Anyone seen any good films lately - Part the second

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Terminator Dark Fate, I have seen this before but just rewatched it as it's recently appeared on Netflix. It might be multiplex- fodder which requires little intellectual input, but its still great. Totally different to the first movie, which is obviously amazing, in that the first was quite a dark cyber- horror which this really isn't, but that doesn't make it bad.
Ooh - I watched this before Xmas on Netflix, and whilst its fairly entertaining, its pretty much a mash up of Terminator 2 with a Bit of T1 and Tx (the others) thrown in... TBH, the best bit was Linda Hamiltons portrayal of a smoldering cantankerous Sarah Connors. Reminded me of Eastwood in Grand Torino (though nothing like as good a film as that..). No really new ideas, no cool new tech/plot lines/scifi stuff - just various combinations of robots from the future sent to alter the past and repeat blah blah...

But - better than alot of other crap on Netflix..
 
Nickel Boys
Beautifully made and unlike anything I have ever seen, but not enjoyable in any normal sense. It's almost entirely from the two main characters' perspective, interspersed with archival material / "found footage" and generally has a woozy, dream-like atmosphere, but with sudden, horrific intrusions. I felt like I was watching a walk-through of a grim first-person computer game (Resident Evil: 12 Years a Slave edition), mixed with the accompaniments of a Godspeed You! Black Emperor gig (it just needed a recording of a street preacher against a backdrop of a burning oil refinery) Glad I saw it, but felt like "Type 2 fun" in the moment - gruelling, but I suspect I'll look back fondly.

Also, not the point but the film presents interesting questions about 'acting' and 'main characters' etc. The film revolves around someone you rarely see - as it's mostly shot from his perspective - so is the camera itself the main actor?
 
Cocaine Bear. Stupid, mindless, terribly acted and ridiculous and, inexplicably, Ray Liotta . My son and I loved it and laughed most of the way through.
 
A Complete Unknown "aka the Bob Dylan one". Very good. I'm sure Dylan Uber-fans will have issues, but great performances, decent direction -ot sof spine tingling musical moments. One for the big screen with a good sound system.

As an aside, there's also a Joan Baez documentary doing the rounds this year which is well worth a watch for another perspective.


Benedetta. It's on channel 4 and Mubi just now. Surprisingly mediocre given the review scores. Some good scenes but it just felt like period-nun-porn. Pretty raunchy, but ffs just watch some actual porn if that's your thing. There's a good guardian film review that sums up our feelings quite well. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/09/benedetta-review-paul-verhoeven-charlotte-rampling
 
Moose and Chris are spot on with Nosferatu, 20 mins too long but I would however recommend it. Cocaine Bear is on Netflix now and well worth 90 mins of your time, if you park sanity by the door.
 
A Complete Unknown "aka the Bob Dylan one". Very good. I'm sure Dylan Uber-fans will have issues, but great performances, decent direction -ot sof spine tingling musical moments. One for the big screen with a good sound system.

There’s a Dylan uber fan (almost did his PhD on Dylan!) over on UKC who is giving it high praise, looking forward to watching it.
 
Cocaine Bear. Stupid, mindless, terribly acted and ridiculous and, inexplicably, Ray Liotta . My son and I loved it and laughed most of the way through.
Yeah - so, watched this based on this review.
I was ready to give up after 20 minutes but stuck with it. By the end, I was thoroughly engaged. Daft, quirky and quite enjoyable.
 
A Real Pain
Or, 'Dudes abide in Poland'. A slight yet kinda heavy character study. Kieran Culkin is the headline act (despite being nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the Oscars - utter 'category fraud'). He's charming but irritating, mercurial and hypocritical, sensitive yet tone-deaf. He reminded me of a housemate I had as a student. I'd regularly get home and find he'd eaten all my food - he'd say "Why are you so upset? They're just sausages - I'll pay you back tomorrow", insensitive to my being hungry then, and now without food, with hypothetical future sausages not fixing that. But he was such good company (funny but also incredibly well-read and interested in everything), I'd let it go and survive on toast for the night (and never get my sausages refunded, although he would give out drugs in recompense). Anyhow, after that digression, I found A Real Pain funny and affecting, although some of that is perhaps because I am in its angsty yet essentially comfortable demographic. I reckon if you liked The Holdovers you'll likely like this - another character piece, where the plot is inessential, with a similar vibe of disappointment but love of life.
 
I was about to say something similar about that film. Incredibly funny one minute, then impossibly painfully awkward to watch the next. The dinner for example, where he disappears and then they realise he’s the person playing the piano.

Definitely one of the best films I’ve seen in the last few months.
 
I also saw A Real Pain last week; what Moose said. It is very, very good. And it really has to be, given that it includes both a lot of gentle humour and a concentration camp visit.
 
Another very positive response here to A Real Pain. I would dispute Moose's use of "slight" (though, perhaps he didn't mean ti negatively). It is a very compact and economical piece of film making, just 90 minutes, which seems rare these days. Despite that there's a heavy, deep hole behind the comedy. Culkin is superb but a shout out too for Jessie Eisenberg. His character is as important to the film as Benji, but he also directed and wrote - the writing is particularly good.
 
Operation Mincemeat : pleasantly old style film - by which I mean it's slow and well mannered with very gentle humour. I quite liked this about it. It's certainly not perfect, or life changing, but it's a great story and an enjoyable couple of hours. If you want innovation and fast paced action, you'd probably find it boring.
 
Civil War (prime).

Tells the tale of a ‘near future’ US civil war through the lens (sorry) of a combat photographer and her crew. It’s a funny one as it’s trying to be both a film about media in war conditions and a film about a US civil war. As such it doesn’t succeed at either…

The premise is that the photographer (and her novice sidekick she picks up) meander through various parts of war torn US in a road trip to try and get to Washington to interview the soon to be defeated president. It’s kinda alright taken as a road trip movie (comradry and bonding interspersed by set pieces of encountering weird war shit) exploring gently the morals of being a war correspondent. Then it periodically goes into war film mode…

Anyway - it’s alright but don’t expect a commentary on US politics or a war film. Kirsten Dunst is very good as the main role.
 
I’m laid up, awaiting a hernia operation (three of them, apparently, one which hurts rather a lot. No lumps, so was quite worried I had cancer).
So, having drained all the streaming you can in three days stuck in an apartment…
Started on the more obscure British and foreign cinema.

Hanna (Netflix):
British. A mash up of Snow White and the Borne Identity (no, really). The Grimm tales influence the entire story. Has a bit of 5th Element (aided by a Chemical Brothers sound track) and Resident Evil (ish).
Good cast. 2011, so maybe everyone else knows about it, but I missed it.

Blood and Gold (Netflix):

German. Doesn’t get great reviews, but I liked it. A war movie with a Western feel, with a Guy Ritchie undertone. Not quite Inglourious Basterds (which I also re-watched), but entertaining. Keeps going right to the credits too.

The Forgotten Battle (Netflix):

Dutch. English version on Netflix. Good, dark, grinding.
Worthwhile.

And from Hollywood:

The six triple eight.

Netflix. I can see the reason for the “syrupy” reviews, but still a good watch.

Not sure why a war movie binge, run out of Sci Fi, mostly.
 

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