What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[scottyrocks]

I just watched the German language version of Petroleum Miezen (Les Petroleuses/Frenchie King) (1971).

Claudia Cardinale is complete eye-candy, but the fight scene between her and Bridget Bardot is probably the best female fistfight scene I have ever seen, and with no modern CGI (obviously) or effects. Almost worth it for that few minutes alone.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Wonderstruck, the latest from Todd Haynes - a director I once really liked whose recent films have increasingly disappointed me. And I hated this one. Sure, like all his work it looks absolutely beautiful, but the story is hopelessly contrived and totally unbelievable. One impossible coincidence after another as two deaf child protagonists, adrift in NYC in different eras, stumble through their ill-defined quests. Really disappointing, apart from the gorgeous cinematography, production design and costumes... and its obvious love of NYC.

 

[Fading Fast]

I don't know a lot about her beyond Don Draper being her ex boyfriend, but obnoxious self important twit is my first impression.

Every main character in "Friends with Kids" is obnoxiously self absorbed. I'm all for trying to enjoy your life and make yourself happy, but context and perspective are important. These characters see their own lives, their own happiness, their own enjoyment as the only important thing in the world. Not surprisingly, despite being "friends," they really are terrible friends who only stay with each other because no one else would be friends with them, so they stay together and do things together because no one else can stand to be with them.

Jennifer Westfeldt starred in a little movie "Kissing Jessica Stein" many years ago that was also about self-absorbed New Yorkers, but it was a lighter movie about twenty year olds trying to find their post-college adult selves. The self focus was less obnoxious owing to their age, the lightness of the material and because it had some genuinely funny moments (something "Friend with Kids" lacked). But what's kinda cute in a twenty year old, comes off as immature and pathetic in forty year olds with kids and real responsibilities.

I have no memory of Jon Hamm before Don Draper. As Draper - and despite there being many other strong characters on the show - he outshined everyone else. He was the star as the show felt flat if he was not in more than a scene or two in a row. I thought he'd have a long successful career after "Mad Men."

Wrong again, I guess. I've seen him in a few movies since and he seems off his feed / awkward / not-leading-man material. He seems born to play Don Draper - a man, moment, machine occurrence. Not a great actor, just a vehicle that fit his particular talents - and look - perfectly.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Jon Hamm's weak post-Mad Men career has indeed been a surprise. He's got it all - looks, acting chops, charisma - yet he does dreck like Million Dollar Arm and Keeping Up with the Joneses.

Re Friends With Kids, I saw it... and promptly totally forgot it. I didn't have a violent reaction like you guys, but it left zero impression.

Re Kissing Jessica Stein, I actually did like that one and thought it was charming and clever (though my bi-identifying daughter later dismissed it as totally unbelievable junk). You can spot a young Jon Hamm playing one of Westfeldt's bad dates early in it.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I just saw Jon Hamm in an H&R Block commercial as an actor playing a Roman in a movie production. This makes me think he would have been great in "Hail, Caesar!"

 

[Fading Fast]

I just saw Jon Hamm in an H&R Block commercial as an actor playing a Roman in a movie production. This makes me think he would have been great in "Hail, Caesar!"

More to the point, hopefully, he's banking those paychecks as my guess is their trajectory is down not up.

 

[Bushman]

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

 

[3fingers]

The Birds and the Bees. from 1956. George Gobel and Mitzi Gaynor. David Niven is Mitzi's father. They are card sharps out to rob George on a cruise ship. Remake of Lady Eve. with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck. Not particularly funny or much of anything else. Not recommended. Go with Lady Eve if you want to see one. It's a better movie.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

"The Best of Everything," on gorgeous limited-edition blu-ray. I love this movie!

 

[Just Jim]

Watched the new Blade Runner movie tonight. I'm still trying to decide if I like it or not. I didn't care for the original until the final director's cut came out, it may take a while to decide about this one too.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Best of Everything," on gorgeous limited-edition blu-ray. I love this movie!

Agreed and a wonderful time capsule of late 1950s New York. It shows many things, two of which are that (1) Joan Crawford can really act and (2) Hope Lange might have had a smaller waist than most people's wrists.

The office building (The Seagram Building) used for the publishing company still stands on Park and 52 and I think of that movie most of the time when I pass it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human - a strange little mockumentary from 1999 in which an offscreen alien narrator (David Hyde Pierce) interprets, and frequently misinterprets, an average American couple's first meeting, dating experiences, pregnancy, etc. Pretty much a one-joke idea that goes on too long, but it has some amusing moments.

Narrator: (as male gets into a club, paying a bouncer the cover charge) The male gives the Great Warrior sheaths of thin, green tree bark hoping that the color will satisfy the Great Warrior and he will allow the male to enter. The Great Warrior is pleased. He places a symbol of ink upon the male's hand, proof to the world that the male is ready to mate.​

 

[Fading Fast]

"While We're Young" 2015 with Naomi Watts and Ben Stiller

It's an hour and a half of watching mean, boring, selfish people do mean, boring and selfish things to themselves and each other.

Sure there's the plot of a Millennial (uber-Hipster) budding documentary filmmaker scheming his way into an older documentary maker's life to leverage the older one's connections to advance his career and all the moral posturing and generational comparisons that ensue (at least the millennials come off as greedy and materialistic as both the baby boomers and gen-Xers), but once it's revealed, it is so contrived that all you're left with is the meanness, boringness and selfishness.

I did enjoy the New York City scenes and the cool architecture (I'll give the millennials that - they love a subset of Fedora Lounge architecture). That said, a stroll down the street or Googling pre-war New York City architecture would be a much better way to see the buildings without the pain of the movie.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I liked that film. That is, I liked it compared to most of Noah Baumbach's films, some of which I've turned off in disgust after ten minutes. (Less than five minutes in the case of his Netflix film The Meyerowitz Stories!) His characters are always selfish, self-absorbed, nasty caricatures: this guy has a pretty downbeat view of humanity. But you know... people can be pretty terrible.

But in this case, I thought his observations of both these particular boomers and millennials (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) contained some elements of truth. And it's nice to see that Ben Stiller can still occasionally tamp down his usual schtick and give something like an actual performance.

 

[Benzadmiral]

. . .

I have no memory of Jon Hamm before Don Draper. As Draper - and despite there being many other strong characters on the show - he outshined everyone else. He was the star as the show felt flat if he was not in more than a scene or two in a row. I thought he'd have a long successful career after "Mad Men."

Wrong again, I guess. I've seen him in a few movies since and he seems off his feed / awkward / not-leading-man material. He seems born to play Don Draper - a man, moment, machine occurrence. Not a great actor, just a vehicle that fit his particular talents - and look - perfectly.

He's been playing in some spot for H & R Block's "Refund Advance" program: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wxyw/h-and-r-block-with-watson-refund-advance-advance-featuring-jon-hamm

Seems a shame, rather as if Laurence Olivier were to turn up ca. 1953 on the early-TV Betty White sitcom Life With Elizabeth.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Dunkirk, which I enjoyed. Except for Kenneth Branagh and Cillian Murphy, there are no names or faces I recognized in it, and the film does not really have a main character or characters we can get deeply involved with. But somehow the movie transcends that. I was positive, too, that it would be shot in that modern "ice blue" or "gray-blue" style where everything seems drained of life and color; but it wasn't. Kudos to the director and cinematographer for that!

 

[Worf]

"The Shape of Water" - Nice little adult fairy tale of a movie. Great cinematography, wonderful sets and costumes and marvelous acting all round. Great alternative take on an old "Creature Feature" from way back. Sadly though I had to explain to a couple, who seemed not much younger than me that the creature was based on the one seen in "The Creature From The Black Lagoon". They seemed to never have heard of it? Seriously? Also when I say "adult fairy tale" I mean ADULT. Don't take the kiddies to this one. Not up there with "Hellboy" or "Pacific Rim" for me but skin close to it. I've never seen "Pan's Labyrinth".

Worf

 

[RIOT]

Just done watching Mudbound.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Via TCM, the 1934 film of Liliom. Made in France (and French) and directed by just-having-fled-Nazi-Germany Fritz Lang (and other Jewish film artists who'd also soon end up in Hollywood: cinematographer/director Rudolph Mate, composer Franz Waxman, etc.), starring a young, charismatic Charles Boyer as the title character. Still suffused with the Expressionism of Lang's German films, there are interesting touches throughout, and a much franker treatment of Liliom and Julie's common law marriage than would have been possible under the Hollywood Production Code.

As someone who grew up on the great Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel, I found this adaptation of its source play utterly fascinating. Other than the added songs and New England setting, Carousel is mostly a VERY close adaptation of the original, nearly plot point for plot point. There are some differences in the afterlife sequences and Liliom's interaction with his daughter when he returns to Earth for a day, but everything from the "if" dialog at the bench in "If I Loved You" to the now-problematical "How can you be hit and not feel it?" dialog between Julie and her daughter is there. Hammerstein's book is VERY faithful to the story beats of Molnar's original play and this film (which I suspect R&H had seen).

Definitely recommended for comparison purposes if you like Carousel.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The Shape of Water. A beautiful, unique film that smooshes together a half-dozen ideas that shouldn't even be in the same movie... but it works wonderfully. An instant classic, and finally another Del Toro masterpiece to put next to Pan's Labyrinth. It pretty much deserves all the praise and award nominations its received.