Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Watched the Divine documentary I Am Divine last night and laughed my ass off. The dude really was an incredible performer, and while John Waters and he were a perfect team and neither of them would have made it as far as they did without the other, Divine did a lot of great work without Waters. (I had no idea about his stage career in SF and NYC, for example, and the footage from the plays and musicals he did was great.) Also, I wish people would stop obsessing over Pink Flamingos when Female Trouble is so much funnier and more insane, and a much better showcase for Divine's talent and persona.

*Raise the Rent (Newmeyer, 1920)
*She Loved Him Plenty (Del Ruth & Jones, 1918)
*The Speedy Marriage (Ludwig, 1925)
Earth (Dovzhenko, 1930)
What Price Glory (Ford, 1952)
Quality Street (Franklin, 1927)
The Moth (Newmeyer, 1934)
The Outfit (Moore, 2022)

Joyless Street (Pabst, 1925)
The Terror of the Batignolles (Clouzot, 1931)
Dragnet Night (Gallone, 1931)
Poppin' the Cork (White, 1933)
Secrets of Chinatown (Newmeyer, 1934)
The Love of Jeanne Ney (Pabst, 1927)
Grief Street (Thorpe, 1931)
The Batman (Reeves, 2022)

Don't Look Up.
Finally got to see this. Had run out of hard drive space a couple of months back so not had the chance til now.
Quite dark really.
Had some really funny bits.
Wonder if it will hold up for years or even just become more topical.
Anyway enjoyed it.
It has a post credits scene if you haven’t caught that.
Also liked the philosophical idea hinted at if you say something called a specific unknown term will perform a task. It is probably what the previously unknown thing will be known as thenceforth. Innit

Watched Deep Water last night. A decent semi-mystery set in a world of rich people who just wanna act like middle-class suburbanites. Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, apparently. Ben Affleck is surprisingly good in it. Ana De Armas is just OK.

Watched Red Rocket tonight. Very funny portrait of a guy who's a complete amoral, soulless piece of shit, and yet still fun enough that you want to spend two hours watching him try to seduce a 17-year-old into working as a porn performer, with him as her "manager."

Deep Water is worth watching just because it looks fantastic, btw. Adrian Lyne still knows how to make a movie look good, no matter how bad the script might be (and again, the script is pretty good here). Lots of it looks like a perfume commercial, but the lighting both indoors and outdoors is phenomenal. DP is Eigil Bryld, who also shot In Bruges and a bunch of other things.

March:

Strongroom (1962) 7/10
Long Weekend (1978) 6/10
Beyond Terror (1980) 7/10
the Killing of Sister George (1968) 9/10
Culloden (1964) 8/10
Double Team (1997) 6/10
Femme Fatale (2002) 7/10
Emperor of The North (1973) 7/10
The Batman (2022) 7/10
Simon of the Desert (1965) 8/10
Husbands (1970) 8/10
F for Fake (1973) 8/10
Knight of Cups (2015) 7/10
Pornostar (1998) 8/10
*The Punisher (1989) 7/10
Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996) 6/10
Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2020) 8/10
Zero for Conduct (1933) 7/10
Turning Red (2022) 6/10
*Inherent Vice (2014) 9/10

Deep Water (2022) 4/10 - laughably bad

March:

And Soon the Darkness (Fuest, 1970) 7/10 BLU-RAY
Vortex (Noe, 2021) 8/10 GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL
Father Dear Father (Stewart, 1973) 4/10 DVD
A Propos de Nice (Vigo, 1930) 8/10 DVD
Taris (Vigo, 1931) 9/10 DVD
The Mad Doctor of Market Street (Lewis, 1942) 5/10 BLU-RAY
The Batman (Reeves, 2022) 6.10 CINEWORLD
Infinite Football (Porumboiu, 2018) 7/10 BLU-RAY
Natural Born Killers (Stone, 1994) 4/10 DVD
The Black Cat (Rogell, 1941) 5/10 BLU-RAY
Tower of London (Lee, 1939) 7/10 BLU-RAY
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (Nigh, 1942) 4/10 BLU-RAY
The Phantom of the Opera (Lubin, 1943) 5/10 DVD
The Worst Person in the World (Trier, 2021) 7/10 CINEWORLD
The Mummy's Curse (Goodwins, 1944) 5/10 DVD

The Reckoning (Fraser, 1932)
Shock (Pomeroy, 1934)
The Black Hand Gang (Banks, 1930)
Kentucky Pride (Ford, 1925)
Men Without Women (Ford, 1930)
Little Man, What Now? (Borzage, 1934)

march

King Richard (2021) 5/10
CODA (2021) 5/10
Don't Look Up (2021) 4/10
Licorice Pizza (2021) 9/10
*The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? (2015) 5/10 i needed some more jon peters
Truck Turner (1974) 7/10
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) 6/10
Arcade (Pyun, 1993) 5/10
Prisoners (Villaneuve, 2013) 9/10
Snowpiercer (Bong, 2013) 8/10
The Card Counter (Schrader, 2021) 7/10
Turning Red (2022) 8/10

I agree that Elvira is superior to the awards-season glurge of CODA and KR.

Arcade (Pyun, 1993) 5/10

:)

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) 4/5
Human Lanterns (1982) 2.5/5. I can see why people enjoy this horror-tinged wuxia, and there are some good fights, but the villain was too much of an annoying goofball.
Terror in a Texas Town (1958) 3.5/5. Probably still the only western where a Swede uses a harpoon as a weapon.
Beat Girl (1960) 3/5
* Miami Vice (2006) 4/5
India Song (1975) 4/5
* Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) 4/5

Definitely got Pee-wee's Big Adventure vibes from the Elvira movie -- both stars were in The Groundlings together. My favorite joke in Elvira is how she takes off her costume after her show and comes out wearing the exact same outfit.

Arcade has great early CG cheese a la The Langoliers.

I Hate Women (Scotto, 1934)
Riot Squad (Webb, 1933)
Skyway (Collins, 1933)
Rebellious Daughters (Yarbrough, 1932)
Fraulein Else (Czinner, 1929)
An Inn in Tokyo (Ozu, 1935)
Memoria (Weerasethakul, 2021)

Cleaner (Renny Harlin, 2007) stars Samuel L. Jackson as an ex-cop turned crime scene cleaner, Ed Harris as his former partner who was in on some shady shit with him years earlier, Eva Mendes as the Woman of Mystery, and Luis Guzman as the cop you're supposed to think is corrupt. It's a small-scale urban noir set in Trenton, NJ that does what it's supposed to do. The twist is just surprising enough to be worth waiting for, and it's all over in only 90 minutes. Robert Forster's in it, too; he only has one scene, but watching him play off Jackson again is fun.

Wojnarowicz (7.0)
Erin Brockovich (6.5)
Succession (S1 – 6.0)
The Worst Person in the World (7.5)
Succession (S2 – 7.0)
To Sir with Love (9.0)
Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy (7.0)
Succession (S3 – 7.0)
The Morning Show (S1 – 6.0)
The Crossing Guard (6.0)
Mindhunter (S1/2 – 8.5)
The Morning Show (S2 – 5.0)

*Easy Rider (1969) 9/10
Nightmare Alley (2021) 6/10
The Souvenir Part II (2021) 6/10
Macario (1960) 7/10
*Manhunter (1986) 7/10
Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (2021) 6/10
Lets Be Cops (2014) 5/10
Medium Cool (1969) 8/10
Antonio Das Mortes (1969) 8/10
Entranced Earth (1967) 5/10
Ambulance (2022) 8/10
L'atalante (1934) 7/10

Short films

Still Life (2022) 9/10 https://vimeo.com/692505134
The Dangerous Type (2022) 4/10

*Married to Order (Chase, 1920)
Hubby's Quiet Little Game (Lord, 1926)
Le Metro (Franju & Langlois, 1934)
A Parisian Romance (Franklin, 1932)
Air Eagles (Whitman, 1931)
The Italian Straw Hat (Clair, 1928)
Long Pants (Capra, 1927)
The Wandering Jew (Elvey, 1933)

The Power of the Dog (Campion 2021) 3.5/5
Upgrade (Whannell 2018) 3/5
Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (Douglas 2003) 3.5/5
Lady Bird (Gerwig 2017) 4/5
Double Indemnity (Wilder 1944) 5/5
The Silence of the Lambs (Demme 1991) 5/5
Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet 1975) 5/5
Censor (Bailey-Bond 2021) 2.5/5
The Souvenir (Hogg 2019) 4.5/5

The Batman Matt Reeves 2022
I assume this is the start of a series. Nice take on the old franchise. A bit long though, & i think I did doze off for a few minutes.
But overall does seem like a good way to go except I'd try to make the next one shorter.
Assume this was current day attempting to look dark and noirish or Gothic or something.
Nice and dark anyway, like yeah kinda dark in a like dark way like.
some back stories i wasn't aware of , has the Wayne/Arkham family link been canon before? & is the Riddler Bruce's bastard brother?
Also god, thought Colin Farrell had bulked out for Northwater and he's even more so here. How much of that is makeup?

I really enjoyed tge “Dark Detective” aspect of this new Batman but still really miss some of the goofiness that went out the window when Nolan took over. A blend of Burton’s cartoonishness with the grit and grime would be wonderful. Loved Farrell’s ‘80s DeNiro-wannabe Penguin. Rest of the cast very good. The emotional connection between Serkis and Pattinson didn’t register for me at all. Zoe Kravitz can rob me blind.

just seen who Zoe Kravitz's parents are and gosh doesn't time fly.

Hal Roach Presents Harry Langdon (1929)
Counsel on De Fence (Ripley, 1934)
The Gang Buster (Sutherland, 1931)
The Northman (Eggers, 2022)
The Roadhouse Murder (Ruben, 1932)
The Chaser (Langdon, 1928)

april. didn't watch much.

Magnificent Obsession (Sirk, 1954) 7/10
The Dirt Bike Kid (1985) 5/10 E.T. with a magic motorcycle
The Exorcist III (Blatty, 1990) 6/10
Big Fan (Robert D. Siegel, 2009) 6/10
The French Dispatch (Anderson, 2021) 7/10
The Northman (Eggers, 2022) 8/10

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) 4.5/5. Don't recall the last time I saw a triptych film like this that actually felt like it had the craft and power of observance of a short story collection. Ever?
Double Team (1997) - 3.5/5
The Northman (2022) 3.5/5
The Executioner (1963) 4.5/5. Great idea for a black comedy from Franco's Spain: guy who ends up responsible for executions does everything he can to get out of doing them.
Memoria (2021) 4.5/5. Needs to be seen in a theater, at home, on a laptop, smart fridge, wherever they'll let you see it.
El Planeta (2021) 2/5. Good example of it being a bad sign when someone with performance art and video installations on their resume decides it's time to start making feature films.
Daughters of Darkness (1971) 2/5. Boring.

Possession (Zulawski, 1981): the new 4k restoration is out on a region free Australian Blu-Ray, so I bought one on eBay. It looks fantastic, and of course it's completely fucking bonkers and one of the most emotionally raw movies I've ever seen. Adjani is incredible, but so is Sam Neill - he looks like a drowned corpse.

Old Spanish Customers (Lane, 1932)
Rainbow Over Broadway (Thorpe, 1933)
The Song of Ceylon (Wright, 1934)
The Meanest Gal in Town (Mack, 1934)
Jubilee (Jarman, 1978)
The Suitor (Semon & Taurog, 1920)
Flies (Fleischer, 1922)
Stupid, But Brave (Arbuckle, 1924)

April:
Dr Who and the Daleks (Flemyng, 1965) 6/10 DVD
*Friday the 13th (Cunningham, 1980) 7/10 BLU-RAY
The Garment Jungle (Sherman/Aldrich, 1957) 7/10 BLU-RAY
Where There's a Will (Beaudine, 1936) 6/10 DVD
Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (Flemyng, 1966) 5/10 DVD
Muddy Track (Shakey, 2015) 7/10 DVD
Up in the World (Carstairs, 1956) 5/10 DVD
The Brotherhood of Satan (McEveety, 1971) 7/10 BLU-RAY
No Time to Die (Fukunaga, 2021) 4/10 PRIME
Modern Romance (Brooks, 1981) 7/10 BLU-RAY
City of God (Meirelles and Lund, 2002) 8/10 DVD

Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Graf, 2021)
Dancers in the Dark (Burton, 1932)
Grand Canary (Cummings, 1934)
The Big Shot (Sedgwick & Murphy, 1931)

Salinger (6.0)
The Batman (5.5)
Backpack Full of Cash (6.0)
Cow (6.0)
Kingpin (7.5)
All My Puny Sorrows (5.5)
Peppermint Soda (7.0)
Petite Maman (6.0)
Inland Empire (5.0)
Affliction (9.0)

Carnival Lady (Higgin, 1933)
Inland Empire (Lynch, 2006)
The Night Club (Iribe & Urson, 1925)
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Yates, 2022)

May so far:

Smiley Face (Araki, 2007|) 5/10
Dog Eat Dog (Schrader, 2016) 6/10
Elevator to the Gallows (Malle, 1958) 8/10
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Hamaguchi, 2021) 8/10
We're All Going to the World's Fair (Schoenbrun, 2021) 6/10
*Miami Blues (Armitage, 1990) 9/10
*The Dead Zone (Cronenberg, 1983) 8/10

St. Louis Woman (Ray, 1934)
While Paris Sleeps (Dwan, 1932)
The Man From Toronto (Hill, 1933)
By Appointment Only (Strayer, 1933)
On Your Guard (Crone, 1933)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Genina, 1925)
All Stuck Up (Maire, 1930)
Daughter of the Dragon (Corrigan, 1931)

Behind Stone Walls (Strayer, 1932)
The Curtain Falls (Lamont, 1934)
Cross Streets (Strayer, 1934)
Oft in the Silly Night (Gillstrom, 1929)
The Framing of the Shrew (Gillstrom, 1929)
Broadway (Fejos, 1929)
The Bob's Burgers Movie (Bouchard & Derriman, 2022)
House on Haunted Hill (Castle, 1959)
Ambassador Bill (Taylor, 1931)

may so far

Merrily We Go To Hell (Arzner, 1932) 7/10
Million Dollar Legs (1932) 8/10
Wait Until Dark (1967) 5/10
All That Jazz (Fosse, 1979) 9/10
Police Story (1985) 7/10
Police Story 2 (1988) 5/10
Parallel Lives (1994) 3/10 tv movie with a lot of big names
Rescue Rangers (2022) 5/10

i will likely see top gun maverick on tuesday

Top Gun: Maverick 4/5. The US government and the New York Times Editorial Board must be thrilled so many people are seeing a movie about the dangers of uranium enrichment.
* Army of Darkness (1992) 2.5/5. The Bruce Campbell fanboy was a real forerunner to the idiots we have to hear from now.
Jackass 4.5 3.0 (not to be confusing)
Hard Target (1993) 4/5
Ste. Anne (2021) 2.5/5 - saw a comment on letterboxd that Grouper would love this movie and that sounds accurate. Emphasis seemed to be more on the film stock than its ostensible story for me though.
The Quick and the Dead (1995) 3/5
Le Naivre Night (1979) 2/5 A Marguerite Duras joint. I might appreciate it better on a second viewing after I realized the extent to which the narration had nothing to do with the images on screen but it was just too boring.
The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks (2022) 3/5
That Most Important Thing: Love (1975) 3/5
* Cuadecuc, Vampir (1971) 3.5/5. Cool, abstract documentary about the filming of a Jess Franco vampire movie with Christopher Lee. No dialogue until the very end when Lee reads a bit from Stoker's Dracula novel.
* Evil Dead II (1987) 4/5
The Girl Can't Help It (1956) 3.5/5

Finally got to see The Northman a few days ago.
Seems to cater to the macho thing quite a bit. THough not sure if that would want happy endings etc.
Quite good I guess. Not sure how well it stands as the next film after The Lighthouse.
Pretty bloody.

Penda's Fen (Clarke 1974) 5/5
By Our Selves (Kotting 2015) 3/5
The Big Sleep (Hawks 1946) 5/5
Enter the Dragon (Clouse 1973) 5/5
The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles 1942) 4/5
Drive (Winding Refn 2011) 3/5
A Canterbury Tale (Powell & Pressburger 1942) 4.5/5
Police Story (Chan 1985) 3.5/5
The Velvet Underground (Haynes 2021) 4.5/5
The Lady From Shanghai (Welles 1947) 4/5
Top Gun: Maverick (Kosinski 2022) 5/5

The madness of ratings writ large but fuck I had a good time with Top Gun. Enter the Dragon isn't a 5* either but it's too bound up with nostalgia to be anything else.

Am I being daft or is there no all-purpose 'I just saw this and want to shriek about it!' film thread?

Last (x) movies you saw (II)

(where x = 1)

THE BETA TEST, the latest Jim Cummings thing. For whatever my opinion's worth it's better than The (overrated) Wolf Of Snow Hollow, prolly not as great as Thunder Road, but I'm just baffled at the lack of discourse surrounding it, I thought everyone was into this boy currently

He is an amazing physical actor like in the physicality of how he delivers dialogue, but I have no idea how you could put him in anyone else's films

The Royal Family of Broadway (Cukor & Gardner, 1930)
Money Means Nothing (Cabanne, 1934)
Notorious But Nice (Thorpe, 1933)
Toot Sweet! (Goulding, 1929)
Behind the Front (Sutherland, 1926)
Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg, 2022)
Downton Abbey: A New Era (Curtis, 2022)
The Monolith Monsters (Sherwood, 1957)
Midnight Faces (Cohen, 1926)

I used to say that I had never seen Ed Harris give a bad performance, but last night I watched The Firm. Gene Hackman's streak of great performances remains unbroken, though; he's brilliant in it, his initial bravado masking crippling self-loathing. And as always he's an absolute master at letting a pause linger just a second or two too long, making it really awkward (and somewhat frightening) for the other person in the scene.

Disco Dancer (1982) 4/5. The second-highest grossing film in the history of the Soviet Union.
Fire Music: A History of the Free Jazz Revolution (2020) 3/5
'Round Midnight (1986) 4/5
Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1967) 3/5
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (2020) - 3.5/5
* The American Friend (1977) 4/5
From Here to Eternity (1953) 4/5

From Here to Eternity on TCM now.

How did you see Fire Music? I missed it when it played a couple of times last year, have been looking out for it since.

It's on Criterion Channel now.