What have you watched recently? 3D!

megaten

Worrying about continuity between films is for nerds.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120446830#Comment_120446830

It is?

Well Damn.

megaten

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120447097#Comment_120447097

Yup, Sorry.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120446830#Comment_120446830

Nerds? Where do you think you are?

steve_r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120447253#Comment_120447253

I nearly choked on my retainer when I read that.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120446496#Comment_120446496

The first film is society circling the drain and then the next one is full on collapse.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120447137#Comment_120447137

Well there goes my streetcreď

loyatemu

they're basically documentaries about rural Oz

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120448630#Comment_120448630

I think it's a potentially interesting subgenre of sorts, something rarely tapped into or explored. The "pre apocalyptic", where as mentioned, everything feels ready to collapse at any minute. It might even be just the mood of the film rather than particulars or setting... just this sense if the movie kept going for another 30 minutes after finishing, we'd see it all collapse.

So Mad Max 1 the aforementioned example for instance, but other less obvious films like Seven had it IMO. That had this really heavy sense of foreboding throughout, like we caught a story just a few weeks before it all went tits up and the zombies started roaming the streets.

pixelburp

Michael Clayton (2007)

Perhaps the zenith of the legal thriller genre, with a showboat of mainstream cinema so astute and accomplished, it begged the question: why does this film feel somewhat obscure, maybe forgotten?

Even with the success of Andor, I haven't sensed much of a retrospective on Tony Gilroy's work. Was it bad marketing, poor timing - or just the wet-thud of a name that (probably) failed to turn heads? I couldn't name a flaw here without really trying, and if I did... then yeah. It might just be that title, 'cos as much as the movie itself excelled, the name underwhelmed.

This had a career best performance from George Clooney, who mixed his effortless charm with an often wordless, weary sense of self-loathing that metastasised as events began to unspool around him; the redemptive arc more internalised than one might normally find with stories set within moral grey areas. While a few scenes with Michael Clayton's extended family were less about strife over his choices, than a resigned concern for his well being. This was a grown man, coming to a reckoning; his family antagonistic yes, but not to a melodramatic level of raised voices and swelling orchestral scores. Clooney used his ineffable Hollywood charisma as the character's shield, the easy swagger nothing more than a front to help him function while his world first stagnated then collapsed. Even the cliché Exit Strategy plot-point had already disintegrated before the movie even started - all Clayton had left when we met him was his winning smile. While the very last scene held the camera on his face as the credits rolled, watching the silent contemplation of the consequences of his actions. 

In a world that has increasingly become dominated by the polemic as a First Response, this was an anti-corporate film that kept itself measured throughout. Despite opening with a supposed madman's rant into an answering machine about the itching perversion of corporations & the law, the messaging stayed present but sober and let the viewer become subsumed in the world, so they come to their own conclusions - the likes of Adam McKay could learn a lot about how to draft more nuanced screeds. 'Cos while I'm very much of the "Eat the rich" mentality these days, I appreciated the value of this script's scalpel over the chainsaws that have become the default.

Tony EH

Forgotten? Not by me. I think 'Michael Clayton', along with 'Syriana' are two of the the best thrillers from the naughties and Clooney is great in both. I was never a fan of his, but he turns in a good performance in those films.

I'll have to sit down to both of them again at some point.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468783#Comment_120468783

OOhhh Syriana. That's a blast from the past. I tried to watch that many many years ago (I bought some bootleg copy over on hols in Macedonia for €1). But gave up as I couldn't understand what was going on. I meant to go back to it with a better frame of mind, but then forgot all about it.

Thank you for reminding me. I will definately give it a go in the next few days.

johnny_ultimate

How To Blow Up A Pipeline

https://youtu.be/bSb585bGYmQ

Ah, that’s how you do it. A tense, exciting thriller with unashamedly bold, in-your-face politics. It delivers a classic, heist movie style story about a group of young activists who decide to blow up a Texas oil pipeline out of frustration with the lack of progress they’ve made with their other activist efforts. It has the classic, dangerous setup, and then the thrills and tension of having to improvise when unexpected obstacles get in the way of the plan. But the film’s sympathies are very much with this group, and smartly structured flashbacks - elegantly edited in at moments of high drama in the ‘a plot’ - set up their varied motivations.

Based on a recent non-fiction manifesto of the same name, this is a film that bluntly takes a stand on the urgency of collective action in the face of corporate environmental destruction. The dialogue can be clunky as characters debate the pros and cons of their decisions aloud (in one scene they debate whether to embrace or reject the eco-terrorist label), but equally the film is quite smart in how it allows them to struggle a bit in articulating their feelings before finally settling on a course of action. The film is a brilliantly staged thriller in the style of something like Sorcerer, but also it’s a delight to see a film this unapologetically radical operating in a familiar genre space.

Return to Seoul

https://youtu.be/wBZWqbITplI

Davy Chou’s film follows a young French woman’s trips to Korea to track down her biological parents, who gave her up for adoption when she was a child. It jumps forward in time on several occasions to show protagonist Freddie travelling to Seoul at different points in her 20s and 30s, each time in a somewhat different mindset, but always sort of lost.

The film is surprising and intriguingly unsentimental for the most part, and other than one strange subplot involving arms dealing and Tinder dates, it’s hugely successful. But it wouldn’t have worked without Ji-Min Park, a first time actress who is astoundingly good as Freddie. This is a multi-faceted, lived-in performance that I’d compare to something like Cate Blanchett in Tár - quite astonishing for a first screen appearance. Park plays Freddie as this charismatic but deeply troubled soul, not quite sure what she’s looking for and never quite sure how to react when she finally achieves a moment that should be cathartic or happy. It’s a performance that’s unusually spiky - none of Freddie’s rougher, crueller edges have been sanded down, and she’s more believable & relatable (if not always likeable) as a result. The film embraces that to refuse easy resolutions right until its ending. An excellent film elevated further by a masterful lead performance.

buried

Il Grande Silenzio (The Great Silence) - 1968

A Sergio Corbucci Spaghetti Western work, and its definitely one of the best ones. A mute gunman for hire by the name of 'Silence' is hired by a young widow who wants vengeance against a ruthless bunch of bounty hunters led by their leader 'Loco', brilliantly played by Klaus Kinski, and the local scumbag banker who backs them.

Fantastic watch for a free weekend afternoon.

9/10

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468783#Comment_120468783

I think it came the year before the 2008 crash so perhaps it got a little lost in the subsequent post mortems and polemics that rose in the fallout of that economic collapse. Cos by all accounts it has seemed a movie that doesn't get much mention in discussion or debate.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120470326#Comment_120470326

Iconic horse riding scene through the deep snow brilliantly scored by Morricone

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120452982#Comment_120452982

A bit off topic, but did you ever see the film On the Beach. It's another Australian post apocalyptic film, I read the book and really enjoyed it.

Spoiler Warning

I find it interesting that you have two Australian takes on the end of the world and their vision of what it looks like is so different.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120474830#Comment_120474830

Yeah I saw it a few years ago all right, very odd little movie given the period in which it was made. Kind straddled both pre and post apocalyptic in being the last country left before a radioactive cloud arrived. Couldn't recall otherwise what I made of it mind you, other than the era in which it was made took the edge off what was a pretty miserable story.

Decuc500

Smile

Hopelessly derivative horror movie that steals wholesale from much better films like Ringu and It Follows. Every beat in the film is a cliche right down to the entirely predictable ending.

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120482959#Comment_120482959

I felt similarly - genuinely a bit puzzled by some of the positive feedback it got; I heard about the promotional stunt around sporting events which was cute, but the film itself was a complete dud (and tbh, having watched the original short it was expanded from I'm not sure there was ever going to be a good film here).

Mr.Nice Guy

Mortal Kombat (2021)

I didn't like this. The presentation is way more polished than the original and the opening scene is great but the lead protagonist has no personality. It felt very hollow and flat to me. I watched the original back and it's just way more fun, as well as having that great soundtrack.

Decuc500

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120485332#Comment_120485332

I haven't seen the short but it was a case of the trailer being better than the film for me.

silverharp

Watched Leon at the weekend, not seen it before. Great film, did they ever suggest making a sequel with Portman playing her adult self?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120486532#Comment_120486532

She is not fond of that film because she felt she was sexualised too much in the role as a minor. Long time since I saw it but probably psychologically for a 12 year old or whatever she was during the filming of that, it would be very confusing and inappropriate for a kid that age to be playing that part. God knows how many paedo's were circling back then.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120487979#Comment_120487979

cheers, would make sense, there was a script for a sequel which was repurposed into a film called Columinana (so some such) must look it up

Jump_In_Jack

Kill Boksoon, really enjoyed it.

Quite similar to John Wick action but with a very different storyline. Intriguing plot and main character.

buried

Wake in Fright (1971)

Fellow boards.ie user silliussoddius mentioned this film in a thread about Australia recently so I gave it a watch as I had never heard of this film.

Its just absolutely brilliant, directed by Ted Kotcheff, who also later directed the first Rambo film, this thing follows our protagonist, a schoolteacher who teaches in a small outback town, heading back to Sydney for the Christmas holidays. He stops off for the night in the small mining city of 'Bundanyabba', nicknamed by the locals as "The Yabba", gets involved with a local gambling den and everything literally turns into a drink fueled, sandy, sweaty nightmare.

Its disturbing as Hell in parts, but also absolutely hilarious. The sequential editing and timing delivery is done to brilliant effect. I think this film must have had some sort of influence over directors such as the Coen brothers, definitely their earlier work anyways. Brilliant performances from everybody involved, from Donald Pleasence to Gary Bond, but even the obviously local background extras give it their everything too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzzCIgfowFk

Highly Highly recommended. 9/10

Tony EH

It's easily the best Australian film ever made.

And I really mean that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120516737#Comment_120516737

A bold statement, but on reflection there is really only a handful of films that come into the conversation. Babe is the one, most people probably don't know it's Australian. Red Dog is another one although traumatically sad and of course Crocodile Dundee which is an incredibly charming film with some fantastic and hilarious scenes. Honourable mention to Wolf Creek as that is pretty damn scary at times.

But I'd find it hard to say Wake in Fright is better than Mad Max, even with madness of the 'roo's scene.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120518809#Comment_120518809

Is it as scary as it is made out to be?