Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number

[Arizonan God]

Haven't seen Whiplash or First Man yet, but count me in as very pro La La Land. I really thought I was going to hate it, but from the great performances, dazzling cinematography, and a mostly tight, witty and heartfelt script, it just totally pulled me in. One of my favorites of 2016.

 

[Arizonan God]

Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

It took a while for me to engage with this film, but once I did...whew. What an experience. Gets better the more I think about it. Two amazing central performances from Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Kreips, an all time classic score from Jonny Greenwood, and a distinctly beautiful visual look crafted by PTA. The ending asks the audience to take a leap, but one that I think it sets up properly throughout the rest of the film. And because of that, I took the leap.

8

10 Favourite Films of 2017 (disclaimer: I have yet to watch many recent foreign films, so this list is very US biased):
A Ghost Story (10)
Dunkirk (9)
Blade Runner 2049 (9)
Phantom Thread (8)
Get Out (8)
Cal Me By Your Name (8)
The Shape of Water (8)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (8)
Good Time (8)
Lady Bird (8)

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I was ok with the last bit of The Ritual, but won’t deny it is a stronger movie when there are more questions than answers. Answers can be such a double edge sword in horror sometimes.

Will check out Caliber.

Ya I was ok with the ending, just disappointed.

Waiting all this time with so much build up and suspense, and it ends up being nothing but an angry ass Bullwinkle.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

A Man For All Seasons : 7.8/10 good movie

The Piano Teacher: 4/10 Could have been a decent movie if the movie was about the music and not crazy BDSM sex stuff.

 

[Savi]

I also took in Hold the Dark, which is probably more of a thriller if we want to be real pedantic, but definitely has some horror vibes and imagery throughout. I think director Jeremy Saulnier is a true talent. Big fan of his first two films, so was eager to dive into this. Geoffrey Wright is a wolf expert recruited by a young mother to come to Alaska to find the wolves that took her kid. Not sure why I even share that logline plot though because, to be honest, this story changes directions about three times in its first 40 minutes before it settles down into what it really is. There is a mystery here, but it isn't what you first expect. Great sense of place. Good acting, though everyone in the cast is super low-key and subdued. There's a fairly harrowing acting setpiece in the middle that's well done. I thought it was pretty solid though it's another one where the ending may make or break it for you.

Reviews of this movie seem to be all over the place, it's like most people either love it or hate it; I loved it btw, it's by no means a brilliant movie, but it will probably end up as one of my favourite movies of the year but that although a lot of that has to do with the fact this hasn't exactly been an amazing year (so far)

 

[Nalens Oga]

IP Man (2008) - 7.5/10

Everybody was kung-fu fighting and...it was actually quite good. f***in lovely action sequences, acting and whatnot are nothing to talk about but not bad enough to rate low and the basic story was riveting enough plus it successfully pulls off a tonal shift.

Oh and it's also a bit of a propaganda film it seems.

 

[kihei]

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) Directed by Sara Colangelo 4A

Lisa, a kindergarten teacher, discovers in her class a child who writes poetry that reflects a level of experience and judgement well beyond his years. With Lisa seeming more and more disgruntled with her family life--she has an out-of-shape husband and two increasingly independent adolescents--she finds Jimmy's genius a cause worth fighting for. Unfortunately, she allows her behaviour with the little boy to creep ever further over the line of propriety. It's an odd little movie, vaguely queasy around the edges but, despite the considerable efforts of Maggie Gyllenhaal, not exactly convincing. Lisa's psychological problems, though never directly stated, take the forefront and by default meatier issues having to do with the nurturing of genius fall by the wayside. Gyllenhaal has always sought out challenging roles, but the script does her few favours. Surrounded by mediocrity in a society that no longer values art, Lisa reaching out to Jimmy is most likely an act of desperation--but we really don't end up knowing enough about her to understand why she is responding so inappropriately in this situation. We can believe that either she is just stressed out by life or that she is totally a nut case in waiting. In either instance, we have not been convinced well enough to care much. The question of why the kid can write adult poems in the first place isn't even explored; it's just a given. Maybe another draft of the script would have helped.

Sidenote: Is this a trend with Netflix movies? Interesting premises half baked?

viewable on Netflix

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) Directed by Sara Colangelo 4A

Lisa, a kindergarten teacher, discovers in her class a child who writes poetry that reflects a level of experience and judgement well beyond his years. With Lisa seeming more and more disgruntled with her family life--she has an out-of-shape husband and two increasingly independent adolescents--she finds Jimmy's genius a cause worth fighting for. Unfortunately, she allows her behaviour with the little boy to creep ever further over the line of propriety. It's an odd little movie, vaguely queasy around the edges but, despite the considerable efforts of Maggie Gyllenhaal, not exactly convincing. Lisa's psychological problems, though never directly stated, take the forefront and by default meatier issues having to do with the nurturing of genius fall by the wayside. Gyllenhaal has always sought out challenging roles, but the script does her few favours. Surrounded by mediocrity in a society that no longer values art, Lisa reaching out to Jimmy is most likely an act of desperation--but we really don't end up knowing enough about her to understand why she is responding so inappropriately in this situation. We can believe that either she is just stressed out by life or that she is totally a nut case in waiting. In either instance, we have not been convinced well enough to care much. The question of why the kid can write adult poems in the first place isn't even explored; it's just a given. Maybe another draft of the script would have helped.

Sidenote: Is this a trend with Netflix movies? Interesting premises half baked?

viewable on Netflix

I find Netflix shows are well fleshed-out, but the movies are usually failures on one or more levels. They really don't seem to have figured out how to properly tell a story in an hour and a half.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The Black Hole

with Anthony Perkins, Ernest Borgnine, some ranting guy with flared nostrils and a wild bushy beard, and some generic 70's people.

Jumping into the late 70's post-Star Wars sci-fi glut of crap movies comes this retro non-gem from Disney. The spaceship Palomino is rambling around somewhere in space when they notice a huge Black Hole. Anthony Perkins helpfully explains nothing can escape it, not even light. The crew also notices another ship hanging around much closer to the event horizon than any ship should be able to, so they go in for a closer look. The camera shakes a bit to denote turbulence, the blatant ripoff of R2-D2 spouts some platitudes then goes outside to repair the ship in non-suspenseful fashion, and they eventually touch down on the mystery behemoth ship. Which suddenly turns on every interior light. This thing is huge...but for some reason, the inside is mainly empty air. Large, empty plazas of nothing with high, vaulted ceilings are the design motif. They eventually reach the command centre, where they meet the ranty bearded guy. Dr...name I can't even remember twenty minutes after the movie ended informs them he's the last survivor of the good ship Cygnus, and he's about to take his crew of robots (or are they?) into the Black Hole for nostril-flaring fun and scientific knowledge. Basically, he should be wearing a sandwich board reading: I'M BATSHIT CRAZY. Anthony Perkins naturally wants to come along. The token woman (who has ESP with the trashcan droid...no, really. She does. That's a thing in this movie.) is endangered, groups of terrible-looking robots shoot lasers with accuracy that makes Imperial Stormtroopers look like Annie Oakley, and the cheesiest SFX 1979 can provide assaults your eyes.

I saw it as a kid, had a picture book from the movie and yeah. 6 year-old me was right. It's really, really boring. And the ending really didn't make sense. The overbearing score is John Barry's tribute to other, much better scores by John Williams. The acting is bottom of the barrel, the sets are clearly plastic, the ship design is painfully stupid, the robots are 7th rate copies of Star Wars...I could go on. Let's just say if you're suffering from insomnia and are really craving a 70's kick, this is the movie for you. Has NOT aged well.

 

[nameless1]

The Piano Teacher: 4/10 Could have been a decent movie if the movie was about the music and not crazy BDSM sex stuff.

It is actually a very faithful adaptation of the book by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek. You really should not watch The Piano then.


This was made during Hanake's early filmmaking career, when he wants to show and condemn the hypocrisy of the middle class. Personally, I think this is one of his best work, and it certainly deserves a higher rating.

 

[nameless1]

After 76 films in 15 and a half days, and 2 more shortly afterwards, my VIFF adventure has concluded. This year has been exceptional, because other than a handful, they all have merits, and I do not regret any of my choices. Here are my scores for all I have seen. All the ratings are out of 10.

Best:
Cold War- 9.75
Shoplifters- 9
One Cut of the Dead- 8.5
Shadow- 8
The Guilty- 8
Ash is the Purest White- 7.75

Recommended:
An Elephant Sitting Still- 7.5
The Wild Pear Tree- 7.5
3 Faces- 7.5
A Private War- 7.25
Diane- 7
The Hummingbird Project- 7
A Paris Education- 6.75
Styx- 6.75
In the Shadow- 6.5
Holiday- 6.5
Liquid Truth- 6.5

Decent, and worth a watch:
The Favourite- 6.5
Microhabitat- 6.5
Ben is Back- 6.5
Sir- 6.5
Working Woman- 6.5
Sofia- 6.5
Mirai- 6.5
All Good- 6.25
Petra- 6.25
Dear Son- 6.25
Girls Always happy- 6.25
Sorry Angel- 6.25
Colette- 6.25
At War- 6.25
Boy Erased- 6.25
The Grizzlies- 6.25
Jonathan- 6.25
Dressage- 6.25
Hat-Trick- 6.25
Garden Store: Suitor- 6.25
Aga- 6.25
The Seen and Unseen- 6.25
The Prayer- 6.25
Mug- 6.25

Mixed Feelings:
Last Summer- 6
The Happy Prince- 6
Firecrackers- 6
Barefoot- 6
Old Man and the Gun- 6
A Family Tour- 6
Non-Fiction- 5.75
Winter Flies- 5.75
Patrimony- 5.75
The Snatch Thief- 5.75
Yomeddine- 5.5
Burning- 5.5
Reports on Sarah and Saleem- 5.5
Birds of Passage- 5.5
The Sisters Brothers- 5.5
Father to Son- 5.5
No. 1 Chung Ying Street- 5.5
Happy as Larzarro- 5.5
Woman at War- 5.5
The Heiresses- 5.25
Dogman- 5.25
Amateurs- 5.25
Jinpa- 5.25
Long Day's Journey Into the Night- 5.25
Dovlatov- 5.25
Hedi and Hormoz- 5.25

Not my cup of tea, but it is interesting enough for a look:
Edge of the Knife- 5.25
Capernaum- 5.25
The Image Book- 6.5 or 4.5

Average:
Becoming Astrid- 5
Its Boring Here, Pick Her Up- 5
The Scythian Lamb- 5

Worst:
14 Apples- 4
Diamantino- 4
Mango Shake- 0

2 Documentaries:
The Oslo Diaries- 7.5
A Sister's Song- 5.25

I will try to write up a more detailed summary for the best, the recommended, and the worst, in the upcoming days, but it may be sporadic, at best. For the rest, I may only choose certain ones that I think people are interested in. However, if anyone has any review requests, please let me know, and I will expedite them.

 

[Savi]

After 76 films in 15 and a half days

You're insane

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

It is actually a very faithful adaptation of the book by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek.. You really should not watch The Piano then.


I don't do that kind of heavy research before watching a movie. I don't Watch trailers either. The less i know, the better it is for me. That way, i avoid to be spoiled. I mostly go with imdb rating. Imdb let me down mostly with those art house movies.

Personally, I think this is one of his best work, and it certainly deserves a higher rating.

To each their own. I found it mostly true on this movie thread. Someone trash is someone else treasure. Some like Phantom Thread. I personnaly think that Phantom Thread has one of the worse ending of all time. Some like Jean-Luc Godard, i Don't.

I like most of the recent marvel movies a lot of you Don't. Same thing with Forrest Gump and Gladiator.

Of the 4 Haneke movies that i have watched so far The piano teacher is easily his worse. I like Funny Games and the White ribbon and Amour was average.

 

[nameless1]

To each their own. I found it mostly true on this movie thread. Someone trash is someone else treasure. Some like Phantom Thread. I personnaly think that Phantom Thread has one of the worse ending of all time. Some like Jean-Luc Godard, i Don't.

I like most of the recent marvel movies a lot of you Don't. Same thing with Forrest Gump and Gladiator.

Of the 4 Haneke movies that i have watched so far The piano teacher is easily his worse. I like Funny Games and the White ribbon and Amour was average.

I just thought the rating and comment is unfair. Although the title is about a piano teacher, it does not necessary mean the movie has to be about music. Instead, the movie uses the main character to explore a bigger issue, which serves perfectly fine as a narrative technique.

Interestingly, I have a love-hate relationship with Godard. He has some movies I absolutely adore, and others that just completely turns me off.

 

[kihei]

After 76 films in 15 and a half days, and 2 more shortly afterwards, my VIFF adventure has concluded. This year has been exceptional, because other than a handful, they all have merits, and I do not regret any of my choices. Here are my scores for all I have seen. All the ratings are out of 10.

I will try to write up a more detailed summary for the best, the recommended, and the worst, in the upcoming days, but it may be sporadic, at best. For the rest, I may only choose certain ones that I think people are interested in. However, if anyone has any review requests, please let me know, and I will expedite them.

Man, you have amazing stamina. Thanks for this list. I'd like to request reviews of the following, some of which we both rank highly, some on which we differ:

Cold War
Ash Is the Purest White
Burning
The Seen and the Unseen
The Sisters Brothers

I saw The Seen and the Unseen in 2017 at TIFF and thought it cast a bit of a spell, so I am interested in getting your thoughts on that one. I am also very curious about your take on Ash Is the Purest White and Burning.

 

[Shareefruck]

I just thought the rating and comment is unfair. Although the title is about a piano teacher, it does not necessary mean the movie has to be about music. Instead, the movie uses the main character to explore a bigger issue, which serves perfectly fine as a narrative technique.

Interestingly, I have a love-hate relationship with Godard. He has some movies I absolutely adore, and others that just completely turns me off.

To be fair, his comment never implied that it does.

Just that he didn't find it interesting and may have if it was.

 

[nameless1]

To be fair, his comment never implied that it does.

Just that he didn't find it interesting and may have if it was.

The movie is very faithful adaptation of a book, and both are never about music to begin with. If he wants it to be about music, it would be a completely different movie. Everything would have to be re-written, and it would no longer resemble the source material it is based on.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Sidenote: Is this a trend with Netflix movies? Interesting premises half baked?

I find Netflix shows are well fleshed-out, but the movies are usually failures on one or more levels. They really don't seem to have figured out how to properly tell a story in an hour and a half.

I’ve been watching quite a few Netflix movies lately, and have found myself really enjoying them.

The last three have been really good IMHO... Hold the Dark, 22 July and Caliber, with Caliber being the most enjoyable one for me.

The acting was particularly strong in all three movies, but I’m sure there are things to nitpick... ie if you don’t like dialogue heavy movies/having to think critically and just want everything being spelled out for you, Hold the Dark would definitely not be up someone’s alley.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I have no idea how good or wonderfully bad it will be...but I'm really looking forward to seeing Kurt Russell in the Christmas Chronicles next month.

 

[Shareefruck]

The movie is very faithful adaptation of a book, and both are never about music to begin with. If he wants it to be about music, it would be a completely different movie. Everything would have to be re-written, and it would no longer resemble the source material it is based on.

He's not literally saying that he's disappointed because he went in expecting it to be about music and it wasn't. He's flippantly saying that a completely different movie that has nothing to do with the original premise would have been preferable, because it was so uninteresting.

Doesn't sound like the most thoughtful comment, but your response struck me as equivalent to responding to "I'd rather watch paint dry" with "The source material has nothing to do with paint."

 

[nameless1]

He's not literally saying that he's disappointed because he went in expecting it to be about music and it wasn't. He's flippantly saying that a completely different movie that has nothing to do with the original premise would have been preferable, because it was so uninteresting.

Doesn't sound like the most thoughtful comment, but your response struck me as equivalent to responding to "I'd rather watch paint dry" with "The source material has nothing to do with paint."

Have you even seen the film? Your defense continues to baffle me.

If he thinks a completely different movie would have been better, then that rating and comment is disingenuous, because he does not judge the film and its content on its own merit. Yes, the film is not to his expectation, but that does not mean it is automatically terrible. That is my issue with his original comment and rating.

 

[Shareefruck]

Have you even seen the film? Your defense continues to baffle me.

If he thinks a completely different movie would have been better, then that rating and comment is disingenuous, because he does not judge the film and its content on its own merit. Yes, the film is not to his expectation, but that does not mean it is automatically terrible. That is my issue with his original comment and rating.

I have not seen the movie, but if I were to guess, I'd lean towards thinking that it's probably a great movie that he's wrongfully dismissive about. I'm just disagreeing with the logic you're using to criticize the comment.

Finding a film uninteresting IS judging the content of it on its own merits. I see the argument that he's being ignorant or unappreciative of those merits, but that doesn't make it disingenuous, or the result of misplaced expectations. Simply mentioning that a different experience would have been more interesting doesn't suggest that this is the beef he has with it or the reason why he finds it uninteresting. That's an unwarranted assumption, is all I'm saying.

 

[NyQuil]

I found Whiplash engaging, and I don't technically know enough about Jazz to be certain of this (maybe there's a subsection of jazz that it is appropriate for), but it seriously rubbed me the wrong way that it chose to tell this type of story with jazz. I mean.... aren't they getting the spirit of the art form and what makes it special completely backwards? Since when can you just soullessly drill-sergeant your way into becoming an amazing jazz musician? I'm pretty sure that isn't what Charlie Parker did to get good (by locking himself in a room and slavishly training his fingers to be faster or whatever crap) in that story, either.

I think you're missing the entire point of the film.

It's not intended to glamorize what is happening but rather expose this approach as being very much against the spirit of jazz.

The stunned look of awe and horror on Paul Reiser's face as he watches his son almost masochistically beating the drums for the desperate approval of J.K. Simmons is emblematic of that perspective.

Not to mention, the reference to J.K. Simmons' previous student committing suicide.

Damien Chazelle drew upon his own critical experience as a high school jazz drummer. I think it's a bit silly that it doesn't fit the parameters of a "music movie" when it's being drawn from someone's actual real-life experience in music.

It may not be what you think music should be, but to dismiss it on that basis seems ridiculous.

It’s funny some people see it as a condemnation of a certain kind of music education. And then other people see it as a celebration of it. It’s very funny, the polar opposite reactions.

Which one do you lean towards?

More condemnation. But, also, I didn’t want to make a didactic kind of film. It’s easy to show terrible people’s behavior on screen and we all just kind of nod and go, “Isn’t that terrible.” It’s more interesting when you can show terrible behavior in the interest of something good.

His thoughts on an epilogue:

I think there’s a certain amount of damage that will always have been done. Fletcher will always think he won and Andrew will be a sad, empty shell of a person and will die in his 30s of a drug overdose. I have a very dark view of where it goes.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

^^ I was also surprised after Whiplash came out (and still am) that so many people interpreted the ending as being good for Andrew, that he would "make it" just because he hijacked an ad hoc music event with a masturbatory drum solo. Essentially a story about an abusive relationship (how people will stay in them when they think the other person has something good to offer them), and he opts back in at the end. Anytime someone is like "that movie gets jazz all wrong," it's like... the movie isn't about jazz... that's just the medium being used to tell the story.

And yes, much of it is Hollywood-ized. I can guarantee you when Chazelle was playing and practicing in high school, he wasn't playing so hard his fingers were bleeding. That's just ridiculous sensationalism, and indicative of bad technique. Good jazz drummers' hands will trend more towards being butter soft than calloused.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

^^ I was also surprised after Whiplash came out (and still am) that so many people interpreted the ending as being good for Andrew, that he would "make it" just because he hijacked an ad hoc music event with a *********ory drum solo. Essentially a story about an abusive relationship (how people will stay in them when they think the other person has something good to offer them), and he opts back in at the end. Anytime someone is like "that movie gets jazz all wrong," it's like... the movie isn't about jazz... that's just the medium being used to tell the story.

And yes, much of it is Hollywood-ized. I can guarantee you when Chazelle was playing and practicing in high school, he wasn't playing so hard his fingers were bleeding. That's just ridiculous sensationalism, and indicative of bad technique. Good jazz drummers' hands will trend more towards being butter soft than calloused.

Tasty Biscuits .... butter soft ... mmm I'm hungry