Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 62

pretty much any LA high school where the kids are all chilling before school starts (who the fuck is getting up that early to hang out)...and people are eating outside...

OH and high schools that have like a DJ? I mean, we had morning announcements, but not like the ones you see in the 80s movies

 

High School Musical high school is pretty dope.

 

I was the Saturday school teacher two years ago. We mostly just fooled around on YouTube for four hours.

 

wow that sounds like a waste for everybody

 

I'd go to that high school from 10 Things I Hate About You

 

Kinsey - 8.5/10
The Usual Suspects - 8.5/10
Maggie - 5.5/10
Martha Marcy May Marlene - 7/10
Regression - 4/10
To Catch a Thief - 7.5/10
Up in the Air - 9/10
Alone in the Dark - 0.5/10
John Wick - 8.5/10

If it weren't for the two films I have already seen (The Usual Suspects and John Wick) this would have been one of the weakest weeks so far this year since Kinsey and Up In The Air were the only other two bright sparks in an otherwise lacking week. Alone in the Dark really is as bad as people said with practically nothing redeeming about it and To Catch a Thief was solid but easily my least favorite Hitchcock film I have seen so far although admittedly I haven't seen all that much by him.

 

Manchester by the Sea was devastating. I kind of hate how good Casey Affleck is in it. Even "Denzel at his best" didn't quite measure up for me, which sucks because I don't want him to win.
Fences was devastating. And kind of claustrophobic, a stark contrast to the rest of the movies today in terms of setting. It felt like a play was adapted into a movie (which it was).
Hell or High Water was... okay...
La La Land was gorgeous. I'm already trying to learn City of Stars on guitar haha. I get the whole "white people find jazz" critique, but I loved it anyway. I don't think I can stay mad at Emma Stone anymore.

 

Went to the AMC marathon, did ya?

 

haha, yup.

 

A United Kingdom felt very timely and David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike were great, I think having a WOC director led to a more nuanced/positive vision of Africa too

 

When Harry Met Sally felt like an optimist's version of Annie Hall. Watching a 40-plus Billy Crystal pretending to be a college student was worth it alone.

 

Filling up a James Cagney blind spot this weekend. Really liked the Public Enemy and White Heat. Loved Angels with Dirty Faces. Ranks with my all time favorites now. Yankee Doodle Dandy less my speed but fine enough, and his performance worth it.

 

Cagney was a once-in-a-generation talent. He had that smirking charm that could turn pretty light fluff like Blonde Crazy or Here Comes the Navy into a must-watch. And he was a phenomenal and unique dancer, which you def know because you watched Yankee.

Angels with Dirty Faces is a straight up masterpiece. Makes you realize why Orson Welles thought he was the "greatest actor to ever step foot in front of a camera"

 

Amelie was pretty charming, if a little overlong and indulgently stylized.
Redline was not very deep, but quite hilarious and very beautifully animated.

 

Watched the Wachowski's Speed Racer last night and ohmygodohmygodohmygod this was so ahead of it's time and seriously brilliant wowowowowwowowowow

 

The Lego Batman Movie. I loved it. It was hilarious. Go see it if you haven't yet

 

My friend basically summed up how I feel about Lego Batman: "I went into The Lego Movie with low expectations and it exceeded them. I went into Lego Batman with high expectations and it exceeded them."

Yeah. I went back to the same theater I did the marathon in the next day. I had a pretty crazy weekend.

 

Passengers - Has anyone seen this? There is a screenplay floating around with a VERY different version that was actually got made (the screenplay was better). I was on board with everything until the last few moments. I don't want to spoil it, but you kind of see what's coming toward the end.

As for the screenplay, there was a TON more action and an ending that should have been filmed. Instead, what we got was a somewhat typical love story with too big of a plot.

 

The Thin Blue Line: This was unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm not very familiar with documentaries, and I feel like most of the ones I've seen kind of show their hand in the first five or ten minutes. The craft in which each piece of information here was presented created such an engaging narrative. I was never sure where it was going to go next. 9/10

 

Cure for Wellness - 4/10

God this was fucking long. Stupid protagonist, too long, and an over the top ending that comes way way wayyy too late in this beautiful looking film, that fucking fails to deliver.

 

Fist Fight - 3/10

Back to back movies that i so desperately wanted to love but fucking failed. Charlie, Ice Cube, Bell, Hendricks, morgan, Kumail... a funny plot....rated R...and they couldn't put it together at all. How tragic.

The biggest issue was that every character would just repeat the same shit the whole movie. They were all given one thing that made them 'weird' and they'd just repeat it constantly. Jillian Bell thinks the boys are hot, okay thats crass, but that can be funny with the way she delivers line, but that's literally ALL she talked about. It was barely funny the first time and it didn't get funny down the line. Each character were told to act one way and that's it. Ice Cube, be angry. charlie, be manic. Jillian, talk aobut getting with students. Hendricks, walk slow motion.

so many issues. poorly written.

 

I wanted to see that only because of who wrote it. Still probably will ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Mommy

what a heart wrenching, complicated, indulgent movie. and i really like it.

indulgent because of that fucking aspect ratio shift. it's so good when he does he later in the film and it's not set to wonderwall. and i actually really like the square framing because of how it literally boxes in characters and they're constantly bursting out of the frame unless they're uncomfortable up close and personal. it makes for brutally frank shots and gives the "dream" sequence so much more breathing room because of it.
also indulgent because of the premise - it works fine when it's treated primarily metaphorically, you suspend your disbelief and instead treat it as a proxy for emotional abandonment. but it's inelegantly implemented, with a literal prologue spiel.

these complaints aside, christ, what an emotionally complex movie, at least for me. seeing characters who truly love each other, yet are constantly - for lack of control and knowing better - undercutting each other is just heart rending for me. indeed, i'm decidedly not someone who cries easily, and the wrist-cutting scene in the store, when Steve says, "we still love each other, right?" just ripped me apart the first time i saw it .

indeed, it's... a strange movie in its mood. it's both hopeful and cynical; every character seems to end unhappy, but to the last, they're doing what they're doing because they genuinely believe it's what's best for the people they love. Steve lies to his mother and says he's doing great because even though he feels betrayed, he doesn't want to hurt her; Die tells herself that this is just what she needs to do to get to a place where she can truly take care of Steve; she acts incredibly happy for Kyla but is so clearly gutted by her leaving.

I wish more had been explored with Kyle, though. there's some remarkably subtle story telling, in what seems to be a loss of her son - but it could have been an effective foil to the main storyline.
altogether, a purposefully messy but surprisingly touching movie. i'm a sucker for family conflict.

 

A Chris Marker 16mm screening tonight, La Jetee and Sans Soleil, was fascinating. Sans Soleil felt like reading Borges, a balance of observation of physicality and culture with personal reflection and introspection tied into a profound marriage of narrative and insight. It was married to the images so beautifully, I found the whole experience hit very hard.

 

Both of those movies are very impressive. I wish the story quality of Jetee was combined with the visual quality of Sans Soleil. What a fuckin' movie that would be