Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Mid-Spring Edition. Happy Beltane!

[silkyjohnson50]

Not a movie, but I watched the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects starring Amy Adams the past few days. A very dark, slow burn of a show. Some of the flashbacks/dreams sequences were overused and it felt a bit stretched out at times, but I’d still strongly recommend it.

Between this and Little Women, Eliza Scalen has shown a lot of promise and will give me enough reason to catch the upcoming M. Night movie that’s about to be out.

 

[OzzyFan]

Ruthless People
2.85 out of 4stars

"Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) hates his wife, Barbara (Bette Midler), so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exchange for her life."
A very funny R-rated dark comedy with excellent acting choices amongst it's absurdist twist and turns. From some of the people that created Airplane! and Naked Gun, to give you an idea of the humor style.

Filth
2.70 out of 4stars

"A corrupt, junkie cop with bipolar disorder attempts to manipulate his way through a promotion while also fighting his own inner demons."
A non-stop frantic dark comedy drama that is worthy of seeing for McAvoy's charismatically rangy and unhinged performance alone. The movie isn't perfect, a couple later twists don't hit as hard as they are meant to imo, and I don't feel the movie comes full circle as much as it wants or needs to, but McAvoy delivers an oscar nomination worthy turn that makes up for all that.


F9: The Fast Saga
2.05 out of 4stars

"Cipher enlists the help of Jakob, Dom's younger brother to take revenge on Dom and his team."
Super Magnets, Plane Catching Cars, and Rocket Powered Fieros oh my! This expensive popcorn spectacle was altogether a let down. Not nearly as fun or funny or visually inventive(imo) as the previous couple fast movies. Although a couple 3rd wall winks/breaks were a nice touch.

Between this and Little Women, Eliza Scalen has shown a lot of promise and will give me enough reason to catch the upcoming M. Night movie that’s about to be out.

It's all well cast, MacKenzie/Krieps/Bernal are all above average actors and the rest of the cast is at least solid from what I know. That and the premise is intriguing, even if the twist may be a let down. lol

 

[Pink Mist]

The Mauritanian (2021) directed by Kevin MacDonald

Two months after 9/11, Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim) was attending a wedding in Mauritania when the government authorities stopped by to question him at the United States’ request due to his connections to al-Qaeda (his cousin was spiritual advisor to bin Ladin and Slahi had taken a phone call from him his cousin from bin Laden's phone). Since he believed he had nothing to hide he agreed to go with the authorities to be questioned. Next thing he knows he’s transported from CIA black site to black site and eventually imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for the next 14 years without charge or trial. Under 70 days of prolonged psychological, sexual, and physical torture he confessions to basically doing every terrorist plot against the United States. Eventually, a New Mexico human rights lawyer (Jodie Foster) gets word of his situation and launches a habeas corpus challenge in his defense. More or less a run of the mill legal procedural/thriller carried by an excellent performance from Rahim. The film doesn’t really escape from the trappings of the formula and doesn’t really differentiate itself from other similar political legal dramas that have been released lately (The Report, Official Secrets etc), aside from an extended torture scene that is well done until it returns to a procedural drama. Benedict Cumberbatch is also in it as the state’s prosecutor and he has an absolutely terrible Virginian accent.

 

[Osprey]

The Ice Road (2021) - 4/10 (Disliked it)

After a mine explosion in Manitoba, a trucker (Liam Neeson) is recruited to haul heavy rescue equipment across frozen lakes in April to reach the trapped miners before their air runs out. If you've ever seen the show Ice Road Truckers, it's like that crossed with The Wages of Fear. Take that great combination, add in Liam Neeson and you can't go wrong, right? Where do I begin? The script and dialogue are stupidly bad. Not much makes sense and it's one of the most predictable movies that I've seen... and I don't just mean in the way that you say "of course" when something happens. You can literally predict what's going to happen not just 10 seconds later, but half an hour later. Unlike the aforementioned inspirations, nature and time aren't the real enemies here. Man is, because Neeson needs someone to punch and we need people to hate, or so the writer thought. Apparently, The Wages of Fear and the dangers of ice road trucking weren't exciting enough, so conspiracies and betrayals were thrown in to spice things up. Finally, the CGI that many of the action sequences rely on is pretty bad. On the bright side, aside from the bad CGI, it's a pretty film to look at. The snowy white vistas of Manitoba show off well and the roads look like they're straight out of Ice Road Truckers. With the cold and technical difficulties, it must've been a challenging shoot. Also, Laurence Fishburne elevates the film slightly whenever he's on screen. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a big role. Finally, the last 15 minutes actually gave me a little of what I was hoping that the whole film would be like. It couldn't make up for the hour and a half before it, but it was enough for me to boost my score. Overall, though, the film was a disappointment, especially because I was so looking forward to it. If you like Neeson and could use a cold movie during this Summer heat, you might watch it for free, but don't expect much. It's available on Netflix in the US and Prime Video in some other countries, but seemingly requires rental in Canada.

 

[Pink Mist]

The Dybbuk [דער דיבוק / Der Dibuk] (1937) directed by Michał Waszyński

In a Polish shtetl, two young friends make a pact to marry off their unborn children if one is a boy and the other is a girl. On the day of their children’s birth, a daughter is born and a son is born, however the son’s father dies before he can see his child. When grown, the daughter’s father, now wealthy, does not respect the pact and accepts a dowry from a well off suitor for his daughter leaving the son, who is poor, to call upon Satan to help him win the daughter’s hand in marriage. He is struck dead by Satan and turned into a dybbuk, a restless spirit in Jewish mythology, who possess the daughter on her marriage day.

Shot in Poland and in entirely in Yiddish, this film is considered to be one of the finest films in the brief Golden Age of Yiddish Cinema, and it is truly remarkable that this film exists at all considering what would happen to Poland’s Jewish population in the Holocaust during this time and that the overwhelming majority of Jews murdered in the Holocaust were Yiddish speakers, so now Yiddish is a minority language in the Jewish population (prior to the Holocaust 11-13 million of the world’s 17 million Jewish people spoke Yiddish). Truly remarkable that this film has survived and is available to be watched.

But it is not an easy watch. If I'm rating it on the Kihei accessibility scale, it would probably be rated a C or a D. The film is very stagy (which makes some sense as it was originally a seminal theatre play in Yiddish theatre) though it was clearly influenced by German Expressionism (Waszyński was once an assistant director to F.W. Murnau), especially when the wedding scenes take place and it turns to a light horror film complete with an exorcism, but the film takes some time to get there with some pacing issues and it certainly is more of a drama film than a fantasy/horror film. But the more difficult aspect of this film is that it is a film clearly made for the Polish Yiddish speaking population made for by the Polish Yiddish speaking population and I am not Polish or a Yiddish speaker, let alone Jewish or even religious at all. So, a lot of the Hasidic mythology and references to Jewish scripture went way over my head. But I would recommend it, with these reservations in mind, to any lover of world cinema as I think it has an important place in cinema’s history.

It’s hard not to think about the fate of the actors and crew of the film in terms of what happened to them in the Holocaust. A cursory search after watching the film tells me the director survived (escaping to Russia and becoming a theatre director there during the war and then when Russia was invaded joined the Polish army to fight in Egypt and Italy), as did the lead actors Leon Liebgold and Lili Liliana who escaped in time to the United States, but many of the actors were not so fortunate.

For those interested in watching it, Kino Lorber did an adequate job restoring it recently and its on Kanopy for free for those who has access to Kanopy through their library; there's also a version on YouTube but it is poor quality and parts of it is not even subtitled in English so I'm not going to link it.

 

[Pink Mist]

The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) directed by Sidney Franklin

Not to be confused with The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957) also directed by Sidney Franklin in a line by line, shot by shot remake of his own film except in colour. The 1934 film (and I suppose also the 1957 film) depicts the real life relationship between poets Elizabeth Barrett (Norma Shearer) and Robert Browning (Fredric March) who began their love over correspondence while Barrett was bedridden for years with a mysterious illness and confined to the home by her oppressive and slightly incestuous father (Charles Laughton). The film was nominated for an Oscar in 1934 but has kind of been forgotten today, though it is easy to see why as it is one of those big stagy melodramas that aren’t really in vogue for contemporary audiences. However, the film has a really great performances by Shearer, one of the top actresses of the ‘30s. Laughton basically plays a cartoon villain as her father, extremely over the top as a stone cold patriarch of the family (even threatening to murder Barrett’s dog Flush when she runs off with Browning). Decent but not great film with an all-star 1930s Hollywood cast.

 

[kihei]

Daddy Nostalgia (1990) Bertrand Tavernier 8B

Daddy Nostalgia is a melancholy film about family and regrets. I’ve always liked this film since the first time I saw it upon its release, mainly because of Dirk Bogarde’s fine performance as the father, his last role actually. But this is one of those films that the older I get, the better it gets it. Set on the beautiful Cote d’Azur, Caroline (Jane Birkin) comes home to visit her parents. Tony (Dirk Bogarde), her father, is slowly dying of a heart ailment, and the two try to reconnect after all these years. Trouble is, Tony was a rather distant, hands-off father, and there are some sad memories on Caroline’s part that have never been fully resolved. As well, Caroline has an edgy relationship with her over-protective, fuss-budget Mom, Miche. Shifting from French to English, the trio of characters try to talk out their problems, but it is hard to escape set patterns of behaviour. A great strength of the movie is its naturalness—all these deep feelings seem wholly believable and no less important because they are ordinary. There is a foundation of love in the family, but that doesn’t mean that their lives are perfect or that hurt hasn’t lingered.

When I was younger, I identified more with Jane Birkin’s character Caroline; I felt sympathy for her plight having to deal with aging parents. Now, much older, I find, funnily enough, that I am empathizing with the parents’ point of view more and more. Daddy Nostalgia is one of those movies that you really have to age into. I don’t think one has to do this with truly great movies—Children of Paradise; Jules and Jim; Pather Panchali; et al; they are great films seeing them at any age—but with other, sometimes excellent films, it really helps if you and your life have been around the block a few times, movies like Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage; Ozu’s Floating Weeds; Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice, and so on. I guess this puts a slightly different spin on the notion of “age appropriate” movies. It’s not that you can’t enjoy these movies when you are young; it just means you will get a lot more out of them when you are older.

mix of subtitles and English

Criterion Channel

 

[Chili]

The Big Trail-1930

Impressive western of a pioneer wagon train trek headed northwest facing all kinds of perils. Realistically done on a large scale (15 locations, 20k extras). An unknown Marion Morrison had his name changed for the film and the career of John Wayne was launched. Thought he's very good in the film, although it flopped at the time. Interesting that he never did change his name legally to John Wayne. Some awesome settings. Filmed in a early widescreen format called 'Grandeur'. The director Raoul Walsh's father knew Sitting Bull, which probably influenced the westerns he made. Was actually filmed in 3 other languages at the same time with different casts, same director (in the early days of sound, before looping ). I watched Cimarron (1931 Academy Award) a while ago and believe The Big Trail holds up better. Enjoyed it.

Edit: Missed one...was filmed in four other languages at the same time: Spanish, French, German and Italian.

 

[Osprey]

The Big Trail-1930

Impressive western of a pioneer wagon train trek headed northwest facing all kinds of perils. Realistically done on a large scale (15 locations, 20k extras). An unknown Marion Morrison had his name changed for the film and the career of John Wayne was launched. Thought he's very good in the film, although it flopped at the time. Interesting that he never did change his name legally to John Wayne. Some awesome settings. Filmed in a early widescreen format called 'Grandeur'. The director Raoul Walsh's father knew Sitting Bull, which probably influenced the westerns he made. Was actually filmed in 3 other languages at the same time with different casts, same director (in the early days of sound, before looping ). I watched Cimarron (1931 Academy Award) a while ago and believe The Big Trail holds up better. Enjoyed it.

I'm watching it now. I'm in awe of the widescreen aspect ratio. I always thought that The Robe was the first widescreen movie. I was off by only... two whole decades. Apparently, this was the last of only a few films made in the format, since theaters had already sunk lots of money into retrofitting to accommodate sound and a little thing called the Great Depression had recently complicated things further. The technology isn't disappear, though. 23 years later, The Robe reportedly used the same Fox Grandeur lenses. Neat.

Full movie:

 

[Pink Mist]

The Fixer [Fixeur] (2016) directed by Adrian Sitaru

Radu (Tudor Istodor) is a local fixer, translator, and journalist intern for the Romania bureau of a French television station. He has potentially found his first big break in journalism, a chance to interview an underage prostitute and victim of a human trafficking ring who has been repatriated back to Romania from Paris. However, in order to set up the interview for a more senior journalist Radu must pull many strings and get put into a touchy ethical situation. Extremely well directed, full of great long takes, and well acted with life like characters. The film is full of social critique of Romanian society paired with some pitch-black dark humour. So basically, your prototypical Romanian New Wave film. Great commentary on journalism ethics, in particular the handling of vulnerable subjects. This film has been on my radar for a very long time, and it is a film that is about going to great lengths to track down a story, so it was only fitting that I had to go to great lengths to track down and watch this film.

 

[Osprey]

The Stuff (Cohen, 1985) - It's supposed to be a horror comedy, but it's a lot more than that. Part body horror, part invasion sci-fi à la Body Snatchers, part paranoid thriller - none of these things really work, but you still can't look away or turn it off. The only real problem is the "comedy" part (especially the militia), which ruins an otherwise very enjoyable mixture. It's a cautionary tale about the rotting insidious effects of consumerism, modeled on its cousin cautionary tales against the coming communists (a filiation the movie acknowledges). Certainly not a good film, but a pretty fun b-movie, signed by one of my favorite b-directors. 3.5/10 - dropped a whole point because of the militia's "comedy" angle.

IMDB summary: A delicious, mysterious goo that oozes from the earth is marketed as the newest dessert sensation, but the tasty treat rots more than teeth when zombie-like snackers who only want to consume more of the strange substance at any cost begin infesting the world.

I just finished this. What a strange movie. It's not funny, it's not horrific, it's not intelligent, the acting is bad, the effects are bad, it loses steam as it goes on and I feel dumber for having watched it... but I sort of liked it. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the 80s nostalgia, the silly concept or that it doesn't take itself seriously (the fact that it has a character named Chocolate Chip Charlie is a testament to that). It's a pretty bad movie, but I kept watching. I guess that I couldn't get enough of The Stuff.

 

[TD Charlie]

Funny games 8.3/10

I had to test the club another way

 

[member 51464]

Zola 5/10 - I really thought there would be more to it. It covers up a thin script with lots of annoying social media references and soundtrack additions and...meh. There was only maybe one moment of true tension in the entire film. It was just rather forgettable. Take a pass, I say.

 

[Osprey]

Wait Until Dark (1967) - 8/10 (Loved it)

When an innocent, blind housewife (Audrey Hepburn) comes into possession of a doll being used to smuggle heroin, a trio of criminals (Richard Crenna, Alan Arkin, Jack Weston) lie and ingratiate themselves to her to learn where it is. It's a suspense thriller that's based on a play and takes place almost entirely in an apartment. It reminded me of Rear Window in that regard and because the protagonist is handicapped. Hepburn received her fifth Oscar nomination for Best Actress for the role and I could see why. She makes for a convincing blind woman, never looking characters in the eye and feeling her way around and stumbling into things constantly. If I didn't know better, I might've guessed that she was actually blind. She sells her character's vulnerability and the film really exploits it for suspense. There's a tension that runs through the whole film as the criminals pretend to be helping her when they really want something out of her. It boils the blood a little to witness them lying to her face with smirks on theirs, taking her for a fool because she's blind, but she's not quite as foolish as they assume. It all culminates in a really nail-biting climax. I'm surprised that it took me this long to discover it. If you like classic suspense films and have been sleeping on this gem, as I was, it's on HBO Max.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Someone watch The Tomorrow War and tell me if it's passable.

edit: It has a 7.0 on imdb that's gold for this type of movie I was fully expecting it to be in the 5.0 - 6.3 range.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Funny games 8.3/10

Just thinking about this movie make my blood boil (and not in a good way). I suppose that was the intention though.

 

[Pink Mist]

Awaara (1951) directed by Raj Kapoor

When a poor thief (Raj Kapoor) is accused of attempting to murder a judge (Prithviraj Kapoor), his lawyer (Nargis) reveals how the three of their lives are completely intertwined with the revelation that the thief is actually the judge’s son who was cruelly abandoned along with his mother to a life of poverty after the judge was ashamed when his pregnant wife was kidnapped by bandits. A seminal film in Bollywood which stars two of the biggest actors in Bollywood history with Raj Kapoor (who is considered the Indian Charlie Chaplin) and Nargis who have a dynamic chemistry with each other (in part probably because they had a real-life affair going on at the time). The story is complicated and dense - and perhaps this comparison comes to mind because I’m currently reading Dickens – but it feels Dickensian with its concern for the plight of the poor and how social and economic conditions breeds crime and social delinquency rather than criminality being a trait someone is born with. That is if a Charles Dickens novel also included some enjoyable song and dance numbers.

With its socialist message it's no surprise that this anti-capitalist courtroom musical was a massive hit in the Soviet Union and in China, and in fact was one of Chairman Mao’s favourite films. While I wouldn’t say it's my favourite movie, I share Mao’s sentiment that it is an extremely good and incredibly entertaining film – I was never bored during its two and a half hour plus runtime.

 

[kihei]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Really want to pick this movie up now.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Awaara (1951) directed by Raj Kapoor

When a poor thief (Raj Kapoor) is accused of attempting to murder a judge (Prithviraj Kapoor), his lawyer (Nargis) reveals how the three of their lives are completely intertwined with the revelation that the thief is actually the judge’s son who was cruelly abandoned along with his mother to a life of poverty after the judge was ashamed when his pregnant wife was kidnapped by bandits. A seminal film in Bollywood which stars two of the biggest actors in Bollywood history with Raj Kapoor (who is considered the Indian Charlie Chaplin) and Nargis who have a dynamic chemistry with each other (in part probably because they had a real-life affair going on at the time). The story is complicated and dense - and perhaps this comparison comes to mind because I’m currently reading Dickens – but it feels Dickensian with its concern for the plight of the poor and how social and economic conditions breeds crime and social delinquency rather than criminality being a trait someone is born with. That is if a Charles Dickens novel also included some enjoyable song and dance numbers.

With its socialist message it's no surprise that this anti-capitalist courtroom musical was a massive hit in the Soviet Union and in China, and in fact was one of Chairman Mao’s favourite films. While I wouldn’t say it's my favourite movie, I share Mao’s sentiment that it is an extremely good and incredibly entertaining film – I was never bored during its two and a half hour plus runtime.

Nothing like the taste of murderous despots to tickle one's artistic fancy.

 

[Pink Mist]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Really want to pick this movie up now.

It was on the criterion channel until June 30th now removed unfortunately, but it's also on YouTube

 

[Pink Mist]

Nothing like the taste of murderous despots to tickle one's artistic fancy.

Unironically would be curious to see Mao's (or any other leader's) top 10 film list. Mao was actually supposed to be a pretty big film buff

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Unironically would be curious to see Mao's (or any other leader's) top 10 film list. Mao was actually supposed to be a pretty big film buff

The one thing that would make me curious is that unlike Western leaders, I have zero doubts that the top-10 movie list of a dictator wouldn't be curated by anybody else. Somebody'd probably get 187'd if they tried.

 

[Osprey]

I have as much interest in Mao's favorite films as I do in Hitler's favorite artists, Jeffrey Dahmer's recommended reading list and Bill Cosby-approved date movies.

 

[kihei]

Unironically would be curious to see Mao's (or any other leader's) top 10 film list. Mao was actually supposed to be a pretty big film buff

Actually the guy whose all-time best list I would like to see is Obama. He came up with some fine best-of-year rankings during his presidency.

 

[Pink Mist]

Actually the guy whose all-time best list I would like to see is Obama. He came up with some fine best-of-year rankings during his presidency.

As @Spring in Fialta hints at, I'm not sure how much Obama's list is curated by others (maybe it's not at all, who knows, but I'm a little cynical. I don't doubt he's a big film fan though) but yeah this is a very good list for example. And at the very least he ( and/or his PR team) gave some nods to some surprising but well deserving films like Ash is Purest White and Transit

Basically what I want to see is Obama to be put in the Criterion closet and then see what he pulls from the shelf