Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 10:21:37 PM

Login with username, password and session length

What Non-New Films Have You Seen? (2020 Edition)

Started by Small Man Big Horse, January 01, 2020, 05:03:07 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

bgmnts

Holy Grail: 9/10

Life of Brian: 10/10

Fucking hell, still achingly funny, with the latter being about as poignant as it gets.

Perfect viewing.

peanutbutter

A Woman Under the Influence

Last saw this ages ago, it's amazing how different it is to how I remembered yet still being as a good as I remembered.
The indieness of it really shows up in the editing at points, nowhere near the level of most indies that preceded digital editing tools but still an issue, not helped by the version I watched seemingly being a bit of a cobbled together reel from multiple prints, kinda killed some emotionally intense parts. Faces got away with a lot of this by being so totally different to the standard films of the time, but the production values of this one are just high enough to feel like the cuts overall should be slicker.
Peter Falk is in it far more than I remembered and he's far more interesting of a character than I remembered. My memories really downplayed the dynamic between them but it's fucking amazing stuff.
Gena Rowlands is absolutely amazing in it, but I forgot just how fucking bold of a performance it is, there's constant moments where she's teetering on taking it too far but never goes over.

Sebastian Cobb

Last night I saw Luc Besson's Le Dernier Combat/The Last Battle, a black and white postapocalyptic survival film, the remaining survivors are mute, there's no dialogue. It's great, some guy scrambling around in the desert and amongst ruins foraging and getting into scrapes with the remaining survivors.

Good soundtrack too.

bgmnts

You Were Never Really Here. 6/10

Taxi Driver meets Commando I suppose but with the volume turned down.

Bit crap.

sevendaughters

SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS - A director of light comedies wants to see social issues so he can make a hard-hitting real film. Everyone advises against it. funny, clever, well-paced, nuanced. Looks good too. Surely can't be hard if they were doing it 80 years ago.
CAUGHT LOOKING - short shown on C4 about a gay bloke logging into a VR sim for fantasies, only to find them wanting. Christ Channel 4 has changed so badly.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: sevendaughters on February 06, 2020, 03:42:59 PM
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS - A director of light comedies wants to see social issues so he can make a hard-hitting real film. Everyone advises against it. funny, clever, well-paced, nuanced. Looks good too. Surely can't be hard if they were doing it 80 years ago.

It's hard to choose a favourite Preston Sturges film, but Sullivan's Travels is probably The One (I have a soft spot for Unfaithfully Yours as it was my first). I must make time to watch all the classics again.

Has anyone here seen his last film The Diary of Major Thompson? I never managed to track it down, but I probably didn't look too hard given it's reputation.

Shit Good Nose

I watched Tim Burton's original Batman last night for the first time in about 27/28 years.  I never thought much of it originally, but by god it REALLY is quite poor all around.  I always called bollocks to people saying how dark it was back then as well.  Yes, lighting wise it's dark, but the tone isn't at all.  It's actually quite cheesy, and in a very shit way without any of the charm of the Adam West iteration.

I still like Returns, though.

Returns is by far my favourite Batman film. I agree that the first one is very patchy and it benefitted from being the first "non kiddy" Batman thing for people who don't read comics. So that's nearly everyone. Watching it today, it's an awkward mix of realism and pantomime but the sequel is a corker.

Shit Good Nose

I'm no fan of Burton (I only like a very small handful of his films), and on balance I think Nolan's Batman is better (although I do have issues with Dark Knight Rises), but certainly of that entire 80s and 90s run Returns is EASILY the standout.  I know the smart answer among the fans these days is that Forever is the ace, but I've never been convinced about that either.

buttgammon

Finally got round to seeing The Great Beauty last night. It's about as brilliant as people say - some unholy combination of Antonioni, Fellini and Resnais, rounded off with a weird sense of humour and some serious pathos. There were several points at which I didn't know what was going on, but it was so beautiful and entertaining (not a combination you see that often) that I didn't care.

greenman

Has Batman Forever gotten some kind of recent revival? I can't recall it ever been talked about that much after Carrey mania and the hype around the soundtrack died down.

Quote from: buttgammon on February 09, 2020, 09:30:16 AM
Finally got round to seeing The Great Beauty last night. It's about as brilliant as people say - some unholy combination of Antonioni, Fellini and Resnais, rounded off with a weird sense of humour and some serious pathos. There were several points at which I didn't know what was going on, but it was so beautiful and entertaining (not a combination you see that often) that I didn't care.

I do need to get around to giving that a rewatch, at the very least I think its probably my favourite end titles scene.


Shit Good Nose

Quote from: greenman on February 09, 2020, 10:07:38 AM
Has Batman Forever gotten some kind of recent revival? I can't recall it ever been talked about that much after Carrey mania and the hype around the soundtrack died down.

I wouldn't say recent, but certainly since the George Clooney ones loads of the fans re-appraised Forever and consider it the best one after Burton's first (there are a lot that don't like Returns), and common consensus is that Kilmer made a pretty good go at it and should have stayed on for at least one more.

That's very distinct from general critical opinion, mind, which still has it down as the pile of shit that I think it is as well.

buttgammon

Quote from: greenman on February 09, 2020, 10:07:38 AM
I do need to get around to giving that a rewatch, at the very least I think its probably my favourite end titles scene.



Absolutely! I also love the prologue - what a great party scene!

phantom_power

Quote from: buttgammon on February 09, 2020, 09:30:16 AM
Finally got round to seeing The Great Beauty last night. It's about as brilliant as people say - some unholy combination of Antonioni, Fellini and Resnais, rounded off with a weird sense of humour and some serious pathos. There were several points at which I didn't know what was going on, but it was so beautiful and entertaining (not a combination you see that often) that I didn't care.

I need to get round to watching this as I have had a thing for Sorrentino since watching The New Pope but so far have only seen The Consequences of Love, which was great

buttgammon

I watched it off the back of The Young Pope and The New Pope - definitely going to check out some more of his films now.

Puce Moment

Watched the 4k restoration of Roeg's utterly brilliant Don't Look Now. The colours are really jumping off the screen, and the performances are wonderful. Just one of the most atmospheric 'horror' films, and also one of the best uses of a city in a film. The editing evokes Lumet's The Offence on occasion, with its carefully fractured style.

bgmnts

#136
Snowpiercer.

Not very subtle is it? Amazed this Bong cunt won an Oscar.

Enjoying it though, making me very very angry.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: bgmnts on February 10, 2020, 09:21:22 PM
Snowpiercer.

Not very subtle is it? Amazed this Bong cunt won an Oscar.

Enjoying it though, making me very very angry.

Although I'm not a huge fan of Bong or the Korean new wave (it's just not my cup of tea [caveat - not yet seen Parasite]), Snowpiercer isn't at all representative of his films.  I mean ALL of his films are about class and that, but aside from Snowpiercer and the second half of The Host, they're all low-key chin scratchers.

Shit Good Nose

Hill 24 Doesn't Answer - odd war film of two very distinct not chronological halves.  Part of it is a VERY shonkily acted and filmed bit of what looks like a low budget TV pilot (complete with fuzzy audio and blurred picture) with yer man from Knightrider that wasn't David Hoffelhoff, the other part goes all Battle of Algiers neo-realist and yer man from Knightrider who isn't David Hoffelhoff completely disappears and isn't even referred to.  So it's both 3 out of 10 and 7 out of 10.


Funny People - after Uncut Gems I thought I'd watch the other acceptable Sandler film that wasn't Punch-Drunk Love (which I'm not keen on, but that's more to do with PTA than Sandler), first time since I saw it at the flicks.  It's still 30-40 minutes too long with some good moments.

Dr Syntax Head

Right this very moment I am very much enjoying Tarkovski's Solaris. I adore Stalker so I am experiencing great joy at the pacing and general feel of this so far. Love the mix of colour and black and white.

bgmnts

#140
...

Sebastian Cobb

In the last week or so I watched

Pierrot Le Fou - good bit of Godard madness, but I was a bit too knackered and restless to appreciate it properly.

The Beguiled - Clint Eastwood is an injured Yankee during the civil war who ends up being taken in by a mistress at a girls boarding school, he plays them off against each other as they're all lonely and fawning for him. A pretty decent southern gothic but also another '70s Eastwood film that seems to hate women.

Imitation of Life - a 1930's film about race - a housekeeper with a fair skinned daughter ingratiates herself with a white widow whose house she turns up at by mistake - the widow opens some massively successful businesses which make them both rich but the housekeeper's daughter is ashamed to be black and disownes them to pass as white. Sad but well done, another of one of them 1930's films that's more progressive than things that came later.

Clockers - classic, has more about people affected on the periphery of drug/gangster culture than its contemporaries, plus kietel.


Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Wentworth Smith on February 19, 2020, 10:16:58 AM
The Holy Mountain (1973, Alejandro Jodorowsky). Saw this at the cinema this weekend, here's the trailer which in no way does it justice: https://youtu.be/I1erfq2TrbE

Didn't know what to expect going in, just knew it was a weird '70s film and that kind of thing can easily be impenetrable, dated and boring to modern eyes. Well, it was impenetrable in parts, dated in others but thankfully it was never boring.

Genuinely psychedelic, odd, unnerving, ridiculous but with a plot and sense of humour. Features the line 'I have completed my sanctuary  of 1000 testicles'.

Not for everyone but I thought it was great in its absolute uniqueness and ability to surprise.


Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 19, 2020, 12:59:52 PM
CHECK OUT THIS DUNCE

I too saw Holy Mountain and enjoyed it. I saw Fando Y Lis last week and thought it was a bit of an unfathomable mess though.

I'm a bit of a Jodorowsky fan (I'm probably the only person that really rates The Rainbow Thief), but I've always thought Fando Y Lis was modern art/experimental wank, the type of which Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey were doing around the same time.  At least El Topo, The Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre et al have something else going for them.

I've pre-ordered the Arrow Jod set (which contains Fando, Topo and Mountain, as well as a newer feature length doc) having never previously owned any of them and relied on taped-off-the-telly copies.

Sebastian Cobb


Armin Meiwes

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 17, 2020, 12:22:15 PM
In the last week or so I watched

Pierrot Le Fou - good bit of Godard madness, but I was a bit too knackered and restless to appreciate it properly.

The Beguiled - Clint Eastwood is an injured Yankee during the civil war who ends up being taken in by a mistress at a girls boarding school, he plays them off against each other as they're all lonely and fawning for him. A pretty decent southern gothic but also another '70s Eastwood film that seems to hate women.

Imitation of Life - a 1930's film about race - a housekeeper with a fair skinned daughter ingratiates herself with a white widow whose house she turns up at by mistake - the widow opens some massively successful businesses which make them both rich but the housekeeper's daughter is ashamed to be black and disownes them to pass as white. Sad but well done, another of one of them 1930's films that's more progressive than things that came later.

Clockers - classic, has more about people affected on the periphery of drug/gangster culture than its contemporaries, plus kietel.

Somebodies a Mubi subscriber, lol. Yeah I saw clockers as well, pretty odd film in a way - felt almost more like a debut where Lee is still figuring out what he's doing, trying out different shots and techniques some of which work and some of which don't, compared to say the much more accomplished and focused and yet earlier film Do the Right Thing.

Started watching The Beguiled but wasn't really feeling it (prob just wasn't in the mood rather than it being shit) but lol at quite how young the first girl who's got the hots for Clint is BIT creepy.

Armin Meiwes

Watched Winter Light (Bergman film), was pretty obvious within about 20 mins what a massive influence on First Reformed this was.. the story of a depressed and sick priest, losing his faith and fighting off the interest of a much younger woman who tries to give comfort to a parishioner who is also depressed (but by China acquiring the atom bomb rather than environmental catastrophe) that ends up killing themselves. Felt almost like it had been written as a play as it was such a slight story set in so few locations and was barely 80 mins. Interesting but a bit disappointing for me compared to the two others I've seen of his (Seventh Seal and the brilliant Virgin Spring), but given how many films he was churning out in the late 50s and early 60s he was doing pretty well anyway.

peanutbutter

Quote from: Armin Meiwes on February 19, 2020, 11:22:30 PM
was pretty obvious within about 20 mins what a massive influence on First Reformed this was
I feel like it took more from Diary of a Country Priest tbh, like, the surface level stuff might sync up with Winter Light a lot but the character felt extremely like Bresson's dude to me.

phantom_power

Charlie Varrick (1973) - Another Walter Matthau corker. Hard to believe that once he was a leading man, and love interest too. He gets to bed a sexy young PA after speaking to her for about 5 minutes. The sexual politics are a bit off in the whole thing really. They set up this strong sassy forger only to have Joe Don Baker get with her by using the foreplay technique of slapping her in the face for no reason. You also get the aforementioned Matthau bedding despite only talking to her for a few minutes, and most of those are him threatening her to make a call to her boss. Apart from that though it is a great film, another 70s crime drama that doesn't tell you how to feel about the characters and doesn't have every be a "goodie" or a "baddie", with most of them being a shade of grey

Dex Sawash


Wife was watching Silver Linings Playbook while I was CaBbing. De Niro seemed to be doing proper acting in it but I wasn't really watching closely. Movie also borderline conversational.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: phantom_power on February 20, 2020, 12:20:06 PM
Charlie Varrick (1973) - Another Walter Matthau corker. Hard to believe that once he was a leading man, and love interest too. He gets to bed a sexy young PA after speaking to her for about 5 minutes. The sexual politics are a bit off in the whole thing really. They set up this strong sassy forger only to have Joe Don Baker get with her by using the foreplay technique of slapping her in the face for no reason. You also get the aforementioned Matthau bedding despite only talking to her for a few minutes, and most of those are him threatening her to make a call to her boss. Apart from that though it is a great film, another 70s crime drama that doesn't tell you how to feel about the characters and doesn't have every be a "goodie" or a "baddie", with most of them being a shade of grey

I think you'll find it's pronounced CharlEY Varrick...

I'm not troubled by its 70s view and treatment of women given it was made in the 70s and not 2010s, but otherwise yes, agreed - top notch.  Probs my favourite Siegel film.