Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5997472 times)

Cyrbrough

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32290 on: June 09, 2010, 07:25:04 PM »
Pervye Na Lune [First on the Moon] - (2005)

Russian mockumentary about a supposed programme by the Soviets to send a man into space in 1938. The film manages to induce a sense of insanity in the viewer when it wants to that so few other films can, reflecting the periods in the film when the "real life facts" run cold and we are given only glimpses of what happened. The ending gives a fantastic payoff and made me want to re-watch the whole film for bits I had missed. The only problem that kept pulling me out of the film was that supposedly the Soviets had film cameras that they could hide in rooms and run for hours and hours on end for surveillance, something only really introduced with the birth of video. Still, I loved it.
"Cristiano Ronaldo: The Movie" staring Gael Garcia Bernal. I'd pay to see it.

Tim

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32291 on: June 09, 2010, 07:59:38 PM »
Is Pixar releasing a movie this year?  If so there is no point nominating other animated films for Filmspots.

Early reviews say Toy Story 3 < How To Train Your Dragon

Studio Ghibli have "Kari-gurashi no Arietty" aka "Arietty's Song" aka "The Borrowers" coming out this year

This will undoubtedly blow away any other animated feature this year!
"Only cinema narrows its concern down to its content, that is to its story. It should, instead, concern itself with its form, its structure." Peter Greenaway

Bill Thompson

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32292 on: June 09, 2010, 08:05:19 PM »
Is Pixar releasing a movie this year?  If so there is no point nominating other animated films for Filmspots.

Early reviews say Toy Story 3 < How To Train Your Dragon

Studio Ghibli have "Kari-gurashi no Arietty" aka "Arietty's Song" aka "The Borrowers" coming out this year

This will undoubtedly blow away any other animated feature this year!


That's by a first time director as well, I wonder if I'll ever get to see it or it will elude me like the rest of the Ghibli films that have never been given a US release.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32293 on: June 09, 2010, 09:02:54 PM »
Is Pixar releasing a movie this year?  If so there is no point nominating other animated films for Filmspots.

Early reviews say Toy Story 3 < How To Train Your Dragon

Wow. I'm not prepared for that much bad. I imagine people will still flip shit over it. I just hope it's better than 2. Hell, I hope it's better than one, but recent history has told me to just hope that it's better than 2, which shouldn't be that difficult to do.

THATguy

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32294 on: June 09, 2010, 09:31:41 PM »
Mary and Max

This is beautiful, and pretty dark.... actually, kind of overwhelmingly dark in the third act.

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FLYmeatwad

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32295 on: June 09, 2010, 09:32:23 PM »
Wow. You've sold me, THATguy.

THATguy

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32296 on: June 09, 2010, 09:36:51 PM »
Well, it made Mrs. THATguy cry (THATwife?), and she got upset at me for picking it, so that's an endorsement.

michael x

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32297 on: June 09, 2010, 09:58:44 PM »
The Informant!

Didn't expect the way the movie was paced or the style of music, but it was really funny. I did feel a little bad about laughing at a character with bipolar disorder.

Bondo

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32298 on: June 09, 2010, 10:21:08 PM »
The Descent (2006)

[...]
While I recognize some quality elements here, it just ultimately didn't hold me for a long enough spell. I just don't think the overt phantasmagoric nature of the film serves it well.

Rating: 2/5

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #32299 on: June 09, 2010, 10:38:00 PM »


Animal Kingdom - David Michod, 2010

There’s a poster on my tram line for this film, and it contains the subtitle or tagline, whichever you prefer, “A Crime Story”. It’s an interesting choice, a strange understatement, a failure to fully comprehend what is presented here over the course of two hours. It's true, but truth is sometimes a slippery thing.

It begins with “Deal or No Deal”, a familiar domestic scene, a boy and his mother watching television on the couch. And just before you can fully grasp it, begin to look for the darkness and the unfamiliarity, the paramedics burst in. The mother has overdosed on heroin, her son, Josh, or J (newcomer Frecheville), is strangely, or perhaps suitably, disconnected.

After the gorgeous opening credits, which were highly derided by the others I saw the film with, a voiceover attempts to explain some of the family dynamics. The history of crime, the attempt to live apart, the fear of retribution that permeates that lifestyle. It’s a little unsubtle, and sticks out as a problem in a film that is far more subtle than I expected going in.

It’s a film I probably would’ve avoided if it hadn’t been chosen as the subject for the monthly meetup. I’m generally disinterested in crime stories (see my reaction to GoodFellas) and I was failing to pay the attention required to see the acclaim this was receiving. And having said all that, let me say how glad I am to have seen this.

It’s a remarkable film that does something I don’t know I’ve ever seen another film centered around crime of this sort do: it totally deglamourises it. GoodFellas never quite manages to convince us that the life of crime is a negative one. Despite all the fall in the second half, it revels too much in the flash, the glamour, the rise. Here there is no rise, only fall. No glamour, only paranoia. The flash is the guns as people get shot, and those who remain have to deal with the consequences.

It’s a ripped from the headlines story. Anyone who sees this would do well to remember that, as implausible as it may seem, this is the story of Melbourne and it’s Underworld, and it’s more true than you might think. You’d have to ask someone with a little more life history to explain the actual events and how close to the truth the portrayal is here (thanks Tim), but never forget that people actually would get shot by the police in broad daylight. That corrupt cops were in league with the criminals. That there really were police officers executed, and, as far as I know, whoever did it has never been “brought to justice”.

The thing that impresses me, is that it never feels ripped from the headlines. What those aspects give the film is a deeper uneasiness, assisted by the dark score, the no-pulled-punches violence, and the dark, disturbing characters, played with brilliance across the board.

Jacki Weaver is going to get most of the acclaim for her performance as the matriarch of this family, and it is totally, totally deserved. There is a danger, a darkness to her character,  a hypocritical backhand, a desire to protect the family at whatever cost that is particularly shocking. But everyone is great. I’m particularly fond of Luke Ford, last seen playing an Autistic teen in The Black Balloon, who here plays one of J’s uncles, a strange specimen, seemingly more moral than the others, but also drastically more afraid. There is a look exchanged between Ford and Frecheville at the end of this film that is perhaps one of the finest moments I’ve seen on film.

Mendhelsohn is fantastical as an obviously unhinged, incredibly dangerous man. Edgerton is particularly good as well. I really hope that some of these performances achieve the recognition they deserve, especially Weaver, who I feel relatively justified in mentioning in the same sentence as both the Filmspots and the Oscars. I do doubt she’ll get the buzz and the support required, but it would be amazing if she did.

It’s strong writing, although far from perfect. I have problems with act three, and the way it takes a little long to reach a conclusion. It’s a minor flaw tho, and it’s compensated for by the exceptionally strong direction. The way that certain scenes are constructed and shot is really masterful, and it makes me really hopeful for the industry and what might be being produced in Australia in coming years.

In fact, it’s strong to the extent that I’ve rarely seen in Australian film. It has a stronger structure than the similarly bleak but neverending Samson and Delilah, and is far stronger than Kokkinos’ good, but ulitmately flawed Blessed. It might just be the best Australian film of the millennium, and up there amongst the greatest this country has produced. A fine, fine effort.

Grade: A-

So. So far in 2010 I’ve seen just one 2010 film. Animal Kingdom. And only two others that will be considered 2010 by many, and are end-of-year eligible, White Material and Mother. And I tell you what, that makes me very impressed. If it came to the end of the year and I had these films in my top 5, I would call it a more than respectable list. And for me, that’s pretty awesome. Bring on the second half of the year.

 

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