Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Movie-mber Edition

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

How did you like Joaquin Phoenix?

I love him in pretty much everything. He's great here again.

 

[Langdon Alger]

I love him in pretty much everything. He's great here again.

Did you see the Master?

 

[kihei]

Faces (1968) Directed by John Cassavetes 8B

Director John Cassavetes at his rawest, Faces, a movie about adulterous, unhappy suburbanites, could have been subtitled “Middle-Class White People Behaving Really Badly.” With its pointless carousing, its toxic mix of alcohol, cigarettes and bad faith, and its macho posturing, Faces can be viewed as an evisceration of the immediate post-war generation that found that materialism and a house in the suburbs wasn’t enough to fill the void that their lives had become. Cassavetes has an approach to film making all his own. He uses a lot of hand-held camera work, odd camera angles and long takes. His films seem unscripted, as though his ensemble of actors is making it up as they go along, which indeed they might be. The result is often raucous, obnoxious, chaotic, and…revealing. Sometimes Cassavetes’ movies are punctuated by forced laughter as actors fill in the silence while trying to think of their next lines. Many people (my partner, for one) hate this method. Given my track record in regard to directors who engage in wretched excess, one would think I would be among the naysayers. However, Cassavetes is my favourite American director. His approach is as high risk as a tightrope walker without a net, but when it works, his characters acquire a depth and realism that can lead to genuine insights about what is going on inside their confused heads. Faces ain’t pretty, but it feels real.

Criterion Channel

 

[GordieGallant]

Hillbilly Elegy. True story of a poor family struggling to keep things together with a drug addicted mother (Amy Adams) who has lost hope. Glenn Close is great as the grandmother who holds things together for her grandchildren. Not getting good reviews from the PC crowd. Like all Ron Howard's movies is very well made.

 

[Pink Mist]

The Heiress (1949) - 7/10

A shy rich heiress gets fed up as she gets screwed around with and eventually ends up turning down an actor named Montgomery . It's melodramatic and anticlimatic and predictable but I love it.

Funny you mention this because I just watched Washington Square last night, which like The Heiress is an adaption of Henry James' novel Washington Square. I haven't read the novel or seen The Heiress, but I've heard The Heiress is the better film. In Washington Square, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the central character as far too shy and awkward, so the premise of whether or not this charming handsome man is in it for her money or genuinely interested in her doesn't really work.

 

[kihei]

Hillbilly Elegy (2020) Directed by Ron Howard 4A

All melodrama all the time, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of J. D, a struggling Yale law student who is forced to interrupt his job interviews to go back to Kentucky and look after his mother from hell. Director Ron Howard has no feel for this material at all which results in an emotionally overwrought slog by the midway point. Any Adams plays the out-of-control mom at full throttle, but she can’t really be blamed because she is just stuck with a very blunt script. I’m sure the book that this movie is based on didn’t intend J.D.’s story to be “how I overcame my white trash family to become a success at Yale,” but that was the vibe which I got from the movie. I have been claiming for years that Ron Howard, while undoubtedly a nice guy, is a hack director, as shallow as they come. Hillbilly Elegy adds more heft to that argument as far as I’m concerned.

Netflix

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Hillbilly Elegy (2020) Directed by Ron Howard 4A

I’m sure the book that this movie is based on didn’t intend J.D.’s story to be “how I overcame my white trash family to become a success at Yale,” but that was the vibe which I got from the movie.

This is, funny enough, 100% the book it's based on.

There's certainly a lot that's been debated about the book (politically, sociologically) in the last 4-5 years, but from a purely dramatic assessment standpoint, I thought this comment was right on:

 

[Franck]

I don't think I've read a book in recent years that was less suited to being turned into a Hollywood film than Hillbilly Elegy.

As for whether Ron Howard is a hack, he's certainly very uneven but I'm not sure hack is the word I'd use to describe the director of Rush and Apollo 13.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Did you see the Master?

Didn't care that much for the film, but both actors are great in it.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

The Sword of Doom. What if a samurai, but evil? This was RAD. Rather than the traditional, noble, well-worn samurai tale, here we follow an absolutely vacant psychopath as he cuts his way through people (innocent and otherwise). Great wild-eyed but cold-blooded performance from Tatsuya Nakadai who plays it almost like a child cruelly pulling legs and wings off bugs. The final 10-15 minutes are thrilling and feel like they've been echoed in future movies (Oldboy immediately came to mind).

 

[GordieGallant]

Hillbilly Elegy (2020) Directed by Ron Howard 4A

All melodrama all the time, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of J. D, a struggling Yale law student who is forced to interrupt his job interviews to go back to Kentucky and look after his mother from hell. Director Ron Howard has no feel for this material at all which results in an emotionally overwrought slog by the midway point. Any Adams plays the out-of-control mom at full throttle, but she can’t really be blamed because she is just stuck with a very blunt script. I’m sure the book that this movie is based on didn’t intend J.D.’s story to be “how I overcame my white trash family to become a success at Yale,” but that was the vibe which I got from the movie. I have been claiming for years that Ron Howard, while undoubtedly a nice guy, is a hack director, as shallow as they come. Hillbilly Elegy adds more heft to that argument as far as I’m concerned.

Netflix

Let me get this straight. So being poor makes you white trash?

 

[kihei]

This is, funny enough, 100% the book it's based on.

There's certainly a lot that's been debated about the book (politically, sociologically) in the last 4-5 years, but from a purely dramatic assessment standpoint, I thought this comment was right on:

Man, that is cold.

Just got done reading a few varied responses to the book, and, you are absolutely right. What the f*** attracted seemingly clueless Ron Howard to this project, I wonder? I wouldn't have thought him much of a fan of the Ayn Rand approach to family dynamics, but who knows?

Haven't and don't intend to research the sociological angle except to say I don't think there is much of a sociological angle to worry about. What we have in Hillbilly Elegy is standard issue Hollywood dysfunctional family who in this instance just happen to be dropped down in the hill country of Kentucky. The same basic family is in Oklahoma (August: Osage County), in Massachusetts (The Fighter), in Coney Island (Requiem for a Dream), and so on. None of those movies are seriously or even frivolously sociological. In Hillbilly Elegy, hillbilly culture is what we see out the window of a car as it drives quickly by the townspeople. Howard pays no more heed to it than that.

A few good movies set in rustic backwaters that actually pay attention to local culture:

October Sky--about a kid who wants to be a rocket scientist despite his father's interference
Get Low--about a hermit planning his own funeral
Wanda--about an adrift woman with few options
Winter Bone--about a young woman who tries to find her father and keep her family from being scattered to the winds

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Just watched The French Connection II. Not as good as the first movie but I enjoyed the fish out of water story of Popeye Doyle running amok in Marseilles. 7/10.

 

[kihei]

Let me get this straight. So being poor makes you white trash?

That's the attitude that J.D. has about his family who seem disposable to him if he can move up the ladder.

 

[GordieGallant]

That's the attitude that J.D. seems to have about his family who seem disposable to him if he can move up the ladder.

No that came from you.

 

[kihei]

No that came from you.

Take a deep breath.

 

[Osprey]

The Sword of Doom. What if a samurai, but evil? This was RAD. Rather than the traditional, noble, well-worn samurai tale, here we follow an absolutely vacant psychopath as he cuts his way through people (innocent and otherwise). Great wild-eyed but cold-blooded performance from Tatsuya Nakadai who plays it almost like a child cruelly pulling legs and wings off bugs. The final 10-15 minutes are thrilling and feel like they've been echoed in future movies (Oldboy immediately came to mind).

If I could, I'd give two likes: one for the review and one for saying "RAD." I saw it years ago and quite enjoyed most of it for how different it is, as you pointed out, but remember being disappointed in the abrupt ending. Apparently, it was meant to be the first part of a trilogy that never happened, so that explains that and makes it more understandable. I should probably watch it again with that in mind this time.

 

[Franck]

Allied (2016) - UK/US - Dir. Robert Zemeckis

"We are married, why would we laugh?"

A Canadian intelligence officer (Brad Pitt) and a French Resistance fighter (Marion Cotillard) fall in love while posing as a married couple in World War II Casablanca, back in England a revelation puts both their lives and their love in danger.
The film is well-executed from a technical standpoint, the scenery is excellent, the wardrobe is gorgeous, and the cinematography, lighting and camera work are all top class, this is a film that looks great. Sadly this is not a story that can get by on the visuals, this is a film that demands a lot of its lead actors and unfortunately both Pitt and Cotillard end up coming short. The two actors appear stiff and uncomfortable in their roles while their on-screen romance lacks chemistry and offers neither the passion nor the thrill that the premise would suggest. Watching pretty people in pretty clothes move through pretty scenery is never boring, but with a film that both could and should have offered more it is disappointing.

2.5/5

 

[nameless1]

Faces (1968) Directed by John Cassavetes 8B

Director John Cassavetes at his rawest, Faces, a movie about adulterous, unhappy suburbanites, could have been subtitled “Middle-Class White People Behaving Really Badly.” With its pointless carousing, its toxic mix of alcohol, cigarettes and bad faith, and its macho posturing, Faces can be viewed as an evisceration of the immediate post-war generation that found that materialism and a house in the suburbs wasn’t enough to fill the void that their lives had become. Cassavetes has an approach to film making all his own. He uses a lot of hand-held camera work, odd camera angles and long takes. His films seem unscripted, as though his ensemble of actors is making it up as they go along, which indeed they might be. The result is often raucous, obnoxious, chaotic, and…revealing. Sometimes Cassavetes’ movies are punctuated by forced laughter as actors fill in the silence while trying to think of their next lines. Many people (my partner, for one) hate this method. Given my track record in regard to directors who engage in wretched excess, one would think I would be among the naysayers. However, Cassavetes is my favourite American director. His approach is as high risk as a tightrope walker without a net, but when it works, his characters acquire a depth and realism that can lead to genuine insights about what is going on inside their confused heads. Faces ain’t pretty, but it feels real.

Criterion Channel

Out of all the Cassavetes works prior to The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, I actually enjoy his first three the most. If I have to rank them, I would go with Shadows, Husbands, and then Faces. Like you wrote, I love the realness of them, but unfortunately, the realism seems to wane as his budget increases.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Moon

with various Sam Rockwells, and the voice of Kevin Spacey.

Near future. Humanity has solved the energy crisis by setting up He3 mining on the far side of the moon, and the whole process runs so efficiently it only needs one single person to mind the store for the entire planet. That person is Sam Bell (Rockwell), who's now two weeks shy from the end of his 3-year contract and is raring to get back to Earth. His unkempt beard and nervous cabin fever energy are familiar to anyone who's spent much time in covid lockdown this year (as I happen to be doing again right now...@#!!), and the allure of running on a treadmill, making balsa wood models and talking to his potted plants is wearing thin. Sam's also not doing too well physically, and one day when he's out in the lunar rover to repair a harvester, he has a hallucination and crashes. He wakes up back on base, feeling curiously better. The computer's being vague about everything, and his suspicions grow. Soon, he's back out at the crash site to find...himself. Turns out Sam is a clone, the latest in a line who apparently wear out every three years and have to be replaced with a fresh version who has all the requisite built-in memories to get the job done and sigh wistfully at the idea of coming back to his wife and daughter. But uh-oh. The company's sent up a "rescue" ship to repair the harvester...and they're probably not going to like multiple Sam Bells running around. What to do...

Interesting concept, and great performances by Sam Rockwell as the various clones trying to come to grips with their situation. There are some logical lapses in their plan and the whole concept, but it's not a bad ride as you're going through it. A little slow in places, but ultimately an okayish effort if you like sci-fi.

The base computer that controls various contraptions running on rails in the ceiling and is the only other major character in the film speaks in the voice of Kevin Spacey. That did not age well.

On Prime.

Alexa...Amazon is charging *how* much for shipping?!

 

[Osprey]

Bringing Up Baby (1938) - 8/10 (Loved it)

A nerdy, honest and easily exasperated paleontologist (Cary Grant) can't get away from a ditzy, unprincipled and free spirited stranger (Katharine Hepburn) who brings nothing but trouble... and a pet leopard named Baby. Though considered one of the best examples of a screwball romantic comedy, the story features hardly any romance, but it's obvious that these two characters are total opposites and, thus, oddly made for each other. Grant is great as the mild-mannered scientist who just wants to do the right and simple thing, but repeatedly gets interrupted, overruled and railroaded into something complicated, illogical and silly (like wearing a woman's nightgown). This might be the one time, however, when he's not the center of attention. Hepburn matches him and even often wrestles the spotlight away from him. For someone who wasn't comfortable with comedy, her timing is terrific, which affirms my belief that the best actors are versatile. I don't know if it was intended in the script or if it was Hepburn making the character her own, but I got a bit of a sense that, just maybe, her character isn't as clueless and scatterbrained as she appears, that it may be largely an act to get her man. There's a great scene near the end that supports this, and though several also contradict it, it's a neat thought. Anyways, this is just a fun movie, especially if you like plots based on misunderstandings or comedies about opposites attracting. It's available on YouTube.

 

[kihei]

The Young Lions (1958) Directed by Edward Dmytryk 3A

At 2 hours and 47 minutes, The Young Lions has got to be the longest, dullest war movie ever made. We follow four not particularly interesting characters around, two Germans and two Americans. The movie bounces back and forth between France and the States as these guys semi-develop fakey story lines. There is about two minutes of combat footage in the entire movie which doesn’t appear to be about anything at all except for the contrived situations that these guys get into—one is a coward (the most demanding role stars the weakest actor of the lot, Dean Martin); one is a Jew who is bullied by his fellow soldiers; one is a by-the-book German officer; and one is a German soldier who grows disillusioned with the Nazis. Despite the excessive length, what we learn about these guys in the first five minutes after we meet them is all we ever get to know about them. Too bad, because not counting the crooner, The Young Lions has a great cast: Marlon Brando, Maximillian Schell, and Montgomery Clift. However, none of them can overcome the script that they are saddled with. Brando, short-cropped blonde hair and Bavarian accent, looks and sounds interesting but it is a pretty shallow performance.

YouTube

 

[Pink Mist]

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) directed by Joss Whedon

Sequel to The Avengers and the ten films that preceded it in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers: Age of Ultron sees the team of superheroes reunite again to face off against the threat of an artificial intelligent planning to destroy humanity. Age of Ultron is interesting a couple of compelling ideas, such as the potential threat of AI, American exceptionalism, and the security dilemma of superheroes imposing peace and maintaining a status quo which only increases tensions. However, it is overstuffed with these ideas and with too many characters that none of it really gets any chance to breath. There are way too many characters in this film and the film attempts to have each of them get their chance in the spotlight, but it just makes the film so bloated. Which is too bad considering Age of Ultron has some of the more interesting portrays of the personal lives and fears of this cast of superheroes. The film shined to me when we get to watch these superheroes during downtime in the action while they banter and flirt with each other. In fact, I would have preferred more time explore the personal lives of these superheroes over the 30+ minutes of the obligatory city destruction scenes that all Marvel movies seem to need. Basically, I was really loving this movie through the party at the Avengers headquarters up until Ultron becomes alive. After that it becomes a mess. Also very confused why a $200M blockbuster movie has such shitty CGI, this movie is only five years old and the CGI already looks extremely dated, especially during the opening fight scene. Weird follow up to Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

[kihei]

It is going to be a weird Academy Award season. If the nominated movies don't pop up on Netflix, I'm not going to be able to see them legally.

 

[Franck]

It is going to be a weird Academy Award season. If the nominated movies don't pop up on Netflix, I'm not going to be able to see them legally.

Are they going to waive or alter the theatrical release requirements at all?

Going to be an underwhelming year either way.