Movies We've Seen Recently

[Nikaer Drekin]

My reaction to Dunkirk reminds me how I felt about Inside Llewyn Davis: it was an extremely well-made movie that I just didn't enjoy watching that much. That said, I do want to give it another shot and see how a second viewing goes.

[Mique]

Have you read It?

Yes? Go see the movie.

No? You should probably still go see It. You can read the book afterwards, but be warned that it's very long.


Obviously, they can't fully adapt a 1000+ page book into a movie, but I feel that they nailed the important parts.
I read the book about a hundred years ago, and the movie still scared me good. I'm also a huge baby when it comes to horror though, so take that as you will.

[One Of The Crappy Pokemon That Nobody Likes]

Boots recommended a documentary called Man vs. Snake, so Toast and I watched it on Netflix earlier this month and it's very... weird.

There's an old arcade game called Nibbler. It's pretty much just Snake. There's nothing interesting about it. However, the game can go on forever and it allowed for a score of over a billion points, and for some reason this is extremely important to a handful of people in the world. Back in the 80s a kid in Iowa got over a billion points by playing the game in an arcade for about two days straight and he acts like it's one of the most exciting things that ever happened to him. The arcade's name? Twin Galaxies.

If you've seen King of Kong then you might see where this is going. Or rather, where it's trying to go. Rest assured it never gets there.

The filmmakers were not involved in King of Kong, but they were clearly shooting for something similar. They bring their crew to Twin Galaxies and get some statements from the ridiculous owner and hype man Walter Day (once again rocking his referee outfit) and the Will-Ferrell-character-brought-to-life Billy Mitchell (who is much more subdued because he doesn't care about Nibbler at all), and reeaaaallllyyyyyy hope to foster a rivalry between the Nibbler guy and... well... anyone they can find. See, it comes out that a kid in Italy broke the Nibbler record shortly after the Iowa kid got it. This leads to a conflict for a little bit, with Twin Galaxies refusing to acknowledge the score and their influence eventually leading the Nibbler guy to legitimately not know if his score was beaten or not. The filmmakers actually go all the way to Italy to see if the true record-holder wants to prove his score's real (JUST LIKE IN KING OF KONG EEEHHHH EEEEHHH???? 8DDD) but the Italian guy is unfortunately a completely normal person and he just tells them he really doesn't care about video games anymore and it makes no difference to him if a bunch of nerds in America don't believe his score.

The movie then starts to wander aimlessly between failed attempts at creating any kind of narrative, with the Nibbler guy's record attempts serving as the pointless glue holding it all together. At this point he's dead set on beating a score he only occasionally believes exists, which turns into a bunch of shots of an obese 42-year-old man chugging Monster to prepare himself for staying awake for a dangerously long amount of time. The crew finds a douchebag to challenge the Nibbler record and he agrees to have a face-off at MAGfest. Is that the story now? Not really. Did the challenger cheat? Are we examining the game to see if there was foul play involved? Is that the story? Nah not exactly. Oooh maybe the challenger will get super pissed if we say he cheated! Can that be the story? Hmmm no that doesn't work either. What about footage of the Nibbler dude playing Nibbler in his own home? That's a story, right? Eeeehhhh noooooo. The movie's riddled with both subtle and obvious false starts like this.

It's extremely stupid but that's kind of why I love it. They're trying to make a story out of absolutely nothing. A bunch of unlikable nerds playing a game nobody knows or cares about while little else happens. In a way it's a much more accurate snapshot of what it's like to deal with basement-dwellers. Check it out if you like watching dumb things happen.

[Cleretic]

I saw the original Blade Runner yesterday. It's a really good movie with one big problem: Harrison Ford does not give a fuck about his performance, and neither does Sean Young, so their entire romance falls flat. Honestly, so do most of their scenes when they aren't together in them, but them trying to sell the romance is downright painful (and at times pretty rapey).

I otherwise really liked it, especially the atmosphere and aesthetic, although the editing felt really weird and jarring to me. It felt like completely random 30 second chunks were missing, and while those points didn't have anything important in them it made for a lot of 'oh, uhh, I guess that's happening now' moments.


...I finally got around to watching the original so I could see Blade Runner 2049 with some friends, though. And while I really liked some of the visual ideas it has, I feel like that's overshadowed by just how attached it is to the worst part of the original movie STOP TRYING TO SELL THAT RELATIONSHIP IT WAS AWFUL AND TERRIBLE AND NOBODY LIKED IT. Why don't you hang the whole plot on something people actually liked from the original, like just how goddamn weird Rutger Hauer was?

[MythosSanta]

I recently saw Lady Snowblood on Filmstruck (excellent streaming service, lots of foreign and arthouse films). It honestly felt like better Kill Bill to me. It's more human, and less foot-fetish + constant fighting. The gore effects are great, and there's some good emotional stuff going on. There's some triggering stuff related to sexual assault and hyper-violence, but to the movies credit they never take any of the bad ass female characters and turn them into damsels in distress or weaken them. In fact, Lady Snowblood saves a male character from capture at one point, which is pretty neat for a Japanese movie made in the 70's. The last scene is super good too and ends the films perfectly. There's a sequel, which upsets me because a) it's not needed and b) the trailer shows a bunch of Japanese dudebros doing nothing and no bad ass lady assassins.

[Nikaer Drekin]

I also recently signed up for FilmStruck and have been checking out a few cool things on it! Having seen Oldboy a while ago, I decided to watch the other two parts of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is a lot like a straightforward, pulpy crime novel where things gradually spin more and more out of control; it felt very much like early Coen brothers, in a good way, and the fact that its protagonist is deaf and mute is a unique touch. Lady Vengeance is probably the most ambitious of the three films artistically. It feels like fifty really interesting ideas being crammed together in the same package, and the result is often sort of messy and confusing. That said, when it does work it feels really fresh and fascinating, and it does find its dramatic footing by the end. Overall, I still think Oldboy is the best of the trilogy, but all three are definitely worth watching.

[chai tea latte]

Lady Bird is extraordinary. Saorsie Ronan does a great performance (as always - good work on the accent) and Laurie Metcalfe as the mom is exceptional. I was reminded strongly of Boyhood in its exploration of a life lived. Finding out after the movie that the director (Greta Gerwig) grew up in Sacramento, where the story's set, made perfect sense to me. It's kind of autobiographical, kind of a love letter, and funny to boot. Maybe one of my favourite movies this year.

[Boots Raingear]

Boots recommended a documentary called Man vs. Snake, so Toast and I watched it on Netflix earlier this month and it's very... weird.

Just saw this post and I'd like to point out that I recommended it specifically because of how much of a failure it was as a documentary. It's interesting because the game and the people are so goddamn uninteresting.

[Victor Laszlo]

Lady Bird is extraordinary. Saorsie Ronan does a great performance (as always - good work on the accent) and Laurie Metcalfe as the mom is exceptional. I was reminded strongly of Boyhood in its exploration of a life lived. Finding out after the movie that the director (Greta Gerwig) grew up in Sacramento, where the story's set, made perfect sense to me. It's kind of autobiographical, kind of a love letter, and funny to boot. Maybe one of my favourite movies this year.

Excellent acting, beautifully shot.  But extraordinary?  It was a by-the-book, garden variety Girl Comes Of Age story.  It felt like a movie I've seen a hundred times.  Which is fine, lots of movies are staples of their genre and we go see them because we (or a loved one) like the genre, but I don't understand what made this one get so many amazing reviews.

[chai tea latte]

Excellent acting, beautifully shot.  But extraordinary?  It was a by-the-book, garden variety Girl Comes Of Age story.  It felt like a movie I've seen a hundred times.  Which is fine, lots of movies are staples of their genre and we go see them because we (or a loved one) like the genre, but I don't understand what made this one get so many amazing reviews.

I'm a big sucker for the genre, as well as complicated mother-daughter relationships. I think maybe the two central performances elevated it beyond garden-variety to many critics (also, it came out in December so they all have to act like they loved it for when the Oscars happen). Sometimes it's just a good movie in the right place and right time, but I do think Ronan and Metcalfe made an already good script great.

I was hyperbolic with "extraordinary". Let's amend that to 'very good, and I cried a lot'.

I loved the shot where Ladybird is driving around her home town for the first time. That was special, as was the ending sequence at the church. 

[Victor Laszlo]

Excellent acting, beautifully shot.  But extraordinary?  It was a by-the-book, garden variety Girl Comes Of Age story.  It felt like a movie I've seen a hundred times.  Which is fine, lots of movies are staples of their genre and we go see them because we (or a loved one) like the genre, but I don't understand what made this one get so many amazing reviews.

I'm a big sucker for the genre, as well as complicated mother-daughter relationships. I think maybe the two central performances elevated it beyond garden-variety to many critics (also, it came out in December so they all have to act like they loved it for when the Oscars happen). Sometimes it's just a good movie in the right place and right time, but I do think Ronan and Metcalfe made an already good script great.

I was hyperbolic with "extraordinary". Let's amend that to 'very good, and I cried a lot'.

I loved the shot where Ladybird is driving around her home town for the first time. That was special, as was the ending sequence at the church.

I agree it was one of the better examples of the genre.  But "best rated movie ever" on Rotten Tomatoes?  Toy Story 2 was way better than Lady Bird.  I've seen several movies that in my opinion were better.  The casting was excellent, the acting was excellent, the cinematography was excellent, but storywise it was, for lack of a better term, formulaic.  It was a common story told uncommonly well.  It was good, I just don't understand the universality and the sloppiness of the blowjobs.

I put it on the list of movies I'd have enjoyed more if people hadn't given me Expectations.  Fargo is the prototype of this - my friend told me that it was the funniest movie ever made and that if I liked Steve Buscemi movies that I would love it.  Other qualities aside, who the fuck thinks Fargo is the funniest movie ever?  Maybe if I'd seen it without that setup I would have liked it more than I did.

[STOG]

Excellent acting, beautifully shot.  But extraordinary?  It was a by-the-book, garden variety Girl Comes Of Age story.  It felt like a movie I've seen a hundred times.  Which is fine, lots of movies are staples of their genre and we go see them because we (or a loved one) like the genre, but I don't understand what made this one get so many amazing reviews.

I'm a big sucker for the genre, as well as complicated mother-daughter relationships. I think maybe the two central performances elevated it beyond garden-variety to many critics (also, it came out in December so they all have to act like they loved it for when the Oscars happen). Sometimes it's just a good movie in the right place and right time, but I do think Ronan and Metcalfe made an already good script great.

I was hyperbolic with "extraordinary". Let's amend that to 'very good, and I cried a lot'.

I loved the shot where Ladybird is driving around her home town for the first time. That was special, as was the ending sequence at the church.

I agree it was one of the better examples of the genre.  But "best rated movie ever" on Rotten Tomatoes?  Toy Story 2 was way better than Lady Bird.  I've seen several movies that in my opinion were better.  The casting was excellent, the acting was excellent, the cinematography was excellent, but storywise it was, for lack of a better term, formulaic.  It was a common story told uncommonly well.  It was good, I just don't understand the universality and the sloppiness of the blowjobs.

I put it on the list of movies I'd have enjoyed more if people hadn't given me Expectations.  Fargo is the prototype of this - my friend told me that it was the funniest movie ever made and that if I liked Steve Buscemi movies that I would love it.  Other qualities aside, who the fuck thinks Fargo is the funniest movie ever?  Maybe if I'd seen it without that setup I would have liked it more than I did.

Well I don't know about you Victor, but I think the chase scene where everyone is slipping on black ice on the sidewalk in the middle of Minneapolis is the funniest chase scene I've ever seen.

William H Macy's catchphrase is great, too. "Aw jeez! My hot choc-a-late!"

[Nikaer Drekin]

Hey, the entire tru-coat scene is top-notch comedy and I will not hear otherwise.

[Macho Masc Sangy Savage]

My brother was super about Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and holy crap he has awful taste in movies. It's a budget Scy-Fy Avatar with an even more bland protagonist and "noble savage" racism trash. It's not even a good movie for a bad movie watch. Would not recommend.

[EYE OF ZA]

I Don't Feel At Home In This World Any More is a real good movie. It's a thriller about a nursing assistant whose house gets broken into and her ensuing quest for vengeance, and it's got a sense of humor that reminded me a bit of Burn After Reading.  Definitely recommend it, it's a lot of fun.

Gerald's Game is probably the best attempt at tackling a Stephen King story I've seen so far, and yet the Stephen Kinginess was a bit of a disappointment in the end. I felt like it was a complete enough story that I didn't need to have the spooky death guy who appeared to her end up being a quasi-mentally-handicapped serial killer who happened to only want to cut up men and not women. 

Wish Upon is a real, real dumb horror movie. It's not terribly scary or even that gory (especially after the real unsettling stuff in Gerald's Game), and the writing is at points complete nonsense. Like, at one point the school mean girl passes by the protagonist when she's laughing, and demands to know why she's laughing, and she says it's because "You're smegma. But like, ultimate smegma."  And then the mean girl asks what that even means, so the protagonist's friend passes her a phone and reads off the definition of smegma, which causes everyone around to gasp and go "ohhhh!" and then they break out into a slap-fight.  It's like an old man trying to imagine how teen girls would act, and it is just nonstop bonkers bad. Her dad is a weird garbage picker even after wishing makes him super rich, until she wishes her dad into being a sexy saxophone player that all her teenage friends think is super hot.  Her romantic interest says the line "Wait, you dig on multiverses?"