Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

Koto [The Old Capital] (1963) - 10/10. Shima Iwashita, together again for the first time. She plays twins, separated at birth, and unaware of each other until, age 20, they are reunited by chance. From a novel by Yasunari Kawabata. Ms. Iwashita is not only beautiful, not only a great actor, she has the most marvelous and mellifluous speaking voice. And in this film she gets to wear fabulous kimonos, to say nothing of her stunning obi (the sashes tied around her kimonos). And she gets to pose in Kyoto in different seasons. The twinning effects are absolutely flawless, and, of course, achieved the old way. Everything is in color and 'scope and, for the topper, the score is by Toru Takemitsu. I started watching this and after forty minutes I had to stop, the sensory stimulation was overwhelming. A second attempt, however, was successful. Who the hell is Noboru Nakamura, and why have I never heard of this genius before?

[dave jenkins]

Two Don Castle Noirs from Monogram!

The Guilty (1947) - 4/10. Bonita Granville, together again for the first time. She plays twins, one good, one bad. As the good one is killed early, this cheapjack production only required one twinning effect. Most of the film is about solving the murder, and in spite of the presence of Regis Toomey as the cop, it's a dull affair. Due to the film's extended flashback structure, the solution is ridiculous.

High Tide (1947) - 6/10. This is more like it. Don Castle is a PI, his pal Lee Tracy the managing editor of an LA newspaper. They trade wise-cracks until there's a murder. Then Regis Toomey comes in as the investigating cop, so the snappy patter quotient goes into the stratosphere. There's a couple of good-looking broads, too, who both have Don Castle on their minds. All this unspools in flashback while Castle and Tracy, trapped in and under a car on the beach in Malibu, wait for high tide to seal their doom. Of course, the filmmakers blink at the end, proving once again what a breakthrough D.O.A. was when it arrived three years later.

[noodles_leone]

The Florida Project (Sean S. Baker, 2017) - 7 or 7.5/10
Very good but american audiences should know that "social movies" (I don't want to call them "political movies") have been around for decades in the rest of the world.

L'Age des possibles (Pascale Ferran, 1996) - 6.5/10
Highly naturalistic document on how twentysomething lived, dressed, seduced, talked, listened music, in France in the 90's. I'll probably try to read the book. Drink: do not watch this one.

The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016) - 4/10
I really don't like Park Chan-wook. Having like 3 brilliant filmmaking ideas per movie doesn't make you a filmmaker: you still have to actually make a movie around those. The plot and dialogues are stupid, and the narration only highlights their mediocrity. The craft is below average most of the time, and achieves greatness here and there (the lesbian sex scene is a lot of fun, for instance).

[dave jenkins]

The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016) - 4/10
I really don't like Park Chan-wook. Having like 3 brilliant filmmaking ideas per movie doesn't make you a filmmaker: you still have to actually make a movie around those. The plot and dialogues are stupid, and the narration only highlights their mediocrity. The craft is below average most of the time, and achieves greatness here and there (the lesbian sex scene is a lot of fun, for instance).

I'm going to take your word on this. I haven't seen too many of Mr. Park's films: parts of Oldboy and all of Stoker. I really hated Stoker.

[stanton]

Old Boy and Lady Vengeance are excellent films. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is also very good.
None of his other films comes close, but I enjoy some of the them too. His unusual vampire film Thirst is due for a re-watch.

[cigar joe]

Mr. Weekend (2020) LA Soul Noir - Black Noir's Matter -

"This shit made people into hippies."


Written, directed, and produced by McKenzie Woodward. Bravo!
Excellent Cinematography by Evan Avtal who obviously knows WTF he's doing in the "Noir" department. Music by Kerry Baines, Vernell Daye, and George Kamar.
stars Willie Wright (a nice surprise) as bookie Charlie Jenkins, Janelle Marie (unknown to me) as whore / call girl Nora Fiddledown, Trenton L. Culkin as pimp and wanna be actor Cole O'Donnell, Peter D. Michael as the "whale" bettor and gun dealer Hyman Steinberg. Spencer Tatum as the weed growing, daub smoking Blake Lumbuster. A nice surprise. Especially when you are not expecting much, its a thrill to see a contemporary Neo Noir film get it all so right. It can be done. Its a shame that with all the obvious interest in Film Noir these days this film didn't get much buzz.  Streaming free for those with Amazon Prime 7-7.5/10

殺しの烙印 - Branded to Kill aka Koroshi no rakuin (1967) Surreal Japanese Yakuza Noir

Directed by Seijun Suzuki.
Written by Hachiro Guryu, Mitsutoshi Ishigami, Takeo Kimura, Ch?sei Sone, and Atsushi Yamatoya. Cinematography by Kazue Nagatsuka and Music by Naozumi Yamamoto.

This plays bit like a Japanese version of a Spaghetti Western. Instead of gunfighters vying to be the fastest draw, you have hitmen / assassins vying to be the number one ranked assassin.

The film stars    J? Shishido as Goro Hanada, Ogawa Mariko as Mami Hanada, Mari Annu as Misako Nakajo, Tamagawa Isao   as Michihiko Yabuhara, Minami Hiroshi as Gihei Kasuga, Mariko Ogawa as Mami Hanada, Annu Mari as Misako Nakajo, and Koji Nanbara as Susumu Orui.

The film is both beautifully stylistic, surreal, and at times a bit over the top ridiculous. Case in point to prove what a bad ass assassin the number one is to Hanada, he pees his pants rather than go to the bathroom. OK lol. That is dedication to your assignment. It reminded me of the excesses used in the latter phases the Spaghetti Westerns post Leone went through before they fizzled out. 6.5-7/10.

[dave jenkins]

Only the Brave (2017) - 7/10. Before directing Top Gun Maverick, Joseph Kosinski made this film about a Granite Mountain Hotshots crew, the 19 firefighters killed in a fire near Prescott, AZ. The film begins with the men training for their mission, then shows them performing their mission. It's the same film as TGM, except with more of a downer ending. Too bad they had to use so much CGI, but I guess wildfire practical FX were never on the cards. With Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, and, in for Tom Cruise, Josh Brolin.

[Cusser]

"The Unforgiven" 1960, Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Doug McClure, Bickford, Gish.

Saw this on Amazon Prime, Technicolor and un-cut.  And this was quite intense about racial hatred for the Indians Injuns redskins native Americans indigenous folks.

[noodles_leone]

John Wick 2 - 5.5/10
Of course stupid screenplay that fails to leverage the fun high concepts behind the John Wick lore. Some fun action but the fact they forgot to use the environment during the fighting scenes is baffling to me. The whole movie could take place on a stage with no decor and it would turn out exactly the same just less pretty. I HATE that extras never react to people being murdered in front of them. It gives a videogame from the early 2000's vibe to the movie. In a wrong way. I also dislike the fact that they set up cool movies moments and then skip them. It seems like the movie avoids doing good scenes.

John Wick 3 - 5.5/10
Even stupider screenplay that fails to leverage the fun high concepts behind the John Wick lore. Even worst: it destroys those high concepts by having no consitency at all. The point about using the environment in the fights has been fixed though. Also, as it was noted elsewhere, really cool GBU scene.

Lakeview Terrace - 4.5/10
Pointless and not even that fun but it doesn't suck too much. That being said, I knew what i was getting into.

Roi et Reine (Arnaud Desplechin, 2004) - 7/10
Starts out pretty bad and ends up being really good. Still the weaker Desplechin I have seen apart from his two latest. Emmanuelle Devos is, as often, deeply miscasted. Mathieu Amalric is absolutely terrific and saves the day on numerous occasions, especially during the most extreme comedy sequences (that would fall embarassingly flat without him).

[dave jenkins]

The Wild Goose Lake (2019) - 7/10. In Wuhan, a gangster inadvertently kills a cop, so the manhunt is on! But since the police are also offering a sizeable reward, the triads want him too. With the end a foregone conclusion, the only suspense is who will end up with the pay-out and who will die trying to collect. Very stylishly directed. Contains both a jolting decapitation scene at the beginning, and an impressive scene with noodles near the end.

[noodles_leone]

I was sure I had written something about it here but I cannot find it. It was probably not too far off from what you wrote. Now, why do actual noir films (not neo noir, not noir films that play with the genre, just actual, face value noir films) now all come from Asia nowadays? I suspect there is something at play in a society that gives this genre the ability to take off. A certain stage of development, a certain stage of capitalism too, probably. Also the fact than Asian noir films tend to be rooted in poverty while Hollywood noir films were often about middle class and then became mostly about the upper class.

Wild goose lake starts as a gangster movie but it quickly turns out to be a noir film way more than a gangsters one.

[dave jenkins]

Wild goose lake starts as a gangster movie but it quickly turns out to be a noir film way more than a gangsters one.

I saw an online review that says its a cross between M and The Warriors, a fair description.

They are making crime pictures in Asia because there is a market for them and they are (relatively) cheap to produce. They'd make Disney films if they could afford it. It's like the spaghetti westerns: big returns on small investments. The better directors make their crime films distinctive, so they get international recognition. There are probably scores of Asian crime films we never hear about. It is a cycle that will run its course.

I would guess that in a few years the more successful film companies will branch out into more high-cost productions. I would expect to see some Chinese SF films before too long.

[cigar joe]

I was sure I had written something about it here but I cannot find it. It was probably not too far off from what you wrote. Now, why do actual noir films (not neo noir, not noir films that play with the genre, just actual, face value noir films) now all come from Asia nowadays? I suspect there is something at play in a society that gives this genre the ability to take off. A certain stage of development, a certain stage of capitalism too, probably. Also the fact than Asian noir films tend to be rooted in poverty while Hollywood noir films were often about middle class and then became mostly about the upper class.

Wild goose lake starts as a gangster movie but it quickly turns out to be a noir film way more than a gangsters one.

Agree

[dave jenkins]

Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014) - 6/10. An artsy-fartsy crime film, a police procedural where the police never follow procedures (and frequently die as a result), or Just One Damn Thing After Another: you decide.  Well, I do like looking at Gwei Lun-Mei (or, if you prefer, Lun-Mei Gwei), so I guess I'll be rewatching this. Hopefully, Diao Yinan's best work is still ahead of him.

[cigar joe]

Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014) - 6/10. An artsy-fartsy crime film, a police procedural where the police never follow procedures (and frequently die as a result), or Just One Damn Thing After Another: you decide.  Well, I do like looking at Gwei Lun-Mei (or, if you prefer, Lun-Mei Gwei), so I guess I'll be rewatching this. Hopefully, Diao Yinan's best work is still ahead of him.

Liked it better