Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble Jean Yann does little to be likable in any way.

Kinda the point of the movie, no?

American takes on this approach include Albert Brooks' Modern Romance and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, both of which play for comedy, but of a particularly ferocious kind. Personally, I can't get enough of this type of film.

[noodles_leone]

Kinda the point of the movie, no?

American takes on this approach include Albert Brooks' Modern Romance and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, both of which play for comedy, but of a particularly ferocious kind. Personally, I can't get enough of this type of film.

It's kind of the point, but it gets too far for me: the guy is nothing but a total jerk and nothing he ever says or does shows anything good about him. He's just rude, egoistical, uninteresting, and worst than all of this, a complete moron. Now, I know how autobiographical the movie is (which was the reason for a lot of conflict between Yanne and Pialat on set), and it turns out that real life Pialat was exactly as uninteresting as Jean Yanne is in it, although Pialat was at least a great artist, something the character obviously isn't. I'm all for films about weak and broken human characters, but I always have trouble when they're just complete morons. Hey, in the end, I was still sad for the character, I've always thought that very few things in life are sadder than a dying (true) love.

Nice piece of trivia: Jean Yanne didn't like his performance at all in the movie. It was one of his first serious roles (if not the very first one) and he was highly praised by the intelligentsia; he even got the best actor price in Cannes (which is pretty much a given in France - Cannes or a french academy award - for a known comedian's first serious film). Yanne often told about that particular film critic who praised his performance talking about a particular scene and who told that the way Yanne had his head down during the whole scene (a car scene, towards the ending I think) and how great that was because you could feel all the pain of the character without him showing too much... Turns out he had his head down because he had to read his lines the whole scene long.

About Baumach: I've only seen The Meyerowitz Stories, which I quite liked but still found a bit weak, with great potential. How come you're not a big Woody Allen fan?
I have to say I'm still on the Nouvelle Vague take on this kind of movies. You've got to be a patriot somewhere.

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Hereditary 8.5/10
At last! An horror movie that turns out to be an actual movie too. Easily the horror film of the decade, despite (very) few weaker moments.
The mise en scene is remarkably self confident, radical and effective for a filmmaker nobody knows.

[dave jenkins]

Knife in the Water (1962) - 7/10. I always forget how good this film is. I guess because the plot is so simple I just always assume there's nothing more to discover/rediscover on a re-watch. Not so. This time I paid a lot of attention to all the "business" the actors had to do to look like real sailors and they really pulled it off. I'm pretty sure everybody did all their own stunts, too. Where would you go these days to find actors who can do more than "act"? Not Hollywood.

[Kurug3n]

Reindeer Games - 3/5

It sure isn't 52 Pickup but I still had a good time for the most part watching this. Maybe I got low standards. Might explain other aspects of my life now that I think about it.

[PowerRR]

The Sixth Sense (1999) - 8/10
Avoided this for years having already known the big twist. The surprise would have been nice, but it's still a very solid character-based film that went above my expectations. I'd convinced myself over the years it was only about the twist.

Ivan's Childhood (1962) - 7.5/10
The less boring of the two Tarkovsky movies I've watched. Some very good scenes in there and pretty amazing as far as debut features go. But even only at 90 minutes it can be kinda a drag.

[PowerRR]

Harakiri (1962) - 9/10
Amazing. One of the best first-time viewings I've had in a very long time. I'm not sure there's much rewatchability there, but otherwise it's perfect. I need to see Kwaidan now.

Voyage in Time (1983) - 6/10
Andrei Tarkovsky walks around Italy and talks about stuff. Would probably enjoy more had I seen more than a couple of his movies.

The Cable Guy (1996) - 9/10
So fuckin' underrated.

Inherent Vice (2014) - 7/10
It's about as gorgeously shot as 2.5 hours of close-ups and talking can get. And as I've said many times there are some absolutely fucking brilliant scenes in here (Doc and Shasta in the rain, Coy returning home, Martin Short's sequence). But fuck... there is just way too much plot that goes nowhere, and I know that's the point, but it really hurts the rewatchability. A lot of the conversations, once you know how little the plot matters, don't do much to entertain and do more to confuse and waste time. But for the best parts, this is worth rewatching every so often.

[moorman]

Harakiri (1962) - 9/10
Amazing. One of the best first-time viewings I've had in a very long time. I'm not sure there's much rewatchability there, but otherwise it's perfect. I need to see Kwaidan now.

Voyage in Time (1983) - 6/10
Andrei Tarkovsky walks around Italy and talks about stuff. Would probably enjoy more had I seen more than a couple of his movies.

The Cable Guy (1996) - 9/10
So fuckin' underrated.

Inherent Vice (2014) - 7/10
It's about as gorgeously shot as 2.5 hours of close-ups and talking can get. And as I've said many times there are some absolutely fucking brilliant scenes in here (Doc and Shasta in the rain, Coy returning home, Martin Short's sequence). But fuck... there is just way too much plot that goes nowhere, and I know that's the point, but it really hurts the rewatchability. A lot of the conversations, once you know how little the plot matters, don't do much to entertain and do more to confuse and waste time. But for the best parts, this is worth rewatching every so often.

The Cable Guy is a very good movie.  It surprised me when I saw it.  One of Carrey's best movie performances.

[dave jenkins]

Harakiri (1962) - 9/10
Amazing. One of the best first-time viewings I've had in a very long time. I'm not sure there's much rewatchability there, but otherwise it's perfect. I need to see Kwaidan now.

You need to see Samurai Rebellion, which makes a perfect double bill with Seppuku/Harakiri.

[noodles_leone]

The Sixth Sense (1999) - 8/10
Avoided this for years having already known the big twist. The surprise would have been nice, but it's still a very solid character-based film that went above my expectations. I'd convinced myself over the years it was only about the twist.

I've been telling everybody for decades now that this films isn't only about the twist. I can watch it almost once a year with great pleasure.

Ivan's Childhood (1962) - 7.5/10
The less boring of the two Tarkovsky movies I've watched. Some very good scenes in there and pretty amazing as far as debut features go. But even only at 90 minutes it can be kinda a drag.

I see you've decided to tackle Tarkovsky. I took the same decision a couple of weeks ago and bought Stalker, which, as I understand, is a better starting point than Mirror. I don't know if I'm gonna enter his world but I'm already in love with half of his shots without having seen any full movie.

Inherent Vice (2014) - 7/10
It's about as gorgeously shot as 2.5 hours of close-ups and talking can get. And as I've said many times there are some absolutely fucking brilliant scenes in here (Doc and Shasta in the rain, Coy returning home, Martin Short's sequence). But fuck... there is just way too much plot that goes nowhere, and I know that's the point, but it really hurts the rewatchability. A lot of the conversations, once you know how little the plot matters, don't do much to entertain and do more to confuse and waste time. But for the best parts, this is worth rewatching every so often.

Yes. And even more yes for the Doc and Shasta in the rain scene, which may be my favorite PTA scene ever. I bought Phantom Thread the other day, cannot wait to watch it again.



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Mystic River 8.5/10
Probably 10th viewing, but 1st in years. I had forgotten how great this movie is. Definitely Eastwood's (and Stern's) best camerawork by far, and some of the best performances in an Eastwood film. Terrific script. Cutting out on the history of the neighborhood to insist on the grandeur of the tragedy and the idea of destiny (compared to the book) was very smart move, especially in such a gritty modern days film. Eastwood FTW.

[moorman]

12 Angry Men (1957).  You know a film is good when the director can get away with filming it almost entirely in one room.  The script and acting in this one are excellent. I rate this 9 out of 10...

[noodles_leone]

Laurence Anyways 5/10
I havent' seen a lot of Xavier Dolan's films, but they all tend to share - on various degrees - brilliance and emptiness. The mise en scene is usually quite radical, which comes with pros and cons (brilliance and emptiness) and the stories he tells aren't quite there but you see there is something he would have found, had he dig a little further. Laurence Anyways is the worst of Dolan's films I have seen, though.

[stanton]

For me Laurence Anyways was one of the most impressive recent films. 9/10

[noodles_leone]

For me Laurence Anyways was one of the most impressive recent films. 9/10

Have you seen other works by Dolan?
I highly suggest you check out his music video for Indochine, where he perfected his use of the 1:1 aspect ratio before tackling Mommy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp5U5mdARgY
(you'll have to mute your sound system from 1:20 because the music sounds like, well, Indochine)

And if you haven't seen Mommy, watch it, it features his very best scene to date. You unfortunately have to sit through almost the whole movie (which has a lot of great moments but I still found it quite boring) to see it though.

[stanton]

I watched so far Les amours imaginaires and Tom à la ferme, which were nice, but not as good as Laurence. Mommy and Juste la fin du monde are planned, but planned are also hundreds others, and I have no idea where to take the time from to watch them. And re-watch some Thousands I would like to re-watch.

I'm caught ...

[noodles_leone]

I watched so far Les amours imaginaires and Tom à la ferme, which were nice, but not as good as Laurence. Mommy and Juste la fin du monde are planned, but planned are also hundreds others, and I have no idea where to take the time from to watch them. And re-watch some Thousands I would like to re-watch.

I'm caught ...

Tom à la Ferme was very criticized, even by people who usually stand by Xavier Dolan. At the time, many critics began to think he might be just a show off after all. He's now above that kind of suspicion, which is good. I's still  incredibly young and I bet his real work is ahead of him: I'm waiting for him to take the same turn as PTA took with Punch Drunk Love.

Also, of course, I totally envy him.