Ahem...I know us white guys are all alike, but Ireland claims him pretty emphatically.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
65 (Scott Beck & Bryan Woods, 2023) 6/10
A critic correctly stated this film does not have the cheesy quotient of the Raquel Welch dinosaur epic nor the awe inspiring wonder of Spielberg's classic foray into that same territory. However, we do get to see Adam Driver in full-on action mode. An astronaut, on a two-year space mission to pay for the cure of his daughter's terminal disease, crash lands on an unchartered planet. It turns out to be earth 65 million years ago when it was populated by all types of dinosaurs. It becomes a battle of wits for him and the only other survivor - a young girl / substitute daughter - as they try to stay one step ahead of death while trying to make it to the escape pod just as the infamous giant asteroid that annhilated the dinosaurs decides to make contact with earth. Pulpy B-movie has enough thrills to carry it through to the end.
Scream VI (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2023) 6/10
It's more of the same, still has the thrill of watching people die in extremely gruesome fashion, and one waits patiently for the next installment. For the first time we get to see two masked killers attack in tandem with each other but two plucky sisters are hell bent on surving their attacks and preferably killing them off.
Boston Strangler (Matt Ruskin, 2023) 4/10
Straightforward but rather dull rendering of the notorious strangler who killed 13 women in Boston during the 1960s. Filmed before with Tony Curtis as the strangler and Henry Fonda as the cop in pursuit. This version concentrates on the two female journalists - rookie Loretta McLaughlin (Kiera Knightley) and methodical Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) - who first broke the news after connecting the series of murders. Ruskin creates superb atmosphere - shot mostly in colour palettes of green and brown - taking in the sexist attitudes prevalent during the 1960s which the two female journalists have to sift through to get their views across. However, the screenplay lacks tension and suspense and the investigation becomes simply a series of knocking on doors, interviewing possible leads, and shuffling papers. The two actresses are very good though with Knightley ably disguising her Brit accent.
Causeway (Lila Neugebauer, 2022) 8/10
Jennifer Lawrence returns to her Indie roots where she first made a raw but stunning appearance in Winter's Bone in 2010. Then life quickly changed for her. An Oscar and a high profile career of hits with a succession of Oscar nominations and a lead role in a huge boxoffice franchise capped what turned out to be a rocky road leading towards a collapse. This quiet little film is clearly an antidote to her quick fame which all but fizzled for her - including high profile relationships that crashed along with exposure of highly personal photographs in the media that got leaked. A U.S. soldier (Jennifer Lawrence), recovering from a brain injury during a shootout in Afghanistan, returns to her hometown in New Orleans to be with her wayward mother. The screenplay is a series of low key vignettes played out with characters around her - a caregiver/nurse, her doctor, her mother with whom she has a tense relationship, her hearing impaired drug addict brother in prison and her friendship with an auto mechanic (Brian Tyree Henry) who appears to be nursing even more deep rooted wounds than her. Gentle subdued film deals with trauma, recovery and forgiveness. Lawrence and especially Tyree Henry (he received an Oscar nomination) are phenomenal with their quietly anguished but understated performances helped no doubt by director Neugebauer who reigns in both actors to act with their eyes and faces instead of flailing their bodies to go the obvious dramatic route. Quietly mesmerizing film is well worth checking out.
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) 7/10
Bittersweet memory piece. A divorced dad (Paul Mescal) is on a cheap turkish vacation with his 11-year old daughter (Frankie Corio). They bond together. Nothing dramatic happens. In fact the film is a series of vignettes as they swim, talk, take photographs of each other, the child mixes with kids her own age at the resort. However, something is amiss as he is hiding something which troubles him - financial difficulties, depression - which she senses but he does not reveal. Coming of age drama has at its center the remarkable chemistry between the two actors and the telling fact that memories can be deceptive and one often misjudges people when recalling events and people from the past. The screenplay has the adult daughter thinking about that brief vacation and time spent with her dad who remains evasive - he disappeared from her life never to be seen again which a deceptively harrowing scene in the film foretells. The Scottish Mescal received an Oscar nomination for his internally complex character.
A critic correctly stated this film does not have the cheesy quotient of the Raquel Welch dinosaur epic nor the awe inspiring wonder of Spielberg's classic foray into that same territory. However, we do get to see Adam Driver in full-on action mode. An astronaut, on a two-year space mission to pay for the cure of his daughter's terminal disease, crash lands on an unchartered planet. It turns out to be earth 65 million years ago when it was populated by all types of dinosaurs. It becomes a battle of wits for him and the only other survivor - a young girl / substitute daughter - as they try to stay one step ahead of death while trying to make it to the escape pod just as the infamous giant asteroid that annhilated the dinosaurs decides to make contact with earth. Pulpy B-movie has enough thrills to carry it through to the end.
Scream VI (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2023) 6/10
It's more of the same, still has the thrill of watching people die in extremely gruesome fashion, and one waits patiently for the next installment. For the first time we get to see two masked killers attack in tandem with each other but two plucky sisters are hell bent on surving their attacks and preferably killing them off.
Boston Strangler (Matt Ruskin, 2023) 4/10
Straightforward but rather dull rendering of the notorious strangler who killed 13 women in Boston during the 1960s. Filmed before with Tony Curtis as the strangler and Henry Fonda as the cop in pursuit. This version concentrates on the two female journalists - rookie Loretta McLaughlin (Kiera Knightley) and methodical Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) - who first broke the news after connecting the series of murders. Ruskin creates superb atmosphere - shot mostly in colour palettes of green and brown - taking in the sexist attitudes prevalent during the 1960s which the two female journalists have to sift through to get their views across. However, the screenplay lacks tension and suspense and the investigation becomes simply a series of knocking on doors, interviewing possible leads, and shuffling papers. The two actresses are very good though with Knightley ably disguising her Brit accent.
Causeway (Lila Neugebauer, 2022) 8/10
Jennifer Lawrence returns to her Indie roots where she first made a raw but stunning appearance in Winter's Bone in 2010. Then life quickly changed for her. An Oscar and a high profile career of hits with a succession of Oscar nominations and a lead role in a huge boxoffice franchise capped what turned out to be a rocky road leading towards a collapse. This quiet little film is clearly an antidote to her quick fame which all but fizzled for her - including high profile relationships that crashed along with exposure of highly personal photographs in the media that got leaked. A U.S. soldier (Jennifer Lawrence), recovering from a brain injury during a shootout in Afghanistan, returns to her hometown in New Orleans to be with her wayward mother. The screenplay is a series of low key vignettes played out with characters around her - a caregiver/nurse, her doctor, her mother with whom she has a tense relationship, her hearing impaired drug addict brother in prison and her friendship with an auto mechanic (Brian Tyree Henry) who appears to be nursing even more deep rooted wounds than her. Gentle subdued film deals with trauma, recovery and forgiveness. Lawrence and especially Tyree Henry (he received an Oscar nomination) are phenomenal with their quietly anguished but understated performances helped no doubt by director Neugebauer who reigns in both actors to act with their eyes and faces instead of flailing their bodies to go the obvious dramatic route. Quietly mesmerizing film is well worth checking out.
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) 7/10
Bittersweet memory piece. A divorced dad (Paul Mescal) is on a cheap turkish vacation with his 11-year old daughter (Frankie Corio). They bond together. Nothing dramatic happens. In fact the film is a series of vignettes as they swim, talk, take photographs of each other, the child mixes with kids her own age at the resort. However, something is amiss as he is hiding something which troubles him - financial difficulties, depression - which she senses but he does not reveal. Coming of age drama has at its center the remarkable chemistry between the two actors and the telling fact that memories can be deceptive and one often misjudges people when recalling events and people from the past. The screenplay has the adult daughter thinking about that brief vacation and time spent with her dad who remains evasive - he disappeared from her life never to be seen again which a deceptively harrowing scene in the film foretells. The Scottish Mescal received an Oscar nomination for his internally complex character.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001) 9/10
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, 2002) 7/10
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003) 6/10
Murder Mystery 2 (Jeremy Garelick, 2023) 6/10
Take a whole chunk of Nick & Nora Charles, add a spoonful of Hercule Poirot along with just a dash of Miss Marple, crank up the silliness quotient and you have this sequel to the equally cheesy original. Amateur New York detective couple (Adam Sandler & Jennifer Aniston) find themselves in the thick of a murder-mystery plot when their billionaire Indian friend (Adeel Akhtar) gets kidnapped during his exotic destination wedding. A huge ransom is demanded as a guest load of suspects try to look innocent - the groom's bride (Mèlanie Laurent), her jealous best friend and the groom's former lover (Jodie Turner-Smith), the one-armed bodyguard (John Kani), the groom's sympathetic sister (Kuhoo Verma), and an ex-MI6 agent (Mark Strong). The madcap screenplay concocts a potpourri of suspense, laughs, assorted murders and deaths (courtesy of a knife and many bullets), a Bollywood song and dance routine where Aniston gets to wear a faux Manish Malhotra outfit, and assorted romantic locations which include the Arc de Triomphe and the Jules Verne restaurant on the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower where the truckload of suspects all conveniently converge for the inevitable denouement. Silly nonsense has at its center the delightful chemistry of its two leads who take this action-adventure and probably ensure there will be yet another episode about their madcap lives as bumbling detectives.
Salome (William Dieterle, 1953) 5/10
Salome here is no longer the teenager of Bilblical lore but a beautiful mature woman in the guise of Rita Hayworth at her loveliest during that decade. Unfortunately she plays the part in a grand manner as if she is doing Shakespeare on stage and comes off as an awful bore. Luckily she is surrounded by two grand hams - the great Judith Anderson as her sinful mother Herodias who is now married to her ex-husband's half brother which was apparently a sin in God's eyes; and a bored looking Charles Laughton as Herod Antipas who acts like a wilful but scared child thinking John the Baptist (Alan Badel) is the prophesied Messiah and wants to avoid his rantings while his wife wants him dead for calling her out as a harlot and an adultress. Badel plays the Baptist like one of our "spouting at the mouth" Islamic mullahs looking down at everyone, pontificating about God's wrath but secretly wanting to indulge in every sin he wafts about. Salome also finds romance with a Roman soldier (Stewart Granger at his most wooden) as she begins to drift towards Christianity - didn't they all. Her main claim to fame in history was her dance of the seven veils which she does in front of her lecherous step-father (the afore mentioned Laughton who actually licks his salivating lips) but without revealing herself totally by dropping that crucial seventh veil. Through the dance she hopes to get the Baptist's freedom which is a departure from history. Instead his head is brought on a platter much to the glee of the queen. Hayworth, one of Hollywood's famous dancers, gets to perform the climactic dance which is a series of slinky moves across the floor, and down steps, while she keeps dropping layers of colorful chiffon draped across her sensual body by costume designer Jean Louis. Like most of this popular genre the film relies on spectacle and the beautiful faces of the stars who paraded on screen as Emperors, Prophets, Romans and exotic women dressed to their teeth in jewels and slinky costumes.
A Dandy in Aspic (Anthony Mann, 1968) 3/10
Stylish film is excruciatingly slow. A British spy (Laurence Harvey) is sent by his superiors to Berlin to ferret out and kill a KGB agent who has been murdering British agents. The only problem is that he himself is the double agent and he is accompanied by a ruthless, cynical, and sociopathic British agent (Tom Courtenay) who hates him. Shot on location mostly in West Berlin the static screenplay limps along with an extremely dour-looking Harvey trying to stay one step ahead of the Russians and his own colleagues. Mia Farrow pops up as a London flower child photographer who provides the love interest. A thriller sadly devoid of suspense. Mann died during the shoot and Harvey took over the direction.
The Running Man (Carol Reed, 1963) 5/10
Tedious neo noir drama - man (Laurence Harvey) fakes his death on an insurance scam and goes on the run with his wife (Lee Remick) but is pursued by an insurance agent (Alan Bates) who seems more interested in seducing the wife - is overshadowed by the film's glorious location in the Spanish province of Cádiz shot in dazzling style by Robert Krasker who had brilliantly worked with director Reed previously on Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949) for which he had won an Oscar. John Mortimer adapts the novel but fails to create any suspense despite the twisty ironic end. Harvey, as the desperate ne’er-do-well, stands out more for his platinum blonde hairdo than for his stiff performance.
The Gentle Gunman (Basil Dearden, 1952) 7/10
The Irish "troubles" presented as a film noir via superb cinematography, gritty locations and a superb cast playing troubled intense characters. Two brothers, members of the IRA, suddenly find themselves with opposing views about killing innocent victims in their cause for a free Ireland. The elder (John Mills) is branded a traitor while his lover (Elizabeth Sellars) switches her allegiance to the younger brother (Dirk Bogarde) who, under the leadership of a terrorist (Roberty Beatty), is gung ho in causing mayhem to support the cause. The screenplay is overly simplistic and neither Mills nor Bogarde even attempt an Irish accent, yet this stark film vividly stands out and is yet another of Dearden's hard-hitting social dramas which he made throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Standing out in small roles are Sellars, with her flashing eyes, as a stunning femme fatale - an actress who had the makings of a huge star but sadly never made it to the big league. And Barbara Mullen as a woman who saw her husband dying for the "cause" and who now faces a similar predicament with her son.
Carry on Sergeant (Gerald Thomas, 1958) 6/10
First in the long running series of "Carry On" films is about young recruits joining the National Service and predictably proving to be complete nincompoops. Although "young" is a misnomer as the recuits were played by actors on the far side of that age by what would become regular actors in the series - Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Terry Scott, and Hattie Jacques playing the first of many very imposing and hilarious medical professionals. They are all led by a dead-serious William Hartnell in the title role. Breezy romp is a conventional British Army farce but without the sexual innuendos the series later became famous for. Nostalgic film manages to bring on a smile or two.
Foyle's War (Jeremy Silberston & David Thacker, 2002) 8/10 - Season 1
Leisurely paced police procedural follows a quiet widower, but methodical Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle (Michael Kitchen) as he solves murders in Hastings, a large seaside town on the south coast of England. The unusual aspect of the series is that it is set during WWII when England was under continuous air attack by Germany. Helping him on his daily beat are his driver (Honeysuckle Weeks) and a Detective Sergeant (Anthony Howell). Prominent guest stars during the first season: Edward Fox, Robert Hardy, Rosamund Pike, James McAvoy, Charles Dance, Patrick Godfrey, Tobias Menzies, Cheryl Campbell, David Tennant, Roger Allam.
Follow the Boys (A. Edward Sutherland & John Rawlins, 1944) 6/10
Universal Studios' WWII effort showing their stars entertaining troops around the world. The screenplay is centered around a showbiz couple - a stage star (Vera Zorina) and her song-and-dance husband (George Raft) who organizes famous stars to perform overseas for the troops. The plot is an excuse to watch major stars perform skits, songs and dances. Orson Welles saws Marlene Dietrich in half as part of a magic act. Sophie Tucker sings "The Bigger the Army and the Navy’ & ‘Some of These Days". Dinah Shore sings "Mad About Him Sad Without Him How Can I Be Glad Without Him Blues’ & the hit ‘I’ll Walk Alone’ which was nominated for an Oscar. W.C. Fields performs a skit at the pool table and the Andrews Sisters trill ‘Shoo-Shoo Baby’ and a medley of their hits. Jeanette MacDonald sings the 1930 classic ‘Beyond the Blue Horizon’ and the 1924 ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’. Raft and Zorina do various tap dancing numbers as do Donald O’Connor and Peggy Ryan. Routine screenplay is nevertheless full of energy thanks to the performers.
Julie (Andrew L. Stone, 1956) 4/10
We all thought Karen Black was the only stewardess who landed a plane in distress in the campy disaster flick Airport '75. However, in this completely over-the-top melodrama Doris Day does that too. The screenplay (inexplicably nominated for an Oscar) begins in an overwrought manner with Day all hot and bothered complaining to a friend (Barry Sullivan) about the insane jealousy of her classic pianist husband (Louis Jourdan). He not only steps on the gas pedal of the car she is driving almost causing them to crash but is also suspected of killing her first husband. Nothing in this film moves slowly. Every moment involves hysteria at fever pitch topped by the insane man pursuing his stewardess wife on a commercial airliner where in a cockpit encounter the pilots are shot leaving Day to land the plane on her own. Its all too absurd to even be funny. The film's second Oscar nomination was for the title song Day sings over the opening credits. She did not want to make the film as it reminded her of her previous two jealous husbands and was forced to do it by her third husband who was the film's producer. Even he ended up in a jealous rage over her close friendship with co-star Louis Jourdan.
The Return of October (Joseph H. Lewis, 1948) 6/10
Silly whimsy has young girl (Terry Moore) believing a race horse has the spirit of her late Uncle (James Gleason) which causes an uproar in her small town when she inherits a large sum from an old aunt (Dame May Whitty). Her other relatives try to declare her insane while a psychology professor (Glenn Ford) plans to write a paper about the obsession of the heiress causing further complications. Colorful production and a good cast keeps things moving.
What's Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur, 2023) 8/10
The film, written by Jemima Khan, clearly is an ode to her recollection of Pakistani married life from the time of her own former union to cricketer Imran Khan. The central theme of the film is about the concept of an "arranged" marriage - now, in the modern era, evolved to being an "assisted" marriage - compared to choosing a partner for love. Why do we, like in Bollywood films, get to view a Pakistani marriage centered around the old city of Lahore? It's like Bollywood's view of looking at Pakistanis as if they were all born and bred in Lucknow along with all the paraphernalia and mannerisms that come with people of that city. Here we get the old city as an exotic location because Jemima Khan lived that during her own marriage. While ensconsed in her husband's house far from the old city she got to spend a lot of time in his close pal Yusaf Salli's "haveli" in the old city of Lahore next to the historic 17th century Mughal era Badshahi Mosque. Hence the location set during the scenes of the Pakistani wedding in grand rooms with cracked leaking ceilings and colourful stained glass windows and a famous rooftop restaurant overlooking the imposing mosque. We also get to hear sufi music courtesy of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, nephew of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who was a favourite of Jemima's former husband Imran Khan. A lot of touches in the film reflect the screenwriter's memory of her own time spent in Pakistan as part of a joint family. I've gone too far into the plot without setting up the actual story which is about two childhood friends - a young British-Pakistani doctor (Shazad Latif) and his neighbour, a British documentary film maker (Lily James). He comes from a semi-conservative Muslim family with loving parents (Jeff Mirza & Shabana Azmi) who have set up an arranged marriage for their son in Pakistan - the couple meet each other on Face Time. She has a gregarious, often over-the-top mum (Emma Thompson basically playing her own loud self), and has planned to film the upcoming "arranged" marriage of her buddy. The marriage scenes - the mehndi - are colorfully shot with songs and dances allowing Emma Thompson to join in and do her loud shtick. However, something seems amiss as the Pakistani bride turns out to have a more "modern" sensibility than the British-born groom - she *gasp* drinks, takes drugs and dances with wild abandon, and has maybe even had sex - which puts a pause in the scenario when the groom's friend questions him about the hypocricy of evading "issues" and living a life of pretense. Like all good rom-coms this one navigates through the desperate trials of love while wringing oodles of tears with desi-style reconciliations and eventually the proper pairing of lovers.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, 2002) 7/10
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003) 6/10
Murder Mystery 2 (Jeremy Garelick, 2023) 6/10
Take a whole chunk of Nick & Nora Charles, add a spoonful of Hercule Poirot along with just a dash of Miss Marple, crank up the silliness quotient and you have this sequel to the equally cheesy original. Amateur New York detective couple (Adam Sandler & Jennifer Aniston) find themselves in the thick of a murder-mystery plot when their billionaire Indian friend (Adeel Akhtar) gets kidnapped during his exotic destination wedding. A huge ransom is demanded as a guest load of suspects try to look innocent - the groom's bride (Mèlanie Laurent), her jealous best friend and the groom's former lover (Jodie Turner-Smith), the one-armed bodyguard (John Kani), the groom's sympathetic sister (Kuhoo Verma), and an ex-MI6 agent (Mark Strong). The madcap screenplay concocts a potpourri of suspense, laughs, assorted murders and deaths (courtesy of a knife and many bullets), a Bollywood song and dance routine where Aniston gets to wear a faux Manish Malhotra outfit, and assorted romantic locations which include the Arc de Triomphe and the Jules Verne restaurant on the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower where the truckload of suspects all conveniently converge for the inevitable denouement. Silly nonsense has at its center the delightful chemistry of its two leads who take this action-adventure and probably ensure there will be yet another episode about their madcap lives as bumbling detectives.
Salome (William Dieterle, 1953) 5/10
Salome here is no longer the teenager of Bilblical lore but a beautiful mature woman in the guise of Rita Hayworth at her loveliest during that decade. Unfortunately she plays the part in a grand manner as if she is doing Shakespeare on stage and comes off as an awful bore. Luckily she is surrounded by two grand hams - the great Judith Anderson as her sinful mother Herodias who is now married to her ex-husband's half brother which was apparently a sin in God's eyes; and a bored looking Charles Laughton as Herod Antipas who acts like a wilful but scared child thinking John the Baptist (Alan Badel) is the prophesied Messiah and wants to avoid his rantings while his wife wants him dead for calling her out as a harlot and an adultress. Badel plays the Baptist like one of our "spouting at the mouth" Islamic mullahs looking down at everyone, pontificating about God's wrath but secretly wanting to indulge in every sin he wafts about. Salome also finds romance with a Roman soldier (Stewart Granger at his most wooden) as she begins to drift towards Christianity - didn't they all. Her main claim to fame in history was her dance of the seven veils which she does in front of her lecherous step-father (the afore mentioned Laughton who actually licks his salivating lips) but without revealing herself totally by dropping that crucial seventh veil. Through the dance she hopes to get the Baptist's freedom which is a departure from history. Instead his head is brought on a platter much to the glee of the queen. Hayworth, one of Hollywood's famous dancers, gets to perform the climactic dance which is a series of slinky moves across the floor, and down steps, while she keeps dropping layers of colorful chiffon draped across her sensual body by costume designer Jean Louis. Like most of this popular genre the film relies on spectacle and the beautiful faces of the stars who paraded on screen as Emperors, Prophets, Romans and exotic women dressed to their teeth in jewels and slinky costumes.
A Dandy in Aspic (Anthony Mann, 1968) 3/10
Stylish film is excruciatingly slow. A British spy (Laurence Harvey) is sent by his superiors to Berlin to ferret out and kill a KGB agent who has been murdering British agents. The only problem is that he himself is the double agent and he is accompanied by a ruthless, cynical, and sociopathic British agent (Tom Courtenay) who hates him. Shot on location mostly in West Berlin the static screenplay limps along with an extremely dour-looking Harvey trying to stay one step ahead of the Russians and his own colleagues. Mia Farrow pops up as a London flower child photographer who provides the love interest. A thriller sadly devoid of suspense. Mann died during the shoot and Harvey took over the direction.
The Running Man (Carol Reed, 1963) 5/10
Tedious neo noir drama - man (Laurence Harvey) fakes his death on an insurance scam and goes on the run with his wife (Lee Remick) but is pursued by an insurance agent (Alan Bates) who seems more interested in seducing the wife - is overshadowed by the film's glorious location in the Spanish province of Cádiz shot in dazzling style by Robert Krasker who had brilliantly worked with director Reed previously on Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949) for which he had won an Oscar. John Mortimer adapts the novel but fails to create any suspense despite the twisty ironic end. Harvey, as the desperate ne’er-do-well, stands out more for his platinum blonde hairdo than for his stiff performance.
The Gentle Gunman (Basil Dearden, 1952) 7/10
The Irish "troubles" presented as a film noir via superb cinematography, gritty locations and a superb cast playing troubled intense characters. Two brothers, members of the IRA, suddenly find themselves with opposing views about killing innocent victims in their cause for a free Ireland. The elder (John Mills) is branded a traitor while his lover (Elizabeth Sellars) switches her allegiance to the younger brother (Dirk Bogarde) who, under the leadership of a terrorist (Roberty Beatty), is gung ho in causing mayhem to support the cause. The screenplay is overly simplistic and neither Mills nor Bogarde even attempt an Irish accent, yet this stark film vividly stands out and is yet another of Dearden's hard-hitting social dramas which he made throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Standing out in small roles are Sellars, with her flashing eyes, as a stunning femme fatale - an actress who had the makings of a huge star but sadly never made it to the big league. And Barbara Mullen as a woman who saw her husband dying for the "cause" and who now faces a similar predicament with her son.
Carry on Sergeant (Gerald Thomas, 1958) 6/10
First in the long running series of "Carry On" films is about young recruits joining the National Service and predictably proving to be complete nincompoops. Although "young" is a misnomer as the recuits were played by actors on the far side of that age by what would become regular actors in the series - Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Terry Scott, and Hattie Jacques playing the first of many very imposing and hilarious medical professionals. They are all led by a dead-serious William Hartnell in the title role. Breezy romp is a conventional British Army farce but without the sexual innuendos the series later became famous for. Nostalgic film manages to bring on a smile or two.
Foyle's War (Jeremy Silberston & David Thacker, 2002) 8/10 - Season 1
Leisurely paced police procedural follows a quiet widower, but methodical Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle (Michael Kitchen) as he solves murders in Hastings, a large seaside town on the south coast of England. The unusual aspect of the series is that it is set during WWII when England was under continuous air attack by Germany. Helping him on his daily beat are his driver (Honeysuckle Weeks) and a Detective Sergeant (Anthony Howell). Prominent guest stars during the first season: Edward Fox, Robert Hardy, Rosamund Pike, James McAvoy, Charles Dance, Patrick Godfrey, Tobias Menzies, Cheryl Campbell, David Tennant, Roger Allam.
Follow the Boys (A. Edward Sutherland & John Rawlins, 1944) 6/10
Universal Studios' WWII effort showing their stars entertaining troops around the world. The screenplay is centered around a showbiz couple - a stage star (Vera Zorina) and her song-and-dance husband (George Raft) who organizes famous stars to perform overseas for the troops. The plot is an excuse to watch major stars perform skits, songs and dances. Orson Welles saws Marlene Dietrich in half as part of a magic act. Sophie Tucker sings "The Bigger the Army and the Navy’ & ‘Some of These Days". Dinah Shore sings "Mad About Him Sad Without Him How Can I Be Glad Without Him Blues’ & the hit ‘I’ll Walk Alone’ which was nominated for an Oscar. W.C. Fields performs a skit at the pool table and the Andrews Sisters trill ‘Shoo-Shoo Baby’ and a medley of their hits. Jeanette MacDonald sings the 1930 classic ‘Beyond the Blue Horizon’ and the 1924 ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’. Raft and Zorina do various tap dancing numbers as do Donald O’Connor and Peggy Ryan. Routine screenplay is nevertheless full of energy thanks to the performers.
Julie (Andrew L. Stone, 1956) 4/10
We all thought Karen Black was the only stewardess who landed a plane in distress in the campy disaster flick Airport '75. However, in this completely over-the-top melodrama Doris Day does that too. The screenplay (inexplicably nominated for an Oscar) begins in an overwrought manner with Day all hot and bothered complaining to a friend (Barry Sullivan) about the insane jealousy of her classic pianist husband (Louis Jourdan). He not only steps on the gas pedal of the car she is driving almost causing them to crash but is also suspected of killing her first husband. Nothing in this film moves slowly. Every moment involves hysteria at fever pitch topped by the insane man pursuing his stewardess wife on a commercial airliner where in a cockpit encounter the pilots are shot leaving Day to land the plane on her own. Its all too absurd to even be funny. The film's second Oscar nomination was for the title song Day sings over the opening credits. She did not want to make the film as it reminded her of her previous two jealous husbands and was forced to do it by her third husband who was the film's producer. Even he ended up in a jealous rage over her close friendship with co-star Louis Jourdan.
The Return of October (Joseph H. Lewis, 1948) 6/10
Silly whimsy has young girl (Terry Moore) believing a race horse has the spirit of her late Uncle (James Gleason) which causes an uproar in her small town when she inherits a large sum from an old aunt (Dame May Whitty). Her other relatives try to declare her insane while a psychology professor (Glenn Ford) plans to write a paper about the obsession of the heiress causing further complications. Colorful production and a good cast keeps things moving.
What's Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur, 2023) 8/10
The film, written by Jemima Khan, clearly is an ode to her recollection of Pakistani married life from the time of her own former union to cricketer Imran Khan. The central theme of the film is about the concept of an "arranged" marriage - now, in the modern era, evolved to being an "assisted" marriage - compared to choosing a partner for love. Why do we, like in Bollywood films, get to view a Pakistani marriage centered around the old city of Lahore? It's like Bollywood's view of looking at Pakistanis as if they were all born and bred in Lucknow along with all the paraphernalia and mannerisms that come with people of that city. Here we get the old city as an exotic location because Jemima Khan lived that during her own marriage. While ensconsed in her husband's house far from the old city she got to spend a lot of time in his close pal Yusaf Salli's "haveli" in the old city of Lahore next to the historic 17th century Mughal era Badshahi Mosque. Hence the location set during the scenes of the Pakistani wedding in grand rooms with cracked leaking ceilings and colourful stained glass windows and a famous rooftop restaurant overlooking the imposing mosque. We also get to hear sufi music courtesy of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, nephew of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who was a favourite of Jemima's former husband Imran Khan. A lot of touches in the film reflect the screenwriter's memory of her own time spent in Pakistan as part of a joint family. I've gone too far into the plot without setting up the actual story which is about two childhood friends - a young British-Pakistani doctor (Shazad Latif) and his neighbour, a British documentary film maker (Lily James). He comes from a semi-conservative Muslim family with loving parents (Jeff Mirza & Shabana Azmi) who have set up an arranged marriage for their son in Pakistan - the couple meet each other on Face Time. She has a gregarious, often over-the-top mum (Emma Thompson basically playing her own loud self), and has planned to film the upcoming "arranged" marriage of her buddy. The marriage scenes - the mehndi - are colorfully shot with songs and dances allowing Emma Thompson to join in and do her loud shtick. However, something seems amiss as the Pakistani bride turns out to have a more "modern" sensibility than the British-born groom - she *gasp* drinks, takes drugs and dances with wild abandon, and has maybe even had sex - which puts a pause in the scenario when the groom's friend questions him about the hypocricy of evading "issues" and living a life of pretense. Like all good rom-coms this one navigates through the desperate trials of love while wringing oodles of tears with desi-style reconciliations and eventually the proper pairing of lovers.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Mother (2009) - 7.5/10 - Do-Joon is an adult with an intellectual disability. He lives with his mother and hangs out with a friend that she doesn't like. When Do-Joon is arrested in connection to the death of a teenage girl, his mother sets out to prove his innocence. This is pretty well acted and I enjoyed it, though it didn't quite rise to the level that I was hoping.
The Woman Who Ran (2020) - 6/10 - A woman visits old friends with lots of sitting around having conversations. I thought it was somewhat interesting at first, but soon got bored with the film. I still liked it more than the other three Sang-soo films that I've seen. Maybe it just needed more robber cats.
Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013) - 6.5/10 - Haewon is depressed that her mother is emigrating to Canada. She meets up with her secret lover, a film director, plus a number of friends. She also has a few dreams mixed into the story. I liked this a bit more than The Woman Who Ran.
A Man Called Otto (2022) - 8/10 - Tom Hanks stars in this remake about a grumpy old man who is very set in his ways and thinks most people are idiots. Mariana Treviño is very good as Marisol and Hanks also does a nice job. I thought it was very well done and is perhaps the equal of the original, or at least close.
Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) - 5/10 - A director is in town for a lecture. He hits on a young woman who paints. He drinks too much and meets her friends. Then the day repeats with a few variations. The story isn't very interesting.
Backroads (1977) - 5.5/10 - Two strangers team up to steal a car and then go on a road trip along the back roads of Australia. Along the way, they pick up three other passengers. The story is kind of rambling and only mildly interesting on occasion.
Get Carter (1971) - 7/10 - Jack Carter (Michael Caine) is a criminal who works for a London organization. He returns to his hometown after his brother dies in a supposed drunk driving accident. Jack doesn't believethe cause of death so he does his own investigation to find the real cause and to take revenge on those responsible. Caine is pretty good in the lead, but the story is kind of dull through much of it, though it does pick up quite a bit during the last half hour.
Adam's Apples (2005) - 7.5/10 - A neo-Nazi just out of prison is sent to stay at a church where an odd priest (Mads Mikkelsen) works with people sentenced to community service. The two clash quite a bit, though the priest is very good at turning the other cheek. There is quite a bit of humor here, though it gets a bit more serious on occasion. I enjoyed it.
Salige er de som tørster (1997) - 5.5/10 - A female detective tries to solve cases involving a rapist and a serial killer. Unfortunately, it isn't particularly well acted.
Marshland (2014) - 8/10 - In 1980, a pair of detectives are sent to a rural town in Spain to investigate the disappearance of two teenage girls. The film does a good job of setting the mood and it's a pretty solid film.
Clean, Shaven (1993) - 4/10 - A schizophrenic who recently was released from an asylum tries to track down his young daughter. Meanwhile, he gets caught up as a suspect in the murder of another child. The film tries to get you to experience the world like the schizophrenic does and the result is off-putting. I couldn't really get into the film, though I can see why some might like it.
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) - 4/10 - This film definitely has a place in the history of film. I just wish that I had liked it more. The acting was pretty bad.
Quick-draw Okatsu (1969) - 7/10 - Okatsu is the adopted daughter of a master swordsman. She is also a master of the sword, unlike her brother. When crooked officials and their lackeys harm her family, Okatsu sets out on the path of revenge. The film gets more interesting once that path of revenge finally gets going, though the set up takes a while. I liked the supporting character of Rui, another swordswoman, though she only popped up from time to time to save the day.
Branded to Kill (1967) - 6/10 - The third ranked hit man in Japan becomes the target of the top ranked assassin after a failed job where a bystander is killed. I can see why this film has a following, but I didn't really enjoy it all that much. There were bits and pieces that were kind of fun, but they didn't mesh together for me as a whole.
Cruel Gun Story (1964) - 8/10 - A gang leader arranges for a man to be let of prison early so that he can pull off an armored car heist worth a huge amount of money. A detailed plan is set in place and things go well at first, but eventually a few hiccups happen along with double crosses. This is a nice noirish crime film.
A Colt Is My Passport (1967) - 8/10 - A hit man successfully executes a job, but he and his partner have to evade retribution while trying to get out of the country. The film has a nice score along with a nice performance from Jo Shishido. It feels like a western in a number of respects.
Rusty Knife (1958) - 7.5/10 - Three ex-cons are trying to get on with their lives and go straight. However, when one of them needs money, he tries to extort money from the people they witnessed staging a murder five years earlier. This drags Tachibana, another one of the witnesses, into the story. He served prison time for killing the man who raped his fiancée. This was pretty good, though not quite as good as the previous two films I watched.
The Longest Nite (1998) - 6.5/10 - Two rival gangs are on the verge of joining forces when word gets out that a hit has been called on one of the leaders. A corrupt cop who works for one of the gangs tries to keep the peace, but realizes that he is being set up. There were a number of nice scenes, but the overall story is a bit of a mess.
Expect the Unexpected (1998) - 6.5/10 - The film starts out pretty well with a botched robbery of a jewelry store by a group of inept thieves. The police search leads to the involvement of a much more hardened group of criminals who were staying in the same area. The film alternates between comedic moments, attempts at romance, and violent shootouts. It was okay, but not really that great.
Mad Detective (2007) - 8/10 - A young police detective seeks the aid of a brilliant former detective who has the ability to see people's inner selves and also sees an imaginary version of his ex-wife. The case that they are trying to solve involves a police officer who disappeared 18 months earlier, but whose gun has been used in recent crimes. The main suspect has multiple inner selves that accompany him everywhere. They did a nice job editing and it's a nice film with good acting performances.
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) - 10/10 - Still my favorite Studio Ghibli Film. Excellent.
25th Hour (2002) - 8.5/10 - Edward Norton stars as a drug dealer who has one last day before having to report to prison to serve a 7 year sentence. He spends the day with friends and reminisces on what led him to this moment. Norton gives a very nice performance and the supporting cast is also pretty good, including Rosario Dawson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, etc.
Crimson Gold (2003) - 8/10 - The film starts with a failed jewelry store robbery and then flashes back and fills in the previous two days in the life of Hussein, a pizza delivery driver. We get to see the divide between the wealthy and the lower class. It's a pretty good film.
Too Fat Too Furious / Vet Hard (2005) - 6/10 - Bennie is an overweight and slightly inept criminal who gets sent away to prison for a number of years. When he gets out, he finds that his old snack bar has been turned into a quiche bakery and his adoptive father needs an expensive transplant. He also finds that he has a homicidal brother that he knew nothing about. The comedy is often pretty dumb or in poor taste (or both), though there are some nice bits here and there and the film is generally not boring. The jailbreak and airport scenes in particular are mostly fun.
Tiger on the Beat (1988) - 7.5/10 - This buddy cop action comedy stars Chow Yun-fat and Conan Lee. There are plenty of stunts, fights, and chases. We even get fights with chainsaws and with bayonets. It's pretty entertaining.
Crime Story (1993) - 7.5/10 - Jackie Chan stars as a police special agent in a serious role without the usual comedy that many of his films have. A wealthy businessman is kidnapped and held for ransom. Chan teams up with a detective to try and find the man and capture the kidnappers. There is still plenty of action here, even without the usual types of humor.
Iron Monkey (1993) - 7.5/10 - The Iron Monkey is a Robin Hood type figure who steals from the governor and gives to refugees and the poor. By day, he is a local doctor with an assistant named Orchid who is also adept at martial arts. The governor sets a visiting herbalist to capture the Iron Monkey, keeping the man's son as hostage. There are plenty of entertaining fight scenes, though my favorites were the ones involving the son of the herbalist (actually played by a teenage girl). The story itself isn't necessarily anything special, but it was still fun.
Do Ankhen Barah Haath (1957) - 7.5/10 - An idealistic warden gets permission to run an experimental farm using six convicted murderers. They will have no shackles and they will be free to roam the farm, relying on trust to work and not run off. It's perhaps a bit simplistic and exaggerated at times, but is still a decent and entertaining film.
Boiling Point (1990) - 6.5/10 - Masaki plays baseball on a somewhat hapless team and also works as a gas station attendant. He is pretty unfocused and spaces out frequently. This gets him into trouble with one of the local gangs and he eventually travels with a friend to obtain guns. The movie seemed to have a lack of energy for periods of time which would then be interrupted by violence.
Uncut Gems (2019) - 6.5/10 - Adam Sandler plays an unpleasant New York City jeweler named Howard who smuggles a valuable rock with uncut gems in it from Africa. Kevin Garnett immediately talks him into letting Kevin borrow the rock for luck, offering his NBA Championship Ring as collateral. Howard has a number of debts and people after him for the money they are owed. Howard also likes to gamble. I didn't really enjoy the film all that much, though I can see why others might rate it higher.
Miss Bala (2011) - 7.5/10 - Laura Guerrero is a young woman who plans to enter a beauty pageant along with a close friend. Before the event, they visit a nightclub which is subsequently attacked by a drug gang. Laura gets caught up with the gang and is forced to do their bidding. I liked the performance of Stephanie Sigman as Laura. The story itself was decent, though we seem to be more of a spectator for events without getting much in the way of inside information.
Intimidation (1960) - 8/10 - Takita is an assistant bank manager who is getting a promotion to a Tokyo branch. He has the connections and has moved steadily up the ladder. His school friend Nakaike is a mild mannered clerk at the same bank and his career seems to be at a dead end. Takita is blackmailed over financial misdeeds and has to find a way to come up with the money. This is a taut film at just over an hour and is very well done.
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) - 7.5/10 - Su-mi is a teenage girl who returns home after a stay at a mental institution. She has a close relationship with her younger sister Su-yeon and a strained relationship with her stepmother. Her father remains somewhat distant. The battle between the girls and their stepmother goes on while some spooky things occur. This is a nice horror film, though I thought it was a bit too long with the first half being stronger than the second half.
The Woman Who Ran (2020) - 6/10 - A woman visits old friends with lots of sitting around having conversations. I thought it was somewhat interesting at first, but soon got bored with the film. I still liked it more than the other three Sang-soo films that I've seen. Maybe it just needed more robber cats.
Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013) - 6.5/10 - Haewon is depressed that her mother is emigrating to Canada. She meets up with her secret lover, a film director, plus a number of friends. She also has a few dreams mixed into the story. I liked this a bit more than The Woman Who Ran.
A Man Called Otto (2022) - 8/10 - Tom Hanks stars in this remake about a grumpy old man who is very set in his ways and thinks most people are idiots. Mariana Treviño is very good as Marisol and Hanks also does a nice job. I thought it was very well done and is perhaps the equal of the original, or at least close.
Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) - 5/10 - A director is in town for a lecture. He hits on a young woman who paints. He drinks too much and meets her friends. Then the day repeats with a few variations. The story isn't very interesting.
Backroads (1977) - 5.5/10 - Two strangers team up to steal a car and then go on a road trip along the back roads of Australia. Along the way, they pick up three other passengers. The story is kind of rambling and only mildly interesting on occasion.
Get Carter (1971) - 7/10 - Jack Carter (Michael Caine) is a criminal who works for a London organization. He returns to his hometown after his brother dies in a supposed drunk driving accident. Jack doesn't believethe cause of death so he does his own investigation to find the real cause and to take revenge on those responsible. Caine is pretty good in the lead, but the story is kind of dull through much of it, though it does pick up quite a bit during the last half hour.
Adam's Apples (2005) - 7.5/10 - A neo-Nazi just out of prison is sent to stay at a church where an odd priest (Mads Mikkelsen) works with people sentenced to community service. The two clash quite a bit, though the priest is very good at turning the other cheek. There is quite a bit of humor here, though it gets a bit more serious on occasion. I enjoyed it.
Salige er de som tørster (1997) - 5.5/10 - A female detective tries to solve cases involving a rapist and a serial killer. Unfortunately, it isn't particularly well acted.
Marshland (2014) - 8/10 - In 1980, a pair of detectives are sent to a rural town in Spain to investigate the disappearance of two teenage girls. The film does a good job of setting the mood and it's a pretty solid film.
Clean, Shaven (1993) - 4/10 - A schizophrenic who recently was released from an asylum tries to track down his young daughter. Meanwhile, he gets caught up as a suspect in the murder of another child. The film tries to get you to experience the world like the schizophrenic does and the result is off-putting. I couldn't really get into the film, though I can see why some might like it.
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) - 4/10 - This film definitely has a place in the history of film. I just wish that I had liked it more. The acting was pretty bad.
Quick-draw Okatsu (1969) - 7/10 - Okatsu is the adopted daughter of a master swordsman. She is also a master of the sword, unlike her brother. When crooked officials and their lackeys harm her family, Okatsu sets out on the path of revenge. The film gets more interesting once that path of revenge finally gets going, though the set up takes a while. I liked the supporting character of Rui, another swordswoman, though she only popped up from time to time to save the day.
Branded to Kill (1967) - 6/10 - The third ranked hit man in Japan becomes the target of the top ranked assassin after a failed job where a bystander is killed. I can see why this film has a following, but I didn't really enjoy it all that much. There were bits and pieces that were kind of fun, but they didn't mesh together for me as a whole.
Cruel Gun Story (1964) - 8/10 - A gang leader arranges for a man to be let of prison early so that he can pull off an armored car heist worth a huge amount of money. A detailed plan is set in place and things go well at first, but eventually a few hiccups happen along with double crosses. This is a nice noirish crime film.
A Colt Is My Passport (1967) - 8/10 - A hit man successfully executes a job, but he and his partner have to evade retribution while trying to get out of the country. The film has a nice score along with a nice performance from Jo Shishido. It feels like a western in a number of respects.
Rusty Knife (1958) - 7.5/10 - Three ex-cons are trying to get on with their lives and go straight. However, when one of them needs money, he tries to extort money from the people they witnessed staging a murder five years earlier. This drags Tachibana, another one of the witnesses, into the story. He served prison time for killing the man who raped his fiancée. This was pretty good, though not quite as good as the previous two films I watched.
The Longest Nite (1998) - 6.5/10 - Two rival gangs are on the verge of joining forces when word gets out that a hit has been called on one of the leaders. A corrupt cop who works for one of the gangs tries to keep the peace, but realizes that he is being set up. There were a number of nice scenes, but the overall story is a bit of a mess.
Expect the Unexpected (1998) - 6.5/10 - The film starts out pretty well with a botched robbery of a jewelry store by a group of inept thieves. The police search leads to the involvement of a much more hardened group of criminals who were staying in the same area. The film alternates between comedic moments, attempts at romance, and violent shootouts. It was okay, but not really that great.
Mad Detective (2007) - 8/10 - A young police detective seeks the aid of a brilliant former detective who has the ability to see people's inner selves and also sees an imaginary version of his ex-wife. The case that they are trying to solve involves a police officer who disappeared 18 months earlier, but whose gun has been used in recent crimes. The main suspect has multiple inner selves that accompany him everywhere. They did a nice job editing and it's a nice film with good acting performances.
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) - 10/10 - Still my favorite Studio Ghibli Film. Excellent.
25th Hour (2002) - 8.5/10 - Edward Norton stars as a drug dealer who has one last day before having to report to prison to serve a 7 year sentence. He spends the day with friends and reminisces on what led him to this moment. Norton gives a very nice performance and the supporting cast is also pretty good, including Rosario Dawson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, etc.
Crimson Gold (2003) - 8/10 - The film starts with a failed jewelry store robbery and then flashes back and fills in the previous two days in the life of Hussein, a pizza delivery driver. We get to see the divide between the wealthy and the lower class. It's a pretty good film.
Too Fat Too Furious / Vet Hard (2005) - 6/10 - Bennie is an overweight and slightly inept criminal who gets sent away to prison for a number of years. When he gets out, he finds that his old snack bar has been turned into a quiche bakery and his adoptive father needs an expensive transplant. He also finds that he has a homicidal brother that he knew nothing about. The comedy is often pretty dumb or in poor taste (or both), though there are some nice bits here and there and the film is generally not boring. The jailbreak and airport scenes in particular are mostly fun.
Tiger on the Beat (1988) - 7.5/10 - This buddy cop action comedy stars Chow Yun-fat and Conan Lee. There are plenty of stunts, fights, and chases. We even get fights with chainsaws and with bayonets. It's pretty entertaining.
Crime Story (1993) - 7.5/10 - Jackie Chan stars as a police special agent in a serious role without the usual comedy that many of his films have. A wealthy businessman is kidnapped and held for ransom. Chan teams up with a detective to try and find the man and capture the kidnappers. There is still plenty of action here, even without the usual types of humor.
Iron Monkey (1993) - 7.5/10 - The Iron Monkey is a Robin Hood type figure who steals from the governor and gives to refugees and the poor. By day, he is a local doctor with an assistant named Orchid who is also adept at martial arts. The governor sets a visiting herbalist to capture the Iron Monkey, keeping the man's son as hostage. There are plenty of entertaining fight scenes, though my favorites were the ones involving the son of the herbalist (actually played by a teenage girl). The story itself isn't necessarily anything special, but it was still fun.
Do Ankhen Barah Haath (1957) - 7.5/10 - An idealistic warden gets permission to run an experimental farm using six convicted murderers. They will have no shackles and they will be free to roam the farm, relying on trust to work and not run off. It's perhaps a bit simplistic and exaggerated at times, but is still a decent and entertaining film.
Boiling Point (1990) - 6.5/10 - Masaki plays baseball on a somewhat hapless team and also works as a gas station attendant. He is pretty unfocused and spaces out frequently. This gets him into trouble with one of the local gangs and he eventually travels with a friend to obtain guns. The movie seemed to have a lack of energy for periods of time which would then be interrupted by violence.
Uncut Gems (2019) - 6.5/10 - Adam Sandler plays an unpleasant New York City jeweler named Howard who smuggles a valuable rock with uncut gems in it from Africa. Kevin Garnett immediately talks him into letting Kevin borrow the rock for luck, offering his NBA Championship Ring as collateral. Howard has a number of debts and people after him for the money they are owed. Howard also likes to gamble. I didn't really enjoy the film all that much, though I can see why others might rate it higher.
Miss Bala (2011) - 7.5/10 - Laura Guerrero is a young woman who plans to enter a beauty pageant along with a close friend. Before the event, they visit a nightclub which is subsequently attacked by a drug gang. Laura gets caught up with the gang and is forced to do their bidding. I liked the performance of Stephanie Sigman as Laura. The story itself was decent, though we seem to be more of a spectator for events without getting much in the way of inside information.
Intimidation (1960) - 8/10 - Takita is an assistant bank manager who is getting a promotion to a Tokyo branch. He has the connections and has moved steadily up the ladder. His school friend Nakaike is a mild mannered clerk at the same bank and his career seems to be at a dead end. Takita is blackmailed over financial misdeeds and has to find a way to come up with the money. This is a taut film at just over an hour and is very well done.
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) - 7.5/10 - Su-mi is a teenage girl who returns home after a stay at a mental institution. She has a close relationship with her younger sister Su-yeon and a strained relationship with her stepmother. Her father remains somewhat distant. The battle between the girls and their stepmother goes on while some spooky things occur. This is a nice horror film, though I thought it was a bit too long with the first half being stronger than the second half.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Doing something of a 1995 watch-rewatch.
The Crossing Guard (Sean Penn): first viewing. The word “overwrought” seems made for this film. I don’t think the fact that this film is macho bullshit is the problem. It’s just that Jack Nicholson is really poorly cast for this kind of macho bullshit. I’m not sure why he got more dialed into Sean Penn’s groove for an even more internalized protagonist in The Pledge but I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that his character has more of a through line in The Pledge. The Crossing Guard’s central premise of a man locating his daughter’s killer and giving him three days before he comes back and kills him is just Drama Class bullshit — or Paul Schrader cosplay. David Morse is fantastic. He picked up a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from Film Independent but I think he’s a lead. I suspect Anjelica Huston missed out on a nomination because her big scene (and it’s a good one) is near the end of the film. I would say that Sean Penn had noble intentions on this one but honestly, I’m not sure. But whatever it took to get him to Into the Wild is fine by me.
Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins): second viewing. I’m a bit lower on this one this time I’m a bit at loggerheads with what it’s doing. What keeps it from being a screed is that Sister Helen Prejean’s narrative isn’t really about the death penalty. It’s just to get through this situation, care for this man, and hope to walk him through redemption. The conversations about the death penalty happen around her and I think that’s smart. The fact that Matthew Poncelet is truly a piece of shit is a strong choice that I doubt would happen today. We don’t live in a world that wants to acknowledge that bad people are still human beings. Mister Tee described this as a film of negative virtues. That’s the one that I would say gives it the most utility. I hate Matthew Poncelet and I cried at least twice for him. What bothers me about the film is the number of didactic moments in the film, especially Poncelet literally speaking the film’s theme in his final moments. But what Dead Man Walking is saying in this film is troublesome: it suggests that were it not for the death penalty, Matthew Poncelet probably wouldn’t admit to wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness. That’s certainly not a full endorsement of the practice but it strikes me as at least half of one and I’m struggling with what to do with that. There’s a catharsis in this film and I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Beyond that: Sarandon is excellent; this might be Sean Penn’s best work; I almost want to rewatch this film to see exactly how Roger Deakins manages to shoot through a prison mesh so many times and keep it cinematic.
Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin): first viewing. This one is interesting. I could write a laundry list of reasons why it doesn’t totally work, chief among them that it’s more of an origin story than anything else. This film invites comparison to Chinatown at every turn but Easy isn’t that driven by anything that happens, including the death of a lover. It’s the story of a person who learns that he’s a detective, and everything else is sort of swirling around him. Then Don Cheadle shows up as Mouse and the film gets a new energy it’s been lacking. He’s fantastic and certainly deserved a nomination. Overall, I enjoyed it as a (gorgeously shot) vision of post-war racism in Los Angeles. I wonder if everyone involved might have been better served to do a story where Easy is already a detective but I’m glad we have this one.
Georgia (Ulu Grosbard): first viewing all the way through. A little bit of an endurance test for me although I applaud it in theory. Its depiction of these two sisters and its refusal to judge Sadie as untalented until we understand all we need to know by the end is commendable. It ultimately doesn't matter if Sadie is a "raw talent" or not. What matters is this is all she's going to do with it. I applaud it, it's honest, but it exhausted me.
Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld): second viewing. File this one under the “1995 Stuff” drawer, benefiting immeasurably from audiences clamoring for a new Travolta film and for John Travolta to do exactly this. Now that we’ve seen Elmore Leonard done right with Jackie Brown and especially Out of Sight this one starts to dissipate long before it's over and I think I know why. Barry Sonnenfeld keeps it all on the surface. John Travolta, Rene Russo, and Gene Hackman just coast on movie star charm. They never dial into any character's desperation or transformation. We never see Chili Palmer get entranced by Hollywood. He just starts acting like it’s happened. You can feel what’s missing whenever Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini, or especially Denis Farina are on-screen. Between this film and Out of Sight, Denis Farina really might have been our greatest performer of Elmore Leonard characters. Anyway, it’s fun and occasionally very funny. If there is one nomination it really did miss out on it was John Lurie’s score for Comedy or Musical.
Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis): wrote about this elsewhere. Hooker with a Heart of Gold cliche is unavoidable, as well as others. What I find beguiling about the film is the feel of Las Vegas in every corner of the film as well as how tentatively Cage and Shue move towards a relationship. Their “lock-in” is halfway through the damn film! I get lost in it every time I see it.
Heat (Michael Mann): probably just a second viewing for me. It’s a movie that’s easy to get obsessed with. Mike D’Angelo put it well by saying it plays like a first season of a terrific cop show boiled down to a three-hour movie (it started as an un-produced pilot), which backs up something I’ve been thinking for some time: more shows should be movies. I think the reason why Heat just rules is that it always feels like it doesn’t have time for the story that it’s telling, which it turns out is the perfect amount of story for Michael Mann’s mythologizing gaze. It’s a film that’s always hinting at a grander scale. Ask me in another viewing if I think it’s a great American film. Right now, I still just think it’s sweet. Also: staggering that it got zero nominations, especially for Sound. It’s more understandable that this three-hour film missed out on an editing nomination but the way the final shootout shifts POV between DeNiro and Pacino is incredible.
Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee): probably third viewing. REWRITING MY POST BASED ON TRYING TO UNDERSTAND MY DIMINISHING ENTHUSIASM FOR IT: I think Jane Austen movies can have a winking quality to them because it's very easy for her characters to feel out of time. I like how Ang Lee suppresses that quality into an unescapable melancholy as the Dashwood sisters are dragged from one false hope (in male form) to another. Even though the plotting is a bit eh (Roger Ebert is right re: the male suitors being called away three arbitrarily times) most of the film's emotional heft came from the sympathy I felt for these women forced to be passively plotted along. It's an interesting idea for which Lee is a good match. But while I like the film, there's something unsatisfying about it and I think I know what it is. Emma Thompson really is too old for this part. I never really feel like I'm watching sisters who are in this situation together. Aside from Emma Thompson's crying (very moving), the music does all the heavy lifting at the end to tell me how to feel. Should I watch Persuasion instead?
To Die For (Gus Van Sant): first viewing all the way through. Seen it in bits and pieces on IFC, and of course when it was remade into I, Tonya. Very well-directed and written (man, it zips along). I want to draw attention to one element of Gus Van Sant’s direction. How many times have we seen the “actors playing interview subjects” thing? Whenever Ileana Douglas is on-screen, I really do feel like I’m watching Matt Dillon’s character’s sister. That’s a credit to Douglas and Van Sant’s staging (the ever-so-slightly roaming camera). Nicole Kidman is so terrific I wish the film found a way to give us a little more of a window into her decision-making (that’s why she didn’t get a nomination). There’s a pretty terrific joke in the film’s first act that the reason she’s so doggedly pursuing this career is, well, she already gave a blow job for it on her honeymoon. Can’t turn back now. As soon as Phoenix, Affleck, and Folland show up, it’s clear why Gus Van Sant took the project and it gets a whole new vulnerable energy. I don’t know if it ever quite balances the two tones (arch and ache) but I didn’t care. Another quite good 1995 film.
Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam): probably third viewing. This might be my favorite of these films if only because it’s such a heavy brick of sci-fi dystopia to drop into audience’s laps back in 1995. The fact that it was a hit and they screamed for more is wild. Now that sadly we’re probably at the end of Bruce Willis’ filmography I submit his teary reaction to a 20th-century movie in the backseat to Madeline Stowe (whatever happened to her) as his career-best moment. He is/was able to use his everyman qualities for pathos and weirdness that set him apart from the 80’s/90’s action stars. He really does an excellent job of anchoring this film; cast anyone else and I bet Terry Gilliam’s weirdness would have dwarfed the human element which Willis delivers. As for the film, it’s chockablock with great moves, chief among them the fact that we never see the time-travel. It just disorientingly… happens, which is probably how we would experience such a thing first or secondhand. It’s all quite good until the ending which might be the best piece of filmmaking of Terry Gilliam’s career with its unremitting sadness and mind-melting time loop implications. It was too much for me in 1995. I had nightmares for days. Still troubles me today.
The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer): third or fourth viewing. I noticed something on this viewing. The break into the second act is literally Chazz Palmentari informing Kevin Spacey that he’s smarter than him and he won’t be able to fool him. And then the entire rest of the film is Spacey rising to that challenge. That moment in a film (the break into the second act) is usually the moment that defines the movie we are about to see. Subconsciously, I think that’s why the film works as effectively as it does. It’s just baked into the right moment. Anyway, I’ve never quite been able to embrace or dismiss this film outright because it always feels to me like two great scenes in search of a better movie (the lineup, the ending). I always lose track of what I’m supposed to care about during the film. Spacey wants to tell Palmentari about the caper while Palmentari wants to get the truth out about Gabriel Byrne. And I just never… keep up with it. The importance of these “Usual Suspects” banded never lands for me: what jobs they’re doing and why. Honestly, I wonder if Singer is to blame for that. He’s always been a slick filmmaker. The tagline of Get Shorty is “Attitude is everything” and that might apply well to this one. The reason why I remain in the middle of it is that I can’t deny that it’s a fresh approach to the low-life criminals on a heist sub-genre. It should be enjoyed on those terms. It’s fun.
The Crossing Guard (Sean Penn): first viewing. The word “overwrought” seems made for this film. I don’t think the fact that this film is macho bullshit is the problem. It’s just that Jack Nicholson is really poorly cast for this kind of macho bullshit. I’m not sure why he got more dialed into Sean Penn’s groove for an even more internalized protagonist in The Pledge but I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that his character has more of a through line in The Pledge. The Crossing Guard’s central premise of a man locating his daughter’s killer and giving him three days before he comes back and kills him is just Drama Class bullshit — or Paul Schrader cosplay. David Morse is fantastic. He picked up a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from Film Independent but I think he’s a lead. I suspect Anjelica Huston missed out on a nomination because her big scene (and it’s a good one) is near the end of the film. I would say that Sean Penn had noble intentions on this one but honestly, I’m not sure. But whatever it took to get him to Into the Wild is fine by me.
Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins): second viewing. I’m a bit lower on this one this time I’m a bit at loggerheads with what it’s doing. What keeps it from being a screed is that Sister Helen Prejean’s narrative isn’t really about the death penalty. It’s just to get through this situation, care for this man, and hope to walk him through redemption. The conversations about the death penalty happen around her and I think that’s smart. The fact that Matthew Poncelet is truly a piece of shit is a strong choice that I doubt would happen today. We don’t live in a world that wants to acknowledge that bad people are still human beings. Mister Tee described this as a film of negative virtues. That’s the one that I would say gives it the most utility. I hate Matthew Poncelet and I cried at least twice for him. What bothers me about the film is the number of didactic moments in the film, especially Poncelet literally speaking the film’s theme in his final moments. But what Dead Man Walking is saying in this film is troublesome: it suggests that were it not for the death penalty, Matthew Poncelet probably wouldn’t admit to wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness. That’s certainly not a full endorsement of the practice but it strikes me as at least half of one and I’m struggling with what to do with that. There’s a catharsis in this film and I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Beyond that: Sarandon is excellent; this might be Sean Penn’s best work; I almost want to rewatch this film to see exactly how Roger Deakins manages to shoot through a prison mesh so many times and keep it cinematic.
Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin): first viewing. This one is interesting. I could write a laundry list of reasons why it doesn’t totally work, chief among them that it’s more of an origin story than anything else. This film invites comparison to Chinatown at every turn but Easy isn’t that driven by anything that happens, including the death of a lover. It’s the story of a person who learns that he’s a detective, and everything else is sort of swirling around him. Then Don Cheadle shows up as Mouse and the film gets a new energy it’s been lacking. He’s fantastic and certainly deserved a nomination. Overall, I enjoyed it as a (gorgeously shot) vision of post-war racism in Los Angeles. I wonder if everyone involved might have been better served to do a story where Easy is already a detective but I’m glad we have this one.
Georgia (Ulu Grosbard): first viewing all the way through. A little bit of an endurance test for me although I applaud it in theory. Its depiction of these two sisters and its refusal to judge Sadie as untalented until we understand all we need to know by the end is commendable. It ultimately doesn't matter if Sadie is a "raw talent" or not. What matters is this is all she's going to do with it. I applaud it, it's honest, but it exhausted me.
Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld): second viewing. File this one under the “1995 Stuff” drawer, benefiting immeasurably from audiences clamoring for a new Travolta film and for John Travolta to do exactly this. Now that we’ve seen Elmore Leonard done right with Jackie Brown and especially Out of Sight this one starts to dissipate long before it's over and I think I know why. Barry Sonnenfeld keeps it all on the surface. John Travolta, Rene Russo, and Gene Hackman just coast on movie star charm. They never dial into any character's desperation or transformation. We never see Chili Palmer get entranced by Hollywood. He just starts acting like it’s happened. You can feel what’s missing whenever Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini, or especially Denis Farina are on-screen. Between this film and Out of Sight, Denis Farina really might have been our greatest performer of Elmore Leonard characters. Anyway, it’s fun and occasionally very funny. If there is one nomination it really did miss out on it was John Lurie’s score for Comedy or Musical.
Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis): wrote about this elsewhere. Hooker with a Heart of Gold cliche is unavoidable, as well as others. What I find beguiling about the film is the feel of Las Vegas in every corner of the film as well as how tentatively Cage and Shue move towards a relationship. Their “lock-in” is halfway through the damn film! I get lost in it every time I see it.
Heat (Michael Mann): probably just a second viewing for me. It’s a movie that’s easy to get obsessed with. Mike D’Angelo put it well by saying it plays like a first season of a terrific cop show boiled down to a three-hour movie (it started as an un-produced pilot), which backs up something I’ve been thinking for some time: more shows should be movies. I think the reason why Heat just rules is that it always feels like it doesn’t have time for the story that it’s telling, which it turns out is the perfect amount of story for Michael Mann’s mythologizing gaze. It’s a film that’s always hinting at a grander scale. Ask me in another viewing if I think it’s a great American film. Right now, I still just think it’s sweet. Also: staggering that it got zero nominations, especially for Sound. It’s more understandable that this three-hour film missed out on an editing nomination but the way the final shootout shifts POV between DeNiro and Pacino is incredible.
Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee): probably third viewing. REWRITING MY POST BASED ON TRYING TO UNDERSTAND MY DIMINISHING ENTHUSIASM FOR IT: I think Jane Austen movies can have a winking quality to them because it's very easy for her characters to feel out of time. I like how Ang Lee suppresses that quality into an unescapable melancholy as the Dashwood sisters are dragged from one false hope (in male form) to another. Even though the plotting is a bit eh (Roger Ebert is right re: the male suitors being called away three arbitrarily times) most of the film's emotional heft came from the sympathy I felt for these women forced to be passively plotted along. It's an interesting idea for which Lee is a good match. But while I like the film, there's something unsatisfying about it and I think I know what it is. Emma Thompson really is too old for this part. I never really feel like I'm watching sisters who are in this situation together. Aside from Emma Thompson's crying (very moving), the music does all the heavy lifting at the end to tell me how to feel. Should I watch Persuasion instead?
To Die For (Gus Van Sant): first viewing all the way through. Seen it in bits and pieces on IFC, and of course when it was remade into I, Tonya. Very well-directed and written (man, it zips along). I want to draw attention to one element of Gus Van Sant’s direction. How many times have we seen the “actors playing interview subjects” thing? Whenever Ileana Douglas is on-screen, I really do feel like I’m watching Matt Dillon’s character’s sister. That’s a credit to Douglas and Van Sant’s staging (the ever-so-slightly roaming camera). Nicole Kidman is so terrific I wish the film found a way to give us a little more of a window into her decision-making (that’s why she didn’t get a nomination). There’s a pretty terrific joke in the film’s first act that the reason she’s so doggedly pursuing this career is, well, she already gave a blow job for it on her honeymoon. Can’t turn back now. As soon as Phoenix, Affleck, and Folland show up, it’s clear why Gus Van Sant took the project and it gets a whole new vulnerable energy. I don’t know if it ever quite balances the two tones (arch and ache) but I didn’t care. Another quite good 1995 film.
Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam): probably third viewing. This might be my favorite of these films if only because it’s such a heavy brick of sci-fi dystopia to drop into audience’s laps back in 1995. The fact that it was a hit and they screamed for more is wild. Now that sadly we’re probably at the end of Bruce Willis’ filmography I submit his teary reaction to a 20th-century movie in the backseat to Madeline Stowe (whatever happened to her) as his career-best moment. He is/was able to use his everyman qualities for pathos and weirdness that set him apart from the 80’s/90’s action stars. He really does an excellent job of anchoring this film; cast anyone else and I bet Terry Gilliam’s weirdness would have dwarfed the human element which Willis delivers. As for the film, it’s chockablock with great moves, chief among them the fact that we never see the time-travel. It just disorientingly… happens, which is probably how we would experience such a thing first or secondhand. It’s all quite good until the ending which might be the best piece of filmmaking of Terry Gilliam’s career with its unremitting sadness and mind-melting time loop implications. It was too much for me in 1995. I had nightmares for days. Still troubles me today.
The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer): third or fourth viewing. I noticed something on this viewing. The break into the second act is literally Chazz Palmentari informing Kevin Spacey that he’s smarter than him and he won’t be able to fool him. And then the entire rest of the film is Spacey rising to that challenge. That moment in a film (the break into the second act) is usually the moment that defines the movie we are about to see. Subconsciously, I think that’s why the film works as effectively as it does. It’s just baked into the right moment. Anyway, I’ve never quite been able to embrace or dismiss this film outright because it always feels to me like two great scenes in search of a better movie (the lineup, the ending). I always lose track of what I’m supposed to care about during the film. Spacey wants to tell Palmentari about the caper while Palmentari wants to get the truth out about Gabriel Byrne. And I just never… keep up with it. The importance of these “Usual Suspects” banded never lands for me: what jobs they’re doing and why. Honestly, I wonder if Singer is to blame for that. He’s always been a slick filmmaker. The tagline of Get Shorty is “Attitude is everything” and that might apply well to this one. The reason why I remain in the middle of it is that I can’t deny that it’s a fresh approach to the low-life criminals on a heist sub-genre. It should be enjoyed on those terms. It’s fun.
"How's the despair?"
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) 10/10
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) 6/10
The Soong Sisters (Mabel Cheung, 1997) 6/10
Sanitized historical film covering sprawling Chinese history takes on a feminist stance in this story about the three United States-educated (Wesleyan College, Georgia) daughters of a very successful businessman - the Soong Sisters. The eldest (Michelle Yeoh) marries an important Chinese banker and politician who was highly influential in determining the economic policies of the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government of the Republic of China in the 1930s and 1940s. The middle sister (Maggie Cheung) defies her father and marries his close friend, Sun Yat-sen, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Nationalist Party of China, and popularly known as the "Father of the Nation" in the Republic of China, and the "Forerunner of the Revolution" in the People's Republic of China. When he dies he is succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek, the military, and
revolutionary leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China. The youngest sister (Vivian Wu) marries him. The internal bickering amongst the sisters forms the often soap opera plot which is at the center of the extraordinary series of historical events their lives took them through. The film ends with Communist leader Mao Zedong announcing the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The film's feminist stance completely ignores the three Soong brothers who played an equally important part in the country's history while censorship in China forced the director to downplay a lot of the bloodshed. Sumptuously produced film plods as it has far too much history to cover in such short a time. While the three stars are very appealing one wonders how this story would have been cast if Hollywood got a hold of it way back in the 1940s - as the three Chinese sisters maybe Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck?
Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) 10/10
"Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again….’’. The famous opening words of the novel and film – a tender gothic romance and a haunting ghost story - which transports the viewer back into time as the narrator conjures up the image of a stately mansion called ‘Manderley’’ on the Cornish coast. The narrator of the story is a young woman (Joan Fontaine), a paid companion to an American matron (a hilariously vulgar Florence Bates), whose first name is never mentioned. The story unfolds through her eyes as she describes her sudden meeting and marriage with Max De Winter (Laurence Olivier), owner of a great ancestral home, and a man haunted by something in his past. As his second wife she reluctantly settles into a life totally alien to her as she has to handle the day-to-day affairs of the house with its many servants of whom the most formidable is Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), the personal maid of the deceased first mistress of the house. She also meets her in-laws (Nigel Bruce & Gladys Cooper) and Rebecca's over-familiar cousin (George Sanders). As she begins to settle down and win over her gruff husband a sinking feeling continues to nag at her. Gradually the shocking mystery of the past is revealed which involves Rebecca - the enigmatic, sophisticated and very beautiful first wife who had died under mysterious circumstances. Hitchcock’s first film in Hollywood and produced by David O’Selznick whose last film – Gone With the Wind – had been a huge success winning many Academy awards including Best Picture. Hitchcock carefully creates his trademark suspense by intentionally keeping the main character in the dark (he told Fontaine that everyone on set hated her including Olivier who had wanted Vivien Leigh to play the part) and since the audience is watching the plot unfold through her eyes the suspense is maintained till the end when all is revealed. The film’s success hinges on the performance of Joan Fontaine – until then an actress who had appeared in only minor films - who rises to the demands of a very difficult role. She perfectly captures the pathetic and shy quality of the character one who gradually begins to come out of her shell. She is extraordinary and matches the performances of her two distinguished co-stars, the simmering and aloof Laurence Olivier and the quietly menacing evil of Judith Anderson. George Barnes' brooding Oscar winning cinematography superbly creates the tense atmosphere which is sustained right to the end while the hauntingly romantic score by Franz Waxman is also memorable. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture while Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson were all nominated for their superb performances.
Drishyam 2 (Abhishek Pathak, 2022) 6/10
A direct sequel to the 2015 crime film which was about the accidental killing of a teenager - the son of the Inspector General of Goa Police (Tabu) - who had taken nude photos of a fellow student and was blackmailing her mother for sex. When the daughter attempts to break his phone she hits him in the head and he dies. Both mother and daughter bury the body in the garden which is later reburied in a different location by the girl's father (Ajay Devgn). The sequel begins seven years later as a witness to the burial comes forward, the dead boy's mother returns seeking vengeance and answers to the mysterious disappearance of the dead body and tries to get help from the new Inspector (Akshaye Khanna). Gripping film has the guilty family staying one step ahead of the cops while managing to spring a couple of shocks and surprises into the case. The film is a pas de deux between the prey (Devgn) and the predator (Tabu) with both actors circling each other in their quest to win. Often suspenseful film is slightly marred by some of the supporting cast members who either overact or underplay along with a plot that has a few too many pot holes.
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) 6/10
The Soong Sisters (Mabel Cheung, 1997) 6/10
Sanitized historical film covering sprawling Chinese history takes on a feminist stance in this story about the three United States-educated (Wesleyan College, Georgia) daughters of a very successful businessman - the Soong Sisters. The eldest (Michelle Yeoh) marries an important Chinese banker and politician who was highly influential in determining the economic policies of the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government of the Republic of China in the 1930s and 1940s. The middle sister (Maggie Cheung) defies her father and marries his close friend, Sun Yat-sen, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Nationalist Party of China, and popularly known as the "Father of the Nation" in the Republic of China, and the "Forerunner of the Revolution" in the People's Republic of China. When he dies he is succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek, the military, and
revolutionary leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China. The youngest sister (Vivian Wu) marries him. The internal bickering amongst the sisters forms the often soap opera plot which is at the center of the extraordinary series of historical events their lives took them through. The film ends with Communist leader Mao Zedong announcing the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The film's feminist stance completely ignores the three Soong brothers who played an equally important part in the country's history while censorship in China forced the director to downplay a lot of the bloodshed. Sumptuously produced film plods as it has far too much history to cover in such short a time. While the three stars are very appealing one wonders how this story would have been cast if Hollywood got a hold of it way back in the 1940s - as the three Chinese sisters maybe Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck?
Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) 10/10
"Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again….’’. The famous opening words of the novel and film – a tender gothic romance and a haunting ghost story - which transports the viewer back into time as the narrator conjures up the image of a stately mansion called ‘Manderley’’ on the Cornish coast. The narrator of the story is a young woman (Joan Fontaine), a paid companion to an American matron (a hilariously vulgar Florence Bates), whose first name is never mentioned. The story unfolds through her eyes as she describes her sudden meeting and marriage with Max De Winter (Laurence Olivier), owner of a great ancestral home, and a man haunted by something in his past. As his second wife she reluctantly settles into a life totally alien to her as she has to handle the day-to-day affairs of the house with its many servants of whom the most formidable is Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), the personal maid of the deceased first mistress of the house. She also meets her in-laws (Nigel Bruce & Gladys Cooper) and Rebecca's over-familiar cousin (George Sanders). As she begins to settle down and win over her gruff husband a sinking feeling continues to nag at her. Gradually the shocking mystery of the past is revealed which involves Rebecca - the enigmatic, sophisticated and very beautiful first wife who had died under mysterious circumstances. Hitchcock’s first film in Hollywood and produced by David O’Selznick whose last film – Gone With the Wind – had been a huge success winning many Academy awards including Best Picture. Hitchcock carefully creates his trademark suspense by intentionally keeping the main character in the dark (he told Fontaine that everyone on set hated her including Olivier who had wanted Vivien Leigh to play the part) and since the audience is watching the plot unfold through her eyes the suspense is maintained till the end when all is revealed. The film’s success hinges on the performance of Joan Fontaine – until then an actress who had appeared in only minor films - who rises to the demands of a very difficult role. She perfectly captures the pathetic and shy quality of the character one who gradually begins to come out of her shell. She is extraordinary and matches the performances of her two distinguished co-stars, the simmering and aloof Laurence Olivier and the quietly menacing evil of Judith Anderson. George Barnes' brooding Oscar winning cinematography superbly creates the tense atmosphere which is sustained right to the end while the hauntingly romantic score by Franz Waxman is also memorable. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture while Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson were all nominated for their superb performances.
Drishyam 2 (Abhishek Pathak, 2022) 6/10
A direct sequel to the 2015 crime film which was about the accidental killing of a teenager - the son of the Inspector General of Goa Police (Tabu) - who had taken nude photos of a fellow student and was blackmailing her mother for sex. When the daughter attempts to break his phone she hits him in the head and he dies. Both mother and daughter bury the body in the garden which is later reburied in a different location by the girl's father (Ajay Devgn). The sequel begins seven years later as a witness to the burial comes forward, the dead boy's mother returns seeking vengeance and answers to the mysterious disappearance of the dead body and tries to get help from the new Inspector (Akshaye Khanna). Gripping film has the guilty family staying one step ahead of the cops while managing to spring a couple of shocks and surprises into the case. The film is a pas de deux between the prey (Devgn) and the predator (Tabu) with both actors circling each other in their quest to win. Often suspenseful film is slightly marred by some of the supporting cast members who either overact or underplay along with a plot that has a few too many pot holes.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Born in Flames (1983) - 7/10 - This low budget film features a couple of feminist groups in New York City in a near future society. Two pirate radio stations are in action, women ride in groups on bicycles through the city to protect other women from assault, and there is plenty of political action. More drastic measures are put in play when a major political activist is killed while in police custody. I thought the film was pretty interesting.
Kaddu Beykat (1976) - 7/10 - This film takes place in the director's village in Senegal and depicts the daily life of the villagers there and it also serves as a discussion with some of the problems facing them. Drought has been a problem for several years and the harvests are not providing what they once did. One villager is hoping to get married soon, but doesn't have the money needed for the bride price. He travels to the city (Dakar) to find work, but finds people there who are willing to exploit those who want to work.
Malcolm (1986) - 7.5/10 - Malcolm is a high functioning autistic man who is a mechanical genius loses his job working for a tram company. He takes on a boarder to help make ends meet and the boarder turns out to be a criminal who was recently released from jail. Malcolm uses his inventive genius to help pull off a number of robberies. This was a fun comedy with some quirky inventions to help liven things up.
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) - 6/10 - An escaped serial killer attacks people at a home where a group of high school girls have gathered for a sleepover. The killer uses a cordless power drill and seemed pretty odd. There is a lot of gratuitous nudity and there are also tons of jump scares. It's not the best slasher film, but was watchable and had some humor, intended or not.
Landscape in the Mist (1988) - 8/10 - Voula is a young girl who goes to the Athens train station with her little brother every day with the idea of boarding the express train to Germany to search for their father. The two kids live with their mother and have never known their father, but she has told them that he is in Germany. They finally take the plunge and start out on their journey, but there are many roadblocks along the way, including not having tickets for the train. I liked this one a lot.
Love Streams (1984) - 8/10 - John Cassavetes stars (and directs) as a Robert, a writer who drinks too much and always is seeking out the company of a number of women. One of his ex-wives shows up one day and drops off the 8 year old son he's never spent time with and he agrees to have him spend the night. He promptly takes the kid to Vegas and essentially abandons him in the hotel room. Robert's sister, Sarah (Gena Rowlands), has mental issues and is going through a divorce as a result. She ends up staying with her brother after the divorce. The film has its ups and downs and there is plenty of humor amidst the pain each is suffering. I enjoyed the film, but I'm sure it isn't for everyone.
Accattone (1961) - 6/10 - Accattone is a lazy pimp who runs into a problem when his prostitute is sent to jail. Since he is apparently allergic to work, he recruits a young woman and has her try selling herself on the streets. I didn't really connect with this one. It seems to be fairly well made, but neither the characters nor the story interested me much.
Charulata (1964) - 8/10 - Charu is an intelligent, but lonely housewife in the 1870s. Her husband spends all of his time with his newspaper and Charu doesn't have much to do with the servants running things in the household. Her quality of life improves with the arrival of her husband's cousin, an intellectual like herself. It's a nice film.
The Mother and the Whore (1973) - 5.5/10 - Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for this one, but the endless talking usually wasn't all that interesting, especially with a leading character that I didn't care for very much. The really long run time didn't help either.
The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - 8/10 - In Luis Buñuel's penultimate film, we are treated to a series of surrealist sketches that are at times loosely connected. Some of them are funnier than others, but overall it is a pretty entertaining film.
Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) - 6.5/10 - The film started out very well with Julie reading on a park bench and then seeing Céline go by dropping items along the way. The chase scene was fun. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the film for me along with a few other scenes (such as the library) early in the film. It eventually became much less interesting and I didn't really care about the mystery in the mansion at all.
Le Belle Noiseuse (1991) - 7/10 - A young artist takes his girlfriend to visit a well known, but older artist who hasn't painted for some time. The artist is convince to try and finish a long abandoned piece that could be his masterwork using the girlfriend (Emmanuelle Béart) as the model. There are a number of long shots with the artist sketching or painting and that gets a bit old. The film is also nearly 4 hours in length which is a deterrent. I still found it somewhat interesting, though.
The Long Day Closes (1992) - 7.5/10 - A British schoolboy in the 1950s spends a lot of time at the local cinema. He is bullied at school and has no real friends. It evokes the era pretty well. The soundtrack is very nice. I think that I might grow to like this more if I rewatch it again someday.
Guernsey (2005) - 4.5/10 - This was a pretty dull movie. There were lots of scenes with little to no dialogue or action. There also wasn't much of a discernible plot.
Only Clouds Move the Stars (1998) - 8/10 - A young girl has to cope with losing her little brother to cancer and having her mother sink into depression and essentially abandon the family. An energetic boy that she meets helps bring her out of her gloom, at least for a while.
News from Home (1977) - 7/10 - I thought this was pretty boring at first, but started to get into it more as it went along and was enjoying it by the end. My first visit to New York City wasn't long after this film came out. My family visited the city for the Major League Baseball All Star Game during the summer of 1977 so seeing all of the footage of the city from that time period was cool. I even started getting into the letters from her mother, wondering when she would get her next $20 in the mail.
Gimme Shelter (1970) - 8/10 - This documentary about the free concert that The Rolling Stones put on in San Francisco on December 6, 1969 is pretty interesting. The concert footage is pretty cool and we get some video from the Madison Square Garden concert, too. The behind the scenes footage is maybe even more interesting. I saw The Rolling Stones in concert in the mid-2000s and they put on a good show. Fortunately nobody died at that one.
Every Man for Himself (1980) - 5/10 - An odd film about the sexual lives and interests of several people. It wasn't very good.
Colossal Youth (2006) - 5/10 - After his home is destroyed, a man wanders around the city and talks to various people. It seemed pretty lifeless and wasn't my thing.
WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971) - 3/10 - Part documentary, part fiction, very strange.
Love Me Tonight (1932) - 7.5/10 - I'm not generally much of a Maurice Chevalier fan, but I did enjoy this one where he stars as a tailor who pretends to be a Baron in order to collect a debt from a poor aristocrat. Meanwhile, a princess (Jeanette MacDonald) falls in love with him. The songs were good and there was a fair amount of humor during the film.
Kaddu Beykat (1976) - 7/10 - This film takes place in the director's village in Senegal and depicts the daily life of the villagers there and it also serves as a discussion with some of the problems facing them. Drought has been a problem for several years and the harvests are not providing what they once did. One villager is hoping to get married soon, but doesn't have the money needed for the bride price. He travels to the city (Dakar) to find work, but finds people there who are willing to exploit those who want to work.
Malcolm (1986) - 7.5/10 - Malcolm is a high functioning autistic man who is a mechanical genius loses his job working for a tram company. He takes on a boarder to help make ends meet and the boarder turns out to be a criminal who was recently released from jail. Malcolm uses his inventive genius to help pull off a number of robberies. This was a fun comedy with some quirky inventions to help liven things up.
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) - 6/10 - An escaped serial killer attacks people at a home where a group of high school girls have gathered for a sleepover. The killer uses a cordless power drill and seemed pretty odd. There is a lot of gratuitous nudity and there are also tons of jump scares. It's not the best slasher film, but was watchable and had some humor, intended or not.
Landscape in the Mist (1988) - 8/10 - Voula is a young girl who goes to the Athens train station with her little brother every day with the idea of boarding the express train to Germany to search for their father. The two kids live with their mother and have never known their father, but she has told them that he is in Germany. They finally take the plunge and start out on their journey, but there are many roadblocks along the way, including not having tickets for the train. I liked this one a lot.
Love Streams (1984) - 8/10 - John Cassavetes stars (and directs) as a Robert, a writer who drinks too much and always is seeking out the company of a number of women. One of his ex-wives shows up one day and drops off the 8 year old son he's never spent time with and he agrees to have him spend the night. He promptly takes the kid to Vegas and essentially abandons him in the hotel room. Robert's sister, Sarah (Gena Rowlands), has mental issues and is going through a divorce as a result. She ends up staying with her brother after the divorce. The film has its ups and downs and there is plenty of humor amidst the pain each is suffering. I enjoyed the film, but I'm sure it isn't for everyone.
Accattone (1961) - 6/10 - Accattone is a lazy pimp who runs into a problem when his prostitute is sent to jail. Since he is apparently allergic to work, he recruits a young woman and has her try selling herself on the streets. I didn't really connect with this one. It seems to be fairly well made, but neither the characters nor the story interested me much.
Charulata (1964) - 8/10 - Charu is an intelligent, but lonely housewife in the 1870s. Her husband spends all of his time with his newspaper and Charu doesn't have much to do with the servants running things in the household. Her quality of life improves with the arrival of her husband's cousin, an intellectual like herself. It's a nice film.
The Mother and the Whore (1973) - 5.5/10 - Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for this one, but the endless talking usually wasn't all that interesting, especially with a leading character that I didn't care for very much. The really long run time didn't help either.
The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - 8/10 - In Luis Buñuel's penultimate film, we are treated to a series of surrealist sketches that are at times loosely connected. Some of them are funnier than others, but overall it is a pretty entertaining film.
Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) - 6.5/10 - The film started out very well with Julie reading on a park bench and then seeing Céline go by dropping items along the way. The chase scene was fun. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the film for me along with a few other scenes (such as the library) early in the film. It eventually became much less interesting and I didn't really care about the mystery in the mansion at all.
Le Belle Noiseuse (1991) - 7/10 - A young artist takes his girlfriend to visit a well known, but older artist who hasn't painted for some time. The artist is convince to try and finish a long abandoned piece that could be his masterwork using the girlfriend (Emmanuelle Béart) as the model. There are a number of long shots with the artist sketching or painting and that gets a bit old. The film is also nearly 4 hours in length which is a deterrent. I still found it somewhat interesting, though.
The Long Day Closes (1992) - 7.5/10 - A British schoolboy in the 1950s spends a lot of time at the local cinema. He is bullied at school and has no real friends. It evokes the era pretty well. The soundtrack is very nice. I think that I might grow to like this more if I rewatch it again someday.
Guernsey (2005) - 4.5/10 - This was a pretty dull movie. There were lots of scenes with little to no dialogue or action. There also wasn't much of a discernible plot.
Only Clouds Move the Stars (1998) - 8/10 - A young girl has to cope with losing her little brother to cancer and having her mother sink into depression and essentially abandon the family. An energetic boy that she meets helps bring her out of her gloom, at least for a while.
News from Home (1977) - 7/10 - I thought this was pretty boring at first, but started to get into it more as it went along and was enjoying it by the end. My first visit to New York City wasn't long after this film came out. My family visited the city for the Major League Baseball All Star Game during the summer of 1977 so seeing all of the footage of the city from that time period was cool. I even started getting into the letters from her mother, wondering when she would get her next $20 in the mail.
Gimme Shelter (1970) - 8/10 - This documentary about the free concert that The Rolling Stones put on in San Francisco on December 6, 1969 is pretty interesting. The concert footage is pretty cool and we get some video from the Madison Square Garden concert, too. The behind the scenes footage is maybe even more interesting. I saw The Rolling Stones in concert in the mid-2000s and they put on a good show. Fortunately nobody died at that one.
Every Man for Himself (1980) - 5/10 - An odd film about the sexual lives and interests of several people. It wasn't very good.
Colossal Youth (2006) - 5/10 - After his home is destroyed, a man wanders around the city and talks to various people. It seemed pretty lifeless and wasn't my thing.
WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971) - 3/10 - Part documentary, part fiction, very strange.
Love Me Tonight (1932) - 7.5/10 - I'm not generally much of a Maurice Chevalier fan, but I did enjoy this one where he stars as a tailor who pretends to be a Baron in order to collect a debt from a poor aristocrat. Meanwhile, a princess (Jeanette MacDonald) falls in love with him. The songs were good and there was a fair amount of humor during the film.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Under Fire (Roger Spottiswoode, 1983) 8/10
Gripping political thriller set during the last days of the Nicaraguan Revolution that ended the Somoza regime in 1979. The story centers on three journalists - a television reporter (Gene Hackman), a photojournalist (Nick Nolte) and the radio reporter (a tough Joanna Cassidy) they both love and who are in the thick of it all as they report on the uprising by rebels against the regime and will do anything for a scoop. Hackman's character is based on Bill Stewart the American journalist with ABC News who was murdered by Nicaraguan government National Guard forces while reporting on the Nicaraguan Revolution as Sandinista rebel forces were closing in on the capital city of Managua in 1979. Mature film not only questions both American policy in Latin America and the ethics and truth of journalism but also displays rare realism by making the audience feel in danger and under constant fire on the chaotic streets riddled by snipers (Ed Harris plays one CIA specimen who readily changes sides for a buck). Nolte is especially fine as the reckless photographer who manages to take the scoop photo which was flashed on American television eventually resulting in the end for the embattled Somoza dictatorship. Jerry Goldsmith's score was nominated for an Oscar.
The Night Manager (Sandeep Modi & Priyanka Ghose, 2023) 8/10
John le Carré's novel gets an exciting Hindi-Bollywood adaptation as a mini-series which is less a remake of the 2016 Hollywood version but more a re-imagining while keeping the central plot intact. The backdrop is initially set amidst the Rohingya genocide in 2017 wherein the title character works at a posh hotel in Bangladesh. Later there is a location shift to an exotic island lair in Sri Lanka. The Night Manager (Aditya Roy Kapur) becomes privy to vital information which proves that a supposedly benevolent businessman (Anil Kapoor) is actually a vicious arms dealer who has made his billions by making deals with rogue countries and organizations by helping to finance wars and death. So the plot moves into motion with the help of a savvy RAW officer (Tillotama Shome) who plans an elaborate ruse to bring the criminal to justice. Add to the excitement a child kidnapping, furtive sexual longings between the protagonist and the businessman's sexy girlfriend (Sobhita Dhulipala) and an atmosphere of constant dread and suspense. This 3-part mini series is to continue with its conclusion to air later this year. The entire cast is at the top of their game with outstanding production values throughout.
The Wife Takes a Flyer (Richard Wallace, 1942) 3/10
WWII propaganda set in Holland that intentionally - â la Mel Brooks - takes the mickey out of all things Nazi. I think Brooks must have seen this film because it really brow beats the Nazi calling card of "Heil Hitler" - a mantra which he presented ad nauseum in his remake of "To Be or Not to Be" replete with buffoonery. Here the "comic" Nazi Major (Allyn Joslyn) falls in lust with a pair of sexy legs (Joan Bennett) and demands to be billetted in her house. She is in the midst of divorcing her husband and complications ensue when an escaped Allied pilot (Franchot Tone) is also given refuge in the house and who is then forced to pose as the unfortunate husband facing that divorce. Silly shenanigans are of such lowbrow mentality that it's almost funny watching the actors squirm as they read off their unfunny lines. Stars really were trapped by studios back then and forced to act in such crappy films like this one. Bennet remains a lovely vision as always.
Company Business (Nicholas Meyer, 1991) 4/10
Action-thriller of the buddy variety where the two come from opposing political arenas - a retired ex-CIA agent (Gene Hackman) and a KGB mole (Mikhail Baryshnikov) - who find themselves quickly bonding over a cocktail after which they find themselves part of a doublecross by their superiors so they decide to hightail it with a briefcase containing $2 million. With the CIA and KGB in hot pursuit both end up in Paris trying to launder the money with the help of a lady. Spy movie clichés galore, and while both stars have charisma the tepid screenplay cannot decide if it wants to be menacing or comedic.
Timeline (Richard Donner, 2003) 4/10
Science fiction film, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, harks back to H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and the old 1960s tv series "The Time Tunnel". An old archaeology professor (Billy Connolly), excavating a site in France, gets stuck back in the year 1357 where he traveled courtesy of his sponsor company's teleportation machine. In the present his students (Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler) find a written note from the old man asking for help so they along with his son (Paul Walker) and a few executives of the company go back in time to rescue him. Slapdash action-adventure film has them running foul of the British (led by Michael Sheen) and helped by the French - a local knight (Lambert Wilson) and a lady (Anna Friel). The plot takes on a series of medieval battles as the group try to survive the attacks while attempting to return to the present world. Noisy film has nothing new to say.
Physical Evidence (Michael Crichton, 1989) 2/10
This started off as a direct sequel to the Glenn Close film Jagged Edge (1985) but segued into this boring so called original story about the courtroom trial of a volatile alcoholic ex-cop (Burt Reynolds) accused of murder. A cocky public defender (Theresa Russell) tries to help the cop who wakes up after a blackout with blood on his shirt and on the murder weapon. Reynolds looks sullen throughout and has zero chemistry with Russell which is a major misfire especially since there is a growing attraction between both characters. The lousy screenplay is totally devoid of suspense and the perfunctory direction makes matters worse as the film's tepid action sputters towards its silly conclusion.
The Package (Andrew Davis, 1989) 5/10
Convoluted political thriller set during the Cold War involves talks between the United States and the Soviet Union to sign a treaty for nuclear disarmament. However, elements within each country's military are strongly opposed to peace. When it is suspected that there is an assassination plot a former Green Beret Master Sergeant (Gene Hackman) and his ex-wife (Joanna Cassidy), a high ranking army officer, try to catch the escaped Army veteran (Tommy Lee Jones) who was placed in his custody and who is suspected of being the assassin. The action set pieces come at breakneck intervals but it is confusing to decipher just who is doing what and to whom. Hackman tries to keep his head above water as he is shot at, constantly beaten up and kidnapped. Familiar faces - Pam Grier, John Heard, Dennis Franz - pop up in small roles playing characters who aid or abet Hackman along the way.
Suspect (Peter Yates, 1987) 5/10
The main characters in this courtroom whodunit are a public defender (Cher), a homeless deaf-mute (Liam Neeson) accused of slashing the throat of a Washington legal secretary, the public prosecutor (Joe Mantegna), a stern judge (John Mahoney), the Deputy Attorney General (Philip Bosco), and a juror (Dennis Quaid) who decides to help the defender and plays amateur detective - almost like one of the Hardy Boys to her Nancy Drew. There are moments of suspense - she is chased by a knife-wielding man, encounters another homeless man who threatens her with a knife, and continuously comes to blows with the judge. The potholes in the screenplay are wider than the Grand Canyon and the obligatory summing up â la Poirot comes totally from an unsuspecting direction but not in a good way. This was one of three films that year by Cher as a leading lady with "Moonstruck" striking gold for her. The film is one of many murder-mysteries each starring two attractive stars that were fairly popular during the 1980s.
Gripping political thriller set during the last days of the Nicaraguan Revolution that ended the Somoza regime in 1979. The story centers on three journalists - a television reporter (Gene Hackman), a photojournalist (Nick Nolte) and the radio reporter (a tough Joanna Cassidy) they both love and who are in the thick of it all as they report on the uprising by rebels against the regime and will do anything for a scoop. Hackman's character is based on Bill Stewart the American journalist with ABC News who was murdered by Nicaraguan government National Guard forces while reporting on the Nicaraguan Revolution as Sandinista rebel forces were closing in on the capital city of Managua in 1979. Mature film not only questions both American policy in Latin America and the ethics and truth of journalism but also displays rare realism by making the audience feel in danger and under constant fire on the chaotic streets riddled by snipers (Ed Harris plays one CIA specimen who readily changes sides for a buck). Nolte is especially fine as the reckless photographer who manages to take the scoop photo which was flashed on American television eventually resulting in the end for the embattled Somoza dictatorship. Jerry Goldsmith's score was nominated for an Oscar.
The Night Manager (Sandeep Modi & Priyanka Ghose, 2023) 8/10
John le Carré's novel gets an exciting Hindi-Bollywood adaptation as a mini-series which is less a remake of the 2016 Hollywood version but more a re-imagining while keeping the central plot intact. The backdrop is initially set amidst the Rohingya genocide in 2017 wherein the title character works at a posh hotel in Bangladesh. Later there is a location shift to an exotic island lair in Sri Lanka. The Night Manager (Aditya Roy Kapur) becomes privy to vital information which proves that a supposedly benevolent businessman (Anil Kapoor) is actually a vicious arms dealer who has made his billions by making deals with rogue countries and organizations by helping to finance wars and death. So the plot moves into motion with the help of a savvy RAW officer (Tillotama Shome) who plans an elaborate ruse to bring the criminal to justice. Add to the excitement a child kidnapping, furtive sexual longings between the protagonist and the businessman's sexy girlfriend (Sobhita Dhulipala) and an atmosphere of constant dread and suspense. This 3-part mini series is to continue with its conclusion to air later this year. The entire cast is at the top of their game with outstanding production values throughout.
The Wife Takes a Flyer (Richard Wallace, 1942) 3/10
WWII propaganda set in Holland that intentionally - â la Mel Brooks - takes the mickey out of all things Nazi. I think Brooks must have seen this film because it really brow beats the Nazi calling card of "Heil Hitler" - a mantra which he presented ad nauseum in his remake of "To Be or Not to Be" replete with buffoonery. Here the "comic" Nazi Major (Allyn Joslyn) falls in lust with a pair of sexy legs (Joan Bennett) and demands to be billetted in her house. She is in the midst of divorcing her husband and complications ensue when an escaped Allied pilot (Franchot Tone) is also given refuge in the house and who is then forced to pose as the unfortunate husband facing that divorce. Silly shenanigans are of such lowbrow mentality that it's almost funny watching the actors squirm as they read off their unfunny lines. Stars really were trapped by studios back then and forced to act in such crappy films like this one. Bennet remains a lovely vision as always.
Company Business (Nicholas Meyer, 1991) 4/10
Action-thriller of the buddy variety where the two come from opposing political arenas - a retired ex-CIA agent (Gene Hackman) and a KGB mole (Mikhail Baryshnikov) - who find themselves quickly bonding over a cocktail after which they find themselves part of a doublecross by their superiors so they decide to hightail it with a briefcase containing $2 million. With the CIA and KGB in hot pursuit both end up in Paris trying to launder the money with the help of a lady. Spy movie clichés galore, and while both stars have charisma the tepid screenplay cannot decide if it wants to be menacing or comedic.
Timeline (Richard Donner, 2003) 4/10
Science fiction film, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, harks back to H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and the old 1960s tv series "The Time Tunnel". An old archaeology professor (Billy Connolly), excavating a site in France, gets stuck back in the year 1357 where he traveled courtesy of his sponsor company's teleportation machine. In the present his students (Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler) find a written note from the old man asking for help so they along with his son (Paul Walker) and a few executives of the company go back in time to rescue him. Slapdash action-adventure film has them running foul of the British (led by Michael Sheen) and helped by the French - a local knight (Lambert Wilson) and a lady (Anna Friel). The plot takes on a series of medieval battles as the group try to survive the attacks while attempting to return to the present world. Noisy film has nothing new to say.
Physical Evidence (Michael Crichton, 1989) 2/10
This started off as a direct sequel to the Glenn Close film Jagged Edge (1985) but segued into this boring so called original story about the courtroom trial of a volatile alcoholic ex-cop (Burt Reynolds) accused of murder. A cocky public defender (Theresa Russell) tries to help the cop who wakes up after a blackout with blood on his shirt and on the murder weapon. Reynolds looks sullen throughout and has zero chemistry with Russell which is a major misfire especially since there is a growing attraction between both characters. The lousy screenplay is totally devoid of suspense and the perfunctory direction makes matters worse as the film's tepid action sputters towards its silly conclusion.
The Package (Andrew Davis, 1989) 5/10
Convoluted political thriller set during the Cold War involves talks between the United States and the Soviet Union to sign a treaty for nuclear disarmament. However, elements within each country's military are strongly opposed to peace. When it is suspected that there is an assassination plot a former Green Beret Master Sergeant (Gene Hackman) and his ex-wife (Joanna Cassidy), a high ranking army officer, try to catch the escaped Army veteran (Tommy Lee Jones) who was placed in his custody and who is suspected of being the assassin. The action set pieces come at breakneck intervals but it is confusing to decipher just who is doing what and to whom. Hackman tries to keep his head above water as he is shot at, constantly beaten up and kidnapped. Familiar faces - Pam Grier, John Heard, Dennis Franz - pop up in small roles playing characters who aid or abet Hackman along the way.
Suspect (Peter Yates, 1987) 5/10
The main characters in this courtroom whodunit are a public defender (Cher), a homeless deaf-mute (Liam Neeson) accused of slashing the throat of a Washington legal secretary, the public prosecutor (Joe Mantegna), a stern judge (John Mahoney), the Deputy Attorney General (Philip Bosco), and a juror (Dennis Quaid) who decides to help the defender and plays amateur detective - almost like one of the Hardy Boys to her Nancy Drew. There are moments of suspense - she is chased by a knife-wielding man, encounters another homeless man who threatens her with a knife, and continuously comes to blows with the judge. The potholes in the screenplay are wider than the Grand Canyon and the obligatory summing up â la Poirot comes totally from an unsuspecting direction but not in a good way. This was one of three films that year by Cher as a leading lady with "Moonstruck" striking gold for her. The film is one of many murder-mysteries each starring two attractive stars that were fairly popular during the 1980s.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Good Morning (1959) - 8/10 - Life in a Japanese suburb goes on with neighbors frequently visiting each other. The women gossip about their neighbors and the boys want to watch tv. Two of the boys vow to stop speaking because their parents won't buy them a tv. The colors look great here and this is a nice slice of life comedy.
Early Summer (1951) - 9/10 - Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a secretary who lives a happy life hanging out with friends and sharing a home with her parents and her older brother's family. At 28, she is considered to be old to still be single so her family starts thinking about marrying her off to a 40 year old friend of her boss. Noriko has other ideas, though. There is plenty of humor in this family drama and a playfulness at times. Hara is very good here, but that is to be expected.
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - 8.5/10 - Shuhei is a widower who lives at home with his two younger children, 24 year old Michiko and 21 year old Kazuo, He meets up regularly with some of his old classmates to drink and talk. He starts thinking that he is holding his daughter back from marrying and starts looking for an acceptable husband for her. There is a fair amount of humor here. The relationship between his older son and daughter-in-law is entertaining. The daughter-in-law is a no nonsense take charge type. While some of the themes are a bit dated, it is still a very nice film.
The Return (2003) - 9/10 - Two brothers return home one day to find that their father has returned after an unexplained 12 year absence. The next morning, their father takes the boys on what is supposed to be a nice fishing trip. The older brother seems to desperately want to bond with their father while the younger boy is resentful, suspicious, and stubborn. The father's sometimes abrupt manner doesn't help matters. The trip turns into much more than just a simple fishing trip. I liked this one a lot.
After Life (1998) - 8/10 - The film starts with people arriving at a station in a remote area. It turns out that these people are recently deceased and they are there to choose one memory from their life that they will remember for eternity before moving on. Counselors are on hand to interview the people about their lives and to help them select their memory. The film lacks drama and feels like a documentary at times, but it works pretty well and is a nice film.
Gertrud (1964) - 4/10 - Gertrud leaves her husband for a younger piano player in her search for love. There are long stretches of boring dialogue and I thought the style of acting was very stilted and uninteresting, especially from the woman playing Gertrud. She also spent almost the entire film looking sad and perhaps even depressed. It was a slog to get through.
La Bête Humaine (1938) - 7.5/10 - I suppose this could also be called 'Murder on the La Havre Express'. This film noir precursor is based on an Emile Zola novel. A wealthy man is murdered aboard a train. The main characters are a station master and his young wife along with a train engineer with a blood disease that makes him prone to occasional moments of insanity. It was pretty good.
Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963) - 5.5/10 - Hélène sells antiques out of her apartment. She lives with her stepson, Bernard, who is haunted by his time as a soldier in Algeria. Hélène gets a visit from her old lover Alphonse. The film left me cold and I didn't care for the use of music in it either.
My Own Private Idaho (1991) - 6/10 - River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in this film about a narcoleptic hustler who goes off in search of his mother and is accompanied by his friend. I didn't really like this as much as I expected.
Stories We Tell (2012) - 8/10 - Sarah Polley interviews family members and friends while also directing her father as he narrates the film about her late mother and a family secret. I thought it was pretty interesting.
Elephant (2003) - 8/10 - The film follows a number of students on a typical day in a high school. Two students have plans to disrupt the day by shooting a number of people. I thought this was very well done. It definitely brought back a number of memories from that time period when I was teaching in the post-Columbine era.
Inland Empire (2006) - 3/10 - A very long and weird movie from David Lynch. Not one that I enjoyed very much, but I stuck with it.
Hypocrites (1915) - 6/10 - A morality film with a preacher giving a sermon about hypocrisy that his congregation doesn't appreciate. The film is kind of boring, but noteworthy for the full frontal nudity of a young woman (as Naked Truth) which was shot using double exposure.
F for Fake (1973) - 6.5/10 - Orson Welles hosts this partial documentary about an art forger. It's interesting for a while, but kind of loses steam. The bit at the end wasn't that great.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) - 4/10 - Another strange Godard movie. I didn't like the whispering narration at all.
The King of Comedy (1982) - 9/10 - An aspiring comic (Robert De Niro) tries to get close to a popular late night talk show host (Jerry Lewis), hoping to get a spot on his show. He resorts to drastic measures to get his chance. Very nicely done.
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) - 6.5/10 - A man visits a rural village due to a dying relative. Not much really happens through much of the film as the villagers go about their day. There are humorous moments throughout such as his having to get in his car and drive out of the village to a higher elevation every time he gets a call on his cell phone, the woman who has 9 kids one day and 10 kids the next, and the boy who always has to get to school or study for exams. It's not a bad film, but seemed kind of inconsequential, at least on first viewing.
Marnie (1964) - 7/10 - Tippi Hedren stars as Marnie, a young woman who gets hired at companies under a false name, works there for a few months, and then disappears after robbing the company. Sean Connery stars as the owner of a company who hires her, even though he recognizes her from one of her previous jobs. I thought the first half of the film was pretty mediocre, but I liked the second half a lot more.
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960) - 8/10 - Neeta is a hardworking and bright young woman who is getting close to graduating from college. She lives at home with her poor family and the little money she brings in tutoring helps make ends meet. One brother is kind of lazy and practices his singing, hoping to make it big one day. Her younger sister is more interested in having fun and finding a husband. When Neeta's father gets injured, supporting the family falls on Neeta's shoulders and is just the first of a series of misfortunes to affect her. The film is very melodramatic, but also pretty good.
Red Desert (1964) - 6/10 - Monica Vitti stars as a woman filled with anxiety and other mental issues. She is married with a young son, yet feels isolated, apparently due to a recent accident. The film looks great and Vitti does a good job in her role, but I didn't really connect to the story and ended up not enjoying it very much.
Marketa Lazarová (1967) - 6.5/10 - I liked the cinematography and music quite a bit, but the movie could be a bit of a slog to get through at times.
Early Summer (1951) - 9/10 - Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a secretary who lives a happy life hanging out with friends and sharing a home with her parents and her older brother's family. At 28, she is considered to be old to still be single so her family starts thinking about marrying her off to a 40 year old friend of her boss. Noriko has other ideas, though. There is plenty of humor in this family drama and a playfulness at times. Hara is very good here, but that is to be expected.
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - 8.5/10 - Shuhei is a widower who lives at home with his two younger children, 24 year old Michiko and 21 year old Kazuo, He meets up regularly with some of his old classmates to drink and talk. He starts thinking that he is holding his daughter back from marrying and starts looking for an acceptable husband for her. There is a fair amount of humor here. The relationship between his older son and daughter-in-law is entertaining. The daughter-in-law is a no nonsense take charge type. While some of the themes are a bit dated, it is still a very nice film.
The Return (2003) - 9/10 - Two brothers return home one day to find that their father has returned after an unexplained 12 year absence. The next morning, their father takes the boys on what is supposed to be a nice fishing trip. The older brother seems to desperately want to bond with their father while the younger boy is resentful, suspicious, and stubborn. The father's sometimes abrupt manner doesn't help matters. The trip turns into much more than just a simple fishing trip. I liked this one a lot.
After Life (1998) - 8/10 - The film starts with people arriving at a station in a remote area. It turns out that these people are recently deceased and they are there to choose one memory from their life that they will remember for eternity before moving on. Counselors are on hand to interview the people about their lives and to help them select their memory. The film lacks drama and feels like a documentary at times, but it works pretty well and is a nice film.
Gertrud (1964) - 4/10 - Gertrud leaves her husband for a younger piano player in her search for love. There are long stretches of boring dialogue and I thought the style of acting was very stilted and uninteresting, especially from the woman playing Gertrud. She also spent almost the entire film looking sad and perhaps even depressed. It was a slog to get through.
La Bête Humaine (1938) - 7.5/10 - I suppose this could also be called 'Murder on the La Havre Express'. This film noir precursor is based on an Emile Zola novel. A wealthy man is murdered aboard a train. The main characters are a station master and his young wife along with a train engineer with a blood disease that makes him prone to occasional moments of insanity. It was pretty good.
Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963) - 5.5/10 - Hélène sells antiques out of her apartment. She lives with her stepson, Bernard, who is haunted by his time as a soldier in Algeria. Hélène gets a visit from her old lover Alphonse. The film left me cold and I didn't care for the use of music in it either.
My Own Private Idaho (1991) - 6/10 - River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in this film about a narcoleptic hustler who goes off in search of his mother and is accompanied by his friend. I didn't really like this as much as I expected.
Stories We Tell (2012) - 8/10 - Sarah Polley interviews family members and friends while also directing her father as he narrates the film about her late mother and a family secret. I thought it was pretty interesting.
Elephant (2003) - 8/10 - The film follows a number of students on a typical day in a high school. Two students have plans to disrupt the day by shooting a number of people. I thought this was very well done. It definitely brought back a number of memories from that time period when I was teaching in the post-Columbine era.
Inland Empire (2006) - 3/10 - A very long and weird movie from David Lynch. Not one that I enjoyed very much, but I stuck with it.
Hypocrites (1915) - 6/10 - A morality film with a preacher giving a sermon about hypocrisy that his congregation doesn't appreciate. The film is kind of boring, but noteworthy for the full frontal nudity of a young woman (as Naked Truth) which was shot using double exposure.
F for Fake (1973) - 6.5/10 - Orson Welles hosts this partial documentary about an art forger. It's interesting for a while, but kind of loses steam. The bit at the end wasn't that great.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) - 4/10 - Another strange Godard movie. I didn't like the whispering narration at all.
The King of Comedy (1982) - 9/10 - An aspiring comic (Robert De Niro) tries to get close to a popular late night talk show host (Jerry Lewis), hoping to get a spot on his show. He resorts to drastic measures to get his chance. Very nicely done.
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) - 6.5/10 - A man visits a rural village due to a dying relative. Not much really happens through much of the film as the villagers go about their day. There are humorous moments throughout such as his having to get in his car and drive out of the village to a higher elevation every time he gets a call on his cell phone, the woman who has 9 kids one day and 10 kids the next, and the boy who always has to get to school or study for exams. It's not a bad film, but seemed kind of inconsequential, at least on first viewing.
Marnie (1964) - 7/10 - Tippi Hedren stars as Marnie, a young woman who gets hired at companies under a false name, works there for a few months, and then disappears after robbing the company. Sean Connery stars as the owner of a company who hires her, even though he recognizes her from one of her previous jobs. I thought the first half of the film was pretty mediocre, but I liked the second half a lot more.
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960) - 8/10 - Neeta is a hardworking and bright young woman who is getting close to graduating from college. She lives at home with her poor family and the little money she brings in tutoring helps make ends meet. One brother is kind of lazy and practices his singing, hoping to make it big one day. Her younger sister is more interested in having fun and finding a husband. When Neeta's father gets injured, supporting the family falls on Neeta's shoulders and is just the first of a series of misfortunes to affect her. The film is very melodramatic, but also pretty good.
Red Desert (1964) - 6/10 - Monica Vitti stars as a woman filled with anxiety and other mental issues. She is married with a young son, yet feels isolated, apparently due to a recent accident. The film looks great and Vitti does a good job in her role, but I didn't really connect to the story and ended up not enjoying it very much.
Marketa Lazarová (1967) - 6.5/10 - I liked the cinematography and music quite a bit, but the movie could be a bit of a slog to get through at times.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022) 6/10
Small independent film inadvertently caused a major commotion when the film's director and his actress wife championed their leading lady's performance and urged many actors to watch the film which raised its profile. Many celebrities began to champion the lead performance which eventually resulted in a surprise Best Actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough. Many people cried foul because it came at the expense of two highly acclaimed performances by black actreses - Viola Davis in "The Woman King" and Danielle Deadwyler in "Till" - both of whom were said to have been "snubbed". The actress gives a no holds barred performance as a former lottery winner who squanders her money on booze and drugs and in the present finds herself evicted from her apartment for not paying the rent. The downbeat screenplay places her repeatedly in harm's way due to her repeated alcohol binges which alienate her son and various friends who try to help her but to no avail. The film has a 1970s Independent Cinema feel to it as it charts the downward spiral of an alcoholic. British actress Riseborough unflinchingly creates this flawed tough West Texan character making her very believable as she battles her demons and seeks redemption.
Living (Oliver Hermanus, 2022) 7/10
Leo Tolstoy's 1886 Russian novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's classic 1952 Japanese film "Ikiru" which has now been remade in this Oscar nominated adaptation by Kazuo Ishiguro and set in 1950s Britain. The original story translates beautifully as it journeys from Russia to Japan and now to Britain. A buttoned-up senior civil servant (Bill Nighy) in the county Public Works department is diagnosed with a fatal illness and plans to take a lethal overdose of sleeping medicine to end his life. However, things don't go quite according to plan as instead he finds himself helping an insomniac writer (under whose urging the old man lets down his hair - he trades in his Bowler hat for a Trilby and sings a Scottish ditty in a club) and starts a friendship with a young woman who is an ex-colleague from whom he hopes to attain a semblance of his once youthful vigour. The idea of a scandal causes immense consternation to his estranged grasping son and daughter-in-law. He also decides to do some good and pushes his office to redevelop a children's playground in a WWII bomb site. Charming and gentle old fashioned little film beautifully invokes the atmosphere of 1950s Britain and has an understated performance by the great Bill Nighy who, in typical stiff upper lip fashion, brings a quiet dignity to his character in this exquisitely sad film. While it is no masterpiece the film finally does celebrate Nighy's long career with a much deserved Oscar nomination.
The Elephant Whisperers (Kartiki Gonsalves, 2022) 8/10
Life-affirming story about the rehabilitation of a badly injured orphan baby elephant and of its relationship with an indigenous couple who care for it. Set in Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu India this short film is also a celebration of a way of life for the local people and of their close relationship with the surrounding forests and the animals that roam within. A life which is in perfect harmony with nature. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category.
The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022) 7/10
The set up is stagy - it's based on a play - with an apartment used by the characters to open and close doors, walk in and out of rooms, and confront each other over their pathetic sad lives which have them all twisted in a knot. A massively obese writer (Brendan Fraser under a 300 pound prosthetic body suit), mourning the death of his male lover, is on a downward spiral and plans to eat himself to death. To make a living he teaches students via zoom and hopes to leave money saved for his estranged daughter. The film becomes a series of confrontations between him and his smart-ass angry teenage daughter, his equally angry ex-wife (Samantha Morton), a young teenage missionary who belongs to a Christian cult, and his late lover's plain-talking sister (Hong Chau) who is his nurse and confidante. Herman Melville's story about Moby Dick is an in-your-face presence throughout. Moving performance by Fraser is complimented by Chau's acerbic turn as the tough but sympathetic companion. Aronofsky ends the film on a highly operatic tone which seems fitting as it provides a lot of dignity to the main character and to his plight involving shame and guilt. Fraser, Chau and the film's makeup design have been nominated for the Academy Award.
Gulmohar (Rahul V. Chittella, 2023) 6/10
A matriarch (Sharmila Tagore) of a large joint family announces that she has sold their family home - "Gulmohar" - and she is moving alone to her new home in Pondicherry. Her son (Manoj Bajpayee) reacts badly to the news and gradually the whole family - including the help - find that long-hidden secrets suddenly erupt amidst the mother's chaotic announcement. Chittella tries to give his film the same vibe as his mentor Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding", but a number of the issues dealt with in the screenplay seem half baked and don't ring true. Fractured relationships, complex emotions and healing are part and parcel of the screenplay which juggles a huge set of characters. At the center is the graceful presence of lovely Sharmila Tagore making a return to the screen after over a decade. The film soars whenever she is on screen and her sympathetic and very modern take on a sensitive issue related to her grandaughter is smartly handled with a nod to her own planned lifestyle change neatly packaged for her twilight years. Watch this to see La Tagore at her best.
Small independent film inadvertently caused a major commotion when the film's director and his actress wife championed their leading lady's performance and urged many actors to watch the film which raised its profile. Many celebrities began to champion the lead performance which eventually resulted in a surprise Best Actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough. Many people cried foul because it came at the expense of two highly acclaimed performances by black actreses - Viola Davis in "The Woman King" and Danielle Deadwyler in "Till" - both of whom were said to have been "snubbed". The actress gives a no holds barred performance as a former lottery winner who squanders her money on booze and drugs and in the present finds herself evicted from her apartment for not paying the rent. The downbeat screenplay places her repeatedly in harm's way due to her repeated alcohol binges which alienate her son and various friends who try to help her but to no avail. The film has a 1970s Independent Cinema feel to it as it charts the downward spiral of an alcoholic. British actress Riseborough unflinchingly creates this flawed tough West Texan character making her very believable as she battles her demons and seeks redemption.
Living (Oliver Hermanus, 2022) 7/10
Leo Tolstoy's 1886 Russian novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's classic 1952 Japanese film "Ikiru" which has now been remade in this Oscar nominated adaptation by Kazuo Ishiguro and set in 1950s Britain. The original story translates beautifully as it journeys from Russia to Japan and now to Britain. A buttoned-up senior civil servant (Bill Nighy) in the county Public Works department is diagnosed with a fatal illness and plans to take a lethal overdose of sleeping medicine to end his life. However, things don't go quite according to plan as instead he finds himself helping an insomniac writer (under whose urging the old man lets down his hair - he trades in his Bowler hat for a Trilby and sings a Scottish ditty in a club) and starts a friendship with a young woman who is an ex-colleague from whom he hopes to attain a semblance of his once youthful vigour. The idea of a scandal causes immense consternation to his estranged grasping son and daughter-in-law. He also decides to do some good and pushes his office to redevelop a children's playground in a WWII bomb site. Charming and gentle old fashioned little film beautifully invokes the atmosphere of 1950s Britain and has an understated performance by the great Bill Nighy who, in typical stiff upper lip fashion, brings a quiet dignity to his character in this exquisitely sad film. While it is no masterpiece the film finally does celebrate Nighy's long career with a much deserved Oscar nomination.
The Elephant Whisperers (Kartiki Gonsalves, 2022) 8/10
Life-affirming story about the rehabilitation of a badly injured orphan baby elephant and of its relationship with an indigenous couple who care for it. Set in Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu India this short film is also a celebration of a way of life for the local people and of their close relationship with the surrounding forests and the animals that roam within. A life which is in perfect harmony with nature. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category.
The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022) 7/10
The set up is stagy - it's based on a play - with an apartment used by the characters to open and close doors, walk in and out of rooms, and confront each other over their pathetic sad lives which have them all twisted in a knot. A massively obese writer (Brendan Fraser under a 300 pound prosthetic body suit), mourning the death of his male lover, is on a downward spiral and plans to eat himself to death. To make a living he teaches students via zoom and hopes to leave money saved for his estranged daughter. The film becomes a series of confrontations between him and his smart-ass angry teenage daughter, his equally angry ex-wife (Samantha Morton), a young teenage missionary who belongs to a Christian cult, and his late lover's plain-talking sister (Hong Chau) who is his nurse and confidante. Herman Melville's story about Moby Dick is an in-your-face presence throughout. Moving performance by Fraser is complimented by Chau's acerbic turn as the tough but sympathetic companion. Aronofsky ends the film on a highly operatic tone which seems fitting as it provides a lot of dignity to the main character and to his plight involving shame and guilt. Fraser, Chau and the film's makeup design have been nominated for the Academy Award.
Gulmohar (Rahul V. Chittella, 2023) 6/10
A matriarch (Sharmila Tagore) of a large joint family announces that she has sold their family home - "Gulmohar" - and she is moving alone to her new home in Pondicherry. Her son (Manoj Bajpayee) reacts badly to the news and gradually the whole family - including the help - find that long-hidden secrets suddenly erupt amidst the mother's chaotic announcement. Chittella tries to give his film the same vibe as his mentor Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding", but a number of the issues dealt with in the screenplay seem half baked and don't ring true. Fractured relationships, complex emotions and healing are part and parcel of the screenplay which juggles a huge set of characters. At the center is the graceful presence of lovely Sharmila Tagore making a return to the screen after over a decade. The film soars whenever she is on screen and her sympathetic and very modern take on a sensitive issue related to her grandaughter is smartly handled with a nod to her own planned lifestyle change neatly packaged for her twilight years. Watch this to see La Tagore at her best.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) - 6/10 - Nine vignettes are shown to illustrate the teachings of St. Francis. There are some nice visuals here and a bit of humor now and then, but overall these didn't do much for me.
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) - 6.5/10 - The film follows a few courtesans at various brothels along with their wealthy patrons in late 1800s Shanghai. The patrons buy things for the courtesans and might get them out of the life by paying off their debts or marrying them. The costumes and settings were pretty good, but I found the story to be kind of dull for the most part.
Nazarin (1959) - 8/10 - A Catholic priest lives in a poor inn among his flock. He gives away what money and possessions he has to those in need. After helping a prostitute who may have killed another woman, he is forced to leave and wander the countryside, working or begging for food. I liked this movie a lot, especially the first 2/3 or so of the film.
Masculin Féminin (1966) - 7.5/10 - Paul is interested in political movements, including writing graffiti against the Vietnam War. Madeleine is working toward becoming a pop singer. They begin a relationship that has its ups and downs. The film has plenty of long conversations on a variety of topics between Paul, Madeleine, and their friends. I still found the film enjoyable and interesting, though.
Warrendale (1952) - 7.5/10 - This documentary looks in on the daily lives of the people at a group home for emotionally disturbed children in Ontario. The facility used some experimental techniques such as holding and bottle feeding that were seen by some as controversial. I thought it was pretty good, though I did start to lose interest during the last third of the film.
Walkabout (1971) - 9/10 - A teenage girl and her younger brother are stranded in the Outback with limited supplies. They try to make their way back to civilization and are aided by an Aboriginal boy who is on his walkabout. Nicely acted with excellent cinematography and an engaging story.
Wake in Fright (1971) - 6.5/10 - A schoolteacher in a small remote town heads for Sydney for the holidays, but gets stuck in a cruel mining town instead. This seems to be a popular film, but I didn't really like it much. Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for it. The schoolteacher should really lay off the booze.
Naked (1993) - 4/10 - I know that this film has its fans, but I didn't care for it much at all.
The Sacrifice (1986) - 6.5/10 - Family and friends gather for the birthday of an actor turned journalist. During the gathering, war is announced with a strong possibility of nuclear annihilation. The film is shot very and well and like other Tarkovsky films, there are things that I like in the film, but am not a big fan of the whole.
Las Niñas (2020) - 8/10 - Celia is an 11 year old girl who attends a strict Catholic school in Spain in 1992. She is on the verge of adolescence and lives with her single mother who has to work hard and often to pay the bills. A new girl transfers in from Barcelona and Celia befriends her. This new friendship also starts Celia on the road to questioning the rules and values that are commonplace in her life. I enjoyed the film a lot, though some might be put off by the long stretches where not much of consequence seems to happen. However, I think that a lot happens during those periods, even if it is setting the mood or giving insight into Celia's life. There are some questions raised about family history that aren't answered, but life can be messy, too. The girl who played Celia was excellent.
Turn Me On, Dammit! (2011) - 7.5/10 - Alma is a horny 15 year old girl who lives with her mother in a small Norwegian town that she and her friends can't wait to leave. She regularly calls a phone sex number and fantasizes about a neighbor boy and many other people as well. I wasn't sure whether I would really like this film going in to it, but thought it was pretty funny.
La Notte (1961) - 7/10 - A married couple spends a day visiting an old friend, walking around various parts of the city, and attending a party. Sometimes they are together, sometimes apart. The two each seem tired of life, either in general or just as a married couple, and at times seem to be going through the motions. He flirts with several women and she seems too listless to care. This is a good movie, though I'll admit to being bored with it at times.
The Passenger (1975) - 8/10 - Jack Nicholson is a journalist working on a story in northern Africa. He runs into a few problems and when the man in the neighboring room of his hotel suddenly dies, he assumes the other man's identity. He soon discovers that the man was an arms dealer, though, and this complicates things. Nicholson is pretty good here as expected.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) - 8/10 - This documentary is an in-depth look at the case of a man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer despite little in the way of credible evidence against him. It's pretty well done.
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) - 6.5/10 - The film follows a few courtesans at various brothels along with their wealthy patrons in late 1800s Shanghai. The patrons buy things for the courtesans and might get them out of the life by paying off their debts or marrying them. The costumes and settings were pretty good, but I found the story to be kind of dull for the most part.
Nazarin (1959) - 8/10 - A Catholic priest lives in a poor inn among his flock. He gives away what money and possessions he has to those in need. After helping a prostitute who may have killed another woman, he is forced to leave and wander the countryside, working or begging for food. I liked this movie a lot, especially the first 2/3 or so of the film.
Masculin Féminin (1966) - 7.5/10 - Paul is interested in political movements, including writing graffiti against the Vietnam War. Madeleine is working toward becoming a pop singer. They begin a relationship that has its ups and downs. The film has plenty of long conversations on a variety of topics between Paul, Madeleine, and their friends. I still found the film enjoyable and interesting, though.
Warrendale (1952) - 7.5/10 - This documentary looks in on the daily lives of the people at a group home for emotionally disturbed children in Ontario. The facility used some experimental techniques such as holding and bottle feeding that were seen by some as controversial. I thought it was pretty good, though I did start to lose interest during the last third of the film.
Walkabout (1971) - 9/10 - A teenage girl and her younger brother are stranded in the Outback with limited supplies. They try to make their way back to civilization and are aided by an Aboriginal boy who is on his walkabout. Nicely acted with excellent cinematography and an engaging story.
Wake in Fright (1971) - 6.5/10 - A schoolteacher in a small remote town heads for Sydney for the holidays, but gets stuck in a cruel mining town instead. This seems to be a popular film, but I didn't really like it much. Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for it. The schoolteacher should really lay off the booze.
Naked (1993) - 4/10 - I know that this film has its fans, but I didn't care for it much at all.
The Sacrifice (1986) - 6.5/10 - Family and friends gather for the birthday of an actor turned journalist. During the gathering, war is announced with a strong possibility of nuclear annihilation. The film is shot very and well and like other Tarkovsky films, there are things that I like in the film, but am not a big fan of the whole.
Las Niñas (2020) - 8/10 - Celia is an 11 year old girl who attends a strict Catholic school in Spain in 1992. She is on the verge of adolescence and lives with her single mother who has to work hard and often to pay the bills. A new girl transfers in from Barcelona and Celia befriends her. This new friendship also starts Celia on the road to questioning the rules and values that are commonplace in her life. I enjoyed the film a lot, though some might be put off by the long stretches where not much of consequence seems to happen. However, I think that a lot happens during those periods, even if it is setting the mood or giving insight into Celia's life. There are some questions raised about family history that aren't answered, but life can be messy, too. The girl who played Celia was excellent.
Turn Me On, Dammit! (2011) - 7.5/10 - Alma is a horny 15 year old girl who lives with her mother in a small Norwegian town that she and her friends can't wait to leave. She regularly calls a phone sex number and fantasizes about a neighbor boy and many other people as well. I wasn't sure whether I would really like this film going in to it, but thought it was pretty funny.
La Notte (1961) - 7/10 - A married couple spends a day visiting an old friend, walking around various parts of the city, and attending a party. Sometimes they are together, sometimes apart. The two each seem tired of life, either in general or just as a married couple, and at times seem to be going through the motions. He flirts with several women and she seems too listless to care. This is a good movie, though I'll admit to being bored with it at times.
The Passenger (1975) - 8/10 - Jack Nicholson is a journalist working on a story in northern Africa. He runs into a few problems and when the man in the neighboring room of his hotel suddenly dies, he assumes the other man's identity. He soon discovers that the man was an arms dealer, though, and this complicates things. Nicholson is pretty good here as expected.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) - 8/10 - This documentary is an in-depth look at the case of a man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer despite little in the way of credible evidence against him. It's pretty well done.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Departures (Yojiro Takita, 2008) 9/10
The Japanese stigma against people working with dead bodies makes a newly married man ashamed about his new job as an encoffinment supervisor cleaning and preparing dead bodies before they are put in coffins in a ceremonial or ritualistic manner. He hides the true nature of it from his wife but over time becomes comfortable with his profession and completes a number of assignments while experiencing the gratitude of the families of the deceased. When he hears about his estranged father's death he is at first angry and refuses to deal with his father's body. However, he relents and insists on dressing the body for the funeral himself. The film's foremost theme focuses mainly on the humanity that death brings to the surface and how it strengthens family bonds. This subject of 'encoffinment' was a highly unusual subject for a Japanese film. Despite the importance of death rituals in traditional Japanese culture the subject is considered unclean as everything related to death is thought to be a source of defilement. Despite a cultural shift in the last hundred years or so, the stigma of death still has considerable force within Japanese society, and discrimination against the untouchables has continued. For a subject as morbid as this the screenplay is refreshingly humorous but also extremely poignant. There is so much in Japanese culture that is different yet I could see many similarities as well to our culture here in Pakistan. Beautifully shot on location in the countryside and the film has a great classical soundtrack. Deserved the Oscar it won in the foreign film category.
The Double Man (Franklin W. Schaffner, 1967) 6/10
Minor spy thriller set in an Austrian ski resort where CIA agent (Yul Brynner) arrives to solve the mystery of his son's death. Is it a plot by a Russian agent (Anton Diffring) to get him there and substitute a double? Is his former friend, now a retired agent (Clive Revill), involved in the murder or does the sexy party girl (Britt Ekland) have something to hide - she accompanied the boy and two strangers on the cable car on the fateful day when the teenager fell down a deadly slope. The film almost resembles a James Bond thriller with Brynner playing it tough and deadpan while trusting nobody. The film's snowy on-location filming is the real highlight.
Lacombe, Lucien (Louis Malle, 1974) 6/10
Malle brings to light the underground movement in France during WWII that was persecuting its own people and working to undermine the Allied invasion and the Resistance. An indifferent teenage country bumpkin (Pierre Blaise - an amateur actor) wants to join the Resistance but is refused by the local leader - a school teacher - for being too young. So he stumbles into a local hotel which is the headquarters of the Carlingue - french citizens who work for the Gestapo. Under the influence of alcohol he casually betrays the school teacher who is tortured and is soon brandishing a gun and starts enjoying the power and money his position as an extortionist brings him. When he falls in love with the daughter (Aurore Clément) of a sophisticated jewish tailor (Holger Löwenadler) he finds himself protecting the very people he has been told to target by his superiors. The film is a series of vignettes with Malle implying a lot of the dramatic moments - the shooting of a couple and a dog, sex between the two teenagers, an attack on the hotel - where we are merely shown the aftermath with the actors placed on the ground and shown as having been shot or standing and lying naked after making love. And he has Blaise walk through the film or stand still with a complete deadpan expression on his face like a model on the catwalk - the young actor died the following year in a car crash. The film highlights how indifferent people could be about the suffering they caused in their pursuit for position or wealth during wartime. Beautifully shot film by Tonino Delli Colli is overlong and begins to drag towards the end. The film was nominated for an Academy award in the foreign film category.
Empire of Light (Sam Mendes, 2022) 6/10
They keep saying they don't write movies for actresses over the age of forty. Well Olivia Colman seems to be doing rather well for herself as she gets to play characters on screen who have a lot going for them in terms of drama and comedy. Colman, who is blessed with looks that are so far away from the likes of Vivien Leigh or Grace Kelly, has the sheer luck of looking like one of us and so fits into any mould on screen. Here she not only gets to bonk with Colin Firth but also with a much younger black man while secretly suffering from bipolar disorder. The lady clearly has her hands full - gets not only to have her cake but eat it too. Mendes' film, set in a small coastal town in Kent, explores humans connecting with each other. A lonely duty manager (Olivia Colman) at a palatial two-screen Art Deco cinema, struggling with bipolar disorder, is having extramarital sex with her boss (Colin Firth), and connects emotionally with another outcast in town - a much younger black man (Michael Ward) who joins her as an employee at the cinema who faces racism as is wont when you live anywhere amongst the majority white. The screenplay shines during smaller moments between the characters - her interaction with her friend's mother, a proud black nurse, who is sympathetic but guarded about their relationship, with the cinema's sad projectionist (Toby Jones) and with another sympathetic work colleague (Tom Brooke). The screenplay badly falters when it takes on the additional strokes on race (rampaging skinheads) and mental illness making the film seem rather jumbled - too much seems to be going on when it was really not necessary. There is also not much clarity if the film is about Colman's character or the one played by Ward. Both are sharply drawn individually but together don't seem like a cohesive whole. Colman is of course mesmerizing to watch as she goes through an assortment of emotions and the film is beautifully shot by Roger Deakins (the film's sole Oscar nominee). The gorgeous cinema and the films on show - Stir Crazy, Chariots of Fire, Raging Bull, Being There - immediately invoke the time and period (1980-81) the story is set in.
Boîte noire / Black Box (Yann Gozlan, 2021) 8/10
Fascinating look at how a black box is deciphered after a plane crash. An expert black box analyst (Pierre Niney) is given the task to investigate a mysterious plane crash in the Alps while flying from Paris to Dubai. The plane was brand new and went down in a strange manner with the voices of the pilots on the black box breaking down. The more he listens to the recording the more he begins to realise there is a cover up and the black box has been doctored. Riveting thriller is just as dark as the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s - The Parralax View (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and All the President's Men (1976) - as the film reaches a fever pitch of twists and dangerous turns with the analyst's life in serious danger. Niney superbly handles the emotional complexities of his role as he gradually begins to realise that the airline is hiding something and hell bent on providing a false explanation for the crash. The film received César nominations for Niney, the film's screenplay, editing, score and the outstanding sound design.
The Japanese stigma against people working with dead bodies makes a newly married man ashamed about his new job as an encoffinment supervisor cleaning and preparing dead bodies before they are put in coffins in a ceremonial or ritualistic manner. He hides the true nature of it from his wife but over time becomes comfortable with his profession and completes a number of assignments while experiencing the gratitude of the families of the deceased. When he hears about his estranged father's death he is at first angry and refuses to deal with his father's body. However, he relents and insists on dressing the body for the funeral himself. The film's foremost theme focuses mainly on the humanity that death brings to the surface and how it strengthens family bonds. This subject of 'encoffinment' was a highly unusual subject for a Japanese film. Despite the importance of death rituals in traditional Japanese culture the subject is considered unclean as everything related to death is thought to be a source of defilement. Despite a cultural shift in the last hundred years or so, the stigma of death still has considerable force within Japanese society, and discrimination against the untouchables has continued. For a subject as morbid as this the screenplay is refreshingly humorous but also extremely poignant. There is so much in Japanese culture that is different yet I could see many similarities as well to our culture here in Pakistan. Beautifully shot on location in the countryside and the film has a great classical soundtrack. Deserved the Oscar it won in the foreign film category.
The Double Man (Franklin W. Schaffner, 1967) 6/10
Minor spy thriller set in an Austrian ski resort where CIA agent (Yul Brynner) arrives to solve the mystery of his son's death. Is it a plot by a Russian agent (Anton Diffring) to get him there and substitute a double? Is his former friend, now a retired agent (Clive Revill), involved in the murder or does the sexy party girl (Britt Ekland) have something to hide - she accompanied the boy and two strangers on the cable car on the fateful day when the teenager fell down a deadly slope. The film almost resembles a James Bond thriller with Brynner playing it tough and deadpan while trusting nobody. The film's snowy on-location filming is the real highlight.
Lacombe, Lucien (Louis Malle, 1974) 6/10
Malle brings to light the underground movement in France during WWII that was persecuting its own people and working to undermine the Allied invasion and the Resistance. An indifferent teenage country bumpkin (Pierre Blaise - an amateur actor) wants to join the Resistance but is refused by the local leader - a school teacher - for being too young. So he stumbles into a local hotel which is the headquarters of the Carlingue - french citizens who work for the Gestapo. Under the influence of alcohol he casually betrays the school teacher who is tortured and is soon brandishing a gun and starts enjoying the power and money his position as an extortionist brings him. When he falls in love with the daughter (Aurore Clément) of a sophisticated jewish tailor (Holger Löwenadler) he finds himself protecting the very people he has been told to target by his superiors. The film is a series of vignettes with Malle implying a lot of the dramatic moments - the shooting of a couple and a dog, sex between the two teenagers, an attack on the hotel - where we are merely shown the aftermath with the actors placed on the ground and shown as having been shot or standing and lying naked after making love. And he has Blaise walk through the film or stand still with a complete deadpan expression on his face like a model on the catwalk - the young actor died the following year in a car crash. The film highlights how indifferent people could be about the suffering they caused in their pursuit for position or wealth during wartime. Beautifully shot film by Tonino Delli Colli is overlong and begins to drag towards the end. The film was nominated for an Academy award in the foreign film category.
Empire of Light (Sam Mendes, 2022) 6/10
They keep saying they don't write movies for actresses over the age of forty. Well Olivia Colman seems to be doing rather well for herself as she gets to play characters on screen who have a lot going for them in terms of drama and comedy. Colman, who is blessed with looks that are so far away from the likes of Vivien Leigh or Grace Kelly, has the sheer luck of looking like one of us and so fits into any mould on screen. Here she not only gets to bonk with Colin Firth but also with a much younger black man while secretly suffering from bipolar disorder. The lady clearly has her hands full - gets not only to have her cake but eat it too. Mendes' film, set in a small coastal town in Kent, explores humans connecting with each other. A lonely duty manager (Olivia Colman) at a palatial two-screen Art Deco cinema, struggling with bipolar disorder, is having extramarital sex with her boss (Colin Firth), and connects emotionally with another outcast in town - a much younger black man (Michael Ward) who joins her as an employee at the cinema who faces racism as is wont when you live anywhere amongst the majority white. The screenplay shines during smaller moments between the characters - her interaction with her friend's mother, a proud black nurse, who is sympathetic but guarded about their relationship, with the cinema's sad projectionist (Toby Jones) and with another sympathetic work colleague (Tom Brooke). The screenplay badly falters when it takes on the additional strokes on race (rampaging skinheads) and mental illness making the film seem rather jumbled - too much seems to be going on when it was really not necessary. There is also not much clarity if the film is about Colman's character or the one played by Ward. Both are sharply drawn individually but together don't seem like a cohesive whole. Colman is of course mesmerizing to watch as she goes through an assortment of emotions and the film is beautifully shot by Roger Deakins (the film's sole Oscar nominee). The gorgeous cinema and the films on show - Stir Crazy, Chariots of Fire, Raging Bull, Being There - immediately invoke the time and period (1980-81) the story is set in.
Boîte noire / Black Box (Yann Gozlan, 2021) 8/10
Fascinating look at how a black box is deciphered after a plane crash. An expert black box analyst (Pierre Niney) is given the task to investigate a mysterious plane crash in the Alps while flying from Paris to Dubai. The plane was brand new and went down in a strange manner with the voices of the pilots on the black box breaking down. The more he listens to the recording the more he begins to realise there is a cover up and the black box has been doctored. Riveting thriller is just as dark as the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s - The Parralax View (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and All the President's Men (1976) - as the film reaches a fever pitch of twists and dangerous turns with the analyst's life in serious danger. Niney superbly handles the emotional complexities of his role as he gradually begins to realise that the airline is hiding something and hell bent on providing a false explanation for the crash. The film received César nominations for Niney, the film's screenplay, editing, score and the outstanding sound design.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - 6.5/10 - The film is shot fairly well and I liked the theme music and a few of the scenes, but overall I slightly prefer Satantango even though it is nearly three times the length of this film.
She Said (2022) - 7/10 - This film tells the tale of the New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Zoe Kavan and Carey Mulligan are pretty good in their roles as the reporters. The subject is important and I did like the film, but I think it was missing something and seemed a bit by the numbers at times.
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) - 7.5/10 - A girl grows up in the marshlands outside of a town. Her mother and siblings leave over time due to the abusive father and then the father leaves. She is left to fend for herself. Years later, she is arrested and put on trial when her former boyfriend is found dead. I've never read the book, but I found the movie to be pretty entertaining.
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.
Leviathan (2012) - 3/10 - The film takes place on a fishing boat in the North Atlantic. There is a lot of shaky cam and no real dialogue other than a bit of background noise. One person described it as a Brakhage film with added fish. That seems like an apt description.Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Clandestine Childhood (2011) - 8/10 - Juan is a young boy whose parents and uncle are guerrillas who fled Argentina when the military took over. They return to Argentina in 1979 under assumed names to carry on the fight. Juan at first seems to enjoy the secrets and clandestine behavior, but events make it seem not quite as fun. He also falls in love with a girl at his new school. The film is inspired by the life of the director and is pretty good. The actors do a very nice job, including the boy who played the lead role.
Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Not Reconciled (1965) - 6/10 - This is a frustrating film that jumps between time periods and parts of a family's history without much in the way of clues or explanation. There were a number of things that I liked and I think that I would have enjoyed the film a lot if it had been made in a more traditional manner rather than the stripped down version that Straub and Huillet went with, but then it wouldn't have been in their style I suppose.
Moonfleet (1955) - 7/10 - In the 1700s, a young boy is sent by his dying mother to the village of Moonfleet and the care of her former lover. The former lover happens to be a man who keeps a respectable facade, but is aligned with smugglers and pirates. I thought it was a decent adventure film and I enjoyed it, though was surprised to see that Fritz Lang directed it.
Pixote (1980) - 8/10 - Pixote is a 10 year old boy who is sent to a juvenile detention facility. Conditions there are poor with rapes, beatings, other abuse, poor food, etc. being prevalent. Eventually, Pixote joins a group of boys who escape the facility and live on the street. Living on the street comes with its own set of challenges, including having to hustle to survive on a daily basis. It's not a very happy film, but it's a good one.
Living (2022) - 7.5/10 - Bill Nighy gives a nice performance in this British adaptation/remake of Ikiru. A civil servant learns that he is dying and it changes his outlook on life for the time he has remaining. It's not as good as Ikiru, but it's still a solid film.
The River (1951) - 8.5/10 - A British family living on an estate next to the Bengal River has four girls and a boy. One of their neighbors has a teenage daughter about the same age as the two oldest girls and they are all friends. The neighbor's American cousin comes to stay with him. He lost a leg during the war and all three of the girls take an interest in him. The use of color during the film is very nice and I also enjoyed the narration which took the form of one of the girls as an adult looking back on that time of her life. We get to see their daily lives and occasional rivalries. I liked the film quite a bit.
Hunger (2008) - 6.5/10 - Steve McQueen's film about IRA member Bobby Sands and the hunger strike he helped lead in prison goes for a minimalist approach in a number of ways. The first half of the film is filled with life in prison, including a lot of violence from the guards and little in the way of explanation. McQueen seems to be going more for the show don't tell approach, except for a nice scene with a priest mid-film. This is effective in its way and I can see why some people might love the film, but it felt a bit lacking to me.
Journey to Italy (1954) - 8/10 - Marital issues come to the forefront when an English couple travels to Italy to sell a house that they inherited from a relative. Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders were each pretty good here.
She Said (2022) - 7/10 - This film tells the tale of the New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Zoe Kavan and Carey Mulligan are pretty good in their roles as the reporters. The subject is important and I did like the film, but I think it was missing something and seemed a bit by the numbers at times.
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) - 7.5/10 - A girl grows up in the marshlands outside of a town. Her mother and siblings leave over time due to the abusive father and then the father leaves. She is left to fend for herself. Years later, she is arrested and put on trial when her former boyfriend is found dead. I've never read the book, but I found the movie to be pretty entertaining.
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.
Leviathan (2012) - 3/10 - The film takes place on a fishing boat in the North Atlantic. There is a lot of shaky cam and no real dialogue other than a bit of background noise. One person described it as a Brakhage film with added fish. That seems like an apt description.Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Clandestine Childhood (2011) - 8/10 - Juan is a young boy whose parents and uncle are guerrillas who fled Argentina when the military took over. They return to Argentina in 1979 under assumed names to carry on the fight. Juan at first seems to enjoy the secrets and clandestine behavior, but events make it seem not quite as fun. He also falls in love with a girl at his new school. The film is inspired by the life of the director and is pretty good. The actors do a very nice job, including the boy who played the lead role.
Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Not Reconciled (1965) - 6/10 - This is a frustrating film that jumps between time periods and parts of a family's history without much in the way of clues or explanation. There were a number of things that I liked and I think that I would have enjoyed the film a lot if it had been made in a more traditional manner rather than the stripped down version that Straub and Huillet went with, but then it wouldn't have been in their style I suppose.
Moonfleet (1955) - 7/10 - In the 1700s, a young boy is sent by his dying mother to the village of Moonfleet and the care of her former lover. The former lover happens to be a man who keeps a respectable facade, but is aligned with smugglers and pirates. I thought it was a decent adventure film and I enjoyed it, though was surprised to see that Fritz Lang directed it.
Pixote (1980) - 8/10 - Pixote is a 10 year old boy who is sent to a juvenile detention facility. Conditions there are poor with rapes, beatings, other abuse, poor food, etc. being prevalent. Eventually, Pixote joins a group of boys who escape the facility and live on the street. Living on the street comes with its own set of challenges, including having to hustle to survive on a daily basis. It's not a very happy film, but it's a good one.
Living (2022) - 7.5/10 - Bill Nighy gives a nice performance in this British adaptation/remake of Ikiru. A civil servant learns that he is dying and it changes his outlook on life for the time he has remaining. It's not as good as Ikiru, but it's still a solid film.
The River (1951) - 8.5/10 - A British family living on an estate next to the Bengal River has four girls and a boy. One of their neighbors has a teenage daughter about the same age as the two oldest girls and they are all friends. The neighbor's American cousin comes to stay with him. He lost a leg during the war and all three of the girls take an interest in him. The use of color during the film is very nice and I also enjoyed the narration which took the form of one of the girls as an adult looking back on that time of her life. We get to see their daily lives and occasional rivalries. I liked the film quite a bit.
Hunger (2008) - 6.5/10 - Steve McQueen's film about IRA member Bobby Sands and the hunger strike he helped lead in prison goes for a minimalist approach in a number of ways. The first half of the film is filled with life in prison, including a lot of violence from the guards and little in the way of explanation. McQueen seems to be going more for the show don't tell approach, except for a nice scene with a priest mid-film. This is effective in its way and I can see why some people might love the film, but it felt a bit lacking to me.
Journey to Italy (1954) - 8/10 - Marital issues come to the forefront when an English couple travels to Italy to sell a house that they inherited from a relative. Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders were each pretty good here.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Code Name: Tiranga (Ribhu Dasgupta, 2022) 4/10
Routine spy thriller has the obligatory Muslim protagonist called Omar - not sure if he was ISI or Al-Qaida, but this being a Bollywood film he must be a deadly combo of both. And a kick-ass female RAW agent (Parineeti Chopra) who traipses all over Afghanisran and Turkey in pursuit. The set up allows Chopra countless action oriented sequences where she does what is usually the ambit of the male hero in a film. Typical Bollywood patriotic propaganda to counteract all that is not right in India under the rule of PM Modi.
Treason (Louise Hooper & Sarah O'Gorman, 2022) 7/10
When the head of MI6 (Ciarán Hinds) is hospitalised after being poisoned, his Deputy Chief (Charlie Cox) temporarily gets the top position. However, matters take an alarming turn when the attacker (Olga Kurylenko) turns out to be an ex-Russian spy and his former lover who had a hand in getting him to rise swiftly up the ladder at British Intelligence. In return she requests him to provide information relating to certain covert activities they were both involved in Baku years before. When his daughter gets kidnapped and his wife (Oona Chaplin) is approached by a friend in the CIA who hints at her husband's possible treason he has to race against time to prove his innocence. Frentic espionage thriller has its moments despite major potholes in the plot. Cox is totally miscast and comes across as a most ineffectual replacement head of MI6 without an iota of ambition. When the screenplay requires him to hold a gun and perform in a few action sequences he stumbles around almost like a child. Both Hinds, as the reptilian head of the Secret Service, and Alex Kingston as a hapless politician, come off best.
Cirkus (Rohit Shetty, 2022) 1/10
Unfunny, loud, obnoxious film is a remake of Gulzar's 1982 comedy classic "Angoor" which in turn was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "The Comedy of Errors". Two sets of identical twins mixed up at birth encounter each other as adults causing predictable confusion. Stylized film - with garish production design - has Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma as the twins with the former romancing Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez. They even pull out Johnny Lever from mothballs to provide his bug-eyed shtick while Sanjay Mishra, who usually plays in serious critically acclaimed fare, tries to outdo even Lever in the overacting stakes. A horrible mess and a boxoffice bomb all the more shocking that it came from the Rohit Shetty stable. The film's only saving grace is the soundtrack of old Hindi hit songs along with an item number - "Current Laga Re" - performed by the star's superstar wife Deepika Padukone.
Firecreek (Vincent McEveety, 1968) 5/10
Lackadaisical farmer and part-time sheriff (James Stewart) finds himself in "High Noon" territory - all the townfolk refuse to come to his aid when a group of outlaws (Jack Elam, Gary Lockwood, James Best) suddenly descend on them. Their leader (Henry Fonda), who appears to have some humanity, ignores his gang's vicious antics and seems more keen in pursuing a local widow (Inger Stevens). When the men hang a stable boy the farmer decides to take on the entire gang. This was the first screen teaming of buddies Stewart & Fonda - they had appeared briefly together once many years before - but here played adversaries. While Stewart is in his full-on Anthony Mann mode, Fonda is surprisingly very subdued. Slow film takes its time to get moving but the action packed showdown shows Stewart at his best.
Cell (Todd Williams, 2016) 6/10
Science fiction zombie thriller, based on the novel by Stephen King, is really not as bad as the bum rap it got from critics. Granted there is nothing new here but the two stars return to this author's work after previously co-starring in the eerie 2007 film "1408". A mysterious signal gets broadcast over the global cell network which results in every human who happened to be talking on a cell phone at that precise instance to turn into a vicious flesh eating zombie. A graphic novel artist (John Cusack), estranged from his family, tries desperately to reach them when the zombie pandemic breaks out. Accompanying him are a train conductor (Samuel L. Jackson) and a few survivors they meet up on the way. Trying to avoid flocks of infected humans they meet and lose assorted people on the way. Grim, gloomy tale of the apocalypse.
The Samaritan (David Weaver, 2012) 8/10
Superb neo-noir sadly decides to go the route of Old Hollywood where the transgressor always paid for his deeds at the end but then that adheres to the noir formula here. A con man (Samuel L. Jackson), out of jail after serving a 25-year murder sentence, decides to go straight. He had killed his best friend after a grift went wrong and his only chance of survival was murder. Into his life comes the son (Luke Kirby) of his friend whom he had killed and who now proposes a fool proof grift against a vicious businessman (Tom Wilkinson). When he refuses to get involved he is blackmailed into going through with the grift which also involves a drug-addicted prostitute (an intensely captivating Ruth Negga). Grim, pulpy story is anchored by Jackson who is rock solid as the philosophical ex-con trying to find redemption.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin, 1996) 6/10
Small-town schoolteacher (Geena Davis) with a daughter, boyfriend and amnesia suddenly finds herself in over her head when to her surprise she manages to ruthlessly kill an escaped prisoner who arrives at her doorstep and tries to kill her. So begins her journey to try and solve her mysterious past with an ineffectual, down-on-his-luck private investigator (Samuel L. Jackson) along for the ride. With nobody around to trust and pursued by a bunch of gun and knife wielding thugs who seem to know her as a dangerous CIA assassin she finds herself fighting for her life while trying to save her kidnapped daughter by a former adversary who plans to detonate a bomb. Geena Davis is badly miscast in this over-the-top action thriller - the actress has too sweet a personality to be playing this tough character. The role calls out for someone like Sigourney Weaver who would have been more suited. Jackson, however, is great fun as her wisecracking partner. And the less said about that extremely annoying child who stops the action dead in its tracks each time she appears. Lots of loud action set pieces with a screenplay that has a combination of potholes and convenient coincidences. Nevertheless it's fun in a mindless way.
2012 (Roland Emmerich, 2009) 6/10
Doomsday is at hand yet humans are prepared to be one up on God by preparing arks to be populated by the rich and important heads of government - QEII can be seen scurrying on board with her corgis. In the midst of all the chaos a frustrated writer (John Cusack) struggles to keep alive his ex-wife (Amanda Peet), their two kids and her boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) who conveniently knows how to pilot a plane. Flailing around are the usual stock characters - the President of the United States (Danny Glover), his daughter (Thandiwe Newton), the evil Chief of Staff (Oliver Platt), a geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an Indian astrophysicist (Jimi Mistry) who first discovers the shit that is warming up the earth's core, a Conspiracy theorist (Woody Harrelson in full-on mad mode), and a jazz singer (George Segal). CGI creates all the spectacular destruction as familiar cities collapse while some cast members fly through the debris and end up on the ark which gets hit by a tidal wave knocking it against Mount Everest. Completely over-the-top situations become a roller coaster ride of thrills. Put your thinking cap away, sit back, munch your popcorn and watch the world end.
Routine spy thriller has the obligatory Muslim protagonist called Omar - not sure if he was ISI or Al-Qaida, but this being a Bollywood film he must be a deadly combo of both. And a kick-ass female RAW agent (Parineeti Chopra) who traipses all over Afghanisran and Turkey in pursuit. The set up allows Chopra countless action oriented sequences where she does what is usually the ambit of the male hero in a film. Typical Bollywood patriotic propaganda to counteract all that is not right in India under the rule of PM Modi.
Treason (Louise Hooper & Sarah O'Gorman, 2022) 7/10
When the head of MI6 (Ciarán Hinds) is hospitalised after being poisoned, his Deputy Chief (Charlie Cox) temporarily gets the top position. However, matters take an alarming turn when the attacker (Olga Kurylenko) turns out to be an ex-Russian spy and his former lover who had a hand in getting him to rise swiftly up the ladder at British Intelligence. In return she requests him to provide information relating to certain covert activities they were both involved in Baku years before. When his daughter gets kidnapped and his wife (Oona Chaplin) is approached by a friend in the CIA who hints at her husband's possible treason he has to race against time to prove his innocence. Frentic espionage thriller has its moments despite major potholes in the plot. Cox is totally miscast and comes across as a most ineffectual replacement head of MI6 without an iota of ambition. When the screenplay requires him to hold a gun and perform in a few action sequences he stumbles around almost like a child. Both Hinds, as the reptilian head of the Secret Service, and Alex Kingston as a hapless politician, come off best.
Cirkus (Rohit Shetty, 2022) 1/10
Unfunny, loud, obnoxious film is a remake of Gulzar's 1982 comedy classic "Angoor" which in turn was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "The Comedy of Errors". Two sets of identical twins mixed up at birth encounter each other as adults causing predictable confusion. Stylized film - with garish production design - has Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma as the twins with the former romancing Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez. They even pull out Johnny Lever from mothballs to provide his bug-eyed shtick while Sanjay Mishra, who usually plays in serious critically acclaimed fare, tries to outdo even Lever in the overacting stakes. A horrible mess and a boxoffice bomb all the more shocking that it came from the Rohit Shetty stable. The film's only saving grace is the soundtrack of old Hindi hit songs along with an item number - "Current Laga Re" - performed by the star's superstar wife Deepika Padukone.
Firecreek (Vincent McEveety, 1968) 5/10
Lackadaisical farmer and part-time sheriff (James Stewart) finds himself in "High Noon" territory - all the townfolk refuse to come to his aid when a group of outlaws (Jack Elam, Gary Lockwood, James Best) suddenly descend on them. Their leader (Henry Fonda), who appears to have some humanity, ignores his gang's vicious antics and seems more keen in pursuing a local widow (Inger Stevens). When the men hang a stable boy the farmer decides to take on the entire gang. This was the first screen teaming of buddies Stewart & Fonda - they had appeared briefly together once many years before - but here played adversaries. While Stewart is in his full-on Anthony Mann mode, Fonda is surprisingly very subdued. Slow film takes its time to get moving but the action packed showdown shows Stewart at his best.
Cell (Todd Williams, 2016) 6/10
Science fiction zombie thriller, based on the novel by Stephen King, is really not as bad as the bum rap it got from critics. Granted there is nothing new here but the two stars return to this author's work after previously co-starring in the eerie 2007 film "1408". A mysterious signal gets broadcast over the global cell network which results in every human who happened to be talking on a cell phone at that precise instance to turn into a vicious flesh eating zombie. A graphic novel artist (John Cusack), estranged from his family, tries desperately to reach them when the zombie pandemic breaks out. Accompanying him are a train conductor (Samuel L. Jackson) and a few survivors they meet up on the way. Trying to avoid flocks of infected humans they meet and lose assorted people on the way. Grim, gloomy tale of the apocalypse.
The Samaritan (David Weaver, 2012) 8/10
Superb neo-noir sadly decides to go the route of Old Hollywood where the transgressor always paid for his deeds at the end but then that adheres to the noir formula here. A con man (Samuel L. Jackson), out of jail after serving a 25-year murder sentence, decides to go straight. He had killed his best friend after a grift went wrong and his only chance of survival was murder. Into his life comes the son (Luke Kirby) of his friend whom he had killed and who now proposes a fool proof grift against a vicious businessman (Tom Wilkinson). When he refuses to get involved he is blackmailed into going through with the grift which also involves a drug-addicted prostitute (an intensely captivating Ruth Negga). Grim, pulpy story is anchored by Jackson who is rock solid as the philosophical ex-con trying to find redemption.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin, 1996) 6/10
Small-town schoolteacher (Geena Davis) with a daughter, boyfriend and amnesia suddenly finds herself in over her head when to her surprise she manages to ruthlessly kill an escaped prisoner who arrives at her doorstep and tries to kill her. So begins her journey to try and solve her mysterious past with an ineffectual, down-on-his-luck private investigator (Samuel L. Jackson) along for the ride. With nobody around to trust and pursued by a bunch of gun and knife wielding thugs who seem to know her as a dangerous CIA assassin she finds herself fighting for her life while trying to save her kidnapped daughter by a former adversary who plans to detonate a bomb. Geena Davis is badly miscast in this over-the-top action thriller - the actress has too sweet a personality to be playing this tough character. The role calls out for someone like Sigourney Weaver who would have been more suited. Jackson, however, is great fun as her wisecracking partner. And the less said about that extremely annoying child who stops the action dead in its tracks each time she appears. Lots of loud action set pieces with a screenplay that has a combination of potholes and convenient coincidences. Nevertheless it's fun in a mindless way.
2012 (Roland Emmerich, 2009) 6/10
Doomsday is at hand yet humans are prepared to be one up on God by preparing arks to be populated by the rich and important heads of government - QEII can be seen scurrying on board with her corgis. In the midst of all the chaos a frustrated writer (John Cusack) struggles to keep alive his ex-wife (Amanda Peet), their two kids and her boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) who conveniently knows how to pilot a plane. Flailing around are the usual stock characters - the President of the United States (Danny Glover), his daughter (Thandiwe Newton), the evil Chief of Staff (Oliver Platt), a geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an Indian astrophysicist (Jimi Mistry) who first discovers the shit that is warming up the earth's core, a Conspiracy theorist (Woody Harrelson in full-on mad mode), and a jazz singer (George Segal). CGI creates all the spectacular destruction as familiar cities collapse while some cast members fly through the debris and end up on the ark which gets hit by a tidal wave knocking it against Mount Everest. Completely over-the-top situations become a roller coaster ride of thrills. Put your thinking cap away, sit back, munch your popcorn and watch the world end.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Northman (2022) - 6/10 - A young prince sees his father murdered by his uncle. The boy flees and years later returns as an adult for his vengeance. The film is well made, but I didn't really enjoy it that much.
Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) - 7/10 - A young woman named Adèle is a high school junior who seems unsatisfied with her intimate relationships until she meets Emma, slightly older woman with blue hair. The film follows the two of them over the next few years as Adèle grows up and eventually becomes a teacher. The film seemed longer than necessary and was filled with a number of scenes of people eating pasta and the two woman having sex. I can see why some might love the film (and others hate it) and I thought the film wasn't bad, but could have been much better.
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) - 5/10 - Boudu is an eccentric free spirit/bum who jumps into the Seine only to be rescued by a bookseller. The bookseller takes Boudu into his home where life is disrupted by Boudu's antics. This is a social satire, but I didn't really care for the portrayal of Boudu which was more a caricature than a fleshed out character. The plot is a bit thin as well.
Moonage Daydream (2022) - 7.5/10 - This documentary about David Bowie is a bit unconventional and uses lots of unreleased footage from Bowie's estate plus interviews from throughout his career and an excellent soundtrack. The visuals and music are great, but I thought it was a bit overlong and the central narrative of the film was kind of lacking. It did give decent glimpses into the person that Bowie was. I'll definitely take this over the Elvis movie.
Vivre Sa Vie (1962) - 5.5/10 - A woman who aspires to be an actress quickly descends into prostitution. The story is told in 12 vignettes. I liked Anna Karina, but found the story to be pretty dull and only a couple of the vignettes were interesting.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - 8/10 - I liked this one a lot more than I did when I watched it 15 years ago. At the moment, I like the 2022 version more, but this has quite a bit going for it and I might change my opinion if I rewatch the two films again in the future.
The Woman King (2022) - 7.5/10 - In the 1820s, a kingdom in Africa has an elite group of female warriors (led by Viola Davis). They fight to protect their people from the warriors of a neighboring kingdom and from slavers. The focus is split between the leader and a new recruit (Thuso Mbedu) who joins the warriors rather than wed a man who will beat her. It was perhaps a bit predictable, but was entertaining.
The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - A woman runs over a dog while momentarily distracted by her cell phone while on a deserted road. She is shaken up and doesn't get out to check on it. She continues to be out of sorts for days to come as she convinces herself that she might have actually run over a child instead of a dog. The film seemed a bit lifeless at times and while it isn't bad, it didn't really do much for me.
Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - Francois is happily married with a beautiful wife and two young children. They enjoy taking picnics out in the woods. He meets a young single woman and embarks on a relationship with her as well and this only increases his happiness. I've seen this film described as horror wrapped in sunny colors and the description seems to fit. It is very nicely shot.
Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - Wanda is a not very bright woman whose husband divorces her and keeps their young children since she was neglectful of them. Wanda readily agrees to the divorce and starts wandering, sleeping with men who buy her drinks and give her a place to sleep. She ends up traveling around with a small time criminal who doesn't treat her very well. The film is kind of a slog to get through with uninteresting characters and situations. I didn't think the acting was that great either. The most interesting part of the film was seeing the cars , buildings, etc. from that time period.
Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) - 7/10 - A young woman named Adèle is a high school junior who seems unsatisfied with her intimate relationships until she meets Emma, slightly older woman with blue hair. The film follows the two of them over the next few years as Adèle grows up and eventually becomes a teacher. The film seemed longer than necessary and was filled with a number of scenes of people eating pasta and the two woman having sex. I can see why some might love the film (and others hate it) and I thought the film wasn't bad, but could have been much better.
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) - 5/10 - Boudu is an eccentric free spirit/bum who jumps into the Seine only to be rescued by a bookseller. The bookseller takes Boudu into his home where life is disrupted by Boudu's antics. This is a social satire, but I didn't really care for the portrayal of Boudu which was more a caricature than a fleshed out character. The plot is a bit thin as well.
Moonage Daydream (2022) - 7.5/10 - This documentary about David Bowie is a bit unconventional and uses lots of unreleased footage from Bowie's estate plus interviews from throughout his career and an excellent soundtrack. The visuals and music are great, but I thought it was a bit overlong and the central narrative of the film was kind of lacking. It did give decent glimpses into the person that Bowie was. I'll definitely take this over the Elvis movie.
Vivre Sa Vie (1962) - 5.5/10 - A woman who aspires to be an actress quickly descends into prostitution. The story is told in 12 vignettes. I liked Anna Karina, but found the story to be pretty dull and only a couple of the vignettes were interesting.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - 8/10 - I liked this one a lot more than I did when I watched it 15 years ago. At the moment, I like the 2022 version more, but this has quite a bit going for it and I might change my opinion if I rewatch the two films again in the future.
The Woman King (2022) - 7.5/10 - In the 1820s, a kingdom in Africa has an elite group of female warriors (led by Viola Davis). They fight to protect their people from the warriors of a neighboring kingdom and from slavers. The focus is split between the leader and a new recruit (Thuso Mbedu) who joins the warriors rather than wed a man who will beat her. It was perhaps a bit predictable, but was entertaining.
The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - A woman runs over a dog while momentarily distracted by her cell phone while on a deserted road. She is shaken up and doesn't get out to check on it. She continues to be out of sorts for days to come as she convinces herself that she might have actually run over a child instead of a dog. The film seemed a bit lifeless at times and while it isn't bad, it didn't really do much for me.
Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - Francois is happily married with a beautiful wife and two young children. They enjoy taking picnics out in the woods. He meets a young single woman and embarks on a relationship with her as well and this only increases his happiness. I've seen this film described as horror wrapped in sunny colors and the description seems to fit. It is very nicely shot.
Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - Wanda is a not very bright woman whose husband divorces her and keeps their young children since she was neglectful of them. Wanda readily agrees to the divorce and starts wandering, sleeping with men who buy her drinks and give her a place to sleep. She ends up traveling around with a small time criminal who doesn't treat her very well. The film is kind of a slog to get through with uninteresting characters and situations. I didn't think the acting was that great either. The most interesting part of the film was seeing the cars , buildings, etc. from that time period.