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Post by Martin Stett on Sept 17, 2018 15:45:15 GMT
Kino's Journey: Country of Illness (2007) -- The second of the cash-in projects for Kino's Journey, and though this feels much more like a traditional episode of the show, it suffers from giving into cliche with a bedridden cute little girl and other cheap tricks to gain audience sympathy. The most interesting aspect is the banal face of evil (as it always is in KJ) that Kino meets towards the end, but the shift of focus comes as too little, too late. Some good stuff, certainly. Just not enough to make it one of Kino's more interesting stops. 6/10
Moonrise Kingdom (2012 rewatch) -- Anderson's unique style serves to make the serious parts more hard hitting, and I enjoyed this film just as much on the rewatch, seeing how all of the adult characters are trapped in their own makeshift prisons. The kids just aren't as interesting, unfortunately, but still pretty good. Everything with the adults is pretty masterful. 9/10
Rust and Bone (2012) -- It's hard to figure out what doesn't work in this movie. Schonaerts and especially Cotillard bring what they can to it. I think my problem is in the way it fails to capture any misery. These people hit some very low moments here and work on clawing their way out, but the low moments never feel very low. Stephanie loses everything, but we never see how much the change affects her because we barely see her before the accident. Alain is so anonymous, keeping his real feelings locked away from the audience so much that I could never understand him. I dunno, I find that the whole thing comes out as "two people fight to overcome some inconvenience to make their lives better" and it just doesn't sing to me. I do like some individual moments a lot, but not the whole. 5/10
Witchhammer (1970) -- That was unpleasant and depressing and made me hate myself for watching it. I liked it a lot. 7/10
Downsizing (2017) -- The problem here is that Mark is a horribly bland, reactive character that is overridden by whatever the plot dictates in each of the four acts. I don't necessarily mind what he does, just that there is no cohesive why. He suddenly wants to downsize because... well, it's what the movie is about. He wants to help people because he's dragged along by Ngoc Lan. He turns into an environmentalist because... someone tells him he should do it, so he cares...now...all of a sudden... That said, there are some good episodes (I liked all of the early Ngoc Lan stuff before....ugh....), and Christoph Waltz made me laugh hard every second he was on screen. Nobody can go full ham quite like Waltz. 5/10
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Post by urbanpatrician on Sept 17, 2018 16:20:09 GMT
Thoroughly Modern Millie - A bit of a unconventional musical. Those 60s musicals were often hot messes... in a good way. Something like Singin' in the Rain and The Sound of Music is so conventionally crowd-pleasing. This one feels different, among a better era, and I dunno... I just have more fascination with these.... the comedic styles are different. 7
Hook - Mediocre. Absolutely one of Spielberg's worst. Total children's film snoozefest. 5
A Wind from the South (1955 TV ep) - I can see how there's a film here to be made. A more willow-y southern Tennessee Williams production can be made using these same actors.... Julie Harris especially. 7
8 1/2 - You can see cinema was about to take form right about then. This the new surreal movement. Probably the finest example of cinema as a collection of images. Schools Malick. And it easily pwns the thought and ideas behind The Tree of Life. Well, maybe not the ideas, but at least the innovation and bare approach is superior. A tough viewing though - probably the most inaccessible film in the theyshootpictures top 10... varying degrees of preferences (5 accessible, 5 rather not inaccessible in my opinion anyways). A truly innovative film. 9
The Astonished Heart (1950)- In some ways, it's the more preferrable film to Brief Encounter. Not saying it's necessarily better, at least it's not as entertaining, but there is grounds to do more than just entertain which is what I think Brief Encounter mostly is but really not much else. Margaret Leighton was the ideal Noel Coward actress. Celia Johnson can find herself in and out in some of these movies too. 7
Key Largo - Really cool hold-up film. Always enjoy Bogart and Ed Robinson go at it. Huston is an actor's director. A fine one. One of the best. He kicks Howard Hawks lame ass anyday. You can see the formula behind The Big Sleep all the way, but I see it way less with Huston. He also kicks Billy Wilder's ass too, but Double Indemnity is just..... meh. Huston's superior actor's directing talents allows him to cast Edward G. Robinson in a role he was the best at, but also give him fine direction. That's one advantage he had over Wilder, among others. Why wasn't Robinson nominated here? He should've won. Claire Trevor was stupendous and deserving, of course. Bogart always fun. Bacall.... is my favorite presence of hers in the 4 Bogart films and one of the few times I found her good. 7.5
The Motorcycles Diaries - Mehhhhh. I find it decent. Starts to lose my interest once they start celebrating on the riverboat. A halfway decent film then, but one that you have to find the political sentiment... and I never had any for it. Just a forgettable, easy to bypass film, imo. 6
Rancho Deluxe - Pretty irrelevant. And I'm interested in some of Frank Perry's work. 5
Days of Wine and Roses (1958 TV ep) - Piper Laurie is fantastic. One of the better television actresses, though she can work in all 3 mediums. Funny how between The Hustler and Carrie, all of her movies were on TV but she got nominations for both films... being 15 years apart. Which proves she was quite valued by the point of view of actors. 7
Breakfast on Pluto - That "baby love" intro song and Cillian Murphy aside, I don't have a whole lot of interest in this. It's not bad, just not really anything I care about. I really like Murphy's femme-ness though. I feel like he got the part down, and the fact that he's.... such a..... girly man is really a right match between parts. But I don't feel he can be my win because I can't stay interested in the film long enough to feel that strongly for any aspect of it. But a nomination is good enough for me, and I prefer him to all the nominees except Phoenix. 6
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Post by mhynson27 on Sept 17, 2018 17:11:44 GMT
The Hurt Locker (re-watch)
Nothing But the Truth
Hot Fuzz (re-watch)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2018 21:36:23 GMT
Jules and Jim - not as great as I was hoping, but I enjoyed it. 7/10.
Up! - some parts were absolutely hilarious, ridiculous, and fun (especially the first ten or so minutes), but a lot of it dragged. Couldn't really keep my interest. 6/10.
Life After Beth - the parks and rec references were easily the best thing about this. 5/10.
Le Boucher - I still don't think I've completely formed my opinion on this and it's been four days. For now an 8/10... could go higher or lower on further reflection.
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Sept 18, 2018 14:13:07 GMT
Almost nothing. I just rewatched Deadpool 2, which I liked slightly more than the first time around, so good stuff.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Sept 18, 2018 14:35:49 GMT
Cinema Paradiso - (Rewatch) - Such a beautiful film, and a wonderful tribute to cinema as a whole. I still cry up every-time I watch this. - 9.5 / 10
The Nun - Unfortunately it lacks the enjoyment or scare factor of either of The Conjuring films, or that recent Annabelle Origins film. As it stands, it's a very standard modern horror film, with some surprisingly strong and interesting cinematography, but on the whole is very uninteresting, and average as well. - 5 / 10
To Woo Foo Thanks For Everything - 6 / 10
Can You Ever Forgive Me - Saw this at the tiff screenings at Dartmouth. Great. It's awesome to see Melissa McCarthy in a different role then usual, and she's very good, but Richard E. Grant was especially outstanding as the best friend. I didn't even know who Lee Israel was all that much beforehand, and I still found the art forgery story very interesting. - 8
The Favorite - Yorgos Lanthimos latest is sort of like a big royal baroque mess. The cinematography is top-notch, and you can tell the lead actresses (Coleman, Weisz, and Stone), are having a "ball" in their respected roll. It's also really hilarious, witty, and feels like a change of pace for Lanthimos, being much more accessible then his last few films. Super impressed. - 8.5 / 10
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Sept 19, 2018 20:22:31 GMT
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) — 7/10
I expected this to be dumb fun and it more or less rose to my expectations. The set design is nothing short of remarkable, and the scene of the ship capsizing features some of the gutsiest stunts I've seen from this era. Imagine how great the movie could have been without the silly Hollywood melodrama.
Hombre (1967) — 8/10
Nice little revisionist western. Newman's understated performance works so well, and gives his antihero a moral ambiguity that makes for some compelling moral discussions. It's a provocative film for sure, concerned more with the corruption and ugliness of the Wild West than its grit and glory.
Days of Wine and Roses (1962) — 8.5/10
I did love this this, but I can't help but wish Lee Remick had just five more minutes of screentime and character development. Her final scene with Lemmon is an erupting volcano of ideas that the movie hadn't really explored up to that point and I wish there had more hinting or foreshadowing. I wish the movie had spent more time exploring the repression in her childhood and adolescence that might have led her to that point, but most of it is left to the audience's imagination. That being said, the movie is a remarkably stark depiction of addiction and the performance are incredible across the board (including a career-best turn from Lemmon). Very depressing film.
Ride the High Country (1962) — 5/10
There's nothing unique stylistically or narratively about this film. It's a mish-mash of genre conventions that doesn't rise above those conventions. And that's just the film's aesthetic and premise. Halfway through we're saddled with discussions of gender politics and sensationalist Peckipah rape that combined with the film's totally ordinary structure and style left a really bad taste in my mouth. It was like watching an episode of Bonanza with a lot more rape. Not my cup of tea.
Cat Ballou (1965) — 7/10
Jane Fonda and her gang of outlaws having a gay old time wreaking havoc on a corrupt town and robbing trains. There's nothing extraordinary about this film but Fonda is a sweetheart and Lee Marvin is amusing enough. I had fun.
Limitless (2011) — 7/10
Really dumb premise, but the final act kept me entertained and I liked that I didn't know where the story was headed. I won't watch it again but i didn't hate it.
The Tree of Life (2011) — 7.5/10
I loved it, I hated it. I've already written my thoughts about this film in the 'Last Movie You've Seen' thread, the '2011 AMARAs thread,' and on letterboxd. I don't have anything to add here. Suffice to say I connected deeply with the main portion of the film. It was breathtaking. The other stuff felt pretentious and superfluous, but I think that speaks more to what I want and need in the films I watch. Malick tackling cosmic existential quandaries via nature montage and a creation sequence isn't what I want.
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