Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[noodles_leone]

What about Deadpool?

Seriously, don't we have a lot of insipid films without irony? They tend to be fantasy films though.

[dave jenkins]

What about American Sniper?

There's plenty of irony in AS. When the hero meets the guy at the oil change place who has lost his leg, Kyle feels uncomfortable about they guy fawning over his record. And when Kyle runs into his brother on the airfield (one brother departing the theater as the other is arriving) the brother expresses deep cynicism. Even Kyle's death is freighted with irony. Eastwood did what he could with the material, but he's as much a product of his era as anyone.

[dave jenkins]

Per le antiche scale / Down the Ancient Stairs (1975) - 4/10. In 30s Italy, Marcello Mastroianni runs an asylum . . . is that political allegory we're smelling? Yes, the rankest kind.  Marthe Keller, Barbara Bouchet, and Lucia Bose are all on hand, and Marcello is banging each (Ms. Bouchet, of course, the only one doing nude scenes). Then Françoise Fabian shows up, and still Marcello can't be happy. There must be something to those suspicions Marcello has that he's going insane. Not even a Morricone score can save this pile of dreck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2mTrUR2jtw

[dave jenkins]

Gli indifferenti / Time of Indifference (1964) - 7/10. Cardinale leads a small cast of notables: Steiger, Shelley Winters, Tomas Milian, and Paulette Goddard. The film is nothing more than exchanges between the characters, much like a play, and the plot is relatively simple. I began watching with reservations but the piece gradually won me over. No doubt Moravia's underlying story is the reason, also the adaptation by Suso Cecchi D'Amico and the director, Francesco Maselli (who?). There's a nice score by Fusco, one featuring trumpet, that seems to prepare the way for Morricone's work. Cardinale appears to have dubbed herself in this; not so Steiger and Winters, who speak wonderful Italian throughout.

[drinkanddestroy]

Places in the Heart (1984) 7/10

Nice production design and costumes; very good acting up and down (Sally Field won an Oscar for this). The screenplay (which, inexplicably, also won an Oscar), is sloppy, though - this seems to just be a collection of memories of people and places in Robert Benton's heart, some little side stories that have nothing to do with the main story and never get tied up or have a great reason for being there other tha that they're probably some people that Benton remembers. The fantasy ending is stupid.
But this movie evokes a particular period -  in a poor Texas village during the Depression - very well, and the acting is good, so it makes for a decent watch.

just one question - they're endlessly picking cotton and getting their fingers torn up: I know this is the Depression and they are poor, but I presume they have enough money to get a friggin' pair of gloves?! I guess it makes for a better movie when their hands are all bloody.

you like Sally Field, you like her https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_8nAvU0T5Y

[noodles_leone]

Open Windows 4/10
Turns out Elijah Wood is broke.

[Kurug3n]

De Palma

Great stuff. Can't wait for the blu-ray to come out.

[dave jenkins]

Free State of Jones (2016) - 7/10. In 1862, a Mississippian deserts and returns to his home in Jones County, where he finds a rapacious government systematically stripping poor farmers of their food and possessions. Gathering like-minded men about him, the man leads a movement to secede from the Secession, eventuating in the Free State of Jones. Based on real events, the movie leans a bit toward docu-drama, but is always interesting. A film to enjoy for those celebrating the UK's Brexit and/or the continuing value of America's Second Amendment.

[Groggy]

Free State of Jones - 6/10 - Matthew McConaughey rouses resistance and slaughters secesh in Civil War era Mississippi. Choppy and repetitive in the middle section, with a long epilogue that seems like the start of another movie. Still, killing Confederates is always a good time, and reactionaries can use it to score political points on internet forums, so it has some value.

Besides which, more Robert Shaw!

A Town Called Bastard - 1/10 - Shit.

Figures in a Landscape - 7.5/10 - Robert Shaw and Malcolm McDowell are chased across a desolate landscape by helicopters. Who they are, where they're going or what's happening is an exercise for the viewer. Plays like North by Northwest's crop duster scene expanded to feature length. Interesting enough, but seems like it should amount to more in the end.

The Hireling - 8/10 - Shaw is a driver who befriends depressed widow Sarah Miles, develops a relationship he misconstrues as romance. British melodrama about class barriers with a rougher edge than you'd expect. Possibly Miles' best performance, and Shaw is wonderfully restrained. Immersively gloomy photography throughout.

[Dust Devil]

Driving Miss Daisy (1989) - 7.5/10

As predictable as it is charming.

[Dust Devil]

Seven Psychopaths (2012) - around 6/10

And?

[dave jenkins]

reactionaries

Only commies and crypto-commies use this term.

[Groggy]

I was being polite.

[dave jenkins]

That'll be the day.

[drinkanddestroy]

Diary of a Chambermaid (1964) 7/10 (DVD)


This movie was made for DJ: Jeanne Moreau with armpit hair  

This movie has none of Bunuel's surrealism, but plenty of his shoe fetishism. I haven't read the book or seen the other film versions, but I understand that this movie changes the story and setting considerably.

Also, a new version of this movie was released last year in France; just released in USA http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2711898/?ref_=nv_sr_1 , with the blue-haired girl from Blue is the Warmest Color.

Whoever sees it, please let us know if the photo on the wall of the Fascist political hero has been changed from Philippe Petain to Donald Trump