[Hutnicks]

Harry Potter was worth watching?

Inane childish fun. Like rereading and Enid Blyton book when nobody is looking to relive your childhood

 

[tdockweiler]

War for the Planet of the Apes - 10/10

Somehow it even managed to be better than the previous film which I liked a lot too.

 

[WraithApe]

I originally just had a ticket for the late showing, but with some time to kill, decided to pick up a ticket for another showing - as a painter myself and a big fan of the subject, it was on my radar; I just hadn't intended to see it for another couple of months. As it turned out, it was quite a compatible double bill!

David Lynch: The Art Life - 7/10

Jon Nguyen's second documentary about the mercurial director is focused more on Lynch's formative years and as the title suggests, his engagement with the plastic arts rather than his work in film. Anyone going in expecting to see a blow-by-blow account of his filmography will be left disappointed, despite the fact the trailer might lead you to expect this: in the trailer, the titles of all of his films are flashed up, but actually, only Eraserhead is given any real screen time, marking as it does, a new phase in Lynch's creative life. 'The Art Life' is a phrase that Lynch himself uses throughout the film, and it seems to be his guiding principle in life - essentially, it's his idea of the idyllic existence, spending as much time as possible giving license to his creative urges, whether that be behind a camera or, as it seems he has always preferred, in his studio. It also involves drinking a lot of coffee and smoking a lot of cigarettes! You're left with the feeling of a remarkably creative being - his films, his painting, his music (which isn't even touched on); he's even a competent woodworker, the film reveals.

I must confess I'm not great fan of his mainly mixed-media artwork, but this film is much more about his creative process and the impulses, past and present, which drive him. There's a lot of family archive footage, both grainy home movies and stills, accompanied by Lynch's narration. He isn't a great raconteur - often trailing off in the telling of an anecdote, or seeming to have no real point to a story, beyond the memory of it - but it's absorbing nonetheless and you're left wanting more. The opening line to the film concerns the huge influence of his own past and his personal history in his films. One anecdote, about a strange event that happened in suburbia, could almost be a storyboard sequence for Blue Velvet. His account of his time in the industrial hinterland of Philadelphia makes you realize how much of what he saw around him went into Eraserhead.

The camera work in this docu is very nicely done, and directors Nguyen and Barnes allow their subject to speak for himself - no sycophantic talking heads, just Lynch on Lynch (to recall the title of his book), which is probably the only way he would allow a film like this to be made. As you might expect, it's frustratingly oblique at times but still a fascinating insight into Lynch's early years and a fitting reflection of his life's work.

Rosemary's Baby - 8/10

From a film about Lynch to one that I wouldn't be too surprised to discover had some influence on him. Some of the characters - in particular, the Castavets, the unsettlingly kooky old couple next door - are very Lynchian; I detected a passing resemblance to Minnie Castavet in Inland Empire's Visitor #1 (Grace Zabriskie). It's actually camper and more fun than I was expecting for a film that is all about paranoia and persecution. Where Repulsion is unfettered darkness, there's plenty of comic relief in the characters around Rosemary. We aren't stuck in her head in the same way we are with Carol and she never seems nearly as unhinged; there isn't as much blurring of the line between the real and the fantastic. In the end it's a very different kind of film to Polanski's other great psychological horror, Repulsion, but equally effective I would say. Without wanting to give the game away, it's a film that paints in broad strokes when it comes to the eternal battle between good and evil, but also has interesting sub themes about prenatal paranoia and the anxieties of apartment living - how well do we really know our neighbours? Are they up to no good?

Another contrast with Repulsion is the fact it's shot in colour rather than black and white - but not just colour, exaggerated colour, especially in the case of Minnie Castavet with her freaky clown rouge and garish attire - it lends the film a hyperreal aspect. As with Repulsion, the setting is largely the apartment but there are more outside scenes to relieve the claustrophobia here. The acting is a bit hammy but I think that's probably intended: other than Rosemary, the other characters are all meant to be slightly unreal and prop-like. As the nice, grounded girl at the centre of the storm, your sympathies are meant to lie squarely with her as she pieces together the conspiracy against her. It's considered a landmark genre film but the genius of it is that it shows you almost nothing; The Exorcist is more of a conventional horror film in this sense. The insidiousness and creeping paranoia is built up in your imagination, which the imagery on screen facilitates but doesn't dictate.

 

[WraithApe]

The Wages of Fear - 9/10

Another cracker. Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece sees four men hired to transport a shipment of nitroglycerine over 300 miles as American oil company SOC attempts to fix a pipeline fire further up the line. The action begins in a run-down South American outpost where no-one has any work or any money to get out of there. When the call comes for drivers, there are no shortage of takers for the danger money of $2000 on offer, despite the near suicidal nature of the mission. Mario (Yves Montand) teams up with fellow Parisian Jo (Charles Vanel) in one of the trucks, while the other is driven by his one-time best friend Luigi and the Aryan Übermensch, Bimba (as a frivolous aside, had he teamed up with his best friend, it would have been Mario and Luigi at the wheel, providing modern audiences with a reason to smirk that Clouzot could never have envisaged!)

From the moment the men set off on their perilous journey, it's one long white knuckle ride, with their volatile cargo liable to blow at any minute. They're beset by all kinds of obstacles along the way too, which ratchets up the tension very effectively. It's far more than a thrilling actioner though, there's a political dimension to the film (it was blacklisted soon after the time of its release for being Anti-American) and also a very human side. The pairs' relationships, under the microscope, falter and coalesce in a very realistic way - far from the constant fear of death making them stronger, as might happen in a modern-day blockbuster, it pushes them beyond breaking point an Jo, in particular, buckles under the pressure, lamenting his failure as a man. One very memorable scene about a prosaic detail takes on existential proportions: Jo is near death and wants to find out what was behind a fence on a street he and Mario both grew up on and Mario replies "I told you, there is nothing behind the fence, nothing". It's atheistic, and the nihilism of Clouzot's vision is unrelenting, driven by an anger at what America had become - its relentlessly imperialistic expansion of the web of black gold, fueling the consumerist lifestyle to which its citizens had become accustomed. More than that though, it's an anger at what mankind has become, how low it has sunk, with venal self-interest appearing to be the only option in the face of fear.

The cinematography is phenomenal; the camera's unblinking eye taking in incredible set pieces alongside the minutiae of human interaction. It's also a film without a shred of sentiment - every character is dealt with even-handedly, and possibly even cruelly - but only the unfeeling cruelty of the life they make for themselves. If there's one negative, I think it's that the setup is possibly too long. It was about an hour of mooching around the one-horse town before they actually hit the road and though the character development in that phase is important, I felt it could have been done in about half the time for what is a pretty long film at 2.5 hours. Your patience is amply rewarded though, with an intensely thrilling and harrowing final two thirds, so I'd urge anyone with an interest in lesser known classics to seek this one out.

 

[Hutnicks]

Well put. It is an all time classic and a must see for any fan of the medium. It was in fact remade as Sorcerer with Roy Scheider and did not live up to the high bar set by the original.

 

[WraithApe]

Well put. It is an all time classic and a must see for any fan of the medium. It was in fact remade as Sorcerer with Roy Scheider and did not live up to the high bar set by the original.

I read that, yeah. I wasn't aware Sorcerer was a remake until recently; it was on my radar mainly because Friedkin directed it and Tangerine Dream did the soundtrack. I reckon I'll still catch it at some point, with lower expectations. FWIW, IMDb seems to like it.

 

[Hutnicks]

I read that, yeah. I wasn't aware Sorcerer was a remake until recently; it was on my radar mainly because Friedkin directed it and Tangerine Dream did the soundtrack. I reckon I'll still catch it at some point, with lower expectations. FWIW, IMDb seems to like it.

It is certainly worth the watch but lacks the intricacies and over/undertones of the original. It absolutely got murdered at the box office and you may find it devilishly hard to find a copy.

 

[DLeeWebb]

"Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children" [8.4/10]: I had "Miss Peregrine" on my DVR for weeks. Eventually, I always make time for Tim Burton films. You really have to pay attention to the detail in Burton films, so I seem to have to wait for the "mood" to strike me and my attention span to cooperate. As tends to be the case, I was not disappointed with this film. While it had all of the Tim Burton hallmarks, I thought that the story was actually deeper, and in some way that i can't quite put my finger on, more mature than many of his films. I thoroughly enjoyed the production design and all of the performances involved. Recommended...

 

[tdockweiler]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - 9.5/10
(This is part 1)

Surprised how good this one was and I can't believe I skipped this at the theater when it came out.
Only negative is that James Franco's acting could have been a little better during a few scenes, but this is nit-picking.
After watching this I immediately went out and bought part 2 in the series.

PS I also saw the 3rd one a second time in the theater and it's even better on viewing two. There was actually a lot I missed.
I plan on seeing it again maybe next week too.

Part 3 is actually ONE of the best movies in the theater i've seen in maybe 5 years.

 

[tdockweiler]

Dunkirk - 6/10

Biggest disappointment of the year for me. $15 totally wasted.
It feels very realistic and as if you're really there, but then it just gets very repetitive and almost boring to sit through.
Your brain will probably be off the whole movie. Not much of anything to think about or care about.

The music is also extremely annoying and sort of ruins the experience. I guess it doesn't help that I saw the Imax version.

PS the cinematography is impressive, but that's not enough for me.

I didn't hate this one, but it's weird how I saw "Interstellar" 16 times, yet have hated the last 3 Christopher Nolan movies I've seen.

 

[SilverEars]

Baby Driver - 6/10

A bit hyped IMO. I do like Edgar Wright as he is able to make good movies. Rottentomatoes and Metacritic had pretty high avg ratings, and the commercial looked interesting. I was hoping for some impressive action, but I find the formula in the movie has been done in other movies in the past, and the jokes and the most interesting parts were put out in the trailers. I can't agree that this film deserves such notoriety.

 

[SilverEars]

The Martian - 9.5/10

Not a movie I'd watch again as it's not that type of movie(I'd be bored 2nd pass though), but what a great movie. Story was just great, and the scenarios that the astronaut kept running into made this movie so engaging. I'd say best movie I've seen in awhile. These days, it's tough to find great movies.

 

[SilverEars]

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - 9/10

The first and this sequel has enough originality in dialog and scenarios to make for an enjoyable experience. I prefer this type of superhero movie over others for the pure fun of the experience that the movie provides. It has the elements that the 80's to 90's movies provided for fun movie going experience(which are missing movies these days), and for them to be repeatedly watchable movies. Still the first has the better plot, but the jokes, the dialog, and presentation was done better on the sequel.

 

[castleofargh]

The Martian - 9.5/10

Not a movie I'd watch again as it's not that type of movie(I'd be bored 2nd pass though), but what a great movie. Story was just great, and the scenarios that the astronaut kept running into made this movie so engaging. I'd say best movie I've seen in awhile. These days, it's tough to find great movies.

it might feel like a waste after watching the movie, but the book is a great read. basically a few extra situations and more details about those in the movie. but the all self narrative+sarcasm is a level above in the book IMO.

 

[oqvist]

Baywatch 2/10. I think it will compete with Skull Island for worst movie of the year. Only difference is that they know it´s bad they even make excuse of it´s existance on a number of occasions. So I think the nominee has to go with Kong: Skull Island so far.