What have you watched recently? 3D!

monkeyactive · 30-03-2023 5:00pm

Emily the Criminal

Aubrey Plaza stars and is impressive.

Drama about an artist who's struggle to find work due to an assault charge drags her into criminality.

Refreshing and original. I liked it. Aubrey Plaza has great screen presence.

monkeyactive · 30-03-2023 5:03pm

When your done saving the world.

Jesse Eisenbergs Diretorial Debut.

He does well. Nice kooky drama about a Mother and son relationship with some interesting tropes and observations slipped in. Good.

31-03-2023 3:41am

A Good Person 2023

Caught this in the cinema and its quite the emotional drama. Its tackling grief, loss and addiction, not your typical American cinema because it really pulls no punches at all on these topics.

Its brilliance is in the two leads - Florence Pugh is quite the actress, and if this had been released a few months back she may well have won the gong.

Opposite her Morgan Freeman is his usual effortlessly brilliant self commanding the screen as he tends to do. Yet despite his brilliance Pugh still manages to outshine him with the best female performance I have seen in quite some time.

Outstanding film.

Mr.Nice Guy · 31-03-2023 5:47pm

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

I was going to watch the Mortal Kombat reboot but decided to look at this first since I'd never seen it. This is really, really bad. That CGI fight at the end...yikes. I think only two of the actors from the first film returned and I can't blame the ones that didn't.

Mr.Nice Guy · 02-04-2023 10:26pm

Godzilla vs Kong (2021)

Pretty much knew what to expect from this and it's what I got. I found the storyline convoluted and nonsensical and at times I just skipped ahead to the smashy, smashy bits. I did like...

the idea of Kong communicating with sign language. Although Kong listening to the little deaf girl that Godzilla wasn't the enemy was a bit of a stretch alright.

Some lines made me laugh. I liked the battle scenes. If it wasn't for the stupid storyline and the unlikeable main protagonists, it could have been a 7/10 film. I'd give it a 6/10 as it is.

Fysh · 03-04-2023 5:55pm

I caught Ti West's X on Saturday and was quite impressed by it. I like how it manages to be influenced by certain films while still doing its own thing, that the characters felt like they had more depth than is so often the case, but most of all that, rather than just go along with the "attractive young people have sex, and are then killed in a variety of ways" trope, its writing actually considers the fetishisation by society of youth and youthful sexuality.

I'm looking forward to catching Pearl at some point soon, and hopefully Maxxxine whenever it is released.

pixelburp · 03-04-2023 6:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120436312#Comment_120436312

Fair be warned, finished Pearl the other day - review coming soon lol - and it was a much different animal. I hated X with a passion but loved Pearl, and I think the latter had a completely different pulse to it. More a story of a psychological break than gory slasher.

buried · 03-04-2023 7:30pm

Mel Gibson Mad Max Marathon

Mad Max (1979)

The sequel always gets billed as the greatest but IMO this one is the best. Unreal stunts, glorious colours, gritty as Hell, a heap of fantastic characters all over the place, the setting where the world is just teetering on the edge of the societal abyss while the bureaucrats and lawyers shout "plough on lads" is just fantastic satire. Loads of subtle and high octane sequential editing, all the while this work was shot on a shoestring budget. Just top class work. 9/10

Mad Max 2 - The Road Warrior (1981)

Everything has really ploughed into its own arse and society is in full frontal chaos. Bands of survivors close ranks to brutally carve out some sort of existence for their future, but poor auld Max is only looking out for himself. Worldbuilding continuity and production in this thing is brilliant, plus the stunts and editing go to a next level. Once again, like the first, a basically independent produced film so the entire artistical aesthetic to the thing is very well crafted. Only thing for me is that it doesn't have the same level of great character archetypes that were present in the first. 8/10

Mad Max 3 - Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

This one is always billed as the worst of the lot but compared to a lot of Hollywood output these days, this work is fairly enjoyable. Hollywood got involved with this one and the worldbuilding and production design of the sets and everything is really ratcheted up to big budget level. Unfortunately it also got involved with the script and plot to go with it, so what you have is a rehash of everything from characters such as yer man from the sequel who can fly aircraft, to blatantly and ridiculously rehashing the chase scene from the end of the sequel. Interesting, as this film is an early indicator of what Hollywood spews out on the regular these days. But there is lots to enjoy, the nomad kids, the production values, but modern day Hollywood's greasy greedy fingers are all over it too 6/10

Fysh · 03-04-2023 9:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120436406#Comment_120436406

What made you dislike X so strongly, if you don't mind me asking?

pixelburp · 04-04-2023 7:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120437311#Comment_120437311

I think to be fair, setting a Slasher around a porno shoot was the kind of genius move I'm surprised hadn't been done before; it wasn't like Slashers, and horror in general, hasn't always been tied up into sexuality in one form or another. But something about the execution really rubbed me up the wrong way: I don't know if there was intentional messaging, but I was left with an itchy, kinda gross feeling about the story beats. Between a scene about how liberating and amazing porn was, culminating in one of the crew "joining in" (the disgusted BF treated like a bit of a prude), then this whole choice to present old people as gross and shameful for having any physicality or ... well, horniness.

Maybe it's one of those things if I had have watched in a different mood I'd have enjoyed more? The gore and actual chaos was good, the scares pretty solidly executed for such a slim budget & restrained location; but just all the sexual politics felt weirdly icky for me 🤷‍♂️

But like I said, Pearl was amazing, and would low-key hover about a Best Of list for me - so no idea how two films in the same ostensible "universe" cane leave me with such polar opposite opinions. I'm definitely curious to know if Maxxine is going to swerve in yet another direction.

Fysh · 04-04-2023 8:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120437890#Comment_120437890

Interesting, thanks for replying 🙂

I think for me it landed differently, with the framing somehow suggesting that the character's views or ideas are not necessarily correct. And all throughout it's playing with that whole idea of porn as having some kind of allure (because sexy people having sex!) but also being kind of seedy and grubby (partly societal taboos around sex and sex work, but partly also because of the parasites involved along the way).

The sexual politics of the characters are definitely messy, but in a way that I thought was quite deliberate. For example, I got the distinct impression that for at least one of the female performers there was a genuine aspect of enjoyment and liberation to the idea of working in porn, but that was at least somewhat based on a very naive idea of the business prospects involved.

Equally there's the exploitative and skeevy angle of the producer, who's twice the age of everyone else there and has some fairly misogynist views about sexual dynamics (not to mention being parasitically dependent on young women for his livelihood), and the director is full of chat about how quality filmmaking will elevate/redeem porn - until his GF announces that she wants to take part, where he suddenly realises that actually, he is very much not comfortable with the idea, because "girlfriend" and "porn star" are not compatible ideas for him. However, earlier in the film he was badgering and pleading with her to keep working on the film, because he hadn't told her it was a porn film to begin with and she wanted to quit when she found out. So it's fine when it's something within his comfort zone and not hers.

In terms of Pearl and her desire for intimacy, for me it felt like that aspect of the film was commenting on the societal notion that past a certain age (which just happens to correlate with perceived attractiveness) people instantly become asexual beings without sexual desires. (See also e.g. Amy Schumer's "Last Fuckable Day" sketch). While she's very clearly coded as old and possibly suffering from dementia, I didn't think there was anything about the character's makeup or presentation that explicitly designed to present her as repulsive. Her husband remarks at some point about how the "younger folk don't have to flaunt it in front of them", but his motivation seems primarily to avoid anything getting Pearl hot and bothered because he's convinced that his heart condition means having sex will kill him. So Pearl's essentially stuck in a dead bedroom situation. And then a bunch of sexy young people turn up at the farm and start shooting a porn film...

Having said all that - if it didn't land that way for you, I can 100% see why you'd bounce off it so hard. I've had the same reaction to other films where it's not the intention but the execution that's the problem.

I have read that Pearl is quite different to X so I'm looking forward to watching it - will share my thoughts whenever I get around to it.

Tony EH · 04-04-2023 9:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120436406#Comment_120436406

I thought 'Pearl' was great. Think I did a write up about it on here. As you say, a completely different animal to 'X', and a far better one at that too.

flasher0030 · 04-04-2023 3:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120438056#Comment_120438056

I don't know. I think you're clutching at trying to find some underlying narratives there. I watched it and immediately dismissed it as rubbish - for me anyway. 2 old folks who are hardly mobile on a killing spree against kids in their prime. And managing to kill them. And then the old dears making sexy love in celebration of the killings. Way over the top for me, but in a messy disgusting way.

I have still to give Pearl a go. Was close to throwing it on a couple of times, but the aftertaste of X is just stopping me. I'll need to get over that.

Fysh · 04-04-2023 4:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120439773#Comment_120439773

If it didn't work for you, fair enough - but all I can say is it's a difference of opinion 🙂 I can see why it wouldn't work for some people, but was pleasantly surprised that for me it seemed like something where specific choices were made and came together in a way that I thought was quite neat.

I actually really liked the way Pearl's first kill is shown - there's a tendency in slashers to go absolutely bonkers with stabbings and, by extension, to have victims be ludicrously resilient to being stabbed. Whereas that first kill was much more pared back and brutal for it, and really worked as an "oh sh*t" moment.

Mind you, the last horror film I'd watched before that was Barbarian, per discussion upthread, so maybe I was partly just happy to see a well-executed film whose story didn't choose to spray arsegravy all over the room and then expect me to take it seriously...

Tony EH · 05-04-2023 7:44am

'Barbarian' was pretty good up until the final act though? That's where the entire thing lost me completely.

pixelburp · 05-04-2023 8:11am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120438056#Comment_120438056

I think you make a good argument from your own point of view that counters my own; however, this part was interesting.

hile she's very clearly coded as old and possibly suffering from dementia, I didn't think there was anything about the character's makeup or presentation that explicitly designed to present her as repulsive. Her husband remarks at some point about how the "younger folk don't have to flaunt it in front of them", but his motivation seems primarily to avoid anything getting Pearl hot and bothered because he's convinced that his heart condition means having sex will kill him.

For me, I think Pearl's decrepitude was played up as something horrifying and grotesque: the most overt moment that confirmed it for me was ...

The sex scene between her and her husband. With ... Mia Goth(?) I think, under the bed, the whole moment felt played out as something disgusting and terrible. Not like there haven't been plenty of comedies who play that situation up for laughs - "oh god, I'm stuck in a room while people are having sexxxxxx" - here the music, composition and all the rest felt like it wanted me to find the scenario shocking and terrible. Imagine, old people having sex, wrinkly people just doin' it.

But as I said, that was just me and perhaps only symptomatic of the mood I was in at the time. But I just left the movie feeling like Ty West (unintentionally) had this sense that Old People are gross and should be ashamed of their bodies, or for retaining any horniness. Weirdly, watching Pearl didn't retroactively change my perspective on X; the two movies so different as to have only minimal connection between the two.

pixelburp · 05-04-2023 10:54am

Pearl (2022)

So, as promised @Fysh lol 🤣

A horror sequel whose format swerve was so pronounced and defiantly oddball, the only precedent I could immediately summon to mind was Halloween 3 of all things? Only in this instance, the movie was... actually rather good? Maybe even low-key brilliant? Where the central performance possessed such terrifying, manic energy - one that never seemed affected or contrived to the point of distraction - it was hard to look away, even as Mia Goth stared right at us, eyes boggling. It has become a bit of an easy target for criticism since release, but to compare this to the superficial self-seriousness of Joker? This smaller piece stole Todd Phillips' lunch in showing us what an unhinged detachment from reality into rictus-grinning insanity can truly look like. It was wonderful, abyssal lunacy.

Anyone looking for a clone of the graphic gore and slasher thrills of X might be disappointed, because this was a different creature altogether. It was sparingly used for effect rather than as a punchline; to the extent there's probably a legitimate PG-13 cut that would lose none of the narrative's impact. This was instead a really taut, lurid tale of psychological torture and an unraveling mind, rendered with the kind of heightened melodramatic flourish perhaps not seen since DePalma in his prime. Not Hitchcockian like the older director, but that salacious and swaggering execution that would start its tonal energy at 11 and build from there. This was often manifested through its visual and aural patina that brazenly mimicked the 1930s "technicolor" era of American cinema; emotion and colour saturated into something borderline surreal.

I'm not sure the well ran any deeper here than in X, but the creative bravado of everything just felt more accomplished and smarter than the previous film. To the extent you'd not have thought they were both made by the exact same team (and apparently around the same time as each other?) That presumed superficiality came from there being no real attempt to rationalise or contextualise Pearl's embrace of fiction over reality: she never fell foul of "society" pushing her aside, or had too many bad dates, or any other kind of lazy contrivance that might have asked sympathy for this tragic soul. Naw.

The closest we got was her mother, a cruel and unfeeling woman yes - but one who plainly saw the bad seed that was her daughter. Her ultimate sin being born from an inadequacy to deal with a child so obviously corrupted and needing a more empathetic hand. And while the mother failed Pearl perhaps, equally from the opening scene you saw what was coming. It was just a question of just how unravelled things would become; the alligator wasn't the only one with the frozen, carnivorous grin.

Decuc500 · 05-04-2023 11:24am

Le Samourai

My first time watching this Jean-Pierre Melville film.

I can see why this would have been a big deal when it was released in 1967. Melville combined the style of the French New Wave with his love of American gangster movies to create something a bit different.

The story is quite simple. Alain Delon’s hitman is hired to kill someone but there are witnesses so he gets picked up by the police as a suspect. His employer doesn’t want to risk him getting caught so tries to have him killed.

The style of this film is everything. Delon wears a raincoat and fedora and looks nonchalantly cool throughout. A lot of the action is set in a jazz club. There are long stretches of the film without any dialogue.

You can see the influence this has on so many films since. Michael Mann’s loner criminals with a code to live by, for example, can be traced back to Delon’s character here.

splashthecash · 05-04-2023 11:48am

The Deep House

Horror on Netflix - a couple looking for adventure come to find a house under a lake and set out to explore it only to find a buried secret. A short flick at under 90 mins - interesting setting but not particularly good. Another typical Netflix movie 4/10

Fall

Thriller on Netflix - after an accident, a climber is convinced by her friend to tag along on scaling a huge communications mast (for the craic I guess..) and drama ensues. How ever will they get down after a few things go wrong..? A little better than I was expecting 6/10

John Wick 4

More gun-fu and car-fu :) If you like John Wick 1\2\3, you will love 4. New characters introduced which are all fantastic additions. No dead weight and no filler scenes. Was amazed with how quickly the 2.5+ hours went by. Fitting end to the movie too

monkeyactive · 05-04-2023 1:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120436666#Comment_120436666

What about Fury Road?

Tony EH · 05-04-2023 2:03pm

Fury Road is a reboot. I can well understand why people wouldn't count it as part of the original trilogy.

Fysh · 05-04-2023 2:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120443786#Comment_120443786

To each their own, but I personally wouldn't be content to round out a film marathon with Beyond Thunderdome when Fury Road is right there and more than ready to make up for its immediate predecessor's sins 😜

(Having said that, buried did open their post with "Mel Gibson Mad Max Marathon", so no real mystery as to why Fury Road wasn't on the lineup...)

pixelburp · 05-04-2023 3:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120443786#Comment_120443786

I think "trilogy" is really giving those films more robust structure than George Miller himself ever intended; there is some loose connective tissue, but I'd be slow to consider the first three films their own thing vs. Fury Road. You can certainly read the three films as one long story, but it does require a little squinting here and there (like Bruce Spence playing two, seemingly different characters - but maybe not?); each movie seemed to reboot itself IMO.

As time has gone on, I've read them more as broad fables about some guy supposedly called "Max", told across this apocalyptic wasteland. Or to use the official phrasing for Fury Road, they are tales "... based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived".

johnny_ultimate · 05-04-2023 3:33pm

To even try to read any logical structure into the Mad Max films is foolish, as the tone and texture of the world changes so substantially from film to film. You could easily argue each film becomes a more cartoonish and exaggerated variation on a theme - very successfully from MM1 to MM2, less successfully from MM2 to Thunderdome, and then triumphantly with Thunderdome to Fury Road. It's not much of a stretch to say each film is a reboot on its own terms, with only Gibson (until Fury Road) and 'post-apocalyptic wasteland' as common ground. But better to just appreciate them as three great films (and one middling one) rather than needlessly trying to categorise them neatly.

Tony EH · 05-04-2023 4:02pm

Just as Romero's living dead movies are technically a series of films within the same basic universe while being unconnected, I see the Mad Max films in the same way. The only difference, of course, is that they have a central character (even though those films are largely about the people he meets, rather than him). Although, I can easily see 'Mad Max II" and 'Beyond Thunderdome' as relatively comfortable continuation. The 1979 movie has never really been a natural precursor to either sequel.

But I've just never been able to see 'Fury Road' as part of the original films. For me, it'll always be a separate entity completely, despite the fact that it has the character of Max involved.

Bottom line is Tom Hardy's Max just isn't Mel Gibson's Max and that twain is just never going to meet...ever. So it remains outside of the 80's movies.

It's kinda a pity that Miller is (probably) never going to add to his 2000's rebooted Mad Max though. It would have been nice to see more of Hardy's version.

I have zero interest in a Furiosa movie.

buried · 05-04-2023 5:42pm

Mad Max and The Road Warrior are definitely connected in the same world. In the first film, towards the climax, Max is shot in the kneecap by the one of the Zed Runners, the same leg is seen in a metal brace in The Road Warrior. The very first scene where Max gets out of the V8 after the opening chase you see the brace and Max is clearly limping on the same leg. Its just a great example of the subtle editing in those two films. The V8 is also the same V8 interceptor from the first film.

05-04-2023 9:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120444676#Comment_120444676

Most definitely the first two are deeply connected. The third is up for debate, even if to me it always felt like a continuance of the world.

Fury Road felt like a pure reboot to me and without nearly as much charm as the first two, with a touch of Wacky Races about it. Thought I might see Dick Dastardly and Mutley swoop down at some point

Tony EH · 06-04-2023 6:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120444676#Comment_120444676

While all of that is true 'Mad Max' still feels akin to something like 'The Cars That Ate Paris' rather than 'Mad Max II'. It's just to "now", if one can call 1979 now. I never got the feeling that I was watching something that was set in a world that was collapsing around itself. It just felt like "modern" day rural Australia. Therefore 'Mad Max II' and, subsequently, 'Beyond Thunderdome' end up feeling like a different universe, as it were.

silliussoddius · 06-04-2023 7:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120443786#Comment_120443786

It’s considered a continuation, there’s a series of comic books and in them he returns to a new Thunderdome and wins parts to build his car. He encounters the child that appears in his flashbacks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max:_Fury_Road_(comic_book)

pixelburp · 06-04-2023 7:24am

If you did set the first three films as all the one story, I suppose you could read the first Mad Max as broadly Pre-Apocalyptic: society hasn't totally collapsed, and there are those trying to maintain some degree of societal structure - such as that slightly anarchic, mercenary highway patrol Max belonged too - but the writing's on the wall all the same. Otherwise it just felt very rural as said, nothing especially post-apocalyptic.

What have you watched recently? 3D!

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