Return Of The Film Corner Thread

[BillF]

13 hours ago, kinuta said:

El Club - Pablo Larraín  (2015)

Definitely falls into the more admired than enjoyed category.

 

"More admired that enjoyed" is an interesting distinction. Must use that one more often in future. 

[kinuta]

3 hours ago, BillF said:

"More admired that enjoyed" is an interesting distinction. Must use that one more often in future. 

Yep. We watched The Girl On The Train this afternoon, which I enjoyed without much admiration. Been there, done that ending, at least the coup de grace choice of weapon was original, and highly predictable narrative didn't diminish my enjoyment. Emily Blunt's very effective performance made the film. Films that I admire and enjoy in equal measure are actually in a minority. Don't miss The Handmaiden !

[duaneiac]

Not even a B-movie, more like a C-movie at best.  It bears some (one must assume intentional) similarities to Laura, but has none of that film's more distinctive qualities.  Jean Peters (the future Mrs. Howard Hughes) is the title character and is already murdered when the film begins.  Jeanne Crain plays her sister, one of the suspects in the case, alongside Vicki's publicist, a show-biz newspaper columnist and an actor.  Richard Boone (the future Paladin) plays the tough homicide detective who will do anything he has to to solve this case.  The most noteworthy thing about this movie is the fact that future millionaire media kingpin Aaron Spelling had one of his few acting roles here.

[T.D.]

 

These were both well-done, though somewhat predictable.

[kinuta]

The Yellow Sea - Na Hong-jin (2010)

Brutal crime thriller from South Korea.

Not quite on the heartstopping level of The Chaser but still makes Hollywood look tired and tame.

 

 

[BillF]

A Winter's Tale

Continuing my current revisiting of old favourites, it's great to get back to Eric Rohmer. So many positives to his cinema!

[kinuta]

Woody Allen double bill #2

The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985)

Radio Days (1987)

 

[kinuta]

Sidney Lumet double bill #2

Prince Of The City (1981)

Dark, complex and unforgettable. Better than Serpico by a mile.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

One of cinema's greatest directorial swan songs and one of Lumet's best films.

American Masters

Sidney wasn't a very charismatic talker , concentrating mainly on his stage background with hardly any anecdotes about the actual film making.

I realised how many of his films I still haven't seen.  A lot are almost impossible to get hold of.

 

Edited January 5, 2017 by kinuta

[duaneiac]

I never had seen this movie before, even though I was in the ideal age range for it when it first was released.  The movie theater in my little town had had a fire the year before and it was several years before they reopened, so I saw very few movies in my formative years.  In a year which included Hello Dolly!, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Paint Your Wagon, Midnight Cowboy, Sweet Charity and Easy Rider, it may now seem hard to believe that this was the top grossing film of 1969.  It is actually a pretty good movie, certainly a very well made one (the special effects are very good for the time and some of the matte paintings used here are beautiful works of art).  There are some stereotypical depictions of Mexican and Chinese people that likely would not be included in a Disney movie today but, on the whole, this was a movie both kids and parents could enjoy and laugh at.

There is a commentary track on the DVD which failed to answer my most burning questions:  why is the car never called a "Volkswagen"?  It's only referred to as "the little car" in the movie.  I can understand VW not wanting it referred to as a "bug" (even though that's the movie title), but surely they could appreciate even back then the value of product placement.  I'm guessing VW saw a big sales increase in these cars after the movie became so popular.

The commentary track has separate comments by the team of Dean Jones & Buddy Hackett (apparently they remained friends after the filming) and a separate one by Michelle Lee.  I found it interesting that the male stars had little to say about Ms. Lee and vice versa.  Makes one wonder if there had been some kind of disharmony on the set during the filming.  It's surprising that even though his performance was very good/funny here (even though he says he got sick to his stomach after seeing his performance at the debut screening) Mr. Hackett made very few films in the following years.  One interesting note he discussed in the commentary is that early in his career he was approached by the manager of the Three Stooges to replace the ailing Curly Howard, an offer he declined.

[kinuta]

Federico Fellini double bill #2

Amarcord (1973)

Nights Of Cabiria (1957)

Edited January 10, 2017 by kinuta

[kinuta]

Nicholas Ray double bill #2

Born To Be Bad (1950)

On Dangerous Ground (1951)

[kinuta]

Queen Of Katwe - Mira Nair (2016)

Entertaining and well made story of a young Ugandan chess wizard.

I have a soft spot for chess related films and like Mira Nair, so this didn't disappoint.

[jlhoots]

Elle

[BillF]

8 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Elle

Will have to see it when it's released here on March 10th.

[BillF]

Classic Iranian film. Must have been a dozen years since I first saw it, but it remained vivid in my mind.

Edited January 14, 2017 by BillF

[jlhoots]

Things To Come - Isabelle Huppert on a roll! 

[kinuta]

I, Daniel Blake - Ken Loach (2016)

 

 Excellent film. Makes me thankful I don't live there.

[page]

On 12-1-2017 at 3:10 AM, jlhoots said:

Elle

I was happy to see both Paul and Isabelle won their prize at the Golden Globes, so well deserved! The best movie I saw in 2016.
 

 

12 hours ago, kinuta said:

I, Daniel Blake - Ken Loach (2016)

 

 Excellent film. Makes me thankful I don't live there.

I still plan to see it. My favourite sis said the whole theatre was in tears afterwards. I think those of us who are "social workers" will find it an important movie to watch. There is a lot of work to be done in this field unfortunately. At work we always say it can happen to anybody, so that is something often realize myself when we help people.

Let see:

By coincidence I had an Amy Adams "sequel":
one day:

"American Hustle", nice.

A few days Later:

"Nocturnal Animals",
a bit complicated to follow sometimes but it was a good story. It is that feeling that you can be taken over by a story reading it, I thought it was cleverly made.

Then beside that:

"I, Anna".
Not the best part I ever saw Anna Rampling play, but I really like her acting in general, so I did enjoy watching her again.

Edited January 14, 2017 by page

[kinuta]

Hidden Figures - Theodore Melfi (2016)

Interesting and entertaining look at the women mathematicians. working on the cusp of the computer age, who did the complex orbital calculations for NASA's early space flights.

Lightness of touch and strong narrative drive made it highly watchable.

[kinuta]

La La Land - Damien Chazelle (2016)

Disappointing and quite insipid.

Poor narrative, forgettable music, rubbish singing and dancing, mediocre direction.

The high ratings puzzle me.

Woody Allen did a far better job with 'Everyone Says I Love You ', maybe because he is a real director.

[BillF]

Fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary on Edward Snowden.

[page]

17 hours ago, kinuta said:

La La Land - Damien Chazelle (2016)

Disappointing and quite insipid.

Poor narrative, forgettable music, rubbish singing and dancing, mediocre direction.

The high ratings puzzle me.

Woody Allen did a far better job with 'Everyone Says I Love You ', maybe because he is a real director.

Ah, I just heared a very positive review on tv the other day, so that changes things for me. So, no good at all in your opinion? It was said it was kept nice and small and I like it that way, so I thought that I maybe should go see it. I even mentioned it to my gf.

 

15 hours ago, BillF said:

Fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary on Edward Snowden.

I want to see that one as well, even when it gets me to get more paranoid.

An old movie for me today, first of the Cohen brothers:


Blood Simple. I quite liked it!

[kinuta]

Page, I'm a major fan of classic musicals from the Hollywood golden era and compare any new musical to Singing In The Rain, The Bandwagon, Easter Parade etc.

By that criteria it's woefully lacking. I suppose if you are young and haven't seen or appreciated the great musicals, you don't have a lot to compare it with and might find it's superficially attractive.  After being fed a steady stream of glowing reviews, I was expecting something better. The two leads are charming and do their best, but don't have any kind of screen magic for me. Their singing and dancing are mundane. I really liked Whiplash which had real bite and fire. I actually quite liked the ending, but it was pinched from New York New York, a much better film imo.

By the way, my wife was also seriously underwhelmed.

 

[jlhoots]

3 hours ago, kinuta said:

Page, I'm a major fan of classic musicals from the Hollywood golden era and compare any new musical to Singing In The Rain, The Bandwagon, Easter Parade etc.

By that criteria it's woefully lacking. I suppose if you are young and haven't seen or appreciated the great musicals, you don't have a lot to compare it with and might find it's superficially attractive.  After being fed a steady stream of glowing reviews, I was expecting something better. The two leads are charming and do their best, but don't have any kind of screen magic for me. Their singing and dancing are mundane. I really liked Whiplash which had real bite and fire. I actually quite liked the ending, but it was pinched from New York New York, a much better film imo.

By the way, my wife was also seriously underwhelmed.

 

I'm old, & I liked La La Land.

[BillF]

11 hours ago, page said:

Ah, I just heared a very positive review on tv the other day, so that changes things for me. So, no good at all in your opinion? It was said it was kept nice and small and I like it that way, so I thought that I maybe should go see it. I even mentioned it to my gf.

 

I want to see that one as well, even when it gets me to get more paranoid.

An old movie for me today, first of the Cohen brothers:


Blood Simple. I quite liked it!