Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5996650 times)

Corndog

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32260 on: June 09, 2010, 05:32:23 AM »
What I learned today: It's going to be a good year.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster.
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

flieger

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32261 on: June 09, 2010, 06:13:35 AM »

Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, 2010)
Fascinating, unsettling crime drama, opening with Josh and his mum sitting on the couch watching Deal or No Deal, and ending with Josh giving his grandma a cuddle. A film where family constrains and corrodes, creating this weird insular, nebulous universe filled with resigned, laconic paranoia, intense connections (especially Jacki Weaver's grandma), and in Josh's case, a withdrawn, inarticulate watchfulness. The police of the armed robbery squad, or the drug squad - the ones in plainclothes - come across as these ominous figures in suits, as inexplicable and omnipresent as the suits in the Matrix, but sitting in Fords outside suburban homes.

A strange film, seemingly following the narrative of a boy's education in the underworld, it refuses to go down well-worn paths, instead opting for mood and atmosphere, echoing the nihilistic drift of the protagonists in the family in response to ruthless, crooked protagonists of the state. Where sullen paranoiacs lash out at the nearest convenient target. At times I was not convinced by this, as it refuses to go down the well-worn path of the classic cinematic narrative (one thinks of Un prophete, and the education and ascent of a young man in the ways and hierarchy of the crime world), but the downward spiral has its own power. The score has shadows of the 80s with its synthetic tones and drones, and the cinematography captures the urban nightscape - especially the lighting - and the bleached 'burbs wonderfully. The Cody family ensemble is superb - especially Weaver as the matriarch, and Mendelsohn as Uncle Andrew - and Frecheville as the young Josh is either a genius, or his blank, downcast nature has been well-used by the director. I don't know. Kids these days are just so hard to read.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32262 on: June 09, 2010, 09:38:40 AM »
Fair warning, there is a random boob shot.
Well that tears it.

oneaprilday

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32263 on: June 09, 2010, 10:27:32 AM »
Cool review Clovis, can't wait to watch Gift Shop along with Best Worst Movie
Same!!

sdedalus

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32264 on: June 09, 2010, 11:38:54 AM »

This Gun For Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942)
Without this film we wouldn't have many of the iconic moments from Le Samourai - Jef's room, the railway bridge - so that's good enough for me. Without Alan Ladd's angel-of-death performance as Raven we wouldn't have the studied coolness of Delon. Again, good enough for me. The dialogue is great, "You're trying to make me go soft. Well can save your oil I don't go soft for anybody." Or: "How do you feel when you're doing it?" "I feel fine." The set-pieces and outdoor locations are fantastic. The killings are brutal. What more do you want from noir?

How about Veronica Lake?

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Jared

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32265 on: June 09, 2010, 11:42:35 AM »
The Cameraman's Revenge
pretty good stop motion for something made almost 100 years ago. sort of hard to tell the beetles and grasshoppers or whatever apart from each other on a small youtube screen, but that is more my fault than the films. Probably the best film Ive ever seen about insect infiedility.
3/5

Castle in the Sky
This finishes Miyazaki's feature length films for me. This shouldnt be taken as an insult to it because I think they are all at least good, but Castle in the Sky is bottom third or so in my mind. I think this might be the first time Ive watched one of his films using both the subtitles and american actor dubbing, and I found it quite bizarre. The dialouge not only seldom matches, but sometimes there is one without the other, or they are talking about something completely different. At one point a character is holding up a book, which the subtitles say is Swift's Gullivers Travels. In the dialouge, the character is saying that the book is his fathers journal. Maybe James Van Der Beek was confused?
3/5

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32266 on: June 09, 2010, 11:58:30 AM »
The Box (2009)

What's in the box?

Clovis8

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32267 on: June 09, 2010, 12:03:48 PM »
The Box (2009)

What's in the box?

....a steaming pile of..... ;)


I agree with your take, although I think your expectations were probably pretty low which helped.

Holly Harry

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32268 on: June 09, 2010, 12:08:06 PM »
Mary and Max



This movie is like a vagina with teeth.  You think you are in for something pleasant and fun, but it has different plans for you altogether.        

Have you seen his short "Harvie Krumpet"? This guy specializes in gallows comedy that is surprisingly poignant. I'm really looking forward to "Mary And Max".
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smirnoff

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32269 on: June 09, 2010, 12:30:30 PM »
The Box (2009)

What's in the box?

I figured you'd like it. :)

I agree with you that this film isn't so far away from really being something. I do like the concept. The way Kelly executes it though... I found it so clunky. And the pacing is nothing short of lethargic (the trailer made it look like a thriller). Attempts at spookiness fail completely (like the kid holding up two fingers etc).

It felt like a Stephen King adaptation that went off the rails.

That said, I can see liking it (in the right headspace).
« Last Edit: June 09, 2010, 12:32:11 PM by smirnoff »

 

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