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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 18, 2020 20:30:30 GMT
Charles, Dead or Alive (1969) - slightly above a 7/10 The debut of Alain Tanner and a movie I could tell was by him even if I didn't know it for sure - it sets up his 2 later films that I love Messidor and In The White City : disappear....and then who are you? There's very much thematically here that is later used in the story of The Passenger (1975) which would have been a great movie for him to direct actually - there is nothing more tantalizing to Tanner than to just throw your life away and with each new experience have a new life and new memories.  |
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 19, 2020 23:49:39 GMT
The Skin I Live In - Incredible film. Amazed that this has been out for almost 10 years but I never saw that twist coming. Finally an Almodóvar I can love.
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Post by Sharbs on Dec 20, 2020 3:54:14 GMT
The Call (Lee Chung-hyun, 2020)
Another one I watched today where the ending is a bit underwhelming compared to some of the brilliance throughout the majority of this twisty thriller. Jeon Jong-seo to me is undeniably (G)reat in this, her second movie ever. From pitiable to infinitely terrifying, she crushes every ounce of this performance. Judging by her first two performances, the other Burning, this feels like the emergence of a once in a generation type talent. Music is cool. Premise is slick - 8-8.5/10
It’s on Netflix people!
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Post by stabcaesar on Dec 20, 2020 5:32:08 GMT
Charade (1963) - Best film I've seen in a while. Hepburn is effortlessly charming and gorgeous, and her chemistry with Grant is palpable. The script is funny and witty, the fashion is stunning, and the twists are fun and surprisingly unpretentious. Everything about it just works. Love. 9.5/10.
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 20, 2020 11:09:14 GMT
Messidor (1979) - 9/10 rewatchI've seen this movie close to 10 times I guess.......that will be completely baffling to people who have seen it because it is slow, ambiguous, distant, repetitive......but to me, it is an essential movie. The original " Thelma and Louise (1991)" it uses the mountains and scenery and (crucially) silence to draw a sad and clear distinction between what the world promises and what life in the world is actually "like" - and that contrast becomes achingly visible as the pressure on the two strangers who meet here escalates. A terrific film - later worked out in some themes for Alain Tanner's followup - the even better but less complex In The White City (1983) ......quite a double feature.  |
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Post by stabcaesar on Dec 20, 2020 14:59:22 GMT
Kiss of the Spider Woman - Revolutionary performances from Hurt and Julia. Such an unusual, gripping romance. Hurt’s Oscar has to be one of the most deserved wins in the category. 8.5/10.
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Post by jakesully on Dec 20, 2020 16:43:48 GMT
We Own the Night - (re watch) This James Gray film owns (no pun intended haha) but seriously, Phoenix & Duvall are so good in this one. Can't go wrong with Mendes looking all sexy either and holy crap the scene where Phoenix's character is wearing a wire is so intense. Highly recommend this film to anyone that is a fan of Phoenix.
8/10
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Post by Mattsby on Dec 20, 2020 20:07:29 GMT
 Truck Turner (1974) 7.5/10 - "This ain't my year." One of the very best blaxploitation. Isaac Hayes who just won an Oscar for the Shaft music gets his own vehicle, taking over a project developed for Robert Mitchum - the writers/producers just struck gold with Enter the Dragon, and they got Jonathan Kaplan to direct who did the great Jim Brown pic The Slams the year before. Around the charismatic Hayes, an awesome cast - Dick Miller, Stan Shaw, Scatman Crothers, Yaphet Kotto, and best of all a lusciously and insanely profane Nichelle Nichols perf that would send Trekkies to church. Tightly done movie and tonally picture something between Long Goodbye and Midnight Run. |
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Post by Mattsby on Dec 21, 2020 0:22:34 GMT
 A Sun (2020) 7/10 or more - Taiwan's Oscar submission this year, a 155min family drama a little heavy on the melo, been sitting on Netflix since January! I'd do without the sad score and cut out an entire character (the brother) and the last several minutes (end on the highway which has a great feel to it) but otherwise there are so many sensitively well-written and well-acted scenes, I found it rather absorbing all in all. |
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Dec 21, 2020 3:35:45 GMT
Broadcast News. First watch. Pretty enjoyable, a bit dated and I’m sure I would have liked it more had I seen it maybe in the 90s. Still, Hunter, Brooks, and Hurt were all great. Brooks onscreen broadcast was hilarious.
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 21, 2020 21:06:23 GMT
Julia's Eyes (2010) 7/10Suspenseful, Hitchcock influenced and red-herring filled Spanish movie co-produced by Guillermo del Toro that has some of the classy veneer of Alejandro Amenábar's work. As it winds down it becomes a little too convoluted for its own good (and a little too long) but kind of surprising this hasn't been remade in America. Old school mystery/fright fans should like this a lot....  |
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Post by cheesecake on Dec 21, 2020 22:32:17 GMT
I watched Archenemy this afternoon which was verrrrrrry reminiscent of The Old Guard except this was a lot more fun. Nicolas Cage was initially cast which is *chef's kiss* but Glenn Howerton offers some of that chaotic energy, meanwhile Joe Manganiello who took over the Cage role brought it into a more stoic direction. I also really liked Amy Seimetz in a supporting part and the psychedelic animation sequences were a nice touch.
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 22, 2020 2:35:18 GMT
The Swerve (2020) - 7.5/10THE most astonishing, where did THAT come from performance I've seen all year from Azura Skye resembling a strung out Helen Hunt.......this film has the rhythms of horror but the text of mental decline like Keane or Clean, Shaven (or better yet, A Woman Under The Influence actually). Depressing af and suffocating and claustrophobic, but in a way that rings true and detailed.......this is a debut by writer/director Dean Kapsalis - who is basically pulling a Cassavetes here and telling Hollywood to kiss his ass. I'll have a lot to say about Skye's performance in the "Great Performances" & Acting threads I'm sure ......kind of shaken by it atm, and it is itself a performance of raw nerves exposed and rattling. Anybody see this?  |
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Post by MsMovieStar on Dec 22, 2020 10:55:33 GMT
 A Summer in La Goulette (1996) 8/10 Oh honeys, I loved this Tunisian movie. It has all the charm of Cinema Paradiso and other Mediterranean movies and the story is cool too: Almost like a twist on the American Pie movies, three girlfriends; one Tunisian & Muslim, another French & Jewish, the last, Italian & Catholic set a date to lose their virginity in the Summer 1967. Their families are all friends and neighbours and a great deal of comic mayhem ensues dealing with customs and traditions. Gorgeous movie. Sunshine & laughter. I miss travelling so watching these types of movies is next best thing for me. |
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Post by michael128 on Dec 23, 2020 2:01:19 GMT
West Side Story! I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. The dancing was so tight. And there was a random disclaimer at the start about something racial? I didn’t even notice anything about race in this movie. Our society is too PC these days!!! 7/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 23, 2020 11:22:59 GMT
The Crucible (1996) - ......... 6/10 re-watchFrom time to time I revisit DDL films to see if I can legit make a case for him actually being "the" GOAT instead of merely being close to it.......and yeah I still can't make that case and he's not.... but The Crucible is the one time he had a truly great built-in historical dramatic role where he didn't hit a home run and pretty much belly flopped. Set at a pitch that is one notch below (above?) rabidly foaming at the mouth and like Winona Ryder here he confuses histrionic bluffing with historic verisimilitude. Joan Allen and Paul Scofield are great and suggest a better adaptation than this one is which is really amazing since Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay and Day-Lewis was involved/married Rebecca Miller......you'd think some of that would rub off, but alas......... no. Yeah, it hurts me to say it too, buddy.... |
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Post by MsMovieStar on Dec 23, 2020 18:49:03 GMT
 Oh honeys, this movie has to be seen to be believed. Another delicious pre code movie, Madam Satan (1930) starts off as a drama with a wife trying to catch her adulterous husband, then goes all 42nd street musical with a musical number (Lillian Roth), then there is a fantastic costume party sequence staged on a Zeppelin with more dancing and Zeigfeld style costumes, there's an early sing & dance off and then the movie turns into what must have been the very first disaster movie as the Zeppelin is struck by lightning. Seriously, who needs LSD with plots like these! Incidentally, this was a huge flop for a Cecil De Mille movie at the time and certainly one of the strangest I've ever seen.   |
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 24, 2020 0:28:37 GMT
Black Coal, Thin Ice (2017) - re-watch .........~7.5/10Sort of a Chinese "Sea of Love" with a particularly haunting and soulful pull to it and the relationship entanglements patterns of classic noir. Some of the violence in this movie is beautifully done - the initial shootout, death by ice skate blades,,,,,, and a sad shaky shootout while running away are beautifully framed and memorable. Some of the plot mechanics, particularly the resolution could have used some rewrites though.....the atmosphere and mood wins out.....  |
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Post by mhynson27 on Dec 24, 2020 12:11:37 GMT
Home Alone (re-watch)
Annual Christmas Eve watch.
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Post by stabcaesar on Dec 24, 2020 16:17:01 GMT
The Iron Giant - This film is perfection.
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Post by Mattsby on Dec 24, 2020 20:14:54 GMT
The Swerve (2020) - 7.5/10THE most astonishing, where did THAT come from performance I've seen all year from Azura Skye resembling a strung out Helen Hunt.......this film has the rhythms of horror but the text of mental decline like Keane or Clean, Shaven (or better yet, A Woman Under The Influence actually). Depressing af and suffocating and claustrophobic, but in a way that rings true and detailed.......this is a debut by writer/director Dean Kapsalis - who is basically pulling a Cassavetes here and telling Hollywood to kiss his ass. I'll have a lot to say about Skye's performance in the "Great Performances" & Acting threads I'm sure ......kind of shaken by it atm, and it is itself a performance of raw nerves exposed and rattling. Anybody see this? On Prime , about 90m - Really liked this! and remarkably effective for such a small budget. Similar recent movies sometimes falter by having like one giant metaphor hang over it but here there's a really complex layering of past and present and crises big and small, sort of collecting around her, no longer dormant, breaking her - with an an eerily skeletal, sunk-feeling perf from Skye whose mental tailspin looks like one. Anted up by its editing, the subtle sound design and score by Mark Korven (The Witch, The Lighthouse), and a chilling ending -- that final shot! Would make a very good 2020 double feature with Swallow. |
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 24, 2020 20:47:21 GMT
The Swerve (2020) - 7.5/10THE most astonishing, where did THAT come from performance I've seen all year from Azura Skye resembling a strung out Helen Hunt.......this film has the rhythms of horror but the text of mental decline like Keane or Clean, Shaven (or better yet, A Woman Under The Influence actually). Depressing af and suffocating and claustrophobic, but in a way that rings true and detailed.......this is a debut by writer/director Dean Kapsalis - who is basically pulling a Cassavetes here and telling Hollywood to kiss his ass. I'll have a lot to say about Skye's performance in the "Great Performances" & Acting threads I'm sure ......kind of shaken by it atm, and it is itself a performance of raw nerves exposed and rattling. Anybody see this? On Prime , about 90m - Really liked this! and remarkably effective for such a small budget. Similar recent movies sometimes falter by having like one giant metaphor hang over it but here there's a really complex layering of past and present and crises big and small, sort of collecting around her, no longer dormant, breaking her - with an an eerily skeletal, sunk-feeling perf from Skye whose mental tailspin looks like one. Anted up by its editing, the subtle sound design and score by Mark Korven (The Witch, The Lighthouse), and a chilling ending -- that final shot! Would make a very good 2020 double feature with Swallow. The writer-director is very sharp at a screenplay level in this movie - I'll be excited to see what he does next - the disparate elements add up to effect her withering psyche in a particularly sharp way: She is like the mouse - frightened, trapped, preyed upon and when she kills it she's responsible which weighs on her fragile psyche even more ...........and she's also a parallel to the boy ..........and to her sister (and it's integrated with thematic underpinnings to the story when they were young girls and sexuality both teen and adult ............. and Death through the baking of a pie - which of course plays a role in her youth and her sister relationship). You can write all that and be far too clever for your own good, it's a fine balancing act in how you portray it, but Dean Kapsalis writes it all in such a way that it isn't signaling or tipping his hand. |
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 25, 2020 10:53:28 GMT
The Brave (1997) - ~6/10 Re-watchEarnest, but misguided and notorious Johnny Depp directed movie with a knockout single scene performance by the GOAT Marlon Brando - that draws a line that verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry few who followed him even approached his sphere of genius (reviewed in the "Last Great Performance" thread). The plot is sensational and lurid - about a man who agrees to appear (and die!) in a snuff film to provide for his family......but Depp doesn't do the hard work here - you don't really see why this guy has to do this right now (might have been better to make him a dupe). There's far too much silence in this film - not meaningful silence either like in Bergman - but silence in like you know not having anything to really say.   |
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Post by Miles Morales on Dec 25, 2020 14:25:55 GMT
Soul - 10/10
What an absolute masterpiece. I'm completely floored.
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Drish
Badass
Posts: 2,036 
Likes: 1,768
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Post by Drish on Dec 26, 2020 6:56:59 GMT
Haley Bennett is soo good in Swallow! 😍
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