What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Show me someone that enjoyed Babylon and I will show you a liar.

[accies1874]

14 minutes ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

Show me someone that enjoyed Babylon and I will show you a liar.

I'm hoping to see it today so I'll let you know xx

[accies1874]

I was re-watching Gone Girl (still great) which chucks in Don't Fear the Reaper at point. There can't be any song that's appeared in more films/games/TV episodes than this has? It's popped up millions of times for me in the past year or so. 

[Molotov]

30 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

I was re-watching Gone Girl (still great) which chucks in Don't Fear the Reaper at point. There can't be any song that's appeared in more films/games/TV episodes than this has? It's popped up millions of times for me in the past year or so. 

I’d see that as a bit of a worrying sign. 

You either have voices in your head or you watch too much TV. 

Did that song ever appear in this film series?

 

[KingRocketman II]

4 hours ago, accies1874 said:

I was re-watching Gone Girl (still great) which chucks in Don't Fear the Reaper at point. There can't be any song that's appeared in more films/games/TV episodes than this has? It's popped up millions of times for me in the past year or so. 

Gimme Shelter gotta be up there.......

[accies1874]

3. Babylon - Cinema

Boy, this film sure does like to babble on, doesn't it? 

Damien Chazelle knows how to make spectacular cinema. I re-watched Whiplash last week which is one of my faves of the 2010s, La La Land is wonderful on a technical level and then there's Babylon which just screams epic (First Man is an outlier as it sidelines a lot of the style in favour of character, and I've not seen his debut which doesn't even seem to exist anywhere). So if you've got First Man's character study on one end of the spectrum and La La Land's technique on the other - Whiplash perfectly in the middle - then where does Babylon sit? Well, it smashes well past La La Land.

It's incredible at points. During the two early behemoths of scenes, all you can do is sit back and soak it all in. Intense and hypnotic with that goddamn catchy theme which manages to evoke that intensity and hypnotism and is just a fucking tune. Some of the 'one-takes' are ridiculous, too, and, while they're entirely showy, they are spectacular which also works as a depiction of a vulgar, narcissistic yet still spectacular Hollywood. So much of it is paced so ferociously that you feel exhausted when it does slow down - and that's when the problems start. 

As much as I loved the craft of those early scenes, I began to realise how little I was invested in the characters or ideas* when it began to linger on them. There was nothing about their rise that I took any interest in, and it wasn't like Tar where you were desperate to see how their fall came about as it's pretty clear early on what kind of story it plans on telling. That becomes an issue when the spectacle peaks at, at most, a third of the way through a 3-hour film and you're left with characters who you're pretty indifferent to, which gets very irritating when it gives the impression of winding down about five or six times (or maybe even more) so you begin to resent that it's still going. One thing I did like in the latter part of it, though, was how they contrast two parties, both near-identical but experienced by a character at two different stages of their life so are portrayed differently. You get the feel that they're different, but it's clear in the moment and in retrospect that the bad shit is still the same as what was once epic. Cinema. 

*I wasn't invested in the ideas at the time, but I was thinking on my walk home how I liked its wrestle with the resentment and fulfilment that comes with paving the way for a new generation and just ageing in general. It did sort of provoke reflection at the end by making me think about just how much the characters had gone through to get to the point they reached at the end - and how their decisions at the end defined their character - but I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed it at the time. 

On my in, I also saw The Banter King himself walking by the cinema with Matthew Shiels so his presence put me in a top mood before watching. @Scotty Tunbridge

[MSU]

016 Searching -- After seeing Missing, I was sure I'd seen Searching but it was back when I was "still drinking" so my memories were vague of it. There's a lot in here that carried forward into Missing and it's told the same way where it's 99% a computer screen, but it's a dad looking for his daughter rather than the daughter looking for her mother, and the characters aren't quite as sympathetic and the story not so strong. Still decent fun. 6/10

017 Elementa -- Nothing but an unabashed attempt to color in some unusual countries on my Letterboxd map. It's a 45 minute black and white nature documentary, mostly told as a triptych which gives it a lovely pretentious art installation feel. We travel from pole to equator to pole, witnessing nature in its least disturbed. A turtle in Galapagos just wanders over there for a bit. A sloth hangs out on a branch and eyes up a different branch. A Canadian bear cub walks along the rocky banks of streams and thinks about what to have for dinner probably. I found it a beautiful, soothing experience, ambiently soundtracked, that in the absence of a story seems to do an incredible amount to find out what it takes to connect to a world that exists despite us, what has always been here before us, and what will be there when we're gone. 10/10

018 Sick -- Kevin Williamson's latest attempt to revitalize the slasher genre isn't quite as effective or accomplished as Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer but it's still a fairly sassy, smart affair. Set at the start of COVID, the reminder of what life was like in March 2020 with sparse supermarket shelves, arrows on the floor, six-foot distances, and Daily Fauci is a bit shocking to see a mere two and bit years later, but that backdrop is a brilliantly unsettling introduction. 

Best friends Parker (Gideon Adlon who played the geeky, closeted lesbian in Blockers) and Miri (Bethlehem Million) travel to the former's family's lake house to see out quarantine. They receive cryptic messages on their phones, are startled when Parker's ex-boyfriend shows up, and they are further alarmed when a knife-welding maniac appears on their property intent on more than stealing a spare roll of toilet paper.

The script is bright, the characters a sympathetic blend of skeptics and germaphobes, and there are some inventive CGI-enhanced kills along the way before the movie takes a bizarre turn as motives are revealed. None of this is helped by a young Carole Baskin look-a-like, but an 82-minute runtime achieves a fair amount of tension, delivering an odd historical touchpoint. 6/10

019 Stir Crazy -- I haven't watched this quite as often as Jaws 2, but it's probably close. Still, I hadn't seen it for probably more than a decade and it's far lighter on story than I remember, and easier on tension. Maybe it’s familiarity but apart from a few scenes, notably involving Pryor reaching for a pillow, the laughs were mostly smiles and the smiles were mostly on the inside. But for a 100 minute 80s comedy set mostly in a prison, it’s aged remarkably well, even if the romantic angle between Wilder and his lawyer’s niece is a bit yikes. Also, seeing Jonathan Banks as a nasty inmate is probably worth the effort of watching on its own. 6/10

020 The Outsiders (#1 in the Brat Pack series) -- The first acknowledged Brat Pack movie is an absolute galaxy of stars. C Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Cruise. Ooft! It's interesting to see them all share sets and scenes, but it's Macchio's performance that stands out. He stars as Johnny, friend of Ponyboy (Howell) who are part of a gang of greasers in 60s Oklahoma, rivals to the more upwardly mobile socs gang. When they kill a soc during a brawl, it sparks a chain of events that people are powerless to stop. It's Francis Ford Coppola behind the camera just in case the cast list isn't weird enough. It's a bit of a usual gang story where we struggle to identify true heroes, and the theme of class is one that will be revisited in many Brat Pack movies. It feels like a movie that I would've absolutely loved if I'd seen it in my teens. Now, though, in 2023, it's a bit underwhelming, a bit naive even, but there's so much talent involved I don't really know how anyone could come away from this with a negative opinion. 7/10

021 Class -- I never really got the point of Andrew McCarthy. Watching this again for probably the first time since I was a teenager, I was surprised by some things -- for example, the insult "douchebag" is aired for the first time in movie history as far as I know -- but my attitude to McCarthy and his portrayal of Jonathan is exactly the same. Jonathan is a new student at a fancy Midwest prep school where he meets his asshole roommate, Skip (Rob Lowe), who may just be the worst person to ever live. The two become friends after a fashion, and for reasons of plot, Skip sends Jonathan into the city to pop his cherry, which successfully occurs with an older woman, who just so happens to be Skip's mother. Yikes. It does have some vague curio value, such as early appearances from Joan and John Cusak, it was co-written by Jim Kouf who would go on to help pen National Treasure, plus there's that douchebag thing I've already mentioned. But that's about it. 4/10

022 Shotgun Wedding -- It's kinda rare to see a movie whose writers so clearly started with a title, moved to the poster tagline, went to see The Lost City a couple of times, and then came up with a plot to fit. Jennifer Lopez (in ANOTHER wedding movie) and Josh Duhamel star as an oddly-matched couple preparing for their wedding on an exotic private island when the proceedings are invaded by a crew of pirates (not that kind) who take everyone, including Jennifer Coolidge playing Jennifer Coolidge, hostage. It's up to the squabbling bride and groom to -- ahem -- save the day. It lacks warmth, charm, and laughs, and not even a heavily-armed J-Lo running around a jungle in a grubby wedding gown flashing her arse, or a movie-stealing minute or two from Coolidge, are enough to soothe the anxiety that most of the runtime generates. I really expect more from Jason Moore, who directed Pitch Perfect for the love of God, and whoever talked Lenny Kravitz into appearing really should be working for the UN. 2/10

023 Infinity Pool -- They say the man who is bored of Mia Goth's side-boob is tired of life. Oh well. Cronenberg Jnr makes a better movie than his dad did with Crimes of the Future last year, but like Shotgun Wedding and The Menu and the new Glass Onion and Triangle of Sadness, it's yet another shot at making a movie about rich people being p***ks in a place.

Alexander Skarsgård and Cleopatra Coleman are James and Em, a married couple on vacation in the fictional country of Latoka. They meet Jalil Lespert and Mia Goth, who are seasoned visitors to the country, and illegally exit the compound to picnic in the country. On the way back, James runs over and kills a farmer walking at the side of the road. Quickly detained, James learns that when a foreigner kills a citizen, the relatives of the deceased are permitted to kill the foreigner. If the foreigner has sufficient wealth, a clone can be made of them, complete with their memories and their guilt, and they can stand in as a proxy. James opts for the latter, goes through a long, painful, and expensive cloning process and later watches as the farmer's son stabs his double to death.

And herein lies the nub of the movie. If the holidaymakers have enough money -- and they wouldn't be there if they didn't -- apart from some temporary discomfort, there is nothing preventing them from behaving like savages, although James is quick to stumble on the existential conundrum. Who's to say that the original version wasn't the one who was killed and the clone survived? Em is disgusted by the experience but James finds it somewhat titillating and discovers his tourist companions have also fallen foul of the law. 

Cronenberg Junior keeps the camera close on faces at times, throws characters far to the wrong edge of the frame, and the whole thing helps to keep the audience on edge and uneasy, even before events take their inevitable turn and head in the direction of the end of Society. It's been easy to forget in 2022 that Mia Goth is English so it's a bit of a novelty to hear her closer to her native accent here, but there's something about her performances here and in X and Pearl that keep me at arm's length. Skarsgård's performance is, for the most part, the exact tonal opposite to The Northman, and again that provides a bit of interest without really fully connecting. Poor Cleopatra Coleman is an afterthought and plot device. The movie exists and is nothing without a few minutes of WTF and when the credits come up, that's pretty much all that's left. 6/10

Edited January 29, 2023 by MSU
The censor edited the name of the bloke who soundtracked the wee nature movie.

[UpInTheAyr]

Been on a Twin Peaks binge past couple of weeks. Hadn't watched it in years but being a bit older now I could 'understand' it a lot better than I did the first time, well as much as you can understand Lynch.

Season 2 was severely bloated and season 3 I thought was just incredible, especially episode 8. 

Interestingly there's another version of Fire Walk With Me called Missing Pieces, which is a collection of deleted scenes. Well worth a watch as it adds a lot context to the original movie. 

[accies1874]

4. Holy Spider - Cinema

This has no pretences about what kind of film it wants to be; it's a crime thriller that shows you the murderer before the main character is introduced which immediately establishes that you shouldn't expect a huge mystery. The trailer had a quote comparing it to Zodiac which I think is pretty fair considering Zodiac is more about the effect of the murders than the murders themselves, and Holy Spider is more about the kind of environment that allows the murderer's beliefs to flourish. They both use a real case to comment on a wider societal attitude. It doesn't really take its ideas beyond what it sets out early on, although you kind of see it in a different - but still depressing - light towards the end, culminating in a final scene that's more disturbing than any of the flashes of brutality that came before. I suppose the arc of Establish Attitudes => Reveal Murders => Reinforce Attitudes is quite different and pertinent. 

[Frankie S]

#14 To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022) Amazon Prime 9

This downbeat low budget film, follows single mother, and resident of a small town in West Taxas, Leslie Rowland, in the years after she won the local lottery (then squandering the proceeds during her descent into alcoholism) is in every respects a highly promising debut film from filmmaker Michael Morris. It’s an unsentimental tale told well, with excellent performances from the entire cast, including the always reliable duo Marc Maron and Alison Janney. However, the most notable aspect isn’t that it’s a solid work from a first-time director: the film is elevated enormously by the astonishing performance by Andrea Riseborough in the lead role. Riseborough starred in two of my favourite horror films of recent years, ‘Mandy’ and ‘Possessor’, and while she’s superb in both, nothing quite prepares you for the brilliance of her performance here, which quite righty has resulted in an Academy Award nomination in the Best Actress category, irrespective of the controversy which has surrounded her nomination after numerous Hollywood stars lobbied the Academy for her inclusion. Her work speaks for itself. It’s a gritty unglamorous role that requires extraordinary commitment, and she is utterly convincing throughout. This film confirms beyond any doubt that Riseborough is one of the most prodigious acting talents working in the film industry today. I’m looking forward to seeing her in ‘Lee’, the forthcoming biopic of Lee Miller’s extraordinary life, though I wish Riseborough rather than Kate Winslet was playing the title role.

#15 The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola, 1996) Criterion Channel 8

Greg Mattola’s feature debut is a gentle, bittersweet comedy with a witty, finely-honed script. The film is perfectly cast, and Hope Davis, Parker Posey, Pat McNamara, Anne Meara and Stanley Tucci are all great, but Liev Schreiber steals the show as a pompous aspiring author with more than a hint of Frasier Crane about him. Set over the course of 24 hours in New York City, this is like ‘After Hours’-lite, and if it never comes close to emulating the dark comedic brilliance of Martin Scorsese’s film, this highly enjoyable movie is engagingly quirky, and has an unexpected twist in its tail.

#16 The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946) Criterion Channel 6.5

This is an efficient, if relatively undistinguished, film noir from Henry Hathaway, who was better known for his Westerns, though he did direct a few notable noirs, including the excellent ‘Kiss of Death’ and the very good ‘Call Northside 777’, both of which I saw last year. ‘The Dark Corner’ isn’t as good as either of those, and it lacks the star power of ‘Kiss of Death’’s Richard Widmark, Colleen Gray and Victor Mature, or ‘Northside’s James Stewart and Richard Conte, though Lucille Ball is quite good as a loyal secretary who helps her private investigator boss (played by Mark Stevens) out of a fix, and film noir regular William Bendix provides solid support.

#17 Man Hunt (Fritz Lang, 1941) Criterion Channel 7

This Fritz Lang propaganda film  from 1941 is an interesting companion piece to the superior ‘Ministry of Fear’, which he directed a few years later, in 1944. It’s an enjoyable thriller in which British big game hunter Captain Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) stalks Adolf Hitler just before the war starts, and then goes on the run after his apparent assassination plot is foiled. Returning to London, he gets involved with young woman called Jerry (played by Lang regular Joan Bennett) as he attempts to evade the ubiquitous German spies masquerading as Londoners, who inexplicably seem to outnumber the local populace. The only Brits we encounter are a few members of the aristocracy, and a group of Pearly Kings and Queens, which gives you a fair idea of the film’s lack of engagement with anything resembling reality. Nonetheless, it’s a highly enjoyable adventure story, and Lang and cinematographer Alan C. Miller bring some lovely expressionist touches to the project, lending the film the atmosphere of a superior film noir, even if the story is pure hokum.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Frankie S

[yoda]

I went to see TÁR last night.

It's objectively a great piece of filmmaking. A great character study. Cate Blanchett is great. I enjoyed being surprised by so many recognisable faces (General Veers!). It looks great. It sounds great. It's well written. Lydia Tár is the Hollywood's worst (best?) "villain" since Daniel Plainview (it's probably lazy but I couldn't help but think of a comparison with There Will Be Blood).

And yet... there's a point in the film with, maybe, 20 minutes to go where I just switched off and stopped engaging. That final stretch felt a bit needless; there's a logical end point but they kept going. It went from a 4 star Letterboxd review to 3.5 stars. Even typing that out feels sacrilegious.

 

[Ewanandmoreagain]

Defiance - very good !

[Guest]

Just in from seeing The Whale (followed by Knock At The Cabin). I'd be very surprised if I don't have this in my top three at the end of the year. I'm not as adept at critiquing as others on here, so will just say that if you're intrigued by the trailer, the film will not disappoint you.  Was annoyed they turned up the lights as the credits rolled, there was just something in my eye, honest. 

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Hopefully will see the whale in the coming days. Hawever I went to see knock at the cabin and it was just a bit meh for me tbh:-

Spoiler

Even if you suspend your disbelief and buy into the premise of the film any sense of terror is gone in the first 20 minutes when the ‘rules’ are revealed and Redmond is offed. What is there to be afraid of if they say they won’t hurt you and are just going to kill themselves instead of you if you don’t pick someone to sacrifice.

 

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

Hopefully will see the whale in the coming days. Hawever I went to see knock at the cabin and it was just a bit meh for me tbh:-

  Hide contents

Even if you suspend your disbelief and buy into the premise of the film any sense of terror is gone in the first 20 minutes when the ‘rules’ are revealed and Redmond is offed. What is there to be afraid of if they say they won’t hurt you and are just going to kill themselves instead of you if you don’t pick someone to sacrifice.

 

   Yeah, KATC was a second choice as I try to double-up on my trips to the cinema, saves petrol and bridge tolls...... and Vue's seats are more comfortable than mine at home. 

Edited February 3, 2023 by IncomingExile

[ScotiaNostra]

I watched Booksmart recently.  It was funny. better than I expected and well worth a watch.

[coprolite]

Ice Ages 1-5

Championship level CGI features with humanised extinct mammals. 

Decentish watch, with diminishing returns

Original- 6/10

Introduces concept and veey bottom of a list voice talent. Ropy animation 

Meltdown - 6/10

Makes better use of CGI format. + queen latifah as love interest. 

Something about dinosaurs - 5/10

Stupid, but + Simon Pegg. 

Continental drift- 5/10

A bit disjointed, good turn from peter dinklage. 

One with asteroid - 4/10

Really dumb, change of director and lurch into speeded up slapstick. 

[MSU]

22 hours ago, IncomingExile said:

Just in from seeing The Whale (followed by Knock At The Cabin). I'd be very surprised if I don't have this in my top three at the end of the year. I'm not as adept at critiquing as others on here, so will just say that if you're intrigued by the trailer, the film will not disappoint you.  Was annoyed they turned up the lights as the credits rolled, there was just something in my eye, honest. 

They must blow dust or something into the cinema at the end because me and Mrs MSU were exactly the same. Broke me in two. 

[KingRocketman II]

On 29/01/2023 at 18:46, MSU said:

Alexander Skarsgård and Cleopatra Coleman are James and Em, a married couple on vacation in the fictional country of Latoka. 

probably something more suited for the "petty things...." thread but my heart sinks whenever a made up country is referenced or appears in writing on screen in a cut to. Some names are quite laughable - majority glue the start and end of two real countries together. Exception to this is Dr Doom's Kingdom of Latveria which I quite like due to comic canon. 

 

[coprolite]

Puss in Boots- The Final Wish

Re-imagined fairy tale characters in magical quest. 

Really enjoyed this. It's fairly a straightforward mcguffin quest but it makes full use of the possibilities afforded by CGI and magic with unspecified rules without losing the story. 

The tone is rioutous and the pace is fast without being manic. 

There was an annoying stylistic tic where fast action sequences were shown in a sort of jerky style which i didn't like (could be a dodgy cinema though) 

7/10