January Film Thread

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 Andy Clarke 03 Jan 2022

The Lost Daughter has recently arrived on Netflix and I highly recommend checking it out if you subscribe. It's a continuously unsettling psychodrama starring the always excellent Olivia Coleman as a middle-aged professional woman alone on a small Greek island for a working holiday. It shifts restlessly in time, back and forth to her childhood and her marriage, where her younger self is played by Jesse Buckley, who I thought was outstanding in what is a top class cast, also featuring Dakota Johnson and Jack Farthing. I wouldn't be surprised if both Coleman and Buckley pick up Oscar nominations. One of the things I found most impressive about the film was its unpredictability of tone and direction which creates a powerful tension and unease, maintained right through to the enigmatic ending. All in all, a superb directorial debut from Maggie Gyllenhall and a fascinating comparison with Campion's psychodrama The Power of the Dog. 8/10.

 Tom Valentine 04 Jan 2022
In reply to Andy Clarke:

The Net also a recent Netflix film, slightly worrying to see it described as a period piece but......

Excellent  drama, Law as good as he's ever been and Coon at the top of her game, showing what a very fine actress she really is. I gave up with Fargo but now that I've seen she's in S3 I might have to revisit.

 Jon Stewart 07 Jan 2022
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I'd heard that talked about it, will check it out. Can't doubt Coleman's stamp of approval.

On a roughly related unsettling motherhood theme, I just watched Julieta (Almodovar, 2016) which is one of his I'd never seen. More consistently tragic than his roller-coaster melodramas, and tremendous. Less of the drugs and drag in this one, more down-the-line dense drama. 8/10

 Offwidth 07 Jan 2022
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Finally got round to watching Parasite last night. Up with the best films I've ever seen: an incredibly clever social critique of the contrasting and interacting domestic lives of the rich and poor under modern capitalism,  that is so watchable,  constantly surprising and darkly comedic and close to perfection in direction, acting and cinematography. Just wow!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_(2019_film)

 Jon Stewart 07 Jan 2022
In reply to Offwidth:

> Finally got round to watching Parasite last night. Up with the best films I've ever seen

My response exactly!

 Bottom Clinger 08 Jan 2022
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Watched it last year, superb.  Like David Lynch and Mike Leigh combo but with more originality. 

 Jon Stewart 08 Jan 2022
In reply to Bottom Clinger:

> Like David Lynch and Mike Leigh combo but with more originality. 

Ha!!

I normally hate big oscar winners, that normally marks out the kind of film that's gonna bore me shitless. But oscars + korean? Now we're cooking.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

It took some working out but I assume you mean The Nest not The Net (1995 Sandra Bullock movie)

 Tom Valentine 09 Jan 2022
In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

Yes, sorry for that.

Also recommend Land,  starring and directed by Robin Wright, a beautiful film about a woman who tries to use off-grid isolation as a solution to her grief.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

> Yes, sorry for that.

> Also recommend Land,  starring and directed by Robin Wright, a beautiful film about a woman who tries to use off-grid isolation as a solution to her grief.

No worries. I may well end up watching thanks to your recommendation.

 Linda Orritt 14 Jan 2022
In reply to Offwidth:

I watched that at the cinema. Enjoyed it immensely and yet it’s not something I would normally choose. 

 Linda Orritt 14 Jan 2022
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I liked The Artist when it came out, a few years ago. It won 3 out of the 6 golden globes ( in 2011) that it was nominated for. It was also nominated for 12 bafta and won 7. 
it’s over ten years ago now though - you probably discussed it at the time. I don’t watch tv or films a lot !!

 Jon Stewart 14 Jan 2022
In reply to Linda Orritt:

> I liked The Artist when it came out, a few years ago

Never saw it, but everyone raved. Thanks for the reminder

 Offwidth 21 Jan 2022
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Three pieces of surprisingly good Americana from the last couple of days:

The first is a comedy on adolescence, which I was in two minds about watching as such films normally disappoint, but it was superb:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eighth_grade

The second, a much better than usual more conventional story about hard working class lives dented by tragedy, with exceptional work from the lead actor:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_woman

Finally, an excellent and distinctly original comedy on the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wild_nights_with_emily

Also watched Mahanagar recently, Satyajit Ray's 1963 classic family saga, which didn't disappoint.

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

Post edited at 15:55
 Offwidth 23 Jan 2022

In reply 

It feels a bit like when a bus never seems to come then a load come at once.

Watched a really classy thriller last night. My only complaint is the last couple of minutes felt a bit bolted on to appease Hollywood norms:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/widows_2018

Also watched Sub Zero, which is so bad it's a must watch for climbers, preferably in a post covid popcorn group. It's like a cheaper K2 copycat movie (I'd recommend K2 for the same reasons):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386060/

It's got everything: doomsday device stuck up the top of a mountain, numerous completely nuts climbing sequences, including a bit of climbing that will be surprising reminiscent for Monty Python fans... cannons... a new-to-me, daft "point man" idea for a climbing team... plus the only black character dies early (something I thought had been stopped in modern movies).

Post edited at 10:59

"Pig."

Just not what I expected at all: recommended by my son so hadn't seen any reviews/spoilers for it (definitely the best way to experience).

Probably the best performance by Cage since "Leaving Last Vegas."  Available Sky Cinema - not sure about other platforms. 

As an aside, really looking forward to the latest series of "Ozark" which has just appeared on Netflix.

Happy viewing

 Forest Dump 24 Jan 2022
In reply to Ghastlyrabbitfat:

Didn't realise Nic Cage was in Pig!

Watched The Father with Anthony Hopkins, its on Amazon prime at the mo. Excellent, if grim

 Tom Valentine 24 Jan 2022
In reply to Ghastlyrabbitfat:

Pig is good, Cage at his best ( though I still like Con Air   )

Ozark 4 is split into 2 sets of 7, just finished the first:

some shocks in store for you.

OP Andy Clarke 25 Jan 2022
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Belfast. Our much-loved and much-missed local independent cinema, The Electric, Birmingham, has just re-opened after around two years in darkness. Hard to think of a better movie with which to return, since - among many other things - Belfast is a love-letter to the spell-binding, transporting power of film. It's a portrait of Belfast in the late 60s/early 70s as communities are torn apart by the Troubles, written and directed by Ken Branagh, based on his own childhood. The sharp and often very funny script had the audience laughing out loud - when it wasn't surreptitiously wiping away a tear. I found it tender rather than sentimental, despite my bleak and cynical nature. It pays homage to the mighty High Noon, leading up to some mythic sharp-shooting from Jamie Dornan. The luminous black and white cinematography is a joy and I thought it was superbly directed, with brilliant framing and composition throughout. Lovely soundtrack by Van Morrison, mostly stuff from the glory days, and great ensemble acting, though Catriona Balfe is particularly riveting. 9/10.

 Jon Stewart 30 Jan 2022
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I finally watched I'm Thinking of Ending Things last night.

Yeah, well. It's Charlie Kaufman isn't it, so what do you expect? Sure it's incredibly well acted, stylishly made, extremely intelligent and deals with the weightiest of themes. But it's basically unwatchable, morose, incoherent naval-gazing. Again.

Oh well.

 Offwidth 31 Jan 2022
In reply to Jon Stewart:

Loving is a drama based on the case of a married couple being prosecuted for a mixed race marriage being in breach of Virginia race laws in the late 50s and their subsequent history of appeals to the point where a US Supreme Court judgement found that such laws were unconstitutional in 1967. It's still hard for me to reconcile that such laws existed in the US in my lifetime. As a film it's a very good piece of work mainly focused on how the couple lived under such terrible circumstances. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_(2016_film)

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

Post edited at 17:57

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