Talk about FILMS you’ve just seen!
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The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022)
Great movie with an outstanding Brandan Fraser as morbidly obese teacher Charlie, and Fraser rightfully received the “Best Actor” Academy Award for his daring performance. It is Fraser’s performance that is central to the movie, yet while the movie takes places entirely at Charlie’s rundown home, the conflicts and drama played out are much larger in scope. It’s just Charlie cannot leave his home, he’s basically a “beached” whale. In fact, while the movie’s title at first glance seems to refer to Charlie because of his size, there are many allusions to Hermann Melville’s “Moby Dick” and there are a number of “whales and Ahabs” in the story.
Terrifically written (originally a stage play), and superbly acted, this is one good, moving film. Thumbs way up.Yes, I liked that one too. Although several of my colleagues didn’t. But then again, I’m a bit older than many of them, so it had the extra “comeback effect” on me that they didn’t experience. Meaning I was a teen/young adult when films like GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE or THE MUMMY came out, and had that close relationship to Fraser and his onscreen persona. So when he “returned” with this, and in a serious role, no less, it had double effect on me. Same thing that happened with Luc Besson’s LUCY, such a formidable comeback that actually made me cry silently in the movie theatre, the return of my 90s hero, in full form.
But anyway, in addition to the moving Fraser performance, I think Aronofsky also solved the “closed quarters” aspect much better in THE WHALE than he did in the rather irritating and aggravating MOTHER! (2017).
Yes, I liked that one too. Although several of my colleagues didn’t.
Three positions I happen to find myself often in:
– I like something few others seem to like. I’m seemingly not mainstream. I defend what I like anyway.
– I like something everyone seems to hate because it’s popular. I’m seemingly mainstream. I defend what I like anyway.
– I end introductory titles with a preposition. I’m often told not to do that, but never why. So I do it anyway.
I think I’ve seen most of the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films. Had to consult my MUBI lists, because other than the first and some bits from the first two sequels, the rest kinda melt into each other. Love the first, four stars (out of five). Two and three also good films (three stars). And then I loved the more Joe Dante-ian vibe of GHOST DIMENSION (also three stars). But the rest on two stars, including NEXT OF KIN, it seems. Although I am a William Eubank fan, especially LOVE, THE SIGNAL and UNDERWATER; less thrilled with LAND OF BAD.
Saw the new genre potboiler COLD STORAGE yesterday. Cute B movie affair, although there’s only so much you can do with ooze/blob/fungus as antagonist. I like that Liam Neeson brought along his mother-in-law Vanessa Redgrave (89) for a small role.
I started a thread about Cold Storage at FSM after seeing it a few weeks back.
As far as I remember, it didn’t even merit a bad Damian joke or a pedantic life lesson 🤔Watched the new Superman over the weekend. I’m not a huge fan of that particular superhero, as his powers are so all-encompassing that he has to be particularly stupid not to be able to overcome all adversaries with a snap of his fingers.
However, this version made him seem both more alien AND more human at the same time, which I liked. The relationships within the newsroom, for instance, seemed more realistic, and Nicholas Hoult made a genuinely nasty and threatening Lex Luther.
I wasn’t much taken with the score. I generally like John Murphy, but wasn’t keen that the unresolved John Williams fanfare was grindingly repeated in some of the action sequences, and when the resolution DID come – “SU-perman” – it just seemed a little contrived.
Ugh. I didn’t care for that new SUPERMAN, sorry to say. Unlike you, I’ve always been attracted to his god-like powers (and the moral dilemmas he has to cope with, having them bestowed upon him), and despite some of its occasional silliness, I always preferred the more serious take on the superhero (the original SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE is one of the most important cultural artifacts in my life). This new one was just TOO silly for my taste. Friggin’ dog too.
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
I re-watched this tonight, and have to say I liked it even better than I remembered. It is a gorgeously looking movie, mesmerizing and contemplative. Beautiful Ennio Morricone score. Terrence Malick at his best.I always preferred the more serious take on the superhero (the original SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE is one of the most important cultural artifacts in my life)
That 1978 SUPERMAN… when seen today, it has some clunky special effects (obviously in many ways state of the art then), and some silly “villains”, but wow did they ever nail “Superman”, and I mean who Superman is and what he stands for. That movie encapsulated the comic figure better than any other movie before or since. That John Williams music… to this day, that is the music for SUPERMAN, nothing came ever even close to it… and that opening scene, with the boy reading a comic book and then those thundering credits with all those big names, just “wow”, gives me goosebumps to this day. And that first scene of Superman in action, that short up and down glance at the phone without a booth when Clark Kent looks for a place to change, how Christopher Reeve nailed that moment, perfect comic timing…. in those moments that movie showed a perfect balance of taking the character seriously, but also nicely winking at the audience to come along and just enjoy the fun. That was humor that really worked.
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
I re-watched this tonight, and have to say I liked it even better than I remember. It is a gorgeously looking movie, mesmerizing and contemplative. Beautiful Ennio Morricone score. Terrence Malick at his best.It’s a gorgeous film, and also one of Malick’s most accessible. I found it cute how Clint Bentley tried to channel this particular Malick film in TRAIN DREAMS last year. A pretty well-done “experiment” too. Do seek that out (I believe it’s on Netflix) if you’re in the mood for more DAYS OF HEAVEN-like sensations.
Don’t have Netflix currently, but I’ll keep an eye out for it.
After watching DAYS OF HEAVEN yesterday, I saw an interesting 2025 documentary about Malick and his career (of course, Malick himself was totally absent from it).
Terrence Malick is a “hit and miss” director with me, which is perhaps to be expected. I mean, Malick is an experimental and innovative filmmaker who tries out new ways and approaches to cinema, so I guess it’s only natural I don’t find all of his outings (equally) successful.After watching DAYS OF HEAVEN yesterday,
Ah, yes, it was on arte yesterday. Didn’t watch it yesterday though, but its available on their site for a month. TRAIN DREAMS I have on my watch list I believe already.
I saw PROJECT HAIL MARY at the cinema on Monday but was kinda disappointed by it.
It’s far too goofy and stupid to be taken seriously and the alien/human buddy aspect is just plain daft (and didn’t really gel with me).
Lord & Miller often go for silly stuff to offset any serious notions they posit (or the book does, in this case) but none of it really worked for me.
It does have some okay moments but its other main failing is its ridiculous over length. I was bored approaching the 90 minutes mark and it spends another hour endlessly repeating itself.
The music (Daniel Pemberton) has a couple of nice ambient/choir moments but, like the film, drones on endlessly moreso.
I also wasn’t a fan of THE MARTIAN, so maybe this writer just ain’t for me.
A huge let-down (but BIG hit, so what do they care).Good to see another that was not impressed by PROJECT HAIL MARY. I thought I was the only one.
As I alluded to earlier (or maybe it was another thread?), I thought THE MARTIAN worked well, because you had a serious guy like Ridley Scott to ground the comedy a bit. So that’s grown to become a sort of comfort film for me; seen it probably 6-7 times — often at the tailend of evenings. But here, the silliness was over-the-top. So yes, this author is definitely not for me.
I only watched the trailer of Project Hail Mary (that title!) and it looked like a movie for a very young audience. I actually liked The Martian when it was about ‘How to survive on Mars’. The moment it was all about the rescue mission (“Let’s bring him back home, guys”), I was bored to death. It was Gravity all over again.
I only watched the trailer of Project Hail Mary (that title!) and it looked like a movie for a very young audience. I actually liked The Martian when it was about ‘How to survive on Mars’. The moment it was all about the rescue mission (“Let’s bring him back home, guys”), I was bored to death. It was Gravity all over again.
Yes, the rescue part of it is not my favourite. It’s okay. And that last act is very tense, wouldn’t be without it. But I do agree that the appeal is in the Robinson Crusoe aspect of him being alone and trying to survive.
I can’t share all the films I see here, as sometimes I watch a film just to fill a need or space at any given time. Like, for example, this last week I’ve seen through all five JASON BOURNE films again, just to have a night-time slot to fill before I go to bed. It’s a more utilitarian use, but there’s only so much new you can add about these super famous films (that I love, don’t get me wrong, but it’s more rewarding to speak about less known fare).
But I just saw Aidan Zamiri’s THE MOMENT in a more serious “sit-down-to-watch” session, a film Gloin mentioned early in the thread. I didn’t really care for it. I’ve never really been that interested in behind-the-scenes, “pitfalls of fame-and-fortune”-type films (with some notable exceptions, like 42ND STREET, SMILE 2 and partially VOX LUX), and if they’re from the artists themselves, they usually end up terribly self-important. The Weeknd’s HURRY UP TOMORROW was one such example last year, and this one is yet another example. But definitely some amusing, satirical bits in all its handheld camera chaos. Skarsgård was fun. The surface-value adulation and tribulation the same.
Some recent films I watched either on-plane or on-boat were…
MEGAN 2.0…I quite enjoyed the first one (even if it was a bit of a riff/re-tread on ORPHAN) but this was just dire! Cringe in every way (I actually felt embarrassed while watching the bit where the bot sings the Kate Bush song). Avoid at all costs.
FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES…Again, I have enjoyed some of the previous efforts (with the 1st one still the best by miles) but it’s just such a tired formula now and nobody cares about the characters and since the deaths are largely CGI, there’s not even the fun of watching any clever mechanical gore FX.
WICKED (2) FOR GOOD…HOW did these two things make so much $$$. We watched Part 1 on our last cruise in October, so followed up that torture with a bit more masochism for a laugh. Even worse than Part 1. The songs (sung sentences??) are awful and when it’s all stacked up, it’s been about 5 hours spent telling the most inane/threadbare plot in years with the most hideous characters!! The resolution has to be seen (endured?) to be believed for its lack of effort or motivation.
DREAM SCENARIO…Offbeat Nic Cage film which starts out great (people all over the world suddenly start having dreams that feature dull/boring/unassuming Cage’s character showing up in their scary dreams but doing nothing to help them) but eventually dribbles out to nothing. It was a bit Being John Malkovich at times. Not the worst I’ve seen, but could have been so much better.
WARM SPRINGS…Nice little film about FD Roosevelt (as played by Kenneth Branagh) getting polio and going to a warm spring spa to help heal. Quiet, gentle little ‘period people’ movie with a lovely score by Bruce Broughton (recently released on CD by BSX/DDR). Probably the best of the bunch I saw.
They’re the ones I recall off the top of my head. There were others. If I can be bothered, I might return…I quite liked DREAM SCENARIO (and I’m not only saying that because the director is Norwegian; I’m seeing his new film THE DRAMA next week) — totally madcap atmosphere, a bit of Lynch thrown into the mix (although obviously not on that level), and a bit of everyday “magic realism”.
I’ve eyed out the new FINAL DESTINATION, being a fan of the previous films, and the clever death scenarios. A bit bummed to hear it’s all generic CGI schlock now.
Kingdom of Heaven – Roadshow Version (Ridley Scott, 2005)
Along with ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER the Ridley Scott masterpiece for me. One of my favorite films and definitely among my “top ten of this century”.
(Watched yesterday)Most definitely a masterpiece in its extended edition (it’s also the film that turned me around on Harry Gregson-Williams, after having disliked him previously). It’s incomprehensible to me why Disney+ has opted to have only the theatrical release on their service, a narratively confused version.
I like the film very much and also my father liked it, too. As mentioned besides old westerns we also loved old monumental movies and this fits in as a new one
(it’s also the film that turned me around on Harry Gregson-Williams, after having disliked him previously)
Me as well! I always ditched him as a some “Zimmer apprentice” until then (which I first did with Powell, too…).
It’s incomprehensible to me why Disney+ has opted to have only the theatrical release on their service, a narratively confused version.
Most definitely; it’s rare that a director’s cut improves this dramatically over the theatrical cut. Scott has been on record saying he regrets the theatrical cut and the scenes should never have taken out.
I originally saw the theatrical cut and thought it was “so-so”. It had some interesting moments, but it felt, as you said, confused. It was sometimes never clear why the characters did what they did.
A colleague told me to give the director’s cut a chance, it was so much better, so I did, and what can I say, I was in awe.
Much, much better film, everything fell into place here, it’s Ridley Scott’s nod to the classic Hollywood epics, particularly El Cid.The original poster made the movie appear to be some kind of historical action film with Bloom as tough guy hero, and the theatrical cut at least tried to bend the movie there, when it was actually a large scale historical epic with a reluctant and thoughtful protagonist and well written side characters.
I just watched Dr Who and the Pyramids of Mars, which I have a soft spot for. The score is also typically Dudley Simpson working with whatever scraps the BBC would grant him, but effective. A marvellous script and story from a (thank god) pre CGI time.
While I felt that I have watched better social dramas than Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, I don’t think I’ve felt the grief of child loss more deeply than with her latest movie Hamnet (In The Bedroom gets close though). Spoiler alert: The most genius aspect of the movie has to be the resurrection of the child through an adult stage actor. When he appeared, the intention was immediately apparent, and I think it made me almost as ‘happy’ as the mother. I felt what she must have felt and I don’t think I’ve ever experience something similar with a movie before. The last time I was equally impressed with the direction of a movie was with The Power Of The Dog, so nobody can accuse me of having something against female directors.
I absolutely hated that movie, sorry to say. My colleague expresses my misgivings better than I can, so here’s a Google Translated-version of that.
But I have no problem understanding how it can have a strong effect on someone.
Maybe it’s partially because I am a parent myself, but yes, Hamnet did have a strong effect on me. In fact, I don’t think I ever want to watch it and go through it all over again.
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