Return of the RECENT VIEWING

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

Postby Matt Wilson » 05 Jan 2018, 15:58

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Night of the Iguana

I've always enjoyed this. One of Tennessee Williams' best film adaptations with Burton, Kerr and Gardner all in fine form. It needs an upgrade to blu.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Tom Waits For No One » 05 Jan 2018, 20:19

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Smashing.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 06 Jan 2018, 03:49

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The Seven Year Itch

One of Billy Wilder's most successful films is remembered primarily today for one thing and one thing only - Marilyn Monroe. She was never more sexy than in this picture. This is the one where she stands over the subway grate and the air blows her dress up (causing Joe DiMaggio to divorce her, I might add). It looks great on blu with the Cinemascope widescreen photography but the movie itself is only so-so. But Marilyn, good Lord...

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby toomanyhatz » 06 Jan 2018, 07:09

pcqgod wrote:Saoirse Ronan plays what I imagine is a typical American Catholic school senior; she's somewhat rebellious, tries to be a bad-ass to hit it off with "cool" students, tries hard to be an individual (going so far as insisting that she be called by her self-chosen nickname), is rather insensitive at times, mediocre student, wants to go to a college far from home to get away from her mom who is a total drag -- at least in her teenage mind. You could criticize this comedy/drama by saying that it falls into the pattern of some dramatic character clash/falling out being defused by a light comic moment, or by its embrace of conservative values, but Ronan's performance is so charming that you can't help rooting for her and loving the journey her character takes.


I loved it, and disagree that it embraces conservative values. I think it portrayed her rebellion very honestly - as a confused by-product of adolescence, switching on a dime from wise to childish, from naive to thoughtful, from loving to angry. And I suppose there was a bit of cliche in how she related to the mom - so alike that they see their own weaknesses in each other, which can't help but make them butt heads - but it also felt quite realistic. I almost felt like it was a live action Simpsons in a way. For all their internal battles, they're also sometimes united in battle against the world.

I don't want to say too much as it might give too much away, but I thought it was very subtle and pulled back every time it seemed like it was going to become too sentimental or too dark-humored. The pain and the humor co-existed quite naturally.

And Ronan is fantastic. I love that two years down the road from playing a young adult in "Brooklyn" she's playing a teenager believably.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Dr Markus » 06 Jan 2018, 14:36

Tom Waits For No One wrote:Image

Smashing.



Good to hear. Looking forward to seeing this.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Darkness_Fish » 06 Jan 2018, 20:58

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Low-budget British black-comedy horror thing, a kind of Sweeney Todd meets Taxi Driver effort, where a young Asian kebab shop owner wreaks vengeance on the drunk and drugged who enter late at night. It's a great premise, and a decent enough film (barring the obvious plot-holes - especially hoarding mobile phones and not being discovered), but it feels a bit aimless in the end. It just felt like it should have had more purpose, and more to say.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Darkness_Fish » 07 Jan 2018, 21:20

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I wasn't particularly impressed with this, it has a decent central performance form Emily Blunt, but the whole film felt like an extended episode of some daytime TV soap. The entire thing is constructed around a slow reveal from an unreliable narrator, and as such the film hangs around the plot device, rather than any particular character development, insight or intrigue. The only real moment of note was when you see how old Pheobe from Friends looks now.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Snarfyguy » 07 Jan 2018, 21:51

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Stunning, if hard to watch in places. A profoundly distressing social-realist horror film, its "show, don't tell" approach gives it an intriguingly elliptical quality, as if Robert Bresson had directed 10 Rillington Place. It's a superb performance from the ringleader of a series of murders, and the use of what surely are local, non-actors, gives it a striking verisimilitude.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Goat Boy » 07 Jan 2018, 22:08

That movie blew me away when I first saw it and I've bigged it up on here before.

It's a great film with a level of naturalism that few movies can match. The lead actor should be a star.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Snarfyguy » 07 Jan 2018, 22:13

^^^ Ah well thanks then, GB. I didn't recall how it got on my Netflix queue, but surely it was your recommendation. I am much obliged. : )
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby pcqgod » 07 Jan 2018, 22:51

toomanyhatz wrote:I loved it, and disagree that it embraces conservative values.


I meant mainly in the very final scenes, insofar as they seem to reaffirm conservative family values. Which didn't really bother me, anyway. I also found it moving in a "Simpsons" sort of way, I suppose.

And Ronan is fantastic. I love that two years down the road from playing a young adult in "Brooklyn" she's playing a teenager believably


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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby pcqgod » 08 Jan 2018, 17:49

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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

I loved the fully realized alternate future world presented in this movie, and once I got used to the idea of Ryan Gosling as the main character, almost wished that had been a wholly original story with no direct connection to the original, rather than have the older characters featured in smaller parts. Frankly I didn't find the story compelling enough to justify the languid pace it was told at. Somewhat of a disappointment.

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Atomica (2017)

A Syfy movie production that somehow got a theatrical release, somewhere. This movie shares some similarities with 10 Cloverfield Lane, in that it has a main female character trapped in an underground facility (a futuristic power plant) with a dodgy man who may or may not be telling the truth about their predicament. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near as good as 10 Cloverfield Lane.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby clive gash » 08 Jan 2018, 23:03

The Shape of Water



Just what I needed to wash out the bitter taste of The Last Jedi, a girl meets fish story.

Exquisitely designed, it’s set in the (mid?) 60s and the lab equipment, the tank that houses the beast, the facility itself is beautifully rendered. There’s a scene that drifts into a song and dance routine that is breathtaking.

The parallels with civil/sexual rights are a bit on the nose but I suppose they serve to anchor the fantastical/supernatural elements. It’s not for kiddies, there’s plenty of blood, inter-species intercourse (the fish tail is discussed but never seen) and foul language, an adult fairy tale. Fans of Michael Shannon will be happy to see him go full Van Alden, it’s a great role.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Minnie the Minx » 09 Jan 2018, 02:46

We watched Life of Brian last night and I laughed like a drain. Poor Terry Jones, fucking heartbreaking to think what he's going through.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 09 Jan 2018, 05:20

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The Breakfast Club

John Hughes' greatest film? It's hard to say. I don't think he ever matched the combination of humor and drama which this film balances so effortlessly again. The actors (none of whom really went anywhere, did they? I guess Esteves had the best career in the '80s, while Molly Ringwald was probably the biggest star going into the project), are all superb, with Judd Nelson giving what to me is the standout performance. I could do without ever hearing that Simple Minds song again though.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby naughty boy » 09 Jan 2018, 08:19

Matt Wilson wrote:Image
The Breakfast Club

John Hughes' greatest film?


Not in a world with Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Planes, Trains and Automobiles!



actually I haven't seen The Breakfast Club in many years. But I didn't warm to it much the last time
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Matt Wilson » 09 Jan 2018, 14:24

BCB's Most Tedious Poster wrote:
Matt Wilson wrote:Image
The Breakfast Club

John Hughes' greatest film?


Not in a world with Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Planes, Trains and Automobiles!



actually I haven't seen The Breakfast Club in many years. But I didn't warm to it much the last time


Both good 'uns as well. He had quite a run in the eighties. I didn't really take his films seriously at the time, but they're quite nostalgic for me now. The eighties weren't really a time for classic filmmaking in my estimation. In no way comparable to the movies of the previous five decades, or even the nineties when you think about it. It's pictures like the ones John Hughes made which stand out for me. Not that they're in any way in the same league as Raging Bull, Blue Velvet, The Shining, Platoon, etc. Just easy to throw on when you want some light entertainment.

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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Snarfyguy » 09 Jan 2018, 15:26

Image

Mad Max comparisons aren't apt at all; this is quite a different -- and likely more realistic -- take on post-apocalyptic "society," a Hobbesian dystopia of scarcity and privation. The plot, as the title indicates, concerns an elemental, Darwinian struggle to survive amidst zero-sum competition for virtually non-existent resources.

There's no room for inessentials like unnecessary dialogue (and there may not even be a score - certainly, I wan't aware of any incidental music) here. It's a reflection of spare, lean world in which nothing is wasted. Food and sex have a price, but trust is beyond calculation.

Very well done, I thought.
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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Darkness_Fish » 09 Jan 2018, 16:31

Snarfyguy wrote:Image

Stunning, if hard to watch in places. A profoundly distressing social-realist horror film, its "show, don't tell" approach gives it an intriguingly elliptical quality, as if Robert Bresson had directed 10 Rillington Place. It's a superb performance from the ringleader of a series of murders, and the use of what surely are local, non-actors, gives it a striking verisimilitude.


Hmm, Bob Mortimer apparently disagrees with BCB:

https://twitter.com/RealBobMortimer/sta ... 5277475840
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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Re: Return of the RECENT VIEWING

Postby Snarfyguy » 10 Jan 2018, 14:15

Darkness_Fish wrote:Hmm, Bob Mortimer apparently disagrees with BCB:

https://twitter.com/RealBobMortimer/sta ... 5277475840

"Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!"

Meanwhile,

Image

This didn't work for me at all. It seemed very "Empire Magazine," if that makes any sense.

And I'm getting tired of movies that take a simple story ("1) Some fucked-up shit happens; 2) some other stuff happens; 3) revenge for the fucked-up shit happens.") and just shuffle the order of the narrative to make it appear more interesting than it is. See also Tarantino's The Hateful Eight.
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