Return of the RECENT VIEWING

..and why not?
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driftin
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby driftin » 24 Sep 2018, 16:35

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Probably my two favourite films of the year and I just saw them back to back which was bloody lovely but considering their intense style I think I need to lie down. Jesus christ.

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Matt Wilson
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 25 Sep 2018, 04:02

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Big Wednesday

John Milius directed this, the finest surfing movie ever made, before he wrote Apocalypse Now but after he scripted the first two Dirty Harry films. An autobiographical effort about his time as a young man in Malibu, it contains the finest performances (or at least my favorite) of both Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey. Of course, it's not just about surfing, its themes include friends growing older, the passage of time, responsibilities, etc. It resonated with me at a very young age, so it's almost impossible for me to assess it now at middle age. I dunno, maybe it helps to have grown up in San Diego.

The Hired Hand
After the success of Easy Rider, Peter Fonda could've done anything in Hollywood. He chose to make a western. His first directorial effort and it's pretty damned interesting. Vilmos Zsigmond's first real job shooting a picture, with a soundtrack by Bruce Langhorne (yes, Mr Tambourine Man himself), the film deals with themes of friendship, marriage and responsibility. It's also feminist in its depiction of a lonely women's sexuality in a house with no husband. I also think it's beautiful to look at. Warren Oates is in it too, what else do you need?

Seven Psychopaths
Most of the films I review here I've already seen, but this one was new to me. I'm a big Chris Walken fan and always wanted to see this one. Dunno how I feel about it. It's a post-Tarantino talk-fest about a guy writing a Hollywood screenplay about psychotics and the people he encounters. It's amusing, but I'm not sure it's anything more than that.

Wings of Desire
Wenders greatest film? Probably. It certainly created the biggest wave at the time. I never saw the sequel, but I'll never forget the first time I saw this. Forget the Hollywood version and stick with the original. You'll actually believe Columbo is an ex-angel.

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Matt Wilson
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 30 Sep 2018, 04:49

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Tender Mercies

Christ, I'd forgotten how good this was. Duvall was a god at one time, wasn't he? Keep in mind this is a guy from San Diego, where I was raised. He's not a country guy at all. Yet you'd never know that to see him in this film. None of the other guys I dote on could've pulled this off. Not Brando, DeNiro, Pacino (God forbid), Nicholson, Beatty, Hoffman, etc.

Respect.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Jimbly » 30 Sep 2018, 08:56

There's a great bit about Duvall in William Goldmans book Adventures in Screenwriting. It's about his acting in The Great Santini. The character bullies his own son to achieve sucess in basketball. Duvall plays it straight down the line. Goldman writes about if the film had starred Redford there would've been an additional scene where Redford would acknowledge that he'd been hard on his son but it was for his own good in the long run, etc. So that Redford wouldnt come across as a total arsehole.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby naughty boy » 30 Sep 2018, 09:52

:)

sounds like Clooney
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 30 Sep 2018, 14:40

The Great Santini (along with The Apostle) is another one I'd love to own which isn't on blu anywhere in the world that I know of. You know who could've pulled off the Duvall role today? English actors. Tom Hardy, say. And Redford did play assoles early in his career, check out Downhill Racer, Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, Big Fauss and Little Halsey, etc. He was a murderer in The Chase (that one even had Duvall and Brando) and homosexual in another one I can't recall. Somewhere along the line he became the big moviestar he is today and his roles were less interesting.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Jimbly » 30 Sep 2018, 17:26

I've seen all the ones you mention, Matt. I liked Little Fauss and Big Halsey a lot but havent seen it in years.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby echolalia » 01 Oct 2018, 23:11

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"By the Bluest of Seas"

A big-screen opportunity - I saw it on Saturday night. The sea photography - not just during the day but at night too, with black surf – is great and I never get sick of watching it. The best bit is when they see the girl, Masha, crawling ashore, then they triumphantly present her at her own wake and everyone goes batshit with joy and they do this mad dance, and then inexplicably but perfectly the picture cuts to seagulls plucking fish out of the waves, and then back to more resurrection mayhem.

The sailor in the photo Masha shows of her husband-to-be looks old enough to be her dad – I reckon her real beau is the guy who was leading the mourning in the clubhouse. He’s kind of a combination of the other two.

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driftin
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby driftin » 04 Oct 2018, 19:40

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One of the 21st Century's best films.

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Darkness_Fish
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Darkness_Fish » 06 Oct 2018, 21:35

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A strange one this. Tom had banged on about watching Venom on his birthday, but unfortunately that was a 15, and there was no way we he'd be able to see it. So we took him to this, expecting it to be similar to Goosebumps, especially as it features Jack Black. However, I thought it was way scarier than any kids film I'd seen before, I think only The Goonies and The Witches have moments of darkness which might match up to this, and they perhaps aren't as consistent with the horror. One of those occasions where we were wondering whether to cut our losses and leave because Tom doesn't cope well with scares, or stick with it to the end, so that he gets the full resolution and isn't left with just the paranormal scenes hanging in his mind. Certainly the best Eli Roth film I've seen (not hard, to be fair), it's funny, disturbing, and has a gormenghast cartoon atmosphere that perfectly suits the niche that Jack Black seems to have fallen into.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 07 Oct 2018, 05:44

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Violent City (Citta Violenta)
My Bronson double feature starts with a 1970 Italian/French film which is pretty good, but not great. He's a hit man, much like he was in The Mechanic, with his wife, Jill Ireland, playing his love interest and femme fatale. Ireland could barely act, but that didn't stop Charlie from making her his woman in tons of his '70s movies. There's a decent Morricone score, and Telly Savalas as the head baddie, but it's like a lot of Italian westerns (director Sergio Sollima, did The Big Gundown, Face to Face and Run Man Run - all classics of spaghetti westerns), dubbed sound, ridiculous gun shot audio, etc. I'd never seen it before and had to get the Italian blu.

Mr Majestyk
One of his best. An Elmore Leonard script (he later adapted it into a novel), the great Al Lettieri as the main bad guy, and Lee Purcell as Al's woman. The '70s gave us many revenge movies with nothing on their mind but entertainment. This is a fine example.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Darkness_Fish » 07 Oct 2018, 21:34

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Low budget and low-key psychological thriller, starring Adrien Brody as a psychotherapist who has recently lost his daughter in a car accident. To make things worse, he realises that his patients seem to be dead people from 20 years ago. To be honest, the film doesn't have great ambition, it eventually turns into a fairly cliched horror/thriller, though it seems to start with much artier slow-moving pretensions. Brody's performance is worth the effort, it's a properly convincing portrait of a man having a full grief-induced breakdown, it's just a shame he wastes it for a fairly generic end-game.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Twang
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Twang » 08 Oct 2018, 13:42

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I enjoyed this, primarily because the scene in which the girls ascend Hanging Rock is enchanting, but I think a lot of the aftermath (in particular, the scenes with the two boys and those with the orphan girl) could've been done without.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby naughty boy » 08 Oct 2018, 13:43

"best Australian film ever"
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Snarfyguy » 08 Oct 2018, 15:26

HEN wrote:"best Australian film ever"

One of my absolute favorites, anyway, even it is kind of appallingly precious.

Meanwhile,

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Nothing groundbreaking, but what a cast! Out of the Furnace is cut from your basic Mean Streets template: good brother out to save fuck-up brother, in a Pennsylvania steel mill setting. There's not much to the plot -- or the dialogue, really -- but it looks good and it's great fun to watch these guys (and it's pretty much guys on the screen 99% of the time) do their thing. Woody Harrelson's baddie is particularly entertaining.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Penk! » 08 Oct 2018, 19:43

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Slick, solid entertainment. Streep is hammy as always, and Hanks matches her, but the rest of the cast* work it, and the story is gripping - more so in the newsroom than the boardroom, of course. It's no All the President's Men, obviously.

*Bob Odenkirk, Alison Brie, Matthew Rhys come to mind as particularly good
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Minnie the Minx » 08 Oct 2018, 23:37

Last night we watched ‘The Arbor’, an intimate and depressing portrait of the children of Andrea Dunbar, Bradford born writer of Rita Sue and Bob Too. The voices of the kids were the centre of it all, and Andrea isn’t left in a flattering light, but how she ever survived into her twenties is a wonder in itself. Watching the three kids either following or breaking the cycle was heartbreaking. Very moving. Recommended.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Snarfyguy » 11 Oct 2018, 15:38

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I really like this guy, Kamail Nanjiana, in the comic roles I've seen him in, and he's good here too, but fucking hell I can't believe what a predictable, conventional, run-of-the-mill melodram-rom-com this thing is. 98% on Rotten Tomatoes? Sheesh!

Good work from the supporting cast.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby naughty boy » 11 Oct 2018, 15:58

Seriously - TripAdvisor and Rotten Tomatoes are pretty much a waste of time these days. I used to find them helpful but I just can't trust them anymore.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Goat Boy » 11 Oct 2018, 18:22

HEN wrote:Seriously - TripAdvisor and Rotten Tomatoes are pretty much a waste of time these days. I used to find them helpful but I just can't trust them anymore.


Yeah, I've noticed that too. More so with rotten tomatoes but then tomatoes just mean a vaguely positive review which can be 3/5 you know?

Not a screaming endorsement then, you know?
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