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

[greenman]

Pretty good sale on the Arrow website right now if you sign up as a member.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Last Year At Marienbad - gorgeously shot and incredibly ambitious piece, but one that failed to drag me along for its baffling ride.

Just in case you missed it that's the film we're currently discussing in the CaB film club thread: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,72533.30.html

[sevendaughters]

Just in case you missed it that's the film we're currently discussing in the CaB film club thread: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,72533.30.html

I might pop some proper thoughts in tomorrow then, cheers.

[Epic Bisto]

As I'm on annual leave, I've had a little more time on my hands then usual.  Me and the wife have had the chance to see:

A Clockwork Orange at the cinema.  It was a wonderful assault on the senses and it made a change to watching it on DVD.
Born Of Fire - mid 80s trippy and nightmarish, kinda like if Jodorowsky was given free reign to go nuts in the UK.
Take A Girl Like You - so-so Jonathan Miller vehicle starring Hayley Mills and Oliver Reed.  It was alright, I guess.

Also, I've been doing a spot of writing so punished myself by writing about some grot: https://tremendousproteinvalue.blogspot.com/2019/04/is-that-aneurysm-or-are-you-just-happy.html

[DukeDeMondo]

Since it was mentioned on the previous page, this is the proper way to watch Threads, in my opinion.

The War Game. That first. Absolutely.

Then all the Protect And Survive films, which are all on YouTube.

Then the Panorama special "If The Bomb Drops," which is also on YouTube.

Then When The Wind Blows (if you have the Blu-Ray of that, the P&S films are all on there too)

Then Threads.

I went through a long enough old spell of watching all of those things in that order, over and over. My head wasn't half right but it was the way to do it.

[Mr Banlon]

You'll have to watch Dr Strangelove after that lot just to cheer yourself up.

[Shit Good Nose]

You'll have to watch Dr Strangelove after that lot just to cheer yourself up.

And then Fail-Safe as the Strangelove played absolutely dead fucking serious to start the cycle all over again.

[St_Eddie]

Since it was mentioned on the previous page, this is the proper way to watch Threads, in my opinion.

The War Game. That first. Absolutely.

Then all the Protect And Survive films, which are all on YouTube.

Then the Panorama special "If The Bomb Drops," which is also on YouTube.

Then When The Wind Blows (if you have the Blu-Ray of that, the P&S films are all on there too)

Then Threads.

I went through a long enough old spell of watching all of those things in that order, over and over. My head wasn't half right but it was the way to do it.

Desolation.

[Mr Banlon]

I'd have to add Special Bulletin to the 'shit you up' nuclear stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZQsVNZ3SE

[DukeDeMondo]

The Last Temptation Of Christ.

Ach. I dunno. I dunno about Last Temptation any more. Used to be Top Five Jesus Film stuff but I don't know that it is nowadays. Perfect ending, like. Perfect. And the relationship with Judas is captivating enough. David Bowie's surprisingly decent. The scene with Saul / Paul is fantastic. But considering how much of a labour of love this was, how much blood and sweat had gone into getting it made, it's properly fucking pedestrian. A bit fucking ropey here and there, even, you'd say. As awesome as the mechanics of transubstantiation itself is the fact that the man who made this would go on to make Goodfellas two years later.

I mean, alright, maybe he wanted the ideas to speak for themselves, maybe he didn't want to get in the way of them with the pans and the zooms and the whips and the what nots, and they do speak, and very eloquently, and Schrader pulled off about as good an adaptation of Kazantzakis's novel as it was possible to pull off, likely as not. But there's not a single scene or even a single shot that stands out for me, far as the direction goes. Maybe the raising of the cross. Maybe that. But that's about it. And given the mad old kinds of things he has filling the screen most of the time, that's just fucking weak as fuck.

Even something like Kundun has more going on than this has. If the Scorsese of Kundun had made Last Temptation we'd be talking about something very special indeed, I think.

Still, I'll always think very fondly of it. I remember when I asked Jim in Video Mania to order me the VHS, which I still own, and he gave me a special black bag to carry it down the street in, in case I got clubbed or burned to death over the head of it. I only felt that kind of thrill one other time in my whole life. Reading The Satanic Verses on a bus. Pages soaking with the sweat off my thumbs.

Anyway, Last Temptation. Should have been a masterpiece, but it isn't. 

[Shit Good Nose]

My main problem with Last Temptation is all the Bronx accents.  Victor Argo as one of the disciples?!?!?!?

And Andre Gregory playing John the Baptist as a comedy Jew.  Fuck me.

I've just never been able to take it the least bit seriously, and the fact that it got people so het up has long been a source of amusement.

At least Mel did it properly.

[Dex Sawash]

I didn't like Dafoe in last temptation but I had just watched Boondock Saints and I hated him in that.

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Last Temptation Of Christ.

I've never watched Last Temptation which is weird as I owned on it video for years after picking up for a quid at a car boot sale, and it's been sitting on my external hard drive for a good decade now. I knew it was a film you used to like a lot as well so did plan to get round to it one day, but I doubt I'll bother now after your post above. I know you used to be very fond of The Passion Of The Christ as well, another film that I've obtained and not yet watched, do you still like it out of interest?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I started watching Phantom Lady the other night. Unfortunately I got a bit pissed and abandoned it which is a shame as it certainly has a lot of promise. Might choose noirs when it's my turn at the film club.

[grassbath]

Watched two Kermode Introduces films on the BFI player tonight. Both shite.

The Reflecting Skin (1990) - long-unavailable 50s rural American gothic horror/drama about a kid who thinks his older brother who's just returned from the war is banging a vampire. Looked gorgeous admittedly but was completely all over the place tonally and really suffered for it. Reading up afterwards, a lot of people apparently think it's very clever, but it didn't come across that way to me. Shame as narratives of childhood, dreams and memory are usually right up my alley - can't help but think that if the kid was a better actor and the musical cues were less overblown it would have been at least a bit more convincing.

White of the Eye (1987) - incredibly of-its-time serial killer thriller, swimming in soft focus and shoulder pads. Like one of those 80s desert shoot-em-ups you catch pissed late at night on Channel 5, but with Argento ambitions, by which I mean there was creative use of thick gloppy paint-like colours in the very first murder scene and none of the budget or bother to use them again. At first the lack of narrative coherence was sort of pleasing - felt like I was watching the November Rain video or something. Then it took an abrupt left turn into something resembling a plot, got shit incredibly quickly and then simply would not fucking end. Dreadful.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Galaxy of Terror (1981)

Roger Corman produced sci-fi horror effort. That possibly tells you all you need to know about it, but I'll waffle on anyway.

Unsurprisingly, it being a Corman picture, it's pure B-movie schlock and bears more than a little influence from Alien, i.e. it's basically a big fat fucking rip off, that's just different enough to avoid a lawsuit. A ragtag crew of spacefarers embark on a rescue mission to a mysterious planet at the behest of their god-emperor... for some reason. There, they investigate a derelict ship and ancient pyramid (it even rips off parts of Alien that didn't make it beyond the script's early draft) and find themselves under attack, as their deepest fears are brought to life. The plot is also quite similar to Event Horizon and I'm mildly curious to know if it was an influence on that later film.

Coincidentally enough, one of the production designers was a certain James Cameron and, while the film (obviously) doesn't look as good as Alien, it does occasionally manage to produce the odd nice image. Another thing I found vaguely commendable was the world building. Unexplained little details are scattered throughout, which build a picture of a larger universe that the budget could never stretch to show: The crew have a habit of incinerating any corpses they find, implying that zombies might exist; One of them has psychic powers, which none of them treat as unusual; One insists on fighting using a pair of crystal ninja stars. Perhaps he is part of some warrior monk sect, or somesuch; The emperor is some sort of mystic, although the only power he exhibits is having a red glowing head. Without much fuss, the film gives the impression of a full on, prog rock, science-fantasy type of setting, a la Dune, Chronicles of Riddick, or some ultra spoddy tabletop game.

The cast is mostly pretty terrible. Mildly famous names included are Grace Zabriskie, Robert Englund and Erin Moran (AKA Happy Days' Joanie Cunningham). The inevitable nude woman scene comes in the form of one of the characters being raped to death by a giant maggot, possibly as part of the Alien influence. It would be more offensive if it weren't so comically ridiculous looking.

It just about makes it into the so bad it's good category, but it could have been bad-gooder.

[St_Eddie]

The emperor is some sort of mystic, although the only power he exhibits is having a red glowing head.

The Emperor of Gammons.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Gammony of Terror

[Shit Good Nose]

Gammon and Eggs

Gammon and Eggs 2: Pineapple Optional

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

All this political discussion is making me hungry for a bacon and egg sandwich.

[grassbath]

Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963). Had never seen it before, or indeed any Fellini film. Rather good innit, though I am a sucker for 'protagonist wanders in and out of abstraction' narratives. Very 'modern', full of immediately recognisable tricks that we take for granted in today's cinema, and blueprints for the trademarks of more contemporary acclaimed filmmakers, but not diluted by imitation at all. Also surprised by the humour and lightness of touch - once I got the vibe it didn't feel pompous or 'difficult' in the slightest.

[greenman]

Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963). Had never seen it before, or indeed any Fellini film. Rather good innit, though I am a sucker for 'protagonist wanders in and out of abstraction' narratives. Very 'modern', full of immediately recognisable tricks that we take for granted in today's cinema, and blueprints for the trademarks of more contemporary acclaimed filmmakers, but not diluted by imitation at all. Also surprised by the humour and lightness of touch - once I got the vibe it didn't feel pompous or 'difficult' in the slightest.

If anything I think it probably suffers from the high regard its held in, people assume its going to be something like Pierrot Le Fou in terms of obtuse meta cinema but really it ends up very accessible indeed.

For some crossover in star/cinematographer I watched La Notte last night, predictably rather less accessible in some ways but as with L'Aventure I spose but compared to Godard I find it easier viewing considering so much atmosphere of "intelligentsia ennui" is there in the visuals so if some of the philosophy goes over my head. Di Venanzo's high contrast style does I think work equally well here even if its to a very different end, less fantasy and more after dark modernism. I'd heard Mastroianni was miscast previously but honestly I think that's mostly down to people expecting him to break into his Fellini character with a Moore like raised eyebrow.

[zomgmouse]

Two more by Robert Aldrich:

Autumn Leaves. Joan Crawford falls in love with a younger man with some psychological twists and turns. Could have chopped off a lot of it and been a decent episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or something. Fairly average really.

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. A sort of spiritual sequel to Baby Jane. Bette Davis plays a reclusive old woman suffering from the trauma of her young love being murdered many years ago. Then her little cousin comes and things start getting stirred up. It extends the suspense right up till the very end and does a fantastic job of playing with madness vs reality vs deception and illusion. Terrific performance from Davis and I really liked at the end how they gave her a magnificent sort of cathartic dignity. Very good film, this.

[SteveDave]

Down A Dark Hall

Uma Thurman's accent goes for a trip around the world in a school for troubled young girls. No lez action 1/5

[Shit Good Nose]

Three Billboards, etc - fucking loved it.  More consistent than Seven Psychopaths (which I still quite like, despite its faults and dodgy third act) and less irreverent than In Bruges.  I particularly enjoyed the "there will be no more 'cunts' in this household" "oh, does that mean you're leaving?  ........it was a g......it was just a gag...."

Leave No Trace - left me in floods of tears, the first film to do so since Johnny 5 nearly got destroyed by bad men in Short Circuit 2 (28 I was, etc).  Incredibly affecting, excellent performances without pomp and circumstance, and a rare straight role for Dale Dickey.

Both of the above being the best new films I've seen since Blade Runner 2049.

Unfortunately...

Black Panther - absolute dogshit.  It was Guardians 2 all over again, in that I wondered if I was watching the same film as everyone else had seen.  Terrible acting for the most part, rubbish CGI (the panthers fight near the end looked like it was out of Lawnmower Man, and Daniel Kaluuya riding on an armoured rhino [fuck me] looked like that bit in Attack of the Clones when Hayden Christensen turns up on that....whatever animal it is) and hella-clunky dialogue.  I also wish people would stop hiring Martin Freeman to play an American.  I couldn't even really see the point in that character appearing in it.  Still, always nice to see women properly fighting - despite being in "more enlightened times", it still doesn't happen anywhere near enough in films.

[Dex Sawash]

I found the violent primitive culture of tribes in Black Panther not very uplifting given they were meant to be super advanced and civilized. But maybe I'm trying to whitewash it.

[Ferris]

I was also a bit liberal hand-wringy uncomfortable about the 'primal' African culture, like "ooohhh is this ok? I don't know if this is ok, oohhhh". I found having any opinion on it may be a touch fraught. It was alright. I liked yer man's hair and the car chase was good. Gollum as the baddy was having an absolute whale of a time and that was quite infectious so that was fun. I don't think those films are aimed at me really.

[greenman]

I need to get around to Leave No Trace, picked up that plus Wendy and Lucy on CaB recommendation and loved the latter.

I found the violent primitive culture of tribes in Black Panther not very uplifting given they were meant to be super advanced and civilized. But maybe I'm trying to whitewash it.

Honestly it did feel like a bit of a relic of the 1970's, would have preffered to have there society less openly tribal with that aspect limited to a few references. The two leads and Sirkis were I think good enough to keep it decent I though but Cooger's direction just ended up looking cheap a lot of the time IMHO.

[Shit Good Nose]

Gollum as the baddy was having an absolute whale of a time and that was quite infectious so that was fun.

Do you think he was confused about not having to wear his ping pong ball zentai fetish suit?


I dunno about the primal stuff, I just thought it was a shit film.

[Famous Mortimer]

Watched two Kermode Introduces films on the BFI player tonight. Both shite.

The Reflecting Skin (1990) - long-unavailable 50s rural American gothic horror/drama about a kid who thinks his older brother who's just returned from the war is banging a vampire. Looked gorgeous admittedly but was completely all over the place tonally and really suffered for it. Reading up afterwards, a lot of people apparently think it's very clever, but it didn't come across that way to me. Shame as narratives of childhood, dreams and memory are usually right up my alley - can't help but think that if the kid was a better actor and the musical cues were less overblown it would have been at least a bit more convincing.

I rather liked that one, but it's been a good while since I saw it. I also enjoyed that director's other movie, "The Passion of Darkly Noon", which even has Brendan Fraser giving a rather good performance. (Well, I say "other", he did another one years later which I've never been able to find).

Drones (2010)

Written by the two blokes who do the "Thrilling Adventure Hour" podcast, directed by a couple of supporting actors from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", about the people and "people" who work at a  corporation called OmniLink. "Close Encounters meets The Office", they describe it as, which is pretty close. Watched it on a whim and loved it.