Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 104

Have you seen After Hours? Maybe a controversial choice given the consensus picks for his best works, but I think that’s his best film.

 

Nope, but I will add it to the list! Thank you.

 

Taxi Driver/Raging Bull/King of Comedy/Last Temptation of Christ/Goodfellas is quite a string (New York, New York and Color of Money were slight misses but still)

He’s got so many peaks, though. The Departed is flawed but I think still personally one of the most entertaining movies ever made, Wolf of Wall Street is as good as his best. Silence is as interesting and lingering as any of his films.

 

Shadows - It's difficult to say what I did and didn't love about this one because a lot of what I didn't like about this movie is exactly what I loved about it. It ebbs and flows, much like the music, but it doesn't always do so smoothly, and most of the characters aren't exactly likable, but nor are they supposed to be. With few exceptions, this is about a group of people who have little interest in anything but drinking, womanizing, and macho hedonism. Sprinkle in some racial tension when one of them starts dating the incredibly cool Lelia, and what you have is a free-flowing, slice of life movie with a thread of anti-nihilism, some genuinely funny moments, good music, and the groundwork for a cinematic revolution. Very cool movie, although as I expected, it didn't floor me. Very excited to get to the rest of his stuff.

 

The Edge of Seventeen - Lots of strong contenders for this title, especially in the last few years, but THIS is the best movie of the decade with a high school narrative. I disagree with reviewers who have called this “by the numbers.” Duh, there are tropes, but when certain themes and characters you see in most high school films are finally given the proper weight and consideration they deserve, as they are here, then what’s the criticism?

This movie really got to me. There are things I could pick apart, but I don’t really see the point; as a 30 year old male, I felt like I knew that 17 year old woman, and that’s all that really matters.

Fuck.

 

Yessss. Also check out Booksmart while it's still in theaters.

 

Always Be My Maybe: Fucking incredible! So funny. Fantastic movie.

 

if you’re feeling the coming of age shit and haven’t yet, please check out Kings of Summer

 

Kinda sucks that JVR made Kings of Summer and was then thrust into the world of blockbusters. First Skull Island and I’m pretty sure Metal Gear Solid? Would be nice to see something again in the vein of Kings of Summer.

 

I remember liking Kings of Summer a lot but I need to watch it again.

 

Oh I have. It’s very good!

 

Took many flights this weekend. Exhausting, but it gave me a chance to catch up on so many films I've missed.

Bad Times at the El Royale - Felt a little too much like a Tarantino knock off at times, but there are moments of originality and brilliance sprinkled in. Mostly enjoyable, but falls apart a bit in the third act.

Serenity - I cannot believe that this movie got made and was able to attract a strong cast. The most WTF movie I've seen in a while. It's not good, but I could also not look away. Every time I was about to turn it off, something completely inexplicable happened and I had to keep watching.

Captain Marvel - Puts enough twists on the origin story to not feel boring, though at times it felt like it was trying to force chemistry between characters. Overall a fun way to kill a few hours. Standard Marvel stuff.

Minding the Gap - I loved this. A fascinating look into the coming of age of three young men from abusive households and how their paths end up differing. One of my favorite documentaries in a while.

Shoplifters - This was great, I love the way it examines what really constitutes a family. It manages to be endlessly cute and heartbreaking. My one gripe is that it feels a little too withholding at times for the sake of a bit of a twist ending, but it doesn't really ruin anything overall. Highly recommended.

Raising Arizona - I'd never seen it before, but I've only heard good things. A little overhyped in my eyes, but this is overall a fun and absurd comedy. It's probably the best use Nic Cage ever.

Vice - It doesn't really feel like this movie knew what it wanted to be so it just threw everything against the wall. Was it satire? Was it a political drama? Cautionary tale? At times it felt like it was trying to be a zany comedy and then it tried to humanize Chaney in certain moments. Hugely disappointing.

They Shall Not Grow Old - Incredible feat. This really brought the stories of these soldiers to life. The footage from the trenches was awe inspiring. I highly recommend this, especially any history buffs out there.

 

Minding the Gap rules

 

Toy Story 4 - I think it's beside the point to ask if this movie about toys wondering why they exist really needs to exist, since that very question of existence and consciousness hasn't been explored in the other films as thoroughly as it is here. While this might be the Toy Story adventure with the most settings since the first, it's heavy focus on its themes (aging, letting go, consciousness) help keep it feel pretty tight. Forky was of course hilarious, as were the rest of the new characters. While its ending is perhaps disappointingly a bit narrow in focus (don't expect the grand send-off that Toy Story 3 offered), I never found myself wishing for more screen time for the older characters. The animation was STUNNING, but holy uncanny valley, Bonnie's parents!

 

I was really bad at keeping track of movies during the school year, but I have almost completely caught up with 2018 films, minus a handful without a home release yet and an 8-hour documentary I have to get through. The Wild Pear Tree was probably the best thing I have seen recently, but Ceylan is kind of a sure thing at this point. I have much less patience for long films in my declining years, but he understands how to fill 3 hours with a real attempt to define a young man who is simultaneously a victim of his father's gambling and irresponsibility while also being an entitled and standoffish jerk to the people around him, thus making it hard for anyone to sympathize with him. There doesn't need to be a big scene to explain his sexist streak; his treatment of his mother and his condescension toward the local women make it known. After watching much more expensive and gorier films, a scene of ants crawling on a baby carries much more weight and thematic value.

Suspiria was such a tremendous chore, and Guadagnino has established himself as the newest director to oscillate between great and bad work. It would be easy to go after the lazy way it tries to make connections to the Holocaust and the Cold War, but someone needs to stop Tilda Swinton from ruining movies by doing the arthouse version of Eddie Murphy. She plays the dance instructor, in which she is perfectly capable, but then she also plays an old man as a psychiatrist. There is nothing she adds to the performance a regular old man couldn't have added other than the novelty that it is Tilda Swinton. She goes on to play an amorphous blob of a deformed old witch, and they want you to be impressed because it is her. She had to play twin sisters competing against each other in Okja, and she substituted fake bad teeth for a character in Snowpiercer. Generally it is bad to judge a film based on what actors are in it, but seeing Tilda Swinton's name attached to a movie makes it feel like it is going to be a film that is more impressed with itself than you will be with it.

 

I like Tilda Swinton but Arthouse Eddie Murphy is a 10,000% great descriptor for her

 

For that matter I like Eddie Murphy too

 

I didn’t like the ham-fisted WWII narrative, and I hated that Tilda played three roles (her as the doctor was incredibly distracting to me), but I found a lot to like in Guadignino’s Suspiria despite the constant tonal shifts

 

The Beach Bum:

Matthew McConaughey pushes a tuba player off a dock

He and Zac Efron have a conversation while shooting around a basketball hoop, both of them missing literally every shot

The entire Martin Lawrence dolphin sighting sequence

10/10 my favorite of the year so far

 

I actually enjoyed Dark Phoenix quite a bit. I haven't read the comics, so idk, maybe the source material is much, much better than the story we got in this film. The acting and visuals were great, though.

The Dead Don't Die is fun. Personally didn't need Tilda being really good at doing Asian shit for an inexplicable reason again, though, but idk, the rest of the film is super self aware, so, maybe it's referencing the Doctor Strange controversy. Or maybe it's her being her usual arthouse Eddie Murphy self.

 

Vice had the best story to work with

what the hell were they doing with this movie? so bizarre with the narrator. the shakespeare bedroom scene has to be the worst scene of 2018.

 

Anna was alright. Not the best female spy movie in recent memory, had too many flashbacks, but it looked good and the fights were great, so.

 

Faces (1968) - This was one of the most challenging movies I've been able to get through, and in fact, it took me about three days to do it. Tedious, overlong scenes with extremely loud laughter immediately followed by extremely loud angry outbursts followed by extremely loud song and dance numbers, it was simultaneously fascinating and grating. Unfortunately, its 2+ hour run time really did get to me, which is a rare criticism for me, and perhaps it speaks more of my own state of mind than the film itself - but in any case, it was an interesting movie about shitty people but real and honest inner turmoil, and the very last scene was on point.

 

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse: Easily the best Spider-Man movie out of them all.

 

Spider-Man: far from home: easily the second best Spider-Man movie out of them all