detail missing (so much so that they feel like missing, or you'd wonder why something is happening since the premise for it was taken out), building to – while telling the same “story” – completely different characters and agencies (and with Bonitzer's touch, more fleshed-out and interesting characters too, all without adding much of anything). It's a very interesting writing exercise, they manage to present a wrongful situation, an almost evil character, in its nuanced complexity, maybe with empathy, maybe with understanding, without justifying anything nonetheless. 5.5/10

Edit: one more thing... both films are very nice, but the Danish one is more polished, probably more aesthetically "constructed", if you can even say that... as Breillat's film has a more intimate and small-scale feel.

Gremlins (Dante, 1984) – I guess I did my part and watched a Christmas movie. It's not as fun as I would have liked to remember. I think I'm still being generous with 4/10.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Little things that I normally don't notice, like, for instance, how he manipulates depth of focus in various shots

Do you have specific examples of this? I've seen the film yesterday too and didn't notice anything really special. I liked it, but was expecting a lot more (I'll comment on it - and Longlegs too - at some point, probably in the horror thread).

 

[kihei]

Do you have specific examples of this? I've seen the film yesterday too and didn't notice anything really special. I liked it, but was expecting a lot more (I'll comment on it - and Longlegs too - at some point, probably in the horror thread).

Especially in the early stages in the castle, I noticed how the background was blurry on some shots but not on others, and it added to the creepy atmosphere for me. I can "see" some of the shots in my mind's eye but can't exactly place them.

I should add that I saw the film on UltraAVX.

 

[kihei]

In Her Place (2024) Directed by Maite Alberti 5A

In Her Place, Chile's submission to the Academy Awards this year, didn't make the shortlist and I can understand why it might have caused confusion. Based on a famous case in the '50s, In Her Place is about a notorious socialite who murdered her lover for motives that were never exactly clear. Okay. First question: Why is this movie seen through the perspective of the court stenographer (Elisa Zulueta) rather than, say, the perpetrator or the prosecutor? Answer: Because the murder part is a tease. The real focus is on the wholly fictional stenographer who, like a hermit crab, takes the opportunity to move into the luxury apartment of the woman on trial and live like she did for awhile--fancy clothes, expensive perfume, warm baths, shelter from her loud but loving family, and, perhaps most importantly, loads of solitude. So the movie starts out in one place--a mystery, not so much a whodunit as a why'd she do it--and shifts its narrative to make a social statement about class, sexism and privilege in mid-20th century Chile. Second question: Why the very light breezy tone most of the way, followed rather joltingly by a more sombre final act? I would have thought it more likely that a light comedy might break out, but it didn't. I see the point, though. The plot finds a novel way to contrast the two lifestyles of women from different classes--how social status and privilege can mean the difference between a life of luxury and a life of drudgery. Clever point, well played. Still, a little suspense wouldn't have hurt.

subtitles

 

[Osprey]

If you haven't already, you really owe it to yourself to see A Child's Christmas in Wales with Denholm Eliot which is only 54 minutes long. It is still available on YouTube.

I watched this tonight. It felt a little strange to watch it now, but I didn't want to wait until next December. It was very pleasant and cozy. It reminded me a lot of A Christmas Story, but very British instead of very American and the memories aren't structured so much into a story. I can see why Brits are fond of it. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[kihei]

I watched this tonight. It felt a little strange to watch it now, but I didn't want to wait until next December. It was very pleasant and cozy. It reminded me a lot of A Christmas Story, but very British instead of very American and the memories aren't structured so much into a story. I can see why Brits are fond of it. Thanks for the recommendation.

It's my family's go-to Christmas movie. I have probably seen it twenty times at least.

Since kids, The Muppet's Christmas Carol, which is wonderful, with Michael Caine giving a terrific, absolutely straight performance as Scrooge, is right up there, too...and will be again when the grandkids get a couple of years older.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

With the calendar flipped to 2025, I again looked back on the last year at the best new-to-movies that I saw last year. (i.e. older movies not released in the last few years that I saw for the first time). Some of these I wrote about here, but others not. These were the older films that really hit with me, several of which I watched due to recommendations from the folks around this place. So I thank you all.

Lone Wolf and Cub series
3:10 to Yuma (original)
Uptight
Mikey and Nicky
Mr. Klein
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
I Walked With a Zombie
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead
The Stunt Man
Funeral Parade of Roses
The Offence
Millenium Actress
Summer with Monika
Raw Force
The Match Factory Girl
Simple Men
Lucia
The Swimmer
Songs from the Second Floor
The Quiet Earth