Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 21

Loved Perks, Loved Laggies, and just saw Me and Earl and The Dying girl and absolutely loved it. Just saw Little Miss Sunshine and did not like. It definitely had its moments and I did like the parallels of the characters all going through their hardest loss imaginable and the solidarity of the whole trip and so forth but didn't really captivate me much.

Will definitely try the others though thank you! Thats two for The Spectacular Now so Ill probably do that.

 

other than Her never even heard of any of those. thanks man.

 

some more:

autumn sonata
4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days
louder than bombs (just came out recently, might be tough to find for a while)
far from heaven
two days, one night
the swimmer

i know you said you aren't feeling like an action film, but the following are unlike most other action films (sans the insider which is more of a straight up drama/thriller) and i think they fit what you're looking for in a different package. they're also all directed by michael mann who portrays human feeling in a way unlike any other director:

manhunter
heat
the insider
collateral
miami vice

 

The Neon Demon

7/10

Hate on it all you want, I loved this movie

I could have done without the necrophilia scene though, that was a bit much

 

I think I'd give it a 7 as well.

 

I'm the only person in the theatre for this matinee showing of The Neon Demon. Hm.

Edit: hah nvm one other guy just walked in.

...and another couple. Cool.

 

Total of six people in that theater. One old guy sat way in the front and kept laughing. But there wasn't anything funny.

Okay, about the actual movie. I described Refn to my friend as "all flare, no substance." It's no surprise that The Neon Demon is lacking in plot and character development. The action in the movie could've easily taken place in 3/4 or even 1/2 of the runtime, and if this was at all a character study, I didn't really feel like I got to know any of the characters all that well. If the theme of the movie is really that the modeling industry is superficial and jealousy is a sin, I mean, that's nothing original, and I pretty much got that much out of the synopsis on the IMDb page. But I wanted to see it in theaters anyway because it just looks so fucking good. The actresses, the make-up, the costumes, the colors, the lighting--god, the lighting. Two hours of non-stop eye candy, and a really interesting soundtrack to boot. I'm satisfied. I got what I wanted.

Desmond Harrington's gotten scary skinny.

 

I saw it Friday night and was the only one for two minutes until a handful of other people came

 

There were only 6 people in my theater too. I agree with everything you said about the movie--eye candy is the best way to describe it

 

Finally got Boogie Nights. Crazy how fully formed PTA's aesthetic was at this point. I don't think it's quite as amazing as Magnolia, but it's up there. His use of music is on another level, too.

 

Boogie Nights is so much better than Magnolia imo

 

Mos definitely. The Master is his opus. But almost every film is in the running

 

I didn't have nearly as much of a reaction to Magnolia or Boogie Nights by comparison. Punch Drunk Love feels more and more like a perfect film the more I think about it

 

Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, and The Master make a near-perfect trilogy. The other films are a step below, but all except Hard Eight are great in their own right.

Speed is such a colossally silly movie, made somewhat bearable by the surprise that the bus does not really factor in until the halfway point in the movie. Digesting so many Eighties-Nineties action films in a short period of time helps to draw a picture of the bizarre obsessions of the era: an appeal to diversity through black side characters who nevertheless are secondary to the white hero, a fear of terrorism, but mainly in domestic and vague Eastern European types, and a deliberate ignorance about the larger world. Post-9/11 films, even the worst ones, had a looming sense of American decline in the world, but these films are deliriously happy in being a part of that unique moment in history, the "post-history" era between the Cold War and September 11th. They gladly take part in much of the hysterical elements of modern big-budget filmmaking, but it feels less willfully committed to four corners marketing. As regrettable as Speed, Independence Day, Face/Off, and Die Hard can be, at least they generated from some sort of original thinking, or at least did not have the lunch boxes and action figures pre-made.

 

Saw adventureland. Not a fan. fun at times, but didn't find any of the stories that entertaining.

Saw The Spectacular Now and I liked it, but thought the first half or so of the movie with his building relationship with Amy was kind of dragged on. Liked that it was kind of laid back and natural and added a lot of context/ development to the characters, but i grew disinterested with their relationship stuff. It kind of disjointed because the first half was a movie about a relationship, then the second half it was focused on his character. Which is fine but the love story wasn't extraordinary enough in comparison to other love stories to merit it being half of the movie. the second half when it focused on his character more and his maturation ( mainly with his insecurities about identifying with his father) was way more compelling.

Still enjoyed the movie. Anybody else kind of irked by ambiguous endings? (open to interpretation endings? I feel like theres a better name for it) A couple times I've liked it, but for me the whole movie is building tension and when it doesn't fully resolve theres just this unsettling feeling where i just feel like suspended like the story will never have an ending and the tension just lingers.

I get it though. its up to the viewer to add the ending and sometimes the ending is more implied than anything, but sometimes it seems like they just wanted to have one just to have one. Maybe thats just me.

 

Malcolm X is powerful. It has all of Spike Lee's flaws, but also contains the passion that's uniquely his and makes his work worth coming back to. And it's definitely Washington's defining performance. The "A Change Is Gonna Come Scene" alone is worth riding along for 3 hours.

 

@Night Channels Regarding Short Term 12...


seriously though thank you. Loved it.

 

The Purge: Election Year

Better than the first, not as good as the second. Still big dumb fun, but some of the dialogue is truly awful, and BOY does the film want to make a statement. It hangs a lantern on everything it can possibly find.

 

Citizenfour is laughably one-sided but also tense, effective filmmaking as documentaries go. Left me plenty paranoid after.

The Killer Shrews is an awesome awful B-movie. Made by the same filmmaking team that did The Giant Gila Monster. It's not quite as fun as that one (distinct lack of jazzy late-50s pop songs), but not that far off. The shrews are so awful. Literally dogs with some shaggy "fur" tacked on them.

Hombre is solid, if maybe a bit puzzling why it's in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. While the racial revisionist angle is pretty damn intriguing, as is the nakedly unsympathetic nature of almost all the characters, most of it seems to have been done just as well in other films. In particular the "stagecoach as microcosm for society" angle was nailed in Stagecoach 30 years earlier. It also has maybe one of the worst special effects I've ever seen, adjusted for era. Paul Newman is always pretty looking and magnetic on film though, so it's very watchable.

Orson Welles' Macbeth I'm a bit conflicted on. The eerie, spooky mood is its strongest asset and I wouldn't be a bit shocked if it influenced Kurosawa making Throne of Blood. As always, the things Welles could do with a camera are truly special. The sets are somehow both exaggerated and austere and it makes the movie haunting as hell. While that part of the tiny budget works, other parts are very noticeable like the guards' shields and Macbeth's crown looking like cardboard. The acting is a bit uneven. Welles slays some moments, and seems disengaged at others. The weakest point of the story is how brutally he had to cut it down for time. It robs a lot of major moments of their impact. Can't help wishing he had filmed his "voodoo Macbeth" instead.

The Right Stuff is a truly wonderful movie. Maybe a little strong toward macho stoicism, but its pacing is amazing for a 3+ hour movie, it has some surprisingly effective moments of humor and it just looks gorgeous. Caleb Deschanel never shot a better looking movie, both in the air and on the ground. And while Bill Conti steals liberally from The Planets, the score is always perfect for its moment, too.

Bulworth I actually liked quite a bit. There's a little bit of white savior hypocrisy, but Beatty also seems to be in on it and aware of it. Most people complain that his "rapping" is horrible and cringeworthy, but that's also something the movie is in on, so it's a stupid complaint. The contract kill angle keeps it intriguingly off kilter and the social satire is very sharp and, sadly, still very relevant in skewering the political process, and sell-out Democrats in particular.

Queen Christina is solid as Garbo films go. I'm not wild about her, but her brusque manner and coldness suit her isolated, tomboy character quite well. Rouben Mamoulian has a reputation for being over the top, but he saves the visual showiness for really effective moments. It's not a total knockout, but it's nice to see an early 30s film with a female lead who is powerful, independent and sexual anyway.

State Fair is second-tier as Rodgers/Hammerstein musicals go. All the songs have charm for days, but it's light on truly all-time-memorable songs, Oscar win or no. Still though, there's something about it's plotlessness (and that of the movie it's remaking) that is irresistible. The small problems of normal, likeable people aren't usually a subject for film, but you wish they would be more often.

 

Why is that bad?

 

Because it doesn't bat an eye at the ridiculousness of Snowden. When he types in his little blanket fort, it's legitimately hilarious. And the paranoia with the fire alarm is over the top. But Poitras plays along. It does a good job building legitimate paranoia and conveying the gravity of the situation, but is way too straightfaced in those moments.

 

Considering the things Snowden and other whistleblowers have revealed about the Obama Administration it is tough to claim his behavior his ridiculous. He had to flee the country and seek asylum. Greenwald and Poitras are pro-Snowden, so asking them to be critical of Snowden is asking them to undercut their own argument.

 

Ted 2 - 6.5/10

Yeah alright. I mean what's to be said? Not as thought out as the original, but it still had a decent amount of mini family guy style jokes to keep it from sucking....and in the end, isn't that all we really need. Mark Wahlberg really saves these movies too.

 

Independence Day 2.1 - 8/10

This was absolutely everything I expected and maybe even a bit more. I don't get how anyone can leave the theater disappointed seeing this? It's exactly what you'd hope for. Super summer blockbuster with a little cheese, a little nostalgia, a little self-aware, but none of them done over the top in my opinion. Solid stuff from Emmerich who always delivers.

 

Central Intelligence - 8/10

This film thoroughly surprised me because of how much I was laughing. Hart & Johnson have such good chemistry that you can sort of tune out from the cliche plot and just have a good time because of how well they mesh together. You can tell how much fun they have together when they're filming this, plus you literally get to see that as well because of a few outtakes that are left after the film ends. Overall, although the plot is nothing to write home about, the chemistry of the two actors takes centre stage of the film and gives you more laughs than you need. Also, Aaron Paul... Bitch!