Last Film Watched

pblakeney

Blood & Gold on Netflix. German film set in Germany at the end of the war.
Very much a western rather than historical. I enjoyed it very much on that basis.

RichN95.

My viewings since last time

Oppenheimer: Largely covered already. I don't thing there's a better story teller in cinema at the moment. This is a story of physicists talking in rooms and employment tribunals, but is more thrilling than many action movies.

Barbie: I enjoyed it and found it funny. It's legitimate gender politics were a little heavy handed, but I'm a man.

The Meg 2: Jason Statham fights massive sharks - again. If you liked The Meg (I kind of did), you'll like the Meg 2 (I did). Made by Ben Wheatley - previously a low budget critics' darling (Kill List, A Field in England, High Rise)

Strays: Do you like dog road trip movies? Do you like d1ck jokes? Then this is the film for you. I admit it passed the six laugh test for me.

bonk_king

Late to the party on this one as I suspect it was covered several pages back, but I finally got round to watching Tenet last night. Well, some of it, I turned it off!

Everyman and his dog were raving over this one. Can someone please explain to me WTF that film was about. It screwed with my head.

pblakeney

bonk_king said:

Late to the party on this one as I suspect it was covered several pages back, but I finally got round to watching Tenet last night. Well, some of it, I turned it off!

Everyman and his dog were raving over this one. Can someone please explain to me WTF that film was about. It screwed with my head.

As with a lot of Christopher Nolan films the theme is time. You have to watch to near the end to get what is going on, and even then you'll probably need 2 viewings.
Possibly just not for you.

seanoconn

pblakeney said:

bonk_king said:

Late to the party on this one as I suspect it was covered several pages back, but I finally got round to watching Tenet last night. Well, some of it, I turned it off!

Everyman and his dog were raving over this one. Can someone please explain to me WTF that film was about. It screwed with my head.

As with a lot of Christopher Nolan films the theme is time. You have to watch to near the end to get what is going on, and even then you'll probably need 2 viewings.
Possibly just not for you.

Mentioned at the time that David Washington’s lead performance was poor and haven’t seen much since to change my opinion that he’s not a great actor.

seanoconn

It’s easy to criticise and fun too 😃

mrb123

A History of Violence. Another David Cronenberg/Viggo Mortenson collaboration. Mentioned by someone on here when I said I'd watched the excellent Eastern Promises. Both highly recommended.

ddraver

Dumb Money & Everyman Cinemas

The cinema first...

I only went because the film wasn't on at a normal cinema at a time I could make today. It's an attempt to make cinema going a bit more..."oooh fancy". Can't say I'm a huge fan. I went on the 'moderbike' as I do because it's easy and cheap to get into Plymuff and do not usually have any issues but I felt rather underdressed as a result sitting around people in Out Out clothes. The ticket was close to double the price and while it would maybe be nice to have a beer it was bloomin' £7 a pint which we are not used to down here yet. The film was not made any better as a result and halfway through I just really fancied an ice-watery coke and some crispy M&Ms. I do not plan on returning tbh...

Unfortunately, the film isn't up to much either. It tells the story of the people behind the Game Stop/Melvin Capital craze during lockdown. Although there is scope for some major little guy beats Wall Street feel good factor here it just doesn't quite manage to capture it. I can imagine if you were one of the Redditors involved then it would be a great nostalgic hurrah, but for the rest of us it just doesn't quite land. Save it for netflix or putl*cker...

pblakeney

Thanks for the heads up.
Reptile on Netflix is a decent whodunnit. Nothing spectacular but had a True Detective vibe throughout most of it.

JimD666

Indiana Jones and the lost Zimmer Frame. Better than the last two at least...

andyrr

ddraver said:

Dumb Money & Everyman Cinemas

The cinema first...

I only went because the film wasn't on at a normal cinema at a time I could make today. It's an attempt to make cinema going a bit more..."oooh fancy". Can't say I'm a huge fan. I went on the 'moderbike' as I do because it's easy and cheap to get into Plymuff and do not usually have any issues but I felt rather underdressed as a result sitting around people in Out Out clothes. The ticket was close to double the price and while it would maybe be nice to have a beer it was bloomin' £7 a pint which we are not used to down here yet. The film was not made any better as a result and halfway through I just really fancied an ice-watery coke and some crispy M&Ms. I do not plan on returning tbh...

Unfortunately, the film isn't up to much either. It tells the story of the people behind the Game Stop/Melvin Capital craze during lockdown. Although there is scope for some major little guy beats Wall Street feel good factor here it just doesn't quite manage to capture it. I can imagine if you were one of the Redditors involved then it would be a great nostalgic hurrah, but for the rest of us it just doesn't quite land. Save it for netflix or putl*cker...

I watched the Netflix mini series Eat the Rich on the Game Stop story - it had caught my interest a while ago and I also listened to a NYT podcast on it - worth a watch if you want a bit more on it.

ddraver

pblakeney said:

Thanks for the heads up.

Honestly, the best thing about it is that the Exit music (?) is Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes played loud and uninterrupted without a whole load of nob'eads chanting along. Goodness me, when you just listen to it without any of the bullsh*t, that is a good song...

(Another one where I realised I knew every single word even having not heard it for 15 odd years)

seanoconn

The creator

Golden child meets blade runner. Visually stunning, really is beautiful to watch and looks like a sci-fi epic but that’s about all. David Washington seems to be in vogue, is perfectly fine as an actor but not leading man material and can’t carry a film of this size. The child actress is surprisingly excellent and the movie has some other decent characters. 6/10

mrb123

Blinded by the Light.
Fairly cheesy, feelgood type job about a British Asian lad being inspired by the music of Sprignsteen. Worth a watch if you like the Boss.

ddraver

Whiplash

(On itvX at the mo)

BT can probably tell us all how unrealistic it is but a great film about the nature of success and genius. Brilliant acting from the 2 leading men.

I got some serious Shane Sutton "what is the cost of superstardom" vibes from it to keep it cycling related...

laurentian

Killers of the flower moon.

Watched it, enjoyed it - despite the pre-release reports, it didn't seem like a 3 hour film.

Recommended

rick_chasey

ddraver said:

Whiplash

(On itvX at the mo)

BT can probably tell us all how unrealistic it is but a great film about the nature of success and genius. Brilliant acting from the 2 leading men.

I got some serious Shane Sutton "what is the cost of superstardom" vibes from it to keep it cycling related...

Whiplash is a quality film.

Too few films are as singularly minded as whiplash is.

They all sprawl with a story line for everyone and they end up messy and bloated.

micaab

Titane.

Very dark French film. I think I watched it because it was on as opposed to because I wanted to.

Once I started I was a bit intrigued. Good to get through it but won't watch again.

deimos254I3CemCV

Margin call (2011)

Cant believe that I have missed this. Dynamic of the story is just unbelievable, whole story takes place in 24 hours.
From the all the movies about 2007 financial crisis, this is a favorite of mine.

vincesummerskRoxcBTr

Riders of Justice

Danish film (subtitles) - dark , funny and sad at times - excellent film!

bikes_and_dogs

Escher - Journey into Infinity (2018) Not a film as such but one of the most interesting feature length things I've ever seen. It was on Sky Arts recently.
Never heard of M.C. Escher? I'd be amazed if you were not amazed by this guy.

photonic69

Just been watching Final Cut. BBC iPlayer. A very bizarre yet entertaining French/Japanese Zombie flick. Most cooly odd!



https://m.imdb.com/title/tt14317880/

briantrumpet

ddraver said:

Whiplash

(On itvX at the mo)

BT can probably tell us all how unrealistic it is but a great film about the nature of success and genius. Brilliant acting from the 2 leading men.

I got some serious Shane Sutton "what is the cost of superstardom" vibes from it to keep it cycling related...

Yeah, quite a few muso friends raved about it at the time, but I found it just a bit 'meh', partly because of some of the technical stuff (such as there's no way the drummer would be able to play faster by tensing up so much his hands bled), but also the ending was sooo contrived. The phenomenon of bullying by teachers in conservatoires is probably on its way out, but certainly has been an issue.

Incidentally, I have conducted the piece of music 'Whiplash' - Don Ellis stuff is fun to play with all its weird time signatures (Whiplash is in 7/4 or probably more accurately 14/8, with its unusual subdivisions 4+3+3+4)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCykgzrwIw0

rick_chasey

Contrived?

Yikes. It’s a rarity of a well paced film which is singularly focused on one thing with some great acting performances.

No bloating to appeal to different audience types, no “and then” plot beats, no directors taking liberties with the audience because they can.

Whiplash being one of the best films to come out of the 2010s is a hill I’ll die on.

Best thing, obvious though it is (has never stopped me before) is it’s not about the music or drumming at all. That’s just the vehicle.

I’m probably just not watching enough films at the moment to find the really good ones, but the trend at the moment is for these really flabby bloated films where the directors have too much say and editors not enough, that cram in too many sub plots to appeal to different audiences and contrived moments within those to keep the other parts of the audience engaged (eg - get the woman naked to keep the men interested in the romance sub plot).

Or it’s just incredibly boring CGI led action.

There is no way you’ll catch me spending over 3 and a half hours in the cinema watching Killers of the Flower Moon.

That’s just a failure of accountability and the problem with celebrity directors, who have too much leverage.

Same goes for Oppenheimer. There’s a 5 star film in there somewhere but it’s too long. You could cut half the cast and it’d be improved.

While I’m on my soapbox, when they start churning out biopics you know you’re on to a loser.

You’re already on the back foot because both the character development and the plot are already set out. Then you’re in the world of director infatuation, who understandably, have fallen for the characters they’ve been focused on for however long, so it just becomes one long hagiography, punctured with obvious and predictable caveats.

We can all guess what the Napoleon film will be like. A genius general but he’s awful behind the scenes, troubled, and the character arch is just Icarus, just with a cold Russian winter instead.

Then guess what, they’ve majored on the love interest so the boring men can bring their wives, so it now runs to 2hrs 40.

I’m sure we’ll get lots of darkly shot exciting battle scenes (to make the most of the modern cinemas and to set it apart from at TV) and mumbley lines because it’s a serious film.

Rant over

briantrumpet

rick_chasey said:

Contrived?

Yikes. It’s a rarity of a well paced film which is singularly focused on one thing with some great acting performances.

No bloating to appeal to different audience types, no “and then” plot beats, no directors taking liberties with the audience because they can.

Whiplash being one of the best films to come out of the 2010s is a hill I’ll die on.

Best thing, obvious though it is (has never stopped me before) is it’s not about the music or drumming at all. That’s just the vehicle.

I suspect my blind spot is actually seeing it as a film about music and musicians. Kind of unavoidable for me.

wakemalcolm

It's the highest IMDB rated film of less than 2 hours produced this century, so probably quite a crowded hill to die on.

Is it the streamable mini-series that's to blame for the death of concise story telling or have films always needed to be long to be 'epic'?

Personally, I'm waiting for Netflix version of Ferris Bueller's week off.

briantrumpet

wakemalcolm said:

It's the highest IMDB rated film of less than 2 hours produced this century, so probably quite a crowded hill to die on.

Is it the streamable mini-series that's to blame for the death of concise story telling or have films always needed to be long to be 'epic'?

Personally, I'm waiting for Netflix version of Ferris Bueller's week off.

There's a thoughtful review of Scorsese's new film in Private Eye which talks about this directly: it suggests that when commissioned by streaming companies, long films are welcomed, as they take up more space, whereas when commissioned for cinema release, less is more, as they can do more showings per day for shorter films.

pblakeney

briantrumpet said:

wakemalcolm said:

It's the highest IMDB rated film of less than 2 hours produced this century, so probably quite a crowded hill to die on.

Is it the streamable mini-series that's to blame for the death of concise story telling or have films always needed to be long to be 'epic'?

Personally, I'm waiting for Netflix version of Ferris Bueller's week off.

There's a thoughtful review of Scorsese's new film in Private Eye which talks about this directly: it suggests that when commissioned by streaming companies, long films are welcomed, as they take up more space, whereas when commissioned for cinema release, less is more, as they can do more showings per day for shorter films.

I wish film companies would heed this advice.
Many films would be vastly improved if cut to 90 minutes.

briantrumpet

pblakeney said:

briantrumpet said:

wakemalcolm said:

It's the highest IMDB rated film of less than 2 hours produced this century, so probably quite a crowded hill to die on.

Is it the streamable mini-series that's to blame for the death of concise story telling or have films always needed to be long to be 'epic'?

Personally, I'm waiting for Netflix version of Ferris Bueller's week off.

There's a thoughtful review of Scorsese's new film in Private Eye which talks about this directly: it suggests that when commissioned by streaming companies, long films are welcomed, as they take up more space, whereas when commissioned for cinema release, less is more, as they can do more showings per day for shorter films.

I wish film companies would heed this advice.
Many films would be vastly improved if cut to 90 minutes.

One of my favourite writers on language, Guy Keleny, who used to write for and about The Independent's use of language, frequently advised writers that if you can strike out a word (or multiple words) in a sentence without changing the meaning, always strike it/them out. It's advice that's worth keeping in mind.

OTOH, I loved the massive canvas of The Wire, but when you rewatch it, there is very little redundancy, with virtually every bit of every scene having plot relevance. But it would make a terrible film.

rick_chasey

briantrumpet said:

wakemalcolm said:

It's the highest IMDB rated film of less than 2 hours produced this century, so probably quite a crowded hill to die on.

Is it the streamable mini-series that's to blame for the death of concise story telling or have films always needed to be long to be 'epic'?

Personally, I'm waiting for Netflix version of Ferris Bueller's week off.

There's a thoughtful review of Scorsese's new film in Private Eye which talks about this directly: it suggests that when commissioned by streaming companies, long films are welcomed, as they take up more space, whereas when commissioned for cinema release, less is more, as they can do more showings per day for shorter films.

For sure. They compete over directors as much with editorial freedom as they do money.

If your film is mainly streamed at home, the “numb bum” problem is much less acute.

Makes for a poor film.