Last Movie You Watched

[George]

We seem to have similar taste in film 

By that, you mean good taste. 

[aligreto]

By that, you mean good taste. 

Without question 

[aligreto]

Still Alice....





A wonderful performance in a very fine film dealing with the subject of Alzheimer's disease.

[Ken B]

Hidden Figures

In theatres now. Excellent. Some annoying scoring, but still a very good movie.

[listener]

Les PERLES de la COURONNE   (The Pearls of the Crown)  France 1937
another Sacha Guitry vehicle but with a real director working with him so that it's not like a vanity copy of a stage work. There are a lot of quite elaborate settings.
Music by Jean Françaix.
The history of seven fine pearls on the English crown from 1523 to 1937 with multiple narrators uses dialogue in each language probably without subtitles in the original as the conversations are paralleled when not in French. 
coupled with Le Mot de Combronne (The Word of Combronne), a short 1-act play about the efforts of the British wife of a Frenchman to discover something he once said.  It's no mystery to anyone with basic French and I myself used the word to get some service in a Paris department store.

[SimonNZ]

It's A Free World (Ken Loach, dir. 2007)

Charting the rationalizations the lead character takes in becoming an unapologetic exploiter of immigrant labour.

[André]

Saw it a couple of years ago, really liked it. Saw it again this week, liked it a bit less.

Its subject (after some reading) seems to have been one of the greatest scientific thinkers of his time. And yet the movie is all about his one-time work on a military project which for 50 years was classified "Secret/Defense". Nothing about his breakthrough work on cyber thinking, seminal mathemathic work on biology (morphogenesis). The man was a goddam thinking machine !

Turing's life and times have been very well documented, certainly in good part due to this high profile docu-drama featuring "the next Laurence Olivier". Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent in the part, but he can't un-Cumberbatch himself: rarely has an actor been so much a prisoner of his facial features. His vulnerable younger self is portrayed by Alex Lawther, a performance deserving of an award.

The meagre scenario is well wrapped up but there are too many shortcuts taken with reality to make this more than an appetizer for a well-researched 500 pages biography. Turing deserves the best. His scientific achievements in so short a life are staggering.

[Ken B]

Saw it a couple of years ago, really liked it. Saw it again this week, liked it a bit less.

Its subject (after some reading) seems to have been one of the greatest scientific thinkers of his time. And yet the movie is all about his one-time work on a military project which for 50 years was classified "Secret/Defense". Nothing about his breakthrough work on cyber thinking, seminal mathemathic work on biology (morphogenesis). The man was a goddam thinking machine !

Turing's life and times have been very well documented, certainly in good part due to this high profile docu-drama featuring "the next Laurence Olivier". Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent in the part, but he can't un-Cumberbatch himself: rarely has an actor been so much a prisoner of his facial features. His vulnerable younger self is portrayed by Alex Lawther, a performance deserving of an award.

The meagre scenario is well wrapped up but there are too many shortcuts taken with reality to make this more than an appetizer for a well-researched 500 pages biography. Turing deserves the best. His scientific achievements in so short a life are staggering.

Numerous factual errors too. I enjoyed it but it's quite misleading about a few important things. No explanation shall I give to avoid spoilers!

Turing was indeed one of the towering intellects of the century.

[SimonNZ]

[Ken B]

The Bad and the Beautiful
1952, B&W, dir V Minnelli
Kirk Douglas

Lots of good and bad bits in this. The good: a lot of sly humor, directorial control. The bad: some overwrought melodrama, and script lurches.

7/10

[listener]

TANUKI GOTEN (PRINCESS RACCOON)  Japan 2005
directed by the late  Suzuki Seijun
Very, very stylized like Red Garters mixture of American musicals, kabuki, operetta, with calypso and rock 'n' roll.
Stunning visuals always looking like elaborate stage sets but did feel a little long.

[Drasko]

true classic

[SimonNZ]

[ritter]

How is it? I watched for the first time last night Sorrentino's earlier, neo-fellinian  La grande bellezza and found it very interesting. One of the best films I've seen recently,  actually. 

[SonicMan46]

In anticipation of the Oscar Awards this coming Sunday, Susan & I have seen nearly all of the nominated films - last few nights, we streamed the two shown below:

Moonlight w/ Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali - short synopsis below; ratings: 7.9/10, IMDB; 98%, Rotten Tomatoes; 4.3/5*, Amazon - we were somewhat bored w/ this movie although I don't disagree w/ the description below - for myself, not sure that I would go quite to 4*, maybe 3 1/2* - will not watch again.

Hell or High Water w/ Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, & Ben Foster - short synopsis (2nd quote below); Ratings: 7.7/10, IMDB; 98% Rotten Tomatoes; 4.2/5*, Amazon - enjoyed this film and would do a 4* rating - even held Susan's interest (not her kind of film) - Bridges is crusty as a soon to retire Texas Ranger (loved their outfits) - there are 9 films nominated for Best Picture this year, including the 2 discussed here - we've seen all but Lion - La La Land will be the likely winner - not our choice - we both loved Hidden Figures - Dave

At once a vital portrait of contemporary African American life and an intensely personal and poetic meditation on identity, family, friendship, and love, MOONLIGHT is a groundbreaking piece of cinema that reverberates with deep compassion and universal truths. Anchored by extraordinary performances from a tremendous ensemble cast, Barry Jenkins's staggering, singular vision is profoundly moving in its portrayal of the moments, people, and unknowable forces that shape our lives and make us who we are.

Two brothers -- Toby, a straight-living, divorced father trying to make a better life for his son; and Tanner, a short-tempered ex-con with a loose trigger finger -- come together to rob branch after branch of the bank that is foreclosing on their family land. The hold-ups are part of a last-ditch scheme to take back a future that powerful forces beyond their control have stolen from under their feet. Vengeance seems to be theirs until they find themselves in the crosshairs of a relentless, foul-mouthed Texas Ranger looking for one last triumph on the eve of his retirement. As the brothers plot a final bank heist to complete their plan, a showdown looms at the crossroads where the last honest law man and a pair of brothers with nothing to live for except family collide.

 

[aligreto]

Revisited an old favourite....

[SimonNZ]

How is it? I watched for the first time last night Sorrentino's earlier, neo-fellinian  La grande bellezza and found it very interesting. One of the best films I've seen recently,  actually. 

Youth shares many of the faults of The Great Beauty regarding style over substance. But in the case of The Great Beauty that dovetailed nicely with the films subject of squandered potential in favor of frivolity and hedonism - so what might have been a bug became a feature. Youth has a sharper contrast of the weighty subjects being dealt with with not so very much insight.

Still...wonderful to look at and plenty of inventive visual ideas.

[aligreto]

The Equalizer....





A predictable enough plot but still well done and a good performance from Denzel Washington. Certainly worth a watch.

[ritter]

Youth shares many of the faults of The Great Beauty regarding style over substance. But in the case of The Great Beauty that dovetailed nicely with the films subject of squandered potential in favor of frivolity and hedonism - so what might have been a bug became a feature. Youth has a sharper contrast of the weighty subjects being dealt with with not so very much insight.

Still...wonderful to look at and plenty of inventive visual ideas.

Thanks for the comments, Simon. Yes, La grande bellezzas's subject matter of mondanità stifling creativity lends itself very well to Sorrentino's slick and visually hyper-aesthetic treatment. I'll look Youth up, in any case...

THREAD DUTY:


Another film I never saw when it came out 30 years ago. Quite accomplished...

[Jaakko Keskinen]