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

[Trap Jesus]

Saw Downsizing. Definitely an interesting concept, but I had mixed feelings on it. I think the way they set everything up in the first third/half of the movie was really interesting and enjoyable, but it goes way off the rails as it goes along. Start was great though; excellent world-building and some weird and a little bit unsettling bits mixed in that were just the right amount of weird. It started to get too weird as it went a long though, and not in a good way. It kind of just became quirky while still preaching very heavy-handed commentary. A lot of plots and sub-plots that didn't really gel.

Overall it was still decent though. I particularly enjoyed Christoph Waltz and Hong Chau in this. I didn't like Damon in it, but I think he played his role effectively for what it was. Just such a meek presence though.

 

[Nalens Oga]

My Life Without Me (2003) - 7.5/10

Sadness porn but not emotionally manipulative. Nice little movie to make you feel and ponder later on.

Talk Radio (1988) - 6.5/10

Started well but just become draining and overly long. Has a terrible long unneeded flashback sequence in the middle, the rest of the film is stagey mostly set in a radio booth but not in a polished Glengarry Glen Ross type of way. Also makes me wonder why Eric Bogosian didn't star in more bigger films.

 

[kihei]

Manta Ray (2018) Directed by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng 3B

It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Manta Ray is directed by someone who wants to be the next Apichatpong Weerasethakul but is not really very good at it. This movie involves a dock worker, a jungle, lots of little lights in the jungle, a mute man left for dead in the one and very same jungle, a returning mistress, and a manta ray--and a jumbled, incoherent story with loose ends galore (though prettily photographed). It is understandable that a country never known before as a hotbed of cinema would react strongly when a genius director emerged from its midst and that such a director would be highly influential among young Thai film makers. But director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng approach to similar material is anything but organic; in fact, he seems to throw in no end of mysterious effects as randomly as an amateur chef might throw garlic cloves into a pasta sauce. Weerasethakul, and I mean this as a sincere complement, makes the mystical seem ordinary, everyday, a normal part of his characters' world; Aroonpheng makes the mystical look like an attempt to clumsily tap into something that he really doesn't understand. He has a great eye for cinematography, but he needs to develop an approach that is his own and not a cheap imitation of his renowned countryman.

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[Ben Grimm]

mother! - This film has so much potential. If it only had 2 characters, it could have been really special, but it's horrible. I'm sure the cool kids loved it. 1/10

 

[kihei]

The Wild Pear Tree (2018) Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan 6B

The Wild Pear Tree is the coming-of-age story of Sinan who returns home after graduating from university. He wants to get a novel published, but he hasn't a clue what will happen after that. Returning to where he was raised, everything has changed yet everything is the same, too. He muses that he would blow his hometown up if he could, but he fears he may be stuck there forever. His family life is strained--his father is a nice guy but a gambling addict; his mother is frustrated by what life is like living with the permanent failure that her husband has become and the rest of the family are equally frustrated as well. Sinan has strong opinions that he doesn't mind sharing with anyone who will listen to him. In fact, the best scene in the movie comes when a local author whom he has pestered and insulted finally has enough and tells him off in no uncertain terms. The movie looks absolutely beautiful; I had no idea that Turkey possesses such photogenic countryside. But The Wild Pear Tree is so long (over three hours) and so wordy and possesses so many unnecessary conversations (a long philosophical and religious discussion between Sinan and two iman that goes on forever sticks out like a sore thumb), that despite the marvelous cinematography, it seems clear that this work would have been better served as a stage play or radio adaptation or novel.

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[Nalens Oga]

Sin City (2005) - 6.5/10

Overrated stylized basic stuff, some of it works the rest looks like a parody of noir films if you've seen noir films.

Fists In The Pocket (1965) - 8/10

Batshit insane/deranged. Also an Italian 60s film that isn't meandering and boring in plot thankfully. I also thought the female lead in this was stunning

 

[kihei]

Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) Directed by Bi Gan 6B

A lonely man returns to his hometown to try to track down the girl he had once loved. Initially the film is like a noir mystery, but then the guy goes into a movie theatre and puts on a pair of 3D glasses....and so do we. What follows is a 55-minute single-take tour de force of 3D film making. I give Bi Gan huge points for technical virtuosity and off-the-beaten-path imagination, but when it comes to romantic melancholy Wong Kar-wai has this field all to himself.

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[kihei]

The Image Book (2018) Directed by Jean Luc Godard 8D

The Image Book is a very Godardian juxtaposition of images from history and from the movies, gathered in loose chapter headings with lots of written and verbal commentary provided by major figures of French and European thought, some of which isn't translated but you can get the gist. Fragments of typical Godard minimalist background music accompany some of these images, most of which are marvelously chosen to create a response whether it be horror or humour or whatever. The movie seems a little like Godard's State of the World address as we go deeper into the new century. Yes, this is an abstract work that will mean different things to different people, but that is not a problem in poetry, painting, music, and sculpture, so why should it be here, especially as the direictor is not just throwing random images at us but using images from art and history in the 20th century to express his feelings about how we got to where we are now.

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[kihei]

Roma (2018) Directed by Alfonso Cuaron 9A

Roma is the most beautiful movie ever made about a maid. It is also a remembrance of Cuaron's childhood, shot with great care and rigour and free from sentimentality In other words this is a very personal film though his approach to his own history is cool and detached, his camera usually settling in the mid-range as if to keep its distance. The black-and-white cinematography is among the best of the year and fits the story perfectly (actually its washed out colour stock which ends up looking black-and-white but with a wider gray scale). Much of the time we don't even notice Cleo, the maid, but that is partially the point. In addition to being an homage to the woman who virtually raised him with great love even though he wasn't her flesh and blood, the movie is a very pointed critique of social divisions in Mexico and the assumptions people have about one another as a result of those social divisions. An excellent film, best of the year so far.

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Best of ’18 so far

Roma, Cuaron, Mexico
On the Beach at Night Alone, Hong, South Korea
The Image Book, Godard, France
Donbass, Loznitsa, Ukraine
Cold War, Pawlinkowsi, Poland
November, Sarnet, Estonia
1945, Toroc, Hungary
Leave No Trace, Granik, US
Border, Abbasi, Sweden/Denmark
Foxtrot, Maoz, Israel

 

[Savi]

Washington Post has published their 23 best films of the 2000s. I disagree with some, you might too. The lists are always fun. Some I haven't seen, I'll be scouring the bit torrents hoping to find them.

From ‘Children of Men’ to ‘Spirited Away,’ here are the 23 best movies of the 2000s.

If you hit a WaPo paywall, try opening in a new private window.

I've only seen this post just now but definitely some weird choices on that list. However weird choices that's one thing, but how anyone can have Old Joy on a best of list (and not even year, but decade+) is truly beyond me. That movie was so bad it still pisses me off thinking about it. It's so boring (and I usually like slow cinema), it's badly acted, has a terrible soundtrack, the ugly close-ups and the whole forced 'slice of life' thing it tries to get going and it was to me completely unbelievable the two main characters were ever friends of eachother, there is absolutely zero chemistry going on. And don't even get me started on the monologues.
It would utterly surprise me if this is anyone's favourite movie, at all. Maybe it's just me because Kelly Reichardt also pissed me off last year with Certain Women and I think the only film of her I somewhat like might have been Wendy and Lucy but that was probably because I like Michelle Williams so much.

Had to get this off my chest, sorry for the rant

 

[Puck]

I found there was more discussion about the movies at TIFF last year. And who can forget the Mother! controversy. I will post this here instead of the TIFF thread, here is where I hope to see more reviews from folks, hopefully.

Here are some of the movies I think I will be looking for and watching for after seeing the TIFF reviews. Still a day left at this point and may add to the list later.

From Kihei's reviews, I think I will be looking for :

1. Roma - Alfonso Cuaron, nuff said.
2. Border - interesting troll flick, kihei's review piqued my curiousity
3. Donbass - I like anti-war movies
4. Shadow - not a great film but supposedly a cinematographic delight
5. Western - German workers in Bulgaria. A male character study, will take a look
6. Dogman - weird antihero flick about bullying
7. The Wild Pear Tree - not getting great reviews but kihei's take piqued my interest nonetheless; I might just wait to get a copy so I can fast forward bits if it takes too long

The following are a list of highly rated Hollywood productions at TIFF that I could see from other reviews:

1.High Life by Claire Denis - supposedly a Cronenberg-style sci-fi movie
2.First Man by Damien Chazelle- Neil Armstrong's biopic
3.Widows by Steve McQueen - heist thriller with Viola Davis
4.A Star is Born by Bradley Cooper - remake

And some of the best art house films at Tiff from what I can see:

Shoplifters by Kor-eeda - I've become a Kor-eeda fan now
The Good Girls - a critique of 80's fashion, sounds strange enough for a look
Transit - WWII viewed through the modern era setting, giving people a new look on fascism
Firecrackers - I hear it's an incindiary feminist Canadian film
3 Faces - Iranian film getting good reviews, a metaphorical look at Iranian culture
Diamantino - a surreal sports film, part political satire, part fantasy

Unless Kursk gets nominated for an Oscar, I think I will pass on that one for now. Never been a fan of submarine movies, even good ones. I think I'm a bit claustrophobic. I might watch it later when I have nothing better to do. A big bust at Tiff this year seems to be The Death and Life of John F Donovan, it's getting panned everywhere.

p.s. if anyone else sees Burning, the Korean flick, I'd like your take on it. Like The Endless, I didn't like the ending, but good film overall.

 

[BonMorrison]

Yeahhhh I haven’t been posting my reviews this year cause I’m lazier now and don’t really come around here parts anymore because of reasons.

Loved Burning to death. Thought it was a fascinating examination of class struggle, nihilism, and the human condition of loneliness. The acting was great especially Yeun whose sociopathic behaviour was amazingly conveyed through just facial emotions. Loved the ambiguity of the end and thought it breezes by its 2.5 hour running time.

 

[Puck]

Yeahhhh I haven’t been posting my reviews this year cause I’m lazier now and don’t really come around here parts anymore because of reasons.

Loved Burning to death. Thought it was a fascinating examination of class struggle, nihilism, and the human condition of loneliness. The acting was great especially Yeun whose sociopathic behaviour was amazingly conveyed through just facial emotions. Loved the ambiguity of the end and thought it breezes by its 2.5 hour running time.

Burning tricked me. In the first half I thought I was watching a light romantic character study of South Korean millennials.

Spoiler

Then in the latter part it turns ugly as a beta male rage flick. I didn't like getting tricked off course but it was a strange twist, I wasn't expecting. I agreed with the protagonist's deduction about the greenhouse pyromaniac being the killer. But some have told me they think it was an error, she just disappeared like she said she would and the star got it wrong. His blind rage turns him into an aggressive a-hole like his old man, a chip off the old block. But I prefer the first scenario. Before it turned ugly, I got it all wrong. I thought the two were staging her disappearance just to get him realise he loved her and he would find clues to find her near the well (where he saved her before). Was I wrong. Good film though, it had the William Faulkner use of metaphors (burning greenhouse) and stream of consciousness monologue by Hae-mi (the Kenya dance and explanation).

 

[BonMorrison]

I definitely also thought it was going to be a romantic study haha. Loved the direction it went though. Your analysis is definitely part of the ambiguity as well, the fact that he is a writer just adds to it especially in the last fifteen or so minutes.

 

[OzzyFan]

White Boy Rick
2.55 out of 4 stars

Good movie, better story. The script has some issues, but everything else going for the movie is pretty damn good. McConaughey is probably worthy of a best supporting actor nod for his part, the other actors do well, there is a nice touch of 80's style throughout, and the settings seem pretty spot on. Oh yeah, and it just dips or dabbles into sooooooooooooooooo many meaty subjects in this movie worth talking about that it makes any intelligent viewer want to slap the writer in the face for bringing up points and letting them die within a sentence or 2, like the real american dream pov from the slums (especially on a direct pov of living a life out in poverty vs getting a taste of a better yet more dangerous illegal life), guns dealing vs drugs dealing, morality of doing bad things for good reasons, mob/gang issues, dirty unpenalized harming tactics by governing police authorities small and big scale, the fairness of being able to throw away or ruin one's entire life within their adolescent years, family/friends/relationships/connectedness's importance to those that have literally nothing positive or optimistic in their life, and surprisingly more. This movie had everything it needed and so much going on to be a classic 3.5 out of 4 star movie, but the story was put into the wrong writer's hands. Too bad.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

The Thing (1982)

Rating: Tentacle Porn/10

Most terrifying monster I've ever seen. Gotta give the film props on that factor alone.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Krampus

with tv actors with nothing better to do.

Suburban family with busy husband, busy wife, teenage daughter, younger son and German grandma baking cookies. It's Christmas time again, and they unfortunately open their doors to the wife's sister and her horrible husband, horrible kids, horrible dog, and horrible aunt. The horrible cousins torment the younger son by openly reading his letter to Santa at the dinner table (these guys all had Christmas dinner on the 22nd? Okay...) causing a scene. Younger son goes to his room and angrily rips up his letter and throws it out the window...where it spirals up into the sky. The sky darkens, the city empties, all the power goes out and everyone who didn't more sensibly go to Hawaii over the holidays just vanishes. Horribly. Daughter goes out into the blizzard to see if her boyfriend's okay...and never returns. Something's out there, and it's not friendly. It makes people vanish and just totally trashes their houses, leaving empty hearts and massive renovation bills in its wake. We eventually learn it's...Krampus. German grandma finally lapses into English after several scenes with her and younger son having kind of a Han Solo/Chewbacca relationship where they both speak a different language but somehow understand each other, and she fesses up to tell the family about how if you lose hope and belief in the Christmas spirit this evil version of Santa called Krampus will come AND f***ING EAT YOU. Or stab you. Or sends evil presents to do horrible things to you. Note: if you're having a shitty holiday season and you find a mysterious sack of presents you didn't buy on your doorstep, DO NOT bring it inside the house. The "presents" Krampus leaves are easily the best and funniest part of the movie, although the evil gingerbread men were swiped right out of an episode of The Tick.

The moral of the story is to believe in Santa and the Christmas spirit or else terrible, terrible things will happen to you and your family. It's very German.

On Netflix. Almost as bad as a movie actually made by Netflix.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Ah man, I loved Krampus. Cool creature effects, set and sound design, and reminded be of a movie straight out of the 80s without being an intentional nostalgia trip. Liked the cast in it as well.

 

[kihei]

Yeahhhh I haven’t been posting my reviews this year cause I’m lazier now and don’t really come around here parts anymore because of reasons.

Loved Burning to death. Thought it was a fascinating examination of class struggle, nihilism, and the human condition of loneliness. The acting was great especially Yeun whose sociopathic behaviour was amazingly conveyed through just facial emotions. Loved the ambiguity of the end and thought it breezes by its 2.5 hour running time.

Spoiler

How do you figure which one is the sociopath?

 

[Nalens Oga]

Howards End (1992) - 7.5/10

I've seen four James Ivory films, this one and The Remains of The Day were great, Call Me By Your Name and Room With A View were overrated boring shite. I guess you need Emma Thompson in it for it to be good. Helena Bonham Carter was insufferable to watch even when she was young.

 

[kihei]

Final TIFF '18 Rankings (in order of preference in each category)

Excellent

Roma
Ash Is the Purest White
The Image Book
Burning
Cold War

Very Good

Shadow
Donbass
Border
Museum

Good with Reservations

The Wild Pear Tree
Rojo
Kursk
Climax
In My Room

Mediocre

Long Day's Journey into Night
Fausto
Capernaum
Dogman

Bad

Hotel by the River
Everybody Knows
Manta Ray

Really Bad

The Wedding Guest

The Worst

Diamantino

 

[Puck]

I will have to reconsider Diamantino. The good review I saw was from Barry Hertz in the Globe and Mail. I might drop it and add these below to my watch list.

If Beale Street Could Talk is getting some positive talk. Also getting good reviews are Can You Forgive Me (with Melissa McCarthy), and The Old Man and the Gun with Robert Redford, which might be interesting just because it is the Sundance Kid's last film (supposedly). The documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch might be a good one to look for too.

 

[Arizonan God]

Mandy (dir. Panos Cosmatos)


uhhhhhhhh/10

 

[Nalens Oga]

Umberto D (1957) - 7/10

A bit overrated in the West because people are obsessed with dogs and are easily manipulated into exploitive dog sadness scenes. Decent film but never quite takes off or does anything as emotionally or cinematically well as bicycle thieves.

Z (1969) - 8.5/10

A bit Battle For Algiers like but more polished, lots of great shots, fairly cold and to the point in nature, tightly paced....everything you want from a 60s classic.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

The Predator

Boy this was a mess bordering on utter nonsense at times. But damn if I didn't enjoy it. Crass, gory, a fair bit corny even, but has a spirit that emulates crap from the 80s for which I have a soft spot. There is plenty to nitpick, but I forgive it its trespasses. Shouts to Sterling K. Brown who is having a blast and Trevante Rhodes who I thought was the standout among the ragtag heroes.