enjoyed Peter Bradshaw giving Jackass Forever a 4/5
I watched Ordinary Love last night which was really great
Watched Parallel Mothers earlier (as well as Licorice Pizza) - its Almodovar on steroids. I think probably the most Almodovary film he’s ever made. I liked it but really felt weird about the exhumation sub-plot/anchor - he’s a fascinating filmmaker in the context of Spain’s recent history and Francoism but it felt jarring to be directly addressing it in such an oddly specific but unexamined way or something? Like a full film of that stuff would be fascinating but tying it to a campy melodrama is a bit odd.
Anyway, it was good and Penelope Cruz was fantastic.
Saw that Belfast yesterday, it passed the time but was prreetty ropey
watched Point Break again last night and it is an honest to god masterpiece
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Can I ask Why were the films / play they watched in colour? Also why did they hire a party band for a funeral?
kermode and mayo said similar to you.
i thought the ‘two’ plots were woven beautifully. ana’s mother passing on to ana that “you have to forget the past, move on”, while she’s ‘made it’ on the back of appearing in lorca plays, of all people. what a clever and emotional scene where janis is schooling ana about the importance of the past, while not practicing what she preaches, withholding info from ana and smoking (something she doesn’t normally do- this is an ana’s mum activity). then symbolically stubbiing out the cigarette as she decides to 'fess up and humble herself.
wondering why you find the exhumation stuff ‘oddly specific’- it’s regularly in the media the last few years and i can’t think of anything else that has been from franco era.
you seen ‘nostalgia for the light’? it’s great and from what what you say here would be up your street.
I guess I’m very ignorant on it to be fair. I guess it just felt jarring with how specific it was as opposed to being unjustifiably specific?
I’ve not seen Nostalgia for the Light though, thanks for the tip
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with the foregrounded story being so specific, it worked for me to have the exhumation being specific too, given the ‘parallel’ theme we also got with the secrets and dna mystery across both storylines
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Just watched The Power of the Dog. A bit too slow and thoughtful maybe but still great.
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so glad i saw it in the cinema, can absolutely imagine it being easy to disengage at home cos of the slow pace
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I got Boogie Nights on blu ray for Christmas about eight years ago and just took the shrink wrap off it tonight.
I have no idea why this film has such a good rep. I was enjoying the first third well enough, the rise of Dirk Diggler and everything being cheery and fun but even then it all felt a bit empty. Like, there wasn’t much of any consequence happening but still it was a good cast and everyone was clearly enjoying themselves. I wish I’d taken more of a note of what exactly was happening at the time in the movie, but somewhere around the New Year’s Eve party I turned to my wife and said “does this feel like it’s really gone off the boil in the last five minutes?”
After that when everybody starts to go into decline it still felt like not a whole lot was happening and along the way the characters hadn’t been interesting enough for me to really care what happened to them. Roller girl in particular was a big presence at the start of the film, then largely disappeared for an hour and the next time Heather Graham had anything to do she’s rolling the fuck out of some creep’s face.
For Dirk it just felt like he was hitting the stereotypical lows you’d expect him to without anything really bringing the gap in between to flesh him out a bit more.
I’m well out of the general consensus on this but I can’t see what anyone got out of it to be honest. Requiem For A Dream, Scarface and a ton of other movies all do this rise and fall thing so much better.
Ah yeah although wasn’t a problem for me as I am a fan of her style.
My “a bit too slow and thoughtful” comment was more that I think that can be a turn off but I think the film’s story is much more complex than a kind of character study that this sort of pacing tends to be used with. Hence there are probably some who’ll turn off and miss out on the end.
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Ahh man, it’s both his best film imho and also I hated Requiem for a Dream! Like up there with my most disappointing film experiences of all time
Yeah similar vibe to Goodfellas for me, a very front-loaded film.
Boogie Nights definitely felt like it was a slog in the latter section. Magnolia is the only other one of his I’ve seen and I really like it but it’s too long for me to have the time to watch it very often.
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went to see a film called Doineann earlier.
an Irish language thriller set on a small island off the coast of Donegal, about an investigative journalist TV producer from Dublin who returns from a meeting on the mainland to find his wife and baby son have gone missing. v good i thought.
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Recently watched:
In The Earth I remember the reception to this being a bit sniffy last year, but I finally caught up and I loved it. Ticked all my apocalyptic 70s mystical doom boxes, might be my favourite Ben Wheatley movie (until The Meg 2, of course)
Mothra the original 1961 version, directed by Ishiro Honda who also made the first Godzilla. It is painfully dated (had to keep reminding myself that it was a product of its time as I watched loads of Japanese actors in blackface portraying island savages), but has a kind of cosy mildly psychedelic charm that is missing from a lot of other kaiju films.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife not really in any way “good”, but somehow pretty fun and likeable, mainly due to some good performances (not the kid from Stranger Things, he was awful) and unashamed nostalgia kicks.
Not heard of this, looks good
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Recently watched:
The Tinder Swindler - Documentary. As expected subject is of an arsehole that steals vast amount of money from women he befriends on Twitter. Hopefully with this level of exposure now on Netflix worldwide he’ll get his comeuppance. Similar to The Puppet Master on Netflix on how on first glances a preposterous lie and con can be believable to those on the end of it. 7/10.
Slapface - Not about Lieutenant Colonel Kojak Slaphead III’s son but a horror where a local witch legend protects a boy who’s bullied somewhat and has also lost his mum.
The film making was approached like an indie horror. The direction wasn’t great and some real clichés scenes. Watchable though as the witch was “done well”; the make up, costume and prosthetics didn’t make the character look shit and too silly to take seriously. 6/10.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette - Richard Linklater directs Cate Blanchett as an architect prodigy during her younger years whose enthusiasm and interests have waned since. A mid-live crisis cum wannabe life affirming film with a good supporting cast including Laurence Fishburne, Judy Greer and Kristen Wiig. I’m a Linklater fan with his Slacker being my all time favourite but this wasn’t very good. A bit dull and just didn’t engage with the characters. 4.5/10.
Knocking - Swedish psychological horror. Cecilia Milocco is released from a mental health facility after recovering from a breakdown. I presume after the loss of her wife/partner.
She moves into a flat and hears knocking from the flat above. As expected, are the knocks real? She isn’t believed etc.
Milocco’s performance is pretty good but the film unfortunately isn’t. Felt over long despite it only being an 80 minute film.
Might work for others but not quite for me. 5/10.
Freaky - The reviews were good and was hoping for a fun comedy horror. Not funny, the kills were shit and Vince Vaughn was as crap as usual. I think Like Father Like Son was better. 2/10.
Castle Falls - Scott Adkins and Dolph Lungren punch and shoot people at a disused hospital soon to be demolished with dynamite because someone’s hidden $3 million there. Lungren directs this too and it’s average. 5/10.
Halloween III : Season Of The Witch - No Michael Myers here but just as creepy is the lead old bloke hitting on a woman half his age. A Halloween without Myers is a bit like that episode of Moonlighting without Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis
Reminded me of paranoia horror films like Race With The Devil and the 70s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers but obviously nowhere in their league. Still, it was better than Halloween II. 6/10.
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Ah man this really surprises me! And is a shame, I liked this quite a lot
Yeah, I enjoyed it as well. Would have been a 7/10 for me probably