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

[Spring in Fialta]

The Counselor (2013) - 6/10

Honestly the first half was....not that bad. Gets a bit hard to enjoy once it tries to become Tarantino-esque in the latter half but without the same payoffs or humour. Cameron Diaz gets way too many lines that just don't match her as the film progresses and the other scenes are filled too much with wannabe smart dialogue.

Gotta say, I have a lot reservations about The Counselor as well and a lot of it has McCarthy recycling a lot of his pet issues but there are some cold ass lines in that film that I hadn't picked up. They gotta be from deleted scenes.

“I have no wish to paint the world in colors more somber than those it wears, but as the world gives way to darkness it becomes more and more difficult to dismiss the understanding that the world is in fact oneself. It is a thing which you have created, no more, no less. And when you cease to be so will the world. There will be other worlds. Of course. But they are the worlds of other men and your understanding of them was never more than an illusion anyway. Your world-- the only one that matters-- will be gone. And it will never come again”

and

“You can make no distinction between what he is and what he does. And what he does is kill. We of course are another matter. I suspect that we are ill-formed for the path we have chosen. Ill-formed and ill-prepared. We would like to draw a veil over all that blood and terror. That have brought us to this place. It is our faintness of heart that would close our eyes to all of that, but in so doing it makes of it our destiny. Perhaps you would not agree. I dont know. But nothing is crueller than a coward, and the slaughter to come is probably beyond our imagining.”

Hilarious to think that this dude just works out of a think tank with a bunch of crazy ass physicists and ended up a trustee of the institution.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I should add that I did download the extended version so it included those scenes.

I found that whole monologue to be cringey tbh. Just a tonne of dialogue overflowing with overconfident smugness trying to sound smart which sounds so unlifelike that it really takes you out of the film.

In a talkative thriller/drama, it's the equivalent of bad CGI to me.

 

[Pink Mist]

Sisu (Jalmari Helander, 2022)

Finland is no stranger to war films as much of their output in their national cinema production has been films about the Winter War and the Continuation War in World War II. However, Sisu is definitely not another adaptation of The Unknown Soldier (of which there seems to be a new adaptation every generation in Finland). Sisu – which is a Finnish word to describe a stoic strength of will, resilience, and tenacity to overcome adversity and is considered a defining characteristic of Finns – is unabashedly a gory b movie. The film is set at the sunset of the Continuation War in 1944 just after Finland had signed their armistice with the Soviets and as a condition had to expel the Nazis from Finland who Finland had aligned with in the war to push in Soviet Russia. The film follows a Finnish soldier returning from the battlefront in Lapland who stumbles upon a deposit of gold. After digging up huge chunks of gold he encounters a group of retreating Nazi soldiers who become determined to steal his gold in a chase across Finnish Lapland.

Going into the film I had some reservations of the plot description – a Finnish soldier killing Nazis in WWII – because of the nature of Finland’s involvement in WWII. Although the Winter War was certainly a righteous war of self-defence, the Continuation War with its uneasy alliance with Nazi Germany and aggressive expansionism into Soviet territory is a lot more complicated in terms of its place in Finland’s national history. That said, the Finnish-Nazi relationship was uneasy and created out of convenience from initial Soviet aggression so the revisionism of the plot works if you don’t think too hard about it. Basically, a Finnish version of Inglorious Basterds.

The film itself is a pretty standard b movie action movie and draws from influences such as spaghetti westerns following a silent protagonist in the Finnish wilderness on a mission to secure his gold. The violence and gore is fun and creative, escalating to ridiculous and creative levels with great payoffs. Not too much else to say about that other than its just fun to watch Nazis get killed in extreme ways.

I watched it at Midnight Madness at TIFF and I think the crowd reactions in a late-night festival setting elevate the film a bit – not sure how well it would play watching it alone in your living room, but worth checking out for fans of b movie action thrillers. Just don’t think too much of its historical context or narrative and just follow along with the ride.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I should add that I did download the extended version so it included those scenes.

I found that whole monologue to be cringey tbh. Just a tonne of dialogue overflowing with overconfident smugness trying to sound smart which sounds so unlifelike that it really takes you out of the film.

In a talkative thriller/drama, it's the equivalent of bad CGI to me.

Yeah, I haven't seen the actual scenes, so perhaps they're not delivered well and books and films are very different mediums so whatever McCarthy puts on the page might not translate but on paper, I like them a lot.

 

[shadow1]

Roadgames (1981) - 7/10

An American truck driver working in Australia believes a man driving a green van on the highway to be a serial killer.

Roadgames is a movie I've wanted to see for a while, and it didn't disappoint. Stacy Keach stars as eccentric truck driver Pat, who along with his pet dingo engages in a game of cat and mouse with the driver of a green van whom he suspects is killing hitchhikers. Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as the spunky character 'Hitch' and does a good job in one of her early roles. Keach carries the entire movie though; he's in almost every frame and has to monologue a lot due to the fact his character is alone the majority of the time. I was really impressed with his performance.

The movie is more of a mystery with thriller elements than a straight up horror flick. Its focus is mainly on the mystery of whether Keach's overworked, under-rested character is making too much out of a series of coincidences, or the man he keeps crossing paths with is the serial killer that the radio is talking about. In other words, there are similarities to Rear Window, which was an inspiration for this movie apparently. Roadgames does have some horror/tension though; there was one scene in particular that had me clenching the cheeks of my rear end together.

Roadgames is well directed by Richard Franklin, and the film has impressive cinematography. There aren't many sets in this film; 90% of the movie takes place in the cab of Keach's truck, or on the highway. Yet, thanks to the talent behind the camera the movie never feels stale, and is another great example of a movie that does a lot with a little. Surprisingly this was the most expensive Australian film ever made at the time, with a budget of $1.8M.

I do have a couple nitpicks, and the biggest one is the music. Though the score is good from a purely objective standpoint, it did NOT belong in this type of movie. It sounds like something you might hear in a family movie; it's way too optimistic sounding for the subject matter at hand, and I would even say jarring at times due to sounding so out of place.

There was also some black comedy that made some random appearances, and those scenes didn't really work for me. And it obviously is a bit strange that the movie stars an American, who later picks up another American hitchhiker, but the movie takes place in Australia. Was it just me, or did this movie feel a lot older than 1981?

Nitpicks aside, really solid movie. I think I'll watch this one again sooner rather than later.

 

[Osprey]

Beast (2022) - 6/10

A widowed father (Idris Elba) and his two teenage daughters visit a family friend in South Africa and become hunted by a bloodthirsty lion. It's a fairly simple survival thriller in the "Jaws on land" mold that was elevated for me by Elba's performance, the cinematography and the direction. The African scenery is beautiful, of course, and I liked how the camera is always moving and there are relatively few cuts, giving a continuous, "one shot" effect to many scenes and the feeling that I was a participant in them instead of just an observer. In addition to Elba, I was impressed by the young actresses, mostly because they did so well with the elaborate long takes that would be easy for even experienced actors to ruin by missing beats or forgetting lines. I appreciated the little bit of family drama that gives the characters some depth and development, as well as how lean and well paced the movie is, coming in at only 90 minutes long. As for negatives, it's a bit familiar and predictable, the plot is often advanced by the foolish decision making of the characters and a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief is required. Those are all common in the survival and horror genres, however, and it usually comes down to the execution for me. I mostly liked the execution here, so I enjoyed it overall. I might forget it eventually, but it served its purpose as entertainment for an evening.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Rewatched:

7.5/10

 

[Ceremony]

Speaking as an extremely large McCarthy fan who saw The Counsellor once, I largely agree with this:

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Roadgames (1981) - 7/10

An American truck driver working in Australia believes a man driving a green van on the highway to be a serial killer.

Roadgames is a movie I've wanted to see for a while, and it didn't disappoint. Stacy Keach stars as eccentric truck driver Pat, who along with his pet dingo engages in a game of cat and mouse with the driver of a green van whom he suspects is killing hitchhikers. Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as the spunky character 'Hitch' and does a good job in one of her early roles. Keach carries the entire movie though; he's in almost every frame and has to monologue a lot due to the fact his character is alone the majority of the time. I was really impressed with his performance.

The movie is more of a mystery with thriller elements than a straight up horror flick. Its focus is mainly on the mystery of whether Keach's overworked, under-rested character is making too much out of a series of coincidences, or the man he keeps crossing paths with is the serial killer that the radio is talking about. In other words, there are similarities to Rear Window, which was an inspiration for this movie apparently. Roadgames does have some horror/tension though; there was one scene in particular that had me clenching the cheeks of my rear end together.

Roadgames is well directed by Richard Franklin, and the film has impressive cinematography. There aren't many sets in this film; 90% of the movie takes place in the cab of Keach's truck, or on the highway. Yet, thanks to the talent behind the camera the movie never feels stale, and is another great example of a movie that does a lot with a little. Surprisingly this was the most expensive Australian film ever made at the time, with a budget of $1.8M.

I do have a couple nitpicks, and the biggest one is the music. Though the score is good from a purely objective standpoint, it did NOT belong in this type of movie. It sounds like something you might hear in a family movie; it's way too optimistic sounding for the subject matter at hand, and I would even say jarring at times due to sounding so out of place.

There was also some black comedy that made some random appearances, and those scenes didn't really work for me. And it obviously is a bit strange that the movie stars an American, who later picks up another American hitchhiker, but the movie takes place in Australia. Was it just me, or did this movie feel a lot older than 1981?

Nitpicks aside, really solid movie. I think I'll watch this one again sooner rather than later.

Alllllmost hit play on this yesterday. Went with Class of Nuke 'em High instead.

A friend just watched Franklin's killer monkey movie Link. I haven't seen it buy it's apparently wild.

Saw Patrick a few years ago and dug it. Had that and Roadgames on a watch list after watching and enjoying the "Oz-ploitation" doc Not Quite Hollywood.

 

[shadow1]

Prom Night (1980) - 4/10

Six years after a tragic accident kills a child, a masked killer stalks the people responsible during their high school prom.

Prom Night is considered somewhat of a cult classic, but it's a sentiment I can't share. Before this latest re-watch, I had only seen the movie once, and my only memories of it were that Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Nielsen were in it, and that it featured rampant disco music.

Honestly, that description pretty much sums the movie up; there is not much going on here. In fact, after the opening scene in which we see a child fall to her death after being bullied by some classmates, we don't get another kill until more than an hour into the movie. Between kills, the movie is clogged with subplots that don't matter, with the occasional threatening phone call from the killer to their future victims.

That's not a good recipe for a slasher movie if you ask me. The kills don't help either, as the violence is mostly off-screen. You often hear of horror movies having to trim scenes to avoid an "X" rating; Prom Night had to add scenes to get an R rating, as producers thought the movie wouldn't sell well with a PG rating.

The film invests heavily into the mystery of who the killer is, but it only partially succeeds in my opinion. The eventual killer makes sense and they had sound motivations, but I thought the film should have flushed out the rest of the suspects. According to the IMDB trivia page, there were three scenes that were cut from the movie that would've added significant depth to three of the side characters and set them up as suspects.

Big mistake cutting those; by the end of the movie, it's pretty easy to figure out who the killer is. The movie tries one last ditch effort to throw suspicion at Leslie Nielsen's School Principal character by making him randomly vanish for the final half hour of the movie. But all that does is deprive the audience of the comedic actor in one of his final serious roles.

Overall, pretty bad and generic movie. It works as a midnight slasher movie, but so little happens during the first hour that you might doze off (or find yourself playing solitaire on your phone... cough).

 

[shadow1]

Terror Train (1980) - 6/10

A group of college freshmen commit a cruel fraternity prank which leads to a student becoming institutionalized. Three years later, the group is stalked during a New Year's Eve costume party aboard a train.

Terror Train has a classic slasher plot - someone is wronged, and the culprits receive vigilante justice some time later - but uses the unique setting of a train to turn itself into a "bottle" movie. Even though the train can move, by the time the first murder is discovered, the characters determine it's too slow to travel in reverse back to the departing station so they must push forward. Also, because it's cold and snowing outside, passengers can only get off the train for a limited amount of time.

In addition to the setting, I also enjoyed the set up of the movie taking place during a costume party. This allows the killer to move around the crowded train undetected by simply switching costumes. Mostly they wear a Groucho Marx mask, which I thought looks cool. Add it all together and you get Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, except with a slasher flavor.

Jamie Lee Curtis stars as one of the college students involved in the prank. However, unlike her classmates, she didn't know how cruel the prank was before getting involved, and feels remorseful for her actions. I would've liked to have seen the rest of the college students not be so flippant about the prank because it makes them hard to empathize with; in other words, they're death fodder.

I will say too that it was a bit difficult to keep track of the non-Jamie Lee Curtis characters early on. The train is extremely crowded and the rest of the college students blended together at times. Fortunately we get another protagonist named Carne (Ben Johnson), the train conductor who plays detective as the body count rises. Famous magician David Copperfield also has a huge supporting role as - no surprise - a magician, in his only film acting role (other than times he cameos as himself).

Without spoiling it, I'll say the whodunit part of this film came to a very satisfying conclusion. I didn't see the ending coming at all and thought it was great. I've seen others online say that it was obvious, so maybe I need to return my internet sleuthing license.

Overall, decent little movie. I don't think it's a classic but it exceeded my expectations and is better than a lot of the movies around that time that were trying to cash in on the Halloween/Friday the 13th success.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Prom Night (1980) - 4/10

Terror Train (1980) - 6/10

Again, I love that you're going through these classic slashers. I might follow you in a few months. You really should collect them all in one thread at some point - or add them to the gialli thread and I'll change the title!

I have very little memory about these two, even though I must have seen them close to 10x each when I was a kid. I know I too preferred Terror Train by a mile, and that a few scenes (the prank and the ending probably?) had a somewhat creepy atmosphere. The killer had a more troubling quality than the normal non-monster killers of the slasher films, almost uncanny (and I think most of it was from some weird acting, but really not sure). I remember Prom Night for being a very paint-by-numbers entry in the genre, but the sequel, Hello Mary Lou (which wasn't intended as a sequel) was a very peculiar film - not necessarily very good, but with a few very interesting ideas, almost lynchian at times (third one was a turd, and I'm not sure I've seen the 4th).

 

[shadow1]

Again, I love that you're going through these classic slashers. I might follow you in a few months. You really should collect them all in one thread at some point - or add them to the gialli thread and I'll change the title!

I have very little memory about these two, even though I must have seen them close to 10x each when I was a kid. I know I too preferred Terror Train by a mile, and that a few scenes (the prank and the ending probably?) had a somewhat creepy atmosphere. The killer had a more troubling quality than the normal non-monster killers of the slasher films, almost uncanny (and I think most of it was from some weird acting, but really not sure). I remember Prom Night for being a very paint-by-numbers entry in the genre, but the sequel, Hello Mary Lou (which wasn't intended as a sequel) was a very peculiar film - not necessarily very good, but with a few very interesting ideas, almost lynchian at times (third one was a turd, and I'm not sure I've seen the 4th).

Hello Mary Lou is one I've been meaning to see for a while. It looks like it's on Freevee so I'll watch it next.

One thing I forgot to mention about Terror Train is (like Prom Night) it has very little gore. I noticed the lack of violence more in Prom Night for some reason though.

 

[kihei]

Decision to Leave (2022) Directed by Park Chan-wook 8B

A detective (Park Hae-il) investigates the suspected murder of a man who appears to have been pushed off a cliff. One of the leading suspects is the guy’s beautiful wife (Wei Tang), a Chinese born South Korean citizen who doesn’t speak Korean very well. The detective, seemingly happily married, first becomes curious about her, then intrigued, than eventually smitten. She as well appears to have growing feelings for him. The problem is he can’t quite get it through his head that she’s not actually guilty of murdering her husband. Decision to Leave is a super-stylish neo-noir with strong echoes of some classics such as Vertigo, Body Heat and Laura, a film awash in both criminal and romantic uncertaintly. The supremely gifted Park is a technical genius at editing film and his approach is often jazzy and spontaneous. So the story isn’t quite told conventionally and certainly feels far more creatively disorienting than the usual police procedural with romantic overtones. The movie has a serpentine, seductive quality as well as a sense of playfulness and humour that, expertly combined, are very appealing. As the possible femme fatale, Wei Tang gives a complex, vulnerable, multi-tiered performance that keeps the detective guessing and the audience, too,. The final scenes are a masterclass in atmosphere and ambiguity.

subtitles


Best of '22

1) Hit the Road, P. Panahi, Iran
2) Decision to Leave, Park, South Korea
3) Official Competition, Cohn and Duprat, France
4) Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kwan and Scheinert, US
5) Mad God, Tippett, US
6) Apples, Nikou, Greece
7) Everything Went Fine, Ozun, France
8) Navalny, Roher, US (documentary)
9) Mr Kaufmann and His Class, Speth, Germany (documentary)
10) Turning Red, Shi, US

 

[Osprey]

Pinocchio (Disney) (2022) - 3/10

The voice of Woody (Tom Hanks) makes a woody boy that he wishes to be an Andy. Not to be confused with Disney's Pinocchio from 1940, over a dozen other films that IMDb says were made with the same title since (including, apparently, an X-rated 1971 one with the tag line "It's not his nose that grows!") or the one coming in December from Guillermo del Toro, this is the latest Disney live action/CGI remake of one of their animated classics. It's also the first to not get a theater release. Even the Disney execs must've been unimpressed. It has the same songs (though they aren't as fun), many of the same gags (though they aren't as funny) and many of the same shots. So much is recycled, especially in the first half, that I kept thinking that I'd rather be watching the original, instead. There are some differences, especially in the second half, but none for the better. There's a new subplot that adds nothing, new gags that are cringey, references to other Disney properties and things that were changed for seemingly no reason. More seriously, the lessons and themes take a back seat. The blue fairy doesn't re-appear halfway through to free Pinocchio after teaching him about honesty. Instead, Pinocchio frees himself by lying so much that his nose reaches the key hanging on the far side of the room. What a great message for kids. The blue fairy doesn't even appear at the end to summarize the lessons about being honest and good and congratulate him. In fact, Pinocchio doesn't even become a real boy at the end. It's left unanswered whether he ever does become one or not, perhaps to leave the door open for more content with wooden Pinocchio. This, of course, undermines the original film's and the entire Disney company's signature song. When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are, Anything your heart desires, WON'T come to you. Imagine remaking a timeless classic and changing the themes and ending that made it special in the first place. This movie felt like a pointless and soulless facsimile of the endearing original (which is my all-time favorite Disney animated movie, so you may understand why I'm peeved). It's on Disney+ if you care to see how modern Disney can take something sweet and beautiful and turn it into a donkey.

 

[shadow1]

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987) - 5/10

Mary Lou Maloney, killed during her 1957 High School Prom, returns as a specter to haunt the 1987 Prom.

This sequel to Prom Night (1980) focuses on Vicky Carpenter (Wendy Lyon), a potential Prom Queen who accidentally opens an old trunk and becomes possessed by the spirit of the promiscuous Mary Lou. Michael Ironside co-stars as the Principal and Mary Lou's former boyfriend, who was responsible for her death and is haunted by the events of the 1957 Prom (good thing he decided to work at the school where it happened!).

Prom Night II has a strong opening. The scenes at the 1957 Prom, followed by the events leading up to Vicky's possession, are very fun and campy; I actually laughed out loud a couple times. There was one memorable kill scene that looked like it was heading in one direction, but then pulled the rug out from the audience's feet and went in another direction.

Unfortunately, the movie seemed to hit a wall midway through. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I think it's because the comedy didn't land as well in the second half, thus making the kill scenes less memorable. With not a ton of plot to lean on, and supporting characters that can best be described as wallpaper, I thought the second half dragged a bit. Fortunately, Prom Night II's ending is strong, with one scene in particular that is unique, cool, and gruesome.

In case you were wondering, this supernatural sequel has almost nothing to do with the traditional slasher original. Even after filming was completed, Prom Night II was supposed to be a standalone movie, but producers decided to make it a sequel to Prom Night for marketing potential, so the filmmakers shoehorned in some references during reshoots. (It didn't work, the movie only made $2.6M in theaters).

Overall... meh? There are moments to like in Prom Night II, but I don't think I'm as high on it as the horror community, which considers it a cult classic. This movie could be a grower though, so take my review with a grain of salt.

(Also, the Amazon/Freevee version of this movie looks terrible. It's only $6 on iTunes so I may buy it and give it another chance in the future)

 

[shadow1]

Pinocchio (Disney) (2022) - 3/10

The voice of Woody (Tom Hanks) makes a woody boy that he wishes to be an Andy. Not to be confused with Disney's Pinocchio from 1940, 15 other films that IMDb says were made with the same title since (including, apparently, an X-rated 1971 one with the tag line "It's not his nose that grows!") or the one coming in December from Guillermo del Toro, this is the latest Disney live action with CGI remake of one of their animated classics. It's also the first to not get a theater release. Even the Disney execs must've been unimpressed. It has the same songs (though they aren't as fun), many of the same gags (though they aren't as funny) and many of the same shots. So much feels recycled. There are differences, though, none for the better. There's a new subplot that adds nothing, new gags that are cringey, references to other Disney properties and inexplicable changes (like Monstro the whale looking completely different). More seriously, the lessons and themes take a backseat. The blue fairy doesn't re-appear halfway through to teach Pinocchio about how lies grow like the nose on his face (an important lesson for children in the audience) and doesn't even appear at the end to summarize the lessons and congratulate him. In fact, Pinocchio doesn't even become a real boy at the end, perhaps so that Disney could make more content with wooden Pinocchio. When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are, Anything your heart desires, WON'T come to you. Imagine remaking one of your timeless classics and changing the ending. This movie felt like a pointless and soulless facsimile of the endearing original (which is my all-time favorite Disney animated movie, so you may understand why I'm peeved). It's on Disney+ if you care to see how modern Disney can take something sweet and beautiful and turn it into a donkey.

I need to check out that 1971 version...

 

[kihei]

Broker (2022) Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda 4A

Broker is Hiokazu Kore-eda’s second straight movie made outside of Japan and, not coincidentally, his second straight miss. Broker is about two likeable rogues who steal babies from church’s “baby boxes” and sell them to couples willing to buy a baby on the black market. The mother of one of the babies tracks them down, and then decides to accompany them as they try to find parents for her infant. Two female cops and two thugs are hot on their trail. I mean, how could this premise possibly work? There is nothing charming about people who traffic in stolen children even if the central culprit is played by irrepressibly likeable Song-kang ho. There are some touching moments and even the odd insight into the human comedy. But even without considering the unfortunate premise, there is way too much plot, way too much melodrama, way too much heart-tugging, and way too much implausibility for Broker to have any shot at being successful. To invoke The Beatles, Kore-eda needs to get back to where he once belonged.

subtitles

 

[kihei]

Holy Spider (2022) Directed by Ali Abbasi 8B

In the holy city of Mashhad in Iran, Saeed (Iranian theatre actor Mehdi Bajestani), a serial killer, hunts sex workers. The corrupt police force pays scant attention as the killer is actually making their work easier. Enter Rahimi (Zahra Amir-Ebrahimi), an investigative journalist from Tehran. She is weary of all the sexism she faces on an almost hourly basis and wary of just how far she can go to combat it without herself becoming an endangered species. With no help forthcoming from the authorities, she takes on the task of catching the killer by allowing herself to become the bait.

I was surprised that Iran had sex workers to begin with, let alone that they plied their trade on street corners much like they do everywhere. However, they have not even token protection against a religious fanatic who proudly believes he is doing God's work. A surprisingly large number of his male compatriots seem to agree with him. Based on a real crime, Holy Spider is both an excellent suspense thriller and a damning social commentary on the inherent mysogyny that pervades every aspect of Iran's social, political and religious life. These two parts of the movie never clash as they are seamlessly intertwined, one complementing the other. The brutality and violence in the movie can be hard to take, but there is a real payoff. Great performances from Amir-Ebrahimi and Bajestani playing fully realized characters makes Holy Spider, a work that easily transcends genre expectations, one of the most gripping thrillers of the last several years.

subtitles

Best of '22

1) Hit the Road, P. Panahi, Iran
2) Decision to Leave, Park, South Korea
3) Holy Spider, Abbasi, Denmark
4) Official Competition, Cohn and Duprat, France
5) Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kwan and Scheinert, US
6) Mad God, Tippett, US
7) Apples, Nikou, Greece
8) Everything Went Fine, Ozun, France
9) Navalny, Roher, US (documentary)
10) Mr Kaufmann and His Class, Speth, Germany (documentary)

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Look Back in Anger and Room at the Top. Two of British cinema’s kitchen sink/”angry young man” dramas of the 50s and 60s. Black and white, working class fellas with an unshakable belief that the life they have isn’t the one they deserve. These aren’t romantic dreamers or Bruce Springsteen song protagonists. They’re brutal and scheming SOBs. Wounded animals prone to biting even when someone tries to show them affection.

A debatably “young” Richard Burton belittles and abuses his wife and her friend, an actress who has come to stay with them. He’s from a lower class. They’re a station above and no one seems to have made peace with this. Sympathizing comes hard but he has a few moments of softness. You see he wasn’t always this way, though I don’t know how much hope there is that he’ll shake the anger at the world that drives him. Anger, for me, is largely a performance piece. Burton domineers everyone. God his voice is so rich.

Room is a little more plot driven. Laurence Harvey is a lower class chap openly scheming his way into better jobs and a relationship with a rich young woman. Meanwhile he strikes up an affair with an older, wiser woman who sees through his bullshit but likes him anyway. (Love triangles are common in these stories). As his manipulations progress he realizes what he thinks he wants isn’t what he really wants. But he can’t undo what he’s done and tragedy — completely foreseen by an Oscar winning Simone Signoret — looms. She's an equal to Harvey more than some other movies let the females be.

There’s always been something universal and resonate in these movies for me. (This Sporting Life, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, as other examples). They walk a fascinating line successfully — the protagonists are often unsympathetic or at least do very unsympathetic things, but they’re very understandable. Their passions and motivations and even their loss of control are very, painfully human.

Hard, but special movies. Consistently real actor showcases as well.

 

[kihei]

The Eternal Daughter (2022) Directed by Joanna Hogg 7B

Director Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir; The Souvenir II--not my favourite movies) tries to do something very difficult here and even it it isn't completely successful, it is still a very worthy attempt. In The Eternal Daughter, a film director and her elderly mother (both played by Tilda Swinton) go on vacation to an old family residence, now turned into a rather spooky hotel in the middle of a very dark woods. The Eternal Daughter is a ghost story, but not quite in the usual way that one thinks of that genre. The atmosphere--creepy, dark, foreboding, great whacking globs of fog and acres of mist, not to mention tons of gothic imagery--is one thing: let's call it super ghosty. But the story and the nature of the ghost is much more elliptical, rooted in the relationship between daughter and mother and the daughter's deep but not uncommon regrets. The film reminds me a little of an obscure Jude Law movie from a few years ago, The Nest, which had all the trappings of a horror movie without ever being a horror movie. To be fair, that's not quite what's going here. The atmosphere is not just for show--it is directly linked to the emotional stakes at play in the movie. And they are high ones. This is the experience of being haunted but by a different type of ghost, both more metaphorical and more personal; this is being haunted in a way that many if not most of us may experience if we outlive some of the people we love. Swinton is just great by the way, one of the best performance(s) of the year.


Best of '22

1) Hit the Road, P. Panahi, Iran
2) Decision to Leave, Park, South Korea
3) Holy Spider, Abbasi, Denmark
4) The Eternal Daughter, Hogg, UK
5) Official Competition, Cohn and Duprat, France
6) Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kwan and Scheinert, US
7) Mad God, Tippett, US
8) Apples, Nikou, Greece
9) Everything Went Fine, Ozun, France
10) Navalny, Roher, US (documentary)

 

[Pink Mist]

Compartment No. 6 / Hytti Nro 6 (Juho Kuosmanen, 2021)

Laura (Seidi Haarla) is a Finnish woman on a language exchange in Russia who has fallen for a free spirited Russian women who she’s sharing a flat with. The two of them make plans to visit the petroglyphs in Murmansk, north of the Arctic circle. Just before they’re to take the long train ride from Moscow to Murmansk, her girlfriend bails on her and Laura decides to go alone to the northern city. Her roommate for her train ride is a boorish Russian man, Ljoha, who makes the first impression the first night of the trip by getting black out drunk and trashing their shared compartment. Slowly though their icy relationship thaws into something more warm between these two lonely souls.

Comparisons to Before Sunrise are easy to make for this film as it is a film of two people mostly confined to each other just talking and growing attracted to each other. Except of course it mostly takes place on the train, Murmansk certainly isn’t as nice a city as Vienna, and there was definitely not an immediate spark of attraction between the two characters. But the influence is pretty obvious. I thought it was a pretty good enemies to lovers film, a lot funnier than I expected it would be with a lot of subtle Finnish humour (the ending has a very good punchline from a joke set up early on), and good commentary on Finnish-Russian relations and how Finns stereotype and perceive their Russian neighbours. Both leads are excellent in their roles and help make the relationship believable – I would have thought that first impression would be impossible to overcome in real life, but I bought it here based on the writing and acting. Perhaps a little slight, but very enjoyable and I can’t help but support Finnish film when its actually quality work.

 

[Pink Mist]

Decision to Leave (2022) Directed by Park Chan-wook 8B

A detective (Park Hae-il) investigates the suspected murder of a man who appears to have been pushed off a cliff. One of the leading suspects is the guy’s beautiful wife (Wei Tang), a Chinese born South Korean citizen who doesn’t speak Korean very well. The detective, seemingly happily married, first becomes curious about her, then intrigued, than eventually smitten. She as well appears to have growing feelings for him. The problem is he can’t quite get it through his head that she’s not actually guilty of murdering her husband. Decision to Leave is a super-stylish neo-noir with strong echoes of some classics such as Vertigo, Body Heat and Laura, a film awash in both criminal and romantic uncertaintly. The supremely gifted Park is a technical genius at editing film and his approach is often jazzy and spontaneous. So the story isn’t quite told conventionally and certainly feels far more creatively disorienting than the usual police procedural with romantic overtones. The movie has a serpentine, seductive quality as well as a sense of playfulness and humour that, expertly combined, are very appealing. As the possible femme fatale, Wei Tang gives a complex, vulnerable, multi-tiered performance that keeps the detective guessing and the audience, too,. The final scenes are a masterclass in atmosphere and ambiguity.

subtitles


Best of '22

1) Hit the Road, P. Panahi, Iran
2) Decision to Leave, Park, South Korea
3) Official Competition, Cohn and Duprat, France
4) Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kwan and Scheinert, US
5) Mad God, Tippett, US
6) Apples, Nikou, Greece
7) Everything Went Fine, Ozun, France
8) Navalny, Roher, US (documentary)
9) Mr Kaufmann and His Class, Speth, Germany (documentary)
10) Turning Red, Shi, US

Oof, I disagree pretty heavily with this review. Watched it tonight and was really disappointed in it, found it far overwritten and tediously bloated; a poor knockoff of those films you list. I'll put up a review tomorrow

 

[kihei]

Oof, I disagree pretty heavily with this review. Watched it tonight and was really disappointed in it, found it far overwritten and tediously bloated; a poor knockoff of those films you list. I'll put up a review tomorrow

I really liked the way the ambiguity was structured, that it ended up being more a love story than a murder mystery (ala those films I listed, come to think of it). Look forward to your review, though.

 

[kihei]

No Bears (2022) Directed by Jafir Panahi 8C

Basically this is a brilliantly structured movie and very watchable. But it is also complicated because Panahi, newly arrested by Iran's morality police shortly after the completion of this work, is finding a means to say so many important things about Iran, movie making, superstition, how cameras can lie, what the absence of bears means, the need for protest, and about his position as being a criminal in his society because he is a humanist. All of this is done slyly--a careless censor might dislike the work on general principles but never get any of these points.

The movie starts with Panahi, living in a small village in deeply conservative, rural Iran, directing a movie via computer link that is being shot in Tehran. What makes everybody nervous is that this small village is right by the Turkish border--will he bolt and leave the country? Not in his cards, but the authorities don't know that. For the longest time the movie being made in Tehran seems a throwaway as the film concentrates on his presence circumstance. He is a guest of the sherrif of the village, but the rest of the villagers are suspicious of him.. Eventually he gets embroiled in a local controversy centering on whether he has taken a picture of a couple who are supposed to get married. However, there is another suitor involved but the archaic, superstitious village tradition forbids him from marrying the girl, who loves him as well. Then the Tehran narrative heats up again as the documentary (or is it fiction?) that he is shooting suddenly falls apart because what is supposed to be going on, a couple escaping Iran, really isn't going on. There will be no escape for either couple. The now parallel stories, two couples trying to flee oppressive regimes, start having a high relevance to one another. Meanwhile could all this just be a metaphor, a way of Panahi signaling how crazy and how desperate his situation is in a country that is so screwed up? Probably, that, too. No Bears is one impressive tour-de-force.

subtitles


Best of '22

1) Hit the Road, P. Panahi, Iran
2) Decision to Leave, Park, South Korea
3) No Bears, J. Panahi, Iran
4) The Eternal Daughter, Hogg, UK
5) Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kwan and Scheinert, US
6) Official Competition, Cohn and Duprat, France
7) Mad God, Tippett, US
8) Holy Spider, Abbasi, Denmark
9) Apples, Nikou, Greece
10) Everything Went Fine, Ozun, France