Seen Any Good Movies...?

[viscousmemories]

Thanks for the nudge, I've been meaning to watch that some day.

[Crumb]

I want to highly recommend What The Constitution Means to Me which is available to view on Amazon Prime. I will warn you that it is very emotionally draining unless you are a robot. I honestly don't know how Heidi Schreck was able to do the show.

[specious_reasons]

Impetigore (2019) an Indonesian horror movie

A young lady named Maya is attacked by a stranger, whose cryptic remarks make her think her parents left an inheritance in a remote rural town. So of course, she and her best friend travel there. They learn the village is cursed, and Maya may be the key to breaking it.

This director, Joko Anwar, did another movie called Satan's Slaves, starring the same actress, Tara Basro. I enjoyed both a lot. Satan's Slaves is kind of a haunted house movie, stupid and scary, and this one is a "crazed remote cult" type of movie. I have a stronger fondness for the weird cult ones.

[LarsMac]

Finally saw "Interstellar" the other day.
I never, ever read or watched any commentary or reviews, so went in with 0 preconceptions.
Now I will have to go find that YouTube piece where Dr Tyson and friends discuss the Science of the thing.
Maybe, some of it will begin to make sense.

[Stormlight]

Harriet

Not knowing all that much about Harriet Tubman before watching the movie (I knew a little but not nearly enough) I liked the movie. According to a lot of reviews it's actually a really bad movie and they took a lot of liberties with the truth.

After reading some more about what an extraordinary woman Harriet Tubman really was, I can understand the reviews but I still liked it though and found that Cynthia Erivo's performance was excellent!

Also, I understand that the studio initially wanted to cast someone else as Harriet Tubman. Who did they want to cast? Why, Julia Roberts of course. Who else?

I mean, fucking hell.

[Crumb]

I enjoyed The History of Time Travel (Amazon Prime) a short documentary style science fiction time travel story. It is fun and clever.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by Stormlight

Harriet

Not knowing all that much about Harriet Tubman before watching the movie (I knew a little but not nearly enough) I liked the movie. According to a lot of reviews it's actually a really bad movie and they took a lot of liberties with the truth.

After reading some more about what an extraordinary woman Harriet Tubman really was, I can understand the reviews but I still liked it though and found that Cynthia Erivo's performance was excellent!

Also, I understand that the studio initially wanted to cast someone else as Harriet Tubman. Who did they want to cast? Why, Julia Roberts of course. Who else?

I mean, fucking hell.

It was a good flick, well paced, and didn't stretch plausibility much.
I liked Ervino's work, too. And, I wasn't distracted by the few liberties taken with the story line.

On the Julia Roberts thing, I cannot imagine any studio bosses being that stupid. But, then, ...,
I couldn't imagine so many people would vote for Donald, either. (Who knew?)

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by LarsMac

On the Julia Roberts thing, I cannot imagine any studio bosses being that stupid. But, then, ...,
I couldn't imagine so many people would vote for Donald, either. (Who knew?)

Compromise: cast Donnie as Harriet Tubman.

I mean, as least he's not white.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by Crumb

I enjoyed The History of Time Travel (Amazon Prime) a short documentary style science fiction time travel story. It is fun and clever.

Ah, yes. A Classic.
I remember watching that back in High School Science class in the 60s.

[Crumb]

[erimir]

Originally Posted by Stormlight

Harriet

Also, I understand that the studio initially wanted to cast someone else as Harriet Tubman. Who did they want to cast? Why, Julia Roberts of course. Who else?

I mean, fucking hell.

For context, this was apparently in 1994 (one of the people involved had been trying to make a Harriet Tubman movie for a long, long time).

I suppose that doesn't make it any less ridiculous, but it might affect who you should be angry at (whoever it was might be dead by now, hell).

[JoeP]

[LarsMac]

The Daughter bought the new Tom Hank flick, "News of the World"
Not bad. Predictable, but well done.
Though, sometimes Captain Kidd seems to be channeling Chuck Norland when Johnna was no more responsive than the soccer ball.

[specious_reasons]

The family has been slowly watching some noir and neo-noir movies. This weekend we watched The Maltese Falcon, something I had never watched before.

The movie entirely rests on Humphrey Bogart's charisma. He's a movie star for a reason. You get to see his Sam Spade switch emotions from moment to moment, playing whatever angle he can to survive. It still holds up.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Habib - Marvel's First Arab Superhero - OFFICIAL...

[JoeP]

[JoeP]

Blues Brothers.

Shit (ruler slap), I forgot the musical cast was so good. James Brown Chaka Khan Cab Calloway John Lee Hooker (what a voice) Aretha Franklin Ray Charles.

And Carrie Fisher!

[LarsMac]

Last Days on Mars
Very interesting flick. Actually a tad predictable once it gets going, but pretty well done.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Haven’t seen it, might watch it, so happy to learn it exists:

Soviet TV version of Lord of the Rings rediscovered after 30 years | Russia | The Guardian

[JoeP]

Wrong thrad

show spoiler

[specious_reasons]

We rewatched "Stardust" last night. It's a tad bit too long and a few too many reversals of fortune and improbable events, but those are par for the course in this kind of story. It's a fun fantasy adventure.

Bonus: Henry Cavill is the normie romantic rival for the hero, Charlie Cox's Tristan. He's got blonde hair & mustache, but his few minutes on screen acquit him well. I'd be totally OK with him being Superman in a non-Snyder movie.

[specious_reasons]

I watched A New Leaf (1971) again this weekend. A while ago, I watched it while doing chores, and found it sporadically funny, but it didn't grab me. I felt like I was missing something, so I sat down with the movie and this time found it consistently hilarious.

Walter Matthau is Henry Graham, a spoiled rich layabout who is accustomed to a leisurely wealthy lifestyle, but then he learns he's burned through his entire inheritance. His only option, since he's essentially useless, is to marry a wealthy woman... and if he wants to maintain his lifestyle, murder her.

He finds the perfect victim in Elaine May's Henrietta Lowell. Henrietta has also inherited a large estate, and is so socially inept she has few friends and no real romantic prospects, even though she's fabulously wealthy. Henry courts her quickly - so he can pay off his debts, and then proceeds to take over her estate.

...and she needs someone to do it. Henrietta is passionate about plant biology, specifically ferns, and literally nothing else. She doesn't have refined taste like Henry, has no table manners, and pays no attention to how her money is managed and how her estate has been run. The big turning point in the 2nd act is when Henry meets Henrietta's staff. The staff assumes that Henry is "in" on the grift - That he's just there for her money. They're right, but he has no sympathy for their clumsy penny-anti tactics. He fires them all, punctuating it with a pistol, assuring them that he will shoot them for trespassers. He quickly learns the lawyer is the one setting up this grift, and locks him out too.

Now that he's the sole caretaker of Henrietta's fortune, he does something he has never done before - he takes an interest in how to maintain it. Since Henrietta's appearance and clumsiness bothers him, he makes an effort to keep her presentable. Since this is a comedy - a romantic comedy of sorts - Henrietta flourishes somewhat under his care, and Henry eventually discovers that taking care of Henrietta is more amenable than killing her - not that he isn't tempted up until the end!

I found this movie, given that extra bit of attention, hilarious. You're not really supposed to like Matthau's character, as this comedy is critical of the idle rich, Henry in particular. The butler is the unsung hero of both the movie and the comedy. His dry commentary is the bulk of the laugh-out-loud parts, "I, I think you ought to prepare yourself, sir. Mrs. Graham's household is incredibly democratic." just killed me.

Most of May's directorial work seems to be hard to find, but I think it may be worth seeking out.

[LarsMac]

I may have to hunt that down.
I remember seeing in back in '72 or something because I Liked Mathau, but this flick may have been a tad over my head at the time.

[SharonDee]

I see this movie was discussed years ago but I only recently saw it: Melancholia. It was the last thing I watched before going to bed and sleep was a long time coming.

It's interesting that the sister dealing with severe depression during normal life was a rock of Gibraltar when disaster threatened; while her usually stalwart sister completely lost it towards the end.

As was stated in earlier posts, the science doesn't make sense but it doesn't have to in order to make this a moving experience. Like other disturbing movies I've seen—Requiem for a Dream; Platoon—I won't be revisiting this. But I won't be forgetting it, either.

[wei yau]

I watched Chef the other day and it was enjoyable. It was just nice to see a movie where nothing really terrible happens, life's pretty good for our protagonist and everyone is pretty happy at the end.

Just the kind of thing I felt like watching.