What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Lex]

Sure it’s been mentioned on here before but seen Aftersun for the first time at the weekend and still thinking about it now. Superb movie full of nostalgia, a great soundtrack and angst. Young Scottish actress Francesca Corrio is outstanding in the lead role. 

 

[Scorge]

Fans of creative swearing should enjoy Wicked Little Letters - Colman/Buckley, in fact most of the leads are very good in this. Would warn that if you've seen the trailer it's a bit of a misdirect -  it's a darker film that it lets on, but still has quite a few chuckles nonetheless.

Edited February 23 by Scorge

[jimmy boo]

22 Bullets

Started watching this Jean Reno film on unofficial app on firestick with leggy subtitles. Apart from the obvious nothing much has happened in first 30 minutes so packed it in. Is it worth trying another time?

[MSU]

The five Oscar-nominated animated shorts next, and they must be pretty short because the cinema threw in two Highly-Commended for good measure.

034 Our Uniform -- We started off the 2024 Animated Shorts Oscar nominations with this interesting Iranian piece that basically gives a young girl’s opinion of the hijab. The seven-minute film lacks a conventional story but the animation style using fabrics was really inventive. I’d have preferred a slightly longer short with a more traditional narrative. A decent start. 5/10

035 Letter to a Pig -- A short about the holocaust and generational trauma left me confused about the overall message and the violent twist it took about halfway through. The animation was sparse in places, but effective, and mixed well with some live-action / rotoscoping thrown in. I guess I just don’t get why the little girl wanted to kill the pig. Story of my life. 3/10

036 Pachyderm -- Animated like a children’s book for a fairy tale just gives this short more oomph as it details a little girl who spends her summer vacation with her grandparents, and the horror that very subtly lies within. I thought the style was very impressive and appreciated that the narrative didn’t need to check with the audience to make sure we all got it. My pick out of the nominations to pick up the Oscar. 7/10

037 Ninety-Five Senses -- An old man tells the story of his life through the five senses and rips the rug from under us when he reveals his rap sheet extends to more than just stealing a magazine from a hair salon. The conceit is fine, but it asks for suspension of disbelief to be extended a bit further than was acceptable. However, I liked how each sense had its own animation style and team of artists. 6/10

038 War is Over! -- Horribly manipulative and twee, this short uses a video game engine to tell us that chess is like war, and ask if we’re sure we can’t just get along? A pigeon flying over the trenches is the real star, the Lennon and Ono influences are less of a coup (coo!). Will probably win. 2/10

039 Wild Summon -- How typical that my favorite Oscar nomination short wasn’t even nominated. This Highly Commended offering from the UK follows the life cycle of a wild salmon but pictures her and all the other salmon in a pseudo-human form with swimming flippers and goggles. The hurdles that have to be swam through seem all the more stark when happening to something that doesn’t look like a fish. Gorgeous scenery and a brave approach to animation, I thought this was already excellent before Marianne Faithful’s narration. 9/10

040 I'm Hip -- Paula Abdul wants her animated feline music video back. 1/10

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

Asteroid City.

Not a fucking clue what was going on.

[MSU]

Finally, Oscar nominated Live Action shorts.

041 The After -- This short has an awful lot going for it, most of it in the shape of David Oyelowo who plays a father whose life is turned upside down by a terrorist incident. But after a strong opening, it doesn’t really go anywhere and the things that do happen feel inconsequential. It bears more than a passing nod to 2020’s winner, The Long Goodbye, but benefits from not having Riz Ahmed do some slam poetry at the end. 4/10

042 Red, White, and Blue -- And the Oscar for most ill-judged twist goes to… I liked quite a bit of this as it seemed to be a tale of the lengths that a woman has to go to to get an abortion in the US these days. Brittany Snow gives a strong performance but the focus drifts and someone involved should’ve really had some notes about the ending. 5/10

043 Knight of Fortune -- Changing a light bulb in a mortuary has never been so funny. This Danish short was as odd and quirky as you’d expect but while it has a fairly dark premise, it chooses to go in a humorous direction and is all the better for it as it examines grief and the struggles men have in dealing with such matters. My pick of the bunch from 2024’s selection. 8/10

044 Invincible -- This true story of a Quebec kid detained in a youth center, or juvenile detention, doesn’t offer many paths into the heart of the tale. As a consequence, it remains unclear why Marc, our young protagonist, plays up when his good behavior allows him family outings at the weekend as a reward. It’s full of angst and anger but with no real background or hint to the cause, it’s pretty hard to care. 4/10

045 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar -- Hey, Wes Anderson! Wes Anderson just called. He wants his Wes Anderson movie back. It doesn’t matter which one. 3/10

... and then ...

046 Bob Marley: One Love -- When Ziggy Marley comes on before the movie starts to tell you how much he and the family approve of this film about his dad, and then when you see the number of producers who share a last name in the credits, you know you're in for a somewhat sanitized version of events. And so it proved to be, with Marley's dalliances outside his marriage dealt with by a female figure in the distance looking back over her shoulder. The music and Kingsley Ben-Adir are both wonderful, but neither is enough to raise this overly-safe biopic into interesting territories, not helped by a flashback-heavy approach to the storytelling. 4/10

047 Drive-Away Dolls -- I should know better than to look forward to movies released so early in the year. On paper, a lesbian road trip movie starring Geraldine Viswanathan and Beanie Feldstein, and directed by a Coen brother should've been the pick of the year so far. As it is, it's not even the pick of this week in February. The most difficult thing about reviewing this movie is to establish what I hated most about it. Margaret Qualley's irritating Texan accent? The lack of character development? The misguided opening that I guess was meant to be a light-hearted introduction to the characters but honestly made me want to leave after ten minutes? The many psychedelic interludes? The fact that it's set in 1999 for no other reason than to explain why no one has a cell phone? Just nothing worked, and it somehow continued to not work all the way through one of the longest 90-minutes films I've seen in years. It's one of those movies that makes you wonder how anyone watching the rushes thought this in any way was progressing as planned and worth pursuing. It manages to raise itself to 2/10 because I saw The Neon Demon a couple of nights ago and it's better than that, and its sexuality is unabashedly front and center, but honestly, not even a half-hearted attempt at a Coen-esque pair of bumbling baddies or a mandatory Matt Damon cameo are enough to save this car wreck. 2/10

[accies1874]

Oh dear. Maybe Joel Coen was the true brains of the operation  after all. 

[Mark Connolly]

21 hours ago, MSU said:

046 Bob Marley: One Love -- When Ziggy Marley comes on before the movie starts to tell you how much he and the family approve of this film about his dad, and then when you see the number of producers who share a last name in the credits, you know you're in for a somewhat sanitized version of events. And so it proved to be, with Marley's dalliances outside his marriage dealt with by a female figure in the distance looking back over her shoulder. The music and Kingsley Ben-Adir are both wonderful, but neither is enough to raise this overly-safe biopic into interesting territories, not helped by a flashback-heavy approach to the storytelling. 4/10

I thought it was pretty pish tbh.

I came away thinking that Bob Marley came across as a complete arsehole, which surely wasn't the intention, especially since, as you say, the family had such a big input

[BFTD]

I don't know if other people feel this way, but these days I lose interest in a film almost immediately when I realise it's a biopic, no matter who the subject is. They're usually stories that have to be massively manipulated to even slightly resemble a movie plot, take real life people peripherally involved (alive or dead) and libel them to serve the story they want to tell, and often whitewash their subjects to ensure cooperation from them/their estate.

They're almost all shite, often immoral, and it's a genre I'd be happy to see die.

[MSU]

15 hours ago, accies1874 said:

Oh dear. Maybe Joel Coen was the true brains of the operation  after all. 

I can confirm that The Tragedy of Macbeth is definitely better than Drive-Away Dolls.

[MSU]

55 minutes ago, BFTD said:

I don't know if other people feel this way, but these days I lose interest in a film almost immediately when I realise it's a biopic, no matter who the subject is. They're usually stories that have to be massively manipulated to even slightly resemble a movie plot, take real life people peripherally involved (alive or dead) and libel them to serve the story they want to tell, and often whitewash their subjects to ensure cooperation from them/their estate.

They're almost all shite, often immoral, and it's a genre I'd be happy to see die.

I've watched a lot of them in trying to see all the Oscar noms this year and there's nothing that stands out positively in any of them. And I see there's an Amy Winehouse on its way which seems to be portraying her dad as a sympathetic character, something that the Amy documentary notably didn't do.

I really liked The Social Network. I'm struggling to think of another that I enjoyed.

[MazzyStar]

Aguirre, The Wrath of God - Dundee defender Joe Shaughnessy hangs up his football boots and becomes a man of the cloth, and heads to South America along with other colonisers from Spain. 

During their search for the mythical El Dorado (not the wine) the conquistadors run into all sorts of bother. 

 

 

Edited February 28 by MazzyStar

[accies1874]

10 hours ago, BFTD said:

I don't know if other people feel this way, but these days I lose interest in a film almost immediately when I realise it's a biopic, no matter who the subject is. They're usually stories that have to be massively manipulated to even slightly resemble a movie plot, take real life people peripherally involved (alive or dead) and libel them to serve the story they want to tell, and often whitewash their subjects to ensure cooperation from them/their estate.

They're almost all shite, often immoral, and it's a genre I'd be happy to see die.

That's why Blonde's so great. 

[BFTD]

56 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

That's why Blonde's so great. 

The Monroe thing? I know nothing about it, is it different?

[accies1874]

1 hour ago, BFTD said:

The Monroe thing? I know nothing about it, is it different?

It's certainly "different". Not so much a biopic, more of a brutal, nightmarish depiction of fame that has some grounding in the true story. Can't imagine her estate would've been cool with much of it. 

[BFTD]

8 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

It's certainly "different". Not so much a biopic, more of a brutal, nightmarish depiction of fame that has some grounding in the true story. Can't imagine her estate would've been cool with much of it. 

I quite like Tarantino's approach to real-world events - "here's how it would've gone if I was God"  

[accies1874]

11. The Promised Land - Cinema

This was a pretty standard good film that, imo, didn't go much further than that. 

It tells the story of a poor 18th century Danish ex-soldier, played by Mads Mikkelsen, trying to build a settlement on disputed land which the greedy, rich baddie thinks is his. It's an underdog story with a hero who you can root for. Mads Mikkelsen's character rose through the ranks of the Danish army from humble beginnings, but his first scene sees him come into confrontation with the elites due to them not taking him seriously because of those beginnings, despite what he's since gone on to achieve. He helps migrant workers, cares for a little sweary girl who's racially discriminated against, and stands against the tyrannical antagonist despite all of the risks that brings. 

As the protagonist is easy to root for, the antagonist is easy to hate. His greed sees him quash anyone who he thinks might post even a minor threat to his ego, torturing someone to death early on, which is why he's always looking to cultivate more despite his immense wealth. He's just a proper bad guy. 

That classic dynamic between a goodie and a baddie, as well as the fact that it's really quite funny, means that it should go down well with anyone who sees it. 

12. Love Lies Bleeding - Cinema (Glasgow Film Festival)

When I first saw the trailer I wondered why the director of one of the best horror films in recent years (Saint Maud) was making a pulpy revenge flick, but there are similarities between them in terms of both depicting lonely women with delusions as to how they can escape their past with sexual liberty playing quite a big role. There are also supernatural transformations that straddle the line between metaphorical and literal in terms of how they affect the narrative. The transformation in Love Lies Bleeding reminded me of a superhero origin film like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy; the kind of superhero film that folk say has horror elements which more often than not are apparent in transformations/mutations. 

You can also see similarities with some of the darker Coen Brothers' work, partly due to its domesticated violence between strange characters, but mostly because that violence is balanced out by plenty of dark comedy. Perhaps the Coens' most distinctive characteristic as a duo is their Violent Comedy or Comedic Violence and this definitely falls into the latter category. I did struggle sometimes struggle with the script of Love Lies Bleeding, though, which can be somewhat handwaved away by its b-movie elements, such as the somewhat weird dialogue and characters (the latter I actually quite liked), but they did make me feel a bit disconnected from it all despite Rose Glass doing her very best as a director to reel you in. 

It tells so much of its story through closeups - and that story isn't all that pleasant. Kristen Stewart is shagging Katy M. Brian who works for Kristen Stewart's criminal dad Ed Harris and shagged Kristen Stewart's brother-in-law Dave Franco who beats his wife Jena Ortega. Love. Lies. Bleeding. That unpleasantness is passed onto the audience due to all of these closeups and absolutely incredible sound that is possibly the most affecting element of the film. It's jolting, unsettling and perfectly conveys the story's brutality. Even the opening with hench dudes pumping iron establishes the importance of powerful sounds. I liked how that opening with the gym equipment and grindset signs around the gym then cuts away to Kristen Stewart unblocking one of the gym's toilets - sets everything up quite nicely. 

[stevieKTID]

On 28/02/2024 at 01:48, MazzyStar said:

Aguirre, The Wrath of God - Dundee defender Joe Shaughnessy hangs up his football boots and becomes a man of the cloth, and heads to South America along with other colonisers from Spain. 

During their search for the mythical El Dorado (not the wine) the conquistadors run into all sorts of bother. 

 

 

Good soundtrack as well, love a bit of Popol Vuh.

[S7C]

Dune Part 2

Close to perfect, but not quite. Rushed final act and a few characters were absent for too long or had no presence on-screen (Christopher Walken).

Denis Villeneuve is a creative genius though and has turned a complicated book into a piece of epic cinema. Sets a new standard I think.

9.5/10

[Stellaboz]

First one was a load of pish.