Last Movie You Watched

[relm1]

THE FABELMANS (Steven Spielberg)

Finally this movie premiered here in Finland (what took so long?). This was the first time for me in 3 years to visit a movie theatre because of all the corona crap. Before the movie started, mr.  Spielberg appeared on the silver screen and thanked the audience for coming to see his most personal movie in the theatre.

Spielberg concentrates on his childhood traumas and memories in ways that leave the audience as outsider spectators, but the movie goes fast for its length of two and a half hours.

Michelle Williams is impressively good as the mother. Paul Dano as the father seems less successful, but maybe Steven's father was just like that? A super-nerd? Gabriel LaBelle as "Sammy" is good, but I was constantly distracted by the contact lenses he used probably to control the colour of his eyes. David Lynch's cameo as John Ford is most entertaining.

I think I will "learn" to appreciate this movie more with repeated viewings, but at this time I don't rank The Fabelmans as one of Spielberg's best, but it is difficult to rank his movies because they are so different from each other. This one felt really "small" for a Spielberg-movie, but there is a lot of warmth and heart in it.

I loved the movie.  It is very understated and unique in Spielberg's output.  Many will find it boring or more like a tv movie.  Somehow it had a $40 million budget. 

[Karl Henning]

THE FABELMANS (Steven Spielberg)

Finally this movie premiered here in Finland (what took so long?). This was the first time for me in 3 years to visit a movie theatre because of all the corona crap. Before the movie started, mr.  Spielberg appeared on the silver screen and thanked the audience for coming to see his most personal movie in the theatre.

Spielberg concentrates on his childhood traumas and memories in ways that leave the audience as outsider spectators, but the movie goes fast for its length of two and a half hours.

Michelle Williams is impressively good as the mother. Paul Dano as the father seems less successful, but maybe Steven's father was just like that? A super-nerd? Gabriel LaBelle as "Sammy" is good, but I was constantly distracted by the contact lenses he used probably to control the colour of his eyes. David Lynch's cameo as John Ford is most entertaining.

I think I will "learn" to appreciate this movie more with repeated viewings, but at this time I don't rank The Fabelmans as one of Spielberg's best, but it is difficult to rank his movies because they are so different from each other. This one felt really "small" for a Spielberg-movie, but there is a lot of warmth and heart in it.

Interesting review, thanks!

[Roasted Swan]

Just listened to the Garden of Evil score on Spotify and really enjoyed - probably have not seen that film since my teen days?  But looked up Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) and was impressed w/ his film score list and their variety - pic below from HERE - own a dozen or so of the films (red boxes), and likely have seen most of the rest (click to enlarge) - Dave

Herrmann is genuinely one of the THE great film composers.  So many great scores - the collection on the Classic Film Scores series is a very good overview especially since it includes great music in less great fims(!) - On Dangerous Ground is a case in point - the Death Hunt......



and here's a fun version in concert from John Williams......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6PzMPm82xs

Prompted by this I put on Herrmann's Moby Dick this afternoon in this spectacular version;



Cinema of the ears I reckon.......!

[71 dB]

I loved the movie.  It is very understated and unique in Spielberg's output.  Many will find it boring or more like a tv movie.  Somehow it had a $40 million budget. 

The Fabelmans is perhaps unique in Spielberg's out for how personal it is, but he has hinted on these things in his other movies. For a Spielberg-fan who knows his movies inside out such as myself this movie doesn't feel shockingly unexpected, but it is one of the smallest movies he has made. Even Sugarland Express feels "epic" in comparison and The Fabelmans almost feels like a "lost" Spielberg movie he made in early 70's before Jaws that was recently discovered on someones attic. Stylistically the movie is very old-fashioned for a 2022 movie. The tornado scene of course uses a lot of cgi but it is cgi that doesn't look like cgi at all and almost all movies these days use cgi like that. $40 isn't that small of a budget these days, especially if you use the best people/companies in film industry (John Williams, Janusz Kaminski, ILM etc.) John Williams alone was probably paid $2 million I believe. It all adds up. This movies doesn't feel small because the lack of (financial or artictic) resources. It feels small, because Spielberg made it feel that way on purpose. It isn't a weakness. It is an artistic statement by a master of cinema.

The box office of this movie is laughably pathetic for a Spielberg flick, but I think people just don't bother to go see this "small movie" on big screen. I think this movie will find its audience on physical media and on streaming platforms later on, expecially if it wins many Oscars.

[Madiel]

The Scar



One of Kieslowski's early films (the first released to cinema), and the first of several currently available here on SBS so I'll be having a bit of a Kieslowski festival in coming months.

Basically it's about cutting down a forest and putting up a stonking great big chemical factory in the name of "progress". The local party leaders of an underdeveloped town want the jobs and the money. It's less clear the general populace actually want it. Stuck in the middle is the man put in charge of the factory, who grew up in the area but left decades ago.

It's a good film and recognisably by Kieslowski, but not quite on the level of the later works I know. Perhaps what's striking about it is that all of the concerns about the environmental and social costs of the factory feel so modern in a film released in 1976.

[Todd]

I was coerced into watching The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker.  It's a true crime documentary about Caleb "Kai" McGillvary, who saved a woman by beating a guy with a hatchet, gained brief internet fame, did some talk shows, and then murdered someone about a decade ago.  I don't remember ever hearing about the guy, and the movie, such as it is, bores and does not enlighten.  My long-standing personal policy of not celebrating hatchet wielding people remains intact.

[VonStupp]

The Avengers (2012)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

My daughter asked to watch the four Avengers movies, so we continue...

I didn't have good remembrances of the Thor movies, and I thought the Iron Man ones were uneven, so I won't be revisiting those with her. I did, however, harken the Captain America movies fondly, so I threw them into our watch.

Robert Redford was a good choice for a conspiracy thriller.

VS

[aligreto]

Mr. Harrigan's Phone:




A young boy goes to work for a wealthy old man a number of times each week. The boy reads to the man and they build up a relationship over the years. The boy teaches the older man how to use a mobile phone and the internet. The boy begins to experience problems at school with bullying. The old man dies suddenly and at the funeral service the boy slips the mobile phone into the man's pocket as a gesture of affiliation. The boy gets a message one day from the dead man's phone....

[Todd]

Heat.  I didn't watch the movie when it came out, and I didn't watch it until now.  On the plus side, this mid-90s flick uses physical locations and physical effects.  It's fun to time travel and see younger versions of some actors.  That's it for the plusses.  Everything else about this is negatives.  Al Pacino delivers a masterclass in overacting, and Robert DeNiro plays a variant on the gangsters he had and has played so many times.  The mostly A-list supporting cast is wasted.  The dialogue is not good.  The big shootout is cartoon stupid, with endless magazines and M-16s that sound like artillery.  The female characters don't even rise to the level of cardboard cutouts.  Seriously, what a waste of time.

[relm1]

Heat.  I didn't watch the movie when it came out, and I didn't watch it until now.  On the plus side, this mid-90s flick uses physical locations and physical effects.  It's fun to time travel and see younger versions of some actors.  That's it for the plusses.  Everything else about this is negatives.  Al Pacino delivers a masterclass in overacting, and Robert DeNiro plays a variant on the gangsters he had and has played so many times.  The mostly A-list supporting cast is wasted.  The dialogue is not good.  The big shootout is cartoon stupid, with endless magazines and M-16s that sound like artillery.  The female characters don't even rise to the level of cardboard cutouts.  Seriously, what a waste of time.

Love this movie.  A great and multilayered crime thriller.  Absolutely love the score too and the silent acting of the leads. 

[aligreto]

I must say that I liked Heat back then and still do.

[Christo]

but at this time I don't rank The Fabelmans as one of Spielberg's best

Which ones do? I didn't see many (most) of them, but for me personally titles that pop up are those of Empire of the Sun, Lincoln, and The Post. Your turn.

Edit: post number 5555.

[71 dB]

Which ones do? I didn't see many (most) of them, but for me personally titles that pop up are those of Empire of the Sun, Lincoln, and The Post. Your turn.

Edit: post number 5555.

I think Schindler's List and Artificial Intelligence are his greatest films and The BFG is his worst.

Other great ones: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report and Munich, but it is difficult for me to rank them because I like Spielberg's movies so much. It is like ranking your own children.

[relm1]

I think Schindler's List and Artificial Intelligence are his greatest films and The BFG is his worst.

Other great ones: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report and Munich, but it is difficult for me to rank them because I like Spielberg's movies so much. It is like ranking your own children.

"Always" was his worst film.  TV quality, nonsensical characters.  Just lousy. 

[Karl Henning]

I think Schindler's List and Artificial Intelligence are his greatest films and The BFG is his worst.

Other great ones: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report and Munich, but it is difficult for me to rank them because I like Spielberg's movies so much. It is like ranking your own children.

Schindler's List is magnificent. I'm a big fan of Minority Report. I'm more or less a fan of 1941 (in which may be in a minority) but as I wrote to a friend tonight, it isn't Spielberg's best editing. It might be slow-witted of me, but I don't understand "BFG."

[71 dB]

It might be slow-witted of me, but I don't understand "BFG."

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3691740/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

[Karl Henning]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3691740/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Thanks.

[ritter]

Another Italian film from the 50s, Luciano Emmer's Le Ragazze di Piazza di Spagna ("Three Girls from Rome").



A prime example of "pink neorealism", this film deals with the joys and sorrows (in love) of three working class Roman girls. It's comedic, but without avoiding social description. Fortunately, the latter is not pamphleteerish; e.g., the one "rich" character that gets any significant time on screen is not the wicked seducer one (and the girls in the film) would expect him to be.

Lucia Bosé (in one of her first films) is as beautiful as expected; the other two girls, Loretta Greco and Luciana  Bonfatti, had much shorter careers. The beaus include Renato Salvatore and Marcello Mastroianni.

Seen with today's eyes, the naturalness with which the notion that men beating up wives or girlfriends is discussed as a failsafe remedy to problems in a couple, is quite astonishing.

[SonicMan46]

Spielberg Films - Top 30 as ranked by Rotten Tomatoes HERE - table attached (click to enlarge) - I've seen all but 3 or 4 of these films and own about a dozen (most in the top 20 of this listing); 3 others receiving 'rotten rankings' at the bottom of the link include 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park', '1941', and 'Hook'.

Of course, there are other rankings that would likely re-order these movies, but for this listing, I'm pretty much in agreement although wife and I were not big fans of 'The Fabelmans' or  'West Side Story', plus one of my favorites '....Last Crusade' w/ Hairston & Connery as father-son I'd like to see somewhat higher in the ranking.  Finally, I need to re-watch 'Catch Me If You Can' - remember enjoying that one but never made a purchase nor a re-watch.  Dave

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Mr. Harrigan's Phone:




A young boy goes to work for a wealthy old man a number of times each week. The boy reads to the man and they build up a relationship over the years. The boy teaches the older man how to use a mobile phone and the internet. The boy begins to experience problems at school with bullying. The old man dies suddenly and at the funeral service the boy slips the mobile phone into the man's pocket as a gesture of affiliation. The boy gets a message one day from the dead man's phone....

I'll have to see if I can borrow that movie; when I googled it, I found out that it was a story by a certain favorite writer of mine. 

PD