What have you watched recently: Electric Boogaloo

Fingers Mcginty

droidman123 wrote: »

Haevnen (in a better world) 2010

Outstanding Danish movie,a must see.before I give a brief synopsis I have to say this is a very Moody and depressing movie.basic story,two families,through circumstances,come into contact.a young lads mam just died of cancer and him and his dad are having a hard time dealing with it.the other family has a young lad who's parents are going through a separation,the dad works back and forth from Africa to denmark as a doctor,he sees some horrific things in Africa, so all in all there is a deep underlying depressive mood right through the movie, there's also an underlying theme of vengence and the thin line between turning the other cheek and fighting back.the acting is top class from all the cast,but the two young lads that play Christian and Elias are amazing.a thoroughly engrossing movie from start to finish with a beautiful score
9/10

Amazing film....thanks for the rec!!

charlie_says

Back from It Comes At Night.

What a cracker of a movie. Haven't seen a movie as tense since Green Room. I was expecting a straight up monster horror movie, but went in knowing nothing and was pleasantly surprised.

Well acted and paced. Highly recommend.

Fysh

briany wrote: »

Stalker (1979)

Russian film about a mysterious region known as the Zone - a place that, it's rumored, is home to some presence not of this world. In the heart of it is said to be a room where people who reach it can have their deepest wishes fulfilled. The film is about two such men trying to reach that room, guided by a third individual who is knowledgeable of the place.

A slow and ponderous film. Much like Tarkovsky's other much-lauded sci-fi work, Solaris, it's a film much more about the human condition than anything else. A delight for fans of cinematography and philosophy, but a frustrating watch for fans of plot development.

You're not wrong there, but I would say that this is intentional - Stalker's screenplay was written by the Strugatsky brothers as a loose adaptation of their novel Roadside Picnic, which is great but very much cut from the same mould.

briany

Weiner (2016)

Weiner Pulls Out!

Documentary about American politician, Anthony Weiner and the compulsions he had which scuppered both his political career and personal life.

A sometimes funny and aggravating documentary. Weiner, despite his failings, comes across as a politician who's very motivated and energetic, and you have to respect his battling attitude in the light of the revelations about him. However, you also see the toll it takes on those supporting him, not least his wife, and Weiner's almost disregard of that. At the same time, some of his attackers come across as the lowest of the low, morally. Seeming to take great delight in taking Weiner down.

johnny_ultimate

Symbol (Shinboru)

Oh, that rush of a genuine surprise!

I watch a lot of Japanese films, many of which (sometimes deservedly, sometimes tragically) will never receive much attention in the West. Yet Symbol had flown under my radar until it popped up on Mubi the other day. I knew the filmmaker Hitoshi Matsumoto from Big Man Japan (which is grand), but hadn't come across this - his 2009 sophomore effort. So, with a few hours to kill until Twin Peaks, I threw it on.

When I say I can't say much about it, that's partially as a result of not wanting to spoil the film's numerous surprises - but also because I don't think mere words can do its inventiveness and eccentricities justice. This film - which mostly follows two stories: the preparations for a Mexican wrestling match, and the strange case of a man trapped in a grey room - is a crazy creative slice of cinematic comedy, that harks back to Tati and Keaton while also being uniquely absurdist. The gags are delivered with the sort of formal fluency that is oh-so-uncommon in modern day filmed comedy. It is, I cannot emphasise enough, also totally bat**** insane and boasts some of the cleverest digital effects I've had the pleasure to be legitimately surprised by. It has a running joke involving comic book panels which is singlehandedly better than most critically acclaimed recent comedies.

Listen: just go watch the damn thing. Don't read anything about it, and simply embrace the 90 minutes of ****ing magnificent lunacy.

The Black Oil

Trumbo

Wanted to catch this in the cinema. Don't think it stayed around long. Pretty enjoyable, a little disappointing too. It's got the right cast, rhythms and acting. Cranston is good, though I was conscious it often felt I was watching a performance, so similar to Brad Pitt in War Machine on that front. It's very much about the world as seen through Trumbo's eyes (regaining his credibility, surviving by providing shlock to John Goodman), including his less than pleasant side as a father. Elle Fanning was great as his daughter. Ultimately, what I think let it down for me was that despite the political climate, Senate hearings, Helen Mirren's columinst and other elements (David James Elliott plays John Wayne), it just didn't have much of an impact. At least IBM typewriters got a shout out, eh?

Hanna K 1983 Costa Gavras film set in Israel with Gabriel Byrne. A female lawyer is defending a Palestinian man trying to get back into the country to reclaim his land that gets arrested by the Israeli army. She navigates through the Israeli court system while also navigating between her lover Byrne the district attorney she is arguing against in court and falling for the Palestinian defendant. A simple message, leaning more to the Palestinian side showing the belligerence of the israeli's

Betrayed 1987 Another Costa Gavras film where Debra Winger players an undercover FBI agent sent into the midwest to try and find evidence against Tom Berenger about whether he is responsible for killing a prominent Jewish radio host. A decent thriller with plenty of other familiar faces, and a reminder how much things have changed in the last 30 years!

The Confession 1970 Gavras' go to man Yves Montand stars as a Communist Party Undersecretary in an unnamed country (no one does movies in an unnamed country better then Gavras!) where the whole executive of the party is purged and tortured over a period of years leading up to a grand trial, essentially a public showtrial for the party. Great insight into the mentality of Communist leaders back then and the twisted loyalty, and programming of the party and the people. Tough but outstanding piece of work.

Section Speciale 1975 Completing Costa Gavras week this is a really intriguing film about a 'Special Court' set up in France during Nazi occupation where the Minister for the Interior, a Nazi sympathizer ordered the setup of this special court and a new piece of legislation in France to be enacted that would retroactively apply the death penalty to cases that had already been tried. Not only was this a travesty of justice but they were trying people for misdemeanor crimes for this new death penalty. All because of the 'greater good' as if a certain quota of death penalties were not handed out, the Nazis were going to round up 100 people - famous people such as judges, and execute them. It all came about because of the assassination of a German Admiral in Paris. Brilliant piece of filmmaking.

Frank O. Pinion

Tour de Pharmacy (2017)

Fascinating documentary about the extremely unique and unusual 1982 Tour de France. I have no regular interest in the sport, but this was amazing. Shocking stuff really, including a woman dressing as a man to compete and what happened with BBC reporter, Rex Honeycut. Pure madness.

MilesMorales1

I was really excited to watch Iona for some reason, probably because I liked the premise and Ruth Negga is great, but in the end it was really slow, obtuse, with some super mediocre acting dragging it down.

Great scenery though.

LCD

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

Tour de Pharmacy (2017)

Fascinating documentary about the extremely unique and unusual 1982 Tour de France. I have no regular interest in the sport, but this was amazing. Shocking stuff really, including a woman dressing as a man to compete and what happened with BBC reporter, Rex Honeycut. Pure madness.

You do realise its a mockumentary?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5886510/

Frank O. Pinion

LCD wrote: »

You do realise its a mockumentary?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5886510/

What is a mockumentary? Is that even a real word? Look, the 1982 event might have made a mockery of the sport, but the facts are the facts, and the footage in this documentary tells the true story of what happened, ridiculous as it may have been.

NIMAN

Come on Frank.....joke's over.

Frank O. Pinion

NIMAN wrote: »

Come on Frank.....joke's over.

I thought it was, until someone actually asked if I realised it's a mockumentary. Comic gold. And posted the IMDB link. Hilarious.

Fysh

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Symbol (Shinboru)

Oh, that rush of a genuine surprise!

I watch a lot of Japanese films, many of which (sometimes deservedly, sometimes tragically) will never receive much attention in the West. Yet Symbol had flown under my radar until it popped up on Mubi the other day. I knew the filmmaker Hitoshi Matsumoto from Big Man Japan (which is grand), but hadn't come across this - his 2009 sophomore effort. So, with a few hours to kill until Twin Peaks, I threw it on.

When I say I can't say much about it, that's partially as a result of not wanting to spoil the film's numerous surprises - but also because I don't think mere words can do its inventiveness and eccentricities justice. This film - which mostly follows two stories: the preparations for a Mexican wrestling match, and the strange case of a man trapped in a grey room - is a crazy creative slice of cinematic comedy, that harks back to Tati and Keaton while also being uniquely absurdist. The gags are delivered with the sort of formal fluency that is oh-so-uncommon in modern day filmed comedy. It is, I cannot emphasise enough, also totally bat**** insane and boasts some of the cleverest digital effects I've had the pleasure to be legitimately surprised by. It has a running joke involving comic book panels which is singlehandedly better than most critically acclaimed recent comedies.

Listen: just go watch the damn thing. Don't read anything about it, and simply embrace the 90 minutes of ****ing magnificent lunacy.

Having just recently signed up to Mubi again (signed up for a month's trial ages ago and didn't make any use of it), this is the first film I watched on it and "magnificent lunacy" seems like an apt description. That was a very odd, very funny 90 minutes

johnny_ultimate

Fysh wrote: »

Having just recently signed up to Mubi again (signed up for a month's trial ages ago and didn't make any use of it), this is the first film I watched on it and "magnificent lunacy" seems like an apt description. That was a very odd, very funny 90 minutes

I love not only the fact that the film spends about 75 minutes

building up to a punchline with the Mexican wrestling stuff - but that the punchline is so much better and absurdist than I had possibly hoped it would be!

Surprisingly impressive and inventive effects work throughout!

droidman123

I dine haender (in your arms) 2015
Danish/german movie about euthanasia. A young man(niels) paralyzed and terminally ill decides he wants to die.his carer/nurse (maria)agrees to take him from denmark to switzerland for assisted suicide.its obviously a sad movie but is handled very well.the movie doesnt moralise or give its opinion about the subject matter,its handled in a very matter of fact and realistic way.the two leads who play niels and maria are outstanding
8/10

MilesMorales1

I watched Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the first time since the cinema release nearly 6 years ago (christ thats a long time isn't it) and... I liked it more now than I maybe did at the time. The problem with film adaptations of stuff I already enjoy and love, particularly the Harry Potter films is that I'm so hugely invested and in love with the source material that I find it difficult to separate the perception of the characters I have from the books from the ones on screen, and thus I almost always think negatively of the film versions, despite whatever merits they may have, and especially when they signficantly diverge from the source material, or condense it down. These films seem to either assume the audience has a knowledge of the books, or just doesn't care that much and so can just leave certain details and subplots in the dust cos they're not that interesting (wrong)

Deathly Hallows Part 2 was pretty good though, despite that. They signficantly change the third act to make it much more action packed than the book and give certain character more agency and give others less, but it works for the film. I still hate the way they put duelling on the screen. Other relationships and character dynamics are either changed or way toned down on screen, which irritates me, but I couldn't deny it was a pretty good watch. In particular the gringotts bank robbery is pretty accurate, and looks great and feels very well done, liked it a lot. The battle for hogwarts looks absolutely amazing incidentally, even on the small screen, even if that too is changed or toned down quite a bit (no army of people coming back to help the death eaters, come on)

And the cast is all game, and all pretty good. It's amazing of the three actors they picked for the main roles in whenever that would have been, 2000 or 1999, all three of them turned out to be pretty good. I wish they'd kept the Percy prodigal son subplot from the books, and Neville and Malfoy's character arcs are pretty cut down from the source, which is dissapointing, as is Harry and Ginny's romance. I'm not sure on Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, but he's a great actor and is certainly up for the role, so to speak.

Nowhere near as good as the book, nowhere near as meh as I vaguely recalled it being. I'm happy with that.

ButtersSuki

Betting On Zero Documentary on Netflix; which is essentially two stories in one. The first is a sort of dick-measuring contest between two Wall Street traders (Bill Ackman & Carl Icahn), one who is shorting Herbalife stock convinced it's a pyrmaid scheme; the other determined to break the otehr finanically because the two hate each other. The second concurrent story is about Herbalife's products themselevs and their selling practices. Really interesting. 7/10.

Two TV shows that I worked my way through:

Curb Your Enthusiam Took a few months but I did all 8 existing seasons f CYE back to back. It's niche and not for everyone, but I loved it. 8/10.

House of Cards (BBC) All 3 seasons of the original BBC show. Though quite dated now, I'd imagine at the time it was very fresh, esp. the breaking the 4th wall scenes. Ian Richardson's performance is fantastic. At times it feels like a stage play, and some of the scenes are "terribly British"

some of the IRA comments, some comments by the soldiers about being "Shuffed to the bollocks!"

, as well as a couple of silly scenes (

chief amongst them the scene where the Paratroopers free the King

), but it's worth watching for Richardson's performance alone. 7.5/10

El Duda

The Doors - 7/10

Val Kilmer plays Doors front man Jim Morrison and does a sterling job. This film is actually the perfect metaphor for Val Kilmer's career; Starts off as kind of a big deal before making some bad choices, ending up a bloated mess and dying a premature death.

The Doors are a band who I've always felt that you probably need to know the context in which they existed to properly 'get' them. That's exactly what this film proved to me. Great band who seemed to define that era.

I was impressed with the level of production although it was about half hour too long. I haven't seen many Oliver Stone films but this intrigues me to see more. I've not seen JFK or Platoon so will probably go for those.


The Warriors - 7.5/10

Come out to plaaaaaay...

A very retro, behind enemy lines, film that plays out almost like a chase movie. The fashion, the gangs, the violence... I digged it all.

It was also like playing a game of spot the sample. It is clearly a very influential film.





Also re-watched the Sam Raimi Spiderman 2 with Dr Octopus, just to see if it's as good as everyone remembers...

It isn't. Toby Maguire is terrible. A lot of the dialogue is clunky. Spider Mans character arc is tedious. It's all just very camp and goofy. The years have not been kind.

HalloweenJack

briany wrote: »

Stalker (1979)

I saw this myself fairly recently and I was fascinated by it, despite the frustrating pacing.

The cinematography is incredible, especially the contrast between the inside of the Zone and the area outside it. The atmosphere for the outside area is set perfectly by the camera.

The plot itself was rather simple but it's a film that makes you think. Some of the dialogue, especially towards the end, is brilliantly philosophical. Had I watched it more recently, I would be able to pin down the exact conversation that had my brain ticking for hours afterwards. Unfortunately, the subtitles I had for it weren't great. If I had found a link with better ones, I probably would have got even more out of it.

I would recommend it to everyone, though I can understand that it's not easy to watch and would suggest avoiding it if you're not ready to give it complete attention.

I saw Eraserhead yesterday. This is a film I've wanted to watch for years but never got around to it. Found it in the comedy section () of Netflix yesterday and gave it a go.

Visually, it's very well done. The special effects, considering the time and the budget, are impressive. The black-and-white part worked very well. Similar to Stalker above, it helped set the tone for the film.

The soundtrack is haunting and irritating, after about twenty minutes I had to turn it down quite a bit because the humming was driving me nuts. Then later on you have the baby screaming. I know the sound is an equally important part of the film as the visuals in this case but it did get on my nerves.

As for the story, it's interesting but there's lots of stuff that's hard to make sense of and how it ties into the story itself. As the film ended, I was actually pretty pissed off with it before I started to think about it a bit more.

It's a film to watch but it is not easy to get into and I can imagine people struggling to sit through the whole thing.

El Duda

I watched Eraserhead for the first time recently and had to turn it off as i found it far too disturbing. I say that as a massive Lynch fan as well.

It has such a strange, palpable atmosphere.... one of the creepiest things i've ever seen.

Frank O. Pinion

I'm a massive Lynch fan, Eraserhead is easily the best film of 1977. I've watched it many times, much more than that little space opera film from the same year.

Schwanz

Moonstruck.

Brilliance

briany

HalloweenJack wrote: »

I saw this myself fairly recently and I was fascinated by it, despite the frustrating pacing.

The cinematography is incredible, especially the contrast between the inside of the Zone and the area outside it. The atmosphere for the outside area is set perfectly by the camera.

The plot itself was rather simple but it's a film that makes you think. Some of the dialogue, especially towards the end, is brilliantly philosophical. Had I watched it more recently, I would be able to pin down the exact conversation that had my brain ticking for hours afterwards. Unfortunately, the subtitles I had for it weren't great. If I had found a link with better ones, I probably would have got even more out of it.

I would recommend it to everyone, though I can understand that it's not easy to watch and would suggest avoiding it if you're not ready to give it complete attention.

I saw Eraserhead yesterday. This is a film I've wanted to watch for years but never got around to it. Found it in the comedy section () of Netflix yesterday and gave it a go.

Visually, it's very well done. The special effects, considering the time and the budget, are impressive. The black-and-white part worked very well. Similar to Stalker above, it helped set the tone for the film.

The soundtrack is haunting and irritating, after about twenty minutes I had to turn it down quite a bit because the humming was driving me nuts. Then later on you have the baby screaming. I know the sound is an equally important part of the film as the visuals in this case but it did get on my nerves.

As for the story, it's interesting but there's lots of stuff that's hard to make sense of and how it ties into the story itself. As the film ended, I was actually pretty pissed off with it before I started to think about it a bit more.

It's a film to watch but it is not easy to get into and I can imagine people struggling to sit through the whole thing.

I thought the atmosphere outside the Zone was unrelentingly bleak. It's no wonder one popular Russian stereotype is of them being a dour bunch.

I found the characters somewhat inconsistent/illogical in their behaviour. For example, the guide seemed terrified of the Zone to the point that he was often walking behind the people he was supposed to be leading and having them go first into situations. Not a man who'd instill a lot of confidence in me if I'd paid good money to have him show me around.

Then there's other odd things like the way they were sleeping. Actually, not even the way they were sleeping, but that they were sleeping. If I recall, the story takes place over the course of one day and it's not even a particularly long journey in that, so why they were kipping in some wet marsh land like they were so exhausted made no sense, and that hurts the ability to relate, and therefore the ability to invest in the story as a viewer.

Beyond actually getting into the Zone, which was pretty hairy, the journey didn't seem that bad at all. The writer changing his mind at the end was a little bit deus-ex-machina because firstly you'd have to be of fairly extreme conviction to want to go to the room in the first place, and apparently the Stalker vetted his clients as being of a sincere nature, and had done so many times, successfully (at least in his estimation). I could understand the scientist hiding his true intention, but for the writer to just turn around and go, "Actually.....nah." was frustrating, and took away the chance for us, the viewer, to see inside the room. I don't think that would have cheapened the other themes of the film to give us that glimpse.

HalloweenJack

Just watched Okja. That was painful to watch. As soon as the film ended, I spend about five minutes hugging my dog and trying not to burst into full on tears.

There is comic relief in Jake Gyllenhal and a 'happy' ending but the penultimate scene when they are leaving the factory (on my phone so can't do spoiler tags) takes away from the happy part.

It's very effective in getting it's message across. I think it's scary that although some of it may seem outlandish, there is a strong connection to reality and that really hit hone. Suffice to say, I don't think I'll be eating any meat for a while.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I watched Into The Woods on Netflix tonight. I like musicals and I like alternative takes on fairy tales but this was just a bit old mess. For some reason it's over 2 hours long but there's only about 20 minutes of actual plot and the songs aren't even that long.

Uomini Contro 1970 If there was ever an anti war movie this is it. Set at the front lines of the Italians vs the Austrians in WW1, its mostly from the perspective of one Lieutenant who has some subversive ideas compared to his General. General Leone, is probably one of the biggest pr**** to ever appear on screen, and theres a few others too in the officers. Well worth a watch.

The Black Oil

Kedi

AKA Chef's Table, with cats.

vegetables

spy/police/intel drama.

philip seymour hofmanns last major film.

a bit more 'tinker tailor soldier spy' than 'munich'.

if you liked either of those other two, or dramas rooted in proper believable reality (as opposed to bourne/bond, you'll probably like it too.

quite low key, but moves along surprisingly quickly.

ending is ... good.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Beautiful Thing

Recorded this off Film 4 a few weeks ago. It's a really sweet and funny coming out story about two young boys living on a London council estate. There's none of the high drama or screaming and shouting that you usually get with films of a similar theme. There's a bit of emotional stuff here and there but generally it's just a really sweet and funny film.

The scary thing about it is it's from 1996 and everything looks so dated. It made me feel really old