What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Theroadlesstravelled]

I thought Plane was pretty decent entertainment. I’d go 7/10.

I enjoyed it far more than Avatar.

[Pocketman]

16 hours ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

Plane - serviceable action movie 5 or 6/10. Major downside being that ‘Oor’ Gerard Butler somehow manages to sound less Scottish when trying to play a Scottish guy than he does in his usual crap American accent.

he contorts his mouth to one side whenever he is attempting to make his latest hash of an American accent - to the ears and eyes, he makes for quite a difficult and sometimes painful experience regardless of the standard of the movie. 

[Joe Terrapin]

On 12/01/2023 at 20:21, Squalor Vic said:

I actually quite liked Only God Forgives. Kinda swung for the fences a bit with it, admired him for that as he could have played it safer after Drive being such a success.

Valhalla Rising is good too, much preferred it to The Northman from last year.

This was my number 1 of the most pretentious shit films I have watched only to be pushed into 2nd place by 'I'm thinking of ending things'. Total nonsense.

[Cheese]

Watched a couple of French films, Dobermann (1997) which has Cassel and Bellucci in the lead roles but this is offset by trying too hard to be a Tarantino film. It may also be the first film to be directed by a bag of cocaine. Beau Travail (1999) was much better, homoeroticism, stunning landscapes and the French Foreign Legion. Quite thin on dialogue and plot but still good.

[Frankie S]

#5 Beast (Michael Pearce, 2017) Amazon Prime 9

Superb psychological thriller set on Jersey, where a troubled girl Moll (brilliantly played by Jessie Buckley) gets involved with charismatic outsider Pascal (Johnny Flynn) as a series of unsolved murders take place on the island. Both leads are excellent, and first time director Pearce skilfully ratchets up the tension as the film twists and turns its way towards its powerful conclusion. 

#6 Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, 2022) + Q&A with director - GFT, Glasgow 8

Jenkin follows his outstanding breakthrough film ‘Bait’ with the folk horror-influenced ‘Enys Men’ set on a remote Cornish island. I really liked this too, with the sound design (skilfully assembled by Jenkin after the shoot) particularly impressive. The immersive sound and minimalist electronic score give the film much of its eerie atmosphere, although like ‘Bait’, the resolutely lo-fi grainy visuals (although in vibrant colour here in contrast to ‘Bait’s austere monochrome) complement the sound perfectly, lending it the feel of a lost TV ghost story from the ‘70s. Jenkin has clearly been influenced by a number of other filmmakers, including Nicolas Roeg, Peter Strickland and David Lynch (whose own brilliant soundscapes must surely have been an inspiration), but he has his own distinctive voice and sensibility. My only (minor) criticism is that ‘Enys Men’ is a much more impressionistic film than ‘Bait’ and lacks its narrative cohesion, but nonetheless it’s still a hugely impressive and compelling work. Jenkin was an entertaining interviewee in the Q&A after the film, providing fascinating insights into his inspirations and the technical aspects of making the film. He has quickly established himself as one of the most singular talents at work in the British film industry today.

#7 The Feast (Lee Haven Jones, 2021) Apple TV 6

Interesting if not entirely effective Welsh folk horror film. I was expecting to enjoy this, and the fact that it’s in the Welsh language intrigued me, promising an authenticity that it ultimately failed to deliver. Unlike Mark Jenkin’s films, which are rooted in Cornish traditions and the Cornish landscape, with a keen sense of history, and a lo-fi retro sensibility that lends his projects a feeling of timelessness, The Feast’ aspires to a much slicker aesthetic, fusing its folk horror premise with gory modern slasher film tropes that largely undermine the film’s ostensibly traditionalist roots.

#8 Men (Alex Garland, 2022) Amazon Prime 7

I really enjoyed Alex Garland’s debut film ‘Ex Machina’, but was much less keen on ‘Annihilation’, so my expectations were modest for this one. The film starts strongly, with a traumatic event serving as the prologue, reminiscent of the openings to ‘Don’t Look Now’ and ‘Antichrist’, and like the former, ‘Men’ is a psychological horror film suffused in grief and guilt. Garland builds and sustains an intensely uneasy atmosphere, and in the early stages I was completely on board, but while Rory Kinnear is a fine actor, I wasn’t sold on the gimmick of him playing all the men who reside in the creepy countryside village that Harper Marlowe (the reliably excellent Jessie Buckley) retreats to for a period of recuperation following a harrowing, life-changing experience. At times, this plays like an elongated episode of ‘Inside Number 9’, with Kinnear exuding the same sort of arch thespian schtick as Shearsmith and Pemberton, and it’s obvious from the outset that all his characters are ‘wrong ‘uns’’. The avowedly feminist message of the film is laudable, but the conflation of all the male characters, rendered as interchangeable caricature villains, does it a disservice. The ending, like the prologue, is quite effective and unexpectedly chilling, but en route to its conclusion the film takes detours into comedy, folk horror and body horror, with consequently jarring tonal shifts. Ultimately, ‘Men’ is a messy collision of ideas, tones and styles. I suspect there’s a much better film lurking somewhere within the wreckage of this one, but despite my reservations, it makes for creepy and rather uncomfortable viewing, and it lingers unsettlingly afterwards.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Frankie S

[Squalor Vic]

Last Night in Soho (2021) - Easily the weakest of Edgar Wright's films, I just couldn't get in board at all. A young up and coming fashion designer moves from the country into London and finds herself descending into madness and seeing and living a life in the swinging sixties.

Really didn't like the main character, she came across as a simpleton, and a few of the supporting characters like her Gran and her mean girl style classmates were like cartoon stereotypes. I actually enjoyed the sixties storyline, would happily have watched a film wholly based around that. 

A weird film, didn't seem to know what it wanted to be

5/10

[accies1874]

2. Tár - Cinema

This was a good measure of how good a film needs to be to even out a dreadful experience. Freezing cold cinema which clearly had a door open which let in all outside traffic noise, dimly projected, distracting audience. Tár is great though. 

For a brief second as the film started, I worried that this was gonna be horribly pretentious, but the scene unravels in a way that places Cate Blanchett on a pedestal that I was dying to see how they knocked her down from it. Very slowly, it turns out, but interestingly imo. You've got this captivating character and performance and you watch them slowly unravel in a way that kind of surprised me when it became clear she was over the edge, however it makes complete sense when you consider the sort of death by 1000 b-stories (not quite, obvs) narrative that's going on. I'm pretty sure that every single theme, character detail and plot point is there within the first 20 minutes or so and they're taken down a really engrossing path. 

There's a one-take scene really early on that's quite simply spectacular and, again, tells you absolutely everything you need to know. The performance and the camera work grab you and don't let go, but then it comes back around in a surprising, clever and pertinent way. 

I was expecting the sound design in the orchestral scenes to be great - that goes without saying - but the quieter, isolated sounds when she's often on her own stood out. Pretty simple but satisfying stuff that's more impressive in a character study than the more bombastic moments. 

It's long and it feels long, but I genuinely didn't give a rat's ass as I had complete faith in those involved straight from the first scene. Excellent. 

[Squalor Vic]

2 hours ago, accies1874 said:

2. Tár - Cinema

This was a good measure of how good a film needs to be to even out a dreadful experience. Freezing cold cinema which clearly had a door open which let in all outside traffic noise, dimly projected, distracting audience. Tár is great though. 

For a brief second as the film started, I worried that this was gonna be horribly pretentious, but the scene unravels in a way that places Cate Blanchett on a pedestal that I was dying to see how they knocked her down from it. Very slowly, it turns out, but interestingly imo. You've got this captivating character and performance and you watch them slowly unravel in a way that kind of surprised me when it became clear she was over the edge, however it makes complete sense when you consider the sort of death by 1000 b-stories (not quite, obvs) narrative that's going on. I'm pretty sure that every single theme, character detail and plot point is there within the first 20 minutes or so and they're taken down a really engrossing path. 

There's a one-take scene really early on that's quite simply spectacular and, again, tells you absolutely everything you need to know. The performance and the camera work grab you and don't let go, but then it comes back around in a surprising, clever and pertinent way. 

I was expecting the sound design in the orchestral scenes to be great - that goes without saying - but the quieter, isolated sounds when she's often on her own stood out. Pretty simple but satisfying stuff that's more impressive in a character study than the more bombastic moments. 

It's long and it feels long, but I genuinely didn't give a rat's ass as I had complete faith in those involved straight from the first scene. Excellent. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing it

[Squalor Vic]

Aftersun (2022) 

One of the best, most moving films I've seen for a long time. Didn't know much about it going in, only that it was getting rave reviews and it blew me away. Some of the camera shots and te use of music were just top class. For a debut film I doubt you'll see much better. Paul Mescal and Frankie Corrio were both absolutely unreal. Loved it, I'm in no rush to watch it again but it's going to stick with me for a while I feel 

[accies1874]

11 hours ago, Squalor Vic said:

Aftersun (2022) 

One of the best, most moving films I've seen for a long time. Didn't know much about it going in, only that it was getting rave reviews and it blew me away. Some of the camera shots and te use of music were just top class. For a debut film I doubt you'll see much better. Paul Mescal and Frankie Corrio were both absolutely unreal. Loved it, I'm in no rush to watch it again but it's going to stick with me for a while I feel 

It's a great feeling when something you nothing/very little about blows you away. I was the exact same with Aftersun.

[Cheese]

Avatar 2 The Way of Water (2022)

Box Office Jim does it again. Incredible.

[MSU]

011 The Old Way -- If anyone has been wondering if True Grit would've been better with Nic Cage in it, the answer would seem to be no. The Old Way steals every basic Western trope available as a retired gunslinger, Cage, is forced out of retirement when his wife is killed by a figure from his past. Ryan Kiera Armstrong steals the show as his daughter but it's nowhere near enough. The cinematography is poor, the color palette is oversaturated, and it's scored by someone who hasn't seen the movie and is just guessing where the big emotional beats land. It's another January movie, sadly, but it does get the Nicolas Cage western cosplay out of the way ahead of his vampire cosplay in a couple of months time. 3/10

012 Corsage -- Vicky Krieps is excellent as a fictionalized version of Empress Elisabeth of Austria who has recently turned 40, the papers are obsessed with her weight, she is in a loveless marriage, and she's having an affair with a commoner. If it sounds a bit like something else, it wasn't helped by playing out like Spencer too. The costumes are incredible, as is the soundtrack, and the sets have a stale, stuffiness to them that contrast very well to the fresh air that Elisabeth yearns for. But overall, again like Spencer, there's an ennui to it that just wasn't enough to compel me, or encourage me to enjoy it more. 6/10

013 Under the Silver Lake (#82 in the A24 series) -- Andrew Garfield plays a bit of a waster who meets a strange woman, Riley Keough, whose disappearance seems to give him a motivation that he's been lacking as he moves through a bizarre world of skunks, a dog killer, hidden messages, and conspiracies as he tries to find her. The story is quite Hitchcockian with a Lynchian slant in its delivery and it's tough work at times because a lot of it feels weird just for the sake of it, and boring just for the sake of it, and a bit leery and lecherous, but it's shot so well and the soundtrack is so incredible, it's impossible not to be carried along by it, even though it's never clear what *it* exactly is. 4/10

014 Skin (#83 in the A24 series) -- At several points during Skin's two-hour runtime, I expected Louis Theroux to show up and ask some heavy questions in a soothing voice. I'd quite like that to have happened. I'm not entirely sure the story is told from the most interesting perspective but given it's autobiographical, I guess there was limited latitude on that point. Because telling the story from a Nazi perspective -- albeit a gradually reformed one thanks to the love of a family -- is a bit tiring, while worthy. 5/10

015 Missing -- When her mother, Grace, goes missing while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, 18 year old June employs all the everyday methods and applications at her fingertips to track her down. Mostly everything we see is from apps running on a computer or phone screen, kinda reminiscent of Unfriended and Searching, the latter of which this is a standalone sequel to. The mystery is a huge amount of fun, particularly once June has employed the services of Javier, played Joaquim de Almeida, as her eyes and ears on the ground in Cartagena, but with every answer June finds, more questions are raised, and the validity of previous answers are thrown into doubt. Directors Nicholas D Johnson and Will Merrick keep the pace high and energized but it's the incredible editing work that really keeps the movie ticking over. 8/10

[accies1874]

I should've loved Under the Silver Lake but I just couldn't get over the frustration of it all.

[yoda]

Andrew Garfield was good in it. I liked him a lot - a millennial version of Elliot Gould's Philip Marlowe. The rest of it was a mess but there were a couple of redeeming moments.

I know folk who love it though. 

[MSU]

5 hours ago, accies1874 said:

I should've loved Under the Silver Lake but I just couldn't get over the frustration of it all.

 

4 hours ago, yoda said:

Andrew Garfield was good in it. I liked him a lot - a millennial version of Elliot Gould's Philip Marlowe. The rest of it was a mess but there were a couple of redeeming moments.

I know folk who love it though. 

I liked Garfield in it enough, and I think if it had just been 10% less frustrating, and if anything in it mattered at all, it would probably be a film I watch every year.

[paranoid android]

Watched some of I, Tonya last night - we love Margot Robbie because she's a babe, but it really struck me what a brilliant dedicated actress she is - is there a better young actress active at that level at the moment?

I watched most of Picnic at Hanging Rock the other night - that is one eerie movie! 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by paranoid android

[WC Boggs]

I watched Ghostbusters Afterlife.  I'll leave criticism to the critics. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[velo army]

Source Code (2013?)

Time travel adventure with a twist starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan. Jake G is a former air force captain sent back in time to a parallel dimension to stop a bomb. Time travel is a tricky thing to surf in movies as it creates all sorts of plot holes. It's dealt with very well here, with the parameters and rules explained concisely. It's a very well done movie and it felt like it went by in a flash.

Jake G and Vera Farmiga are excellent, as is Monaghan. The plot is easy to follow which means I was invested very quickly. The ending is hopeful and the message is overall one of hope, perseverance and embracing the unexpected. 

I absolutely loved this.

 

 

[Steve_Wilkos]

Aftersun - 7/10

The Banshees of Inisherin - 8/10

The Menu - 8/10

Barbarian - 8/10

I have got a Disney Plus subscription for a month.

Does anyone have any film recommendations on there? Cheers

[Geddy_Lee]

4 hours ago, Steve_Wilkos said:

I have got a Disney Plus subscription for a month.

Does anyone have any film recommendations on there? Cheers

Prey - Very good installment to the Predator series (8/10)

and a couple of decent easy to watch 90 minute films..... Underwater (7/10) and No Exit (7/10)

and Danny Boyle's Sunshine from a few years back is also on there (watched it at the weekend) 8/10.