Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 5

aw, thanks! That's nice of you.

 

Since everyone is posting their letterboxd pages, here is mine. I'll follow anyone who has posted.

I started How I Live Now before I took a nap earlier but I'm not sure if I'll go back to it. It has this really messy/awkward romantic thing going on and I just don't know who thought it was a good idea.

I was looking at HBO Go's lineup and saw the Godfather Epic which is apparently a recut version of the full series. Can any fans of the films tell me if this is a decent way to start or should I track down the regular films? (I've seen none of them before, oops.)

 

I would find the saga overwhelming, and the individual movies are two of the greatest American works of art. Worth considering on their own.

 

I'll go for individual watches then. I'm pretty sure my uncle owns at least the first two so I'll try to get to them soon. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

alright so who's into fucked up movies. i think i'm gonna run through the Guinea Pig series.

 

Antichrist, dir. Lars von Trier (2009)

I didn't think I'd see animal birthing scenes in two different movies this weekend. It wasn't the plan. But, here I am. While not exactly fun to watch, of Antichrist's many grisly, horrible, disgusting sequences, the animal birth was probably the least so. I never come out of a von Trier film illuminated. It has taken a lot of time for me to figure out just how I felt about each von Trier film I've seen, and those feelings I'm sure will continue to evolve. So I'm hesitant to say anything definitively, but Antichrist was certainly brilliant in it's weird, gruesome way. The visuals were striking, particular scenes felt like they reached through the screen and gripped me in how extremely visceral and sensory they were. The film deeply and memorably taps into the eerie, mysterious unknown of nature. von Trier demonstrates mastery of filmmaking in how he goads the audience one way, envelops them in the film's aesthetic, only to then distance them or abruptly challenge them. And Antichrist, like all von Trier, is challenging. I'll sit with it awhile and maybe do some more private writing on it to sort out my thoughts later.

And jeez, talk about tonal dissonance

 

I have a morbid curiosity with reading about fucked up movies that I could never bring myself to watch

 

Been meaning to catch up on my horror movies, I'll probably watch Creep and The House October Built this week

We also convinced our screenwriting teacher to let us watch They Live, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Cabin in the Woods over the next two weeks

 

Antichrist was real good. Iirc the end lost me a little bit with the whole magic powerful demon women or something, and there were a few things I think didn't make sense when I watched it, but a very creative look at grief.

 

They Live must have taken a hell of a sales pitch. Though it does have one of my favorite lines in film

 

Not even, it was his idea haha. I told him I'd been meaning to watch it and he taught us media ethics last year, so he was immediately on board. We're all big Carpenter fans though, I just haven't been able to find it anywhere. Excited to finally see it!

 

It's no masterpiece, but it's a blast and a must if you dig Carpenter

 

Gunga Din (1939), dir. George Stevens

Gunga Din was a bit of a tricky one. The technological aspects and filmmaking were top notch. It's fingerprints are all over our modern blockbusters. But just watching it as a movie, I ultimately couldn't get past the backwards racial aspects. The brownface, the cartoonish and condescending writing of the Indian characters, I just can't get over that. It's the same trouble I run into with films like Gone With the Wind. Technically, it's a masterwork. But the way the films just completely fail on a racial level is near impossible for me to reconcile. Where I think I've landed is, I can understand the context of a film's era. But that doesn't excuse what's explicitly wrong with the films. Brownface is wrong. If you cast a white guy as an Indian character and douse him in heavy makeup and have him doing a horrible accent, I get that at the time, audiences would accept that. It was still wrong. And the film has to live with that. The same goes for modern films continuing to cast cis-gender actors in trans* roles. As audiences, we're conditioned to accept it. But the film will bear the brunt of future audiences viewing it through a different lens.

So the racial stuff was really hard for me. But otherwise, Gunga Din is undeniably important and an achievement in moviemaking. The scale of the action is impressive, the choreography is fun and engaging. Cary Grant is hilarious in his role. So there are absolutely aspects that make Gunga Din an important film. It's just not one I feel comfortable saying I liked or enjoyed, or even thought was "good", for whatever value that might have, since it's so deeply flawed in it's failings in regards to race.

 

Just finished Monsters University. I expected a bit better (Monsters Inc. is my favorite Pixar film) but it could've been worse. It felt really unnecessary.

About to jump into Red Dragon. It's the only Hannibal Lecter film I haven't seen. Hopefully it's better than Hannibal or Hannibal Rising.

 

Can't say I blame you for this opinion, but if a movie where the Indian guy is the hero is problematic, you have some TOUGH going in the 30s-50s. Haha

 

A white guy in brownface to portray an Indian guy* is the hero. I actually really liked a lot of Gunga Din haha. And given the era, Gunga Din is progressive in a lot of ways. But there's still a lot of ugliness in there.

 

Oh yeah. Not excusing the ugly practices of the era. But that one was actually trying not to be horrible. Plenty of others can't even manage that.

The worst part is some of the black actors now reviled for their stereotyped personas were actually gifted comic performers. Like, Stepin Fechit's schtick is undeniably offensive, but he's a talented physical comic. It's a shame his gifts were so wasted.

 

Pee-Wee's Big Holiday was a joy. I've always liked Pee-Wee and this movie was fun. There were surprisingly suggestive moments which makes this a questionable PG, but funny and lighthearted like I expected.

 

Been on a bit of a Wim Wenders kick after watching The American Friend for the film club, but the latest two have been weird. Wrong Move is very good, but feels closer to a French film from the 80s than the other two films from the Road Movies trilogy. Hammett is a mess. Seems like cobbled together pieces from a bigger, better film. It's a shame to see Wenders fall so flat when paying closer homage to the Noirs, because he did impeccably with that influence on The American Friend. Have State of Things, Until the End of the World and The Goalkeepers Anxiety lined up next.

 

Batman (1989) dir. Tim Burton
Superman (1978) dir. Richard Donner

I've never been particularly attached to Tim Burton's Batman. I can understand and appreciate it's historical context, it's place in film and Batman history, but even when I was a kid it just didn't really feel like my Batman. My Batman as a kid was the Animated Series, the comic books, and when I was 14 and Batman Begins hit, Christopher Nolan's Batman. I liked the Tim Burton movie, but when I wanted a Batman fix, it wasn't really where I went to sate that. Watching it now with what I feel like are pretty clear, critical eyes, it's pretty good. I don't love the mobster backstory for the Joker, or Jack Nicholson's sleazy mobster goon performance of Jack Napier pre-chemicals. I think it works for the movie, and it sets up a revenge plot as a starting point for the Joker's eventual rampage, and for that, for this movie, it works. And once he's turned, I love Nicholson's performance. He looks great, he's all in with the crazy eyes and the expressive eyebrows and the manic grin, and his laugh is fantastic. Where this movie ultimately leaves a little to be desired for me is Batman himself. Bruce Wayne isn't all that well-developed or interesting. Burton sets up some nice stuff, I like when Robert Wuhl and Kim Basinger are mocking his art collection while he stands behind them, amused. I like when he asks Basinger on a date and they end up in his dining room, sitting across from each other quietly eating soup at a comically long table. With stuff like that, Burton set up an intriguing, lonely, distant Bruce Wayne. It kind of gets lost in the shuffle though, once the Joker hits his stride and the action picks up. Plus it's never a great thing when you have your damsel in distress faint in fright multiple times in one movie. Overall though, it works as a Batman story. It's solid.

Christopher Reeve's Superman, on the other hand, I love. His performance is near-perfect, but what I noticed and loved this time around was Donner's framing of Clark Kent in the Daily Planet. When he's first introduced, we're following a fiery Lois Lane into Perry White's office. The dialogue and the action is all between them and Jimmy Olsen. Then Perry introduces Clark Kent, who pops up from underneath the frame. He was literally invisible. Donner does a similar thing in another Daily Planet sequence where the newsroom is buzzing and loud, the camera is winding through people as Lois and Jimmy and Perry and everyone else talks loudly. Then Perry compliments Clark on a piece and Clark stands up to say thank you, and it's the first you even notice he's there. He was framed with his back to the camera, most of his face hidden. It's just fantastic. Donner got that about Clark Kent. I also loved that on Superman's first night as Superman, he rescues Lois and a pilot from a helicopter crash, stops a jewel thief, intervenes in a police car chase/shootout, drops a boat full of mobsters off at a police station, helps a cat down from a tree, and guides a plane with a blown engine to safety. All on the first night. It's cheesy, but the whole movie is. And it pays off in the end when there's a similar montage of Superman saving people from the aftershocks of Lex Luthor's rockets, Superman is saving everyone he can, but this time it's intercut with Lois getting swallowed up in her car by the earthquake. It sets up real stakes and a real tense sequence. Of course Superman is too late and she dies and he infamously flies around the Earth to reverse it's rotation and turn back time, which I know a lot of people probably roll their eyes at. But in this movie, for this Superman, I fucking buy it. It's not my ideal Superman action, it opens up infinite logical problems with the movie, but at it's core, it is pretty Superman. It's true to the All-Star Superman ethos, "There's always a way". And that's why I'm in on it, cheese and all.

 

finally saw this today and i completely agree. it was truly fantastic.

 

Ip Man 3

I liked it. Wasn't the best plot wise but I'll watch Donnie Yen be awesome almost no matter what. Some great scenes. The Mike Tyson fight was fun. And I liked the final battle as well. Not my favorite of the three, but still good.

Also impressed by the Bruce Lee lookalike.

 

Breaking Away was fantastic. Just reminds you how much the over-the-top demographic targeting of modern movies blows. If they made it now, the odds are high it's just some formulaic sports movie. But it is just as concerned with being a coming of age film and is well-written with a fondness and nostalgia for youth but also an understanding of its frustrations and revelations. It's sneaky funny and beautifully shot, too. Really loved it.

 

The Stoned Age aka fake Dazed and Confused is on Showtime OnDemand. Watching now

 

Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse - A very bad generic teen comedy thats only redeeming quality is some funny gore effects.