Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5996723 times)

Clovis8

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 11719
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24340 on: December 19, 2009, 01:23:26 AM »
Elf is my favorite xmas movie. There I said it!

sdedalus

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 16585
  • I have a prestigious blog, sir!
    • The End of Cinema
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24341 on: December 19, 2009, 02:16:54 AM »
First a worm@work/roujin/schmerite double feature from last Wednesday:


Morvern Callar - OK, so this isn't depressing at all.  I won't believe that about Ratcatcher, however.  Anyway, I did like this quite a bit.  What is it with Scotland and amoral anti-heroes with great soundtracks?  I don't know, but this totally reminded me of early Danny Boyle, namely Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.  The colors are terrific (so much red!), and director Lynne Ramsay uses blinking lights in the corner of frames as well as I've ever seen.  I thought the plot, such as it is, was kind of gimmicky and not really believable, but I didn't really care that much.  Interesting that Morvern never really does anything that's technically immoral, if you assume there's no afterlife.


Friday Night - My first Claire Denis film, and while I liked it, I don't think I fell in love with it in the way a lot of other people did.  It's got the second best traffic jam in film history, and a wonderful dreamlike quality with a few magical moments thrown in and just enough rewinding to make you unsure of whether what you're seeing is "really" happening or not.  I understand the conceit of the two main characters never interacting verbally in a way that reveals anything about themselves, revealing their personalities through action, but I don't know that I liked it.  It created an emotional distance that for me precluded the kind of romantic feeling the film seemed to be going for.

And tonight:


A Christmas Tale - My second Arnauld Desplechin film this week, and I think I preferred the other (Kings and Queen), though I did like this a lot.  He's clearly a master at the film-as-novel, a genre of film that doesn't get made much because it's oh so hard to do correctly (Marcel Carné's Children of Paradise is my favorite film of this type).  It requires a director willing to be both patient enough to allow the characters to develop slowly without ever letting the narrative feel like it's moving slowly.  Having a cast full of great actors helps a lot, and I was glad to see most of the cast from Kings and Queen show up here: Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Devos, Jean-Paul Roussillon (who shined in a small role in the other film and equally great in a larger one here as the father) and Mathieu Almaric, who I'm now convinced is one of my favorite actors working today.  The film is gorgeous in the Criterion Blu-Ray, though Desplechin's visual style is never flashy but rather subtle and unobtrusive.
The End of Cinema

Seattle Screen Scene

"He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"

Hal Warren

  • Junior Member
  • *
  • Posts: 74
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24342 on: December 19, 2009, 04:57:26 AM »
The Informant- Ridiculously underrated movie. Damon was spectacular in the lead, and all together it was a hilarious, thoroughly enjoyable film. It's in my top 5 of the year.

kjt1981

  • Junior Member
  • *
  • Posts: 18
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24343 on: December 19, 2009, 05:35:21 AM »
'Last Days' (or 'The Shuffling Unwashed' as i like to call it), the Nirvana film with Michael Pitt. Pick your f*cking feet up, eh lads? Jeeesus!

Steven O. Selsnik

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1379
  • I don't mind a parasite.Iobject to a cut-rate one
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24344 on: December 19, 2009, 07:10:07 AM »
The Swiss Family Robinson - Another family moment, watching this with my 10 year old daughter for the first time. I loved this movie growing up and now I love it for it's return to an innocence in movie making. Left on a desolate island the Robinson's create an impossible to believe life for themselves and fight off and endless horde of pirates all alone. Don't think anyone really needs the spoiler black on this one but just to be safe. If you have not seen this movie run out a rent it. It has that great, old time color of the 60's and beautiful scenery of Tobago.

4/5

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24345 on: December 19, 2009, 07:58:50 AM »
It requires a director willing to be both patient enough to allow the characters to develop slowly without ever letting the narrative feel like it's moving slowly. 

Yeah, seriously. This guy makes 150-minute films go by in half the time.

FLYmeatwad

  • An Acronym
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28785
  • I am trying to impress myself. I have yet to do it
    • Processed Grass
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24346 on: December 19, 2009, 08:15:28 AM »
Can't agree, 1SO. All the performances in Gran Torino are terrible. Eastwood does nothing of note and only looks good by comparison because all of the other actors are so bad. He's decent at best, but even that is a stretch. Eastwood's performance in that film is terrible, almost as bad as the film itself.

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24347 on: December 19, 2009, 10:35:38 AM »

Steamboat Round the Bend John Ford, 1935

Will Rogers is awesome. This should be understood before moving forward or before you do anything today, really. He's kind of magical in that sort of folksy way. Maybe he's just really fun to watch. Anyway, this film isn't as good as Judge Priest mainly because it limits Rogers too much to be himself and also cuz the Stepin Fetchit isn't as well done in this film which makes it a little more hard to take whereas in Judge Priest, he becomes really hilarious and you get to see how good he can be. Anyway, the film's sorta about Rogers buying himself a Steamboat and just relaxing and going down the river but then society has to get all up in his face and his nephew (?) gets charged with murder and he has to save him and there's a steamboat race and there's a floating wax museum filled with historical personages that's like a weird metaphor and there's The New Moses or something. It's fun stuff and at points the relationship between Rogers and his nephew's girl is very touching, but it never really rises above that. And I read Tag Gallagher's thing about it in his book and it doesn't match my experience with the film at all and that made me sad. I should watch more Ford though. I can tell he's one of the greatest. There was one more thing I wanted to say, but I forgot what it was. That's just how it goes. We live in darkness, the light is a dream.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2009, 10:37:18 AM by roujin »

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24348 on: December 19, 2009, 10:41:04 AM »
It also has one of my favorite race scenes. All races should be that slow. And that fueled by booze.
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #24349 on: December 19, 2009, 10:42:13 AM »
ha, yeah. I loved that. I also loved the ending. After the plot finishes or whatever, four quick shots later, it ends.