Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +5

[kihei]

The Forest of Love (2019) Directed by Sion Sono 8B

The Forest of Love is director Sion Sono's most ambitious movie since his masterpiece Love Exposure in 2011. I have to qualify that as the prolific Sono has made a couple of dozen movies since then and I have only seen seven of them. He starts here with a true story about serial killers in Japan, but as his way, he quickly goes off on different tangents. The principal players are a very convincing sadist, three teenage boys who want to make a movie, and a pair of emotionally damaged girls who have been through a severe trauma. The movie no sooner gets underway then it introduces a series of sometimes confusing flashbacks dealing with the girls' backstory that seem to highjack the movie for a while. Eventually, all our protagonists come together and the result is outrageous in only the way that Sono can be. The serial killer story gets subsumed for a long time as the movie focuses on our sadist and the enjoyment he gets doing really cruel things to people, most of which are graphically displayed by a director who never shies away from extreme gore. Eventually all the pieces come together in a celebration of nihilism--an we find out what happens to the serial killer. The Forest of Love is one of many complicated pop-cult extravaganzas by Sono, and it is a real trip. However, with its emphasis on sadism, suicide, torture, mutilation, and humiliation, it is up to the viewer to decide whether it is a good trip or a bad one. This guy will push your envelope.

subtitles

Netflix


Best of 2020 so far (includes some recent movies available for the first time in Canada this year)

First Cow, Reichardt, US
Seducio da Carne, Bressane, Brazil
Before We Vanish, Kurosawa, Japan
The Portuguese Woman, Gomes, Portugal
The Forest of Love, Sono, Japan
The Load, Glavonic, Serbia
A Land Imagined, Siew, Singapore
The Day after I'm Gone, Eldar, Israel
An Easy Girl, Zlotowski, France
Echo, Runarsson, Iceland

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Vive L'Amour (1994) - 6/10

Taiwanese film not French. The last seven minutes are a woman sitting in a park crying without a proper leadup, not my idea for good cinema. It's slow moving and I'd say 3-Iron is a much better Asian film if you want something with little dialogue. BUT I will say that some of the imagery here is fantastic due to the 90s setting. There are scenes like the one below that really bring out the 90s nostalgia hard:

 

[ProstheticConscience]

This post reminds me of that time I told my cousin to never drink bleach.

There's quite a large percentage that needs to be told that these days...

Too late. I watched it for the first time (and reviewed it) a few months ago. It's an experience that I'll never forget.

My wife and I saw it for $1 each at a midnight showing about six months after its release; we had read the reviews and were curious as to just how bad it could possibly be but wanted to pay as little as possible to find out. Still overpaid. And Barry Pepper remains one of Mrs PC's most loathed actors to this day.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The Girl with All the Gifts

with British people and a botoxed Glenn Close

We open with a young black girl in a prison. About 12 or 13, named Melanie. She's strapped to a chair and immobilized to move anywhere, and military guards brandish machine guns as they strap her down. She's wheeled into a classroom with about thirty other children similarly restrained, and during lessons, Melanie's clearly the brightest. She remains cheerful and friendly despite her circumstances, she politely greets all the guards and staff by name, she knows the whole routine. But soon we learn why she's strapped down, and why the armed guards are all terrified of her and her classmates. It's the zombie apocalypse come to Britain, and Melanie isn't quite human. Her class is locked up for good reason, and their origins are truly chilling. Of course, it's not long before zombie tides start crashing against the chain-link fences in earnest, and Melanie is forced to flee along with the doctor trying to cure the zombie fungus (yes, it's a fungus in this one), her teacher, the sergeant, and an expendable soldier. Where are they going? Where can they go? What's that giant fungus seed pod tower thing over there in the distance? Watch and be moderately entertained.

A definite notch up from the usual zombie fare. Melanie is a compelling and sympathetic character; she really wants to help and be loved as any kid does, and she's clearly the most intelligent character in the movie...but then you see her having a snack while scouting the ruins of London, and you're brought right back down to Earth pretty damn fast.

Not just a good zombie movie, but also a good movie.

On Netflix

That's not a ketchup stain on her shirt...

 

[nameless1]

Vive L'Amour (1994) - 6/10

Taiwanese film not French. The last seven minutes are a woman sitting in a park crying without a proper leadup, not my idea for good cinema. It's slow moving and I'd say 3-Iron is a much better Asian film if you want something with little dialogue. BUT I will say that some of the imagery here is fantastic due to the 90s setting. There are scenes like the one below that really bring out the 90s nostalgia hard:

That is Tsai for you. His films are extremely slow, and the terse dialogue does not help. Apparently, there are less than 100 words of dialogue in this one. He is definitely not for everyone.

I have a lot of trouble with slow cinema myself, but Tsai is one of the few directors I will tolerate. This is one of my favourite films of his, as he perspicaciously captures the loneliness of young city dwellers, and that last scene encapsulates it. In fact, the whole movie is the setup for that realistic breakdown captured in real time, and I see it as a perfect way to end the movie. The actress, Yang Kuei-mei, absolutely delivers, and she is simply brilliant.

 

[kihei]

That is Tsai for you. His films are extremely slow, and the terse dialogue does not help. Apparently, there is less than 100 words of dialogue in this one. He is definitely not for everyone.

I have a lot of trouble with slow cinema myself, but Tsai is one of the few directors I will tolerate. This is one of my favourite films of his, as he sublimely captures the loneliness of young city dwellers, and that last scene encapsulates it. In fact, the whole movie is the setup for that realistic breakdown captured in real time, and I see it as a perfect way to end the movie. The actress, Yang Kuei-mei, absolutely delivers, and she is simply brilliant.

Have you seen his I Don't Want to Sleep Alone? I think it is my favourite film this century or, at worst, in a tie with Jia's Still Life. Tsai's movies are always a treat, even the more off-the-wall ones like Face, and they are usually visually exquisite. The guy has some imagination.

 

[nameless1]

Have you seen his I Don't Want to Sleep Alone? I think it is my favourite film this century or, at worst, in a tie with Jia's Still Life. Tsai's movies are always a treat, even the more off-the-wall ones like Face, and they are usually visually exquisite. The guy has some imagination.

I have not gotten to it. I will see if I can find it.

 

[kihei]

Bacurau (2020) Kleiber Mendonca Filho and juliano oarnelles 6A

Bacurau starts out like a bucolic slice-of-life picture about a tiny village way, way out in the Brazilian sticks. A matriarch has just died and Theresa, a younger woman, has just returned home with medical supplies for the village’s clinic. The emphasis seems to be on this little community’s colourful folk culture, and that would have been fine with me. However, the movie quickly jumps, make that, leaps genres and we are suddenly introduced to a rag-tag collection of well-off urbanites who start shooting the townspeople for fun. These killers, seemingly normal people with a psychotic bent, have paid for the privilege of hunting people and are led by Michael, played by a sleek Udo Keir, perfectly cast in the role. He’s a different kind of crazy. Naturally the villagers arm themselves and their chances are good because this motley militia is hardly a collection of stormtroopers. Bacurau is a curious and curiously entertaining movie.

subtitles

Criterion Collection

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Christine (2016, not about the evil car)

with Rebecca Hall, Michael C Hall (no relation), and other people wearing hideous 70's clothes and hairdos.

Biopic/character study of Christine Chubbuck, desperately unhappy news reporter in 70's Sarasota. Tall, thin, lanky and intense, she chafes at her boss's instructions to find more sensationalized stories for higher ratings, nurses an unrequited crush on the head anchor George, and frequently fights with her mom and roommate for going on dates and having a social life. She craves a husband and children, but can't function socially or navigate the choppy waters of the 70's dating scene. She also needs an ovary removed, which moves up the timetable to have a family if she wants to conceive, but again, she depressed, isolated and dateless. Things come to a head when the station owner shows up to pick people to staff his new station in Baltimore, and George is one of those leaving. Also, so is the closest thing she has to a friend at work. At George's behest. Note: Christine doesn't handle this well.

I won't spoil the ending, but it's a google search away. Getting there is pretty harrowing. Christine's arc is familiar to anyone who's gone through serious depression. Rebecca Hall turns in a searing performance of a woman coming apart from the inside, at once both desperately craving closeness but stuck awkwardly running from anything that could produce it.

On Netflix.

This is her happy face. Yeah.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989) - 6/10

f***ing guy would not shut up, talked throughout the entire film.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

L'année dernière à Dachau (Rappaport, 2020) - "A film about a film about a film". For fans of the Resnais film. Anecdotal and really lacks focus (going from the 8mm film an extra shot on Resnais' set to Meryl Streep's cheekbones), but it's only 30 minutes and you might find a few interesting things. 4.5/10

Available here: vimeo.com/444853148

The Munich Film Archive offers retrospectives of Mark Rappaport and Klaus Wyborny's works. Here: Filmmuseum München

 

[bobbythebrain]

Not sure where to ask this, but been lurking this thread for years and really enjoy alot of the opinions

What's going on in the movie/TV industry? It really seems there is something lacking I just can't put my finger on or as to why. Big name stars and these so called big budget movies/shows really come lacking in acting, production or both. There seems to be no build up also and the climaxes are extremely dull and flat also.
It seemed 10 years ago even the cheeziest and low budget projects were still better than 95% of the stuff being put out today.

Am I crazy or is this a thing?

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989) - 6/10

f***ing guy would not shut up, talked throughout the entire film.

Man, I thought that one was really superb. What a film.

 

[nameless1]

Man, I thought that one was really superb. What a film.

Someone needs to explain that one to me. I am absolutely confused by it.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Someone needs to explain that one to me. I am absolutely confused by it.

In what way? The plot is pretty straight-forward.

 

[nameless1]

In what way? The plot is pretty straight-forward.

What is the point of the movie though? What message did the director want to convey? Why did the character act the way they do? The plot is straight forward, but I can never explain anything in that movie. It is a weird movie, and nothing makes sense to me.

 

[nameless1]

Not sure where to ask this, but been lurking this thread for years and really enjoy alot of the opinions

What's going on in the movie/TV industry? It really seems there is something lacking I just can't put my finger on or as to why. Big name stars and these so called big budget movies/shows really come lacking in acting, production or both. There seems to be no build up also and the climaxes are extremely dull and flat also.
It seemed 10 years ago even the cheeziest and low budget projects were still better than 95% of the stuff being put out today.

Am I crazy or is this a thing?

Movies and T.V. series are better now. They have much more depth, because online giants like Netflix and Amazon has gotten involved, and they use a different algorithm than traditional T.V. networks and major studios. They actually like to push the envelop, and they seem to give the content producers a lot more freedom. I often feel like they are HBO on steroids.

Also, Hollywood has been afraid to try anything new for the last 20 years or so. That is why major studio and network productions only do what worked, and why there are so many sequels.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

What is the point of the movie though? What message did the director want to convey? Why did the character act the way they do? The plot is straight forward, but I can never explain anything in that movie. It is a weird movie, and nothing makes sense to me.

Folks have written about it as an allegory for the Thatcher government and maybe it is, but I don't think it's what has really going for it and is of no particular use to the viewer. I see it as a beautifully stylized piece made by a talented aesthete and didn't take any sort of profound message or point out of it. Regarding the characters, well...which? Everything seems laid out, IMO. An insecure and brutal philistine gets played by a group of fearful victims who are sick of his schtick by trying to protect a passionate love affair. Maybe I missed something but in terms of how the characters act, can't recall anything that stood out as contradictory.

 

[Osprey]

I wasn't going to review Violenza's "reward" for the horror movie poll, but he seemed disappointed by that, so here goes...

Dr. Caligari (1989) - 3/10 (Really disliked it)

Not to be confused with the horror classic, this movie is the answer to "How can we bastardize a masterpiece the most?" It stars no one that I've ever heard of, probably because they weren't employable after being in this. The whole thing is filmed on a dark stage with a minimum of props, presumably for the surrealism, but probably also for cheapness. I can't describe the plot because I don't think that there is one. It's mostly a collection of weird, inexplicable scenes, such as a woman reaching into a strawman's crotch, a man begging to be electrocuted and a half-naked woman making out with a massive tongue sticking out of a wall of flesh. It's as if someone enamored with The Rocky Horror Picture Show felt that that was too tame and structured and wanted to dial up the weirdness and randomness. There's a line in this in which a character describes what happens in the movie as "unending torment." I had the same feeling. If you need proof that people are weird, watch this trailer with the knowledge that 2/3rds of audience reviews at RT are favorable:

 

[nameless1]

Folks have written about it as an allegory for the Thatcher government and maybe it is, but I don't think it's what has really going for it and is of no particular use to the viewer. I see it as a beautifully stylized piece made by a talented aesthete and didn't take any sort of profound message or point out of it. Regarding the characters, well...which? Everything seems laid out, IMO. An insecure and brutal philistine gets played by a group of fearful victims who are sick of his schtick by trying to protect a passionate love affair. Maybe I missed something but in terms of how the characters act, can't recall anything that stood out as contradictory.

The ending is weird.

Spoiler

Mirren's character asks the cook to cook her lover's body, then she forces the gangster who killed him to eat it, and then she shoots him.

In what universe does that make any sense?

Also, how would you explain this one to anyone? Trust me, I tried, and failed miserably. People just looked at me weird, and asked why I even watched it.

 

[kihei]

Relic (2020( Directed by Natalie Erika James 6A as horror; 7A as drama

When Edna (Robyn Nevin), an old lady living on her own in a remote area of Australia, goes missing, Kay (Emily Mortimer), her daughter, and Samantha (Bella Heathcote), her granddaughter, rush to her spooky house and try to find out what happened to her. After a couple of days of worry, Edna magically appears in the kitchen, but won’t or can’t say where she was. Kay and Sam are relieved, but then begin to worry about Edna's increasingly erratic behaviour. Meanwhile the house gets creepier and creepier to the point of malevolence. Two things are going on here, One is a slowly developing horror movie, the other is an extended metaphor for coping with parental dementia. The former is more or less in service of the latter, so I don’t think Relic should be judged solely on its ability to deliver chills though it's pretty good at doing that, but on what it is saying on a deeper level about the agony of watching people we love drift irrevocably into oblivion. Once again, an emerging female director at the helm gives this movie a very different feel. The coda-like ending is perfectly fitting and a move I can’t imagine a male director making. It embodies an unexpectedly compassionate response to a devitalizing condition. Great performances all around.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The ending is weird.

Spoiler

Mirren's character asks the cook to cook her lover's body, then she forces the gangster who killed him to eat it, and then she shoots him.

In what universe does that make any sense?

Also, how would you explain this one to anyone? Trust me, I tried, and failed miserably. People just looked at me weird, and asked why I even watched it.

Meh. Just seemed like the ultimate, meta payback move. I wasn't particularly shocked, personally. Also, I've long ago given up trying to talk about that stuff with folks who don't hold a serious interest in films/art. I don't care if it makes me sound arrogant and/or pretentious, but it's a fool's game at this point. I learned that the hard way when I got caught up in a passionate discussion with dear friends who argued with me to no end that The Dark Knight was one of the greatest films cinema had ever produced. The conviction with which they held their notion was both admirable and more arrogant than the biggest art fluff could come up with. I've run into similar things (with strangers, therefore I did not care to argue/offer my opinion) regarding stuff like Friends and The Office. It's one thing to call it your favorite but when you go around calling it the best based on its mainstream success...makes me gag.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The ending is weird.

Spoiler

Mirren's character asks the cook to cook her lover's body, then she forces the gangster who killed him to eat it, and then she shoots him.

In what universe does that make any sense?

Also, how would you explain this one to anyone? Trust me, I tried, and failed miserably. People just looked at me weird, and asked why I even watched it.

Meh. Just seemed like the ultimate, meta payback move. I wasn't particularly shocked, personally. Also, I've long ago given up trying to talk about that stuff with folks who don't hold a serious interest in films/art. I don't care if it makes me sound arrogant and/or pretentious, but it's a fool's game at this point. I learned that the hard way when I got caught up in a passionate discussion with dear friends who argued with me to no end that The Dark Knight was one of the greatest films cinema had ever produced. The conviction with which they held their notion was both admirable and more arrogant than the biggest art fluff could come up with. I've run into similar things (with strangers, therefore I did not care to argue/offer my opinion) regarding stuff like Friends and The Office. It's one thing to call it your favorite but when you go around calling it the best based on its mainstream success...makes me gag.

I think that it's important to have the conversation still, even if sometimes you'll end up with this urge to vomit. And someone could make a great argument about TDK being the best film ever, and you might just have to acknowledge their oratory prowess. And sometimes, there's no more to it. In their conception of the world, they might be just right.

(That being said, I think nameless has overall very good tastes)

As for The Cook, the Thief........ which I think is possibly Greenaway's best film - and thus one of the great films cinema ever produced (and certainly better than TDK) - it's been a long time, but I feel there might have been, indeed, elements in it, mostly aesthetical decisions (like the dress changing color in room transition), that might be hard to explain into a coherent discourse (still interesting elements when thinking about the film). Cannibalism didn't strike me as one of these elements - it's pretty much the expected outcome of a film where power relations are established in a restaurant, through eating (and making other people eat). The thief and his thugs force-feed people with different stuff all the way through, while showing off his status at his fancy table. Making him eat the lover at the end is just the logical end to illustrate his abuse of power. Also of note, in a society where you are what you eat, is the ironic hierarchy of the title: The Cook > The Thief > His Wife > Her Lover. Food and hierarchy was also used as a (way less subtle, way less complex, and of course way less interesting) metaphor in the recent Netflix's The Platform - might want to check that up if you haven't.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I think that it's important to have the conversation still, even if sometimes you'll end up with this urge to vomit. And someone could make a great argument about TDK being the best film ever, and you might just have to acknowledge their oratory prowess. And sometimes, there's no more to it. In their conception of the world, they might be just right.

(That being said, I think nameless has overall very good tastes)

As for The Cook, the Thief........ which I think is possibly Greenaway's best film - and thus one of the great films cinema ever produced (and certainly better than TDK) - it's been a long time, but I feel there might have been, indeed, elements in it, mostly aesthetical decisions (like the dress changing color in room transition), that might be hard to explain into a coherent discourse (still interesting elements when thinking about the film). Cannibalism didn't strike me as one of these elements - it's pretty much the expected outcome of a film where power relations are established in a restaurant, through eating (and making other people eat). The thief and his thugs force-feed people with different stuff all the way through, while showing off his status at his fancy table. Making him eat the lover at the end is just the logical end to illustrate his abuse of power. Also of note, in a society where you are what you eat, is the ironic hierarchy of the title: The Cook > The Thief > His Wife > Her Lover. Food and hierarchy was also used as a (way less subtle, way less complex, and of course way less interesting) metaphor in the recent Netflix's The Platform - might want to check that up if you haven't.

Yeah, sure, but that wasn't it. It was just using TDK has a way to essentially stan for comic book films and the argument rested on its 10 cent philosophy and Heath Ledger. I have no problem with someone claiming TDK to be their favorite film, but scoffing when someone disagrees and then resting your case on its morality and themes (!!!)...beurk. Thank God they were two of my best pals. Although the discussion definitely wouldn't have gone as far if they weren't. But no, let's say I'm hanging out with them and we're looking for a movie to watch, I know that certain suggestions are essentially out of bounds and not worth the hassle.

 

[nameless1]

I think that it's important to have the conversation still, even if sometimes you'll end up with this urge to vomit. And someone could make a great argument about TDK being the best film ever, and you might just have to acknowledge their oratory prowess. And sometimes, there's no more to it. In their conception of the world, they might be just right.

(That being said, I think nameless has overall very good tastes)

As for The Cook, the Thief........ which I think is possibly Greenaway's best film - and thus one of the great films cinema ever produced (and certainly better than TDK) - it's been a long time, but I feel there might have been, indeed, elements in it, mostly aesthetical decisions (like the dress changing color in room transition), that might be hard to explain into a coherent discourse (still interesting elements when thinking about the film). Cannibalism didn't strike me as one of these elements - it's pretty much the expected outcome of a film where power relations are established in a restaurant, through eating (and making other people eat). The thief and his thugs force-feed people with different stuff all the way through, while showing off his status at his fancy table. Making him eat the lover at the end is just the logical end to illustrate his abuse of power. Also of note, in a society where you are what you eat, is the ironic hierarchy of the title: The Cook > The Thief > His Wife > Her Lover. Food and hierarchy was also used as a (way less subtle, way less complex, and of course way less interesting) metaphor in the recent Netflix's The Platform - might want to check that up if you haven't.

Thanks, that is very insightful and clears up quite a bit. I probably will not watch it again, but at the very least, I now know there are some merits to it.