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Post by pacinoyes on May 10, 2020 7:29:06 GMT
Devils Path (2018) Took a shot on a low rated movie (4.7 IMDB) and well.....
Sort of a cross between Stranger By The Lake........Cruising and um Deliverance this low budget "horror" plays preposterously with plot details and is really distasteful in how it reveals them. What I thought sounded interesting is all in the setup only.
This is like Lynne Ramsay in a dour genre mood (not kidding) and while it has some things in it that are character interesting it gets to them in ways that are narrative unsatisfying. An ugly, nasty little film really the more I think back on it...
4/10
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Post by Joaquim on May 10, 2020 8:25:14 GMT
A woman is a woman: 9/10
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Post by isabelaolive on May 10, 2020 17:03:30 GMT
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya - 10/10This is not my first Ghibli film, nor is it the first Isao film I watch, but I did not expect this film to surprise me so much! An impeccable animation from beginning to end, when I heard that the film took eight years to be finished, I thought it was an exaggeration, but after watching it, I understood why. Isao Takahata doesn't have as many films as Miyazaki, but the combo of Grave of the fireflys, Only Yesterday and Kaguya show that if he were more prolific he would have the same level of recognition as Miyazaki. Kaguya losing at the Oscars to Big Hero 6 was a joke, but at least Isao left his great masterpiece before he passed away.
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Post by Miles Morales on May 10, 2020 18:40:26 GMT
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya - 10/10This is not my first Ghibli film, nor is it the first Isao film I watch, but I did not expect this film to surprise me so much! An impeccable animation from beginning to end, when I heard that the film took eight years to be finished, I thought it was an exaggeration, but after watching it, I understood why. Isao Takahata doesn't have as many films as Miyazaki, but the combo of Grave of the fireflys, Only Yesterday and Kaguya show that if he were more prolific he would have the same level of recognition as Miyazaki. Kaguya losing at the Oscars to Big Hero 6 was a joke, but at least Isao left his great masterpiece before he passed away. It lost to Frozen, but the point still stands.
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Post by Pavan on May 10, 2020 20:49:39 GMT
Gretel & Hansel (2020)-
Handsomely mounted mood piece but fails on the storytelling front- 6/10
The Ugly Truth (2009)-
Formulaic but fun and goes by swiftly. Heigl and Butler were good in their roles- 6.5/10
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Post by pacinoyes on May 10, 2020 22:19:33 GMT
There Will Be Blood (2007) - ~9+/10 re-watch
Same weaknesses - where are the women (?), Paul Dano is weak sauce here (twice) - I know he has fans but I don't get it ....and the ending is great but it's just too sudden - it's the opposite of Phantom Thread which goes on a beat too long, this is a beat too quick.
On the other hand the movie has a clear and precise vision and of course a performance usually reserved for people whose names end in "o" ........and you find something new every time too - today I was quite enamored at the way Plainview answers when asked what Church he belongs to, which is quite funny, sly, dishonest and ominous an answer.
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Post by Joaquim on May 11, 2020 2:04:35 GMT
Contempt: 9/10
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Post by DeepArcher on May 11, 2020 4:11:51 GMT
The Wild Goose Lake (2019): I know this got kind of mixed reception, but I really dug this. Sort of like a Refn movie that got lost in China, but very much its own thing. Sufficiently grimy and stylish, it’s got atmosphere for days, gorgeous cinematography, and a fully immersive setting that creates a disheartening dystopia out of its contemporary setting. Sort of wish it leaned into the campy violence more, but it manages a nice tonal balance overall, offering heightened genre fetishism along with its cynical realism with nothing feeling out of place. Strong contender for my top twenty of the year — even if it’s not terribly difficult to make that list.
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Post by Joaquim on May 11, 2020 5:43:48 GMT
Le petit soldad: 8/10
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Post by mhynson27 on May 11, 2020 8:13:58 GMT
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (re-watch) Used to always think that Fellowship was my least favourite of the 3. How the turn tables. That last scene though
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Post by DeepArcher on May 11, 2020 19:32:36 GMT
In a Lonely Place (1950): Pretty remarkable — especially in the ambiguity it pulls off in never being able to tell if the way Bogart plays the character is actually changing or if it is just our perception of him. Feels pretty ahead of its time as a depiction of an abusive relationship while also being captivating in its exploration of the psychology of a creator and how it relates to the experience of violence. The ending is brilliant, where the resolution of the plot’s inciting incident (which we’ve almost forgotten about) doesn’t really matter anymore since the conflict has become something else entirely. Really great film.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 11, 2020 20:00:20 GMT
In a Lonely Place (1950): Pretty remarkable — especially in the ambiguity it pulls off in never being able to tell if the way Bogart plays the character is actually changing or if it is just our perception of him. Feels pretty ahead of its time as a depiction of an abusive relationship while also being captivating in its exploration of the psychology of a creator and how it relates to the experience of violence. The ending is brilliant, where the resolution of the plot’s inciting incident (which we’ve almost forgotten about) doesn’t really matter anymore since the conflict has become something else entirely. Really great film. Love the film (in my top 10 of the 50s) and it's my favorite Bogie and talked about this ending in our Great Endings thread too - although I think now we tend to see it maybe a bit too much through contemporary mores: If Bogart would stay Grahame may stay with him in that abusive relationship too (arguable but certainly possible) : "I lived a few weeks while you loved me" iirc (?)......then of course she'd likely be dead................... but what has happened there is that the "villain" makes the heroic decision for her in a way perhaps - we never know whether his leaving is in his interest or in hers for certain since Bogart has one of the great unresolved exits in film there......it's a very complex screenplay in that regard. Like almost TOO complex
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Post by isabelaolive on May 11, 2020 20:08:44 GMT
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya - 10/10This is not my first Ghibli film, nor is it the first Isao film I watch, but I did not expect this film to surprise me so much! An impeccable animation from beginning to end, when I heard that the film took eight years to be finished, I thought it was an exaggeration, but after watching it, I understood why. Isao Takahata doesn't have as many films as Miyazaki, but the combo of Grave of the fireflys, Only Yesterday and Kaguya show that if he were more prolific he would have the same level of recognition as Miyazaki. Kaguya losing at the Oscars to Big Hero 6 was a joke, but at least Isao left his great masterpiece before he passed away. It lost to Frozen, but the point still stands. Kaguya debuted in the United States in 2014 and competed at the 2015 Oscars: Best Animated Feature Film Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams, and Roy Conlidouble-dagger The Boxtrolls – Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable, and Travis Knight How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold Song of the Sea – Tomm Moore and Paul Young The Tale of the Princess Kaguya – Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura
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Post by Miles Morales on May 11, 2020 20:39:19 GMT
It lost to Frozen, but the point still stands. Kaguya debuted in the United States in 2014 and competed at the 2015 Oscars: Best Animated Feature Film Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams, and Roy Conlidouble-dagger The Boxtrolls – Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable, and Travis Knight How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold Song of the Sea – Tomm Moore and Paul Young The Tale of the Princess Kaguya – Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura Wait, what? Shit, I always knew that it competed in the 2013 Oscars. Damn, guess I was wrong. Thank you for rectifying my mistake.
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Post by DeepArcher on May 11, 2020 21:15:10 GMT
eXistenZ (1999): So this is the third consecutive movie I watched about blurring the line between simulated violence and the reality of experiencing violence ... I swear that's a total coincidence. There's some great classic Cronenberg madness in here, though I think it might peak too early -- the entire Dafoe gas station sequence which is glorious stuff -- and I think that opening stretch maybe promises more mayhem than the film actually delivers on. Not Cronenberg's best or most complex examination of people falling out of touch with their own bodies and sacrificing those bodies for the sake of some sort of stimulation, but there is still good stuff in this. The ending is fun.
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Post by DeepArcher on May 11, 2020 21:21:57 GMT
In a Lonely Place (1950): Pretty remarkable — especially in the ambiguity it pulls off in never being able to tell if the way Bogart plays the character is actually changing or if it is just our perception of him. Feels pretty ahead of its time as a depiction of an abusive relationship while also being captivating in its exploration of the psychology of a creator and how it relates to the experience of violence. The ending is brilliant, where the resolution of the plot’s inciting incident (which we’ve almost forgotten about) doesn’t really matter anymore since the conflict has become something else entirely. Really great film. Love the film (in my top 10 of the 50s) and it's my favorite Bogie and talked about this ending in our Great Endings thread too - although I think now we tend to see it maybe a bit too much through contemporary mores: If Bogart would stay Grahame may stay with him in that abusive relationship too (arguable but certainly possible) : "I lived a few weeks while you loved me" iirc (?)......then of course she'd likely be dead................... but what has happened there is that the "villain" makes the heroic decision for her in a way perhaps - we never know whether his leaving is in his interest or in hers for certain since Bogart has one of the great unresolved exits in film there......it's a very complex screenplay in that regard. Like almost TOO complex Well I think so much of its brilliance is that it's not just tackling its subject matter with sensitivity but also doing so with complexity (using spoiler tags just in case) -- Bogart's character is unquestionably an abuser but he's still a human being who shows awareness of the evil that he's capable of, such as when Laurel stops him from almost killing that college guy on the road and he realizes what he was about to do. When he gets the phone call at the end it is literally reminding him that he's not a killer despite what he was just about to do and with the awareness of his own evil he's able to make the decision to leave -- and it's not as simple as being "for him" or "for her" since it's for the benefit of both of them. I don't think Laurel would've stayed with him since she shows the exact same awareness as he does in the final scene ... the "I lived a few weeks line..." which Dix had said to her earlier in the film always marked the inevitability of the destruction of their relationship, which both characters accept by the end even if there is still that yearning for the "few weeks of love" ... as in a lot of relationships that end in toxicity and violence. At least that's how I saw it but surely this something where further viewings/thoughts lead to new ways of looking at it...
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2020 3:13:10 GMT
Seasons... (2002) - 9/10
Hands down the best short film I've ever seen.
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Post by DeepArcher on May 12, 2020 5:31:55 GMT
Apocalypto (2006): I don’t know ... a mix of Hollywood sensationalism and relentless brutality that’s really not for me. I really enjoyed it when it become just a straight footchase through the jungle — and while that is when it’s at its most sensationalist, it is at least in service of something suspenseful and at times exhilarating. That said a lot of the supposed intent — depicting a once great civilization collapsing to inevitability, the hope of a new beginning in the wake of that collapse — didn’t come through for me. Though good on Gibson for making a Hollywood film entirely not in English with an entirely native cast that doesn’t feel the need to have some white savior protagonist or something ... and appropriately depicting European colonialism as this ominous existential threat of destruction.
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Post by TerryMontana on May 12, 2020 5:53:43 GMT
The Long Good Friday (1980)
Hadn't heard of it before. Not a great story but interesting.Mirren solid as always and Hoskins shined in his breakthrough role.
6.5/10
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Lubezki
Based
the social distancing
Posts: 4,332
Likes: 6,554
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Post by Lubezki on May 12, 2020 18:45:04 GMT
Alright gang, what should I watch tonight? Pick two! Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring Let the Right One In In the Mood for Love Mother (2009) About Elly A Prophet The Piano Teacher Revanche For the love of god, please watch In the Mood for Love at some point in the near future. It’s a rousing, beautiful experience.
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Javi
Badass
Posts: 1,547
Likes: 1,629
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Post by Javi on May 12, 2020 22:09:51 GMT
A Passage to India (1984) - This plays like 3 different movies... Lean doesn't really connect the political with the erotic and the metaphysical components. The acting, except for Davis and Ashcroft, isn't even good. Alec Guinness is just stupefying here--it's like he's trolling Hinduism and the British Empire simultaneously--but he had me grinning like an idiot all the way through. Flaws and all this is still a David Lean E-P-I-C and as such, hugely enjoyable. The Barabar Caves form a long, great, sustained sequence... Lean at his near-best. That was Judy Davis' Oscar btw
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Post by Viced on May 12, 2020 22:11:49 GMT
On paper this sounds awesome... but in execution it's one of the most incomprehensible messes I've ever seen. Batshit confusing plot that never even comes close to coming together or making any sense on a scene-by-scene basis. But still strangely enjoyed parts of it... some bizarre action and funny Bronson line deliveries. And the Godfather rip-off stuff with Martin Balsam was somewhat interesting. Kind of reminded me of Peckinpah's (also incomprehensible) Killer Elite... but that one works a lot better. 5/10
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Post by Pavan on May 13, 2020 7:42:05 GMT
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (re-watch)- Still holding pretty great. What a stunning achievement.
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Post by mhynson27 on May 13, 2020 8:55:42 GMT
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (re-watch) "My friends. You bow to no one".
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Post by pessimusreincarnated on May 13, 2020 15:33:56 GMT
Re-watched The Handmaiden (2016). Lavishly directed masterpiece, brilliantly fluctuating between Hitchcockian thriller and psychosexual drama. Remains for me Park Chan Wook's best film.
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