Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It: Part XXIX

[snowden]

Is Ran a bad place to start watching Kurosawa? I'm going backwards with Oscar Best Directors and he comes up and I'm an uncultured swine. Also going to look up that King Lear recommendation as the Olivier Hamlet is my ultimate.

 

[snowden]

Nocturnal Animals. I think it's a bit overrated. The story within the story is clearly more interesting but the rest is kind of boring. Maybe that's the point.

I kinda thought that the story within the story was Gyllenhaal the writer's take on his relationship to Amy Adams after it was over. Like he imagined this scenario when they were together and it ended up with her raped and murdered along with her daughter and Jake being the victim. He stood Amy up at the end which showed he was a dick so maybe that's how it ended up? My interpretation without reading the source material.

 

[Jevo]

Is Ran a bad place to start watching Kurosawa? I'm going backwards with Oscar Best Directors and he comes up and I'm an uncultured swine. Also going to look up that King Lear recommendation as the Olivier Hamlet is my ultimate.

I think it's as good a place as any to start. It's one of the most beautiful movies ever made. The cinematography and production design is simply amazing. I don't think Kurosawa is a director where his style can be considered off putting in anyway, so you don't need to "ease" into him. But beware, if you do like Ran, the guy has made about 10-15 must see movies.

 

[kihei]

I think it's as good a place as any to start. It's one of the most beautiful movies ever made. The cinematography and production design is simply amazing. I don't think Kurosawa is a director where his style can be considered off putting in anyway, so you don't need to "ease" into him. But beware, if you do like Ran, the guy has made about 10-15 must see movies.

I have no argument with any of this. Myself, I prefer to wade into directors chronologically. It's fun to watch them evolve for one thing. For another, directors of the Golden Era, like Kurosawa, started off with black-and-white cinematography (often very beautiful) and, usually, smaller scale movies and then ended up making much "bigger" movies in colour as their careers progressed. It seems to me the early films can seem malnourished if one starts with the later films when in many instances they are just as good or better (see Bergman, Fellini, Kubrick, et al, for other examples of this same effect).

 

[Diddy]

Sicario 8/10
Pretty good. Liked a lot of it. Some beautiful shots and I really like Brolin, Blunt, Kaluuya, & del toro. I think I liked Prisoners more but this is pretty easy to get into compared to that in my mind.

 

[Fugazy]

Syriana - 8.5/10

 

[b1e9a8r5s]

Watched Nocturnal Animals last night.

The ending ruined it for me. Was decent before that.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Dunkirk

War is hell. A deafeningly loud hell.

Won't do a recap, you all know what it's about.

Not as high on it as most are around here. Seemed incomplete. I get that we're just dealing with a few small stories within the chaos, but never got a sense of the...I guess hugeness of the operation. Evacuating more than a quarter of a million dispirited soldiers from encroaching Nazis should have somehow felt bigger imho. I doubt the scraggly flotilla of dinghies onscreen would have done the job. Liked the RAF dogfighting subplot, don't get why [spoil]Tom Hardy didn't just ditch his plane and bail out during his victory lap over the beach. [/spoil]

A good modern entry in the WWII archive; a notch below the real classics like The Longest Day, but one of the better ones.

 

[Shareefruck]

For what it's worth, I did find Ran a bit more demanding than stuff like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and Rashomon, personally (especially the first half). But not so much that it should be a big deal.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Watched Nocturnal Animals last night.

The ending ruined it for me. Was decent before that.

I thought it was a visually striking movie - not surprising considering Tom Ford directed it - but the story and the writing were rather run of the mill quality - the scene where Amy Adams' character expresses utter shock at her conservative's mother dislike of homosexuals was particularly cringe-worthy. Like really? You're going to be shocked your mother dislikes homosexual when you know how conservative and old-fashioned she is? - and the performances were good as well.

 

[OzzyFan]

Wind River (2017) Directed by Taylor Sheridan 7A

On a search for sheep-killing mountain lions, Corey (Jeremy Renner), a hunter/tracker for the Wyoming forestry service, discovers the dead body of a young native woman who appears to have been raped. Despite the fact that her body is found on a vast native reserve the size of Rhode Island, the FBI in the form of inexperienced Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) gets involved. Corey, who is still dealing with his own family tragedy, is friends with the reserve's Chief of Police (a marvelous performance by Canada's Graham Greene), and is very good at finding clues. Knowing she is in over her head, Jane asks Corey to stay involved in the case, which he does so. The hunt is on to find the girl's killer. Wind River is writer Taylor Sheridan's first shot at direction--his scripts include Sicario and Hell or High Water, so it is no surprise that he gives himself a very good script to work with. The direction is a little clunky, though. Sheridan wants to avoid cliched genre moves and develop the story his own way. But the result is a movie whose rhythm takes some getting used to. In one key scene near the end we get so much unnecessary information, seemingly out of the blue, that the narrative appears derailed for a brief time. But Wind River has many strengths, too, and they outweigh the film's flaws. The story is a moving one, the cinematography of Wyoming in winter is spectacular, and Jeremy Renner gives one of the best performances of his career as a man who has found his own way to cope with tragedy by accepting the pain and living with it. Renner's acting is deeply internalized, tightly controlled and terse. Quietly dominating every scene that he is in, Renner lends the movie a heartfelt intensity that it might otherwise have lacked without him.

Side Note: Classic example of a 6.5, if I did 6.5s, which I don't. I think once people get into Wind River's rhythm they will like it a lot, so the higher score seemed more of an endorsement than the lower one. If Denis Villeneuve had directed this script, though, it might well have been a masterpiece.

I want to see this, but I have to bring my 14year old nephew to the movies this weekend. On a scale of 1-10, how dark/tough is this to sit through? It says R for strong violence, disturbing images, rape, etc. Maybe in comparison to Sicario, another one of this writer's movies I've seen, how dark/rough is this movie for a young teenager to see? I really want to see this, but don't want to give anybody nightmares by doing so. lol. I can settle for Logan Lucky if this movie pushes those boundaries.

Thanks for anyone that can help me here.

 

[kihei]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It's not as dark as Sicario, but there is one particular long scene that is definitely iffy [spoil]it's a gang rape scene and it's pretty intense[/spoil].

 

[OzzyFan]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It's not as dark as Sicario, but there is one particular long scene that is definitely iffy [spoil]it's a gang rape scene and it's pretty intense[/spoil].

Thanks, I may roll the dice and tell him to close his eyes or turn his head if he feels weird or overwhelmed. Worst comes to worst we walk out I guess. Thanks.

 

[kihei]

Paris Can Wait (2017) Directed by Eleanor Coppola 4B

Consider Paris Can Wait as the Before Sunrise for post-50-year-olds. Brulee (Diane Lane) is married to Michael (Alec Baldwin) who is a movie producer who has little time to notice his wife anymore. As she develops an earache when Michael and she are about to fly off from Province, she decides to find some other method of getting to Paris. Jacques (Arneau Viard), a close business associate of Michael's, offers to drive her to Paris and she accepts. She expects a quick trip but Jacques takes the opportunity to go on a lot of detours, primarily to fine dining restaurants where they munch, sip and talk (and talk some more). The movie does a good job of contrasting the American approach to life with the European way. While Brulee is in all in a hurry, Jacques is a stop-and-smell-the-roses type of guy. Almost but not quite against her will, he provides Brulee with a memorable couple of days. Unfortunately for the movie, the pair have no chemistry and, thus, there is virtually no sexual tension between them. As well most of the dialogue is far less than scintillating as wit makes zero appearances. Lane and, especially, Viard are fine, but Baldwin is atrociously bad in his thankfully brief appearance, almost like he didn't have time to rehearse. A tip of the hat to Eleanor Coppola, though. Although she has dabbled on and off with documentaries, Paris Can Wait is her first feature film, quite an accomplishment at the age of 80-years-old.

 

[Don'tcry4mejanhrdina]

Is Ran a bad place to start watching Kurosawa? I'm going backwards with Oscar Best Directors and he comes up and I'm an uncultured swine. Also going to look up that King Lear recommendation as the Olivier Hamlet is my ultimate.

It's an incredible movie but it is long and often slow paced, not sure if that bothers you. You really can't go wrong with any Kurosawa film, the guy was just a brilliant director. Not sure if you realize or it's just coincidence that you mention it but Ran is loosely based on King Lear. I'm uncultured swine and I love me some Kurosawa, easily my favourite director and Ran is probably his most visually beautiful film.

 

[OzzyFan]

Wind River
3.25 out of 4stars

Wow, what a powerful dark realistic feeling movie that touches all the right spots. Renner was amazing in his bubbling at/under the surface role, heck all the actors did a great job and helped me get emotionally soaked into the movie and it's themes. The tension, setting, and rawness of this movie was top notch. Even the vast majority of the dialogue added to the movie so puzzle piece perfectly. If I had to nitpick out flaws...I'd say the direction feels a bit choppy/amateur at a few spots. But make no mistake, this is truly a great film worth seeing. This makes me want to see Hell or High Water now, another movie he wrote.

And because I feel like adding a little info/theme SPOILER INFO BELOW IN WHITE COLORED FONT:

True pain never goes away, family and important people in your life are the most valuable thing you will ever encounter. And even though true pain never goes away, there is some solace in justice and knowledge surrounding that pain. And even though the pain hurts, we must recognize it and push through it, because a pain so great only comes from such great joy and times had before that event.

 

[Spawn]

I enjoyed Wind River as a film. Especially the acting. But I can't help but feel the movie missed the mark somewhat. A movie about Indigenous people, particularly violence against Indigenous women, set in an Indigenous world and the two protagonists are white. There's barely an Indigenous woman in sight in the film. You've got either grieving mothers or murdered daughters. Would have been nice having someone other than the white protagonists have some agency in the story.

 

[kihei]

I enjoyed Wind River as a film. Especially the acting. But I can't help but feel the movie missed the mark somewhat. A movie about Indigenous people, particularly violence against Indigenous women, set in an Indigenous world and the two protagonists are white.

Definitely an Achilles heel.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Demon Seed

with 70's people

Scientists create a revolutionary AI called Proteus, which shows its gratitude for existing by taking over the head researcher's 70's version of a smart home and holding his comely wife hostage for nefarious purposes.

Bad 70's cheese with bad 70's acting, bad 70's effects, bad 70's score, and apparently my wife saw it as a kid and was determined to watch it just now. No idea why.

Tedious, forgettable crap.

 

[OzzyFan]

Hell or High Water
2.85 out of 4stars

Great texas heist movie with a well-developed story and well-acted characters. I see some similar concepts in Sheridan's writing, now having seen HOHW, Wind River, and Sicario. He is very talented, great storyteller, great with dialogue, and good with getting his messages across without feeling preachy or over the top, although I do wonder what and how he'd say stuff in these movies if he did go "more Tarantino" in his writing, or in other words have a character go off on a long in-depth tangent on said topics here and there. Here's hoping to see some that in a future film of his. He feels like he has more in him from watching his films, but loves the minimalist, free-flowing, and well-paced approach instead. Very good at how he tells stuff, not directly what he tells, if that makes sense. And now I have to wait a year for Soldado. lol

 

[clunk]

It Comes At Night: 5/10

Above average acting, dark, gloomy atmosphere but left me a little underwhelmed. Didn't really get it too much. Some people love it, I don't really understand the hype.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Just Watched:

7.5/10

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Just Watched:

8/10

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

Snowden 5/10
found myself yawning more than once. But I stuck with it. Even tho everyone knows the story, it definitely makes you think.

 

[silverfish]

The Prestige: 8/10

the only reason I don't have this higher than an 8 is because

[spoil]There's a shot of Fallon just over halfway through the movie, where he's tracking Hugh Jackman through the alley, where it's very obvious that it's Bale. Maybe it wasn't supposed to not be obvious, but I had my "wait a minute moment" too early, I think. [/spoil]