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Post by theycallmemrfish on Jul 17, 2022 21:59:51 GMT
Playback Felt like they didn't know what they wanted the demon's powers to be and were just making up new shit as it went along. Doesn't make for a good movie. Does have a good amount of hot chicks naked though, so there's that.
Like Minds Typical rich boy commits heinous crimes and gets away with it. Toni Collette's character is supposed to be some brilliant psychologist and she can't see that Eddie Redmayne is not a good actor? Pssh. I'm not even a psych major and I could see that! IDIOT!
Storage 24 What the hell were these characters?! I know it's an alien/monster movie, but can they not be insufferable douches? Example 1: "why are you being so mean to me?" (after literally being a complete bitch to him for half the movie). Example 2: "hey, I know your ex-boyfriend and my best friend (same person) are like 10 feet away, but let's hook up right here in the hallway!" IDIOTS!
The Unborn Short, matter-of-fact horror movie. Not terrible... but I have to say when there are two small demonic/spirit children in front of you, you don't just stand there. YOU RUN THE FUCK AWAY! And they're children, their little legs won't be able to keep up.
Horror in the High Desert Fake documentary about a dude who loves trains and thinks it a good idea to investigate a small cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere. This doesn't even remotely become a horror until maybe the last 10 minutes and the whole reveal of what's inside of the cabin was definitely not worth it with its jumpscare you can see a mile away... and a mile away is probably where the dude should have been from the cabin. Just saying, he's also an idiot.
Pontypool Talk Radio meets Romero meets... Disney? I don't know. I was really feeling this until the cause of the outbreak is found out and then I rolled my eyes at the rest of it. Should have just kept it secret.
13 Cameras This built up a lot of really good and creepy tension and I was engrossed until the last 15 minutes or so. The whole thing kind of unravels and ruins what would have otherwise been a rare thumbs up. But at least there were hot chick boobs and butt. So, respect.
Killing Ground Awesomesauce. It's a been-there-done-that plot but it executed it incredibly well and so it gets the Fish Stamp of Approval.
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Post by Joaquim on Jul 18, 2022 2:12:48 GMT
Master of the House (1925): 7/10
It’s good but the piano score on criterion took me out of it. It just didn’t fit the film, idk why I didn’t just mute it but I’m not letting that affect my score in any significant way anyway. The pacing could’ve been better too but the positives in this movie far outweigh the negatives. Mathilde Nielsen steals the whole thing and is front runner in my acting lineup for ‘25 if I can make up my mind in which category to place her. This one is a textbook 7, which is pretty much the bare minimum I’ve come to expect from Dreyer at this point and it didn’t disappoint. It’s not Dreyer’s best but it’s 2hrs well spent
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Post by Miles Morales on Jul 18, 2022 19:03:46 GMT
A Quiet Place - 9/10 If I had a nickel every time for I saw John Kransiski die while screaming horrifically this year, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jul 20, 2022 16:43:29 GMT
Gigi (1958) is pretty terrible
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Post by Joaquim on Jul 22, 2022 2:26:59 GMT
The Unholy Three (1925): 5/10
Ugghhh it sounded interesting but I was just never able to get into this. Lon the GOAT Chaney is great as usual. Best actor of the silent era? Idk maybe, he's certainly up there in the conversation for me. And yet I've still never given him a win despite nominating him almost every year in the 20s that I've seen enough films to put together pretty complete lineups lol
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Post by Joaquim on Jul 22, 2022 4:08:34 GMT
Serpent (1925): 7/10
Maybe it's because it's my first time watching a film with an accompanying Benshi narration so I'm just not used to it but I really wasn't a fan of the narration throughout the entire runtime but I won't let the detract much from the overall film. Could be a bit repetitive at times too especially in the first 30 or so minutes but I liked it a good deal, not a bad samurai movie. Spectacular fight scene at the end
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SZilla
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Post by SZilla on Jul 22, 2022 15:15:25 GMT
The Unholy Three (1925): 5/10 Ugghhh it sounded interesting but I was just never able to get into this. Lon the GOAT Chaney is great as usual. Best actor of the silent era? Idk maybe, he's certainly up there in the conversation for me. And yet I've still never given him a win despite nominating him almost every year in the 20s that I've seen enough films to put together pretty complete lineups lol Yeah Chaney's one of the all-time greats in my opinion that's unfortunately not spoken about as much due to his early death and the fact that his career ended about 90+ years ago now. I know you weren't a fan of this particular film, but it might be worth it to check out the remake from 1930. It's almost identical in a lot of ways, but it's the only chance to see Chaney in a talkie, so it's definitely interesting to see him utilize his voice and get a glimpse into the "what if" of Chaney surviving and making more films.
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Post by Miles Morales on Jul 22, 2022 18:25:54 GMT
Vikram - 9-9.5/10
This was hype and really well-made but tbh I preferred Kaithi for being super fresh for an Indian actioner and having a tighter narrative. Would've preferred better female characters too, they were very shortchanged here.
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 23, 2022 0:09:31 GMT
Christian Petzold Deep Dive #3
The Sex Thief (1998)Christian Petzold's two first films are a bit tricky to talk about, as it is hard to work out what they are about until they have been about it for some time. The Sex Thief, on the other hand, announces itself within the first forty seconds: A middle-aged woman (Constanze Engelbrecht) says to a man "Take me in your arms. Germany is so far away." Hard cut to the man's limp hand dropping a champagne glass, and Petra is taking the gold watch off of his other hand and efficiently removing every valuable from his person. She is NOT a whore. Let's make that clear. Petra repeatedly insists: She never lets them fuck her. She drugs them, takes their belongings, and disappears. Everything leading up to this act is, indeed, exactly the same. But there is a line between someone who sells her body and someone who sells an idea. And her idea isn't sex at all, the way that she sees it. She's selling an image of a woman so lonely that it would be a crime not to comfort her. Sure, she must apply makeup and wear revealing dresses and flirt at the bar and in every other way present herself as a whore, but she doesn't see the connection. She has been sending money to her sister Franziska (Nele Mueller-Stofen), for years. She put Franziska through college, gave her a proper education so that she could have a real job, doing what she wants. When Petra returns home, she discovers that Petra isn't translating books the way she always dreamed of doing. Franziska is depressed, unmotivated, broke. She followed her dreams, and her dreams swallowed her up. Working a trash job at a mall selling products over a loudspeaker, she gets by. Translating books is *hard,* she explains. It is hard and nobody pays for work that hard, not if you can get shit work for a cheaper price. And so the plot proper begins, as Petra sets about teaching her sister the tools of the trade. Not thievery, silly! SEX. Franziska is smart, she is qualified, she deserves the job of her dreams (if she doesn't, Petra's whole life has been a failure), and god damnit, Petra is going to make sure that she presents herself as someone who is desirable to be hired. The correlation between this and "desirable to be fucked" may not cross her mind, but Franziska sees it clearly. Smile, cross your legs in just the right way, let them know you're interested (in the job, in the bulge in their pants) but not desperate. You're selling the image of somebody who is professional and pleasant and yes, sexy and obtainable, if you just hire her and maybe ask her out on a date after a suitable amount of time. Franziska is disgusted by all of this (she quit translating because she felt that poor translations were defrauding the customer, and dolling herself up when she never means to follow through is but another form of fraud), but Petra assures her that once that first paycheck comes in, everything will change. She wants the best for her little sister, and this is the path to grabbing it. As Petzold makes brutally clear throughout this narrative, he believes that people have no choice but to sell people what they want to buy. And that something always comes back to sex. You can sell your qualifications, your passion, your work ethic, your skills. But in the end, it is always a matter of how you cross your legs, how you do your hair, how your body can make your mark's body feel better. Whether it is a job interview or a one night stand, you can only sell them what they want to take. So whore yourself out, darling, or stay in that dead-end piece of shit job forever. Men or women (there's a wonderful subplot of another thief played by Wolfram Berger who is annoyed by Petra stepping on his turf and using his methods), young or old. Show some leg, flash those pearly whites. Razzle dazzle 'em.
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Post by Miles Morales on Jul 23, 2022 21:43:49 GMT
The Young Girls of Rochefort - 10/10
Gene Kelly showing up threw me off guard to be honest. Didn't expect him to appear in this film at all.
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SZilla
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Post by SZilla on Jul 24, 2022 0:07:06 GMT
Lady on a Train (1945)
Absolutely delightful. First time I'm seeing Deanna Durbin, this time portraying a spunky rich girl obsessed with mystery novels that witnesses a murder while on a train. The entire cast is having a ball here and its definitely infectious. Dan Duryea, David Bruce, Ralph Bellamy, and Edward Everett Horton all stand out. The film plays with personas and identities in a very fun way. Eddie Muller on TCM called this an underrated gem and I'm in full agreement. 8/10
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Jul 26, 2022 1:06:33 GMT
Bloody Hell Veers into slapstick comedy a little too much for its own good but otherwise this is a decent showpiece for the lead actor who is going to be a big thing someday... or at least something... also the woman playing Alina is... woo boy, woo. WOO!
All My Friends Hate Me I hated this with a passion. This is like taking all the cringe moments from things like The Office or Meet the Parents and removing and semblance of humor from it... then of course, they put it under the guise of "horror" (which is certainly is no such thing). 90 minutes was far too long to sit through such torture.
It Stains the Sands Red This goes from lame to interesting to lame back to interesting and then right back to lame. I really loved the idea of a woman trying to escape a singular, unrelenting zombie across the Nevada desert but there was just a lot (A LOT) of head scratching moments that made me ultimately uninterested.
The Kaos Brief Again, I've been foiled by the alien horror genre. It tried to be a cross between Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch and fails at both. Film could have been a lot better if they focused on The Men in Black.
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Post by stabcaesar on Jul 26, 2022 12:53:17 GMT
Sullivan's Travels - It felt surprisingly modern. Especially the black church scene - did not expect a film this old to handle black people (and criminals) respectfully. I can say with confidence that I like it better than both Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon. The Miracle Worker - I guess the Academy was like "Bette Davis? I don't know her" after watching Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in this together.
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 27, 2022 0:06:07 GMT
2018 Scavenger Hunt #9
I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians"Let people get their atrocities from the internet!" Hoooooooo boy, now THIS is a movie with a lot on its mind. The plot is rather simple: It follows a director named Mariana (Ioana Iacob) who is staging a recreation of the Odessa Massacre. If you don't have a grasp of Romanian history, neither do I, so I'll sum up what I could gather from the movie: Romanian soldiers. Jewish civilians. Lots of shooting. Also hanging, and burning, and exploding... Raping too, I almost forgot that bit. This is a historical reenactment, and so she has managed to wrangle public funds and is staging this show outdoors on public property. Of course, the city council would like to, um... well, tone down her vision a bit. There will be *kids* in the audience, you know. We don't want to offend anybody now, do we? This movie talks a lot. Clearly and openly. About nationalism, racism, propaganda, cowardice, egoism. There is no subtext here, as every character is always talking about or represents a line of reasoning, from our main actors to a Jewish extra that refuses to participate alongside gypsies playing Jews in the massacre. The only times the movie stops these political arguments is during the interludes between Mariana and her married boyfriend. When these scenes have the two debating politics, they work (there is a great moment when they watch the 1994 movie Mirror, a hagiographic biopic on convicted war criminal Ion Antonescu)... but too often, they stall the movie with unnecessary melodrama that doesn't fit in a movie so bluntly outspoken in what it is doing. The push-pull between our protagonist and a city official (played by Alexandru Dabija in a sparklingly comic performance that would have AT LEAST made an Oscar play in a just world) engaging in long debates about the show, historical revisionism, and whataboutism provide the best moments of this film. Their spirited arguments on the morality of art go on for several minutes in uninterrupted takes as they both offer good points. It feels like real arguments that director Radu Jude may have had with a friend that he repurposed for the movie. But they also illustrate the one other major gripe I had with the movie: As fascinating as Mariana's mission is on an intellectual level, her employer may have the right of it in saying that her show is pointless, stroking her own ego in an attempt to make her own The Act of Killing in a vain attempt show the Romanian people once and for all the evils of nationalism. But then the ending ties it together, showing that Jude is definitely aware of the limits of art, but unwilling to accept that these limits mean that he should compromise. It's an interesting end to one of the most openly intellectual and philosophical films I've ever seen. I recommend checking the movie out, as it is certainly a conversation starter... even if the movie itself isn't quite sure if it has answers.
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Post by Mattsby on Jul 27, 2022 18:14:11 GMT
Le monte-charge (1962) 7.5/10. Bit of a xmas noir... set over one night. Hard to talk about without spoiling. Most of the movie is a courtship but it's so teased with unease, you expect someone or something to go wrong; there's betrayal in the air. And later, there's an elaborately fascinating plot twist. De Palma would love it... he should've straight up remade this at some point. Obscure, hard to find movie... maybe pacinoyes has seen it!
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Post by Pavan on Jul 28, 2022 19:21:58 GMT
The Gray Man (2022)-
A globe trotting adventure that is mildly entertaining. A basic plot, extra fast pace and not enough memorable set pieces made it a passive watch. It just goes by without leaving an impression. Better than Red Notice and other Netflix algorithm made garbage though- 6/10
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Post by stabcaesar on Jul 30, 2022 17:26:49 GMT
The Silence (1963) - Usually Bergman is ice on the surface, volcano in the substance, but this is mostly ice so it kinda lost me. Still, this was beautifully lit, and the two leads were brilliant. Esp. Thulin. 7.5/10.
The Long Good Friday (1981) - Gangster is amongst my least favourite genres but this is a lot more grounded and streamlined than usual. Hoskins was absolutely phenomenal and Mirren was excellent. Brilliant final twist, too. 8.5/10.
Shame (1968) - I am not sure how I feel about this. The sense of intimacy works superbly well in the first half, but once the war breaks out the camera work and the narrative become very alienating imo that the emotional punch just isn't there. Ullmann still was as great as ever, though. She's just always in her A game. 7.5/10.
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 31, 2022 23:40:25 GMT
Christian Petzold Deep Dive #4
The State I Am In (2000)Petzold does a coming-of-age story in what I'm guessing is his remake of Running on Empty (I haven't seen that film). Jeanne (Julia Hummer) is fifteen years old, and she lives in hiding. Her parents (Barbara Auer and Petzold regular Richy Muller) are on the run. It is never explicitly stated *why* they are on the run, but what matters is that they are. She cannot develop friendships, or go to school, or do any normal teenage things. She must keep her head down and not be noticed. Every time she begins to settle into a place, off they go to another city in another country. She wants to be normal, and her parents know this. They subtly keep her on a leash, guilt-tripping her whenever she shows signs of rebellion. If she brings attention to herself, they are going to prison for a long time, and they hold this over her without even seeming to know that they do so. Maybe she doesn't deserve to be running her whole life, maybe they're wrong and they should let her go and live like other girls. They know this, and their interactions hold a sword of this knowledge over her head: you can go to school, but we'd have to disappear and never see you again. You can stop running, show off to boys, listen to music with friends, but if you tell them anything about yourself, we will literally die. They love her, in their own way. They try to provide for her, and even try to let her be mature and let her make (some) decisions about how she will live. But she doesn't really have a choice. She can't open herself to anyone or allow her guard to ever come down, because if she does, she is responsible for what happens. And so she wrestles with herself. She wants to fit in, but fitting in means abandoning her only support in the world, the only people that care about her. I don't want to get into unnecessary details, but I grew up in a fairly similar environment. Looking back, I know that if social services ever found out about the conditions I lived in as a child, I would have been taken away. My parents knew this, and subconsciously used the same tactics to make sure that us kids would never speak out about what was happening. So we didn't speak about anything, to anybody, ever. My movie addiction came about because I would watch two, sometimes three movies in a day because I had nobody to speak to, and the movies could be used as painkillers for a few hours. Petzold could have pulled on those strings that already connect with me, but I admire that he doesn't do so: his style is cold and distant, but no less striking for that. There is a lot of dramatic heft to this movie, but much like in Pilots and The Sex Thief, he doesn't draw attention to the dramatic. He trusts the audience to understand the characters without force-feeding us exposition and teary moments. We observe and make our own decisions on the film, instead of being told what we should think of it. This is a tragically rare trait in modern cinema, this willingness to let an audience connect with something on their own terms. I enjoy the film more for that: he allows us to connect to the film on our own levels, in our own ways. I'm not convinced that this is some unknown masterpiece, but I appreciate Petzold's restraint. Here's hoping I can find some of his other movies floating around out there, as my first search for his next film came up empty. I hate to leave a filmography unfinished on a deep dive.
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Post by Martin Stett on Aug 1, 2022 0:06:26 GMT
Yeah, if anyone has a way to view Petzold's Something to Remind Me (his first collaboration with Nina Hoss!) shoot me a message, eh?
Edit: Or Wolfsburg?
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie on Aug 1, 2022 7:09:38 GMT
Top Gun - 4/10
Goddamn this movie was boring af. Just everything about it was fluff that was just so damn empty, it’s irritating. This was a fucking waste of time
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Post by MsMovieStar on Aug 2, 2022 8:01:16 GMT
Despite the terrible title (maybe it sounds better in Spanish) this funny and hugely entertaining brilliant comedic satire on movie making, directors and actors. Outstanding performances from Penelope Cruz as the unconventional movie director, Lola Cuervas (think Marina Abramovic meets Maya Deren), Antonio Banderas & Oscar Martinez as two actors trying to outdo each other in an aptly named movie called, 'Rivalry.' Lola puts them through increasing bizarre rehearsal exercises in preparation for their parts. A hilarious battle of egos and pretensions. 8/10
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie on Aug 2, 2022 8:26:35 GMT
MsMovieStar have you watched House of Gucci yet? I’d love to get your thoughts on it
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Post by MsMovieStar on Aug 2, 2022 8:42:44 GMT
MsMovieStar have you watched House of Gucci yet? I’d love to get your thoughts on it Oh honey, I loved it, but for all the over-the-top performances: Gaga, Leto, Pacino, Hayek. It's like everyone was using whatever lines they had, to deliver a tour de force performance in time for awards season and the result was... Prosciutto! It's a movie to be watched with a jug of Martini & a side of olives.
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie on Aug 2, 2022 14:41:40 GMT
MsMovieStar have you watched House of Gucci yet? I’d love to get your thoughts on it Oh honey, I loved it, but for all the over-the-top performances: Gaga, Leto, Pacino, Hayek. It's like everyone was using whatever lines they had, to deliver a tour de force performance in time for awards season and the result was... Prosciutto! It's a movie to be watched with a jug of Martini & a side of olives. What did you think of the sex scene between Gaga and Driver? 👀
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Aug 2, 2022 17:15:01 GMT
Oh honey, I loved it, but for all the over-the-top performances: Gaga, Leto, Pacino, Hayek. It's like everyone was using whatever lines they had, to deliver a tour de force performance in time for awards season and the result was... Prosciutto! It's a movie to be watched with a jug of Martini & a side of olives. What did you think of the sex scene between Gaga and Driver? 👀 If she thinks it's peak cinema like Nicole Kidman does, then maybe there's hope MsMovieStar and Kidman can be friends after all! Nicole Kidman's AMC ad but she’s watching Lady Gaga getting railed in House Of Gucci
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