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

[Osprey]

One of the more compelling sniper sequences that I enjoyed was in the Hurt Locker.

An exercise in patience and maintaining attention as his buddy puts suntan lotion on him, keeps him hydrated, etc.

I've seen The Hurt Locker, but I don't remember a dude rubbing lotion on his buddy. I'll take your word that it's a compelling sequence, though.

 

[NyQuil]

I saw The Hurt Locker, but I don't remember a scene in which a dude puts lotion on his buddy. I'll take your word that it's compelling, though.

Just on his face and neck IIRC - what is exposed. Also gave him like an energy gel and water and stuff.

The only part of it on Youtube is the end sequence.

There's a fair amount of waiting IIRC.

 

[Pink Mist]

John McEnroe: In The Realm Of Perfection [L'empire De La Perfection] (2018) directed by Julien Faraut

Film essay which follows John McEnroe’s legendary 1984 tennis campaign when he boasted an 82-3 win-lose record. Less of a sports documentary than a Godard like film essay using archival footage of McEnroe to look into the relationship between sport and film theory conceptions of time and duration. The film posits McEnroe to be a sort of cinematic director/actor/editor on the tennis court with his ability to sculpt time by directing, slowing down, speeding time, and yell “cut!” to end a scene. Definitely changing how I look at sport and the relationship to time. Also full of classic McEnroe freakouts and complaining to line refs, his diva persona is on full display in this film.

 

[kihei]

Shirley (2020) Directed by Josephine Decker 7B

Here's an interesting one. While all movie biographies of famous people are by definition fictionalized to some extent, Shirley takes the approach several miles farther. The movie is not so much a standard biopic of the life of horror writer Shirley Jackson than it is a hard bop jazz riff on that life, a fantasy that incorporates several different genres, including horror, romance, melodrama, and mystery. Shirley (Elizabeth Moss) is married to academic Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg), and they quite enjoy verbally torturing one another, a game that each is very good at playing. Enter a young academic and his wife, Fred (Logan Lerman) and Rose (Odessa Young), who have been invited to stay with the older couple until they can find an apartment of their own. For a while the movie seems to be a serious take on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with the emphasis on "Get the Guest." The similarities are quite pronounced. But Shirley has much more on its mind than that, especially when Shirley and Rose's relationship turns symbiotic, not to mention romantic. Then there is a missing girl, too. And a novel being written by Shirley. Moss, who has never been nominated for an Academy Award, gives one of her best and creepiest performances--her emotions washing over her face. in ghastly waves. Young brings complexity and eroticism to her role, and Stuhlberg balances somewhere between willing accomplice and manipulative betrayer. Shirley is quite a potent mix of wit and malice.

Prime Video


Best of 2020

1) First Cow, Reichardt, US
2) Small Axe: Lovers Rock, McQueen, UK
3) Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Hittman, US
4) Dick Johnson Is Dead, Johnson, US
5) Babyteeth, Murphy, Australia
6) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Wolfe, US
7) Small Axe: Mangrove, McQueen, UK
8) Shirley, Decker, US
9) Corpus Christi, Komasa, Poland
10) His House, Weekes, UK

 

[kihei]

John McEnroe: In The Realm Of Perfection [L'empire De La Perfection] (2018) directed by Julien Faraut

Film essay which follows John McEnroe’s legendary 1984 tennis campaign when he boasted an 82-3 win-lose record. Less of a sports documentary than a Godard like film essay using archival footage of McEnroe to look into the relationship between sport and film theory conceptions of time and duration. The film posits McEnroe to be a sort of cinematic director/actor/editor on the tennis court with his ability to sculpt time by directing, slowing down, speeding time, and yell “cut!” to end a scene. Definitely changing how I look at sport and the relationship to time. Also full of classic McEnroe freakouts and complaining to line refs, his diva persona is on full display in this film.

Your review is way better and more succinct than mine was.

 

[Osprey]

News of the World (2020) - 6/10 (Liked it)

In 1870 Texas, a Civil War veteran (Tom Hanks) travels from town to town reading the news to audiences until he stumbles upon an orphaned 10-year-old girl (Helena Zengel) and takes her with him to deliver her to relatives. Basically, it's a Western road trip film, except with the twist that the girl knows no English and the tragedy that she doesn't seem like she belongs anywhere. Without many lines, Zengel effectively communicates her character's sadness and appearance that her mind is elsewhere mostly with her eyes. Hanks basically plays himself (again), which is to say that his character is very easy to like, but also seemingly a better person than everyone around him. Whereas Unforgiven famously painted the Old West in an unflattering light, but also featured a very flawed main character, this film also paints the Old West unflatteringly, but with a rather virtuous main character. I couldn't shake the feeling that the writers were projecting a little and that distracted me. Also a bit distracting was occasional obvious use of CGI, which always feels really out of place in Westerns. Fortunately, more often not, the film looks satisfyingly and authentically "Western," with good production and scenery. There are also some moments of action, but they felt a little forced to me. The story is really about the relationship between the two characters, and though it seemed a little thin and predictable, it ultimately works and is watchable thanks to Hanks and Zengel. I was hoping that I'd like the film a bit more, but I still found it to be a pretty decent Western, and there are so few of those these days.

It's available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes and other VOD services.

 

[kihei]

Another Round (2020) Directed by Thomas Vinterberg 7A

Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) and three other high school teachers have hit their forties and are having major mid-life crises as they perceive themselves as burned-out, boring husks bearing scant resemblance to who they once were. Then they discover the work of a Norwegian psychiatrist who argues that all of us have a .05 alcohol deficit, and we would make our lives more happy and productive if we drank a tiny bit of alcohol more or less constantly to make up for the deficiency. Martin and pals decide to give it a try. It works! Maybe .10 would even be better. Why not? Okay, how about another step up. Matters ultimately spiral out of control. Another Round has a delightful, thoroughly anti-PC premise--being a little sloshed all of the time might be good for you. Another Round is viewed in some circles as a comedy. It definitely has some very funny moments, but, nah, I couldn't in good conscience call it a comedy. Director Thomas Vinterberg never does decide exactly what he thinks about this idea with the result that morose characters with sad lives never seem very funny for long. However, Mikkelsen is great, a comment I should put on a rubber stamp and simply apply to every movie he makes. At the end of the film, he even gets a dance routine that is the highlight of the movie.

subtitles

TIFF.net

Best of 2020

1) First Cow, Reichardt, US
2) Small Axe: Lovers Rock, McQueen, UK
3) Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Hittman, US
4) Dick Johnson Is Dead, Johnson, US
5) Babyteeth, Murphy, Australia
6) Another Round, Vinterberg, Denmark
7) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Wolfe, US
8) Small Axe: Mangrove, McQueen, UK
9) Shirley, Decker, US
10) Corpus Christi, Komasa, Poland

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Sorceress (Wynorski, 1995) - IMDB says fantasy, thriller, horror... It's none of that, unless you fantasize about fake boobs. I mean, if you wanna make a porn flick, just make a porn flick (at least you'd get rid of the dumb story). With porn level acting, and Linda Blair (who's somehow even worse). 1/10

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The Call of the Wild

The adaptation of many a schoolkid's book report. Harrison Ford narrates and stars in the tale of a very large cgi dog that gets sold in California and sent to the Yukon to be a sled dog in the 1890's Yukon gold rush. Lots of people are dicks, lots of cgi dogs howl and fight, lots of scenic shots of snow-dappled meadows, and Harrison Ford is the loner outdoorsman with a gruff exterior but a kind heart inside. Huge reach for him, clearly.

Can't help but wonder if real dogs are as creeped out by the cgi dogs as humans were by cgi Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia in Rogue One. My wife will put the tv on just as "background noise" if she's reading or playing with her tablet on the couch, and this movie was on today. Not something I'd have put on myself, but anyway. It was on, there it was, blandly unremarkable as it was. Came out and dropped like a rock out of theatres (back when that was still a thing), and deservedly so. Harrison Ford must've owed someone a favour to do this. Yawn.

"Grr..woof woof! Who are you narrating to, dude? There's nobody here..."

 

[Chili]

Way Down East-1920

Young girl is tricked into believing she has been married and when she later has a child alone becomes an outcast (as was the custom of the era). She finds refuge with a family only to eventually have her secret revealed. Cast out into a snowstorm, it leads to an incredible, memorable climax. DW Griffith classic available on Youtube.

 

[kihei]

Way Down East-1920

Young girl is tricked into believing she has been married and when she later has a child alone becomes an outcast (as was the custom of the era). She finds refuge with a family only to eventually have her secret revealed. Cast out into a snowstorm, it leads to an incredible, memorable climax. DW Griffith classic available on Youtube.

Lillian Gish hopping around on that ice flow is just about the damndest thing I have ever seen in a movie.

 

[kihei]

One Night in Miami (2020) Directed by Regina King 6A

Unbelievable as it seems, Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay), Malcolm X, Cleveland Brown all-time great fullback Jim Brown, and superstar pop singer Sam Cooke actually did meet after Clay had knocked out the heavily favoured Sonny Liston in Miami on the evening of February 25, 1964. None of the four left a record of what was discussed, but Kemp Powers constructed a successful play full of speculation about what they might have talked about, a play which he has adapted for the screen. Powers uses the dialogue among the four men as a way of exploring black attitudes toward racism and the best strategies for dealing with it. Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is the most passionate and most articulate spokesperson, believing that black people must take control of their own destiny and in no uncertain terms. Clay (Eli Goree) is the brash, playfully outrageous, freshly-minted heavyweight champion fully aware of the charismatic power effortlessly at his command but not quite sure what to do with it yet. Brown (Aldis Hodge) is hard-edged and slightly menacing, his own man to the core, and no pushover for any ideology. And Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr) is a successful musician with his own ideas of what blacks need to do to survive in a society stacked against them. Quite a quartet of high-octane personalities, but despite the frequent weight of their words, their dialogue seldom rings true to real conversation. They are simply mouthpieces for a clever playwright more intent on exploring ideas than creating believable personalities. One Night in Miami is a talky movie confined mostly to one motel suite. But, feeling like the proverbial fly on the wall, I found it engaging enough just to listen in on the different arguments these distinctly different men present concerning their feelings about being black Americans in the turbulent ‘60s.

Prime Video

 

[nameless1]

Another Round (2020) Directed by Thomas Vinterberg 7A

Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) and three other high school teachers have hit their forties and are having major mid-life crises as they perceive themselves as burned-out, boring husks bearing scant resemblance to who they once were. Then they discover the work of a Norwegian psychiatrist who argues that all of us have a .05 alcohol deficit, and we would make our lives more happy and productive if we drank a tiny bit of alcohol more or less constantly to make up for the deficiency. Martin and pals decide to give it a try. It works! Maybe .10 would even be better. Why not? Okay, how about another step up. Matters ultimately spiral out of control. Another Round has a delightful, thoroughly anti-PC premise--being a little sloshed all of the time might be good for you. Another Round is viewed in some circles as a comedy. It definitely has some very funny moments, but, nah, I couldn't in good conscience call it a comedy. Director Thomas Vinterberg never does decide exactly what he thinks about this idea with the result that morose characters with sad lives never seem very funny for long. However, Mikkelsen is great, a comment I should put on a rubber stamp and simply apply to every movie he makes. At the end of the film, he even gets a dance routine that is the highlight of the movie.

subtitles

TIFF.net

Best of 2020

1) First Cow, Reichardt, US
2) Small Axe: Lovers Rock, McQueen, UK
3) Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Hittman, US
4) Dick Johnson Is Dead, Johnson, US
5) Babyteeth, Murphy, Australia
6) Another Round, Vinterberg, Denmark
7) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Wolfe, US
8) Small Axe: Mangrove, McQueen, UK
9) Shirley, Decker, US
10) Corpus Christi, Komasa, Poland

Yeah, it is hard to call it a comedy, but even with the usual somber tone from Scandinavian films, this might be the "happiest" movie I can remember from Vinterberg. His daughter was supposed to have a role in this movie, but she passed away 4 days before the movie began its shoot because of a car accident, so I suppose that is why he employed a rather "light" touch. While I have it at a 6.5, I do recommend it, because Vinterberg made a very good movie under the difficult circumstances. I honestly cannot imagine how he must have felt when he worked on this movie.

 

[heatnikki]

Bloody Hell - 8/10
Really enjoyed it, a nice twist on a horror film, add me laugh at a few bits and pretty cool style to the film.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Outside the Wire (Hafstrom, 2021) - starts with some potential, ruins it quickly. 3.5/10

 

[Chili]

Lillian Gish hopping around on that ice flow is just about the damndest thing I have ever seen in a movie.

There are some amazing scenes in some of these old films, before cgi. The ingenuity and danger of that scene with the stars of the film certainly impressed me.

 

[Osprey]

There are some amazing scenes in some of these old films, before cgi. The ingenuity and danger of that scene with the stars of the film certainly impressed me.

That reminds me of the famous Buster Keaton stunt from Steamboat Bill, Jr.:

Spoiler

That's just nuts. Reportedly, that facade weighed two tons. If they'd miscalculated and he'd stood just inches off of his mark in any direction, he could've been killed.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Knife In The Water (1962) - 6/10

I CANNOT emphasize enough how much I do not give a shit about sailing. The film does trick cinephiles into thinking it's better than it is via some nice b/w shots (not exactly hard to do when you're in open water) and a jazzy score with a decent but semi-dumb ending. I guess Polanski shows he's decent at building tension, I just don't think the characters were as interesting as they're portrayed and I got tired of being around them after a bit. This was strangely the only Polish film that Polanski needed to direct before getting picked up as a Hollywood director, must've had some bloodline connections or something.

Shutter Island (2010) - 7.5/10

I held off watching this because these two ninnies I worked with at a part-time job as a student in uni spoiled the ending by talking about it while we were doing stock one day. I strangely found it to be...dated. It feels like EVERYONE is overacting here and putting on a show. Almost like a modern melodrama. Leo's acting is way too intense it feels like, the emotion is uncontrolled, maybe it works better in a gangster film where the characters are expected to do that. Leo did a much better job in Inception released the same year surprisingly despite that being closer to an action film. This is a good movie, it's just that when people complain about a Michael Bay film having too many explosions...this movie is the drama/suspense equivalent.

 

[HardSeider53]

The Drop (2014) - 8/10

I forgot just how underrated this movie is. Relatively unknown and pretty low budget, but they did an awesome job of making a great movie out of it.

For those who have seen it.

Spoiler

I've watched a handful of times now and never realized until now that Bob consistently plays innocent the entire movie, but there are 2-3 scenes where you get a tell on who he really is, and he's illuminated by a red light. Cool detail.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Lord of War - Definitely enjoyed it - I love Nic Cage in most of his movies - 8/10

One of those movies I always try and watch once every year or two. That and "Blow"

 

[Pink Mist]

Ham on Rye (2019) directed by Tyler Taormina

In a suburban town, the town’s teenagers dress in their Sunday’s best for the most important night of their lives: a dance at the local deli. The outcome of the night will determine the teenagers’ fate to either transcend Suburbia or be trapped and left to be bored in their hometown. Part Linklater coming of age story, part Lynchian surrealism, this one of those films that will divide audiences, and will be loved for the same reason someone loathes it. The film works for me, but I can see why many would hate it as it is a weird little film about the awkwardness of growing up and the melancholy of being left behind but with a surrealist twist. The aesthetics of the film is outstanding, it has a sort of timeless nostalgia which makes it hard to place what decade the film takes place in. Really enjoyed this one.

 

[Chili]

That reminds me of the famous Buster Keaton stunt from Steamboat Bill, Jr.:

Spoiler

That's just nuts. Reportedly, that facade weighed two tons. If they'd miscalculated and he'd stood just inches off of his mark in any direction, he could've been killed.

That's a great stunt. Buster was an expert at not getting hurt (according to his autobiography My Wonderful World of Slapstick). His stunts were well choreographed. Douglas Fairbanks was fearless too but in contrast had many injuries and watching his films I've seen why.

 

[Puck]

One Night in Miami (2020) Directed by Regina King 6A

Quite a quartet of high-octane personalities, but despite the frequent weight of their words, their dialogue seldom rings true to real conversation. They are simply mouthpieces for a clever playwright more intent on exploring ideas than creating believable personalities.

Prime Video

I tend to agree with you on your quote above. Of the four, I thought the Sam Cooke character as depicted was the least well defined by the playwright (I read up a little about him after).

The actors were good, the dialogue was well written but the personalities believable? Hmmm.

I enjoyed the first part and the last but found the middle a bit of a slog to get through. Perhaps it was because I often have difficulty with plays translated to films. But it was also because I just wasn't accepting things actually happened that way. Good idea and premise for a story though. And I agree with your 6 rating (I'd find difficulty giving it more). The film did make me think about it after it ended (always a good sign) but I was still a bit disappointed after reading the good reviews. I'm conflicted about it. The film touched my conscience but not my heart.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Then they discover the work of a Norwegian psychiatrist who argues that all of us have a .05 alcohol deficit, and we would make our lives more happy and productive if we drank a tiny bit of alcohol more or less constantly to make up for the deficiency. Martin and pals decide to give it a try. It works! Maybe .10 would even be better. Why not?

Damn, I was way ahead of the wellness curve in my 20's.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Archive

with people and robots. Robots with issues.

Near future. George is a scientist living in a remote base/lab/place situated among snowy mountains and a waterfall. He's all by himself except for a couple of robots. One's a big refrigerator kind of thing that likes cartoons, and the other's smaller, more developed and possessive regarding George, who's the only human around. He's also the recipient of strident future zoom calls from his corporate overseer, who's none too happy about George letting security go and working on some private project...which happens to be building a robot body for his deceased wife. In this future, when people die they can put their personalities into big black boxes, and they can last that way for a little bit while their bereaved come to terms and say goodbye. Or hack the machine, start a corporate war, and build robots to house their dead wife's consciousness, as George decides to try. Attempts one and two got the ball rolling, and George is sure he's got the real deal with number three. But the other bots have other ideas. And so do the owners of the black box tech. Drama and mourning ensues.

Very reminiscent of other recent sci-fi stuff. Mrs. PC and I were trying to remember if we'd seen it before for like the entire first twenty minutes, but I'm fairly sure we hadn't. It takes a semi-interesting premise and does okay things with it. You actually do manage to empathize with robots, even if they look like appliances with legs. Meh, though. Does okay through the body of the plot, but in the end goes for the cliche.

On Prime.

Not anatomically correct...yet.