What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Doctor Strange]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

This was a strange one. Can't believe it took me so long to finally see it. Would you really erase anyone from your memory if you could? A cool concept and expertly done.

A great movie, and the only one from nutso director Michael Gondry I feel that way about. (Nutso screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's other films I mostly like.) Outstanding cast, fascinating idea, great effects work.

The sequence approximately 38 minutes in, where Joel is following Clementine down the street and he somehow ends up back at the corner where he started as the signs over the line of stores behind them disappear... was filmed on the street in Yonkers where I grew up! Our house was the first one past the stores, and is barely visible as Clementine gets past the stores.

I fell off the couch the first time I've watched it! And I have rewatched that sequence a lot trying to figure out at what point the invisible cut when they switch to shooting into a mirror to reverse the street/stores occurs!

 

[Worf]

"Under The Skin" - The most unusual "alien invasion" film I've ever seen. Just so different. Set in Scotland (I had to put on the CC as I couldn't understand a "fookin" word of the dialogue) the story revolves around a group of barely speaking beings who proceed to kill and abduct humans for some sort of harvesting. The primary tool for this work is an almost unrecognizable Scarlett Johansson. All told maybe 5 minutes of dialogue in film just shy of 2 hours long. Very arty with many long tracking shots, extended shots and much moody visuals. I won't say the end was shocking but it is different. Worth a watch if you're tired of ray guns, spaceships, acid for blood and other tropes of the genre.

Worf

 

[Worf]

It's been two days since I saw it and I'm still turning it over in my mind. There's one scene in particular that's one of the most powerful indictments I've ever seen on the screen, and I was just speechless watching it unfold. Genius.

"Sorry to Bother You" - Saw this one on it's last day at the local Art House. Good lord... I was deep into it until the 3rd act. When "you know what" made their appearance I was transported immediately to "WTF" land. The visual was so jarring that I couldn't focus on anything else, although the bit at the Stock Exchange made me smile. Can't say I "loved it" but I certainly have talked about this film a ton with those who've seen it. Dagnabit my head still hurts.

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

I watched Under The Skin last year for my film/TV discussion group. A very weird and disturbing film, and one that I find myself thinking back on more than I expected to. Definitely more of an art film than the usual sci-fi stuff. ScarJo has made a number of SF films at this point, but this one's undoubtedly the most unusual.

Recommended, but only if you have the patience for something really different... and unsettling. (Worf - like that sequence on the beach! Geez.)

 

[Worf]

I watched Under The Skin last year for my film/TV discussion group. A very weird and disturbing film, and one that I find myself thinking back on more than I expected to. Definitely more of an art film than the usual sci-fi stuff. ScarJo has made a number of SF films at this point, but this one's undoubtedly the most unusual.

Recommended, but only if you have the patience for something really different... and unsettling. (Worf - like that sequence on the beach! Geez.)

Yipes... totally forgot that scene.... Perhaps my mind was trying to save me from repeated trauma. Wow... man o man that was RUGGED! Thanks for tanking my afternoon... the last shot of the crying kid. Oooof.

Worf

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Sorry to Bother You" - Saw this one on it's last day at the local Art House. Good lord... I was deep into it until the 3rd act. When "you know what" made their appearance I was transported immediately to "WTF" land. The visual was so jarring that I couldn't focus on anything else, although the bit at the Stock Exchange made me smile. Can't say I "loved it" but I certainly have talked about this film a ton with those who've seen it. Dagnabit my head still hurts.

Worf

Oooooh yeah. I didn't go into that film ice cold -- I'd read some reviews that got me pumped up about its general themes -- but nothing I'd read prepared me for that. I was watching the picture in the company of three teenage girls, and when that reveal happened they all jumped and squeaked "WTF!!" in perfect unison. I don't think I've ever seen a film take a more abrupt or unexpected twist into surreality. But that said, I absolutely loved the final scene. Just perfect.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The James Stewart oater Winchester '73, one of several films he made with director Anthony Mann in the 1950s. It's a busy, active movie, with the title rifle passing from Stewart to villain Stephen McNally, then to Indian trader John McIntire, then to a young Rock Hudson as Young Bull the chief. After that Charles Drake has it (after a very young Tony Curtis finds it!), then Dan Duryea, and then it comes back to McNally. Lots of characters, lots of "color" (though it is a B & W film).

It's one of several "grim" Westerns Stewart made in that decade, where his characters are about as far as you can imagine from Destry or George Bailey. The Naked Spur, written in part by U.N.C.L.E. creator Sam Rolfe, is another, even darker entry.

 

[AmateisGal]

My daughter was home from college for the weekend, so we watched Peter Rabbit (2018) as we needed something fun and light. It's a delightful story and after watching it, we've decided we need to make another trip to England next year to visit Beatrix Potter's house!

 

[Fading Fast]

"Command Decision" - One of the best "post war" war films. At lot less jingoistic and more realistic. Based on a stage play the film shows little to no footage of battle against the Luftwaffe in the air... Instead it focuses on the battle to keep daylight bombing alive in face of political meddling, inter-service rivalries and other behind the lines machinations. It is also a great study of the burden of command. The pain and anguish of ordering men to die out of military necessity. Clark Gable gives it his all in this one and is surrounded by a magnificent cast. Not "12 O'clock High" but skin close to it.

Worf

Watched it last night and can only agree with all that ⇧. I had seen it before (thought I hadn't, but it must have been a long time ago). Like you, still think "12 O'Clock High" is a better movie treading the same ground as it feels less preachy and more personal than "Command Decision," but both are strong movies.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

On Monday, we rekindled the It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World gathering - about 14 of us - and laughed and laughed and laughed. Lots of us laughed at the start of a scene, having nearly memorized vast stretches of the movie.

 

[navetsea]

The Nun
I watched yesterday at nearby cinema at night hoping it would be scary
Nope... just monster in your face jump tactic over and over... i wonder why in the past or in asia horror movies are much better, these new hollywood horror movies fail to give the viewer sense of escalating uneasiness and desperation, everything just goes 0 to 100 instantly last only a fraction of seconds and then flushed with a one liner comedy
Maybe the director dont even believe in supranatural maybe thats why it is hard to convey the horror into a deeper level.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Rich are always with Us" from 1932 with Ruth Chatterton, George Brent and Bette Davis

• Much better than average foibles-of-the-rich pre-code owing to its honest story, smart dialogue & outstanding acting

• A too-young-to-believe Davis coruscates while stealing every seen as the fantastically named Malbro - a young socialite in love with a man (Brent - not as stultifying as usual) who's in love with a married woman (Chatterton) who very much likes her philandering husband but isn't against half-encouraging Brent (phew - but now you have the full set-up)

• The story and characters are ones we all have known in our lives: unrequited love crushing a young, vibrant woman, a failing marriage between true friends, an unhappy husband being pushed into divorce by his annoying paramour out of guilt and young people drinking, smoking and sleeping around a lot but not making themselves happy

• Despite being set amongst the 1% of the 1% (fantastic penthouse apartments, V-12 cars, cruise ships and servants for everyone), this is an honest hour-and-ten-minutes that shows, again, that the human condition doesn't change much but is always interesting and pained (and I'll take this over the many pretentious and overwrought two-plus hour "films" today that attempt to cover the same territory with much less success)

 

[AmateisGal]

Double Indemnity. Such a great film. Two rotten people who commit a rotten crime. It's still kind of hard for me to see Fred MacMurray in that role because he was such a nice guy in person and most of his roles were of good guys. But he performed splendidly as the rather twisted insurance agent who has no qualms about killing a man.

 

[Fading Fast]

Double Indemnity. Such a great film. Two rotten people who commit a rotten crime. It's still kind of hard for me to see Fred MacMurray in that role because he was such a nice guy in person and most of his roles were of good guys. But he performed splendidly as the rather twisted insurance agent who has no qualms about killing a man.

And how much fun is it watching Robinson bat MacMurray back and forth between his paws while not openly acknowledging that he's doing it?

 

[Harp]

I can't picture Young in the Davis role in "Of Human Bondage," but Stanwyck or Crawford could have done it. Maybe that's why Young's career, just calling it straight, was much less than those other women's. But, heck, she owned the role of the Bishop's wife in "The Bishpo's Wife" and that's not a bad legacy.

And Cary stole the whole movie.

 

[31 Model A]

Going to be an inside weekend with rain and floods. Since I've watched Peaky Blinders twice, I've ordered HBO to watch Boardwalk Empire....again. I've only seen those episodes once.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Dude, I loved Boardwalk Empire, but you're posting in the wrong thread. It's not a movie.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Way We Were" 1973 with Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand and Lois Chiles

• They were not doing period pieces as well back then as the clothes and hairstyles are a blend of '30/'40s and '70s - while there's some cool '30s/'40s stuff, overall, the style and details are a mess as we are spoiled by today's near-perfect period movies

• Streisand's character is nails on a chalkboard to me: always angry at the world, always 100% sure she's right to be angry and always angry at anyone who isn't angry with her / full-tilt anger All. The. Time. is abrasive

• I have a feeling the book flushed out some of the themes - the personal and the political - much better than the constantly skipping forward movie - so a copy of the book is on its way

• Redford is a limited-in-range actor, but good within his sweet spot - thoughtful WASPy man trying to be more emotional than his culture allows - this role was perfect for him (as would have been the lead in "Love Story").

 

[LizzieMaine]

I really wanted to like that movie, but I thought it was so sloppily written and poorly executed by all involved that it just lost me. All the while I was watching it I was grumbling "NO, THAT'S NOT THE WAY TO DO IT!" There's a great movie to be made about the life journey of a two-fisted thirties-radical woman -- "Genora Sits Down," perhaps -- but this isn't it. Arthur Laurents should have known better.

I think a big part of the problem was the era in which it was made -- the golden age of oversaturated '70s romantic schlock. "Love Story" started it, and for the next few years, Hollywood was flooded with imitations made in that same gloppy tone. The effect of trying to make a lefty sociopolitical drama in this style is like taking a crisp kosher pickle and submerging it in a quart of Karo syrup.

That said, Mort Drucker's parody in "Mad" magazine, "The Way We Bore," was one of my favorite pieces of the era.

 

[Fading Fast]

Clearly not my politics, but as you note, it was so sloppily handled that her personality and not her politics is what grated on me - and seem to do so on the Mad Magazine writers as well. I could have respected a movie about politics I don't agree with if well done, but 2 hours of wanting Redford and everyone else in her orbit to tell her to shut up occasionally does not a wonderful movie make. And the entire movie was captured in the scene where Redford told her she should have laughed when they were making fun of her during her college speech - she had no, absolutely no, perspective on herself and, that, sadly was the movie.