Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684164 times)

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5270 on: November 21, 2020, 08:07:21 AM »
CMP needs to be given more work. He has a SBC-esque dramatic turn in him somewhere. Also, I got to watch Superbad again.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5271 on: November 22, 2020, 01:27:46 AM »
I am anti-curve in most situations because it assumes you know what's average, and also that not everyone can attain proficiency or greatness. I don't know what's average, I don't know what's great besides that I watch movies, and at the end I just have that hell-CINECAST!ing-yes feeling. And then I try to justify it with words. If I didn't have that feeling as often as I do, I just wouldn't watch movies. I know I'm still critical, but that's when I just go watch everything, like last year, or when I force myself to watch films I wouldn't normally watch. That's my own personal gray area, and I bet it's similar for a lot of people.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5272 on: November 23, 2020, 12:36:24 AM »
The Nest

Could be one of my favorite films of the year but one I am not sure I would watch again but has to sink in a bit more.  Without knowing much about it, there were a few ways I thought it could go as far as Drama or horror and while there is nothing supernatural, this was like a horror story watching a domestic situation spiral downwards. Maybe Marriage Story could be a pick me up
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Eric/E.T.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5273 on: November 23, 2020, 09:07:10 PM »
It's apparently now out on YouTube, thanks for bringing it back to my consciousness. Will check it out during the coming holiday!
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5274 on: November 25, 2020, 06:06:55 AM »
Small Axe: Mangrove

Having watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 not too long ago, it became a natural point of comparison to this film that ultimately focuses on a group trial stemming from a protest, that thus takes on a heavily political valence, with some of the defendants representing themselves and thus creating a partial breakdown in standard legal procedure.

The title comes from the name of a Trinidadian restaurant/cafe in the Notting Hill neighborhood, which the Hugh Grant film did not prepare me to understand as a heavily Caribbean Black neighborhood, either taking place after gentrification had changed the neighborhood or simply omitting it. The police in the neighborhood are terribly racist and target the Black population for indiscriminate arrests and violence, including making the restaurant hard to operate. This creates a stronger push for political activism including a march that escalates into altercations and arrests. Thus sets the stage for our trial.

The way the first act is dominated by the interactions with the police, it feels like it makes them into an artificial "All Cops Are Bastards" caricature. They are too present and too evil...by making it a highlight real of oppression it makes it feel less believable in the context. That's a problem with based on true story narrative film...being true doesn't absolve it from having to earn the feeling of believability. It does however set itself up for some enjoyable trial scenes. The prosecution has a line basically trying to sell the police officers as being clearly truthful by nature, which any knowledgable person knows is an absurd proposition as there is hardly a group with a worse record of perjury than the police. But they are often enough successful. The thing about lies though is they are a lot harder to maintain than truth because it takes an impressive storyteller to avoid plot holes, and most cops are not impressive, and thus a diligent enough cross examiner plays the role of critic, picking at the dangling threads, and the film provides some great material.

So yeah, entertaining especially in the trial, but feels a bit too buffed up to make a point to fully succeed as a compelling film. Part of it is just the whirlwind of characters it tries to establish early on, which it doesn't entirely pull off. To put it back into direct comparison, Sorkin being a good writer, if nothing else, does a better job of balancing the characters as unique voices in Chicago 7.

Beavermoose

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5275 on: November 26, 2020, 03:21:22 AM »
Is this like a Steve McQueen anthology mini-series?

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5276 on: November 26, 2020, 03:50:28 AM »
Yes. Mangrove was a full two hours but some maybe are closer to one hour...something like five different films/episodes.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5277 on: November 26, 2020, 09:31:19 PM »
See You Yesterday

I said similar watching Da 5 Bloods, but even moreso with this one there is a tragedy that one might be convinced this film was a response to the events of May, but for it having been released before that. Thus is the nature of the story of cops shooting Black people that a story about it always feels immediate. Of course, given the premise of this film, maybe they did make it this summer and then travel back in time to release it. Of course, COVID puts the lie to that because 2020 is just that year.

Claudette and Sebastian are two high school geniuses just dabbling in time travel for a science fair project, as one does. After a police shooting hits close to home, they use their new creation to try to set things right. Anyone who has ever watched a time travel film knows it goes exactly as planned and we all live happily ever after. No, of course not, things get real complicated, in part because these technical geniuses have never bothered to strategize with any real depth and have no emotional control because they are still dumb children. This in spite their teacher providing a warning about all of this (Michael J. Fox plays their teacher in the most winking of cameos).

While this does hit some good emotional notes, and the interaction of time travel and racial justice perhaps makes a point about how the threat of violence isn't limited to the actual violent moments but the broader social context that lays so many potential points of violence along the path. But the time travel logic feels rather stretched or perhaps tied in knots to fully pull off the base story.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5278 on: November 27, 2020, 02:29:24 AM »
The Personal History of David Copperfield
A super whimsical picture so incredibly messy that it loses the the thread, so to speak, numerous times. It's so well-intentioned and earnest that it's hard to hate too much on it. Dev Patel is charming, fun, and quite rangy in his performance, however theatrical it is. It just tries to pack in so many characters and experiences, it never lets you revel in any of them. There is a group of characters living in a home made from boat that was grounded upside down on the beach, which, real or not, seemed to have served as a formative experience for David Copperfield, yet we don't get to live with the characters long enough or get to know them well enough to truly care when they become entangled in a much darker way in his narrative later in life.

It's a relatively fast-moving dramatic piece that I found moving in certain spots, fascinating and fanciful in others, but at the same time just too fast. It also tries to be snappier and wittier than it often comes off. I love the love for language inherent in this piece, though. The aim is true, but it misses about as often as it hits in this regard.

A decent watch, I don't even know if it could've been better. It would've had to have been more of a TV series than a 2-hour film. Actually, come to think of it, it might have thrived in that form. But, alas.

Taipei Story
Just a really sharp film from Edward Yang. It doesn't quite have the personality of Yi Yi or the gravity of A Brighter Summer Day, but it's still a stellar portrait of Taipei as Yang saw it. Those are about all my words on it for now.

Our Little Sister
Watched it again last night with Dad. He's been watching all the Kore-eda's with me, and I thought it'd be a shame if he missed this, maybe the best of the catalog. Although all a film is is a 2D rendering of reality, I swear Kore-eda set-out to stimulate all the senses. The smell of nature, especially with the cherry blossoms or the white bait and the sea. Taste, forget it, so many wonderful-looking dishes here, plus the plum wine. Don't forget the white bait on toast. Hearing and seeing are granted, but even the puncturing of the plums or the preparing of the white bait are tactile experiences. If anyone else was ever to do a feel-good film marathon, this is one that I'd be nominating but quick.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2020, 02:35:50 AM by etdoesgood »
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Will

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #5279 on: November 27, 2020, 07:16:55 PM »
LAST 10 / 1 SENTENCE


THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT - I believe it was Jean-Luc Godard who said “All you need for a movie is three drag performers and a bus.” 8.

TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! JULIE NEWMAR - We should get a new feel-good movie about drag queens with absurdly long titles every five years. 8.

RABBIT OF SEVILLE - If you haven't scrunched your pet's head up like Bugs Bunny while humming Rossini, have you really lived? 10.

BEVERLY HILLS COP - That 80s Eddie Murphy laugh! 8.

LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION - The Louvre scene belongs in the Louvre. 8.

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT - Count me as one of the few weirdos who values the film noir parts of this film more than the cartoon stuff. 8.

THE WEDDING BANQUET - If I ever have a son, I’m naming him Simon so the gay genes can activate. 5.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACTION - I never caught that gag in the grocery store when Clark puts in some lightbulbs then Eddie subsequently drops several bags of dog food on top of it while they talk. 5.

UNBREAKABLE - I may have lied about having seen this before. 8.

A FISH CALLED WANDA - Between this and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, 1988 was truly the year of the third act steamroller. 9.