UKH

In the cinema in the past week I saw:
Toni Erdmann, 6/10 and that's even with having correctly assumed (based on the trailer) that it's not the full-on comedy that the British press seem to be calling it, but is a sentimental father-daughter bonding film. It was meandering and not in a good way

A Cure for Wellness, 7/10. It is bizarre that a film like this even exists. Glossy expensive overblown B-movie with ideas about being a bit arty, no stars in it, 2.5 hours long, not based on any existing material (so no in-built fanbase) yet getting a reasonably wide release and good publicity. And absolutely a certificate 18. It's as if someone needed to get rid of a few tens of millions and needed a sure-fire box office dud. It's actually a decent film (if not massively original, taking elements of Dracula, a lot of Shutter Island, tiny nods to various bodysnatcher/mind-control pulp etc. ).


Patriots Day, 7/10. A bit muddled with a slow start and lack of character focus (the fictional Mark Wahlberg character doesn't seem to serve much purpose, I assumed he was there to act as an audience guide but didn't really get that from it; he did have two strong acting moments at least). Kevin Bacon was ace. But the whole first hour even including the bombing and immediate aftermath, is ponderous. However there is a great hour that is properly compelling, starting with the taking of a hostage and ending with an interrogation scene. Cracking film-making but not enough to lift the score higher.

Also watched The Bridges of Madison County on DVD which is hard to give a fair score to as I watched it too soon after reading the book. I will at least say that Streep was absolutely outstanding in it.

I'd hoped to see Moonlight but didn't manage to get to a screening. Maybe this week.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Watched I Saw the Light.
Film was only OK but I doubt if I'll see a better performance than Hiddleston's this week.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

I tried to start that on a flight last year. Lasted 8 minutes and put Eddie the Eagle on instead. No regrets.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

A Cure for Wellness intrigued me after watching the trailer (yeah, I know, I know), but that lasted until I found out how long it was. Why are so many directors/producers seemingly incapable of putting out punchy films these days? It's like climbing up what to what you thought was the summit, only to see another hundred metres of climb ahead of you. Several times over.

Prevenge - 8/10. Great nasty/hilarious black comedy/horror film about a pregnant woman whose unborn baby starts instructing her to kill people. Alice Lowe of Sightseers wrote it in a week whilst seven months pregnant and filmed it in two weeks, finishing when she was eight months pregnant. Inappropriately enjoyable. Recommended.

Moonlight - 9.5/10. I haven't seen the other nominees, but what a brilliant film. A poor black kid, who's mother is an abusive crack-smoking prostitute, tries to get through life as he realises he's gay. Sounds issues-y, right? Yet it totally manages to avoid becoming about those issues and instead is a sad, funny, warm personal story about the characters and the characters alone. Really light touch from the director. Went grudgingly with girlfriend and friends and was blown away.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Last ditch viewing of Star Wars: Rogue One before it completely finishes at the cinema.

Absolutely fantastic - I was the only one in the auditorium, so no having to put up with mobile phones ringing, people talking, crisp packets crackling, popcorn throwing, smell of hotdogs or being trampled/view obstructed by people with no bladder control/forward planning.










And the film wasn't bad, either - I really enjoyed it.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Toni Erdmann was 18 minutes longer than that!


And (no serious spoiler) both films feature a scene of a Germanic man masturbating at the behest of a woman in his presence. So that was an interesting and unexpected double for the weekend.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I never watch films *without* a Germanic man masturbating at the behest of a woman in his presence.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:
A Cure for Wellness was a closed-captioned screening so it helpfully had text describing the sound
"man continues to masturbate"

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Aw, I would have hoped for [Fapping].

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

[man groans, at length]



Best bit was when some characters enter a bar and the music is described as "rock" but then someone puts a coin in the jukebox and the caption changes to "German funk"

Imagine if you were deaf, but you were imaginative enough to understand what rock music is all about, and then you saw "German funk". It would be terribly distracting, trying to think what that sound could be....

In reply to Blue Straggler:

"German funk" promises just as much as "British lager", doesn't it?

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Finally got round to watching Victoria. Well shot, if a little too long. Read a few people saying who makes choices like that, it's not believable but then people make silly decisions all the time. Given that she's just had the last 15 years of her life taken away, who knows how her decision making could play out. Also, soundtrack by Nils Frahm. 7/10

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yesterday I saw a superb digitally remastered version of 'On the Waterfront' at my local cinema. It seemed even better than ever (and I don't think I've seen it for about 30 years), and better than just about anything else I've seen recently. BTW, as I don't have a TV or DVD player, I see all movies on the big screen now - about one a week. The projection and sound is absolutely state-of-the-art at our local Ritz.

In reply to womblingfree:

It's interesting to see just how much praise was being heaped on this in the run up to its UK release a year ago. Press quotes were verging on hyperbole, predicting acting awards for Laia Costa, and calling it (sigh) a "game changer".
I went to see it, being cautious of whether the single-shot "gimmick" aspect would skew any critical faculties. Happily, it didn't, yet it still injected momentum and urgency to proceedings. It was an enjoyable film and a nice experiment and demonstration of what is possible with modern cameras, but it was still "in one ear and out the other". The story is wafer thin, the characters (aside from Victoria herself) are cardboard cutouts. etc. I still gave it 6.5/10 and thought it should have been up for Oscars for cinematography and score.

What is really interesting is that it did not appear on any of the end-of-the year "best 25 films of 2016" that I skimmed through over Christmas. How soon people forget

I was impressed at the creators' method of ensuring good global distribution - make the central character a very attractive woman, and make everyone speak English for 90% of the film although that ruled them out of "Best Foreign Film"

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I enjoyed it, but you're right it didn't live up to the hype. A nice idea but not quite there.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I wasn't very clear. My film of the week was in fact A Cure for Wellness. I am a big Dane Dehaan fan and it looked for a few years as if the curtailment of the "Amazin Spider-Man" franchise and the woeful physical and dialogue portrayal of Green Goblin (Dehaan was perfect in the earlier Harry Osborne scenes), plus his not-conventionally-hunky looks, meant he was going to fade quietly. However this film plus the Luc Besson space frolic, might put him on the map again...

In reply to womblingfree:

Hardcore Henry was a more fun "gimmick film". As daft as a bag of spoons but I chanced upon a sort of "making of" clip some months after seeing it and it showed how intricately thought out and well designed some of the shots were.

In reply to Blue Straggler:


Ooh, I'm excited about this. Fifth Element is my favourite film, love Besson. Looking forward to more sci fi from him.

In reply to Blue Straggler:
Just watched 8 Women by Francois Ozon. One of his best, wickedly funny - but certainly an acquired taste. It's very camp indeed (but in an old fashioned, 1950s way) very clever, and if you haven't found the thing intolerable after half an hour then stay on to the end because the denouement is spectacular and hilarious.

8/10, of course.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yet you can sit through Cache and claim to appreciate it. Oh well.........

In reply to Tom Valentine:


Haneke? Riotously entertaining! / A massive pisstake. Brilliant and infuriating at the same time.

In reply to Tom Valentine:


I am not sure I appreciate the implication of the way you've used "claim", there. Nor the tired "Oh well.....". Don't you think that's rather patronising?
Also I always, always said that Code Unknown was the far superior Haneke/Binoche offering.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I apologise for whatever attitude you have wrongly inferred from my post.

Be that as it may, my point was about Cache and not Haneke in general. Apparently Roger Ebert had to watch it three times before coming to appreciate it properly.

In reply to Tom Valentine:


"Claim" implies doubt and in turn infers an accusation of mendacity.

"Oh well..." in this sort of context is usually a patronising way of saying "your opinion is useless because I don't share it"

Come on, you are a forum regular, you know the form.

I'm not sure that I ever "claimed" to "appreciate" Cache.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

>[...]Imagine if you were deaf, but you were imaginative enough to understand what rock music is all about, and then you saw "German funk". It would be terribly distracting, trying to think what that sound could be....

My mental picture is the horn section are all in lederhosen, and the trumpets have been replaced with tubas.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

A Cure For Wellness was going to be my choice for this month. I realise how totally barmy and weird it is, and at times there were some definite 'cover your eyes' moments. But as there hasn't been a film like it in some time (at least not what I've seen) I personally enjoyed it and found it a worthy watch.

Another movie I'd recommend (though not necessarily from Feb) is Split. I believe it might have just put M. Night back on the map, as they say. Excellent acting too from James McAvoy, and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

In reply to TRipple:

I wanted to really enjoy Split, and perhaps the first half was pretty good, but the reveal and denouement were a let-down, descending into standard genre nonsense. I wanted it to be smarter. I could say similar for A Cure for Wellness perhaps, but I'd certainly rate it higher than Split

I gave Split 6/10 and I was being slightly generous. I gave A Cure for Wellness 7/10 and I was being slightly ungenerous.

M. Night was supposed to have been put "back on the map" with "The Visit" last year but it didn't really happen.

The upcoming "Get Out" seems to be someone showing M. Night how to make a good M. Night film again

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I've seen it but I'll wait until Monday to comment, when I list what I saw between Monday and Sunday

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Don't know about the week but why can't someone put "The Dish" on TV soon?