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

[nameless1]

If anyone is interested, here is President Obama's favourite movie list of 2018:

“Annihilation”
“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Blindspotting”
“Burning”
“The Death of Stalin”
“Eighth Grade”
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“Leave No Trace”
“Minding the Gap”
“The Rider”
“Roma”
“Shoplifters”
“Support the Girls”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor”

I have seen the majority of them, and in my opinion, this is a decent list. The quality is definitely there, and it is also quite diverse. I am really glad to see Leave No Trace and Annihilation on there, because the former is a very rich and thought-provoking drama, while the latter continue to baffle and make me think, which is the hallmark of a good science-fiction film. Eighth Grade is also a welcome surprise, because even though coming-of-age films are dime a dozen these days, this one still manages to capture the doubts and apprehensive of growing up, especially in this social media age. It is impressive that this is the directorial debut of a social media star, no less, because he showed a very sure hand.

 

[nameless1]

The House That Jack Built (2018) Directed by Lars von Trier 6D (well made; requires perhaps more tolerance than it deserves)

This might have been the best portrait of a serial killer since, well, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. But von Trier has more ambitions than that. The focus here is on Jack (Matt Dillon, very good), a psychopath who has killed over 60 people. We look at five separate incidents from his life while Jack and a mysterious figure named Verge (Bruno Ganz) discuss Jack's tortured theories about art and his elaborate methods of cruelly killing people. The victims are almost always women--who are portrayed as some combination of dumb and/or *****y and/or weak and/or trusting--killings that are clever, brutal and intentionally revolting. This might seem like an artsy Midnight Madness work, save for the fact that the film has intellectual pretensions that people just interested in shock and gore probably don't have the patience for. I found von Trier's musings about art and morality shallow and unpersuasive, but they give the movie a sheen of seriousness that it might otherwise have lacked. What to do with this guy? In most ways that count The House That Jack Built is an ugly movie. During the proceedings, I spent some time wondering about stuff like is misogyny covered by the term misanthropy or are they two separate things? I went with "two separate things" as my answer. To wit, Von Trier doesn't appear to like people at all, but he has a special disrespect for women in general. To be fair, in many ways the film is brilliant, possibly the best edited movie that I have seen this year. But it requires that its viewers have an open mind about von Trier and by this stage of his career such open minds may be understandably in short supply.

This one played at VIFF, but the programmer gave it the Midnight Madness treatment, as all three showings end close-to or past midnight, and they all only play at an out-of-the-way theatre located in a rather unsafe neighbourhood that has increasingly spotty public transit deeper into the night. Thus, I ultimately passed, because I am not at a point that I will die for art. Plus, I am not sure I want to watch a three hours plus movie about a serial killer, so close to midnight. My VIFF journey is a marathon, and I need to get as much sleep as possible.

Your review is pretty much in line with other reviews I have read. Like you, most reviewers are divided over it. However, unlike most other cases where one reviewer will rave about the work, while others deride it, the divide often happens within the same article, as many of the reviewers are both fascinated and frustrated over it. That really has piqued my interest though, because only a true genius can conjure up such a polar opposite reaction within the same person, so I will likely pick it up when it gets a home release.

 

[sr edler]

In Bruges (2008) by Martin McDonagh – 8.5/10

I really enjoyed this film, especially the first hour (which I would give 9.5). The first hour had some great humor/black comedy in it which made the notoriously hard-laughed ehhedler laugh a few times. I also liked the technique in the introducing/early scenes to use shots reminiscent of tourist takes/photographs (i.e. random shot of cute dog in window, etc.), to catch the ambiguous feeling of two individuals/'tourists' on location in Bruges but for not quite known reason.

Colin Farrell's eyebrows did some great acting early on, as in a well used forum .gif, and great music of course by Carter Burwell. I also enjoyed the homage/brief showing of the opening scene from Touch of Evil in the hotel room, Ken watching it, because that's the only scene I've seen from that movie.

When Ralph Fiennes character was introduced though roughly an hour into the story I thought the film not only flatlined but actually regressed slightly. He came across too cartoonish and uninteresting. Like, almost Guy Ritchie-esque. It never crashed though, like films sometimes do, so 8 and a half Belfry's out of 10.

The purgatory symbolism was pretty neat all in all.

Spoiler

They're trapped in Belgium instead of Tottenham.

 

[Savi]

(i.e. random shot of cute dog in window, etc.)

Not that random, that dog was quite famous among tourists here in Bruges

Sadly, he died recently though

 

[kihei]

If anyone is interested, here is President Obama's favourite movie list of 2018:

“Annihilation”
“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Blindspotting”
“Burning”
“The Death of Stalin”
“Eighth Grade”
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“Leave No Trace”
“Minding the Gap”
“The Rider”
“Roma”
“Shoplifters”
“Support the Girls”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor”

I have seen the majority of them, and in my opinion, this is a decent list. The quality is definitely there, and it is also quite diverse. I am really glad to see Leave No Trace and Annihilation on there, because the former is a very rich and thought-provoking drama, while the latter continue to baffle and make me think, which is the hallmark of a good science-fiction film. Eighth Grade is also a welcome surprise, because even though coming-of-age films are dime a dozen these days, this one still manages to capture the doubts and apprehensive of growing up, especially in this social media age. It is impressive that this is the directorial debut of a social media star, no less, because he showed a very sure hand.

Wow, that's a damn fine list. The guy is definitely a movie buff.

 

[kihei]

This one played at VIFF, but the programmer gave it the Midnight Madness treatment, as all three showings end past midnight, and they all only play at an out-of-the-way theatre located in a rather unsafe neighbourhood that has increasingly spotty public transit deeper into the night. Thus, I ultimately passed, because I am not at a point that I will die for art. Plus, I am not sure I want to watch a three hours plus movie about a serial killer, so close to midnight.

Your review is pretty much in line with other reviews I have read. Like you, most reviewers are divided over it. However, unlike most other cases where one reviewer will rave about the work, while others deride it, the divide often happens within the same article, as all the reviewers are both fascinated and frustrated over it. That really has piqued my interest though, because only a true genius can conjure up such a polar opposite reaction within the same person, so I will likely pick it up when it gets a home release.

I added a "next day" comment to my review on the previous page about a moment in the movie that left a particularly bad taste in my mouth. I acknowledge von Trier's skill and talent, but the term "true genius" sticks in my throat at the moment--oddly the movie sort of poses the question in a different way: Can a serial killer be a great artist? Von Trier seems to think so. By extension, the question might be stretched to: Can a complete misanthrope be a great film director? Sure, but that doesn't justify every single vision that pops into his head and ends up on the screen.

 

[sr edler]

I haven't seen The House That Jack Built but (von) Trier is a good director that's just sometimes (or a lot of times) over-the-top. Riget (The Kingdom) and Nymphomaniac are probably my favorites. I both liked and disliked Nymphomaniac which is interesting. Some of his films are borderline unwatchable though. And the guy looks like a total creep.

 

[Arizonan God]

von Trier is probably my least favourite "good" director. Everything he does comes off as just trying to get people to get mad at him, which gets boring quick. Nymphomaniac was the final straw for me. What an awful film. I wonder if I should even bother with The House That Jack Built.

 

[OzzyFan]

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
3.0 out of 4stars

Must be seen on a big screen if you have any interest in seeing it. Fast, colorful, clever, playful, and often humorous "superhero coming of age" story. The action is well directed with an almost dizzying technique, I guess trying to optimize the animation's angle/visual abilities, which is a good thing but I wonder how it affects the weaker stomached(?). It's also more kid focused than almost any "superhero" movie I've seen, especially with it's animated medium and PG rating, and the theater I was in displayed that(~50% families with young children).

Altogether, very entertaining, energetic, and enjoyable. I just keep playing in my head how great it is though. On one hand, it's more intelligent than most children animations and your average superhero movie, while also keeping true to character's original source material in so so so many ways. But on the other hand, I see it as somewhat limited: some of the humor is clever but small laughs, I feel that a few or more of the main side characters here are barely touched upon and at developed at a most basic almost introductory level. That said, I feel it does so many different things right and good that it's probably worthy of a 3.3 to 3.5 out of 4stars, but I just for some reason don't feel right doing it. Ha.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore

with people, including Elijah Wood in heavy metal shirts of bands from before he was born

Some leafy suburban sprawl in the US where everyone's gross and a jerk. Everyone cuts you off in traffic, drops things in supermarket aisles, casually drop spoilers about the book you're reading, and just generally act like sentient bags of dicks 24/7. Ruth, a palliative care nurse, returns home from a rough day in her ancient Pontiac Firebird to discover her house has been burgled. Her prescription meds, laptop and grandma's silverware set have been stolen, and her place ransacked. The cops offer little beyond chastising her for leaving her door unlocked but the soft-spoken Ruth decides to do something, dammit! She goes door-to-door in her neighbourhood and finds help only from the diminutive Tony (Wood). He likes throwing stars and martial arts weapons...but is more likely to hurt himself than anyone else with them. Together, they wind their way through the stolen goods underworld (which looks a lot like their usual overworld) to recover her property and confront the thieves. A few laughs, a few thrills, and a stern reminder that real-life vigilante-ism is far less like Batman than the movies would suggest await our plucky duo.

A quirky little movie. It's a chuckle, though I can't really see it sticking with you for any length of time. Did well at Sundance, apparently.

On Netflix now.

 

[Arizonan God]

I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore

with people, including Elijah Wood in heavy metal shirts of bands from before he was born

Some leafy suburban sprawl in the US where everyone's gross and a jerk. Everyone cuts you off in traffic, drops things in supermarket aisles, casually drop spoilers about the book you're reading, and just generally act like sentient bags of dicks 24/7. Ruth, a palliative care nurse, returns home from a rough day in her ancient Pontiac Firebird to discover her house has been burgled. Her prescription meds, laptop and grandma's silverware set have been stolen, and her place ransacked. The cops offer little beyond chastising her for leaving her door unlocked but the soft-spoken Ruth decides to do something, dammit! She goes door-to-door in her neighbourhood and finds help only from the diminutive Tony (Wood). He likes throwing stars and martial arts weapons...but is more likely to hurt himself than anyone else with them. Together, they wind their way through the stolen goods underworld (which looks a lot like their usual overworld) to recover her property and confront the thieves. A few laughs, a few thrills, and a stern reminder that real-life vigilante-ism is far less like Batman than the movies would suggest await our plucky duo.

A quirky little movie. It's a chuckle, though I can't really see it sticking with you for any length of time. Did well at Sundance, apparently.

On Netflix now.

I got a good kick out of this one, but it did leave my memory pretty quick.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Thank-you Canadian movie-goers. Got out of having to sit through Aqua-bro because the showing was sold out excluding front seats despite it being a Saturday afternoon in a suburb .

First Man (2018) - 6.5/10
Like a weaker version of Apollo 13. Fairly disappointed in everything Chazelle's done after Whiplash. While Whiplash was emotionally intense and grabbed you, First Man left me detached. Its style is good but it lacks the same substance as other good space movies, I was expecting this to be on par with the recent Interstellar/Martian. Gosling did a great job but the script was just lacking any fun.

Pickpocket (1959) - 7/10
A 75 minute French film by Bresson featuring a down-on-his-luck pickpocket thief. There are some interesting pickpocketing sequences in here including a really well choreographed one where they rob a bunch of people on a train and it does do a nice job of displaying some sad class disparity but the protagonist is too one-tone and the acting is wooden. Similar to A Man Escaped by Bresson, his characters show little emotion here and everything is very straightforward which worked in a prison escape film but not as well here. The protagonists interactions with his friend and the girl were stronger points of the film than the actual picpocket sequences.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: 7.8/10 great animation

Green Book: 7.3/10 Funny ride and good performances by the two lead actor.

 

[ORRFForever]

If anyone is interested, here is President Obama's favourite movie list of 2018:

“Annihilation”
“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Blindspotting”
“Burning”
“The Death of Stalin”
“Eighth Grade”
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“Leave No Trace”
“Minding the Gap”
“The Rider”
“Roma”
“Shoplifters”
“Support the Girls”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor”

I have seen the majority of them, and in my opinion, this is a decent list. The quality is definitely there, and it is also quite diverse. I am really glad to see Leave No Trace and Annihilation on there, because the former is a very rich and thought-provoking drama, while the latter continue to baffle and make me think, which is the hallmark of a good science-fiction film. Eighth Grade is also a welcome surprise, because even though coming-of-age films are dime a dozen these days, this one still manages to capture the doubts and apprehensive of growing up, especially in this social media age. It is impressive that this is the directorial debut of a social media star, no less, because he showed a very sure hand.

I wanted to make a list of Trump's favourite movies with "Into The Storm(y)", with variations thereof, but I figured, after the first one, it would get old... FAST!

 

[Trap Jesus]

Saw The Favourite. As someone who is a huge fan of Yorgos Lanthimos' work, I was a bit disappointed, although I still think it was an amazingly crafted and enjoyable movie. I think I was so disappointed because of knowing who it was though; it felt VERY different from his other stuff.

Main complaint is that it wasn't nearly as funny as I thought it was going to be. The dialogue is smart and witty, but it really never produced anything outside of the occasional smirk for me. I had that concern after seeing the trailer, and it definitely rang true after watching the movie. Lanthimos didn't write this, so maybe it was just a bit of a disconnect. Still worked very well as a drama and as a story in itself though, I just didn't think there was anything extraordinary about the dialogue itself. 3 very well written characters that you find your allegiances shifting between throughout the movie though.

Loved everything from a technical standpoint though. There are a couple scenes where they have this slow, repetitive tension-building music playing and these cool blurred effects where they were showing multiple things going on at the same time kind of lapped over one another (not describing that well, but you'll know what I mean if you see it). I also LOVED how darkness was used. There were a lot of shots where you can barely see because it's so dark, and it's just lit by flames/candles, etc. Some of the better night shots I've seen.

Acting was very good. Seems like everyone wants all 3 to be nominated, which would be fine with me. I don't think it was anything amazing, but they all did their jobs very well. I thought Nicholas Hoult produced the best moments in the movie though.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Adrift (2018) - 5/10

 

[sr edler]

I, Tonya (2017) by Craig Gillespie – 6/10

Hard to judge this film, I thought it was okay. Firstly, Margot Robbie doesn't look at all like Tonya Harding, and in the beginning of the film she's even supposed to portray a young (15 year old) Harding while being 27 herself and looking almost like 30–35 while being 5'6 (Harding was 5'1). Otherwise I think she (Robbie) did a fine job, acting wise.

Paul Walter Hauser's character Shawn Eckhardt drew some laughs (the best character in the film alongside the bird on Allison Janney's/LaVona Golden's shoulder).

I also thought the film was too long. Also not a big fan of breaking the fourth wall, although it didn't destroy the film or annoy me that much in this case even though it happened a lot.

 

[ORRFForever]

I, Tonya (2017) by Craig Gillespie – 6/10

Hard to judge this film, I thought it was okay. Firstly, Margot Robbie doesn't look at all like Tonya Harding, and in the beginning of the film she's even supposed to portray a young (15 year old) Harding while being 27 herself and looking almost like 30–35 while being 5'6 (Harding was 5'1). Otherwise I think she (Robbie) did a fine job, acting wise.

Paul Walter Hauser's character Shawn Eckhardt drew some laughs (the best character in the film alongside the bird on Allison Janney's/LaVona Golden's shoulder).

I also thought the film was too long. Also not a big fan of breaking the fourth wall, although it didn't destroy the film or annoy me that much in this case even though it happened a lot.

I LOVED it. One of, if not my favourite of 2017.

 

[OzzyFan]

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
3.0 out of 4stars

Fun and intriguing. There's a lot of Cohen dialogue and style here, albeit not their best or most consistent imo. My favorite "episodes" were 2, 5, and 6. "Episodes" 3 and 4 felt more tedious(and somewhat predictable) than rewarding, and episode 1 was good but just good. But this "group of episodes" really goes all over the map with material and themes.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

I got a good kick out of this one, but it did leave my memory pretty quick.

Yeah, I thought it was alright when I watched it, but yep, poof, gone. Honestly wouldn't recommend it, just due to the sheer volume of movies at any one viewer's disposal.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I haven't seen The House That Jack Built but (von) Trier is a good director that's just sometimes (or a lot of times) over-the-top. Riget (The Kingdom) and Nymphomaniac are probably my favorites. I both liked and disliked Nymphomaniac which is interesting. Some of his films are borderline unwatchable though. And the guy looks like a total creep.

I thought The Idiots was superb, personally.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Bird Box

with a socially inept Sandra Bullock, a misanthropic John Malkovich, and a bunch of expendable tv actors.

Mallory (Bullock) is an artist (I think?) living in a loft somewhere, morosely painting pictures and being hectored by her cheerful sister about not calling mom enough, not going out enough, and not dealing with her pregnancy responsibly. She's even ignoring tv...which is constantly airing news updates about mass hysteria and spontaneous suicides nobody can figure out. But that's all happening in Europe and Russia, so why would Mallory care? She sulks over to her OB/GYN appointment, but on her way out...uh-oh! Turns out Russia's exported more than vodka, caviar and AKs. People see something. Something that instantly makes people kill themselves. They're apparently real; you can hear them too but they can't seem to actually touch you or shoot you or anything. They're just there, looming horribly over everything, and everything goes post-apocalyptic real fast. Mallory takes refuge in a house with a grumpy, shotgun-toting John Malkovich and various other people whose names you won't remember an hour later. Developing threats include: cabin fever, stranger danger, running out of food, foraging and boating while blindfolded, Mallory's crap parenting skills, and the side effect of seeing these things and surviving. Turns out you go insane and become an Evangelist for them, tearing down curtains and breaking windows so people can see. And kill themselves. Except when the plot requires them not to right away. Years go by, and finally a voice over the radio offers a possible refuge. Or does it?

Meh. Builds a lot of tension but with no payoff. Yeah, you're watching Mallory break down her internal walls and learn to care about someone else but you don't really care yourself. Also the creatures/presence/whatever leaves you hanging. It's one thing to leave the suspense up to your imagination and it's another to not bother to actually come up with anything scary.

Inexplicably setting Netflix on fire now.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

8/10

A really fun time that also has a very good sci-fi suspense story to it. Very much in the style of the Black Mirror series itself.

The big hook of this one is it is a "choose your own story" movie. You are prompted to make decisions for the main character throughout, with each decision influencing what happens and where the story goes (same as the choose a story books).

Plot itself revolves around Stefan, a young video game developer in 1984. He is obsessed with a book called Bandersnatch, which is a choose your path book. He is in the process of developing it into a game and you enter part way into that process.

For the sake of spoilers, wont get into much more than that.

But it is a very fun concept, and one I can see other Netflix/Prime releases capitalizing on. It is well done, the choosing isnt clunky and it doesnt take you out of the movie. The movie itself is entertaining and a good piece of suspense.

Definitely recommend giving it a go

 

[OzzyFan]

The Invitation (2016)
2.75 out of 4stars

Pretty good tense thriller on grief and a dinner party with a twist. Would recommend.

 

[kihei]

Wrong thread, dumb mistake