Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

2 by Joseph Losey

The Criminal (1960) - 7/10. Not as bad as I remember. Lots of really good work in support of the lead, and Stanley Baker is pretty solid, but he goes a bit pathetic at the end.

La Truite (1982) - 7/10. Not as good as I remember. Great cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Moreau, that Cassel guy . . . Tokyo is presented inauthentically, and the symbolism used throughout is a little too on the nose, but the meandering plot stays interesting. Photographed by the great Henri Alekan.

[dave jenkins]

Decision to Leave (2020) - 8/10. This is visually and narratively dense and I had trouble following all the details of the plot. Probably everything will become clear on a re-watch or two. The story is basically about a black widow and the detective investigating her. Did she kill her husband(s) or didn't she? Is she playing the cop, or is she in love? How far should one go for love? What is love? What is the ending of this film? It's all a mystery, I guess. I'm looking forward to seeing it again (bring on the blu-ray!).

[dave jenkins]

TAR (2022) - 7/10. For the first half this is a perfect movie. Then, unhappily, in the second part, Todd Field defaults to melodrama. Why Mr. Field couldn't follow through on the nuanced approach he so carefully constructed at the beginning is beyond me. The change in manner also has the effect of introducing anomalies like dinky Cate Blanchet knocking Mark Strong on his ass. In what universe is that possible? Mrs. J, who watched this with me, put her finger on the problem when she asked, "Why did the movie turn into Whiplash at the end?" Why indeed.

[PowerRR]

DJ, Cj, N_L, D&D - 1//10
The worst! A real shame to meet in real life. Pretentious and cliche! Wouldn't recomment the film, but the Blu transfer is 11/10.

[cigar joe]

DJ, Cj, N_L, D&D - 1//10
The worst! A real shame to meet in real life. Pretentious and cliche! Wouldn't recomment the film, but the Blu transfer is 11/10.

lol

[dave jenkins]

DJ, Cj, N_L, D&D - 1//10
The worst! A real shame to meet in real life. Pretentious and cliche! Wouldn't recomment the film, but the Blu transfer is 11/10.

Have more to drink next time.

Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018) - 7/10. Not the O'Neill play, but a story about an ex-detective (Jue Huang) searching for a woman (Tang Wei) he once loved and lost. Film, dreams, and memories are mixed together in the detective's mind. Dreams, we are told, are merely forgotten memories. Also memories mix truth and lies, but films are always false. At the end of the movie the detective has a dream that comes to him in the form of a film. The film lasts an hour and is shot as one continuous take and is called Long Day's Journey Into Night. As impressive as the elaborate tracking is, I preferred the earlier, conventionally-cut portion of the movie. The director, Bi Gan, likes (among other things) to photograph his actors through screens. One amazing shot seems to be another example of this, but it's finally revealed that in fact we've been watching the characters reflected on a wall of mirrored tiles. Appropriately, the movie quotes from other films: WKW generally, and more specifically, von Trier's The Element of Crime and Hitchcock's Vertigo (The final image of the lovers copies the spinning hallucination scene between Scotty and Judy/Madeleine). This is a film for annoying fucks who've seen too many movies.

[dave jenkins]

Full Frontal (2002) - 7/10. Soderbergh does Altman, with laughs. I had to rewatch this because I recently rewatched The Limey and remembered there's a cameo (actually two) of Terrence Stamp in this AS the Limey. The stand-out bit here, though, is provided by Nicky Katt, playing a guy playing Hitler in a play called "The Sound and the Fuhrer."

Sudden Rain/ Shuu (1956) - 8/10. Naruse does Ozu, with a hero who has stomach problems. Not too much of a plot here, mostly a slice-of-life exercise.

[dave jenkins]

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) - 8/10. On an isolated Irish island, a life-long friendship is sundered when one of two men (Brendan Gleeson) suddenly decides life is too short to spend with the other (Colin Farrell, playing it a bit dim). The dull man's refusal to accept the rejection is the driving force behind this black comedy. Laughter, death, and mutilation follow. This film reunites the two leads and writer/director Martin McDonagh, 14 years after In Bruges. It is a kind companion piece to two of McDonagh's stage plays, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. The Irish locations are beautiful.

[dave jenkins]

Decision to Leave (2020) - 8/10. This is visually and narratively dense and I had trouble following all the details of the plot. Probably everything will become clear on a re-watch or two. The story is basically about a black widow and the detective investigating her. Did she kill her husband(s) or didn't she? Is she playing the cop, or is she in love? How far should one go for love? What is love? What is the ending of this film? It's all a mystery, I guess. I'm looking forward to seeing it again (bring on the blu-ray!).

Second viewing. I am now a confirmed Tang Wei fan.

[dave jenkins]

The Long Wait (1954) Spillane story, Anthony Quinn, first watch interesting. 7/10

Another watch. I'm giving it a "4" for bad plotting and dialog.

[T.H.]

Friday (1995) - A bit messy tonally, but it certainly works as a hangout movie with likable characters and a great soundtrack. Chris Tucker and the late John Witherspoon steal the movie. It holds up rather well even if the script and pace are a little off, at least from what I remembered. Tucker should have had a much better film career, but he hit it big right after the Hollywood blockbuster started its decline where the Brett Ratners replaced the John McTiernans. B

[dave jenkins]

Going through QT's book Cinema Speculation and watching/re-watching some of the films he champions:

Bullitt (1968) - 6/10. Here's the film in a nutshell: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz oh, wow, Cool Car Chase! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Steve is cool, though. Lalo Schifrin's score is also cool.

The Outfit (1973) - 7/10. Based on a Richard Stark novel. Robert Duvall gets in Dutch with Robert Ryan's mafia-like organization. Figuring a good offense is the best defense, Duvall enlists the aid of Joe Don Baker and they start knocking over The Outfit's places of business. There are cameos by Jane Greer, Elijah Cook, Marie Windsor, and others. Big action climax.

Rolling Thunder (1977) - 5/10. First viewing. William Devane comes home after spending 7 years in the Hanoi Hilton, physically fit but emotionally crippled. He hopes to reconnect with his wife and son but they are soon murdered in front of him. Eventually he enlists the aid of Tommy Lee Jones, a fellow POW, and they go after the bad guys. Big action climax. This is a very cheap-looking production, with a wretched title song. None of the actors playing service members could be bothered to get their hair cut. From a story by Paul Schrader.

These films, and the others analyzed in the book, are movies QT saw in cinemas growing up (he watched Bullitt when he was six). They meant something to him then, and they still mean something to him now.

[noodles_leone]

A married woman (Godard) 8/10
Ha! A fully watchable Godard that actually feels like a real movie!

I saw it on Arte. If any of you have a VPN and can set it up to ? FRANCE ?, almost everything ever done by Pialat is currently available for free on the Arte website, even his tv show la maison des bois.

[dave jenkins]

A married woman (Godard) 8/10
Ha! A fully watchable Godard that actually feels like a real movie!

I saw it on Arte.

But don't you have it on DVD, that one I gave to Drink that he passed on to you? Man, hold on to that, it's got an amazing booklet.

[noodles_leone]

Hum I'll have to check that out! My Godard DVD aren't on the front row.