[SA Chris]

Genius. Title should be On Dura Dura though.

[Yossarian]

Wonka innit…

[stone]

Gave up trying to find something to watch on Netflix and started to browse Disney Plus. I was pleasantly surprised to find Nomadland lurking in there, which is as good as they all say.

hmmm....I sort of thought I was very receptive to quiet, nothing much happens type films. I liked "Cow" for instance and "Land". I have also enjoyed films with a setting in down-at-heel US society. I thought "The Florida Project" was brilliant. But both me and my better half were utterly flabbergasted to find out Nomadland was multi-Oscar winning etc. My better half summed up Nomadland perfectly IMO saying "it's like "Cow" but without the cow" . Presumably we're  Philistines 

[TobyD]

I really liked Nomadland when I saw it at the cinema, it's also available on 4od at the moment for free if you don't pay for Disney.

[stone]

Was the van life setting key to what you liked about Nomadland or was that just incidental?

[Duma]

Nomadland is great. And what's van life (tm) got to do with it?

[SA Chris]

Wonka innit…

I can see a musical theme;
"Adam On Dura Dura
On Dura Dura
On Dura Dura
On "

[TobyD]

The Mercy A worthwhile watch for Devonians because half of it is shot in Teignmouth.  Even then,  I was pretty underwhelmed by this film. It starts promisingly and Colin Firth puts in a reliable,  solid performance.  But it really dragged for me in its latter half and felt like little more than an exhibition of a man going to pieces without a great deal of exploration of it. However its not awful,  and is short by modern standards so worth a go if you really like sailing/ Devon/ Colin Firth,  otherwise there are better things on Netflix. 

Was the van life setting key to what you liked about Nomadland or was that just incidental?

Nothing to do with it,  I liked the exploration of the main character,  and the cinematography from memory,  though it is a few years since I saw it. It was the first thing I saw at the cinema after the covid closures,  so I may have been more positive about it for that reason. 

[steveri]

One from the archive this weekend, Dennis Villeneuve's Prisoner from 2013. About 20 mins too long but very watchable and a knotty moral dilemma - this guy is behaving appallingly but you can see how he got there - multiple good performances.

Think I'm slowly becoming a Villeneuve fan, was a bit so, so on the Blade Runner reboot, possibly because the original is so good. Didn't expect to like Dune, but did (sorry David Lynch). Sicario is excellent. Can't remember too much on Arrival, maybe a rewatch due.

[spidermonkey09]

Saltburn on Amazon Prime. Been panned by critics but decent audience reviews. I rated it, particularly enjoyed seeing Richard E Grant of withnail and I fame. Solid fare.

[Fiend]

Prospect

Decent indie sci-fi, much better than most of the dross constantly pumped out by Netflix and Amazon these days

Mmmm it's almost okay. Main characters are decent but it really lacked world logic and consistency.

[Fiend]

Pandorum.

Dunno if was mentioned here, the search doesn't turn up anything. Sci-fi action thing vague hints of Event Horizon lite mixed sorta with zombies-ish. Not sure what to make of it, some bits were kinda good, some bits were crap, lots of the usual lack of any world consistency / logic, some of it was annoying / boring, some of the psychological concepts were good, also i quite liked the ending. Okay-ish but I think there was the concept to be a lot better.

[Oldmanmatt]

The Creator.

Definitely worth a watch, if you like SciFi at all.

[Duma]

I love sci fi and thought it was formulaic sub star wars tosh. 5 or 6/10 at best

[SA Chris]

You not thinking of Rebel Moon?

[Duma]

I only got half an hour in to rebel moon before turning off. I did stick creator out for the whole 2+ hrs so maybe 6/10 is fair

[SA Chris]

Gutted, I was looking forward to it.

[Bradders]

I only got half an hour in to rebel moon before turning off. I did stick creator out for the whole 2+ hrs so maybe 6/10 is fair

Thoroughly enjoyed the Honest Trailer for Rebel Moon

https://youtu.be/mvaXqRS29cw?si=F5fu4OF726B6ggs7

[SA Chris]

Class

[Duma]

lol!

[Fiend]

The Void.

Probably a fairly different experience to The Creator. I thought this was pretty good. A straight up, no bullshit, no messing around traditional horror film. Gruesome in places but no more so than the trailer, and I quite liked the characters. OTOH the pacing was a bit mixed and the so-called Lovecraftian bits weren't as well integrated as they could be, but it still hits the mark overall.

[andy popp]

The Holdovers - three very different people (a pupil, a classics teacher, and the school cook) have to spend Christmas alone at New England boarding school after everyone else has gone home for the holidays. And that's about it. I guess I would say this gentle, wry film is about the choices we make in life. I loved it. The three leads - Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa - are all absolutely superb and raise it to another level.

[seankenny]

American Splendour - another Paul Giamatti movie, this one from 2003 in which he plays underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar. For those who’ve never heard of him (including me before watching the film) Pekar was a real loser of a guy living in Cleveland, Ohio, who worked a dead end job as a clerk and scratched around collecting records and writing reviews on the side. Working with artists like Robert Crumb he turned his down at heel, unhygienic lifestyle into the successful comic book series of the film’s title. The real Pekar narrated and appears in some scenes, it’s all a bit nicely post-modern which suits the subject matter. “I’m writing my autobiography as I’m living it,” as Pekar put it. Great jazz soundtrack. Recommend this.

[Yossarian]

Saltburn on Amazon Prime. Been panned by critics but decent audience reviews. I rated it, particularly enjoyed seeing Richard E Grant of withnail and I fame. Solid fare.

I’m a bit conflicted about Saltburn. I kind of wanted to love it and did enjoy it quite a lot, but does anyone ever get that thing where you kind of want / expect something to go in one direction and then it goes in another? I had that v badly with The Secret History / Donna Tartt, and I did with this too.

Anyway, the reviews have been all over the place. Mark Kermode quite liked it. A lot of them have been coloured by the fact that Emarald Fennell (who directed it) is the daughter of South Ken jeweller and mate of Liz Hurley Theo Fennell and thus isn’t allowed to make films with this sort of social commentary. It’s also apparently a poor man’s Patricia Highsmith and a Poundshop Brideshead.


I would ignore all of that because, as SM points out it has a great cast, inc as well as REG, Rosamund Pike who is brilliant. But mainly because Barry Keoghan is, I think, the most exciting actor in the world and I’d frankly watch a 5 hour Marbella-based coke and gangsters monstrosity by Nick Love if Barry had a part in it.

On the subject of female British directors though, I think that Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun is / was the most impressive debut film by any British director recently.


Has anyone seen Poor Things?

[spidermonkey09]

I got huge Secret History vibes through it as well, but I did enjoy SH, so no bad thing for me. I think its kind of the point you're expecting it to go one way and then it goes the other, no? spoilers below

NSFW  :

I certainly felt like the film was leading you to think that there was going to be some horrific secret in Felix's family but then it turns out to be the other way round. Surprise!

Aftersun is absolutely awesome. Highly recommended. Watched it on the plane back from India and was rapt.