The Movie (and TV show) Watching Thread

[T'Chenka]

Mulholland Drive
2001
director David Lynch

8.5 (almost 8.0) / 10

I could raise my score on a rewatch, possibly. Fairly good film, but a really great film once you start to understand some of the stuff that Lynch is doing. I had my own theories and then went online to see what other people's thoughts were. Highly recommended, but yes, it's a David Lynch film. Which means a lot of people will hate how avant-garde and seemingly nonsensical it is.

[T'Chenka]

Mulholland Drive (2001)
--- 8.5 (almost 8.0) / 10

The Reader (2008)
--- 7.5 (almost 8.0) / 10

Mulholland Drive HIGHLY recommended, The Reader definitely recommended as well. Both are somewhat divisive, both are worth watching.

[T'Chenka]

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
director Barry Jenkins

8.5 (almost 8.0) / 10

Amazing and beautiful directing and cinematography. Good acting from the entire cast. Good musical score, good production design. The weakness of this film is that it doesn't tell it's story in a more interesting / captivating way. This is underrated and under-praised. Definitely worth a watch, if you enjoy period piece drama films.

[T'Chenka]

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
director Peyton Reed

6.0 (almost 5.5) / 10

This was a pleasant surprise, and better than all of the 2022 MCU films. The script has a lot of issues, and this isn't exactly a great film, but it was enjoyable and not lifeless. Paul Rudd does a good job, and we get an interesting villain this time. Gave me SOME faith that the MCU might get back on track. At least, possibly.

[T'Chenka]

Guardians of Lost Galaxy coming up, Fast and Furious and Flash

Suzume just came out (seeing it in 1 hour) and Beau Is Afraid comes out next week. I have a lot of hype for both, and both have very good reviews from critics so far. Apparently Beau is divisive though... some people think it's a masterpiece, and some people are angry when the credits roll and say the movie was garbage. That's the kind of thing that just gets me even more excited to see a film! Ari Aster is one of my favourite directors.

[T'Chenka]

Beau Is Afraid
2023
director Ari Aster

7.5 (almost 7.0) / 10

A surrealist Kafkaesque nightmare. This is really something new from Ari Aster, and should not be directly compared with his other two films. This is more in the ballpark of Charlie Kaufman or David Lynch, with an Aster visual style. DEFINITELY going to be a divisive film that will often be underappreciated by some and overhyped by others.

Positives... the directing is very good. Phoenix is great. Production design and editing are great. Pacing isn't great, but for a three hour film, it isn't bad either. The movie doesn't fly by, but it only drags a bit in the middle, and it's not that bad. The supporting cast does a good job. Basically almost all aspect of filmmaking are good or very good.

So what's flawed here? WELL. Like I said, this is Kaufman-esque and Lynchian. There is stuff that happens here that makes no sense or doesn't connect well to the overall film. Is that bad writing? Is that part of some unforseen metaphor that we can't figure out? Ultimately, I think some things are just a little too weird but also don't fit into the script smoothly enough. I think the script could have been a little tighter and left slightly fewer question marks for us. You could see that Aster set himself up to be able to do so, if he had wanted to. He should have IMO.

All in all, this is a unique and hilarious and disturbing film. I would HIGHLY recommend this, even if you think you might hate it. It's definitely worth watching once, whether or not it's your cup of tea.


This first trailer doesn't give away or show too much. Just enough to get you interested.

[T'Chenka]

Suzume, Beau is Afraid and the Super Mario Bros movie are probably the 3 films from this year i'm hyped the most for so far to watch.

I was too lazy to write a review for Suzume, but I gave it "7.5 (almost 8.0) / 10". It's REALLY good, but it also has MANY script issues. The movie for me had all the necessary ingredients for an 8.5 or 9/10 type of film, and it often felt like that kind of film, but the script issues are hard to ignore. The more you think about them afterwards, the worse they get.

In terms of Shinkai films, it's not as good as Your Name, but it's better than Weathering With You.

[T'Chenka]

Watched Dope (2015)... very good but not amazing. Recommended.

Also watched The Firm (1993), a Sydney Pollack film starring Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. Thought it was really good. The internet seems to think it's merely "good". Underrated IMO.

[T'Chenka]

Ladies and gents, Martin Scorsese has gone woke.

[T'Chenka]

Finally watched Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson. Excellent stuff. 9 / 10

[T'Chenka]

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2023) was excellent. Better than the first one.

8.5 / 10

[T'Chenka]

Perhaps the authors should have taken some more original monsters instead of zombies, because typical zombies are very dissonant with the idea.

They sell movie tickets though. Capitalism.

[T'Chenka]

To the post above:
Yes, Chernobyl is absolutely great.

Watched some Ghibli stuff, trying to complete the Miyazaki filmography


Porco Rosso (1992) - 7.5 (almost 7.0) / 10

This is a really solid film, with some nice animation. I think all the ingredients were here for a great film, but instead, it's just "really good". I didn't think the plot should have been as low-key as it ended up being. Overall though there's a lot to like here.


Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - 7.0 / 10

This is unfortunately a huge disaster of a film. It's clear to see that this film has sky high potential, and could have been basically a masterpiece or close to a masterpiece. Despite the potential, they decide to write a confusing story with lots of things left open-ended that shouldn't be, and the script falls apart into "WTF" territory in the third act. If they had just taken the time to re-write this script a few times, this could have been a top 3 Ghibli film IMO.

[T'Chenka]

To the post above:
Yes, Chernobyl is absolutely great.

Watched some Ghibli stuff, trying to complete the Miyazaki filmography


Porco Rosso (1992) - 7.5 (almost 7.0) / 10

This is a really solid film, with some nice animation. I think all the ingredients were here for a great film, but instead, it's just "really good". I didn't think the plot should have been as low-key as it ended up being. Overall though there's a lot to like here.


Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - 7.0 / 10

This is unfortunately a huge disaster of a film. It's clear to see that this film has sky high potential, and could have been basically a masterpiece or close to a masterpiece. Despite the potential, they decide to write a confusing story with lots of things left open-ended that shouldn't be, and the script falls apart into "WTF" territory in the third act. If they had just taken the time to re-write this script a few times, this could have been a top 3 Ghibli film IMO.

It's a bit ironic that an almost 7/10 is considered a really solid/good film and that something 7/10 is considered a huge disaster of a film. So either your ratings or your descriptions are off.

Let me be more specific:

7.5 = really good
7.0 = quite good / really good

Howl's Moving Castle - for me - is a film that very clearly SHOULD be an 8.5 or 9.0 film, but the script makes the film so much weaker that I lowered it all the way down to 7.0. "Huge disaster" was hyperbolic, but what I meant was that the script has VERY notable flaws (IMO) that make the film VERY CLEARLY worse than it should have been based on all other factors outside of the script.

So yeah, Howl should have been "amazing" but it's only "quite good". That's a huge drop.

[T'Chenka]

Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - 7.0 / 10

This is unfortunately a huge disaster of a film. It's clear to see that this film has sky high potential, and could have been basically a masterpiece or close to a masterpiece. Despite the potential, they decide to write a confusing story with lots of things left open-ended that shouldn't be, and the script falls apart into "WTF" territory in the third act. If they had just taken the time to re-write this script a few times, this could have been a top 3 Ghibli film IMO.

This description is very accurate for Your Name, which I watched last year. A grandiose visual with amazing details, and a completely non-working plot. I cannot say the same about Howl's Moving Castle, I definitely rate this animated film much higher than Porco Rosso. Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away are, in my opinion, the best works of Studio Ghibli, although I like almost all of their works in one way or another.

By the way, I have add that we are entering a frightening era when neural networks can devalue the visual part of animated films.

The overall plot of Your Name makes a lot more sense by comparison to Howl's Moving Castle IMO. Both have script issues but one is way worse.

[T'Chenka]

12 Angry Men (1957)
Didn't QUITE live up to the hype for me, but still amazing. Top 20 film of all time, of the films I have seen.

The Flash (2023)
This was entertaining for sure. As for the actual QUALITY of the film... well, there are good aspects and bad aspects. Worst parts are script issues, writing and some of the CGI. The best parts are the pacing and Ezra Miller, who was surprisingly good. Overall it's a mediocre film IMO... not BAD but not GOOD either. Just okay. Entertaining though. Worth a watch.

[T'Chenka]

Past Lives (2023, directed by Celine Song)

Holy s__t! I finally got to see this movie, which has been incredibly hyped by critics and audience members that saw it at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It actually lived up to the hype. This film is amazing. IMO this is easily a top 5 film of the 2020s and a must watch film for anybody who is into cinema. It's a drama romance and has vibes that could be compared to Before Sunset, Drive My Car, Aftersun, and other things that seem kind of indie but also have very high level directing, screenplays, and acting.

Go see it. The only valid excuse not to is "I'm not a fan of cinema and I just like popcorn flicks".

[T'Chenka]

Little Miss Sunshine was a delight. Paul Dano and Steve Carrell both gave outstanding performances.

Based.

[T'Chenka]

Oppenheimer was very good but flawed IMO. The movie feels like a 5 or 6 hour movie / mini-series being crunched down to 3 hours. A million things happen and the movie moves forward scene by scene by scene at a brisk pace, never slowing down for a moment to let the scene or the audience breathe. Like I said, very good film. Could have definitely been better though (IMO).

[T'Chenka]

Barbie was disappointing and is definitely overrated IMO but still overall an above-average film. Very good but not great. The production design, costumes, hair, makeup are all GREAT. The directing is very good. Ryan Gosling is excellent. Margot Robbie is very good. To be perfectly frank and maybe too honest, a couple of the supporting actresses had me simping extremely hard, which can never hurt I guess.

The massive problem with Barbie is the writing, plot, character depth and development. There is stuff there that works very well, stuff that works "just okay", and things that are acceptable but kind of mediocre. The story and writing mostly can't match everything else in the movie and they drag it down.

I can't decide on 7.0 or 6.5 out of 10. I'll have to figure that out later. But definitely 3.5 / 5 stars territory.

[T'Chenka]

Another thing I'll say about Barbie :

The movie is very feminist but also IMO a little problematic I think. I don't want to get into details or spoilers discussing it here, but the specific way that certain things were written in the movie make the movie seem kind overall kind of "cringe twitter feminist" instead of just "normal feminist", when in fact it would have been very very easy to just tweak a few lines of dialogue and write maybe one scene slightly differently, and it wouldn't be that way.

Basically, the writers have given the right wing culture warriors a bunch of ammo to use and made a movie that a lot of non-extremist progressives may find problematic. It may or may not give little girls the wrong message. Very frustrating when it very easily didn't have to be this way. This was supposed to be one of those cultural phenomenon movies with progressive ideas, and depending on how you want to interpret the movie, it might just be a problematic mess (or not).

Kind of a wasted opportunity... maybe... depending on how you interpret things in the film. People can private message me if they really want more specifics I suppose. Not really wanting to do a spoiler discussion in this thread.

[T'Chenka]

Enemy (2013, director Denis Villeneuve) was one hell of a trip. Definitely worth watching for a bit of a mindf__k and then try to figure out what it all meant. I'm purposefully being vague as it's one of those films where it's a lot better to know very very little going into it.

Would love to see more people check it out. A bit of a headscratcher, but you can always lurk reddit discussions to see the interpretations of others.

[T'Chenka]

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I'll state it now (again? maybe?) :

Irréversible (2002, director Gaspar Noé) is a very good film.
 

It's considered VERY controversial due to one scene (described in spoiler tags below), which makes a lot of people hate the movie, and also somebody called it "the most homophobic film of all time" and that label seems to have stuck. I personally don't find the film homophobic, but hey, that's just me.

Also, the movie moves backwards, in the same way that Memento by Christopher Nolan does. Highly recommended and IMO underrated. Doesn't deserve so much hate. The logic they use to claim that the film is homophobic is flawed IMO, but I don't want to deep dive / spoiler talk on certain scenes and characters in this post.

SPOILER

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It has an 8 minute long one-take shot scene of a woman being violently raped in a tunnel. It's key to the plot, and the director made artistic choices (camerawork) to make sure that the audience didn't feel like they were taking part in the rape. He also let the actress direct all of the takes of that scene (minus the camerawork) instead of him, so that she would be as comfortable as reasonably possible.

I don't think this is one of the better parts of the movie or anything like that, but it is key to the plot moving fowards (or, in the case of this film, backwards).

[T'Chenka]

Past Lives (2023, Celine Song) is now available online, for VOD rental or for people who sail the pirate seas with VPNs.

This is a HIGHLY. highly recommended film. Easily the best film of the year so far, IMO. Better than Oppenheimer, better than Spider-Verse 2. It's more of an indie drama romance type thing. Very well made, directing, screenplay, acting are all great. This will probably go down as a classic 2020s film with cinephiles, much like Nomadland, Drive My Car, The Worst Person In The World, etc.

Do yourself a favour and check it out. Especially if you like Before Sunrise, Wong Kar-Wai, Minari, etc.

[T'Chenka]

Swiss Army Man (2016)

directors Daniels (Daniel Schienert, Daniel Kwan)

4 / 5 stars

An absurd movie that's surprisingly deep and philosophical. Much like Everything Everywhere All At Once, it fools you and lures you in with it's silliness, only to get real on you.

Also, this movie in particular should be required viewing for all Atlas posters. Anybody who's seen it, you probably know what I'm talking about.