UKH

Breaking my own "rule" and posting about something I saw on DVD rather than in the cinema, because it deserves a mention.

Mike Leigh's "Another Year"

I am a bit behind on my Mike Leigh, I (for no great reason) kind of went off him for a while, having enjoyed his 1980s and early-mid-1990s output. On the strength of "Another Year" I think I might have some catching-up to do. 

All the Leigh "tropes" are there - a slightly aloof peer into the lives of "little people". Familiar faces in the cast, again improvising the dialogue. Suburban. Not much actually happens.

These tropes are pretty much Leigh's stock in trade, and here his expertise shines through - it's a very clever and layered film.
On the surface it seems that we have this happy loving stable couple in late-middle-age, who are generous in socialising with old former friends, colleagues and acquaintances who in their different ways are kind of "losers" in life, compared to our central couple.
But peel back a layer and our lovely central couple might not be all that nice, generous or happy themselves.
A reviewer on imdb said it was like a "sociological horror film" in that an average British citizen could easily see their own sad future in some of the characters here. 

Lesley Manville as Mary, the most "obvious" of the losers and hangers-on, turns in one of the amazing acting performances I've seen on film. Never mind that it's the "showy" role ("showy" being a relative term when we come to Leigh), she is utterly believable as a somewhat immature middle-aged woman desperately clinging on to some notion of being "young at heart" and trying to ignore the fact that her life is unravelling. I would bet that Cate Blanchett watched this and took notes, for Blue Jasmine. 
The rest of the cast are as brilliant as expected - Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen and in a perhaps slightly distracting cameo in the early scenes, Imelda Staunton. Also Peter Wight (who was memorably Brian the security guard in Leigh's "Naked" and also features in Meantime) and David Bradley as an empty shell of an old man. 

I've gone on for a while here and not really said much, which is a bit like the film....except unlike reading this waffle, watching the film is a GREAT use of your time. 

9.5/10
Would have been 9/10 but when I realised the layers of it after watching it, I put the score up.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Hurrah! A dislike!

In reply to Blue Straggler:

There's a lot of it about... The Phantom Disliker rides again!

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Winchester. 

5.5/10, a fairly predictable score. 
Rather daft haunted house film but a frustrating one to watch because it had the ingredients and potential to be interesting. 
"Loosely based on a true story" premise is that in the early 1900s we have the elderly heiress to the Winchester firearms company racked with guilt over all the people killed by Winchester firearms, and going rather dotty building huge extensions to her house to placate these ghosts. Cue the board of directors wanting to have her certified insane and bringing in a doctor to assess her psychological well-being. 

The writer-directors (The Spierig Brothers) have good form on making high-end high-concept B-movies (Daybreakers and Predestination) and here we have a strong cast with Helen Mirren, the underrated Jason Clarke, and Sarah Snook who was amazing in Predestination. 

 

And there are a few scenes which work really well, mostly the one-on-one doctor-patient consultations between Clarke and Mirren, and some tiny glimpses into what could be interesting (Mirren's trance-like states)

But it quickly descends into nonsensical horror film tropes, with the ghosts being a real thing and a violent menace, loads of stuff that just doesn't add up or get described properly. More ambiguity over whether or not people are all going mad and imagining these visions, would have been better. Also maybe a bit more levity to proceedings. 

Performances are good when the material is worthy, which is about 30% of the film (and Snook is given NOTHING to do)

Can't recommend it despite liking previous work from these guys. 
It's not rubbish, hence 5.5/10 mostly for art direction, intriguing starting premise, and some decent acting.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Any of you movie experts seen Wind River yet?

CB

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Recent DVDs (we only get the mobile cinema once a blue moon and it's always star wars)

Anyhoo;

Battle of Algiers; 10/10.  Compelling and with a Morriconi score

Sightseers 8/10. Really enjoyed it, weirdly stays with you long after watching

It comes by night 1/10. Dull, po-faced and far too much like how rotting in a cabin post apocalypse would actually be.

 

 

 

In reply to JJ Krammerhead III:

Nice, though a shame about It Comes At Night (I assume that's what you mean and just a typo). Trailer looked good or at least intriguing and I like Joel Edgerton. 

In reply to cb294:

I am no movie expert but I did WANT to see this last year but, short of spending a lot of money and time on a cinema trip, it wasn't terribly practical. That's the Jeremey Renner / Elizabeth Olsen film right? Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch taking time off from being Avengers, to do a proper film for grown ups?

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yes it is the Renner / Olsen crime film set on a American Indian reservation in Wyoming. It is just opening in the cinemas in Germany, and I think I will go and see it this weekend, unless people warn me against wasting my time...

 

CB

In reply to cb294:

7.8/10 from 97000 votes on imdb.com. Should be pretty damn good if rather downbeat!

In reply to JJ Krammerhead III:

The Battle of Algiers must be one of the best war films ever. 

Apparently it was even screened in the Pentagon in 2003, not that they learned anything from it.

I seem to have read at the time that it was advertised as "How to defeat terrorists but lose the war of ideas". Looks as if someone had an inkling about what the US were getting themselves into....

CB

In reply to Blue Straggler:

sorry, It comes at night, and it's only what I thought of the film, sure a lot of folk will enjoy it  

an old film but it WAS a cinema viewing. “Mystery Movie” at one of the local art/independent cinemas. Nobody apart from one staff member knows what it’ll be until the opening credits start to roll.

 

This month it was Werner Herzog’s 1979 “Nosferatu” starring Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani and Bruno Ganz

 

To my shame I’d never got around to seeing it before. I’ve seen Murnau’s 1921 Nosferatu but only once and a very very long time ago. I am not sure how much of a facsimile Herzog was trying to make his version so i can’t judge it on that.

I did like it a lot though. Ambitious in scope, beautifully filmed, good pacing and a surprising amount of surely intentional campy humour (also some minor unintentional bits I would hazard)

 

There is not a lot else to say about it. It’s Nosferatu/Dracula and it is a legendary cult classic - deservedly so.

8/10

 

one comment/observation - with Kinski’s legendary craziness and perhaps Method acting, I wonder if Adjani even needed to bother to act in bits of her final scene with him as he starts to lift her dress. Her ashen expression looked very real! 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I thought WR was well made and I enjoyed the performances of the main characters and the pacing - steady but interspersed with some shockingly brutal action and and odd (lovely and unexpected) bits of comedy. I wasn't so convinced by the back-story bits for the main (Jenner) character but, overall, definitely worth a watch.

 

IC  

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I just watched 'My Friend Dahmer'. It's a biopic of the real life serial killer Jeffery Dahmer but it covers the period of his teens at school up to the point of his first murder. It's based on a book by someone who knew Dahmer at that time. It was well acted and directed but I didn't think there was really enough in there for a full feature film and felt it dragged quite a bit. But it seems get OK ratings so some people like it.

The stories of Dahmer's crimes are absolutely horrendous. The guy was rapist, murderer, necrophiliac, and cannibal that dismembered and decapitated bodies and kept some of the body parts and skeletons. Check out Wikipedia for the full horrific details:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I saw Another Year a good few years ago and thought it was great. Good description and yes, great acting and Lesley Manville's performance was exceptional. I would highly recommend this film too.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Black Panther 6/10

tldr: overlong, sloppy action sequences, great bad guy was the best thing about it, all looked very pretty EXTREMELY minor spoilers herein, but not really spoilers if you've seen the trailer, or even the poster (if you have imagination )

These Marvel films of the past 4-5 years seem to consistently score 6 - 6.5, apart from Deadpool, Ant-Man, GotG 1&2, Spiderman Homecoming and Logan. I had high hopes for Black Panther as it has something a little in common with all the above - it's almost standalone (i.e. not a bloated Avengers/Iron-Man/Captain America mess) It certainly wasn't bloated, it was certainly standalone (even with its flashback to a key event from Captain America: Civil War, it manages to make ZERO reference to the rest of the MCU). BUT....it was certainly a mess. A hot mess.  First, the good: it looks gorgeous - great sets, costumes and cinematography.

it has a fairly straightforward plot without distracting subplots. Even its obvious Macguffins are acceptable and welcome.

it has an engaging and interesting antagonist, which is more than can be said for a LOT of the MCU films.

it is quite bold in terms of throwing a lot of mostly-unfamiliar black actors at us, giving them easily-muddled made-up "mumbo jumbo" names like W'Kabi, Nakia, Okoye, N'Jobu etc, and then giving some of the women confusing "is her head shaved, is she now in a wig, what's going on?" get-ups. Also only two white actors get more than 40 seconds' speaking time. Could be some sort of first, for such a major film!

some good and committed performances - Michael B Jordan is the standout, with Danai Gurira a close second. But also pretty much all the SUPPORT cast are good. Martin Freeman provides very minor but very welcome light comic relief.

it TRIES to make some interesting and complex points about inheritance and loyalty and duty. It doesn't pull it off, but I will still count it as a positive that it at least tried. 

And now the bad: Chadwick Boseman seems to be phoning it in.

The timeline seems wrong, as this seems to be depicting this Black Panther's first excursion but he is recognised immediately by Agent Ross - I assume I am wrong on this, and his actions in Civil War were before his official coronation - but then why does the suit seem new to him?

There is en egregious (if pedantic) error in the initial backstory which describes 5 tribes, 4 of which unite and one of which stays alone, but then 5 tribes accept the new king, then ANOTHER comes to challenge (did I miss something here? Happy to be corrected!).

Action sequences are unforgivably badly done. The cast appear to be in great shape and well trained, but the choreography and editing do them a disservice. Coming from the director and cinematographer who did great work on Creed, this is shocking especially in two one-on-one combat scenes. Climactic battle is confusing. There is one smooth and brilliant sub-sequence lasting about 25 seconds, featuring Danai Gurira in a casino, but even that offers nothing we haven't seen before. 

It is mostly humourless. I was in a packed house of obvious MCU fans (70% stayed until the end of the end credits). There was one "big" laugh, one small laugh, and one line where there was silent laughter (at least I don't think I could have been the only who gave a wry silent smirk). We want a bit more levity in our 135 minutes please.

It is 135 minutes long! I know this is par for the course with these films, but this one could easily have had 30 minutes cut from it.

 

Some appalling CGI (them waterfalls, maaaan)

In reply to stp:

Thanks

I read some online reviews of it before writing my own, and it was those that woke me up to the idea that the Broadbent/Sheen central couple were not that nice - did you get that first time round? I am keen to watch it again with this in mind.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

No I don't think so: but it was a good few years ago that I watched so my memory of the whole thing is pretty hazy.

In reply to stp:

If you have subsequently seen Blue Jasmine then that would be a good excuse to revisit Another Year. There are some parallels between the Cage Blanchett and Lesley Manville characters

In reply to cb294:

Wind River - superb. Strongly recommended. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

No not seen Blue Jasmine. I'll add it to the list of films to watch. Thanks

In reply to Blue Straggler:

 

I swear autocorrect has been getting more aggressive in the past 12 months 

 

I meant Cate Blanchett.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Thanks for the heads-up on black Panther. Was considering going to see it despite vowing never to see one of these bloody things ever again....I think it was one of the recent Avengers films that I walked out of that was the final straw for me.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Did anyone else see Coco? The Pixar/Disney film set in Mexico about 'el dia de los muertos' (aka the day of the dead)?
A bit of a schmaltzy ending but has to be one of the most enjoyable films ive seen in a while (the other being Paddington!)

Im not usually into theses Pixar things but I thought this was so wonderfully done and dealt with the issue of death in a really unique and lovely way I thought.
It was also a rare positive story about Mexico and the positive aspects of life over there.

Its a 9 from me!

In reply to Kimono:

I did, and posted about it in January - the final post in the January film thread. 

To save you going there:
"Coco

8.5/10
Pixar do it again. Beautiful visuals (especially the cityscapes) and I really like how they did the humans. Some truly moving scenes(*). Points lost for a succession of relatively minor things (not much development, explanation, or overall point of existence of, the "spirit animals"; a midway lull where the plot twist presented in this lull should be more dynamic; and a failure to cast Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo  )

But never mind all that. It was fab.

* nothing to beat the unbeatable first 15 minutes of UP, but UP did go downhill after that. There's an incredibly moving moment in Finding Dory but it's a flashback, a single moment, and something happy. In Coco, the moving bits are all about loss, which is really really good."

In reply to Blue Straggler:

The Shape of Water.  6.5/10. Worth watching but a lot more cheesy than I think it was meant to be. I kept wanting to watch MANT!, the film within the film in Joe Dante's "Matinee" instead Will write a longer review tomorrow if anyone wants

In reply to Blue Straggler:

They're not mumbo jumbo names, they're African names.  Doesn't seem unreasonable for African characters in Africa.  The elite 'palace guard' soldiers are women with shaved heads and Okoye, who is their commanding officer, wears a wig as a disguise in that one scene in the casino.  Helpfully for people who would never have worked out that Clark Kent was Superman on their own, she is first seen in the wig complaining to Nakia and T'Challa that it's ridiculous and uncomfortable and then as soon as the fighting starts she rips it off and throws it in someone's face.  Short of breaking the fourth wall and having her turn to camera and say "Look everybody, I'm wearing a wig!", they couldn't have made it much more obvious.

Yes, the mistake is yours.  T'Challa's father is fatally wounded in the UN bombing in 'Civil War' and dies in his arms.  His involvement in that story all happens in the immediate aftermath of his father's death, before he has had a chance to return home.  In the mid-credits scene of 'Civil War' Barnes, Captain America and T'Challa are back in Wakanda, and Cap thanks T'Challa for offering them sanctuary there now that they are outlaws.

This film begins a short time later, when he interrupts Nakia's mission to bring her home for the coronation, and he's wearing the same suit he had in 'Civil War'.  Later there is the very 'Bond' scene in Shuri's lab where they introduce her as the 'Q' to T'Challa's 007 and she shows him the new suits she's made.  He chooses one for the mission to capture Klaue in the casino, and it's his new suit that is new to him.

The error is yours.  The four tribes accept the new king, it is the renegade fifth tribe who turn up late to the coronation and M'Baku, their chief, who challenges T'Challa.

I'm with you that some of the CGI was a bit iffy, though I liked the waterfalls.  And I'm usually too dense to pick up on these things, but I loved the little homage to Blade Runner when we first see the futuristic city.

In reply to deepsoup:

Ah...I had put “mumbo jumbo” in quotation marks in a failed attempt to say that to most Western audiences, these names may be harder to keep to track of than Natasha, Clint, Tony, Bruce, Steve etc. That said, just out of curiosity which African nation uses these names then? I think my point still stands. And it is a positive point for the film

 

 

The elite 'palace guard' soldiers are women with shaved heads and Okoye, who is their commanding officer, wears a wig as a disguise in that one scene in the casino.  Helpfully for people who would never have worked out that Clark Kent was Superman on their own, she is first seen in the wig complaining to Nakia and T'Challa that it's ridiculous and uncomfortable and then as soon as the fighting starts she rips it off and throws it in someone's face.  Short of breaking the fourth wall and having her turn to camera and say "Look everybody, I'm wearing a wig!", they couldn't have made it much more obvious.

 

Yes that was simple enough. Maybe I just got Nakia confused with at least one other character once or twice, which would be my fault and not the film’s

 

 

But doesn’t he appear fully suited and booted in Civil War? Is he just borrowing his dad’s suit? Is he instantly Black Panther upon his father’s death, without a ceremony required? I did see Civil War but it was a while ago and I wasn’t enjoying it much so don’t remember all the details (oops sorry I see you address some of this below....so how come he already had his own suit etc etc. I am sure all this is answered in Civil War, I just need my memory jogging 

Cool. I’d thought it was four tribes ADDITIONAL to T’Challa’s own, as I thought it was a given that his own would accept him. But I guess for the ceremony they had to state it with the others

 

 

thanks for corrections

 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

In 'Civil War' T'Challa is already the Black Panther.  When he first appears we have no idea that it is a hereditary role.

There's no explicit reference in that film to T'Chaka ever having been a previous Black Panther, though T'Challa does at one point mention that the role of Black Panther is passed down from generation to generation.  

Prior to his assassination, T'Chaka is a little portly and he's getting on a bit. When T'Challa says that, it seems perfectly obvious that his father had retired from the super-hero business some time previously whilst remaining the king.

In reply to deepsoup:

Yes it was “perfectly obvious” in Civil War, thank you.

what wasn’t obvious was that T’Challa is prone to “freezing” which seemed to be a big deal at the start of Black Panther prior to his coronation but not afterward...so it should be “perfectly obvious” why I am calling it all a bit of a mess

In reply to Blue Straggler:

FFS man, did you understand *any* part of this film? 

You review, quite insightfully, all sorts of high-fallutin' complex drama on here.  This is a Disney/Marvel blockbuster we're talking about, it really isn't that difficult!  Did you give it any attention at all or were you watching something else at the same time?  Were you stoned when you went to see it?

He's prone to "freezing" when he meets his ex-girlfriend for the first time in a while.  She is Nakia, the spy.  We see him freeze but not in battle as he effortlessly beats up the bad guys, when he is talking to Nakia and for a moment the incredibly suave and self-assured new king doesn't know what to say like a lovestruck teenager.  Okoye, the soldier and Shuri, his sister the scientist, tease him about it.  It's a joke.  

Did you see Mark Kermode's review on the telly? 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09rjh06/the-film-review-black-panthe...
"Don't worry, if I could understand it, anyone can understand it!"

You say it's a mess because it's hard to follow, but really, for some reason I can't begin to fathom you are just being incredibly thick.  Sorry, don't know how else to say it.

 

In reply to greenbit:

I'm fully expecting to be a bit baffled by Infinity Wars, it just seems like it's going to have way too many characters even before the Guardians of the Galaxy turn up.  Might be pleasantly surprised though: Ultron was a mess, Civil War was much better.  (Ragnarok was bloody marvellous.)

In reply to deepsoup:

I am being thick, I merrily admit it. Felt alert going in, and was not distracted, but maybe there was a lingering effect of some awful lurgy I'd picked up earlier in the week resulting in Thursday being my first sick day off work in well over 3 years.

Black Panther wasn't a mess ONLY because of my thickie inability to follow some minor points. It was also thematically a mess and I stand by my 6/10 score.

 

In reply to deepsoup:

 

 

I was being thick with this bit, I thought he'd frozen because he would have to hurt a bystander in order to kill the last bad guy. That scene was badly shot IMHO. Or I was delirious with flu

 

http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/01/possible-origins-meanings-of-names-...

Seems that most of them can be sourced back to traditional names in a mixture of Swahili, Igbo, Arabic etc but with. a little 'mumbo-jumbo' thrown in

 

 

 

 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I saw Lady Bird last night and really enjoyed it. A nice mix of real human emotions, good depth of characters, and not being 'told' who to like and who to dislike.
 

A solid 8 from me

In reply to Kimono:

Thanks, planning to see this next week. Greta Gerwig is a very interesting artist both in front of and behind the camera (and at the writing desk)

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Saw The shape of water last night, was completely enchanted by it, beautifully set and produced too. Yes its  a bit schmaltzy but what the hell, its like magical realism in books, suspend your disbelief an enjoy the experience.

In reply to nickh1964:

Happy to suspend disbelief for the overall premise of it all but some of it just pushed things a bit too far, even within the film's own universe. I don't want to post spoilers, you can probably guess some of the bits I mean, and they are not even to do with "magic" as such

 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Watched Bomb City last night. The story covers the true events in the late 90s when a small group of teenage punks clash with their middle American counterparts in a Texas town. Well made and acted with a good sense of the rising tensions and a good score.

The wider subject of the film is about conformity in the US and reminds me of other films looking at that, most notably Easy Rider.

In reply to stp:

Thanks, sounds worth a look some day

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yeah it's definitely interesting, a little slow perhaps but the kind of film that stays with you a while.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

“I, Tonya”

 

a very solid 9/10

 

only dropping a couple of half points because Allison Janney’s performance was just a bit too shrill and cartoony and because I think that in a 2 hour running time we could have a tiny bit more info about other skaters especially, obviously, Nancy Kerrigan

 

aside from those niggles, this is one of the best sports biopics ever. If you have seen the trailer you’ll have seen that there is some fourth-wall-breaking talking to camera. Happily there is a lot of this and it is actually brilliantly done, as are the skating sequences (I’d love to see a “making of”, because aside from a few long shots and blurs, the transition from Margot Robbie to body doubles and VFX is nearly seamless .

 

speaking of Robbie, she could be a real Oscar contender here although a few factors are against her (she’d be the third consecutive pretty white under-30-year-old, Allison Janney will distract voters with her support nomination, and Tonya Harding is still seen as a “bad guy”)

In reply to Blue Straggler:

The Florida Experiment. Brilliant insight into the juxtaposition of America's poor living in the shadow of Disneyworld.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

A further note on "I, Tonya"

Although the film is played as light-hearted comedy-drama, it is boldly unflinching in its depiction of domestic violence. It's not exactly "Nil By Mouth", but it is somewhat jarring in how it flips from comedic "to camera" interludes, to some quite nasty onscreen violence. Some people may find this aspect hard to watch. So this is just a little warning.