Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 60

The Danish Girl - 6.5/10
Dope - 8/10
The War of the Roses - 9.5/10
RoboCop - 9.5/10
RoboCop 2 - 8/10
Midnight Special - 8/10
Godzilla (2014) - 9/10
The Warriors - 8/10
Hitman: Agent 47 - 1/10
Bernie - 8/10

Far more consistent week even though I indulged in more movies I have seen before this week than any previously so far this year. Surprised it has taken me this long to finally watch RoboCop 2 and The Warriors but glad I did get round to seeing both. Hitman: Agent 47 is easily one of the worst action films I have ever seen, fails to even surpass the awful first attempt from 2007.

 

Inferno-4/10
I'm a fan of the books so I knew what I was getting into beforehand, but this was a drag for a lot of moments. It has much less of the actual historical analysis and discussion of the art than the other films/books, but this books strength was the ability to provide clear arguments and motivation for the villain beyond just "Overpopulation" and the twist at the end of the book was very interesting and unexpected. Both of those were cut, making the film version a lot more mundane and paint by numbers than it could/should have been.

 

Tiny Furniture - it's fashionable to hate on Lena Dunham, and there are serious serious issues with her brand of white feminism which ignore class and race (and some unfortunate moments of this rear their head in the film itself) which lead me not to like her politics much, but this film had a sharp eye for millennial aimlessness and unrest, and was stylish despite being mumblecore. it even was occasionally pretty funny.

 

she's really charming in it which is impressive because as your said irl she's less so to put it politely

 

Tiny Furniture was quite good. Girls has probably gone on too long, and the show has an awful tendency to set up plotlines and abandon them, but it still has some great moments. The Charlie episode last episode is a great short film.

 

I haven't seen Tiny Furniture in a few years but I also thought it was pretty good. Same with the first few seasons of Girls, but I think I jumped ship after season 4.

 

I haven't seen Girls and I don't know if i'll actually ever try it - I kind of feel like my reaction to it would be worse because its flaws (particularly politically) would become exponentially more obvious and frustrating to me as its length extends while Tiny Furniture sits very compactly which gives me less time to get annoyed at it lol.

 

Tiny Furniture was great and I loved the first two seasons of Girls, but lost touch with it

 

I think the last season of Girls was one of its best.

 

I've somehow never seem an episode of Girls

 

Room - 9/10
Unfriended - 6/10
Need for Speed - 4/10
Victor Frankenstein - 5/10
Misery - 8/10
Event Horizon - 7/10
Money Monster - 6.5/10
Erin Brockovich - 9/10
Akira - 8/10
Deepwater Horizon - 8/10

Probably been my favorite week so far this year since I finally got round to watching several films that have been lingering on my To Watch List for a while now. Believe it or not I watched Room, Misery, Erin Brockovich and Akira for the first time this week and all of them met or exceeded my expectations. So glad I started this minimum of one film a day thing, hope I can keep it up for the whole year.

 

The Lobster is deeply unpleasant but also brilliant. One of the sharpest social satires I've ever seen but also incredibly sour and deeply uncomfortable to watch as the rules of the world are followed to their most extreme conclusions. I never want to see it again, but its commentary on relationships, society and power are going to rattle around for awhile.

Trolls is the archetypal Dreamworks movie. Beautiful animation, some cute humor, a couple solid original songs. And then they just take a big Dreamworksy shit all over it. Forced pop-culture catchphrases? Check. Cringe-inducing interpolations of pop songs? Check. Ends with a dance party? Check.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown is solid. Some amazing production values for sure. The shots of the Rocky Mountains are some of the most gorgeous you'll ever see in a 60s movie. The score is lush, the sets and costumes are appropriately lavish. Debbie Reynolds is game and works hard, but the movie never really takes off. The biggest flaw is the first act of the movie, which is going for an Annie Get Your Gun-esque tone of comedic backwoods hick-ery and it just doesn't work at all. Once the movie finds its groove in Denver, though, it's better.

Fame is really great. Perhaps surprisingly (80s pop-dance movie) and perhaps not (Alan Parker directed it). The story stays loose and episodic, which is a plus. Never committing to one lead or following any of the strands to a conclusion, but just showing the joys and pitfalls of trying to make a life of the arts makes for an intriguing movie. The music is great ("Out Here on My Own" should have won the Oscar, not the title track), it's well-shot and there are some nice supporting performances from the adult actors. Pleasant surprise.

Camelot is a tremendous waste. The score is wonderful and it's outright gorgeous to look at for its whole 2 1/2 hours. The biggest flaws are casting and direction. Joshua Logan's biggest flaw is usually pace and this is no exception. The movie crawls, and far too rarely is it for the purpose of taking a breath to enjoy something important. Richard Harris is a good actor who's a terrible fit for Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave can't properly sing a part written for Julie Andrews and Franco Nero is totally outmatched.

Julieta is pretty modest, but you have to love Almodovar. It's a well-written and emotionally effective movie with beautiful colors and some unexpected humor, aka, an Almodovar film. There are a few Kubrick-evoking shots in particular that really stand out.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a little underrated. Joe Dante was the right fit, and you can tell he loves the characters, even if he later disavowed the movie. There's a lot of quality Warner Brothers zaniness and absurd jokes. Unfortunately, that's about all it's got.

Amistad is a mid-tier Spielberg, but that's better than most directors manage on their best days. His (and Kaminski's) restraint is crucial. By the time they show you the kidnapping and killing of the slaves you are already so invested in the characters and accustomed to the status-quo of the film that the scene is horrifyingly jarring, which is exactly what it should be. And when the film swings for emotions, Anthony Hopkins and John Williams make sure it lands hard.

Suicide Squad was abysmal. Margot Robbie was utterly wasted. Will Smith tries to hold it all together at the center, but they give him nothing to work with. The only scene that works is in the bar, where it's actually lit well enough to see what's going on (a rarity) and the actors just go. This is the ultimate example of what awfulness happens when you confuse general darkness and CGI-porn for quality filmmaking.

 

Cary Grant weekend here at the Redford Theater, Arsenic & Old Lace last night, Charade today, and Notorious tonight. It's been a lovely weekend

 

Arsenic is one of my all time top 10. Legitimately perfect comedy.

 

Yeah my first few Cary Grants were a couple of his Hitchcocks then a romance or two... then I saw Arsenic and Monkey Business and man few people in history are that perfect at comedy.

 

He's an incredibly underrated actor (outside of being limited in accents). He had so many modes of comedy, from the bug-eyed double-takes in Arsenic to the more sophisticated The Philadelphia Story to the grumpy curmudgeon bit in Father Goose to the restrained, smirking genius of The Bishop's Wife. But then he could play a charming romantic lead in his sleep, anchor a Hitchcock perfectly, hold up the center of a manly action movie (Gunga Din and Only Angels Have Wings) with no problem and, when he did his one real "dramatic" role in None But the Lonely Heart, knock it out of the park. I've grown to love him more and more the further I get into his career.

 

I really enjoyed Finding Dory, but it kind of just felt like more of the same, and so much of the movie being limited to the marine life institute made me feel claustrophobic.

I really enjoyed Cafe Society, but I couldn't stop thinking about Woody Allen's personal life. The movie has all of his signature charm, yet all I could see were affairs and age gap.

I really enjoyed Swiss Army Man. Butt. While I can see how not everyone would like this movie, I think it's undeniable that it's as well crafted as it is ambitious. Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano are great, the story and dialogue are great, the music is great, the special effects are great.

 

The Lego Batman movie was cute and made me smile

The Runaways had excellent performances from Michael Shannon and Kristen Stewart even if it was a bit cliched as a rock biopic at times

I Am Not Your Negro was intense

 

X-Men Apocalypse was alright, kinda boring but definitely worth watching.

 

Kim Fowley is like the perfect sleazeball for Michael Shannon.

 

I'm actively upset with myself that it took me this long to view Black Narcissus

 

that movie. Jack Cardiff is a god.

 

I watched Swiss Army Man this week and let me just say that's one strange movie. I loved it a lot, gave it 4/5 on Letterboxd, but yeah, it's a weird one.

 

Michael Powell was a genius, goddamn shame he was informally blacklisted by the industry