What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

charlie_says

Wait....You can get paid for sex?

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

The Babadook Had heard good things about this and was really looking forward to it, not disappointed. I'm a big horror fan, and this is my favourite type of film: properly using the richness and depth of the horror genre, working with audience expectations and finding ways within that to be original and intelligent, rather than a lazy rehash or attempt to rip up the rule book completely.

The film seemed to be mining the physical and especially emotional neediness of children, as well as the inherent otherness and creepiness of their interior lives, as one of the primary sources of horror. The sound design of the film gets a lot of mentions in the reviews I've seen, and the sheer onslaught of "Mom, Mom! Mom!" really was very effectively grating and unsettling. With that in mind something I especially loved was how the opening sections are kind of obliquely referencing children's fairy tales, both in aspects of the narrative and particularly in how repetitive and structured the shots and scenes are. It makes it all the more jarring when Amelia really starts to lose it and all sense of structure vanishes; you can't tell from one moment to the next what's going to happen, or if what you're seeing is actually happening. It's a good marker of the division between when Samuel is the one to be concerned about and when she is.

Using grief as the source of a protagonist's instability or explanation of their actions is yeah, not exactly a ground breaker in horror, but this is one of the better treatments of it that I'm aware of. The opening nightmare and some scenes in the basement were some of the most scary as far as I was concerned, and did a good job of getting across that grief isn't purely or even primarily sad (although

her initial reaction to seeing her husband in the "bring me the boy" scene was genuinely heartbreaking

: it's destructive, it's exhausting, and it's terrifying. Essie Davis really is fantastic in this, it's a BIG performance and in lesser hands it would have been comical.

Speaking of performances, I don't know where they found that child but he is bananas. I mean wow.

The treatment of space is excellent too, the sets, particularly in the house are really well designed, loved the attention to colour. Motherhood and the home are obviously pretty closely tied cultural concepts, and uniting both into something with such potential for horror really works. Again, not the most original idea out there, but clichés become clichés because they're effective, and in this calibre of genre film the lack of originality is not a problem. A moment I really liked was when she got the afternoon off and rather than go home, to where her personal possessions, her child, her dog, her memories of her marriage are, she goes to a very impersonal, generic, soulless public space - a shopping centre - and seems more at peace than she ever does at home. I found it hard at the beginning of the film to get a proper sense of the layout of the house (which it turns out is quite simple) due to the amount of close-ups and lack of tracking shots, and that really works to subtly build a sense of unease without having to do anything else.

Now to the nit-picking. I realise it was a low budget, and I realise that a lot of people disagree, but I thought the actual Babadook was just funny looking, and I mean funny haha. Scary in the book, and then when he showed up he just looked like the Hitcher from the Mighty Boosh. Also thought they showed their hand with him too early, it had been such a subtle film up until the point that

he suddenly started groaning and rasping his bloody name at the top of his voice

that I personally found it jarring to the point where it was funny. The shot of

him standing behind the elderly neighbour in her kitchen

was a cheap jump scare that could have come out of any of several dozen direct to DVD horrors this year.

And while the initial bits of her really starting to unravel like

her vision/nightmare of Samuel stabbed to death on the seat beside her, or hearing him through her sleep saying "wake up Mommy", even up to her trying to kick down the door and screaming "Let me in"

were proper fcuking creepy, it went on a bit long without any sense that there was any actual progression happening other than "here's some more of her screaming and then something will happen and repeat". It reminded me strongly of the endings of a lot of Japanese horrors where you're just bombarded with scary imagery and overbearing sound with bugger all narrative to the point where it loses its effectiveness, and you just sit playing with your phone until somebody helpfully explains that the ghost just really wanted to be loved because the orphanage or the murder or whatever the fcuk, the end.

I wasn't a massive fan of the actual ending either, it seems a bit odd to put so much excellent work into building up the themes of maternal guilt, exhaustion, grief, poverty and the like and then go out of your way to emphasise that

there really was a literal monster, not an allegorical one

.

However, I'm being harder on it than I would be on a film I liked less, because it was very close to being pretty much perfect, which for a low-budget first feature is pretty darn impressive.

Edit: sorry, that came out longer than I expected.

OldeCinemaSoz

THE SKIN I LIVE IN

The REVEAL must have been very KOSHER in FRANCO's SPAIN.

But IT was all VERY AMUSING. The BIRD looked NICE. Indeed.

8/10

Harry Palmr

/\ Good film that, once you get into it.

The Curse of Frankenstein 1957. Dir Terence Fisher. The first of the Hammer series is bleak, you tend to think of these films as being camp when in truth its not that case at all. Played dead straight with an air of tragedy in waiting, true to the spirit of Shelley's book if not the actual plotting.

batnolan

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Whimsical, vibrant, charming and lovely. Visually captivating. Preferred Moonrise Kingdom though.

longshotvalue

Watched Gone Girl last night. It a decent film, but wildly overrated. I loved Rosamund Pike, but it went from decent and tense to silly in 2 minutes..

Birneybau

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

THE SKIN I LIVE IN

The REVEAL must have been very KOSHER in FRANCO's SPAIN.

But IT was all VERY AMUSING. The BIRD looked NICE. Indeed.

8/10

Like a cryptic crossword clue.

ButtersSuki

Margin Call with Messrs Spacey, Irons and Tucci (all too briefly). I'd heard very good things about this so was really looking forward to it but I felt more than a little disappointed.mclearly based on the hours leading up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers it for me anyway struggles to convey the pressure, intensity, fear etc. that that situation must have caused in the men and women involved. Poor casting in that several lightweights are thrown in to appear beside the aforementioned, i couldn't help but feel it could have been so much better.
A very disappointing 5/10. If you want to watch a movie on the financial collapse, watch Inside Job, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward or any of the other excellent documentaries that have been made on it.

Gerry Rio

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Margin Call with Messrs Spacey, Irons and Tucci (all too briefly)

I think Im sold on the premise, cast and RT rating alone. Tonight's viewing metihinks. Although I suspect it might be one of those film I watched one night after too much wine and I'll only remember this 10 minutes in

Gerry Rio

Thepoet85 wrote: »

12 Angry Men

Great film. Heard of it before but never go round to watching it. Very enjoyable. 8/10

10/10 for me. A faultless movie.

Harry Palmr

Magic 1978 Dir Richard Attenborough

Anthony Hopkins "Hollywood" debut sees him star as a troubled ventriloquist who on the edge of stardom flees to the Catskills of New York State where he meets his old high school object of unrequited desire....Hopkins plays both his character and dummy Fats superbly you can't see where the divide is as the film progresses.

Schadenfreudia

Marco Polo - latest Netflix offering.

At episode six - good, 7/10.

PandyAndy

What We Do in the Shadows

Documentary style comedy about a bunch of guys sharing a flat in New Zealand, and they're vampires.

Stars Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi (Boy).

Found this very funny. Great Sunday evening film

ButtersSuki

Shadow Dancer on Blu Ray. A film I wanted to see in the cinema on release but didn't get to it in time Set in 1990s Belfast and starring pretty much every actor from The Fall and Love/Hate in supporting roles it's really Clive Owen's and (new to me) Andrea Riseborough's film. Both are excellent in this above average thriller. Gillian Anderson also appears briefly (in her blonde sexy self). If you're into Northern Ireland politics/dramas/IRA/British Spy/Espionage movies etc. it's one to have a look at 7/10.

Blue Chips 1990s movie depicting the prevalence of "boosters" in college basketball in the US. Starring Nick Nolte, JT Walsh and a load of US pro basketball players, it's good in parts, but really shows its age in others. Not worth bothering with unless you're into american sports IMO. But if you are - its definitely worth a look. 5/10.

Mizu_Ger

Enemy
Reminded me of "Upstream Color" in it's bizarrenous. It's not as incomprehensible as that, but I'm still not sure what it was about (or what the final shot meant). Jake Gyllenhal seems to be taking lots of risks with films lately. I like these kind of films. They may not make much apparent sense, but at least there's something to think about!

Ender's Game
Better than I expected. Quite downbeat for a major Hollywood, CGI-laden film. The young actors were good, but I wasn't always convinced by Ender himself. It would make a good double bill with Starship Troopers.

A Christmas Story
This isn't very well known over here (I'd never heard of it until recently), but seems to be a classic in the US. Very funny in places, with plenty of laughs for anyone who's been through the commercial side of Christmas (but it doesn't lay it on too thick). I thought the Dad was hilarious.

Non-Stop
Liam Neeson taking care of business again! The first 2/3 were interesting in what may or may not be happening on the plane, but the finale threw it all away.

elderberry

Turtyturd wrote: »

Whiplash

Didn't like it as much as Johnny Ultimate, and as I was watching it wasn't really impressed with it, but the more I think about it over the last few days, the more I enjoyed it.

As said Simmons is immense, walking the line perfectly between someone pushing their students to better themselves and pushing them to the point of abuse. I was also surprised by Teller who I had pinned as Jonah Hill-lite after 21 and over.

Probably worth going to see just for the

'I know it was you.' line at the beginning of the final scene, even though I suspected it was coming it's still a gut punch, and it's been a long time since I heard such a collective gasp in the cinema.

There's a preview screening of Whiplash in Rathmines Omniplex this Thursday. Anyone get the access code in yesterday's Sunday Times and willing to share?

Ole Rodrigo

These Final Hours

The RT aggregate was promising at 87%. Its the story of the final few hours of some Australians as Earth is hit by a cataclysmic asteroid. We learn that it destroys Northern Europe first, then the shock wave and destruction makes its way around the globe reaching Western Australia at the end of the film. The premise is the how characters feel and what they do in those final hours, narrated by a radio DJ as he counts down until the destruction arrives at the west coast.

Unfortunately, it turns out Western Australians are a bunch of boorish, violent, sex crazed degenerates , except for the main guy played by Nathan Phillips, who has a change of heart and tries to be a decent human being, but somehow it doesn't come off as convincing. There are some good gritty films from Australia. The heat and harshness of the environment pairs well with stoic understatement, not suburban recklessness. It was gratuitous for its own sake, it was difficult to empathize with any of the spoiled, neurotic characters and was a chore to watch. How would people deteriorate so quickly ? This is never really explained and we can conclude they must have been predisposed this way already. It comes across as a film which uses a sudden catastrophe as an excuse for its own unpleasantness, unless its making a point about how lacking in character society has become, that when faced with its imminent destruction it loses the plot altogether.

The Road and the Rover have similar themes, but allow a plausible amount of time to pass before civilization starts to crumble. Here, it seems that folks were just waiting to be given the go ahead.

cloudatlas

Under the skin - An alien (Scarlett Johannsen) arrives in Scotland takes on human appearance seduces unsuspecting males and travels around beautiful and bleak landscapes.

It's striking musically and visually. Very strange and abstract but very unique. They set up small cameras so the actors weren't aware they were being filmed, used some improvisation. In a few cases the people in the film weren't aware they were being filmed until a man ran up to them with a consent form afterwards. The scene on the beach and in the woods was really distressing.

JaseBelleVie

I just watched "Sin City: A Dame To Kill For".

Despite the negative reviews, I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed this sequel. Happy to say that it was not as bad as some said. I'm very surprised at how badly it was received and how badly it did at the box office.

Birneybau

JaseHeath wrote: »

I just watched "Sin City: A Dame To Kill For".

Despite the negative reviews, I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed this sequel. Happy to say that it was not as bad as some said. I'm very surprised at how badly it was received and how badly it did at the box office.

It's awful.

run_Forrest_run

Mean Creek - an OK film, glad I made it through my adolescence unscathed:D

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Black Sea Really disappointed by this. Good director, strong cast, trailer made it look like the whole "if there are fewer of us our share increases" thing was going to be the main plot. Kept waiting for it to get good "maybe once they get on the sub it'll get good. Maybe once they get the gold it'll get good. Maybe...oh it's over".

There are definitely good things about it. Strong performances pretty much across the board, which considering how woefully half-baked a lot of the characterisation was is particularly impressive (Ben Mendehlson, Michael Smiley, Scoot Mc Nairy and the actor playing

the russian guy who Fraser stabbed

especially). Interesting, timely themes I suppose, unfortunately hammered home to death by a very unsubtle script. A couple of very tense scenes and set-pieces

the initial stabbing/explosion, your man falling off the ledge, a lot of the last half hour

.

But for god's sake. The score sounded like it had been ordered out of a catalogue. The bloody vaseline-lensed-looking flashbacks were cringy enough without the script deciding to up the unsubtlety ante

"I've left you for a not working-class man who is rich! Because you've become consumed by your job! Remember earlier when you told the man that you'd lost your family to your job? I don't trust the audience to, so I'd better spell it out"

. Some of the digital effects looked like they were from Titanic. Due to the dire characterisation the attempts at blokey banter mostly died

a joke about sending the new boy to clean the chimneys? Seriously? He's 17, he's not retarded

. The ending, ugh.

It felt like there were too many things happening with not enough money/time/motivation to develop any of them properly. Not an absolutely terrible film by any means, but it's just the kind of film that you'd watch if the remote wasn't in easy reach or that you wouldn't get annoyed if you had to watch with your family on a Bank Holiday Sunday, not a film that you'd seek out; which is a real waste of the talents of so many people involved and of the potential of the scenario.

Frank O. Pinion

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

A Christmas Story
This isn't very well known over here (I'd never heard of it until recently), but seems to be a classic in the US. Very funny in places, with plenty of laughs for anyone who's been through the commercial side of Christmas (but it doesn't lay it on too thick). I thought the Dad was hilarious.

It's very American, but it's the best Christmas movie ever, and just a fantastic movie in general.

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

dark crystal

Peter's Friends (1992, Kenneth Branagh)

10 years after they leave college, six old friends reunite for New Year's at the stately home of one of the gang (Stephen Fry).

It's basically a posh, luvvie version of The Big Chill, but I loved it.

Harry Palmr

Forbidden Planet (1956) Dir Fred Wilcox.

As seen on BBC Two as part of their Science Fiction season, beautifully mounted transposition of The Tempest with a script which is far more literate and thoughtful than you might assume from a film that was sold on the charms of "Robbie the Robot". The visuals are a retro treat - matte paintings and miniatures, esp those used to create some of the interior shots of the planets workings which are depicted on a massive scale. Obviously ones familiarity with Leslie Nielsens latter persona could have been an issue but actually its not. He's an actor after all.

cloudatlas

The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Saw it on the shelf in the library and I couldn't remember if I'd seen it or not. Bogart plays Marlowe a private detective who is hired to investigate the attempted blackmailing of General Sternwood's daughter Carmen. Bacall plays Vivian Carmen's protective older sister who is intrigued by Detective Marlowe. Bogart and Bacall have real chemistry (obviously). They don't make 'em like they used to.

johnny_ultimate

Manakamana - 11 static shots, each around 8 and a half minutes long, all of people (or in one case animals) riding a cable car up to or down from a Nepalese temple.

For a film where very, very little happens - several of the journeys are wordless - this is engrossing filmmaking. There's a beautiful elusiveness to Manakamana, and we're invited to imagine the wider stories surrounding these moments. Some of them are self-contained narratives on their own terms, though - one hilarious sequence involves two women struggling to eat an ice cream, while the subsequent shot has two musicians break into an impromptu jam. There's a potent tension everytime the car enters the darkness of the station, and seamlessly another journey begins. It's a film about filmmaking, and both the audience's and the directors' relationship with the images. But above all it's a great film about people - full of moving, funny, strange, subtle and enlightening moments, captured in their faces and small interactions with their fellow passengers.

Traffic - Jacques Tati's final M. Hulot feature is all about cars, and one odd journey to an Amsterdam auto show. Scaled back from Playtime, this nonetheless has the same peerless visual wit and unique satirical edge as his earlier films. Almost every shot is perfectly framed, and almost all feature a whipsmart gag - sometimes subtly deadpan, other times riotously slapstick. A lengthy section in the middle where Hulot shows off his experimental camping car is as good as anything in Tati's oeuvre, with the reveal of more and more ludicrous features. The film loses some steam in its second hour, but makes up for it with an expertly judged ending that has some of Traffic's best gags and images. It is overall a noticeably more cynical film than his earlier films, which perhaps explains why it is often considered one of - if not the weakest - Tati film. Don't let that put you off: this is still a delight, packing dozens of moments of cinematic and comedic genius into its modest running time. With Tati, that's pretty much a given.

Stations of the Cross - Quite liked this one. Another film with a very limited number of shots - here, 14, almost all static (the one or two actual camera movements are incredibly important). The story is a very loose riff on the stations of the cross (each chapter / shot coincides with one station), with a German teenager from an orthodox Christian family the protagonist. While there's some very bleak moments - not inaccurately drawing comparison to Haneke - there's a darkly comedic edge to the film too, and it offers up some provocative commentary on the role and (in)compatibility of religion (or belief systems of any kind) in modern society. Some thematic confusion, underwritten supporting characters and a few bemusing moments only slightly sour what is a consistently intriguing watch, and a distinctive, eccentric character study to boot. Fantastic lead performance from young Lea van Acken, too, and Franziska Weisz as her mother.

Big Eyes - middling drama from Tim Burton, based on some real life art controversy. There's some nice integration of pop art into the visuals and some evocatively cartoonish recreations of the era, but there's something decidedly underwhelming about the film as a whole. Amy Adams is good as always if not always well served by the script, but Christoph Waltz can't save a character that sadly descends into caricature well before the end. Not up to Ed Wood or even Big Fish standards (comparable as this is another rare film where Burton drops his gothic schtick - although you can clearly see that his animated fare owes something to the big eyed waifs featured in this). You can do worse. You can also do much better.

Short Peace - surprisingly confident, consistent anime anthology. All the films are well worth a look. The companion video game not so much (bar some imaginatively zany cutscenes), but definitely the four shorts are all successful in their own way. Doesn't deserve to slip under the radar - it's better than that.

Fantastic Planet - man, I was too tired when watching this craziness :pac: Surreal and trippy French sci-fi animation, quite unlike anything else. Low production values - many scenes are closer to static paintings - but full of memorable and totally unique imagery. Plenty of radical allegorical meanings to feast on once you get over the sheer oddness of the whole affair.

Tony EH

/\

'Fantastic Planet'

johnny_ultimate

Tony EH wrote: »

/\

'Fantastic Planet'

Man, I was too tired when typing that :cool:

charlie_says

Down Terrace

Bit of a mixed bag this. Ben Wheatley's directorial début.

Very dark crime comedy about a close knit family of deeply sociopathic people in modern Brighton. Brilliant script and excellent performances from the entire very small cast (it's almost entirely set in the family home enjoying cups of tea and whiskey whilst simultaneously plotting murder most horrid) it just wasn't paced very well even though a short 90 mins.

Much to like about it though. I thought it was a very British film, it just oozed their kind of humour, mannerisms and banter perfectly.
Quirky soundtrack and quite funny in many parts it just didn't hit all the right buttons.

Worth a watch though all the same.