Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | New Year New thread

[Osprey]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) - 8/10

I watched this for the 20th time tonight (with my nephew for his 1st time) and don't usually review re-watches, but someone recently besmirched this film and I feel like defending it. Sure, it's not as great as 'Raiders' or 'Last Crusade' and, sure, it has some dodgy special effects, underwhelming villains and an annoying main character, but it's still a very entertaining film, especially in its action-packed final act, and it has its heart in the right place (if you know what I mean). This unashamedly nostalgic Gen-Xer really enjoyed it and felt like a kid again, so there.

 

[kihei]

Black Box Diaries (2024) Directed by Shiori Ito 8B (documentary)

Journalist Shiori Ito is raped by a powerful media executive in a Tokyo hotel. Rather than remain silent, she goes on the offensive to investigate her own rape and to share her experience in a book she writes about the incident. Bravely, she takes on Japan's patriarchal social system that still fosters notions that shame and silence should be a woman's appropriate response to such an assault. Slowly her story gains traction, and after being rebuffed by the criminal courts which are subject to political influence she successfully begins a civil action that forces change upon an antiquated system that has in the past preferred to look the other way when sexual violence is perpetrated by the rich and powerful.

While this Oscar-nominated documentary which Ito herself directs may sound like a chore to watch, Black Box Diaries is anything but that. It moves quickly like a good police procedural. Ito is a very strong presence who possesses some personal resources that help her battle her society's expectations. She is young, articulate, vibrant, stylish, and media savvy. And fearless. She musters enough public camera footage, in-person interviews and taped phone conversations to make her case a convincing one, so much so that according to Time magazine she becomes one of the most influential young people in the world. Occasionally her public poise is contrasted starkly with her private doubts and anguish about her circumstance. But she sees her difficult task through to the end and is eventually victorious. Hers is a gripping story from start to finish, and it makes for one hell of a compelling documentary.

Sidenote: Black Box Diaries currently has a score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes (64 positive reviews out of 65)

some subtitles

 

[Pink Mist]

Universal Language (dir. Matthew Rankin, 2024)

Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language is an oddity in the best way—a film that feels like a lost artifact from a timeline where Winnipeg is the cultural crossroads of the world and Quebec has seceded just to make life more absurd. With its fragmented narrative, deadpan humor, and playful surrealism, it carries the spirit of an offbeat travelogue through a country that only exists in the margins of reality.

The film’s structure is deceptively loose, weaving between disparate characters who all seem to be searching for something—lost money frozen in ice, a sense of belonging, or just a coherent tour guide in the ever-shifting Winnipeg landscape. Rankin’s background in experimental filmmaking is on full display, blending moments of documentary realism with hilariously stilted dialogue and dreamlike detours. The influence of Abbas Kiarostami looms large, not just in the Iranian elements, but in the way Rankin frames his characters against an environment that often feels both mundane and mythic.

At times, Universal Language leans a little too hard into its own absurdity, and its disconnected structure occasionally loses momentum. Some of the humor lands perfectly, while other moments feel like inside jokes waiting for an audience that may never arrive. But even when it meanders, the film’s off-kilter charm remains undeniable. It’s a film about people stuck between places—between languages, between cultures, between narratives that refuse to resolve cleanly.

Not everything here translates perfectly, but that’s kind of the point. Rankin has crafted something weirdly poetic—an ode to displacement, miscommunication, and the strange beauty of being lost in translation.

 

[Neil Racki]

Perfect Days (2023) is a very good film about a guy who just wants to enjoy life working as a janitor. The movie is pretty simple and details a few days in his life. It can be pretty monotonous but it is indeed interesting.

8/10

When I was a kid, my dream job was to be a toll booth operator. Sit there, smoke cigarettes, listen to the radio and push a little button that makes the gate go up.

40 years later .. f***ing wish I got that job as a toll booth operator.

 

[Unholy Diver]

When I was a kid, my dream job was to be a toll booth operator. Sit there, smoke cigarettes, listen to the radio and push a little button that makes the gate go up.

40 years later .. f***ing wish I got that job as a toll booth operator.

but what about when you work that job for 30 years, and they give you a watch and kick you in the butt and tell you, hey a computer took your place daddy, that's Hard Times

 

[PK Cronin]

Queen & Slim - 4/10

Just caught this one yesterday and was really disappointed. It had a lot of potential and it was just flat out bad. The characters do no behave like the rational human beings they're supposed to be. Some of the events were extremely exaggerated and they just didn't need to be because it pushed the film into cartoonish at points. There were some really great moments but they almost always were followed by a dud. The runtime was about 30 minutes too long (it has a 2:12 runtime). When I hit the one hour mark and realized I had another hour to go I was really disappointed, that's how badly it dragged. I couldn't recommend this movie to anyone, there are better options that hit similar notes.

Rant incoming for those who have seen it:

Spoiler

This woman is supposed to be an attorney and is constantly making the dumbest decisions imaginable. Both of their decision making is so beyond ridiculous. They travel from Cleveland to New Orleans? Why? That's a 16 hour drive when Cleveland is incredibly close to the Canadian border. They stole the pickup truck of a sheriff and were able to drive that undetected to New Orleans? I'm just not buying it. Fine, she wants to meet up with her criminal kin, whatever. The Mexican border and Florida are similar distances from New Orleans so I'm not sure why they chose a path that required them to have a plane. Also, why do they need a plane? I just kept thinking they should get a boat or go to Mexico where those sort of logistical problems don't exist.

Then there's all the meandering around. They randomly decide to stop off for beverages at some dive bar with live music in the middle of nowhere and every single person in the bar recognizes them? Absurd. Then they randomly veer off the path to go to a cemetery? Then they have sex at the cemetery? They stop to ride a horse? They failed in two different scenarios to hide their vehicles, which is the most obvious thing you can do. How is every single person recognizing them? I work with the public and there's no chance I'd recognize either of them from a distance or if they were just passing through. They continually wasted time and money, which isn't something that people like them should be doing. They aren't portrayed as tweakers or people suffering from mental health issues where you'd expect them to make these boneheaded decisions, these are two bright and upstanding people in society who just forgot to do the most basic of things.

I could go on and on but I guess I'll stop there. There were some bright spots, I thought the actors did a nice job for the most part but just weren't given the right story to portray. The soundtrack was also pretty damn good.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Steel Magnolias (7/10) - Directed by Herbert Ross
I've heard about this movie in the general zeitgeist, but never really gave it much thought past being a 'chick flick'. Recently there were a few different Jeopardy clues about the film which I didn't get, of course, so I thought that was the Pop Culture and Film Gods telling me that it was time to watch it.

The film mainly follows the story of Shelby (Julia Roberts) as she tries to manage her desires to start a family against the dangers of her poor medical state, which doctors have advised her against having children. Shelby's mother M'Lynn (Sally Field) is very much against the idea of Shelby having children, and is vocal to this point.

Shelby and her husband Jackson (Dylan McDermott) decide to take their chances with Shelby's condition and have a child, a baby boy named Jackson Jr. Shelby and her mother are supported by their affluent family friends Truvy (Dolly Parton), Clairee (Olympia Dukakis), and "Ouiser" (Shirley MacLaine), as well as new-in-town Annelle (Daryl Hannah).

Throughout the film there's a sub-plot story of Annelle's spotty past and her borderline obsession with religion juxtaposed with the other ladies' lifestyle.

The movie is chock-full of many comedic moments intertwined with very heavy emotional highs and lows... Without giving away too much, things take a turn for the worse and I'll leave it at that.

Some excellent acting from a star-studded cast. I thought the film jumped way too quickly throughout the timeline and leaves quite a lot of information out along the way of the film. Some of the jokes and light-hearted moments fall pretty flat (particularly from Dolly).

Overall, great film, that could have been better. I get the sense that there's quite a lot that was cut from the film for brevity's sake. Not an earth-shattering film in any sense, but I feel a little more cultured having seen it.

Edit: Why do my reviews for the most random movies always seem to end up with so much rambling? lol

 

[kihei]

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (2024) Directed by Johan Grimenprez 6B (documentary)

This Oscar-nominated two and a half hour documentary exposes how black American jazz musicians (Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gilespie, Max Roach, et al) became part of a cultural exchange programme with Africa that was used to mask UN/US/Belgian/CIA/President Eisenhower's attempts to assassinate democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. Why? Because he was leaning towards the Soviet Union, and the West wanted the rich mineral resources of his newly independent country. This interpretation is completely ass-backwards from how it was presented by NA media at the time. However, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat's bona fides are pretty damn impressive. The documentary uses archival footage and interviews with key surviving players to make its case. Over the years, I think I have just become cynical about these things. If this is true, it doesn't really surprise me. Superpowers are going to do what superpowers do, and one hopes one's own country can just get the hell out of the bloody way. Even that is looking like an insurmountable chore these days.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Shall We Dance? (1996) - 6/10

Man who doesn't like or care about dancing watches film with dancing then proceeds to review film. There's a Richard Gere American re-make, I watched the higher rated Japanese one which suffers a bit from some of the stereotypes of 80s/90s Japanese cinema.