Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

Europa, Europa: 7.4/10

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler: 6.5/10

 

[nameless1]

After a couple of days, You Were Never Really There continues to be a mixed bag. While I applaud Lynn Ramsey's effort to reinvigorate and perhaps innovate the revenge genre, a slow burn character study may not have been the best approach. Often times, I am really bored by the effort, but I cannot fault Ramsey's attempt. It is rather interesting, and even though it may not be some people's cup of tea, it is, at the very least, a good attempt, and a great reference point for the future.

Despite my reservations, there are a lot to like. The camera work is exquisite, as it helps to get the audience involve into the story, and a lot of shots are just beautiful to look at. I am also impressed by the sudden but seamless use of surveillance footage, because it is a very smart idea, and makes the film standout from the rest of the field. Then there is the background music. With the emphasis on contrast and clash within, it sets the tone of unease, and it helps to get the audience's attention, due to how different it is. At the same time, perhaps it is also the director's subtle way to hint at her intentions to be different from the rest of the genre.

The star of the film, without a doubt, is Joaquin Phoenix. The film's success or failure depends fully on him, as the character is in every single scene, and he is very complex and rather difficult to play. Phoenix, to his credit, fully delivers, and he is able to create a multi-dimensional character that is very memorable and stays with the audience long after he exits the screen. He truly deserves the Best Actor award at Cannes.

Unfortunately, with long sequences that has zero to little action only designed to reveal more about the character, the film moves at a glacial pace, and the audience, due to expectations, may be thrown off by that. That is the main reason why I am not sure rather or not it is necessary to try to change up the usually fast-pace revenge genre, because the hour-and-a-half run time often feels a lot longer. I am not the only one who feels that way too, because the guy next to me snored throughout the film.

At the moment, I give it a 6/10. I will recommend it, because it really is different, but be sure to enter with an open mind.

 

[nameless1]

Europa, Europa: 7.4/10

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler: 6.5/10

I really like Dr. Mabuse. Even by today's standard, it is not out-of-place either, as it uses a lot of troupes still prevalent in modern day heist/mystery movies. While it can seen daunting at about 270 minutes long, I am never bored by it, and is fully invested in the film.

Lang, plain and simple, is a genius. He is very ahead of his time, and while his reputation is often tainted by his mass-produced Hollywood film noirs, they are actually also worth a look. He always try to bring something new to the table, no matter what he does.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

the insult: 7/10

The movie explores good themes but the main plot is flawed from the beginning when one character is clearly at fault.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Fellowship of the Ring - 9/10

The best of the original trilogy, and one of the best adaptions of a book you will find.

Beautifully shot, beautifully designed, great soundtrack, great job by its large cast.

Took what was considered an impossible book to adapt, and succeeded better then anyone could imagine. It is a minor miracle this movie was made at all, never mind made so well.

 

[kihei]

Revenge (2018) Directed by Coralie Fargeat 6C

Revenge takes familiar grindhouse and Midnight Madness tropes about women in distress and turns them on their ear. Stuck in a desert wilderness cut off from help or rescue, Jen, a young woman who decided to spend the weekend in a remote spot with the wrong guy, seeks to take revenge on the three men who have, first, assaulted her and now are trying to kill her. Revenge is a feminist revenge/gore/horror/fantasy thriller which in terms of violence is virtually indistinguishable from the movies it seeks to critique. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. It certainly worked while I was watching it, though the gore level especially is right up there (down there?) with the best (worst?) of them (I Saw the Devil came to mind, for one example). However, the movie is fun for sure--though it helps if your idea of fun is being grabbed by the shoulders and given a concussion-like shake every ten minutes or so. French first-time director Coralie Fargeat, whose movie goes by in a flash, has constructed a very stylish film, one not averse to humour even in tense situations. The feminist angle in no way encumbers the mayhem--for that matter, it is an odd feminism on display what with a heroine who spends the movie in the briefest of booty shorts or less. But I mean, jesus, it would take some real male Neanderthal the like of which I can only hope is extinct to object to the message of this movie. One weird but necessary plot device will test your suspension of disbelief to the max (you'll know it when it happens), so it is perhaps a good idea to see the proceedings as having a strongly symbolic function as well and just go along with the flow. All in all, Revenge provides a ferocious and entertaining night at the movies for those of us with strong stomachs.

subtitles

 

[Spring in Fialta]

After a couple of days, You Were Never Really There continues to be a mixed bag. While I applaud Lynn Ramsey's effort to reinvigorate and perhaps innovate the revenge genre, a slow burn character study may not have been the best approach. Often times, I am really bored by the effort, but I cannot fault Ramsey's attempt. It is rather interesting, and even though it may not be some people's cup of tea, it is, at the very least, a good attempt, and a great reference point for the future.

Despite my reservations, there are a lot to like. The camera work is exquisite, as it helps to get the audience involve into the story, and a lot of shots are just beautiful to look at. I am also impressed by the sudden but seamless use of surveillance footage, because it is a very smart idea, and makes the film standout from the rest of the field. Then there is the background music. With the emphasis on contrast and clash within, it sets the tone of unease, and it helps to get the audience's attention, due to how different it is. At the same time, perhaps it is also the director's subtle way to hint at her intentions to be different from the rest of the genre.

The star of the film, without a doubt, is Joaquin Phoenix. The film's success or failure depends fully on him, as the character is in every single scene, and he is very complex and rather difficult to play. Phoenix, to his credit, fully delivers, and he is able to create a multi-dimensional character that is very memorable and stays with the audience long after he exits the screen. He truly deserves the Best Actor award at Cannes.

Unfortunately, with long sequences that has zero to little action only designed to reveal more about the character, the film moves at a glacial pace, and the audience, due to expectations, may be thrown off by that. That is the main reason why I am not sure rather or not it is necessary to try to change up the usually fast-pace revenge genre, because the hour-and-a-half run time often feels a lot longer. I am not the only one who feels that way too, because the guy next to me snored throughout the film.

At the moment, I give it a 6/10. I will recommend it, because it really is different, but be sure to enter with an open mind.

I think I still like it a bit more than you do but my impressions of the film have slightly waned a bit since watching it. I agree that it feels like longer than an hour and a half and not in a good way.

 

[kihei]

I think I still like it a bit more than you do but my impressions of the film have slightly waned a bit since watching it. I agree that it feels like longer than an hour and a half and not in a good way.

Ain't no wanin' in this camp. I think You Were Never Really Here is a stylish rethink of a genre that benefits monumentally from a detailed and complicated character who Phoenix brings to very believable life. I was pretty much mesmerized by the film. Wouldn't cut a thing--still my #2 seed for the year behind Foxtrot.

 

[mackzein]

Rowdy Rathore 7/10

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

the best of youth: 8.5/10 very good movie.

Tora ! Tora ! Tora !: 7.3/10

 

[Dont Toews Me Bro]

2001: A Space Odyssey in honor of its 50th birthday.

9/10

 

[kihei]

Godard Mon Amour (2018) Directed by Michel Hazanavicius 2B

What an incredible hatchet job this is. Based solely on first wife Anne Wiazemsky's hardly unbiased memoir of her time with Godard, Godard Mon Amour focuses on the great director during his most troubling period when he was trying to be a political revolutionary first and a movie maker second. This could have been an interesting period of Godard to explore for many reasons, but French hack Michel Haazanavicius passes all that up and heads straight for character assassination. Godard (Louis Garrel) is presented as a non-stop asshole 24 hours a day whatever the situation; he is pounded upon as a failed revolutionary, an insecure sexist pig, a control freak, a mean-spirited and uncharitable guy even at the best of times, and a lousy friend. Attila the Hun couldn't have come across any worse. Basically what this is is a pygmy of a director trying to discredit an artistic titan. Everyone involved in this project should feel some degree of embarrassment.

subtitles

 

[kihei]

Double post, sorry.

 

[NyQuil]

Double post, sorry.

That's what happens when you get worked up!

 

[Puck]

Godard Mon Amour (2018) Directed by Michel Hazanavicius 2B

At the end of Faces Places, didn't Goddard shut out the two photographers? (they made a lengthy trip to see him after he agreed to meet) He came across as ' a lousy friend' to the older photographer and she left him a sad note on the door. When you hear the same thing from different places, sometimes there might be something to it.

 

[kihei]

At the end of Faces Places, didn't Goddard shut out the two photographers? (they made a lengthy trip to see him after he agreed to meet) He came across as ' a lousy friend' to the older photographer and she left him a sad note on the door. When you hear the same thing from different places, sometimes there might be something to it.

You're right. I forgot about that, and it does make Faces, Places end on a very sour and puzzling note.

Godard may well be an ass. But Hazanavicius presents him as nothing else. You would never know that Godard was once a perceptive film critic, or how he became one of the most creative and domain altering film directors in history. We never get an inkling as to why he is so committed to his Maoist interpretation of history or why he was willing to sacrifice so much of his credibility in attempt to be revolutionary. We are never given any insight into how he thinks, or whether he ever had a casual thought that wasn't mean spirited, or why he would value Jerry Lewis and the Marx brothers over some of the directors he once wrote about with near awe. In short, there is no attempt at any kind of balanced or varied perspective when it comes to his character. In effect, we are presented with a fait accompli, free from any consideration or understanding about how this person became such a complete misanthrope having reached this stage of his career. In fact, the extent of his possible misanthropy remains very much open to question. In an interview for The Hollywood Reporter, Hazanavicius muddies the waters further: "The main character is named Jean-Luc Godard. But I wouldn’t say it’s about his life. I mean, it’s not a documentary. It’s my Jean-Luc Godard and not the real Jean-Luc Godard. We all know that." So....who knows? Godard did maintain relationships with women after his second marriage broke up. As no one in their right mind would go near the Godard of Godard Mon Amour, I suspect there is a lot more to the story than we are provided in this movie. Also, I don't think Hazanavicius has any more understanding of Godard's films than he has of quantum mechanics.

Side note: I referred to the wrong Anna in my review. The film is based on a memoir by Godard's second wife Anne Wiazemsky, not his first partner Anna Karina. His present partner is another Anne oddly enough. My only defense is that the actress in the film, Stacy Martin, bears a somewhat closer resemblance to Karina than to Wiazemsky.

 

[kihei]

That's what happens when you get worked up!

Ain't it the truth.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Black Panther

with lots of black people. And only two white people, which upset the entire forum once upon a time. For painfully stupid reasons.

In the midst of deepest, darkest Africa there lies the nation of Wakanda; outwardly backward and poor as shit to fool the silly white folks. Inwardly, it's Blade Runner meets the Lion King underneath a stealth field thanks to Vibranium: the magical phlebotonium blessing Wakanda with all kinds of super-advanced tech hidden from the rest of the world. King T'Challa takes to the throne amidst some drama; there are challengers to his throne, and a nasty South African white bad guy wants their stuff with a random Tough American Black Guy is at his side. This gives T'Challa and his inner circle a chance to embody Black Panther spirits and don their corresponding batsuits. All is of course not as it seems, and soon the fight comes home to Wakanda whether it's ready or not. Should the uber-tech be hidden or should the Wakandans be conquerors? Watch and see the predictable solution.

One of the better superhero movies of the latest crop imho. Wakanda's a really cool world, and its uniqueness reminds you how neglected and overlooked African mythology or...well, anything that isn't mayo-white really is in the Marvel world. And I say that as a card-carrying blond-haired, blue-eyed, Scottish/Irish headbanging beer-swilling hockey-watching White Guy. The action scenes are all well done, and...yeah. Wakanda's totally a cool place. The downside is once you put all that aside, the rest of it is very forgettable and predictable. The villains are one-note stiffs. I don't think the cousin/challenger to the throne ever changed his facial expression once. Of the two white guys, Andy Serkis is missing a villainous mustache to twirl, and Martin Freeman is laughably miscast American CIA agent (maybe Michael Cera was busy...).

I still think these things are better when they focus on one hero at once and allow them to own the show rather than the EVERYONE ONSCREEN RIGHT NOW ethos of Justice League/Avengers/X-Everyone movies that keep coming out.

 

[Nalens Oga]

After The Storm (2016) - 7.5/10

Good Japanese film. A bit darker than the other Koreeda film I saw but still quite calm and sentimental and easy to watch. The pacing is a bit better than the other one (Still Walking) and there's some good wisdom in it.

Call Me By Your Name (2017) - 5/10

Extremely boring and bland. This is like 2017's Carol (though the characters have a bit more charisma than Cate Blanchett doing a blank expression for an entire film). There's really zero conflict outside of the mopey teeneger getting his heart broken in the most uninteresting way imaginable and there's no fun slice-of-life angle to make up for zero conflict. I'm 100% sure that if you take the LGBT angle out of this film then it would've been completely ignored because it's just so slow.

 

[Puck]

You're right. I forgot about that, and it does make Faces, Places end on a very sour and puzzling note.

I hadn't heard about the film but looking into it after your review, it has piqued my curiosity. Not to see Godard so much but to get a picture of France in 1968. I briefly looked at reviews of the Anne Wiazemsky book Un an apres and they seem to be good ones, not so much for Godard but for the portrait of Paris in that period. As for Godard, I suppose any personal look by an ex-wife in a book would prolly not tend to be very positive, so I think I can overlook that part. She's also the grand-daughter of Francois Mauriac, the French novelist. She probably hung around insider Parisian cultural circles in that tumultuous period in Paris but she was very young (17 years younger than Godard). They say her book intentionally reflects that naive perception of a young person trying to make sense of complex surroundings (including a relationship with a complicated older man). Hazanavicius might have also been more superficial intentionally, to capture the essence of the book, not necessarily to get involved deeply into factual Godard (although admittedly, he would be the one everyone is more interested in seeing). But then again I might be wrong. Will let you know if I ever see it.

 

[kihei]

I hadn't heard about the film but looking into it after your review, it has piqued my curiosity. Not to see Godard so much but to get a picture of France in 1968. I briefly looked at reviews of the Anne Wiazemsky book Un an apres and they seem to be good ones, not so much for Godard but for the portrait of Paris in that period. As for Godard, I suppose any personal look by an ex-wife in a book would prolly not tend to be very positive, so I think I can overlook that part. She's also the grand-daughter of Francois Mauriac, the French novelist. She probably hung around insider Parisian cultural circles in that tumultuous period in Paris but she was very young (17 years younger than Godard). They say her book intentionally reflects that naive perception of a young person trying to make sense of complex surroundings (including a relationship with a complicated older man). Hazanavicius might have also been more superficial intentionally, to capture the essence of the book, not necessarily to get involved deeply into factual Godard (although admittedly, he would be the one everyone is more interested in seeing). But then again I might be wrong. Will let you know if I ever see it.

I should read it, too. I just got done reading an interview with Karina in which she in part discusses her life with Godard, and she makes some similar assertions about Godard but in a far less damning, much more generous way. The movie catches glimpses of Paris of that period--mainly political meetings and demonstrations--but Hazanavicius' main aim isn't to capture the period so much as to capture some of Godard's mannerisms and encapsulate them into the film, making the movie, at least superficially, simulate a Godard film. So devices such as addressing the audience directly by looking straight into the camera, using written slogans and phrases, employing chapter headings, allowing the camera to wander ahead of a scene (more a Truffaut move), unexpected snatches of music, and making verbal and visual puns (a nude couple discuss how as actors they would never do nude scenes)--all get a nod in this movie. Begs the question of how could a guy with Godard's playful, often self-deprecating sense of humour be all bad--but that's not the fish that Hazanavicius is frying.

 

[The Moose]

Just wasted my time watching Red Sparrow. Rating : WTF? /10. Has Jennifer Lawrence given up on acting?

 

[flyingkiwi]

Watched more Marvel movies in the last 6 months than the last 6 years.

Deadpool 2 - 6/10
It’s a good movie, so proud to see Julian Dennison killing it. But I think a movie like this works only once for me.

Avengers Infinity War - 7.5/10
Enjoyed it more the second time, knowing what happens and watching a shell shocked theatre around me. It does well under the weight of its characters, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Black Panther - 9/10
Loved it. Everything about the movie gripped me, while still being funny. Killmonger was great. They got in some social commentary to boot. While not perfect, it’s probably the strongest MCU film and my person second favourite after Iron Man.

Thor Ragnarok - 8/10
God this movie was fun. All the bells and whistles of an action blockbuster and all the charm of a Taika Waititi indie film. It’s the kind of movie I could watch from the other side of the world and feel a little closer to home.

 

[Savi]

2001: A Space Odyssey in honor of its 50th birthday.

9/10

in 70mm?

Just wasted my time watching Red Sparrow. Rating : WTF? /10. Has Jennifer Lawrence given up on acting?

The inconsistency of that accent was so bad

 

[Dont Toews Me Bro]

in 70mm?



The inconsistency of that accent was so bad

I wish