What Films Have You Been Watching? June Edition

The whole one take aspect of that is so hoky too, I enjoyed it though

1 Like

Screw y’all, I really enjoyed Under the Silver Lake! I was expecting something overindulgent, self serious and flat based on the reviews but instead it was just … overindulgent sure, but fun and silly and OTT mainly, with a little bit of emotional resonance thrown in for good measure.

Lots of obvious shades of Mulholland Drive and Inherent Vice (with a hint of Synecdoche NY too maybe?) and while it was way less good than all of those it still puts me in that headspace which is no bad thing. Looked and sounded amazing, enjoyed the similarities to IV where it was just a stoner stumbling through more and more confusing situations that barely added up to anything - and then when they did, he didn’t have the power to do anything about it or get a resolution that he wanted. He could be right about all the conspiracies and yet … so what? All power no clout, very internet-y. Some of the internet/youth culture stuff was heavy handed, but then I know a lot of people who talk about their own behaviours that way/I’ve done it myself, so it didn’t ring false.

Absolutely loved the song writer scene, how far it tried to reach and implicate basically all pop music in this conspiracy and yet it also didn’t matter in the slightest, nothing was done about it, no consequences to anything. Also that head-bashing oooft. Stuff like the cereal box maps and the Mad Men/Spider-Man references just made me laugh, pretty much was never bored. Got surprisingly affected by the emotional stuff at the end with his ex, I enjoyed that she was basically never mentioned at all until we met her and then he/we are just blindsided be her and she sort of knocks the rest of the film off-kilter - and explains just why he’s gone into this spiral, just needing something to make sense in his life. Then felt quite a lot of relief watching him at the end, just ready to give up on all his old crap and try something new.

Very enjoyable, actively makes me excited again for his next project when I’d sort of cooled off based on the reviews of this I’d read before. Assume that @manches has seen and liked it?

4 Likes

Yeah, I tried to push against the critical lukewarminess by praising it looooads on here. Watched it a second time too to see if I’d just been in a good mood and turns out I really fucking love that film.

I think there’s a very extremely hyperspecific kind of millennial disillusionment that it taps into, and I think if you didn’t grow up with video game secrets and internet “folklore” and all those kinds of things working with yr imagination, you might see a lot of the film as a load of empty references. So that’s my theory as to why a lot of people seem to have been left cold by it

1 Like

I have similar views on Personal Shopper, though that film is way more difficult to like and I don’t 100% enjoy it on that same level myself

I liked the scene set to What’s The Frequency Kenneth. That was it

As an aside though to much derided films, I did enjoy Lost River, the Gosling directed one

1 Like

exactly my feeling too. It’s just conspiracy theories rebranded, but the internet and the super-connected culture means anyone with too much time and too little direction can get drawn into any number of weird wormholes - this was basically showing that but playing out in real life rather than purely electronically. It’s not exactly all that far from the people going into deep-dives on the background of things like Epstein is it? Where all your worst fears about the elite society are realised, but that doesn’t mean you can do anything about them or even that anyone else necessarily cares about what happened

Like his friend in the film said, a whole generation with low-level (justified) paranoia

1 Like

Picnic At Hanging Rock

Watched it this morning and got completely immersed in its blend of dream-like ambience and barely suppressed hysteria.
Think my lack of sleep over the last few nights definitely helped me to just surrender to the sensory aspect of it (some classic unsettling 70’s sound design in this too) SPOILER:-

I loved the ambiguity of it all and thought the gradual mental collapse of those affected by the girls disappearance was especially well done. The understated heartbreak of the ending (Albert/Bertie’s dream prefiguring Sara’s suicide) was handled brilliantly too

A wonderful hybrid of ‘The Virgin Suicides’ and ‘Walkabout’, I’ll most certainly be watching this again. Also, I’ve dimly realised that whilst I’ve seen relatively little of Peter Weir’s output, what I have seen is great (The Truman Show is one of my all time faves) so I definitely need to check out more of his work.

3 Likes

Of the ones I’ve seen, Fearless is a really interesting film. The Way Back is a solidly made story, Master and Commander is obviously a banger and Truman Show is an all timer

2 Likes

Really good and interesting director. The Mosquito Coast and Witness are worth a look too (not seen either of them for 20+ years I would guess but certain themes and images have stayed with me for all of that time which is telling)

I hope that the Blank Check podcast cover him soon. Would be a great mini series for them I think.

T2: Trainspotting again last night. Loved it just as much as when it came out. One of the best films about growing old and the dangers of nostalgia. Brilliant direction from Danny Boyle as well.

1 Like

really enjoyed watching this so close to Blade Runner 2049 when they came out. Two very different approaches to a sequel: one which is basically an entirely new story set within the same world, the other which is so tied to the old story and so intertwined with it that it just manages to enhance the original as well as justify itself

1 Like

I would of done the same, thinking about it. Never connected the two though, but very good point.

I think that’s what I love about it, the way it’s edited and directed, it feels like it is built on top of the first one rather than just something that exists side by side with it. Intertwined as you say. Amazing soundtrack as well.

1 Like

My daughter saw Cruella so we watched the 1996 live action 101 Dalmatians.

Not bad actually. Hadn’t realised John Hughes wrote the screenplay but it explained why it turned into Home Alone: Redux for the second half.

Main issue was the inclusion of Raccoons and Skunks as British animals. Bloody yanks.

1 Like

:grinning:

5 Likes

That might have been the first Hitchcock film I saw. I was probably nine or ten at the time and loved it.

It’s become an old favourite of mine now. The long single takes were brilliant. I like how the camera zooms into something black and then pulls out as the scene continues when in reality the camera film had to be changed as it was physically too short for filming that long.

1 Like

In the Earth - Went in not knowing anything about it other than it was Wheatley which was sort of a hindrance as once I realised it was about a virus that has kept people from leaving their homes I did think “Oh god really?”

The film itself is a mess. Some strong echos of Kill List and Field in England but nowhere near as effective. I’m still not entirely saw what happened in the last 15 minutes and other than Resse Shearsmith there is some very ropey acting. Haley Squires is particularly bad and Steve Elliott from Eastenders turns up briefly in what is one of most poorly acted and written scenes I have seen in the cinema for some time.

A generous 3 stars. I only left the cinema 2 hrs ago and I’m struggling to remember it already.

1 Like

Might watch his first film now that MUBI’s library is now on Ps4. Watching It Follows after Silver Lake was pretty interesting cause it kind of brings the weirder aspects of that film out.

Apparently he’s doing a superhero film (not a big franchise one, ya know) and I’m excited to see what that’d be like

Hayley squires changing her accent was so unnecessary

Recently watched:

The Reunion - Documentary from Anna Odell who I hadn’t heard before. Odell wasn’t invited to a school reunion and makes a film about what would have happened that evening if she was invited to the reunion and had an opportunity to confront those that bullied and ostracised her. She then shows the finished film to her real former classmates.

A brilliant documentary about bullying and hierarchy at school.

I definitely wasn’t one of the cool ones at school and wasn’t (I think) one of the uncoolest though definitely on the lower end. Made me think a lot both about people that were cruel to me at school and also those that I’d been cruel to. The film made a great impression on me. 8.5/10.

Skater Girl - Indian skateboarding film where a girl takes up skateboarding. Can I make it anymore obvious?
British Indian Amrit Maghera goes on holiday to a small Indian village where her grandad was from and introduces skating to the village. The skater girl is Rachel Saanchita Gupta who takes it up and doesn’t want to conform to what’s expected of her.
It’s a very saccharine film. Doesn’t try to be gritty and that’s fine. It did make me smile quite a few times. The kids were great and presume many weren’t actors. Liked it. 7/10.

The Way We Were - Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford’s politics differ as do their outlook on life. They love each other but you know it just won’t work out for them. A pretty good love story where McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklist features prominently too as the film’s screenwriter Arthur Laurent was called before the House Of Un-American Activities. 7/10.

In The Earth was fine!