Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[noodles_leone]

I'm with you on Dog Day Afternoon, it's a lot better than I remembered. Lumet went from being a stagy, stuffy, arguably boring director to making very liberated, cinematic movies by the 70's.

As for Spike Lee, I liked 25th Hour, but it's been too long since I've seen it. And I need to see Clockers again. But I agree with you there again.

Man, that's a lot of agreeing. Makes me feel weird.

Matrix 4 5/10
It's a bad movie filled with good ideas. Lots of botched work. Lots of botched visuals and stupid editing decisions. Some good performances (especially Carrie-Anne Moss, but Jonathan Groff is quite exhilarating to watch too). The first and the last acts work so much better than the 100% pointless second one. I'm very glad this movie exists, its (already quite dated but radical) meta approach on such a mainstream and "important" franchise looks a lot like one of cinema's last swan songs.

[noodles_leone]

Spencer (Pablo Larrain, 2022) - 7.5/10
Sometimes great but there is something I'm missing about the whole thing. It's on Amazon Prime.

Nobody (Ilya Naishuller, 2021) - 6/10
John Wick meets Edgar Wright = something less good than either of them in their own strengthes but still fun. It's clean, dynamic, predictable, heavy handed, with some good ideas and the action is (mostly) a success. Good thing the best action scene is watchable for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oROB_7A4oeI

[Novecento]

Spencer (Pablo Larrain, 2022) - 7.5/10
Sometimes great but there is something I'm missing about the whole thing.

I ordered the Blu-ray yesterday. I haven?t seen it, but Pablo Larrain?s name is enough to reassure me that I won?t be disappointed.

[dave jenkins]

I ordered the Blu-ray yesterday. I haven?t seen it, but Pablo Larrain?s name is enough to reassure me that I won?t be disappointed.

Obviously you didn't see Neruda.

Echec au porteur (1958) - 7/10. Serge Reggiani is running drugs, but he's met Jeanne Moreau who has convinced him to give it up for her. How, though, to retire without getting iced by his gang? He decides to bring in a rival group, who will take over the business after they take care of Serge's buddies. Serge usually moves the goods in a soccer ball. Gert Froebe, the leader of the rivals, comes up with an ingenious plan: Serge will deliver the football to Gert's gang, they will extract the drugs and replace them with an equal measure of plastique; Serge will then deliver the ball as scheduled, and then get the hell away. There's a timer to make sure it goes off right on time. All very well, except on the way to delivering the football, Serge comes across a group of kids playing with their football, and . . . can you see where this is going? Later the cops get involved and quickly discover there's a bomb unknowingly being transported about town by children; they also need to shut down Gert Froebe's operation, if they could only figure out where it is he operates out of (psst, guys, check out that "exotic fruit" company). Paul Meurisse is the head cop, and he's got troubles at home. Simone Renant is in the picture, too, as a mom with a son with appendicitis (or is it adenoids?). Man, what a cast! And more characters than you think you could possibly fit into the 86 min. run time. At the climax, director Grangier skillfully intercuts the hunt for the football with footage of the gangsters' last stand (shades of the Sidney Street siege!). There's a respectable body count, and a great bit of suspense while cops and civilians alike play spot the pigeon. Worth a look: the new digital restoration Pathe is offering on blu is immaculate.

[Novecento]

Obviously you didn't see Neruda.

Loved it. Got the blu of that too. Apparently this one is reminiscent of ?Jackie??also loved that.

One thing by Larrain I didn?t like was ?Tony Manero??didn?t even watch to the end.

[dave jenkins]

Gilles Grangier month continues with:

Le sang a la tete / Blood to the Head (1956) - I'd like to be able to rate this, but the copy of this I viewed arrived sans titres anglais. I swear they were advertised at the time I put the blu in my cart, but they're not there now. So, I'm not sure what this film is about, although I gather it concerns a rich guy played by Jean Gabin who goes looking for his wife after she runs off with a younger man. There's lots of great footage of La Rochelle in the 1950s, where the action takes place. A very interesting ferry ride, including the return trip, occurs at the end.

[noodles_leone]

Loved it. Got the blu of that too. Apparently this one is reminiscent of ?Jackie??also loved that.

One thing by Larrain I didn?t like was ?Tony Manero??didn?t even watch to the end.

Neruda and Ema are the next ones on my list.

Jackie (Pablo Larrain, 2016) - 8/10
Very similar to Spencer, Jackie also happens to be more complex... or at least more open about its complexity. So we have two movies, each one being about a Princess busy with writing their own legend - Diana for herself, Jackie for posterity. Only Jackie is conscious of what she's doing but I suspect both of them are equaly trapped into thinking there is no other way to experience life. I suspect Neruda (next on my list with Ema) also digs into a character that believes fiction is the real world and who's building his own personal Camelot.

[Cusser]

"My Best Friend's Girl" 2008 (7/10)  Quite raunchy romantic comedy, very funny in parts.

Lizzy Caplan is pretty yummy in a supporting role.

[Cusser]

I think I'll skip the upcoming "Jackass Forever" .....

[dave jenkins]

I think I'll skip the upcoming "Jackass Forever" .....

Oh, man! And I was counting on your review!

[dave jenkins]

Now that Drive My Car has made Ryusuke Hamaguchi the flavor of the month/year/decade, it's time to check out his back catalog:

Asako I & II (2018) - 6/10. Asako, a young woman in Osaka, falls in love with a mysterious young drifter; the man disappears. Two years later, living and working in Tokyo, she meets another man who is a dead ringer for the first. Slowly they build a relationship. Guess who shows up at the beginning of Act 3? This has a lot going for it, but there's a huge flaw. Asako is rather passive and laconic; we wait forever for some kind of insight into who she is. At the end of the film it is disappointing to discover that there isn't much to reveal. The title should actually be Asako 0.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) - 9/10. Three separate stories, Rohmer style, written by the director, about women and their relationships. In an interview included on the U.S. blu, Hamaguchi specifically references Rendezvous in Paris, and the first story in the Rohmer film bears some resemblance to the first story here.

In a long conversation is the back of a taxi, two women talk about their amours. The scene plays as a single take, the camera locked down in front of the women, with only their performances and the lights of Tokyo out the back window to provide visual interest. It works because the chat is so good. After the one woman drops off the other, she returns to an office building and barges in on a man working late. She has discovered from the conversation in the taxi that the man her friend is now dating is her ex, and she decides on a confrontation. Another long conversation ensues. There is then a final scene with all three characters in a cafe. More talk.

The second story is about a woman who tries to seduce a college professor by reading aloud to him an erotic passage from a novel the man has written (and for which, we are told, he has won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize). Things do not go to plan. More really good chat and several unexpected twists.

The last story, and the best, is set in Sendai. Two women meet by chance and try to renew an acquaintance after a separation of twenty years. Then they discover that they were both mistaken; they in fact don't know each other, have never met before. What happens next is amazing. (Drive My Car also explores the therapeutic effects of role playing.) And it's all talk, talk, talk.

All three stories are successful, due in large part to the performances of the actors, but chief credit has to go to the writing. I am astounded by how good Hamaguchi is with female characters. He delivers authentic-seeming dialog without every once having to resort to cliches. His career as a film director apart, he could be one of Japan's best fiction writers.

Now I guess I should try to find a copy of Happy Hour, but it's 5-hrs.-and-seventeen-minutes long . . . .