What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

When you think about the fact that the silent era in 1950 had been gone for a little more than twenty years, you realize just how voraciously the Hollywood beast chewed up and consumed its victims. Norma Desmond in 1950 was, I dunno, name your favorite late-1990s megastar, in 2018.

Aside from that there's two things I love to see everytime I watch that film. One is the sheer bizarreness of the dead chimp laid out in state, and the other is delightful gusto with which Jack Webb bites into his role as Gillis's buddy. He'd been playing Joe Friday on radio for just under a year when the film was released, and it was the last time he'd ever really make an impression on the screen without Friday's shadow looming over his performance. He could have been a fun little character actor if he'd chosen to go that route.

Agreed on the chimp, to me, he simply emphasizes the cracker-house crazy of everything Norma Desmond. No backstory is given and none is needed as we learn, later on, she's wizzing around earth in her completely own orbit.

Also, great point on Web. You know it's him, but he's so much more Oscar Levant than Joe Friday in this one, that you almost forget it's him. And as to his character, good luck with the marriage coming his way as his fiancee wanted to ditch him for Holden's character, literally, a day or two before the proposed wedding date.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Billy Wilder had an explanation of the chimp, which he gave to Gloria Swanson during filming, but which is not suitable to reveal on this forum. But it does elevate the crazy to a whole new level.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I watched Atomic Blonde last night.
I had resisted watching this one because on the trailer it seemed kind of silly to me.
However, I will say that Charlize Theron was extremely good in this. The film is constant action with a pretty interesting plot.
The real star of the film for me was the soundtrack of solid gold hits from the late ‘80’s.
Often times the songs playing in the background give a description of the action being shown onscreen. For example a key car chase scene is set to the song I Ran by Flock of Seagulls.
There are a couple of surprises and plot twists that keep you guessing as well.
It’s another movie based on a graphic novel so it does have some comic book feels to it, but I highly recommend this one. I plan on rewatching this one soon.

 

[Bushman]

Last movies were "The Post" and "The Darkest Hour."

"The Darkest Hour" was an incredibly triumphant period piece. I'm an idle fan of Churchills war time career already, and the movie was of great interest to me, especially as a companion piece to "Dunkirk", which I had previously been enthralled by. The movie is a very realistic view of the politics Churchill was facing in the midst of the defeat at Dunkirk, as well as how Churchill saved the lives of thousands among saving his own ass. Great movie.

"The Post" was incredible to watch. I love how much they parallel the Washington Posts relationship with Nixon and their current relationship under the current administration. The biting paranoia that they portray in Nixon is potent and very contemporarily considered. I also loved how they portrayed the energy of the newsroom, and how it feels to be a journalist. Journalism isn't as exciting as we'd like it to. We're not all Lois Lane (rest in peace, Margot Kidder) chasing down corrupt billionaires with the side of superhuman aliens. In fact, it's usually rather monotonous work of reading and researching before even tyoing up anything. And "The Post" portrays that brilliantly. It's a contemporary piece, but there's few things about the story that truly date it. The message of the importance of the First Amendment and of journalism as how they serve the people is as strong now as if was then.

 

[DanH]

"The Court Jester"

 

[Fading Fast]

Last movies were "The Post" and "The Darkest Hour."

"The Darkest Hour" was an incredibly triumphant period piece. I'm an idle fan of Churchills war time career already, and the movie was of great interest to me, especially as a companion piece to "Dunkirk", which I had previously been enthralled by. The movie is a very realistic view of the politics Churchill was facing in the midst of the defeat at Dunkirk, as well as how Churchill saved the lives of thousands among saving his own ass. Great movie.....

I am a big Churchill fan - faults (of which there were many) and all - as he kept Western Civilization upright in its darkest hour (great title) of the 20th Century. And, like you, I enjoyed the movie, but I was frustrated by the fictional details and scenes (the subway ride, the late-night visit by the King, the plan to use civilian ships to evacuate Dunkirk was supported by but not thought-up by Churchill and the movie's day-count timeline was altered) as it becomes harder over time to keep what really happened and how it happened straight in your mind when movies like these weave fact and fiction together so aggressively.

But as noted, I really enjoyed the movie as it was an engaging story, where people take action, choose sides and debate with intelligent dialogue / where the pivotal moments are shown, the boring ones stripped out / where raw human emotions are shown and characters are not all good or bad but grey as they are in real life - and all of that was wrapped inside some of the most critical few days of the 20th Century. Plus the period details were incredible / Churchill's secretary (Rose from "Downtown Abbey") was pitch perfect / and Kristian Scott Thomas was outstanding as Clementine.

 

[Worf]

"The Hitman's Bodyguard" - I know pure drivel... but FUN drivel. Plot holes in all it was an entertaining popcorn muncher with Sammy Jackson doing what Sammy Jackson does... yell profanities at every living soul.

Worf

 

[KY Gentleman]

"The Hitman's Bodyguard" - I know pure drivel... but FUN drivel. Plot holes in all it was an entertaining popcorn muncher with Sammy Jackson doing what Sammy Jackson does... yell profanities at every living soul.

Worf

I really enjoyed that one too.
Samuel Jackson is good in anything and Ryan Reynolds played well off of his character.

 

[scottyrocks]

Last week TCM was running the Andy Hardy (Judge Hardy's Family) series with Mickey Rooney. I watched as much of it as I could (which wasn't much) before nausea set in.

 

[1mach1]

"The Hitman's Bodyguard" - I know pure drivel... but FUN drivel. Plot holes in all it was an entertaining popcorn muncher with Sammy Jackson doing what Sammy Jackson does... yell profanities at every living soul.

Worf

That was a fun movie, and I enjoyed it as well. Great chemisrty between those two.

 

[Bushman]

The Greatest Showman - A fun if a bit fanciful telling of the birth of Barnum's circus. As a person who has always enjoyed both the circus and the Victorian era, I gotta say this was an extremely fun interpretation of Barnum's life. It's a musical that hyperbolizes the lives of many of the key players, but in a way that I think even Barnum himself would have been proud of. In a way, it was like going to the circus for an hour and 45 minutes. Very enjoyable. I would recommend to ladies and gentlemen, to boys and girls, and to children of all ages.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Last week TCM was running the Andy Hardy (Judge Hardy's Family) series with Mickey Rooney. I watched as much of it as I could (which wasn't much) before nausea set in.

The Hardy pictures always struck me as what somebody who'd never lived in an actual family imagined an actual family might be like. The Henry Aldrich pictures from Paramount were equally corny, but much more entertaining.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The other night, Caged (1950). Wow. If you haven't seen it, it pulls no punches, even in it's (comparatively) sanitized depiction of life behind bars. As part of the Saturday night edition of Noir Alley, Eddie Muller's intros and outros gave insight to how the content and dialogue got past the studio censors. Even then, some local censorship boards required editing before it could be shown in their town. The prison slang is a challenge to follow but hypnotic.
As a counterbalance, tonight was the Movie Night with friends with My Favorite Wife. Lots of laugh out loud scenes and lines. Cary Grant plays a lawyer and judging by the enormous zeppelin-hanger-sized rooms of his mansion-like house he does all right and then some. The judge in the courtroom scenes was the crowd favorite tonight.

 

[Fading Fast]

Last week TCM was running the Andy Hardy (Judge Hardy's Family) series with Mickey Rooney. I watched as much of it as I could (which wasn't much) before nausea set in.

I can only watch those for the period details and, then, only for so long. I got mad at Mickey Rooney for his obnoxious portrayal of a Japanese man in "Breakfast at Tiffany" and now it taints every single thing he's in for me.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I hate Mickey Rooney, period. Most of his performances are gratingly over the top. I have never made it through more than a few minutes of an Andy Hardy picture.

The only thing I find interesting about them is how much they exemplify MGM/Louis B. Mayer's efforts in the creation of a mythic "average" America, one so idealized that it's basically propaganda.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Two for the Road" 1967 with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney

It's not a bad movie at all - talented actors, decent script, believable dialogue, beautiful locations and scenery - but it is two hours of sad depressingness which begs the question: is it worth it?

Depressing movies make an implicit contract with the viewer - stay with us for this painful journey as somehow your perspective on life with be enhanced or enriched or ennobled or something deeper down will happen to you that's good.

Opening with the all-too-familiar passive-aggressive hostility of a long-married couple who've stayed together well after the love has gone (if you have any friends like that, you have experienced the feeling of wanting to dig a whole into whatever is under your feet at that moment and dive in) and after, via flashbacks, watching a marriage start kinda upbeat (Audrey's character was, Finny's was insufferable from the get go), you spend two hours watching ten years of a dysfunctional marriage including affairs, anger, tears, tenuous make-ups, constant bickering and recriminations.

Okay, check, got it, there are marriage like that, that survive. They are unpleasant to everyone anywhere near them and, one would think, to the two who are married - but on it spins anyway. What I didn't get was anything enhancing, enriching, ennobling or that bettered me deeper down; what I got was depressed.

That said, kinda cool look at what avant-garde style was in '67. Much of the clothes and architecture look silly now, but some of it holds up and it is a perfect window into that late '60s moment when all was changing.

 

[steve u]

Watched Dunkirk Yesterday(wife and kids out of the country for the summer). Very intense! I guess it won some Academy awards and I can see why. I thought Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance did outstanding jobs. steve

 

[Benzadmiral]

"Two for the Road" 1967 with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney

It's not a bad movie at all - talented actors, decent script, believable dialogue, beautiful locations and scenery - but it is two hours of sad depressingness which begs the question: is it worth it?

. . .

That said, kinda cool look at what avant-garde style was in '67. Much of the clothes and architecture look silly now, but some of it holds up and it is a perfect window into that late '60s moment when all was changing.

I first saw that film on late-night TV when it was only a few years old, so it didn't look vintage to me then. At the time, I was astonished by its technique of switching time periods -- the hair styles and cars were my way to keep up with it at first. And I thought then it was one of the few films that succeeds in making you laugh out loud in one scene when the couple is young, and in the very next, feel the "depressingness" of the current state of their union.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Last movie: The Family Fang, Jason Bateman's sophomore directing effort, with Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken. Almost a detective story, as Bateman and Kidman's brother and sister, who spent their childhoods being used in their parents' "performance art," are told their parents may be dead . . . but Nicole's character doesn't believe it, and they investigate. Based on a novel by one Kevin Wilson, whom I've never read. The film is quite entertaining; I hope his novel isn't one of those "present-tense, not much external happens but the characters undergo internal upheavals" kind of stories.

 

[Fading Fast]

Missed the first twenty or so minutes of the pre-code '33 "Made on Broadway" which is a good-not-great movie, but an exceptional example of why pre-codes are so important at showing us how life in the '30s wasn't as sanitized as the '34-and-on, code-era movies would imply.

In the pre code world:

• A young girl tries to commit suicide as she failed to make a living / find her way in NYC (life is gritty and she was ground down)

• Pretty clear that the same girl (after being rescued and burnished to move in demimonde, but rich, NYC circles) all but becomes a high-priced call girl (a little vague, but sex for money is happening in some way and she's mercenary about it), but then tries to blackmail one of her customers and, when he fights back, she shoots him (she's no code-era woman)

• Robert Montgomery (in his perfect pre-code prime) plays a unscrupulous press agent and isn't punished for doing one sleazy thing after another - fake testimony, phony witnesses, influencing judges, favors exchanged for favorable press treatment (and not "lightly" as done in code-era movies, but straight out dirty dealing). And he steals a prohibition-era drink or two from a hip flask

• A great by-the-way comment about how this young generation - after fighting in WWI - was too cynical to take anything seriously, especially romantic love, which is the opposite attitude - and would undo the plot - of half the code-era movies

• Another women character calls Montgomery out on his sexism (though, that word isn't used) where she tells him off for his desire to be idolized and not have an honest and equal relationship with a woman (which would also undo half the code-era plots and story lines)

• And for our "terms which have disappeared" thread
  • "Butter and egg men" is used to reference unsophisticated hicks spending money frivolously during a trip to NYC
  • "I'll shoot some 'poison and gas' your way" as a WWI reference (it's '33, 14 years after the end of the war)
  • "I tried to be a 'white man' about..." horribly racist, but still period

N.B. Lizzie, our man Eugene Pallette has a small role, but I love seeing him in anything