[TobyD]

the rise of Skywalker
Ignore some of the critical carping. If you like star wars movies, you'll love it. Richard E Grant is good as an evil admiral. The final scene is for a very brief moment almost a remake of a scene in raiders of the lost ark... I won't give anything away though.

[mark s]

I remember seeing Event Horizon when living in Leeds late 90's.

I went with a housemate and we were both quite shaken up afterwards - didnt really say much to each other until the second pint at the pub afterwards... Not dared to see it since!

IIRC it was the split second cut-aways to some purgatorial scenes that did me in...

MrsTT is a big sci fi buff and always raves on about Sunshine....

event horizon scared the bloody shite out of me.

interstellar is a fav sci fi of mine. a bit of mind bender but really good.

[TobyD]

event horizon scared the bloody shite out of me.

Try watching the trailer for the current massive Christmas turkey movie Cats, now that is really terrifying.

[andy popp]

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, somehow the first Tarantino movie I've ever watched. I was enjoying it as Pitt and DiCaprio ambled around late sixties Hollywood. It reminded me of one of the more amiable Cohen brothers movies (though nowhere near as funny as the glorious Hail Caesar), but - mild spoiler alert - I hated the ending. I didn't mind that it messed with history, but it just seemed pointless and came with zero explanation. Also, and I know its to be expected with Tarantino, but the violence is disproportionate. It seemed like the violence was the whole point.

[Ru]

I didn't mind that it messed with history, but it just seemed pointless and came with zero explanation.

If you've seen his other stuff like Inglorious Basterds (WW2 revisionist history where the Nazi top brass all meet violent ends) it's less of a surprise, if still incongruous. Seems like a personal revenge movie to redress a disliked moment in history in a violent fantasy daydream, because he can.

[Fultonius]

We watched Paterson last night on Mubi. Not sure what to make of it. She didn't like it at all. I persevered, got some form of closure/understanding in the last few minutes, but just couldn't engage with the main characters.

Seeing as it got gushing reviews and loads of film festival awards, we felt like be just must be too artistically dumb to properly "get" it. Read a load of reviews afterwards, and while some other insight into the themes helped a bit, I still just felt like I was standing at an abstract painting with no feeling whatsoever, nothing evocative or engaging. Meh. You might love it.

[andy popp]

I didn't mind that it messed with history, but it just seemed pointless and came with zero explanation.

If you've seen his other stuff like Inglorious Basterds (WW2 revisionist history where the Nazi top brass all meet violent ends) it's less of a surprise, if still incongruous. Seems like a personal revenge movie to redress a disliked moment in history in a violent fantasy daydream, because he can.

Like I say, I didn't mind the revisionism, it just seemed really poorly thought out. Definite spoiler: why did they go to the wrong house? There was no explanation whatsoever that I could see. Manson was even shown casing the correct house. It all just seemed completely random and dumb.

To Fultonius: I was one of those who loved Paterson. I'm not sure there's anything necessarily to get, as such. I just felt immersed in it for as long as it lasted. It also the first time I realised how good Adam Driver can be. We lived pretty close to Paterson and its a regret we didn't get there before leaving, it looks like an interesting town (I've also been a fan of William Carlos Williams for years, which helps explain some of my interest).

I was going to say that another sweet film set in Paterson is Be Kind Rewind, but turns out that's set in nearby Passaic.

[SA Chris]

event horizon scared the bloody shite out of me.

Try watching the trailer for the current massive Christmas turkey movie Cats, now that is really terrifying.

My daughter got very excited by that trailer, it just looks daft and shit to me. Might encourage her that Skywalker will be letter.

[Ru]

Like I say, I didn't mind the revisionism, it just seemed really poorly thought out. Definite spoiler: why did they go to the wrong house? There was no explanation whatsoever that I could see. Manson was even shown casing the correct house. It all just seemed completely random and dumb.

Getting into definite spoiler land if I provide some explanation, but I basically agree with your overall thoughts if not the detail. It seems to me that the whole thing was a, "wouldn't it be cool if..," in the same way that Inglorious Basterds was a, "wouldn't it be cool if all the Nazis had been shot and burned to death in a cinema." Everything else was a device to get to Tarantino's daydream ending.

[TobyD]

Like I say, I didn't mind the revisionism, it just seemed really poorly thought out. Definite spoiler: why did they go to the wrong house? There was no explanation whatsoever that I could see. Manson was even shown casing the correct house. It all just seemed completely random and dumb.

Getting into definite spoiler land if I provide some explanation, but I basically agree with your overall thoughts if not the detail. It seems to me that the whole thing was a, "wouldn't it be cool if..," in the same way that Inglorious Basterds was a, "wouldn't it be cool if all the Nazis had been shot and burned to death in a cinema." Everything else was a device to get to Tarantino's daydream ending.

I guess so. I thought Inglorious Bastrerds was a fairly creative way of writing a movie about Jews and Nazis in WWII and making it funny with a feel good ending. If you want to get all critic, you could take it as a witty counterpoint to the holocaust movie tropes.

[Falling Down]

Marriage Story is great. Adam Driver and Scarlet Johansson are both brilliant and believable.  Laura Dern is too.

[Falling Down]

Me and W have a thing for viewing submarine films over Christmas so we watched “The Kursk” last night.  Pretty grim but good.  The captain’s wife and young son steal the show back on land as the tragedy unfolds and Colin Firth is perfect as the Navy officer trying to help. 

[tomtom]

Me and W have a thing for viewing submarine films over Christmas so we watched “The Kursk” last night.  Pretty grim but good.  The captain’s wife and young son steal the show back on land as the tragedy unfolds and Colin Firth is perfect as the Navy officer trying to help.

I love submarine films. And Kursk is cool.

I also have a thing for any trance records with sonar ping noises in them. Of which there are a few..


Must have been a good pill that night 😃

[TobyD]

El Camino

Generally underrated, I thought it was really good. Jesse's haunted character is nicely developed and it possesses the pleasantly black comedy that characterised much of breaking bad. 
However,  I am 100% the target audience and those less enthusiastic about breaking bad probably won't be quite as entertained. 

[TobyD]

The Program

Currently on iPlayer, but not for much longer. A worthwhile watch. The central performance of Armstrong is pretty compelling and I quite liked it's use of news and race footage intercut with the scenes involving the actors.

[Yossarian]

Force Majeure

Swedish black comedy-drama that is just exquisite from start to finish. A Swedish couple take their children skiing somewhere nice in France. They argued and disagree about various things and then go home.

Midsommar

American-Swedish folk-horror. Curious Americans get invited to religious commune in rural Sweden, where they consume psychedelics and witness increasingly unpleasant things. Made the mistake of watching it straight after the Wicker Man which I suppose is the archetypal folk-horror, but it’s still a fine film I think.

[Falling Down]

I absolutely loved Force Majeure.  It's a brilliant piece of work.

Me and W watched 'Amazing Grace' last night.  The film of Arethra Franklin's live recording of her famous gospel album from a church in LA.  It's wonderful and life affirming.  Well worth the rental.

[andy popp]

Totally agree about both "Force Majeure" and "Amazing Grace."

[Falling Down]

Yossarian - this year’s Folk Horror “Order of the Double Denim” honours list was announced yesterday.

https://folkhorrorrevival.com/2019/12/28/new-year-horrors-2020-order-of-the-double-denim/

[jwi]

Me and W watched 'Amazing Grace' last night.  The film of Arethra Franklin's live recording of her famous gospel album from a church in LA.  It's wonderful and life affirming.  Well worth the rental.

This I need to see! It's about the Amazing Grace album I suppose? Since you wrote LA? I prefer the One Lord album, but both are among her best albums, and therefore among the best sacred music made in the 20th century

[Ged]

El Camino

Generally underrated, I thought it was really good. Jesse's haunted character is nicely developed and it possesses the pleasantly black comedy that characterised much of breaking bad. 
However,  I am 100% the target audience and those less enthusiastic about breaking bad probably won't be quite as entertained.

Agreed. You definitely need to have invested in watching the whole of bb, and liked it, to like this. But if you have, it's good. Apart from that fact that the actor who plays Jesse has piled on the pounds a bit, and he's supposed to have just come out of captivity where he was starved!

[Falling Down]

This I need to see! It's about the Amazing Grace album I suppose?

Yes, it's the film of the album recording - I think you'll love it.

[TobyD]

6 Days

On Netflix,  I hadn't heard of it before but its actually pretty decent.  A taught retelling of the 1980 hostage crisis at the Iranian embassy in London.  Some nicely intercut real news footage adds an air of veracity to it, and while I have no idea about its adherence to historical detail, it is entertaining and credible enough for me not to have been too bothered.  A worthwhile hour and a half's watch. 

[SA Chris]

Me and W have a thing for viewing submarine films over Christmas so we watched “The Kursk” last night.  Pretty grim but good.

My father in law's company (where he worked as a dive coordinator) was involved in the salvage operations. From what he has told me from conversations with colleagues that was a pretty grim ordeal for them too.

[CrimpyMcCrimpface]

Me and W have a thing for viewing submarine films over Christmas so we watched “The Kursk” last night.  Pretty grim but good.

My father in law's company (where he worked as a dive coordinator) was involved in the salvage operations. From what he has told me from conversations with colleagues that was a pretty grim ordeal for them too.

I recently watched Kursk and then the documentary of its recovery on YouTube, very interesting if you're into that sort of thing. They had to cut off the torpedo bay as the Russians didn't want it salvaging...

Can recommend The Wolf's Call (Le Chant de loup) which came out last year if you like submarine films, all your fav french actors and great tension the whole story