What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2019 Edition)

[Small Man Big Horse]

I know I have several on my list but I've not seen any, unfortunately... if you do, let me know how you get on!

I watched Happy End (1967) last night and loved it too, it's a film told completely in reverse beginning with the lead's death, but the twist is that he narrates it in the belief that he's just been born, and so you get two very different stories in one as you witness what actually happened and what he thinks is happening. It's very funny throughout, incredibly playful and at 70 minutes a very tightly told, smart and delightful film. 8.1/10

[zomgmouse]

A Story of Floating Weeds. Another silent Ozu, solid drama and some beautiful acting and shots.

Shelley. Middling horror from the director of the excellent Border. Kinda glad I saw the latter first otherwise if I'd seen this first I wouldn't have wanted to see Border. There's a vague demonic pregnancy story that descends into paranoia and it's a little bit unsettling but mainly just uninteresting.

Homebodies. Lovely fun dark comedy about a group of old people who have to leave their building due to development but they don't want to go so they start killing people.

The Bunker. Strange German comedy wherein an unnamed scientist working on an unnamed project decides to rent a room in a bunker owned by an eccentric family and then they make him teach their homeschooled son who looks like a grown man and it's all terrifically bizarre.

[zomgmouse]

I watched Happy End (1967) last night and loved it too, it's a film told completely in reverse beginning with the lead's death, but the twist is that he narrates it in the belief that he's just been born, and so you get two very different stories in one as you witness what actually happened and what he thinks is happening. It's very funny throughout, incredibly playful and at 70 minutes a very tightly told, smart and delightful film. 8.1/10

Ooh that sounds terrific. That is one of the ones I have on my list so hopefully I'll get a chance to see it at some point. Though I do often confuse it with Deep End, which is also amazing.

[Jerzy Bondov]

The Night Comes For Us

Fucking hell, this was something, alright. Indonesian action picture pitched somewhere between The Raid, Crank, and Braindead, I would say.

An elite Triad sort and a few of his beezer buds attempt to protect a wee girl that a whole bunch of other elite Triad sorts are trying to kill.

Absolutely fucking relentless. Epic brawl after brawl after brawl. Waves upon waves of folk getting battered senseless and broken into bits and stabbed through the face and cracked up the skulls with snooker balls and meat cleavers and Jesus only knows what not else. Some of the fights take place in huge, open environments with baddies clattering into the frame from all directions. Some take place in really tight, enclosed spaces, and those rumbles might be more impressive still. The carnage that goes on in the back of a police van, for example, is nothing normal. 

The choreography is utterly fucking stunning throughout. Proper fucking "Holy fucking shit" sort of stuff, but really witty with it. Kind of carrying on that has you laughing even as you're gripping at the back of your neck hard enough to cause a nosebleed. Kind of action set pieces that leave you wondering how the fuck any of the actors or stunt artists ever got out of the thing alive. Definitely the most impressive and the most exhilarating action film I've seen since the aforementioned Gareth Evans marvel. Never lets up for a second.

It's on Netflix, if you have that. I can't recommend it enough.

Totally fucking loved this film. Insanely violent. I rewatched it and pretty much every five minutes I was going 'oh YES it's this bit now'. I think they're doing a sequel with Julie Estelle's character. I can't think of anything I want to see more. That fight she has with the two assassins is unbelievable.

[SteveDave]

Hopefully I'll be watching that ^ tonight.

[hedgehog90]

February (and the tail end of January) new non-new film dump, ranked in descending order of enjoyment:

The Vanishing (1988) - Excellent, loved it. Rounded and perfect like a golden egg! Incredibly dated synth soundtrack sounds like it could be from Ecco the Dolphin or something, strangely appropriate though.

The White Ribbon (2009) - My second Haneke film after Caché. Similarly thought-provoking and engaging, beautifully shot too. When I realised towards the end that it all took place just before the outbreak of WW1 my idea of it morphed quite dramatically and satisfyingly into something entirely different.

Notorious (1946) - A proper Hitchcocker. Don't know why this one isn't among his most highly regarded. I guess the first half is a bit slow, but the second half zips along without stopping for air. Thrilling!

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) - Took a chance on this and was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. Prior to watching I was aware of the book but I'd misunderstood the basic premise. I didn't expect it to be so brooding and dark! Neither did I expect the painting reveal to be quite so horrific. Excellent performances by the evergreen baby-face D.G. and Shitlord Henry.

The Night of the Hunter (1955) - "It's like a fucking nightmare in the best way. One long eerie dream" - ToneLa

Rocco and his Brothers (1960): An Italian family (5 bros & a mam) relocate from a rural part of Italy to Milan, but it turns out one of the brothers is a massive dildo. Did city make him massive dildo or was massive dildo in him all along? Not sure, anyway, what a prat. The film is essentially a depiction of contemporary working class life and the hardship and toil that went with it. Very enjoyable and engaging throughout, held my attention for the entire 3 hr running-time.

True Stories (1986) - I've always loved David Byrne, but now I love him a little bit more. John Goodman is so adorable in it, one of his best performances I thought. I've been repeating the line "I'm 6'3", and maintain a very consistent panda bear shape" over and over in my head since. And what an amazing soundtrack: Dream Operator. Puzzling Evidence. People Like Us (just to name a few, they're all great)

Diabolique (1955) - My first Clouzot film. I found the twist ending a bit hard to swallow at first, it almost seemed tacked on, but going back and seeing how it was subtly hinted at the beginning, realising that it made more sense than the 'fake' plot - was quite satisfying. Rewatching it will be interesting.

Threads (1984) - Watched this with some (spam) chums (Tuesdays, 6-12pm). Since watching Threads, I occasionally see flashes of it and consider the horror of it all, and by 'it' I mean life in general. It was like a 2 hour long air-raid siren in your fucking face. Verging on psychopathic glee in its effort to depict foul grimness... And that ending... Probably the most downbeat film of all time.
4 stars.

High and Low (1963) - Kurosawa never disappoints. His films are consistently solid, this one is no different. 'nuff said.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - The original is OK, but it never struck me as all that great. However the sequel is much more to my liking. Karloff on top sympathetic-monster form, but Dr Pretorius steals the show. Lots of fun and occasionally rather touching.

Island of Lost Souls (1932) - Charles Laughton hamming it up, birthing hairy man freaks (and one lady) from animals. I liked it before even watching it.

Tokyo Story (1953) - My first Ozu. One of the most relaxed films I've seen recently. It's outright audacious in its sedateness at times. But it all comes together towards the end for the gut-punch. I loved the widowed daughter-in-law (Setsuko Hara) and her affecting, if slightly tragic smile. Looking forward to seeing more of her and the dad (Chishū Ryū) in Late Spring and Early Summer, which I'll appropriately watch around late Spring and early Summer this year.

Ace in the Hole (1951) - Is Kirk Douglas still alive? ... (checks Google) ... Yup, he's still at it. A pretty impressive depiction of a massive cunt and his ruthless, selfish endeavor to succeed (talking about the character now, Douglas is OK). Between 1944 to 1960 Billy Wilder seems to be unstoppable, I've yet to see a single clunker.

Andrei Rublev (1966) - My second Tarkovsky film after Solaris. I wish I'd paid more attention at the beginning because it led to a lot of confusion in the middle, as a result I struggled until the halfway mark and it's over 3 hours long. It all finally clicked after the raid sequences, the making of the Bell and the unforgettable epilogue - some powerful shit.

Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) - Not as lovely as The Long Day Closes, but still pretty lovely. The way Terence Davies' films evoke memories of my own (very different) upbringing is weird, like a magic trick. He has a real knack in pinpointing the smallest details to evoke significant memories and emotions. His films, in this respect, are like smells.
I enjoy Terence Davies' smells.

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) - My least favourite Murnau film so far, but still pretty good by normal standards. The first half (Paradise) was rather dull plot-wise, but interesting in that it captured a kind of zestful liveliness of the native people. I much preferred the doom-laden second half though (Paradise Lost). Spoiler: it doesn't have a happy ending :(

Carne (1991) & I Stand Alone (1998) - About a psychopathic, daughter-molesting, French horse-meat butcher bastard. His life spirals out of control and becomes a lengthy revenge fantasy, accompanied by an ever quickening, maddening internal monologue. I think I preferred the succinctness of Carne to its sequel, but I Stand Alone sticks in my memory more. Quite intense and rather unpleasant, but not without a kind of sickening charm.

Of Time and the City (2008) - Terence Davies doc about Liverpool. I can fully immerse myself in his autobiographical films despite having little to no familiarity with the time period/culture of Liverpool in the mid-20th century - but this film felt strangely alienating and I couldn't relate to it as much. Certain music sequences & images stood out and struck me, but not enough to keep me continually engaged. I enjoyed the extras with Davies talking about the film more than the film itself. He is a marvellous speaker, I could listen to him blather on about everything and nothing for hours.

Wrong Move (1975) - The film itself felt like a Wrong Move!! (haha I should write for Empire or something). No, but really, it just seemed like another one with a nitwit protagonist twatting on about life and such. I didn't care about his plight or his various insights.
I don't like excessive dialogue in a Wenders film, I much prefer those with sparse scripts - Alice in the Cities, Kings of the Road and Paris, Texas - but this and Wings of Desire rely too much on words, and the words don't interest me. That said, I didn't hate the film, I engaged with it enough to enjoy it on some level, but it was disappointing.
Also, blimey at the almost-sex scene between Rüdiger Vogler and an adolescent Nastassja Kinski. I later listened to the commentary and Wenders innocently giggles during that scene, recalling Kinski, the cast and crew trying not to laugh during filming, it doesn't seem to cross his mind that it may be considered problematic by today's standards. Actually I found his blitheness more reassuring than if he spoke about it in apologetic terms. Later I watched some of the extras to Kings of the Road and he seemed far more troubled by the shot of Rüdiger taking a big healthy shit, which I personally found kind of inspiring.

Anomalisa (2015) - Not sure, a bit too twee for me. It probably didn't help that I found David Thewlis's voice far more annoying than Tom Noonan's, whose voice was also pretty grating. The slow and torturous sex scene asking to be taken seriously was my breaking point, by that point I just wanted the David Thewlis character to die horribly and leave the poor woman alone. The film, while technically impressive seemed a bit contrived, and ultimately felt like a depressing sigh of not very much.

The Searchers (1956) - My first John Wayne/John Ford film. It was OK. Apparently this was Ford's attempt to depict racism between settlers and natives truthfully, but it's undercut by the fact that a lot it is just racist. John Wayne didn't strike me as all that impressive a figure. Maybe he's more dynamic in his earlier films.

Through a Glass Darkly (1961) - As I mentioned in a previous post, I've really enjoyed other Bergman films, but this and Winter Light left me feeling cold and empty. I still don't really understand the point of it, felt like a chore to get to the end.

Cobra Verde (1987) - Sagging Herzog. Kinski at his most charmless, his true character too much on display. Besides that I can't explain why it didn't work like other Herzog films. It felt incomplete.

In the Mood for Love (2000) - It was clearly well-acted, well-made, etc. but I didn't connect with it in a meaningful way. Found it a bit boring tbh.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) - Or rather the 1929 sound version but made silent again. It didn't engage me, I preferred listening to the commentary track, which didn't seem that interested in the film either. The commentator spent half the running-time talking about the far more interesting topic of lost films, and prompted me to get a copy of the documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time, which I'm looking forward to seeing.

El Topo (1970) - Someone on this forum once described Stewart Lee's act 'the apex of all that is absolute patience-testing wank'. If I was designing a poster for this film this would be the only quote. Not a fan.

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) - Or rather the 1929 sound version but made silent again. It didn't engage me, I preferred listening to the commentary track, which didn't seem that interested in the film either. The commentator spent half the running-time talking about the far more interesting topic of lost films, and prompted me to get a copy of the documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time, which I'm looking forward to seeing.

I've lots to say about some of the other films but am about to head off to bed, but just wanted to mention that I watched that last year though the version I saw had a commentary from Paul F. Tompkins pretending to be Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber over it which made it pretty entertaining, but the film itself was very dull and I wouldn't have stuck with it if it wasn't for Tompkins.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ooh that sounds terrific. That is one of the ones I have on my list so hopefully I'll get a chance to see it at some point. Though I do often confuse it with Deep End, which is also amazing.

It really was and it's all a bit of a must see, and it was so good last night I watched another of his films, The Mysterious Castle In The Carpathians, a comic take on the novel The Carpathian Castle by Jules Verne. It wasn't quite as good as the other three I've seen so far as it takes a little while to get going, but once it does it's extremely engaging stuff and though the gag rate is lower the film is just as charming, and the final half hour is gloriously daft. 7.7/10

[hedgehog90]

I've lots to say about some of the other films but am about to head off to bed, but just wanted to mention that I watched that last year though the version I saw had a commentary from Paul F. Tompkins pretending to be Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber over it which made it pretty entertaining, but the film itself was very dull and I wouldn't have stuck with it if it wasn't for Tompkins.

As much as I love PFT and this type of thing, I can't bring myself to watch it a third (!!) time. It appears to be the original 1925 cut so it's even longer than the version I saw.
For anyone else whose interested in watching quite a dull (but iconic) silent film with someone funny riffing over it:
Paul F Tompkins's Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera

[Small Man Big Horse]

As much as I love PFT and this type of thing, I can't bring myself to watch it a third (!!) time. It appears to be the original 1925 cut so it's even longer than the version I saw.
For anyone else whose interested in watching quite a dull (but iconic) silent film with someone funny riffing over it:
Paul F Tompkins's Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera

Oh god yeah, I don't blame you in the slightest and don't think I could sit through it for a second time as it's such a dull film, it'd have to come with a commentary from Stewart Lee, Maria Bamford, Daniel Kitson, Bob Mortimer and Joseph Morpurgo to get me to even consider doing such a thing!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Joseph And His Amazingly Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999) - Yeah, I'm not going to convince anyone with my thoughts about this so I'll keep it short, and I hate Lloyd-Webber normally, I swear I do, but this is ridiculously over the top camp delight with some great cameos from the likes of Joan Collins, Richard Attenborough and Christopher Biggins (putting on a truly bizarre cockney accent) while Donny Osmond makes for a decent Joseph and Maria Friedman is just superb as the narrator. I can completely understand why some might hate it and it's undoubtedly a lightweight effort, but I still enjoyed it a lot. 7.5/10

[SteveDave]

The Dark Tower (2017)

A bit of a weird mess. Matthew McConaughey forgot how to act again. .

[zomgmouse]

The Haunting. Genuinely unsettling and does so much without showing you much. Does a fantastic job of replicating the dizziness of the book and maintains a great level of humour throughout to couple with the terror.

[Blumf]

John Wick (2014)
Been on our list for ages, and finally got to see it. It was everything I hoped it would be.

[Blue Jam]

The Silent Teacher (2017).

"When people ask me 'What does your wife do?', I say 'She's a teacher...'"

In Chinese culture, many people hold a spiritual belief that it is important to keep the body whole before burial or cremation. Because of this there is a shortage of donated bodies for training medical students. Those who agree to donate their bodies are known as "silent teachers" and greatly respected. This documentary follows the story of Hsu Yu-e as she "teaches" the students of a medical school in Taiwan. They learn anatomy in their practical classes as they dissect her body, but through blessings, ceremonies and chats with her relatives over tea and family photos, they also learn lessons about the significance of death and the celebration of life and love:

https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2111036/film-review-silent-teacher-new-light-shed-body-donation-science

It might sound a bit morbid but it's strangely upbeat and positive, a tale of love and loss and gratitude, and Yu-e's husband Lin Hui-tsung is so twinkly and sweet. As the director said in the Q&A afterwards, it's essentially a love story. Would recommend if you can track it down.

[SteveDave]

Cabin Boy (1995)

Like someone filled the first draft of a script and forgot to write proper jokes or a real storyline.

[hedgehog90]

The Haunting. Genuinely unsettling and does so much without showing you much. Does a fantastic job of replicating the dizziness of the book and maintains a great level of humour throughout to couple with the terror.

I saw it years ago with my mum when she was ill and bed-ridden with the flu, we watched it together on a tiny portable TV.
Back then I was only familiar with modern horror and found it incredibly tame & dull by comparison, so did she.
I think I'd appreciate it a lot more now though. I'll hunt down a copy and re-watch it soon.
Thanks for reminding me.

[Shit Good Nose]

I saw it years ago with my mum when she was ill and bed-ridden with the flu, we watched it together on a tiny portable TV.
Back then I was only familiar with modern horror and found it incredibly tame & dull by comparison, so did she.
I think I'd appreciate it a lot more now though. I'll hunt down a copy and re-watch it soon.
Thanks for reminding me.

It's one of the very very few horror films that scares the bejesus out of me every time I watch it and still does to this day (with 40 just around the corner).  The whole thing is just so odd and eerie.  It's all in that soundtrack, of course.



I watched Tootsie for the first time in ages last night.  I always forget that it's about an hour or so of brilliant LOLs and great lines (and one of the all-time great supporting roles from Sydney Pollack - the look of enthusiastic happiness on his face when Hoffman tells him Charles Durning asked Dorothy to marry him gets me every time) absolutely ruined by that soft-focus bilge of the romantic sub-plot.

"What did she die of?"
"...a disease!"

[Ferris]

Tower (2016)

Rotoscoped/semi-animated documentary about the University of Texas at Austin shooting in 1966. Interesting, but grim and affecting.

[St_Eddie]

The Tower (1993) - An incredibly cheesy science fiction B-movie about an evil killer robot tower building, starring Burke from Aliens.  It features an exploding sauna!  The sort of film that can subjectively be an absolute joy to watch, despite it's objective failings (or 'so bad, it's good', as people who are afraid of using the word 'objective', in relation to art, tend to say).

10 out of 10 - Best film about an evil killer robot tower building ever made.

Clearly nobody cared enough to add it to YouTube's copyright detecting algorithm.

[SteveDave]

First Reformed (2017)

Ethan Hawke still doesn't look old enough to be playing a tired priest. Some excellent barbed wire acting.

[Blinder Data]

They Live (1988)

Enjoyable nonsense. I certainly picked up on some anti-semitism vibes, but I trust that wasn't Carpenter's intention at the time (and perhaps my vies is influenced by David Icke's popular theories since then).

The fight scene in the middle was hilarious. Some lovely homoerotic vibes between Piper and Keith David - presumably Hollywood was too conservative then to let them just have sex to get out all their frustrations with each other.

[Sebastian Cobb]

They Live (1988)

Enjoyable nonsense. I certainly picked up on some anti-semitism vibes, but I trust that wasn't Carpenter's intention at the time (and perhaps my vies is influenced by David Icke's popular theories since then).

Or is it that you simply can't even criticise late-stage capitalism these days.

[Blinder Data]

Or is it that you simply can't even criticise late-stage capitalism these days.

I don't think it's a fundamentally anti-semitic film but I'm not surprised Icke himself has claimed it tells the truth and some neo-nazis love it. The idea of these aliens controlling the world and other humans collaborating with them for material gain is a bit of a red flag. You can criticise late-stage capitalism in a number of ways, but framing the story in terms of an elite all-powerful race leaves one open to criticism.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Fish Tank. It was ok, unsurprisingly quite grim but the whole story was quite predictable really and you could see things coming a mile off.

[Funcrusher]

Fucks sake. The world truly has gone mad if we're claiming that They Live is crypto-antisemitic.

[zomgmouse]

The only way you can claim They Live is a statement about Jews is if you yourself believe Jews are controlling the world or equate with corporations or money. Otherwise it's quite clearly a satire on the systems of wealth and power that control and manipulate us.
That said I don't think I loved it, but mainly because it was just not that great. I'd probably enjoy it more if I kept in mind it was being deliberately a lot sillier than I gave it credit for.

Speaking of musings on the state of the world, I watched The Last Supper, (un)surprisingly still pertinent. I didn't know the central premise going in and I think it's better that way - but it's an interesting film to watch in the era of "is it ok to punch Nazis" being a talking point, as well as the discussions around left-wing complacency becoming more relevant as well. A good bunch of performances - Ron Perlman in particular gives a great turn as someone eerily reminiscent of someone like Jordan Peterson. It's all verges on being a caricature, not just in terms of acting but also the way it's shot and designed - but that kind of fits in with what the film's meant to be - a moral fable, a hypothetical played out for our interest. That's mirrored of course by the hypothetical repeatedly brought up in the film of "if you were a time traveller would you kill Hitler before he started the war". I also really enjoyed the way it seemed to veer dangerously close to a naff centrist "let's just talk about it" conclusion, then dealt a quick, sinister one-two in its finale with the deaths of the students and the rise of Perlman's character - who, coincidentally, says he wouldn't kill Hitler - he'd try to change his mind with reason. Really funny, too. I liked this a lot.

[Shit Good Nose]

The only way you can claim They Live is a statement about Jews is if you yourself believe Jews are controlling the world or equate with corporations or money. Otherwise it's quite clearly a satire on the systems of wealth and power that control and manipulate us.
That said I don't think I loved it, but mainly because it was just not that great. I'd probably enjoy it more if I kept in mind it was being deliberately a lot sillier than I gave it credit for.

Yeah - although my immediate reaction to Blinder's comment was "get to fuck is it!!", but held off as I hadn't seen it for a few years.  So I watched it again last night.

Blinder - get to fuck is it!!!!!!

[phantom_power]

It seems to be the same argument that you can't be anti-capitalism without being antisemitic, which just seems to be protecting the people fucking us over

[Blinder Data]

I specifically said it was not a fundamentally anti-semitic film, just that it left the door open to being criticised as such and I'm not surprised neo-Nazis love it. Though it is not connected, I saw strong parallels Icke's lizard people theory which (I believe) is an anti-semitic theory. As I said, there are many ways to expound anti-capitalism but this is a story about an alien race obsessed with wealth that controls the world and it rang alarm bells for me. But perhaps my anti-semitism receptors are a little highly tuned.