What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I've been watching all the Christmas movies lately - yesterday it was Bell, Book and Candle, White Christmas, Elf, and Home Alone 2.

Well said. Impeccable Christmas movie credentials. So, where do you stand with Scrooge? Sim or Scott? hmmm.?

 

[AmateisGal]

Well said. Impeccable Christmas movie credentials. So, where do you stand with Scrooge? Sim or Scott? hmmm.?

Hmm. I'm not sure which Scrooge I prefer...

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Hmm. I'm not sure which Scrooge I prefer...

I'm similarly torn. Sim has such a method of gloved slippage inside character. Scott, capable man in all but his
Ebenezer lacks sure fingered adroitness. Less the leather strop and more kid glove dexterity is how Dickens wrote him.

 

[EngProf]

Sim, 100%... I don't even bother to watch the others anymore...
(And Jacob Marley's ghost in that one is the best, also.)

 

[AmateisGal]

Just watched Christmas in Connecticut (probably my favorite Christmas movie) and now watching It Happened on Fifth Avenue. I don't know what I'd do without TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

 

[Edward]

Last night I watched Wonder Woman 84, which has *finally* made it to "included with Prime" (is it only me, or since the pandemic have most films taken far, far longer to get past the 'pay us more on top of your subscription' stage?). Oh dear me. Very glad I didn't pay more for it. The biggest flaw is probably the time-shift to the 1980s for no apparent reason - other, perhaps, that that it is of the same quality (albeit with greatly improved f/x) as most 1980s, made-for-television superhero works. I can only assume it was because of the fashionability of the 1980s among those too young to remember them (commercial nostalgia was ever thus; Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris is a sublime meditation on flawed 'Golden Age' thinking. If you've not yet seen either of these films, do yourself a favour and watch that instead of WW84. If you've already seen Midnight in Paris, watch it again instead of WW84. Even if you hated it. Srsly.) The opening sequence is rendered absurd to a George-Lucas degree by having a young child, who appears to be around ten, seriously compete against adults in a physical test. If anything, it's even more absurd than The Phantom Menace's pod racer sequence - and at that, it had Lucas' rubbish to stand as a warning from history. Such a shame, as the first Gadot WW film was a lot of fun, and really stood out in the male-dominated superhero genre. While on the one hand this one is not as mind-crushingly awful as Justice League, it's also simply bad in a Catwoman way, as in it isn't bad enough to tally give in to absurdist camp and takes itself far too seriously to be actually any good. There's possibly an edit of this that might improve things (snipping the entire opening sequence with the child would be an excellent start; it adds absolutely nothing to the plot, which would have been far better served with a montage summary of the first film if anything - save for the fact that would have only served to flag how inferior this sequel truly is). The nonsense of setting it in the eighties which only really even feels relevant to the plot for the brief "comedy" sequence where Chris Pine gamely tries on 1980s clothes, and it's all "hey kids! This is funny because he's from a primitive past where these look futuristic, but they're all, like, really OLD to us future dwellers! It would be interesting to see how the joke about WW not having a TV would land with the kids who are much of the target audience. Save for the few that still live with their parents in my undergraduate class this year, none of them have a TV in the house - and they find linear broadcasting ancient, quaint, and bizarre. I'm also pretty sure Wonder Woman herself would have been more convincing figuring out how to fly a 1980s fighter jet than a reincarnated WW1 pilot....

Other than that, it's at least an hour too long. Honestly, George Lucas couldn't have made a worse picture. Avoid.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Oh geez, Edward, you shouldn't have bothered. Wonder Woman 1984 is an unmitigated disaster, and all the worse because I really liked Wonder Woman - to my mind, it's the only one of the last decade of DC superhero films that was actually mostly good. (And with what's going on at Warners/DC now, who knows if they'll ever get their act together? One week they announce that Henry Cavill will play Superman again, then the next that he's out and they want to reboot with a younger Supes.)

A couple of reviews:

Amsterdam (2022) - Let me say for the record that I do not like most of David O. Russell's films. I didn't much like this one either, but it's fairly entertaining with its well-done (teens to thirties) period setting and downright awesome cast: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Zoe Saldana, Anya-Taylor Joy, Rami Malek, Chris Rock, Allesandro Nivola, Taylor Swift, Robert De Niro... Apparently, there's a trace of real history to the story, but it plays out entirely in very modern ideas that nobody would have had back then. It looks good, but meh.

Blonde (2022) - I watched this because director Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one of my favorite movies of the last few years. Okay, so this is the Marilyn Monroe story via the Joyce Carol Oates novel (already adapted as a TV miniseries 20 years ago, which I saw), this time with a long runtime, huge budget, and NC-17 rating. I have to rate it two ways:

As a production, it's fantastic. Ana de Armas (who before this I'd only seen in her one-scene-wonder role in No Time to Die) gives a tremendous performance: I've seen a lot of actresses play Marilyn, and she's as good, if not better, than any of them. I can't imagine that she won't get an Oscar nomination. The rest of the cast, including her husbands - Bobby Cannavale as "the ex-athlete" and Adrien Brody as "the playwright" - are also great. Cinematography, costumes, recreations of her films and photos, everything is outstanding.

(But the production is overwrought in some ways: the film keeps switching between black and white and color, and it uses FOUR different aspect ratios. If there's a rationale for this, like "Norma" is always b/w and "Marilyn" is always color, or the earlier flashbacks are in narrower aspect ratios, it's NOT clear. I looked at a couple of reviews that made the same point, what are these image differences representing? They're cool to see, but why?)

As far as telling Marilyn's story... it's relentlessly downbeat. The overall approach (from the Oates novel and other earlier bios/biopics) is that Norma Jean is the real person, and Marilyn a construct. She thinks of it that way herself, and we even see her full-time makeup artist "Whitey" transforming her several times, saying stuff like, "Marilyn is coming... she's almost here."

She is portrayed throughout as a victim... of her attractiveness, of the studio system, of the overall patriarchy. She has almost no agency at any point, and is generally doing whatever her nutjob mother, the studio bosses, the men in her life, etc., are laying out for her. Even her unique talents are constantly ignored, she's just a severely wounded creature who happens to be sexy. This is not how you expect a reconsideration of the Marilyn story to play out in 2022, to say the least.

And as somebody who's seen all the other biopics and read most of the biographies, I was flummoxed that the film presents her at the beginning of her stardom as part of a triad relationship with Charlie Chaplin, Jr. and Edward G. Robinson, Jr. (One of the reasons for the NC-17.) What? Is this made up and as fanciful as some other things in the film (like the internal POV shots of each of her developing fetuses before her abortion and miscarriages)?

Worth seeing for the performances and production values, but it's far from a definitive take on Marilyn's story. And be warned: it's brutal and disturbing.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Amsterdam's trailer said it all, heavy cast cameo, feather light script. Vapid, voluptuous beauty, some marquee.
WW redux, similar, though because Gal, gave it a try....
Ana is indescribable. Adolescent male sin eyeful dream girl. She is in the latest Bond I've heard.
Saw Chatterly after France. Substance wins.

 

[AmateisGal]

I actually liked Wonder Woman 84 - but it's definitely not as good as the first one.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I actually liked Wonder Woman 84 - but it's definitely not as good as the first one.

Gal Godot can speak with her eyes alone. She needs a substantive script, something truly right.
Embarrassed to admit but offhand I am lost for book or novel appropriate for her. Patricia Highsmith
might have scratched something yet unseen. Anyway, she needs to leave WW forever.

 

[Bushman]

Gal Godot can speak with her eyes alone. She needs a substantive script, something truly right.
Embarrassed to admit but offhand I am lost for book or novel appropriate for her. Patricia Highsmith
might have scratched something yet unseen. Anyway, she needs to leave WW forever.

Despite the whining of the idjits, I am VERY much looking forward to her as Cleopatra.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Sim, 100%... I don't even bother to watch the others anymore...
(And Jacob Marley's ghost in that one is the best, also.)

Sim's undeniable skill made Scrooge come alive while his Marley also slid his gloved hand deftly.
A more taciturn portrayal of Jacob Marley where Scott's man seems to play off George C.'s boorish
saturnine Scrooge. I enjoy both men and Dickens I would guess would favor Sim, while definitely intrigued if not impressed by Scott's try at the miser. Dickens had an antipathy for Americans, perhaps evidence of a biased
mindset occasioned by his rough childhood. A shoe black whose father served debtor imprisonment, he had
to take life on harsh terms and this might account certain flaws of character though bestowing a treasure returned.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Despite the whining of the idjits, I am VERY much looking forward to her as Cleopatra.

First learning of this. Well, Gal has the looks so if the script is proper should be good.

 

[Fading Fast]

Billy Liar from 1963 with Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie


Julie Christie, hold that thought, more in a moment.

Being an adult is hard; taking on responsibilities is hard; mainly doing the right thing every single day is hard, but the large majority of people do it.

Many also escape into daydreams now and then - on an elevator, in a particularly boring and pointless meeting, during a commute - to relieve the pressures of real life with no harm done.

Ostensibly, Billy Liar is about a young man whose daydreams, whose fantasy life overtakes and undermines his real life, but that's garbage as it gets cause and effect backwards.

He's a young man who doesn't want to grow up and take on responsibilities, so he created an extensive fantasy world that he escapes into. The cause is his immaturity and stalled life; the effect is his highly developed fantasy world and not the other way around.

Tim Courtenay plays the character Billy Fisher, the titular Billy Liar, as a young man who feels put upon by his job, his family and his girlfriends, so he believes he is justified in lying to everyone when it suits his needs.

He lies to get out of work, avoid family responsibility, miss a date or not pay a bill. He also lies because he is engaged to two women and doesn't want to marry either - yup.

While he's avoiding being a decent human being in the real world, we see that in his fantasy world he is the strong and beloved leader of the made-up country of Ambrosia. In his fantasy world, he also machine guns down people in the real world who annoy him (we've all had that fantasy).

In truth, he's an average guy, with average middle-class English parents, an average clerking job and average girlfriends. Yet he wants to be more - a script writer - but doesn't want to do the hard work necessary to get there.

So instead, he escapes into his fantasy world for fun, while back in the real world, he lies to everyone about everything to cover up his laziness, selfishness, deceitfulness and petty thievery.

The "disaffected young man" was a big thing in English cinema at the time, but the characters in most of the other movies often had genuine grievances and were trying to push ahead faster than staid British norms allowed.

Courtenay, though, is just a lazy, sniveling young man who wants his wishes to become reality by magic and is mad that they don't. He's not an antihero like many of his film cognates of the era.

He does have a fair complaint when he tells his father he's tired of being told he should be grateful for everything he's had - a home, schooling and job - as if he asked to be born. Yet your parents laying on the "you should be grateful" speech too thick isn't justification for you becoming angry at the world.

Enter Julie Christie playing a girl also looking to break out of her humdrum life and town. Not knowing all his faults, she sees a kindred spirit in Courtenay and asks him to escape to London with her.

Christie is young, beautiful, lit from within and has a smile that says the world can't be an all-bad place, yet Courtenay treats her like just another person to be lied to.

The climax (no spoilers follow) comes down to whether or not dreamer Courtenay will take this chance to maybe realize one of his fantasies in the real world.

Billy Liar is a dreary version of a Walter Mitty story (did the sun ever break out in 1960s England?) with a thoroughly unlikable lead character. If not for the too-late appearance of Julie Christie, on the brink of 1960s movie mega stardom, the picture would have been drudgery from beginning to end.

Director John Schlesinger was openly gay back then, a time when that was not easy, so it's been argued Billy Liar is realy a palliated tale of a gay man unable to fit into straight British society. That's a serious topic and maybe something Schlesinger buried layers deep, but no normal viewer is going to say "oh, I get it, Billy is really gay."

Billy Liar is aptly named because, stripped of all the daydreaming excuses, that is what Courtenay's character is and nobody, in real life or in a movie, likes a habitual liar. The movie, though, shot in beautiful black and white, does provide a time capsule look at early 1960s England. But the real reason to watch Billy Liar is to see ethereally lovely Julie Christie light up the screen.

 

[Edward]

A Christmas Karen on Prime. Lots of fun. Very much a contemporary parody, but deftly so, without mocking the intent of the original. In tine, not a million miles away from Bill Murray's Scrooged. The ghosts are very nicely done, a lot of fun had there with a modernised take thereon which nonetheless remains true to, well, the spirit of the originals (pun very much intended). The resolution is also nicely played out, retaining appropriate sentiment without sinking to cloying sentimentality (or, indeed, uncomfortable tropes). The nods to the Sim version (seen on televisions during several major points of the story) is a little heavy-handed, but still works as a nice homage to the original Dickens version of the story.

 

[Worf]

"Smile" - Wow... Somewhat similar in overall theme to "It Follows" a young psychiatrist finds herself pursued by a "demon" who travels from person to person after they view the previous victim's suicide. It's an intriguing premise that is helped by outstanding performances all around. The direction is also well done and the visuals really add to the overall feeling of dread.

The one key question in the film is, is there really something "supernatural" involved or is this all a result of mental illness. Our heroine is a devoted therapist going the extra mile to help her patients. But we learn early on that she's haunted by her mother's suicide. Also as her life turns inside out, one horrific incident at a time, we witness family, co-workers, lovers and friends begin to dismiss her tales.... She is repeatedly shown screaming that "nobody is listening" when she tries to explain the hellish things she sees that they cannot.

Definitely NOT feel good or holiday themed affair but if you need a palate cleanser from all the feel goodishness this is one to view. I was bothered for days by this one...

Worf

PS, whatever you do do NOT watch the trailer.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

A Christmas Karen on Prime. Lots of fun. Very much a contemporary parody, but deftly so, without mocking the intent of the original. In tine, not a million miles away from Bill Murray's Scrooged. The ghosts are very nicely done, a lot of fun had there with a modernised take thereon which nonetheless remains true to, well, the spirit of the originals (pun very much intended). The resolution is also nicely played out, retaining appropriate sentiment without sinking to cloying sentimentality (or, indeed, uncomfortable tropes). The nods to the Sim version (seen on televisions during several major points of the story) is a little heavy-handed, but still works as a nice homage to the original Dickens version of the story.

Scrim Shaw Scrooge Sim or Scott? Alliterative ad infinitum stab quite intentional. Stuck in the mud like Hegel's
slipper, Sim haunts Scott though either will do in a pinch. Sim, dammit is the man. Who was it that reluctantly
cited Hugo as la belle France's best and brightest literary son? No matter. Next they'll be after Quasimodo,
after killing Bond, Q gets queered and gargoyle really tosses Esmeralda off Notre Dame.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

View attachment 474493
Billy Liar from 1963 with Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie


Julie Christie, hold that thought, more in a moment.

Being an adult is hard; taking on responsibilities is hard; mainly doing the right thing every single day is hard, but the large majority of people do it.

Many also escape into daydreams now and then - on an elevator, in a particularly boring and pointless meeting, during a commute - to relieve the pressures of real life with no harm done.

Ostensibly, Billy Liar is about a young man whose daydreams, whose fantasy life overtakes and undermines his real life, but that's garbage as it gets cause and effect backwards.

He's a young man who doesn't want to grow up and take on responsibilities, so he created an extensive fantasy world that he escapes into. The cause is his immaturity and stalled life; the effect is his highly developed fantasy world and not the other way around.

Tim Courtenay plays the character Billy Fisher, the titular Billy Liar, as a young man who feels put upon by his job, his family and his girlfriends, so he believes he is justified in lying to everyone when it suits his needs.

He lies to get out of work, avoid family responsibility, miss a date or not pay a bill. He also lies because he is engaged to two women and doesn't want to marry either - yup.

While he's avoiding being a decent human being in the real world, we see that in his fantasy world he is the strong and beloved leader of the made-up country of Ambrosia. In his fantasy world, he also machine guns down people in the real world who annoy him (we've all had that fantasy).

In truth, he's an average guy, with average middle-class English parents, an average clerking job and average girlfriends. Yet he wants to be more - a script writer - but doesn't want to do the hard work necessary to get there.

So instead, he escapes into his fantasy world for fun, while back in the real world, he lies to everyone about everything to cover up his laziness, selfishness, deceitfulness and petty thievery.

The "disaffected young man" was a big thing in English cinema at the time, but the characters in most of the other movies often had genuine grievances and were trying to push ahead faster than staid British norms allowed.

Courtenay, though, is just a lazy, sniveling young man who wants his wishes to become reality by magic and is mad that they don't. He's not an antihero like many of his film cognates of the era.

He does have a fair complaint when he tells his father he's tired of being told he should be grateful for everything he's had - a home, schooling and job - as if he asked to be born. Yet your parents laying on the "you should be grateful" speech too thick isn't justification for you becoming angry at the world.

Enter Julie Christie playing a girl also looking to break out of her humdrum life and town. Not knowing all his faults, she sees a kindred spirit in Courtenay and asks him to escape to London with her.

Christie is young, beautiful, lit from within and has a smile that says the world can't be an all-bad place, yet Courtenay treats her like just another person to be lied to.

The climax (no spoilers follow) comes down to whether or not dreamer Courtenay will take this chance to maybe realize one of his fantasies in the real world.

Billy Liar is a dreary version of a Walter Mitty story (did the sun ever break out in 1960s England?) with a thoroughly unlikable lead character. If not for the too-late appearance of Julie Christie, on the brink of 1960s movie mega stardom, the picture would have been drudgery from beginning to end.

Director John Schlesinger was openly gay back then, a time when that was not easy, so it's been argued Billy Liar is realy a palliated tale of a gay man unable to fit into straight British society. That's a serious topic and maybe something Schlesinger buried layers deep, but no normal viewer is going to say "oh, I get it, Billy is really gay."

Billy Liar is aptly named because, stripped of all the daydreaming excuses, that is what Courtenay's character is and nobody, in real life or in a movie, likes a habitual liar. The movie, though, shot in beautiful black and white, does provide a time capsule look at early 1960s England. But the real reason to watch Billy Liar is to see ethereally lovely Julie Christie light up the screen.
View attachment 474494

I never fancied Julie. Not even in Zhivago. Though her turn with Hardy's Madding gave Bathsheba
what for, still nothing, none sparked. Billy Liar is occasionally seen here, with today's adrift crowd, not a pun.
It makes this film hard rock solid. Youthful insouciance gone wrong. Twisted immaturity, advanced adolescence
whatever but relevant to time and this England. I've met his similar self at university, hid the lad and boy.
Aimless bereft drift. Neither reason nor rhyme, absolutely none.

 

[Frunobulax]

View attachment 474493
Billy Liar from 1963 with Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie


Julie Christie, hold that thought, more in a moment.

Being an adult is hard; taking on responsibilities is hard; mainly doing the right thing every single day is hard, but the large majority of people do it.

Many also escape into daydreams now and then - on an elevator, in a particularly boring and pointless meeting, during a commute - to relieve the pressures of real life with no harm done.

Ostensibly, Billy Liar is about a young man whose daydreams, whose fantasy life overtakes and undermines his real life, but that's garbage as it gets cause and effect backwards.

He's a young man who doesn't want to grow up and take on responsibilities, so he created an extensive fantasy world that he escapes into. The cause is his immaturity and stalled life; the effect is his highly developed fantasy world and not the other way around.

Tim Courtenay plays the character Billy Fisher, the titular Billy Liar, as a young man who feels put upon by his job, his family and his girlfriends, so he believes he is justified in lying to everyone when it suits his needs.

He lies to get out of work, avoid family responsibility, miss a date or not pay a bill. He also lies because he is engaged to two women and doesn't want to marry either - yup.

While he's avoiding being a decent human being in the real world, we see that in his fantasy world he is the strong and beloved leader of the made-up country of Ambrosia. In his fantasy world, he also machine guns down people in the real world who annoy him (we've all had that fantasy).

In truth, he's an average guy, with average middle-class English parents, an average clerking job and average girlfriends. Yet he wants to be more - a script writer - but doesn't want to do the hard work necessary to get there.

So instead, he escapes into his fantasy world for fun, while back in the real world, he lies to everyone about everything to cover up his laziness, selfishness, deceitfulness and petty thievery.

The "disaffected young man" was a big thing in English cinema at the time, but the characters in most of the other movies often had genuine grievances and were trying to push ahead faster than staid British norms allowed.

Courtenay, though, is just a lazy, sniveling young man who wants his wishes to become reality by magic and is mad that they don't. He's not an antihero like many of his film cognates of the era.

He does have a fair complaint when he tells his father he's tired of being told he should be grateful for everything he's had - a home, schooling and job - as if he asked to be born. Yet your parents laying on the "you should be grateful" speech too thick isn't justification for you becoming angry at the world.

Enter Julie Christie playing a girl also looking to break out of her humdrum life and town. Not knowing all his faults, she sees a kindred spirit in Courtenay and asks him to escape to London with her.

Christie is young, beautiful, lit from within and has a smile that says the world can't be an all-bad place, yet Courtenay treats her like just another person to be lied to.

The climax (no spoilers follow) comes down to whether or not dreamer Courtenay will take this chance to maybe realize one of his fantasies in the real world.

Billy Liar is a dreary version of a Walter Mitty story (did the sun ever break out in 1960s England?) with a thoroughly unlikable lead character. If not for the too-late appearance of Julie Christie, on the brink of 1960s movie mega stardom, the picture would have been drudgery from beginning to end.

Director John Schlesinger was openly gay back then, a time when that was not easy, so it's been argued Billy Liar is realy a palliated tale of a gay man unable to fit into straight British society. That's a serious topic and maybe something Schlesinger buried layers deep, but no normal viewer is going to say "oh, I get it, Billy is really gay."

Billy Liar is aptly named because, stripped of all the daydreaming excuses, that is what Courtenay's character is and nobody, in real life or in a movie, likes a habitual liar. The movie, though, shot in beautiful black and white, does provide a time capsule look at early 1960s England. But the real reason to watch Billy Liar is to see ethereally lovely Julie Christie light up the screen.
View attachment 474494

Man, if Julie Christy looked at me like that, I wouldn't lie to her.

Hell, I'd probably just babble incoherently.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Semmelrogge...

Uncut 1985 TV series (282 min).