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What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2018 Edition)

Started by zomgmouse, January 07, 2018, 12:20:15 PM

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Steven

#360
My Friend Dahmer 2017

Based on the graphic novel by a bloke who was at school with Dahmer, basically quite a realistic portrayal of a goofy but deeply disturbed boy who makes superficial friendships with the other boys around him through doing stunts like pretending to have fits and 'spazmo' impressions. The social circle he acquires treat him more of a curio or mascot only fit for Court Jestering rather than the friend he thinks he is, it's a sad and pitiful existence until his obsessions start to rise to the fore and the inkling of things to come turns chilling.


Gregory Torso

^ That sounds interesting. Cheers, Steven.

Quote from: zomgmouse on March 05, 2018, 01:03:40 AM
Ms. 45. Blew me away. I was enthralled. It's really difficult to watch, especially at the start, but it's amazing.
I've written some more words on my letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/zomgmouse/film/ms-45/

Yes! I saw this last year some time. It's a tough watch but really great. Zoe Lund is breathtakingly beautiful.

Dr Syntax Head

I need to watch that Dahmer film. And those graphics are funny as hell. BAAAAAAAAAAAA!

So wrong

itsfredtitmus

Quote from: Sin Agog on March 05, 2018, 07:24:11 AM
That wedding scene is one of my favourite things. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kCrrjp2epY
i heard a lot about the wedding scene before I went in but I think the court scene with lou was funnier


St_Eddie

I too have watched My Friend Dahmer and it's going to take something extraordinary to topple this as the best film of 2018.  It's absolutely superb.  Dark, disturbing and perhaps even beautiful.  Like with the portrayal of Hitler in Downfall, it doesn't demonise its subject and is all the better for it.  10/10

bgmnts

Veronica. Got a bit bored halfway through but it picked up during the second half.

Definitely not the scariest horror film ever, according to the NME, but it's pretty decent. Usual seance paranormal shit, you all know the score.

I thought the lead actress Sandra Escacena was really good and the child actors were quite good too. The little boy was too adorable and goofy though.

There were some cool shots in the film though, at the start of the film there was a nice transition from the end of events to the beginning.

7/10

Z

Harlan County USA
Still great but also depressing
I liked this scene a lot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYSRYAwh3UM


Golden Exits
My opinion of this film is totally lopsided due to it shooting on 16mm. A film with a reasonable budget shot competently in 2016 NYC on 16mm is gonna look great to me.
The slightest of Alex Ross Perry's films, very forgettable but with enough to it for me to keep expecting a lot from him.

Gregory Torso

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 05, 2018, 06:36:14 PM
I too have watched My Friend Dahmer and it's going to take something extraordinary to topple this as the best film of 2018.  It's absolutely superb.  Dark, disturbing and perhaps even beautiful.  Like with the portrayal of Hitler in Downfall, it doesn't demonise its subject and is all the better for it.  10/10

I watched this last night and thought it was amazing. Ross Lynch plays Dahmer really well, perfect balance of pathetic, lonely almost sympathetic outsider and creepy, psycho, weird arsehole. I also liked how, I presume, the guy who wrote it was the one in the film who did the drawing, and he wasn't afraid to show himself as being a bit of a shithead. The bit in the mall was just painful to watch. The only thing I didn't like was the end which seemed a little too on the nose. But god, what a film.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 06, 2018, 03:49:51 AM
...I presume, the guy who wrote it was the one in the film who did the drawing...

He was/is indeed.  John "Derf" Backderf.

Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 06, 2018, 03:49:51 AM...and he wasn't afraid to show himself as being a bit of a shithead.

I read an interview with Backderf the other day and he talked about exactly this.  He explained how there's no room for vanity and self-editing revisionism of oneself, when dealing with an autobiographical recollection.  One's ego has to be left at the door, so that the truth may be shown.  Which is the correct approach to take.

Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 06, 2018, 03:49:51 AMThe bit in the mall was just painful to watch.

Wasn't it just?  That scene was the highlight of the film, I thought.

Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 06, 2018, 03:49:51 AMThe only thing I didn't like was the end which seemed a little too on the nose. But god, what a film.

If you're referring to the scene with the baseball bat, then I absolutely agree.  That didn't ring true and I suspect, was invented purely for the narrative of the film.  I doubt it was even included in the original graphic novel.  If you're referring to Dahmer meeting his first victim, Steven Hicks (which is technically the last scene of the film), then I disagree because by all accounts, that was true to actual events and the perfect way to end the film, I thought; stopping just before Dahmer committed his first murder.  Quite apt for a film which deals with the pre-murder life of Dahmer and showing the events which led to him feeling compelled to kill.

By the way, I also recommend the film Dhamer (2002).  It deals with the events of Jeffery Dahmer, following the ones depicted in My Friend Dahmer and is also excellent.  It's not as masterful as the latter and there are more liberties taken with the factual aspects of his life but it's still very good and a worthy companion piece to My Friend Dahmer.

Custard

Flatliners (1990) - So I can finally tick this off my "To Watch" list.

It's a solid and interesting premise, and although I found bits here and there a bit dated or duff, it's a really well made film, and I was invested throughout

Jack Bauer, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon all in their prime. One of the Baldwins. That bloke from the first season of Fargo. Solid

4 pancakes, bit of syrup

Gregory Torso

Yeah - St Eddie, I meant the bit with the baseball bat. Just an unnecessary fake bit of tension. We already realise that Dahmers gone beyond the point of no return and is ready to snap.

Steven

Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 06, 2018, 10:18:59 AM
Yeah - St Eddie, I meant the bit with the baseball bat. Just an unnecessary fake bit of tension. We already realise that Dahmers gone beyond the point of no return and is ready to snap.

I suspect it was a bit of creative license in a conflation of two separate events - Dahmer's very real plan to knock out a particular jogger he was stalking with a baseball bat and have sex with his unconscious body, and he probably did try to get Backderf or various other lads round to an empty house to get drunk so he could try something similar. Backderf and many others weren't really more than acquaintances with a morbid curiosity in Dahmer so probably never took the bait - but in sharp relief of hindsight he can probably imagine what Dahmer's gameplan might have been. Hence the scene in the film to add a bit of tension and foreshadowing.


St_Eddie

#373
Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 06, 2018, 10:18:59 AM
Yeah - St Eddie, I meant the bit with the baseball bat. Just an unnecessary fake bit of tension. We already realise that Dahmers gone beyond the point of no return and is ready to snap.

Yep.

Quote from: Steven on March 06, 2018, 10:32:31 AM
I suspect it was a bit of creative license in a conflation of two separate events - Dahmer's very real plan to knock out a particular jogger he was stalking with a baseball bat and have sex with his unconscious body, and he probably did try to get Backderf or various other lads round to an empty house to get drunk so he could try something similar. Backderf and many others weren't really more than acquaintances with a morbid curiosity in Dahmer so probably never took the bait - but in sharp relief of hindsight he can probably imagine what Dahmer's gameplan might have been. Hence the scene in the film to add a bit of tension and foreshadowing.

I agree that's the reason for the scene to be in the film but I still don't like it.  It seems a shame to include that scene as a way of artificially creating tension, when the film had done so well to stick to the relative truth, up until that point.  It's a bit of a nitpick though because I think that's it's an incredible film and is already within my top 20 films of all time.  It's just, dang; it would have been absolutely perfect and flawless, in my mind, if not for that one moment of trying to appease to the lowest common denominator of the slasher crowd.

Regardless of intent, as @Gregory Torso said, the film simply didn't need that moment.  It would have been better if Derf had simply rejected Dahmer's invitation for a beer and driven off.  Dahmer would then be all the more alone and lost; a great setup for his meeting with Steven Hicks and his subsequent first kill (which was done because Dahmer didn't want Hicks to leave him, as everyone else had; which is Dahmer's account for why he killed Hicks).

There was no call to create a fictionalised event of Derf realising that Dahmer wanted to kill him and him hastily driving away, as Dahmer stands watching him, baseball bat in hand.  That's pure Hollywood bullshit and is in stark contract to every other aspect, approach and nuance which this film so brilliantly took.

Shit Good Nose

Peckinpah's The Killer Elite for the first time in about 20 years.  For me his worst film by some margin.  That place would otherwise be occupied The Osterman Weekend, but it's the dreadfully lame ninja stuff that kills Elite.  Pretty clear throughout that James Caan didn't really want to be there.

The Conspiracy.  Canadian faux documentary with a bit of found footage thrown in.  Watchable enough, but as with nearly all of those types of films it's a little bit low-rent with little impact.

Finally caught up with The Revanant.  Very very good, although I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit disappointed the second and third acts weren't that close to what actually happened (or what is alleged to have happened).  I DO know it's based more on the novel that fictionalised a lot of events, though.

Tha Jazz Singer (the Neil Diamond one).  Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.  Along with Inchon, proves that Olivier could be howlingly bad - the Razzie he won was well deserved.  Mind you, Hey Louise is a great fucking song.

Hell and Back.  Very mediocre adult stop-motion comedy with a cast that promises so much more than it delivers.  Seems to be a male rape joke every couple of minutes.  The stop motion is great, but everything else lets it down massively.

Peckinpah's Killer Elite is fucking gash

Peckinpah made three absolute howlers, Killer Elite, Convoy and Osterman Weekend

Of those three I think only Osterman Weekend isn't a total embarrassing mess

phantom_power

Crocodile Dundee - less funny than I remember. More swearing. About the same amount of problematic sexism. They spend more time in Australia than I remember as well. I thought it was 10 minutes at the start before the fish out of water stuff begins but almost half the film is spent down under

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Monsieur Verdoux on March 06, 2018, 02:54:39 PM
Peckinpah's Killer Elite is fucking gash

Peckinpah made three absolute howlers, Killer Elite, Convoy and Osterman Weekend

Of those three I think only Osterman Weekend isn't a total embarrassing mess

I dunno, I've always had quite a soft spot for Convoy.  Of course it's not up there with his best, or even his second tier films, but as a film about truckers based on a song goes, it's not that bad.  Good comedy turn from Ernest Borgnine as well.  And Kris Kristofferson has been a lot worse.

But yeah - Killer Elite and Osterman Weekend are shit for cunts.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: phantom_power on March 06, 2018, 03:09:52 PM
Crocodile Dundee - less funny than I remember. More swearing. About the same amount of problematic sexism.

I still like it.  Very of its time, of course.  But on the sexism front, you have to keep in mind that it has elements of an Ocker film about it, and the two go hand in hand.  ...er...hand on breast.

phantom_power

Yeah, I was being a bit facetious there. I imagine if a reboot were made now though a lot of that stuff would not make the transition

itsfredtitmus

a new leaf
~ヾ(^∇^)

somewhere between housekeeping and albert brooks

gonna rush out and do heartbreak kid and mikey and nicky in the next few days

itsfredtitmus

flesh
i'm marrying Jackie Curtis

wish I wasn't aware of paul morrissey being a huge right wing reactionary because the entire film just comes off as snidey knowing that dun it

itsfredtitmus

actually, thinking about it now, if you like a new leaf you should DEFINITELY see bill forsyth's housekeeping

Custard

Gaslight (1940) - Anton Walbrook is great as a coniving bastard husband trying to send his wife (Diana Wyngard) insane. Lovely stuff

4 cheese slice, no crackers

itsfredtitmus

restless natives
wonderful bill forsyth tribute

forerunner to the neo-ealing exercises of Waking Ned and co

greenman

Leos Carax's Boy Beets Girl, first thing of his I'v seen other than Holy Motors and I preferred it to that, actually reminds me somewhat of a more depressed Double Life of Veronique, same kind of whoozy tragic romantic atmosphere, generally very good looking but especially the way its lead actress is filmed. I'm struggling to think of many shots better than...


itsfredtitmus

mauvais sang had too much of that godard / early besson for me

Holy Motors is great with friends everybody loves the accordion scene

zomgmouse

Two double features I attended recently:

William Castle double:
- The Tingler, delightfully schlocky fare with Vincent Price surprisingly dialling down the ham. A sparse crowd so nobody really screamed at the end when the film tells you to scream. It's a lot of fun though and puts in some silly twists.
- Strait-Jacket. Joan Crawford freaks out a bunch. Written by Psycho's Robert Bloch. More melodrama than I expected but still not bad.

Another Cassavetes double:
- Faces. Stupendous. Probably the best one I've seen so far. So deeply earnest and funny and bleak. Just marvellous.
- Minnie and Moskowitz. This film was nuts. Cassel was totally unhinged. I'm still trying to get to grips with this film. Also incredibly hilarious. Zelmo Swift, what a creation. Everything in this defies sense. And of course there's some devastating moments too.

Quote from: itsfredtitmus on March 07, 2018, 03:32:03 AM
a new leaf
~ヾ(^∇^)

somewhere between housekeeping and albert brooks

gonna rush out and do heartbreak kid and mikey and nicky in the next few days

Yeah this is terrific. Why I didn't go and wolf down her other films immediately is beyond me.

Quote from: Shameless Custard on March 07, 2018, 05:48:34 AM
Gaslight (1940) - Anton Walbrook is great as a coniving bastard husband trying to send his wife (Diana Wyngard) insane. Lovely stuff

4 cheese slice, no crackers

Nice to see the original adaptation of the play getting some airing; the later version is obviously more famous but has its flaws. For me neither has come close to capturing the fear and claustrophobia of the play.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 05, 2018, 11:38:07 AM
Zoe Lund is breathtakingly beautiful.

It's a fantastic film but I don't think that's a particularly appropriate reaction given the subject matter.

Blumf

Quote from: zomgmouse on March 05, 2018, 01:03:40 AM
Ms. 45. Blew me away. I was enthralled. It's really difficult to watch, especially at the start, but it's amazing.
I've written some more words on my letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/zomgmouse/film/ms-45/

Some John Maus works rather well with the party scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5P8T8HliWc