what was the last movie you watched?

While I appreciate the "gimmick" behind 1917 and really loved the direction and cinematography, the general lack of story/devotion to the long take sorta left me feeling a little empty once the credits rolled. Some of the sequences in the movie were breathtakingly tense/awfully beautiful.
Have been eager to catch 1917 before it left theaters, but that window is quickly slamming shut. Figure it’s one of those best-experienced-on-the-big-screen types precisely because of the “all sizzle, no steak” dynamics you’re mentioning. Preemptively worried about the gimmick getting old myself too.

Still, I became a Deakins fan after 2049, and can often be swooned by stellar cinematography covering for a subpar narrative. Hope that holds true this time ... sure didn’t with Jupiter Ascending.

On a separate note, appreciated your insight on Parasite. My exploration of Asian cinema to this point has been primarily confined to Japan, I’m ashamed to say. The only other Bong Joon-ho film I saw prior was Snowpiercer. Calling Parasite a blend of Western and Eastern themes sparked my curiosity.
 
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VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - This was one of my mom's favorite movies. It's amazing to me how well those old films stand up, even today.
 
I watched Venom last night with the kiddo. For as much as this movie was considered crap I kinda liked it. Better than about half of the Sony Spidey films.

Then I watched Contagion tonight. Obviously relevant to what's happening now. Can only hope that with mass shutdowns things depicted in this flick remain fiction. Under two hours which is nice for this kinda flick, so I never really got bored.
 
I saw American Factory on Netflix. Good in some parts, just decent in others. Watch for cultural differences in American/ Chinese approaches to factory work. Also watched Son of a Gun with Ewan McGregor. An Australian prison break/ heist movie. Good solid watch. More basic than flashy.
 
Monos

Based in a national park in Colombia which has a beautiful forest and rivers with young soldiers eventually losing their minds with all the time spent in the jungle, decent movie to watch.

Game Changers

For those who care about Diet & Nutrition and the impact it has on performance, this is a good watch. It goes to show that no one in the world consumes more meat than the United States and that even going plant based for one day in the week can have benefits on the body.
 
Thinking of all my friends in the Emergency Medical Services. Please be extra kind to those on the frontlines. This is a nightmare scenario for first responders.

As for me, school district is shut down and I’m on indefinite self-quarantine. Riding out the initial stages with a Netflix movie marathon.


Roma - I appreciated this far more than I enjoyed it. And it took some considerable post-film contemplating before I could even say that. Overtly-artsy and abundant panning shots, tracking shots, extreme close-ups of inanimate objects, lingering establishing shots that action enters after a drawn-out pause, symbolism with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, painfully obvious allusions to Cuaron’s own Gravity and Children of Men; Started chalking this up as a pseudo-indie film with a big name director intentionally checking Oscar-bait boxes.

Embarrassingly, I didn’t catch the “magical realism” undertones until afterward, which grounds the film’s surreal and frankly absurd elements into Latin America’s signature literary genre and among the region’s greatest gifts to storytelling. Huge head-slap moment for me.

I do admire Cuaron taking on a subject that wouldn’t get the platform of a major release otherwise, putting an indigenous woman at the center who approaches immense traumatic stress with the serenity of a zen master, and crafting the film with such obvious affection much of it is legitimately pretty. Glad I saw it. Don’t think I’ll revisit it.


The Irishman - Scorsese applies The Wolf of Wall Street’s ‘celebration of excess’ approach to GoodFellas and makes it at least a half hour too long. As a whole I think it collapses under its own weight, but as a series of individual vignettes, there are tons of seriously stellar parts throughout.

Also, congrats to Pesci for coming out of a 20+ year retirement to play an against-type calm and calculating antithesis of Tommy DeVito with cold precision.


Spenser Confidential - Not gonna bury the lead on this one - completely vapid waste of time.

Don’t know if the wife chose this as a palate-cleanser or payback after I subjected her to nearly 6 hours of Oscar-bait seriousness. Regardless, this Walhberg-led action-comedy had the ingredients for a solid popcorn roller coaster, but went off the rails way quick.

It’s a shame too, because it think Peter Berg’s The Rundown is an under-celebrated action-comedy hidden gem (or at least, hidden roll of quarters) and Hancock had a ton of squandered potential. Had been hoping for a re-visit of either IP, but after witnessing this train wreck, might be better left alone.


Julie & Julia - My wife’s next pick was an attempt to drown me in the saccharine-waves of a cutesy rom-com, but strangely I had already surfed these waters for reasons I cannot remember.

Meryl Streep is a god, obviously, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn she needed an exorcism after channeling the ghost persona of Julia Child. Adams does fine as the adorable, if sometimes irritating, counterpoint to Streep’s Child, but could have used a tad more nuance in the obsessive fangirling characterization if the goal was to make me connect with her - already a tall task when she’s sharing top billing with Streep.

The juxtaposition of the two stories was interesting in a cutesy way, although I think they both suffer with a lack of development as they compete for screen time.


Not during this round, but a while back we started 6 Underground because my wife loves Ryan Reynolds. Got 15 minutes in before a slow motion rocket blasted through a car window and took off a dude’s nose. We dropped out right then. Checked the director. You got me again Michael Bay.
 
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Regal Cinemas announced they will be closing their theaters for the next few weeks so my “unlimited” will be put on hiatus. Most of the new releases were being pushed back anyhow so I’m not too disappointed.

That means the last movie I will have seen in the theater for a while was Bloodshot. This one didn’t do it for me. I’m not familiar with this character as I’m told this is another comic book inspired movie? Anyway, other than a few cool fighting sequences, this was pretty dull.
 
Dolemite Is My Name - This was fun. Like Ed Wood and The Disaster Artist if the central character was in on the joke. Vintage Eddie Murphy too. Also reminded me I need to watch Black Dynamite again.
 
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Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
Roma - I appreciated this far more than I enjoyed it. And it took some considerable post-film contemplating before I could even say that. Overtly-artsy and abundant panning shots, tracking shots, extreme close-ups of inanimate objects, lingering establishing shots that action enters after a drawn-out pause, symbolism with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, painfully obvious allusions to Cauron’s own Gravity and Children of Men; Started chalking this up as a pseudo-indie film with a big name director intentionally checking Oscar-bait boxes.

Embarrassingly, I didn’t catch the “magical realism” undertones until afterward, which grounds the film’s surreal and frankly absurd elements into Latin America’s signature literary genre and among the region’s greatest gifts to storytelling. Huge head-slap moment for me.

I do admire Cauron taking on a subject that wouldn’t get the platform of a major release otherwise, putting an indigenous woman at the center who approaches immense traumatic stress with the serenity of a zen master, and crafting the film with such obvious affection much of it is legitimately pretty. Glad I saw it. Don’t think I’ll revisit it.
For what it's worth, I liked it more the second time, and quite a bit more. Some films thrive on the audience not knowing what's going to happen, and Roma is not one of them. For me in the second viewing there was something about turning off that part of my brain that tries to analyze the film as it plays out and instead knowing in broad strokes what was going to happen and just letting it wash over me. Wait until the end of of your self-quarantine and if you have time, give it another shot.
 
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

A troubled writer who gets to do a magazine article on Mr. Rogers and as a result learns about his ways and teachings and makes him a better person for it. It's a feel good type of movie, good vibes.
 
The Cave

A perspective look from the world in Syria and the doctors who were brave enough to stick around and help the innocent. A true look at how cruel humanity can be.
 
. What we are not spending on gas I am spending on movies lately lol
Richard Jewel-was great. Acting was superb and the guy who played jewel knocked it out of the park
Dark Water-another great one with great acting. Scary premise.
Rocketman-better than expected but still not my cup of tea. Lead actor should have won best actor over Rami Malek

Blanking on the others I’ve watched, but think I’ll check out 1917 tonight
 
Rocketman-better than expected but still not my cup of tea. Lead actor should have won best actor over Rami Malek
I may be wrong but pretty sure I saw Rocketman on Father's Day with my son last year so they would have not been competing the same year. I think I liked the Mercury movie more but I'll say the best thing about Malek's performance was wearing those stupid teeth.

I put Outbreak in my NF queue and brought Spinal Tap and Fast Times down into the basement but wound up playing guitar and watching wrasslin' instead.

They're talking about rationing high def streaming. In which case my physical media collection wins the day!
 
I may be wrong but pretty sure I saw Rocketman on Father's Day with my son last year so they would have not been competing the same year. I think I liked the Mercury movie more but I'll say the best thing about Malek's performance was wearing those stupid teeth.

I put Outbreak in my NF queue and brought Spinal Tap and Fast Times down into the basement but wound up playing guitar and watching wrasslin' instead.

They're talking about rationing high def streaming. In which case my physical media collection wins the day!
Lol well that would explain it. I heard the same thing btw. Bohemian Rhapsody was a better film, but his acting was better. Was blown away he sang his own songs and did it so well. My wife loved it
Been thinking about watching outbreak and contagion again. But don’t want to start feeling out lol
Explain this HD steaming rationing to me like a child. Does this mean we will not be able to watch normal HD content on things like NF and Prime like we normally would? I can’t go back to standard def....I can’t !!
 
Lol well that would explain it. I heard the same thing btw. Bohemian Rhapsody was a better film, but his acting was better. Was blown away he sang his own songs and did it so well. My wife loved it
Been thinking about watching outbreak and contagion again. But don’t want to start feeling out lol
Explain this HD steaming rationing to me like a child. Does this mean we will not be able to watch normal HD content on things like NF and Prime like we normally would? I can’t go back to standard def....I can’t !!
I don't know specifics and to be honest it was European folks that opened the discussion. And I do not know if it is 4k streaming of 2k/1080p. But essentially the request is being considered to use lower bandwidth with so many folks at home streaming and others trying to work. It does make sense.

As it is I prefer physical media to streaming when it comes to watching in the theater and I always joke "they can turn this off at any moment" (not to mention when your favorite movie just disappears), but the reality is it is kind of a dumb hobby that is taking up tons of real estate on my shelves. So it's like I am prepping for this moment.
 
I don't know specifics and to be honest it was European folks that opened the discussion. And I do not know if it is 4k streaming of 2k/1080p. But essentially the request is being considered to use lower bandwidth with so many folks at home streaming and others trying to work. It does make sense.

As it is I prefer physical media to streaming when it comes to watching in the theater and I always joke "they can turn this off at any moment" (not to mention when your favorite movie just disappears), but the reality is it is kind of a dumb hobby that is taking up tons of real estate on my shelves. So it's like I am prepping for this moment.
Agreed. May have to dust off the ol blue ray collection tonight. Maybe something from my David fincher collection
 
For what it's worth, I liked it more the second time, and quite a bit more. Some films thrive on the audience not knowing what's going to happen, and Roma is not one of them. For me in the second viewing there was something about turning off that part of my brain that tries to analyze the film as it plays out and instead knowing in broad strokes what was going to happen and just letting it wash over me. Wait until the end of of your self-quarantine and if you have time, give it another shot.
I can see it having that type of turn. As Cuaron’s choices have festered with me, I’ve been motivated to track down his rational behind them. For the most part, I “get it,” even if I still don’t love it. Case-in-point: the camera work I found so distracting is meant to be a first-person view of a ghost looking backward in time. Oh ... kay.

Still, the ”magical realism” angle cleared up a lot, and the opening long shot of the water over the tiles is positively hypnotic. Probably deserves a second spin after some time to settle.
 
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Another marathon. Buckle in.

Y Tu Mama Tambien - Wow. Raw, explicit, fierce. It would be easy to pass this off as modern taboo sexploitation or even raunchy teen wish fulfillment, like a Spanish-language Fast Times at Ridgemont High or American Pie, and in fact that’s kind of where my mind had settled to start.

A pair of aggressively sophomoric teenagers - interested in drugs, sex, and not much else - ask the prodigal, unobtainable older hot woman on an out of town beach adventure, and for seemingly semi-flimsy excuse-plot reasons, she accepts. One might expect crude gross-out humor and typical teen comedy tropes to follow. And you would be right, at least in the beginning.

Yet by the end, the boys’ machismo world-view has been striped to the studs, their understanding of their friendship and themselves shuttered, and in a twist so rare in modern film it deserves particular accolades, rather than being further objectified, the woman ends up legitimately empowered through sex.

The acting is brilliant: Diego and Bernal are both great, and Verdu is phenomenal as the emotional and philosophical fulcrum on which the narrative centers and whole plot turns. What I thought was going to be the story of two teen dirtbags getting lucky with a vulnerable, fantasy woman, ended up being a profound deconstruction of that very concept.


Groundhog Day - Hard to believe this movie is almost 30 years old. Yet outside of obscure short stories and Japanese manga / anime, this is the quintessential pop culture icon of the ubiquitous time loop gimmick. That’s quite a cultural impact for a cutesy rom-com from the early 90s.

Of course, “cutesy rom-com” is truly underselling it. This is golden age Bill Murray bringing his outlandish, snarky, understated Everyman schtick to an adept and simple thought experiment via concept art: Q: What would you do if trapped in a 24 hour time loop in Anytown USA? Murray and Ramis give us what I think is still the definitive answer.


Wedding Crashers - Slightly more grounded than other Frat Pack vehicles like Old School, Anchorman, or Zoolander giving it a a tad more staying power for me. Vince Vaughn’s peak with the quick-talking wise guy schtick he’d been trying to perfect since Swingers. Ferrell has a fun cameo role, which is about the appropriate amount of tolerable screen time for him. It’s impressive how big of a tool Cooper has to play just so the audience can buy into rooting for our scummy heroes. Ironically this has become our go-to “unobtrusive” comedy to play in the background when we need a brain break.


The Great Gatsby - The Luhrmann version, and I unironcially enjoy this one. I know this received mixed reviews, and justifiably so - being a distractingly frenetic and choppy deluge of sound and color. But I have a soft spot for the equally schlocky Romeo + Juliet for similar reasons: the over-the-top theatrics, dramatic visuals, anachronistic jazz/hip hop fusion score all add to the style-over-substance fun.

Besides, it honestly fits Fitzgerald’s work - not the stuffy “Great American Novel” cautionary tale of the American dream kids are forced to read in high school (a reading that’s more anachronistic than Luhrmann’s score), but rather the blistering-paced jazz age adventure about a guy who becomes a millionaire and throws spectacular parties every week, just to impress a married woman he hooked up with 5 years prior.
 
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I did watch This is Spinal Tap last night. If you haven't seen this what's wrong with you? Anyhow.

The first time I saw this movie it was 1988, I was at a New Hampshire prep school for the year since I absolutely refused to go to Jesuit. Most folks know how that story ends. I was like one of 4 kids in a school of ~250 that liked anything harder than Led Zeppelin at the time. They screened this on a Saturday night in the school auditorium and I swear maybe 6 other kids were there and some walked out. I recognized a classic the moment I saw it and time would prove me right about this movie and Metallica being as big as Zep one day. Anywho, I introduced it to my brother during the parents and family weekend that followed soon after where we rented a VCR and some movies from the hotel outside Boston we stayed in. And I've watched at least a hundred times since. This is the first time since I started playing guitar again last year and so I guess I noticed things about the gear more than I typically do. Like what pickups were on what guitars and the specific vintage of Marshall amps.

But my favorite line still remains "What's wrong with being sexy?" That one probably throwaway just gets better with age for me.