What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Newer Films)

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

...rather like the laundromat, near me 

[KK 3,307]

2 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

The Laundromat

 

 

A rightly maligned Soderbergh movie where hardly anything works. 3/10

 

Yea...also checked this out over the weekend. It's pretty bad. Tries to outdo The Big Short in style, but ends up being a verbose, anemic, unfocused lecture on corporate scamming...just no good.

 

On 10/20/2019 at 12:57 PM, crocodile said:

Midsommar. Finally managed to muster some courage to finish it after the first unfortunate incident some months ago. It does hit a never for some reasons that are personal and it somehow manages to combine many things that really scare me into a one neat package. It's not really a horror in a jump scare kind of way but if you feel bit vulnerable in your life it will have a tendency to really grab you. It's not the plot or story that got me. It's the mood that it evokes. And that might not be pleasant. The last time I managed to watch about half of it so the fact I want to revisit it made me really nervous. But, against all, common sense, this time I decided to carry on. And, to my surprise, it ended being more cathartic. In the context of the story on screen, it might be actually the most disturbing thing to say. But hey, life's funny this way.

 

The film itself is very well made and might be one of the most striking movies to come out this year. It's beautifully shot, edited, scored etc. Definitely something pretty to look at. And this might be the scariest thing of all.

 

Karol

 

You nailed it. It's a fucked up film. Most people are wooed by the cult horror imagery (which is all done very well of course)...but it's the way it deals with the protagonist's trauma, in its operatic aesthetics, delivery and execution that got to me very deeply. It's a relationship drama, gone horribly wrong, and Aster clearly knows how to twist the knife.

[Matt C 452]

On 10/20/2019 at 12:57 PM, crocodile said:

Midsommar. 

 

The film itself is very well made and might be one of the most striking movies to come out this year. It's beautifully shot, edited, scored etc. Definitely something pretty to look at. And this might be the scariest thing of all.

 

Karol

Midsommar is one of the most gorgeously shot movies of the decade. It’s so vivid like a three strip technicolor film. The finale is really beautiful amidst the on-screen horror.

 

Would like more movies being shot like that, instead of the bland digital look for most blockbusters these days.

[Jay 37,281]

It's date night!  The wife and I are going to see Once Upon A Time In Hollywood tonight!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I hope Marcy enjoys the misogyny! 

[Jay 37,281]

She picked the film!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That answers my question!

[Jay 37,281]

You didn't ask a question.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It didn't need to be asked!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

When you two have finished spraying-down JWfan, with your testosterone...

Steef...be quiet.

Jay...pop along to your local fleapit, with your GLW, and kindly report back, in a few. 

In the meantime, let's have no more of this silliness.

[Jay 37,281]

We're at a local second-run theater, one I used to go to as a kid sometimes. Holy cow, it hasn't changed at all. And most of the movies they are showing are already on digital 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I like OUATIH quite a bit but it doesn’t seem like a Jay movie at all.  I’d be surprised if you liked it.

[Jay 37,281]

Why would you say it doesn't sound like a me movie?  I've liked all of Tarantino's films

[Disco Stu 15,495]

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

Why would you say it doesn't sound like a me movie?  I've literally liked every other Tarantino film there is

 

I dunno, it was just an instinct, not a judgment.  Did you like it?

[Jay 37,281]

It had good parts and bad parts.

 

I enjoyed the relationship between Leonardo and Pitt, Leonardo's career crisis and work filming the western, especially the scenes with the kid, and Pitt's exploration of the ranch and fight with Bruce Lee.  Not sure why we were also following Sharon Tate around when she didn't really do much or have any real development, nor that after 2 hours of setting up all these characters and situations, we suddenly jump to 6 months later and have a 3rd act that somewhat comes out of nowhere and doesn't really pay off anything it was setting up with all the characters beforehand.

 

Probably something I need to ponder on and/or see again (I jut saw there's a 10-minute-longer extended cut coming to theaters soon?) to figure out where to place it against his other films, but for now I'd say it's near the bottom

[Disco Stu 15,495]

21 minutes ago, Jay said:

It had good parts and bad parts.

 

I enjoyed the relationship between Leonardo and Pitt, Leonardo's career crisis and work filming the western, especially the scenes with the kid, and Pitt's exploration of the ranch and fight with Bruce Lee.  Not sure why we were also following Sharon Tate around when she didn't really do much or have any real development, nor that after 2 hours of setting up all these characters and situations, we suddenly jump to 6 months later and have a 3rd act that somewhat comes out of nowhere and doesn't really pay off anything it was setting up with all the characters beforehand.

 

Probably something I need to ponder on and/or see again (I jut saw there's a 10-minute-longer extended cut coming to theaters soon?) to figure out where to place it against his other films, but for now I'd say it's near the bottom

 

I think of it as a portrait of this transitional Hollywood period that was a very sudden shock to the system.  "Out with the old, in with the new."  The Manson murders are sort of emblematic of the sudden change in the city and the industry to Tarantino, the dark side of the cultural shifts maybe.  So not much plot, more of a character piece but where the character is the city, kinda.

 

Spoiler

I think it's a very personal film for him.  This is his city and his industry that he's obsessed with.  He kind of can't help imagining how things might have been different had the murders never happened.

 

I will agree that the sequence of DiCaprio filming the Western pilot is definitely *the* highlight, though.

[Jay 37,281]

Does he really imagine how things would have been different if they hadn't happened though? The movie ends immediately after, other than the short scene with the neighbors 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

36 minutes ago, Jay said:

Does he really imagine how things would have been different if they hadn't happened though? The movie ends immediately after, other than the short scene with the neighbors 

 

Well, I guess he leaves it to us the audience to imagine the implications, much like with Inglorious Basterds and Django.

 

I don't personally think the movie works if you're not familiar with the history of LA/Hollywood of this era and the Manson family, and what followed.  He certainly doesn't explain *any* of that context.

 

Like, I think Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained both work in their climaxes on a *character* level so even if you're not very familiar with the history of those periods, the movie will work for you, even though both are relying on how those periods live on in the cultural imagination.

 

But the Manson murders aren't as famous or important as Hitler and American slavery, obviously!  So this movie is so much more specific and niche, if you don't have an existing interest and knowledge, I dunno what you get out of it.

 

Spoiler

Like, for Tarantino I think brutally beating the shit out of and killing the Manson family members who killed Sharon Tate is as cathartic as killing Hitler or blowing up a slave plantation....but that's a much smaller group of people who'd feel the same

 

That said, the actors were all fantastic and would be well-deserving of awards!

[Jay 37,281]

Yup totally agree, the fact that the movie doesn't bother to really tell you who Charles Manson is in a hinderance.  I mean in the final cut, he only has one brief scene and that's it.  I was just reading that the actor filmed way more scenes and they were all cut.  I wonder if that's what's being added to the extended cut coming out

[publicist 4,643]

I'm not sure that would have helped it much. The basic problem remains that it feels misguided in setting up the (fake) evil hippies as something that needs to be avenged by the old guard. It's a half-assed allegory, or rather, if you take away the allegory behind it - because there really isn't any - it's just a museum piece with a confusing end. 

 

It would have been more fun if he just poured the money in  GTA video game set in 1969 Los Angeles.

[Jay 37,281]

Still better than if they let him make a Star Trek movie

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I liked OUATIH while acknowledging its far from a masterpiece.  I have read a few essays by pretty good writers that do think it's a masterpiece, and while I don't necessarily agree with their enthusiasm, I appreciated their POV.

[Jay 37,281]

Yea I want to go back and listen to my movie podacast's review of it again now

[KK 3,307]

33 minutes ago, publicist said:

I'm not sure that would have helped it much. The basic problem remains that it feels misguided in setting up the (fake) evil hippies as something that needs to be avenged by the old guard. It's a half-assed allegory, or rather, if you take away the allegory behind it - because there really isn't any - it's just a museum piece with a confusing end. 

 

It would have been more fun if he just poured the money in  GTA video game set in 1969 Los Angeles.

 

Yea..."half-assed" sounds about right when it comes to the film's thematic ambitions. The whole thing works better as a glorified commercial for 60s LA.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I enjoyed Kim Morgan's essay on the movie.  Yes, it's published on the website of Tarantino's cinema, but she really is a good writer and I appreciate her perspective, even if I didn't like it quite this much.  I definitely liked it more than you, KK!

 

http://thenewbev.com/blog/2019/08/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood/

 

12 minutes ago, KK said:

The whole thing works better as a glorified commercial for 60s LA.

 

You say it in kind of a snarky way, but it's something I really loved about the movie.  When a movie can completely immerse you in a specific, evocative setting (even or especially if it's romanticized) like that it's a truly special thing I think.  I honestly could've spent another hour in the first 2/3 of the movie.

[KK 3,307]

Maybe what I find so frustrating about it is that there are effective vignettes and seeds of great ideas that only vaguely reach for each other structurally or thematically. And I'm all for world-building, but not at the expense of a film's identity crisis. I'm not sure if it's trying to tell a larger narrative conceptually, or if its doing the whole "anthology format" set in LA thing...neither of which it does with much conviction. As it is, it's a bit of a loose assembly line of some well-designed scenes delivered from the writer's room with a big budget devoted exclusively reimagining a certain kind of LA fantasy.

[publicist 4,643]

Not to forget the weird elaborate set-ups of old western series that felt like it came from a different planet, certainly not from old Rawhide sets.

[KK 3,307]

 

The Lighthouse

 

Eggers delivers a feverish nightmare that once again explores characters crippled by isolation and madness, this time eschewing New Hampshire for a distinct coastal flavour. But of course, everything is dialled up to the max. Drawing on The VVitch thematically, but heightening everything stylistically, Eggers masterfully lets the chaos unfold on screen. And it looks quite beautiful too. And while I think it's all too self-aware to have the real self-existential dread and terror of Aster's films, its impeccable craftsmanship is perhaps more impressive. Eggers is clearly less interested in the genre he has to sell, and more in the story he's trying to tell.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

@Jay

Can we turn the censors back on for the board, except this time exclusively changing “VVitch” to “Witch?”

 

Thanks!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

8 hours ago, Jay said:

Still better than if they let him make a Star Trek movie

 

Yes!

[KK 3,307]

3 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

@Jay

Can we turn the censors back on for the board, except this time exclusively changing “VVitch” to “Witch?”

 

Thanks!

 

You know I can't go back when I know it bugs you so much, right?

 

[Sweeping Strings 2,344]

14 hours ago, Jay said:

Still better than if they let him make a Star Trek movie

2 hours 45 minutes long, mostly set on the bridge of the Enterprise. The last 10 minutes are taken up with a phaser battle with Klingons (the shots from which now make your head explode it they hit you and Kirk will call said Klingons 'bumpy-headed motherfuckers!'). 

 

*Shudder*     

[Sweeping Strings 2,344]

Terminator : Dark Fate - ignoring the movies since Terminator 2, bringing back Linda Hamilton and going back to 15/R certification are three things this sequel gets right. An enjoyable blast of sci-fi action.

[crocodile 7,983]

Terminator: Dark Fate. Way more enjoyable than expected. Pointless, often illogical and exposing once again the main problem with this franchise's entire premise... But it was entertaining. Felt much longer than two hours though.

 

Karol

 

 

[Hurmm 91]

It wasn't bad and it wasn't... good either. I'd say on par with T3. The first 30-40 mins of T2, T3, and this share a similar template -- terminators arrive, a fight ensues, and a bike/car/truck chase follows. All 3 movies are terrifically entertaining up to this point, but only T2 manages to sustain it to the end. This ups the CGI grandeur from thereon to the finale, and slowly but surely also peters out in term of quality. In fact I'll put this behind T3 solely because the CGI here is dreadful. Seeing a terminator do an obviously-CG parkour jump up a railing has to rank as one of the worst moments in the franchise. 

[Luke Skywalker 1,792]

Saw Joker yesterday....I really dont understand much the tlak about this movie... It was not THAT violent as the news made it so...( i dont really like to see gruesome things in films), and all the fuss from the director and actor about it not being a comic book film....well I really think this character and his backstory, could really work for matt reeves Batman film (which also seems to be appart from the DCU?)... maybe for the second film or else... and the

Spoiler

family connection

could take a different spin on the batman-joker relationship....

 

The films seems ok as arsty film but i dont think it was a masterpiece. The joker character seems to give actors great performances anyway.

 

I would love to see Mark Hammill cast in the role someday (did i say that again? :P)

[KK 3,307]

 

Parasite

 

It's not what I expected from the trailer. The whole thing leans more on the cartoonish side of things, and like most of Bong Joon-Ho's work, has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. But it is ridiculously entertaining, brimming with wit in every frame and its strong performances. The film really cracks open after the first hour, where Joon-Ho's trademark tonal shifts works to its favour. And with all the buzz it's been receiving lately, it's also a film that'll probably get drowned in its own hype and over-analyzed by armchair critics across the web (something that the film itself pokes fun at). If you don't let that noise balloon your expectations too high, it's a pretty fun ride.

 

 

[Jay 37,281]

I liked Okja but thought Snowpiercer was kinda dull so I'm curious what I'll think about this one

[A24 4,326]

My kid saw this in the theater and absolutely loved it. He says I should see it, ASAP.

 

I have hope because some youtuber has said: "I didn't like Snowpiercer but Parasite is great". 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

11 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

My kid saw this in the theater and absolutely loved it. He says I should see it, ASAP.

 

Doesn't your child know you don't like going to the cinema?

[A24 4,326]

Yes, but he also knows there are other ways to see a movie.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I thought you didnt approve of torrents?

[A24 4,326]

Hail Netflix!

[A24 4,326]

 

I expected this to be a 7/10 movie at least, but it ended up being a 6/10. It looks good, all the ingredients are there, and yet it's not that involving or fascinating. You know a movie has issues when costumes and battle scenes are the best part. 

 

 

 

[crocodile 7,983]

Doctor Sleep. I almost fell asleep watching it yesterday. They should have stayed away from Kubrick references altogether. It only makes this incredibly dull movie even more embarrassing.

 

 

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

So a mixture of hubris and incompetence?

[crocodile 7,983]

Just sad to watch.

 

Karol

[A24 4,326]

 "My favorite movie is Dr. Sleep, man!"

 

Sounds preposterous, doesn't it? You could have saved your money if you only did the test.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[crocodile 7,983]

7 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

 "My favorite movie is Dr. Sleep, man!"

 

Sounds preposterous, doesn't it? You could have saved your money if you only did the test.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've got limitless cinema membership and have watched about 3-4 times the value of its annual value already this year. No harm done. The time wasted, however...

 

Karol

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I just wait for movies to come to Foxtel.