Last (x) movies you saw

The Post (Spielberg, 2017)
A Ghost Story (Lowery, 2017)
Yours Faithfully, Edna Welthorpe (Mrs) (short - Shepherd, 2017)
*Dumbland episodes 1-8 (Lynch, 2002)
Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi, 1954) - baffled as to why the film is named after a villain who barely appears onscreen
The Lure (Smoczynska, 2015)
*Wild at Heart (Lynch, 1990)
Tokyo-ga (Wenders, 1985)
Phantom Thread (Anderson, 2017)
Rififi (Dassin, 1955)
Poetry in Motion (Mann, 1982)

Portrait of Jason (6.5)
All the Money in the World (5.5)
The Final Year (7.0)
Phantom Thread (6.5)
Twin Peaks: The Return (6.5—8.0 for Episode 8)

"Does this character have a name?"
"His name...is Reynolds Woodcock."
"His partner's name is Cyril Woodcock."
"Those are great names!"

Phantom Thread (Anderson, 2017)
After the Storm (Kore-eda, 2017) 6/10
Félicité (Gomis, 2017) 7/10
Battle of the Sexes (Dayton and Faris, 2017) 5/10
The Man Without a Past (Kaurismaki, 2002) 7/10
* Mikey and Nicky (May, 1976) 7/10
L'enfance Nue (Pialat, 1968) 8/10
* The Life of Oharu (Mizoguchi, 1952) 10/10
Wagon Master (Ford, 1950)
Watch on the Rhine (Shumlin, 1943) 4/10
After the Thin Man (Van Dyke, 1936) 4/10

Ford always getting an incomplete from you, prof?

I saw All the Money in the World today and I was taken aback by how much screen time Christopher Plummer has. The report I remember reading when Spacey was nixed and Plummer was brought in for reshoots saying that it would be relatively easy since the character was only on screen for "18 minutes." Holy shit, no. Plummer is in a solid 60-90 minutes of this 132 minute movie. Totally earned that Golden Globe nomination, which I thought was purely symbolic until today. Not a great movie but OK, and Plummer is so much better than I imagine Spacey was.

Oh yeah! Wagon Master's a 7.

(xpost) He was in it a lot, wasn't he? Thought it was pretty ordinary for the most part. I do finally understand the Aerosmith line from "Last Child."

January, in theaters:

Antiporno - 8/10
The Shape of Water - 10/10
Call Me By Your Name - 8/10
Molly’s Game - 3/10
The Post - 2/10
Paddington 2 - 10/10
Wendy and Lucy* (2008) - 10/10
Phantom Thread - 9/10
I, Tonya - 7/10
All the Money in the World - 4/10
Please Stand By - 5/10

The Shape of Water - 10/10
The Post - 2/10

Mmmm, kay.

The Post, unlike Spotlight, was so unfocused: it wanted to be newspaper hagiography, whistleblower homage, and a women's rights movie. Star power is distracting here, it's just a bunch of hot air and rote period piece / historical drama filler. Spotlight was great because it had a laser-like focus and superb pacing.

The Shape of Water really surprised me. I wasn't planning on seeing it, the trailer was unappealing to me & I'm not a big GDT fan, but a friend asked me if I wanted to see a matinee a few hours beforehand, and my cousin had just implored me to see it asap, so I went. Such a great movie that succeeds in being multiple things at once: Cold War potboiler, fantasy story, tearjerker, and a real crowd pleaser. So well paced, a high wire balancing act that was just stunning to watch. It really moved me and the rest of the audience: on a rainy Friday afternoon, a half-full theater of people applauded with enthusiasm and reverence at the end. That is such a magical thing, a religious experience- I know so many people that hate it when crowds applaud in movie theaters. Why??? It's amazing because it makes NO sense! When something can move you that much that you're literally applauding to no one but yourself/yourselves... that's God.

Worldly Goods (Rosen, 1930)
The Sphinx (Rosen, 1933)
Max Takes a Bath (Nonguet, 1910)
A Lesson in Love (Robinson, 1931)
Max and the Lady Doctor (Linder, 1909)
The Pharmacist (Ripley, 1933)
*The Grand Dame (Hurley, 1931)
Monte Carlo (Lubitsch, 1930)
Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (Griffith, 1916)
The Mail Pilot (Hand, 1933)
Stranger Than Paradise (Jarmusch, 1984)

Sami Blood is visually fantastic, and a strong meditation on identity, family, and more. Highly recommended.

Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) 4/5
Logan (2017) 4/5
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) 4/5
Phantom Thread (2017) 4.5/5
The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) 3.5/5
Neshoba (2008) 3/5
David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017) 2.5/5
The Thief of Bagdad (1940) 3.5/5
49th Parallel (1941) 3.5/5

Shorts:
The Above (2015) 3.5/5
Saute ma ville (1968) 3.5.5

Many xps manifesto is good fun yeah, much more visually inventive than I thought it'd be. Blanchett was mostly great, only the one where she's a punk at a squat party or whatever was really embarrassing, & maybe a couple of others felt a bit too improv workshoppy

I've been watching a bunch of horror films with my free month of Shudder, I'm off work with a shitty head cold so not always paying strictest attention. Had forgotten the doctor in re-animator is called HANS GRUBER

halloween ii - hadn't seen this before. Are all classic horror part iis just "the first one but with a shitload more knockabout comedy"? The opening scene with the neighbour watching night of the living dead & the raspberry jam made me even more convinced that we never needed scream
halloween iii: andrew packard's toy factory? - I'd built up this idea in my head for years that this would be really good, knowing only that it was the one without Michael Myers that was about an evil toymaker, that people didn't go for it and they went back to slashers after. It's mostly really boring tho. lolwtf at all the 20something nymphos going wild for Tom Atkins. I liked the latex masks turning to bugs and the ending

Bergman @ BFI:

Private Confessions (Liv Ullmann, 1996) - this is from a script by Bergman.
The Passion of Anna (1968)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Johnson, 2017) 7/10
Call Me by Your Name (Guadagnino, 2017) 6/10
The Honeymoon Killers (Kastle, 1970) 6/10
King Cobra (Kelly, 2016) 4/10
Certain Women (Reichardt, 2016) 8/10
It (Muscheietti, 2017) 7/10

January at home:

Something Wild - 8/10
In a Lonely Place - 7/10
Babo 73 - 7/10
Ace in the Hole - 6/10
Black Narcissus - 5/10
12 Angry Men - 10/10
The Night of the Hunter - 9/10
Au Hasard Balthazar - 9/10
Old Joy - 5/10
Written on the Wind - 6/10
Boogie Nights - 10/10
Mildred Pierce - 9/10
Naked - 10/10
It Happened One Night - 10/10
Y Tu Mamá También - 7/10
Foreign Correspondent - 7/10
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - x/10 (i just couldn't watch them sing the whole time, but it was nice to listen to so i kept it on & read a book)
All About Eve - 8/10
My Dinner with Andre - 9/10
The Palm Beach Story - 7/10
The Piano Teacher - 9/10
The Earrings of Madame de… - 5/10

It's a pretty good month in which Madame de and Black Narcissus are the worst films you see.

Since the director's poll, I've been binging on Renoir and Vigo.

Renoir: Whirlpool of Fate, Nana, Charleston Parade, The Little Matchstick Girl, La Marseillaise, Boudu Saved From Drowning, A Day in the Country, The Lower Depths, La Bête Humaine, Elena and Her Men

flappy bird in essence otm about The Post.

The Signalman (Clark, 1976) 7/10
Mr Majestyk (Fleischer, 1974) 7/10
Green for Danger (Gilliat, 1946) 6/10
Good Time (Safdie bros, 2017) 7/10
A Brighter Summer Day (Yang, 1991) 9/10
Accident (Losey, 1967) 7/10
Fun With Dick and Jane (Kotcheff, 1977) 4/10
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (McDonagh, 2017) 5/10
Lover for a Day (Garrel, 2017) 6/10
Three Outlaw Samurai (Gosha, 1964) 8/10
Torn Curtain (Hitchcock, 1966) 7/10
Outer Space (Tscherkassky, 1999) 10/10
Ran (Kurosawa, 1985) 8/10
Magic Mike (Soderbergh, 2012) 6/10

flappy bird in essence otm about The Post

I can accept that if we agree to also accept that The Shape of Water is closer to 0/10

Audiences that would applaud at either that or Amelie are fit for the snake pit.

The Lovers (1958, Malle) 9/10
Outrage (1950, Lupino) 7/10
Lover for a Day (2017, Garrel) 6/10
Take This Hammer (1964, Moore) 7/10
Baldwin’s N*gg*r (1968, Ove) 8/10
*Flirting with Disaster (1996, Russell) 8/10
Underground U.S.A. (1980, Mitchell) 4/10
*The Holy Girl (2004, Martel) 8/10
20th Century Women (2016, Mills) 7/10
Baby Driver (2017, Wright) 5/10
Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970, Schatzberg) 7/10
*A Quiet Passion (2016, Davies) 8/10

Baby Driver (2017, Wright) 5/10

About right.

The Little Pest (Belasco & Darling, 1927)
The Golf Specialist (Brice, 1930)
City Girl (Murnau, 1930)
4 Devils (the stills/sketches/script reconstruction in the Murnau, Borzage & Fox box) (Murnau, 1928)
*Sunrise (Murnau, 1927)
Lazybones (Borzage, 1925)
Beginning of the Serpentine Dance (de Chomon, 1908)
*Lucky Star (Borzage, 1929)
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Renoir, 1936)

LOving Vincent.
Live action drama based on a postman's son trying to deliver a letter to Vincent Van gogh's brother a year after he died.
Twist here is that they took that live action film and painted over each frame in a van Gogh style.
Quite lovely.

Three Billboards etc. (Martin McDonagh, 2017) 6/10
Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017) 7
Hercules (Clements and Musker, 1997) 4
The Black Cauldron (Berman and Rich, 1985) 6
Make Mine Music (various, 1946) 4
Darkest Hour (2017) 3
Amelie Fucks Alf (del Toro, 2017) 5
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) 3
Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh, 2012) 4

managed to see 8/9 BP Oscar noms this year. Nobody wants me to see Phantom Thread apparently -- never came locally, not on the usual places yet. Also I finished seeing all the disney studios non-package animated features.

Total Recall (Verhoeven, 1990)
To Be or Not To Be (Lubitsch, 1942)
The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970)
La Ciénaga (Martel, 2001)
Manhatta (short - Sheeler/Strand, 1921)
*Kill Bill, vols 1 & 2 (Tarantino, 2003/2004)
The Shape of Water (Del Toro, 2017)
Tabu (Murnau, 1931)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Liu, 1978)
Syndromes and a Century (Weerasethakul, 2006)

Yojimbo
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
MI: Rogue Nation

Fado, Major and Minor (1995, Ruiz) 6/10
The Blind Owl (1987, Ruiz) 4/10
It Rains on Our Love (1946, Bergman) 5/10
*Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016, Morrison) 8/10
King and Country (1964, Losey) 8/10
*The Flying Deuces (1939, Sutherland) 7/10
*Out of the Past (1947, Tourneur) 10/10
*Get Carter (1971, Hodges) 8/10
1 P.M. (1972, Pennebaker, Leacock, Godard) 6/10
*Memories of Underdevelopment (1968, Gutierrez Alea) 9/10
Driftwood (1947, Dwan) 7/10

Baby Driver (2017, Wright) 5/10

Ansel Elgort (2017) 9/10

Melvil Poupaud, age 45 with a bald spot Q&A last night, 9/10

He's not shirtless in enough movies.

Morbs didn't say *where* the bald spot was tbf

The Fraidy Cat (Parrott, 1924)
Jonah Jones (Hibbard, 1924)
Baby Take a Bow (Lachman, 1934)
Sold at Auction (Chase, 1923)
Max à Monaco (Linder, 1915)
Max Sets the Fashion (Linder et Leprince)
*Street Angel (Borzage, 1928)
Cockatoos for Two (Wickersham, 1947)
Anticipation of the Night (Brakhage, 1958)
Window Water Baby Moving (Brakhage, 1959)
The Dead (Brakhage, 1960)
Mothlight (Brakhage, 1963)
Dog Star Man (Brakhage, 1964)
One Wet Night (Watson, 1924)
Cook, Papa, Cook (MacDonald, 1928)
Scenes From Under Childhood, Sections One through Four (Brakhage, 1967-1970)

Blade runner 2049
nicely done.

Orion’s Belt (Solum)
Out of Nature (Giæver)
From the Balcony (Giæver)
In Order of Disappearance (Moland)*
1001 Grams (Hamer)
Oslo, August 31st (Trier)*
Avengers (Whedon)*
Predestination (Spierig & Spierig)
Immortals (Singh)
The Matrix (Wachowski & Wachowski)*
The Matrix: Reloaded (Wachowski & Wachowski)*
The Matrix: Revolutions (Wachowski & Wachowski)
Cloud Atlas (Wachowski, Wachowski & Tykwer)
Basic Instinct (Verhoeven)*
Election (Payne)
Wonder (Chbosky)
Wonderstruck (Haynes)
The Gold Rush (Chaplin)*
Pickup on South Street (Fuller)
White Dog (Fuller)
Major Dundee (Peckinpah)
The Getaway (Peckinpah)
Convoy (Peckinpah)
Angel Heart (Parker)
Evita (Parker)
Rio Lobo (Hawks)
Pale Rider (Eastwood)
Easy Rider (Hopper)
Monday (Sabu)
Miss Zombie (Sabu)
Cure (Kurosawa)
Pulse (Kurosawa)*
Mala Noche (van Sant)
Last Days (van Sant)
Mr Governor (Månsson)
Avalon (Petersén)
A Dragon Arrives! (Haghighi)
Don’t Get Me Wrong (Pintilie)
Gueros (Ruizpalacios)
In the Name of… (Szumowska)
Under Electric Clouds (German)
Wolfsburg (Petzold)
Gespenster (Petzold)
Teenage Angst (Stuber)
Kumiko the Treasure Hunter (Zellner)
Austerlitz (Loznitsa)
Exotica, Erotica, Etc (Kranioti)
Gandu (Q)

They Had to See Paris (Borzage, 1929)
A Tantalising Young Lady (de Morlhon, 1909)
Free and Easy (Mack, 1931)
Liliom (Borzage, 1930)
Song O' My Heart (Borzage, 1930)
Why Wild Men Go Wild (Beaudine, 1920)
All Teed Up (Kennedy, 1930)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Webster, 1964)
The Informer (silent version) (Robison, 1929)

Obv numbered ratings are problematic but I don't see the point of this thread without them

Time Regained (restoration)* (9/10)
Phantom Thread (8/10)
Thor:Ragnarok (6/10)
Blade Of the Immortal (6/10)
Django (Reinhardt biopic) (5/10)
Barbara (6/10)
Une Femme est Une Femme * (9/10)
Eric Clapton docu (7/10)
Chavela (8/10)
Journal d'une Femme de Chambre (2015 Lea Seydoux Version) (6/10)
Murder On The Orient Express (2017) (5/10)
The Ballad Of Lefty Brown (2/10) - There's a dim glimmer of a potentially well-made film here but, Jesus, it's hot garbage

*Young Mr. Lincoln (1939, Ford) 9/10
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936, Ford) 7/10
On Top of the Whale (1982, Ruiz) 5/10
Jitterbugs (1943, St. Clair) 6/10
Life Is a Dream (1987, Ruiz) 6/10
The Insomniac on the Bridge (1985, Ruiz)6/10
Mammame (1986, Ruiz) 7/10
Ingrid Goes West (2017, Spicer) 6/10
*A Thousand Clowns (1965, Coe) 7/10
Cinerama Adventure (2002, Strohmaier) 7/10
How the West Was Won (1962, Hathaway, Marshall, Ford) 6/10

I saw dead slow ahead on mubi and thought it was really good: an ambient doc (I guess) filmed on an enormous freighter but nothing at all like that leviathan film from a few years ago (which I also loved). Felt very sci-fi with all the uninhabited shots of what honestly looks like the interior of a spaceship. I was reminded of part 3 of twin peaks at times.

Also loveless is my film of the year so far

Thank you for validating my own enjoyment of Loveless, wins.

{spoilers)I thought it was a really impressive piece of filmmaking. The Sight and Sound review (which, as always, I read after seeing the film) was quite dismissive - heavy-handed (a woman on a treadmill wearing a track suit w/ Russia written on it), didactic (everyone bad is on their mobile phone all the time oh the humanity), predictably arty (refuses to resolve the mystery of the vanished child) etc. But for me it was gripping all the way through, and I don't mind a bit of didacticism when the imagery is so stunning - the slow opening wintery shots, the sequence in the abandoned building, the exterior shots of the high rise at night. Not as funny as Leviathan, but a more complete film.

of the three Zvyagintsev films I've seen, I like Elena best; haven't gotten to this one.

This one gave me strong Kieslowski 10 Commandment vibes at times

rough night (2017 lucia aniello) 3/10
the shape of water (2017 del toro) 8/10
the devil's backbone (2001 del toro) 8/10
Ingrid goes west (2017 spicer) 6/10
3 billboards outside ebbing, Missouri (2017 mcdonagh) 4/10
phantom thread (2017 pta) 8/10
extremities (1986 Robert m young) 5/10
the pope of Greenwich village (1984 Rosenberg) 5/10
the square (2017 ostlund) 6/10
big night (1996 tucci/scott) 9/10

A Fantastic Woman (Lelio, 2017)
Mudbound(Rees, 2017) 5/10
Phantom Thread (Anderson, 2017)
In the Fade(Akin, 2017) 4/10
After the Storm (Kore-eda, 2017) 6/10
Félicité (Gomis, 2017) 7/10
* God's Own Country (Lee, 2017) 7/10
Battle of the Sexes (Dayton and Faris, 2017) 5/10
The Man Without a Past (Kaurismaki, 2002) 7/10
* A Nos Amours (Pialat, 1983) 8/10
* Face to Face (Bergman, 1976 6/10
* Mikey and Nicky (May, 1976) 7/10
L'enfance Nue (Pialat, 1968) 8/10
The Passion of Anna (Bergman, 1968) 5/10
* Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman, 1960) 9/10
* The Life of Oharu (Mizoguchi, 1952) 10/10
Wagon Master (Ford, 1950)
Watch on the Rhine (Shumlin, 1943) 4/10
After the Thin Man (Van Dyke, 1936) 4/10
The Crime of Monsieur Lange(Renoir, 1936) 9/10

Thought L'enfance Nue was fantastic when I saw it two or three years ago.

Pialat's work my favorite recent-ish discovery. See his "House In The Woods" tv mini series if you can.