The Movie (and TV show) Watching Thread

[Meclazine for Israel]

Body Of Lies (2008)



One of the best counter-terrorism films of its era, 3 years before Bin Laden was neutralised. Hollywoods' finest actors, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Strong and Oscar Isaac combine for a great action thriller.

Leonardo in one of his best roles. I really enjoyed it many years ago and was really happy to watch it again.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Watched this a few days ago while at my families before the holidays were over... I didn't have high expectations, but it was hilarious and has aged surprisingly well imo as someone who doesn't usually like movies from this period. Definitely reccomend if you don't feel like letting Christmas be over just yet~

[Progressive Pessimist]

I re-watched both 'Avatar' (given its current relevance) and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' recently.

'Avatar' still holds up when it comes to its visuals, but it's less special now that most movies have effects on par with it. Its characters and story are still derivative afterthoughts, and I can't say that Pandora is as engrossing as so many say it is. It's just a giant rain-forest with wildlife that varies from somewhat original to way too similar of Earth fauna. Not only that but the white savior theme of the story has aged especially poorly much like in the many other movies it borrows from. I don't hate it though, it is still entertaining, but it still comes across more as a very well-calculated product more than a piece of art. Those hair neuro-connector things are still such a bizarre idea though. What happens in the Na'vi cut their braid?

Now, here is where I get more contrarian. 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is spectacular when it comes to its animation and creativity, but I don't think its songs hold up all that well. Yep, I said it. I'm putting my life at risk saying this since this is one of the biggest cult films ever, but about half the songs are incredibly forgettable, dull, way too frequent, end too abruptly, and very much lack in a hook or song structure that makes them catchy or memorable. I even dare the biggest fanatic of the film to tell me the lyrics of every single one that isn't "This is Halloween" or "What's This?" (the two best songs). And it's a shame because Danny Elfman is an excellent composer usually, and I tend to like Goth-oriented music too. I still like the movie just fine, don't get me wrong, but maybe it's my inherent dislike of musicals that inhibits me from being so enthusiastic about it like many (especially from my generation) are. I think this movie could have been told with limited to no dialogue and just let the visuals tell its simplistic and fun story. I'd love to see an edit that does that. It's still brilliant from a marketing standpoint though in being a movie that has relevance to the two biggest commercial holidays.

Also, going into over-analyzing territory here, but I saw a video several years ago that made the case for the movie being an example of cultural appropriation, and I can totally see it upon re-watch. This might even be the kind of template to apply to something that is accused of that. Does it resemble 'The Nightmare Before Christmas?' Then it might be cultural appropriation.

[T'Chenka]

Eyes Wide Shut
1999
director Stanley Kubrick

8.5 (almost 8.0) / 10

The directing is truly great, as well as Kubrick's ability to create the atmosphere he wants for a scene. Acting performances are pretty swell too. The story is good, but aspects of the plot and a lot of thematic stuff is open to interpretation, where different people have different but equally valid theories. Without saying anything specific, I would have liked the ending to be executed in a different way, even if they kept the same ending. Overall, very very good stuff.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

All films i've seen since 18 dec



In december

The Wrestler (2008): 8/10
Modern Times (1936): 8/10
The Gold Rush (1925): 7/10
City Lights (1931): 7/10
Signs (2002): 7/10
Old (2021): 6/10
Noah (2014): 6/10
The Village (2004): 5/10
The Fountain (2006): 5/10

In 2022



Něco z Alenky (1988): 8/10
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): 8/10
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001): 7/10
Solyaris (1972): 7/10
The Wizard of Oz (1939): 3/10

[T'Chenka]

Professor Marston And The Wonder Women
2017
director Angela Robinson
Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote

7.0 (almost 7.5) / 10

This lived up to the hype for me, thankfully. It's hard not to like a film where you get a history lesson, some great acting and a lot of horniness all mixed into the broth. I was surprised to see that this didn't get any Oscar nominations... I think Original Score and possibly Actress should have happened.

The directing, cinematography, editing, production design, all of it's good. The script is overall good... most scenes are well written, but the overall story is just "okay / fine". I thought one of the subplots was half-baked, but it didn't lower the movie quality by a lot. Pacing is mostly good, better in the first half. Hard to have flawless pacing with time jumps. It is what it is.

Now, let's talk about the best stuff. The musical score is IMO excellent, and should have been nominated at the Oscars or at least been in the top 6 or 7. The other thing we need to talk about are the three lead performances. Evans does a good job, but he's outshined by Heathcote. Both of them, however, are left in the dust by Hall's magnificent performance. I'm not going to say she SHOULD have been nominated for an Oscar, but she most certainly should have been seriously in conversation for a nomination. She wasn't nominated at any of the major ceremonies. Sad stuff.

This is an under-seen gem, folks. One of those movies with a high letterboxd score that most of your friends haven't seen. Go and watch it. I'll give this a strong recommendation with the caveat that it's not amazing, just very good, but at least you get the musical score and Hall's acting.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Definitely better described as a black comedy than a horror/thriller movie like I was expecting, but nevertheless was thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. Absolutely no words for the ending though, which was cheesy but also fitting. Do recommend, can't complain, an hour and a half well spent.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Definitely better described as a black comedy than a horror/thriller movie.

That's a pretty good summary. GF and I watched it tonight. I liked it.

[dead0man]

just saw the Indian epic RRR, freaking awesome.  It's quite silly at times, but the characters are great and well acted.  3 hours and while it didn't exactly fly by, it was an easy watch.  The "twists" are predictable, but still enjoyable to see play out.  If you have Netflix, I highly recommend.

[Meclazine for Israel]

The Pale Blue Eye (2023)



I have to watch it again as Christian Bale's character is really quiet, and my TV has crap speakers.

I literally have to run the audio simultaneously through my Rokit 10's on the PC to hear anything. It's an incredible difference if you have great audio when watching a film.

A great film nonetheless.

[T'Chenka]

If anybody has any mild curiosity :

A small film community I'm a part of decided that we would all submit ranked lists of the 75 greatest films of all time, and then I would use a points system to compile all the lists into one top 50 list. This is the list, as well as a bunch of awards handed out to films that didn't make it into the top 50 :

https://letterboxd.com/kingtchenka/list/ranked-kinocord-2022/

[NewYorkExpress]

Just saw Whitney Houston: I Want to Dance With Somebody

The acting in this movie was excellent, and I would love to see Naomi Ackie get nominated for best Actress at the Oscars for her performance as Whitney Houston.

The screenplay wasn't so good. It was mediocre at best.

[GoTfan]

Not strictly a movie, but I am very happy with how The Last Of Us has turned out. I was one of the people who bought the game back on day one back in 2013, and I have been nothing but impressed. Craig Mazin was the right choice to helm this series, especially after what he did with Chernobyl. Neil Druckmann too.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are both excellently cast. You'll probably remember them as Oberyn Martell and Lyanna Mormont. Pedro Pascal's used to the whole "Rough survivor protecting precious child." Thing by now but he really let it show just how damaged Joel is as a character. Ramsey was the standout though, just everything from the speech patterns to the mannerisms . . . Brilliant.

Definitely looking forward to more of this.

[T'Chenka]

Aftersun (2022) - 7.5 (almost 7.0) / 10
More character and vibes based, not plot based, and just as many people will be underwhelmed as people who absolutely loved it.

Triangle Of Sadness (2022) - 7.0 (almost 7.5) / 10
A great sociological commentary film that will trigger the hell out of Republicans. Unconventional and not for everybody, but it's really good.

Weathering With You (2019) - 7.0 / 10
Really good animation and a lot of good stuff here, but some of the plot elements are undercooked IMO, and the third act especially disappointed me a lot. Your Name was a lot better.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Not strictly a movie, but I am very happy with how The Last Of Us has turned out. I was one of the people who bought the game back on day one back in 2013, and I have been nothing but impressed. Craig Mazin was the right choice to helm this series, especially after what he did with Chernobyl. Neil Druckmann too.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are both excellently cast. You'll probably remember them as Oberyn Martell and Lyanna Mormont. Pedro Pascal's used to the whole "Rough survivor protecting precious child." Thing by now but he really let it show just how damaged Joel is as a character. Ramsey was the standout though, just everything from the speech patterns to the mannerisms . . . Brilliant.

Definitely looking forward to more of this.

I'm very relieved that it's actually turning out pretty good so far. However, I want to wait until every episode airs before I start watching it. I want to see if it sticks the landing in its finale, because that is very important to me in a TV series with a continuing narrative like this.

[John Dule]

Everything Everywhere All At Once: While I love science fiction, I am not a huge fan of "anything goes" storytelling-- I much prefer it when a writer constructs a world in which there are clear limits on what can and cannot happen, and then follows those rules to logical narrative conclusions. Even in stories I enjoy (Futurama, Harry Potter, etc), a lack of clear rules can annoy me. Far from being boring, realism heightens the tension in storytelling because it sets clear stakes for the characters and limitations on what they can and cannot achieve.

Everything Everywhere All At Once, however, manages to have it both ways-- which is an impressive feat. Its multiverse concept is, on one level, both philosophically interesting and supported by the views of many physicists (as a determinist I don't believe in it, but it's still interesting). But at the same time, this concept allows the movie to explore a wide range of set pieces and concepts without ever feeling jumbled. Even though EEAAO may look like a jumbled mess in which rules do not apply, it has actually managed to construct a world that is both as silly and free-wheeling as Futurama while also being as profound and logical as some of the best hard sci-fi out there. It's not a perfectly logical piece of worldbuilding, but all of its weirdness flows from the same source, which creates an overarching sense of unity between its fractured pieces.

Obviously, the movie doesn't ride this line perfectly. There are some moments (such as the hot dog fingers) that, for me, became so ridiculous that they distracted from the film's central theme. Ultimately the multiverse concept is merely a way to explore the competing worldviews of the movie's mother-daughter duo. The daughter represents modern youth-- breaking with tradition and embracing nihilism. Because the older members of her family do not accept her sexual orientation on the basis of their moral views, she chooses to abandon the concept of objective morality altogether. The result is an interesting exploration of how the accidental circumstances of one's birth shapes one's views. I enjoyed almost every visually clever situation the film introduced in order to develop this theme-- even the absurd "Bagel With Everything" won me over-- but at some points the movie crossed the line into gratuitous silliness.

While I did not find the resolution of the film's grappling with nihilism to be wholly satisfying, the fact that it explored this subject at all was a breath of fresh air. This is a much better film than Daniels' previous outing (Swiss Army Man, which I couldn't get into), and it's probably the best film I've seen from 2022 (granted, this isn't saying much).

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Has anyone checked out The Last of Us so far? Just watched the first episode tonight; and as a long-time fan of the game and both main actors/actress, Pascal and Ramsey, I've got to say that I'm really looking forward to seeing how they continue to expand on the source material. So far they've been very faithful to the games to an almost uncanny degree and the sound design is great, too. My hopes are pretty high after that pilot so here's hoping they don't let us down!

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

Things I’ve seen recently:

Hunger Games (rewatch) - still need to finish my rewatch, but I really like the aesthetic of District 12 and then the juxtaposition of the Capital

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - thought it was boring tbh. I liked Benedict Cumberbatch’s character’s Citroen DS.

Palm Springs - really liked this one

In Bruges - got through half an hour before giving up because it was rather dull.

[GoTfan]

Has anyone checked out The Last of Us so far? Just watched the first episode tonight; and as a long-time fan of the game and both main actors/actress, Pascal and Ramsey, I've got to say that I'm really looking forward to seeing how they continue to expand on the source material. So far they've been very faithful to the games to an almost uncanny degree and the sound design is great, too. My hopes are pretty high after that pilot so here's hoping they don't let us down!

I posted a little something for it above.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Everything Everywhere All At Once: While I love science fiction, I am not a huge fan of "anything goes" storytelling-- I much prefer it when a writer constructs a world in which there are clear limits on what can and cannot happen, and then follows those rules to logical narrative conclusions. Even in stories I enjoy (Futurama, Harry Potter, etc), a lack of clear rules can annoy me. Far from being boring, realism heightens the tension in storytelling because it sets clear stakes for the characters and limitations on what they can and cannot achieve.

Everything Everywhere All At Once, however, manages to have it both ways-- which is an impressive feat. Its multiverse concept is, on one level, both philosophically interesting and supported by the views of many physicists (as a determinist I don't believe in it, but it's still interesting). But at the same time, this concept allows the movie to explore a wide range of set pieces and concepts without ever feeling jumbled. Even though EEAAO may look like a jumbled mess in which rules do not apply, it has actually managed to construct a world that is both as silly and free-wheeling as Futurama while also being as profound and logical as some of the best hard sci-fi out there. It's not a perfectly logical piece of worldbuilding, but all of its weirdness flows from the same source, which creates an overarching sense of unity between its fractured pieces.

Obviously, the movie doesn't ride this line perfectly. There are some moments (such as the hot dog fingers) that, for me, became so ridiculous that they distracted from the film's central theme. Ultimately the multiverse concept is merely a way to explore the competing worldviews of the movie's mother-daughter duo. The daughter represents modern youth-- breaking with tradition and embracing nihilism. Because the older members of her family do not accept her sexual orientation on the basis of their moral views, she chooses to abandon the concept of objective morality altogether. The result is an interesting exploration of how the accidental circumstances of one's birth shapes one's views. I enjoyed almost every visually clever situation the film introduced in order to develop this theme-- even the absurd "Bagel With Everything" won me over-- but at some points the movie crossed the line into gratuitous silliness.

While I did not find the resolution of the film's grappling with nihilism to be wholly satisfying, the fact that it explored this subject at all was a breath of fresh air. This is a much better film than Daniels' previous outing (Swiss Army Man, which I couldn't get into), and it's probably the best film I've seen from 2022 (granted, this isn't saying much).

I very much agree with much of what you said, though I preferred 'Swiss Army Man.'

What I also agree with most of all is that 2022 hasn't been a great year for films to me. There are a lot of films that came out this year which I have just simply not been interested in, no matter how well they were received.

Things I’ve seen recently:

Hunger Games (rewatch) - still need to finish my rewatch, but I really like the aesthetic of District 12 and then the juxtaposition of the Capital

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - thought it was boring tbh. I liked Benedict Cumberbatch’s character’s Citroen DS.

Palm Springs - really liked this one

In Bruges - got through half an hour before giving up because it was rather dull.

I think you just made it on John Dule's s*** list by saying this.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

House Party was good too bad the Lakers are finished they won't win another title

[Meclazine for Israel]

Six Minutes To Midnight (2020)



From Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Minutes_to_Midnight

"Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the Augusta-Victoria College is a finishing school for daughters of the Nazi elite, located in the English coastal town of Bexhill-on-Sea."

Given my favourite film is Raiders of the Lost Ark, parts of the film reminded me of that. I have seen Eddie Izzard live, and the guy is nothing short of genius, so I wasn't surprised that this film would entertain.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I just watched 'Men.' This movie was talked about a lot when it first came out last year but then everyone seemed to quickly move on from it as other horror movies seemed to gain more attention as the year went on like 'Barbarian,' 'Pearl,' 'The Menu,' and 'X.' And even though I've heard good things about all those movies in a year that was rife with "elevated horror" none of them intrigued me as much as 'Men' did, and I have to say that it lived up to my anticipation, maybe even exceeded it.

Now, 'Men,' was pretty polarizing, even among critics, but I think I'm in the positive camp. Even beyond the scene the movie has become somewhat infamous for (which was even more shocking than I thought it would be, even with fully knowing it was going to happen-I've never seen anything like it and I kind of hope I never see anything like it ever again) I think it works as a whole, at least with how I interpreted the film-this being a film that very much is up to you to make up what you think literally happened or not. Though what it's themes involve are very obvious and not all that subtle: a woman contemplating the aftermath of a toxic relationship that ended in tragedy. There are smaller aspects to the film that might be less obvious and even muddle the message, but it's very blatantly going for that sort of message as part of a trend in recent horror to have quasi-feminist themes.

And this film does work on its own as a horror film. It doesn't rely on jump scares but does evoke very uneasy, eerie feelings out of you as you watch it. When isn't a feeling of isolation and the foreboding idea of someone stalking you not deliver at least a little bit of a tingle up your spine? It also helps that the movie is visually stunning, taking place in the scenic English countryside with many interesting shots and filming techniques to boot.

Now, as much as I am praising the film it isn't for everybody. If someone comes away from watching it considering it "artsy-fartsy, ""meandering," "pretentious," or "ridiculous for ridiculousness' sake" I can't fault anyone for that. All of it is actually true, but I didn't mind any of it. Maybe because I'm weird. I don't know. This movie just really clicked for me so much so that I didn't even mind some instances of overwhelmingly unconvincing CGI. It just made things feel even more unnatural and surreal.

I don't know where I would rank the film among every one of those I saw from 2022, but it's definitely in my top ten. I thought it was compelling, intriguing, and unique. It's been awhile since I was simultaneously so revolted yet also entranced by scenes (two in particular which would probably even make David Cronenberg wince) in a film. At the very least I don't think that should be taken away from it. The director, Alex Garland, succeeded once again in creating a tense, visceral, memorable cinematic experience like with his previous two films: 'Annihilation' and 'Ex Machina.' Though I think the latter is still my favorite of the three, with 'Annihilation' being my least favorite. But all are great and worth a watch, for individual scenes alone like with this one. He is really good at finding gripping ways to make sure you always remember moments from his movies, whether you want to or not He is now another director whose future works I will be eagerly anticipating.

[vitoNova]

Cyberpunk:  Edgerunners. 

That was dope. 

[Ferguson97]

Dual with Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul

I was very excited to see this when the trailer came out, but unfortunately it wasn't playing at any nearby theaters. I finally managed to watch it online, and man what a disappointment. The premise was obviously intriguing and the jokes were pretty good, but the dialogue was atrocious. Nobody talked or acted like a normal person. It was to the point that I expected this to lead up to some sort of plot twist, but it was just a deliberate choice that the director made. The ending was disappointing as well.

Overall a 3/5, which was disappointing because I really wanted this one to be good.