What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[jimmy boo]

Sorcerer 
All I knew about this was it stars Rod Steiger and is directed by William Friedkin. A very long opening sets up very interesting back stories for the four main characters which is a complete waste of time as it ends up just being about driving lorries through the jungle. Underwhelming but the Tangerine Dream electro soundtrack is class. 

I only got round to watching the film last year despite having the soundtrack LP for decades along with dozens more by Tangerine Dream. Decent enough if a bit low budget and dated looking.

[Paul Kersey]

On 14/09/2022 at 15:24, Detournement said:

Sorcerer 

All I knew about this was it stars Rod Steiger and is directed by William Friedkin. A very long opening sets up very interesting back stories for the four main characters which is a complete waste of time as it ends up just being about driving lorries through the jungle. Underwhelming but the Tangerine Dream electro soundtrack is class. 

I enjoyed it. One of the films where not much happens but it's strangely compelling.

On 14/09/2022 at 15:33, BFTD said:

I remember some film critic claiming that this was the greatest film of all time. Still haven't seen it.

Not sure if Mark Kermode is still banging on about The Exorcist being the best. William Friedkin seems to have a very strange effect on some people; the first one of his films I ever saw was The Guardian, and I think it made me immune to his charms.

Friedkin made Cruising and To Live and Die in LA.

Two of my all time favourites.

[UpInTheAyr]

The Alpinist.

If you've seen Free Solo it's like that but more extreme.

[UpInTheAyr]

Friedkin made Cruising and To Live and Die in LA.
Two of my all time favourites.

Yeah big fan of Cruising, although feels like I shouldn't be.

[MSU]

118 The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (#61 in the A24 series) -- Yikes. Sidney Hall is a genius writer and we know this because everyone he meets in the movie tells him this. Also, women are helplessly needy because every woman in this movie are helplessly needy. It's not hard to imagine that this is how the writer and director Shawn Christensen imagines himself. Self-indulgant and wanky. 3/10, mostly for Elle Fanning.

119 The Broadway Melody (#2 in the Best Picture Oscar series) -- The second movie to pick up Best Picture at the Oscars is a musical, and not a very good one. The title song is only memorable because they sing it every few minutes. Badly written and acted, I assume it got Best Picture because there was sound and people were signing. 2/10

120 The Last Movie Star (#62 in the A24 series) -- Burt Reynolds plays a version of himself, an aging movie star duped into travelling to a small indie film festival in Nashville to receive a lifetime achievement award, where he meets Lil, his aggressively feisty chauffeur, and [cue music] maybe learns a little something about himself. I liked it quite a lot of this despite it being kinda obvious. I'd have liked it a lot more with a toned down schmaltzy ending, but it's hard not to love Burt Reynolds. 7/10

121 Lean on Pete (#63 in the A24 series) -- 15 year old Charley (Charlie Plummer) lives with his mostly absent father and finds purpose working as a horse trainer. When he learns an aging racehorse is destined for an adhesive end, he kidnaps the beast and goes on a coming of age style journey across country. Poignant in places and Plummer turns in a far better performance here than he will do some years later in Moonfall. 6/10

122 Pearl (#120 in the A24 series) -- This is a prequel to X, which I thought was okay, that supposedly is an origin story for Pearl, the horny killer granny villain. It falls into the same traps as X where despite being interesting and promising, it has difficulty turning the promise into a decent third act. A lot will be made of Mia Goth, who is the best thing in it, and a 6 minute monologue, but it's no substitute for a satisfying ending and now I'm not sure Ti West knows how to write one. And despite it being an origin story, I'm not sure I learned a single thing about Pearl's character I didn't already know from X. 4/10

123 See How They Run -- Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan are great in this old-fashioned British murder-mystery based around The Mousetrap which manages to also work as a decent spoof of itself. It's like the movie is in massive air quotes. Tim Key as the police commissioner manages to steal every scene he's in. 8/10

[UpInTheAyr]

The Devils (1971)

Favourite of mine from Ken Russell, just got round to watching it again. Proper weird freaky shit. Probably the best way to sum it up.

[KnightswoodBear]

The Matrix Resurrections 

Wasn't very good. 

 

 

[Stellaboz]

53 minutes ago, KnightswoodVanBear said:

The Matrix Resurrections 

Wasn't very good. 

 

 

I felt absolutely no sense of danger or urgency at any time. It just sort of floated through. 

[Stellaboz]

Watched The Devil's Advocate last night.

 

Love it. 9/10 great plot, Keane Reeves shows emotion in it and both Charlize Theron and Connie Nielsen are stunning. 

[KnightswoodBear]

8 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

I felt absolutely no sense of danger or urgency at any time. It just sort of floated through. 

I did quite enjoy the first 45 mins or so when they were doing the whole "meta" bit slightly poking fun at itself, then it just descended into a pretty bog standard Matrix sequel that I couldn't follow what was going on. 

Another thing I noticed was that for a film that obviously had a lot of money thrown at it, bits of it looked like it was made for TV. 

[Stellaboz]

1 hour ago, KnightswoodVanBear said:

I did quite enjoy the first 45 mins or so when they were doing the whole "meta" bit slightly poking fun at itself, then it just descended into a pretty bog standard Matrix sequel that I couldn't follow what was going on. 

 

Definitely, was on the esge of my seat for the first bit. Then it fell away when he got unplugged again. The very picture of "meh". 

[Twinkle]

3000 Years Of Longing

 

Not for me, im afraid. Very different from what the trailer suggests

[accies1874]

145. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) - Netflix

Seems I wrote about it on here a few years ago and didn’t like it. Maybe it was just because the queen died the same day I watched it, but I found it really, really funny this time around. It’s almost all to do with Napoleon’s actions and how he speaks that I just find brilliant – so ridiculous and out of kilter with normal society.

146. Mulholland Drive (2001)* - DVD

Despite having now seen all but one of David Lynch’s films – Inland Empire, fwiw – I still find myself getting lured into the initial mysteries that he teases and then diverges from in a literal sense. I sometimes find this frustrating, but if done well it becomes a wild ride of ambiguous emotions and a maze of details that you’re left to piece together. Of his wackier films, I do find it hard to love them immediately (Eraserhead and Fire Walk With Me the exceptions) as they’re often overwhelming, however I still love letting Pure Cinema take over for a couple of hours.

147. Blue Velvet (1986) - DVD

This is one I had seen before. I remember being frustrated by it first time around which is quite strange as, in terms of a mystery, it’s probably as straightforward as you’ll get from one of his films. You’ve got all the noir staples without veering off track, but it’s written and directed by David Lynch therefore much more interesting and enjoyable than most noirs. Jeffrey’s a great central character whose moral ambiguity is played quite low key, while Dorothy’s issues are fairly harrowing to the extent where Jeffrey’s motives become really interesting. Peering behind suburbia has been done plenty of times but I love this as a dive underneath it and its inhabitants.

Despite the brilliance of it all, the thing that sticks in my mind most of all is a nine-second interaction. God bless Dennis Hopper.

148. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)* - Cinema

This is how I spent my football-less, queen-less Saturday afternoon.

Films this ‘modern’ will either become dated or will act as a sort of time capsule of what life was like at a certain point and I think this falls into the latter. It will grate on some people, and if it does for you then you’re gonna hate the whole thing, but it worked for me and added to the deliberately vapid characters. The empty-headedness of them against the backdrop of wealth and ‘success’ was incredibly enjoyable. They’re pretty unappealing right from the off – nasty, overly earnest, vapid etc – which starts off a bit emotionally detached but comes into its own later on. There’s also one character who spends most of the time decked out in glowsticks which is a cool visual thing but also works well as a character detail that made me smile every so often. Also got to say that there’s one scene that might be the most I’ve ever laughed in a cinema, certainly since becoming a miserable adult. Could’ve been awkward given there were about five others in the screening but the whole film seemed to work for them too.

It does all the usual things of setting up objects, tensions and revelations to simmer along which often pay off in surprising and/or really clever ways, almost hidden in plain sight. I liked it throughout as sheer entertainment within its genre, but I was initially making a lot of obvious comparisons (Knives Out, Ready or Not, You’re Next, that Agatha Christie episode of Family Guy). However, it explodes into its own thing come the end and I was left thinking that some of it was really genius.

Spoiler

So it’s a murder mystery with no murderer – kills are accidents or self-defence prompted by accusations. It’s all paranoia. I thought that was clever and it made me chuckle, however it wasn’t until the car journey home that I started realising how brilliant the idea was. Whodunnits are all about analysing character behaviours based on what the film lets you know in an attempt to accuse one, or multiple, of them of being the killer (and if you’re like me, changing your mind with every scene). So you set your film in a typical whodunnit-y location, establish that this is what you’re doing and lead the audience along to encourage them to pick out all of the negative traits of every character to the point where you seriously dislike all of them – because that’s what the film’s allowing you to see. You’re coming at it from a position of paranoia just as the main character is. Then it’s revealed that there is no murderer and the unsaid is all out in the open for no reason (within the context of the mystery). The main character is coming into the film insecure as she’s poor and meeting her girlfriend’s mega-rich friends for the first time, taking that relationship anxiety and dialling it up to 100 without necessarily being a metaphor.

149. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)* - Arrow

Horrible stuff that made me feel guilty about watching a piece of fiction. Wasn’t quite sure of the point of it but reading Roger Ebert’s review I can see how it might have been revered as an anti-slasher, a response to a lot of the horror films coming out around that time. It’s quite interesting to view it through that lens but I’m not gonna rewatch to find out.

150. Dark Water (2002)* - Arrow

Plenty of decent concepts and ideas but I was bored throughout.

151. Breathless (1963)* - DVD

What better way to mark the death of Jean-Luc Godard than to finally watch one of his films?

It’s great, obviously, and succeeds in everything it sets out to accomplish while also being distinctive (even today) in some respects. The relationship between Michel and Patricia is a fascinating case of trying to understand who is in control of a strange romance and what each of their motives are – maybe it’s even love! Jean Seberg as Patricia is wonderful. She’s young and kind of innocuous looking but her performance still leaves you with the idea that she’s well in control which feeds into the fascination I had with their relationship. I had a read of her Wikipedia not long after watching and her life was a real tragedy. Some evil people involved.

Michel is the more ‘exciting’ character but delving into what that excitement is born out of is the interesting part about him, especially when you consider how that plays into Patricia and her opinion of him. He looks like a boy trying to act like a man, while she is quite different from that. Their arcs intersect to the point that you could look at the film from either perspective and it could become a different thing each time.

It’s a film by someone who looked like he was experimenting while in complete control of the results.

Watching it reminded me of the first time I watched 2001 as, in my head, I retroactively see a bunch of other films being inspired by it. That might not always be the case in the same way as it was with 2001 (being definitive in its genre made those inspirations clearer) but I love it when it looks like you’re watching something that even modern greats have such a deep affection for.

152. Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)* - Cinema

Quite an interesting film but not one I was ever completely on board with emotionally which made the less interesting parts that bit duller. Tilda Swinton’s character was a bit too cloying for me to like, which I actually think was deliberate (that cloyingness, not the unlikability) but made for a cold experience as I was much more interested in its ideas than its characters. She actually captures the tone of it all really well which was a bad thing for me but probably good for the people who loved it.   

It’s mostly a good spectacle (some wobbles with CGI), especially when it flits between mythical tales and a hotel room, but that’s not really a surprise when it’s the same director-cinematographer combo as Fury Road. Whichever producer signed off on giving a weird film like this a $60m production budget is probably already on the streets, though, which is a shame as clever, imaginative people should still be entitled to decent budgets but, let’s face it, this was never making it back.

I didn’t like it all that much but if you wanna fund a $60m film then I’d rather this was the end result than something completely bland. 

[accies1874]

3 minutes ago, Twinkle said:

3000 Years Of Longing

 

Not for me, im afraid. Very different from what the trailer suggests

Good timing. I only saw the trailer after the film but I if saw it before then I'd have been more disappointed. Good tune though. 

 

[Paul Kersey]

Magnum Force

Clint Eastwood as bad ass cop Dirty Harry. 

An utterly fantastic film. The story, the pace, the action, the soundtrack and the dialogue are all perfect.

I do love gritty 70s crime thrillers set in American urban environments and this is one of the best.

9/10

[BigDoddyKane]

6 hours ago, Paul Kersey said:

Magnum Force

Clint Eastwood as bad ass cop Dirty Harry. 

An utterly fantastic film. The story, the pace, the action, the soundtrack and the dialogue are all perfect.

I do love gritty 70s crime thrillers set in American urban environments and this is one of the best.

9/10

Absolute Classic, like you mention the pace of those 70s movies. Its rarely seen now. Maybe uncut Gems was an example nowadays where it had that sort of pace

Edited September 19, 2022 by BigDoddyKane

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Watched The Devil's Advocate last night.
 
Love it. 9/10 great plot, Keane Reeves shows emotion in it and both Charlize Theron and Connie Nielsen are stunning. 

Keanu Reeves and emotion is something you don't see too often.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Magnum Force
Clint Eastwood as bad ass cop Dirty Harry. 
An utterly fantastic film. The story, the pace, the action, the soundtrack and the dialogue are all perfect.
I do love gritty 70s crime thrillers set in American urban environments and this is one of the best.
9/10

David Soul and Robert Urich as two of the villains are great as well.

[BigDoddyKane]

Baby Driver - It was ok but I lost interest with about 30 mins to go. It gets good reviews and scores but I cant see why. Average movie

[Paul Kersey]

20 minutes ago, BigDoddyKane said:

Baby Driver - It was ok but I lost interest with about 30 mins to go. It gets good reviews and scores but I cant see why. Average movie

I agree. It did get pretty boring towards the end. I'd say that it's about 20 minutes too long.

Decent enough but could be better.