Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

Ex_Machina (Alex Garland, 2015) 5/10

Claustrophobic melodrama which might have worked even better if the parts had been played by Tallullah Bankhead, Grace Kelly and Tyrone Power. However, all three are now long dead and we get instead Oscar Issac (as the eccentric genius with a fantastic research facility), Donmhall Gleeson (as the man chosen to test the A.I.) and sexy Alicia Valkander playing the A.I. who undergoes the Turin Test to determine if she has enough characteristics to pass as human. The film starts off very lowkey and evolves into a cat and mouse game between the three protagonists. The plot and the set up seems culled from assorted science fiction films from the past (Blade Runner, Minority Report and A.I. come to mind) - all very deja vu; the sparse production design and the piano score adds mood but for me the most fascinating aspect of the film was the spectacular location - the mountains, glacier and waterfalls - outside the house (in reality a hotel in Norway). The saving grace of the film is Alicia Vikander who acts mostly with her eyes; her deadpan expression gradually changing as the film progresses. This is a great performance by an actor who is poised to become an international star this year with a spate of upcoming films. I guessed the twist ending at this overrated film's mid-point.

[Reza]

Mr Brooks (Bruce A. Evans, 2007) 8/10

Wicked black comedy with Kevin Costner in superb form as a serial killer who has joined an AA group to cure himself of the urge to kill. William Hurt is equally good as his invisible alter ego constantly urging him on to kill and kill again. Their scenes together are full of glee as the murders make both euphoric. Demi Moore is the homicide cop trying to solve the murders. The film has a number of different plot strains running parallel and the script keeps them all juggling in perfect symmetery. Slickly shot and edited the film makes the act of murder thrilling and allows the viewer to participate as a voyeur on this rollercoaster ride. It's a special treat to see Costner, normally so anal, playing such a loose witty character. Great fun.

[Reza]

Ride (Helen Hunt, 2015) 4/10

Overbearing Mom (Helen Hunt) follows her son who has dropped out of college and has decided to become a surfer. So she ends up learninv the sport too while getting involved with fellow surfer Luke Wilson. Very ordinary film with a story that just ambles along aimlessly with Hunt the director not much help either. Hunt the actor, on the other hand, has aged very badly and probably should consider going under the knife.

[Reza]

The Rawhide Years (Rudolph Matè, 1955) 5/10

Mediocre Western with riverboat gambler Tony Curtis trying to prove his innocence before a lynch mob gets him for murder. There is no doubt of Curtis' charisma as a star.

[Reza]

Slow West (John Maclean, 2015) 4/10

A Scottish teenager treks across the American frontier in search of the girl he loves. Episodic and boring Western with Michael Fassbender the only saving grace as the bounty hunter guardian angel. Filmed in New Zealand.

[Reza]

Bombay Velvet (Anurag Kashyap, 2015) 8/10

Extremely ambitious and sprawling film which is stylistically a triumph as it painstakingly recreates a world gone by - Bombay during the 1960s - through shimmery cinematography, stunning costumes, a jazz infused score and eye popping production design that showcases the Bombay docks, streets with vintage cars, sleazy brothels, fancy art deco nightclubs, the racing track and country clubs. This is director Anurag Kashyap's homage to the two Godfather films and Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" by way of Raoul Walsh's "The Roaring Twenties" which had James Cagney as a two bit hood who wants to become a "Big Shot". Here the hood, named "Johnny" of whiskey fame (Ranbir Kapoor with a silly Lyle Lovett mop on his head but rightfully over-the-top like Cagney), rises from the streets as a common pickpocket to becoming a streetfighting boxer and with the help of a menacing business magnate (played with a delightful and knowing glee by Karan Johar) becomes the propreitor of a posh nightclub. His moll / femme fatale (played by Anushka Sharma, all dolled up in fantastic costumes) has her own sorry background - from an abused childhood to prostitution to becoming an alluring chanteuse at the club. The plot tries to encompass far too much - politicians and shady businessmen trying to ruthlessly make a killing over reclaimed land which went on to create the Bombay of today. The film is a movie buff's dream as it creates scenes that bring back memories of "On the Waterfront" (Kapoor as a smuggler working for a longshoreman on the docks) and "Scarface" (Kapoor spraying bullets holding two tommy guns). The film may be a failure - too much style over substance - but it should be required viewing (on the big screen) for anyone interested in film for the many spectacular scenes alone. Special mention goes to lovely Raveena Tandon, dressed to her teeth in retro 60s attire, singing a jazzy number on stage as the film opens. Paging Karan Johar to lure sexy Raveena back onto the screen.

[Reza]

Never Say Goodbye (Jerry Hopper & Douglas Sirk, 1956) 6/10

A doctor (Rock Hudson) comes across his wife (Cornel Borchers) whom he thought had died seven years before. Melodramatic plot that zeroes in on a long flashback to explain what happened. There is also an annoying child causing a lot of unnecessary hysteria. Hudson looks bored playing the loving husband and father but Borchers is very good as the wife long nursing emotional wounds. George Sanders has nothing much to do but remains a welcome presence as always. Sirk's touches are visible throughout although he did not receive any credit.

[Reza]

Piku (Shoojit Sircar, 2015) 10/10

The human bowel movement gets a pretty graphic but hilarious workout in this brilliant screenplay which remarkably sustains the humour throughout the entire running time of this very funny and moving film. The story also touchingly deals with old age and the responsibility of children towards their aged parents. Apart from being a family drama the film is also a road movie where the three major characters - a cantankerous old Bengali hypochondriac (Amitabh Bachchan) with a chronic bowel problem, his independent, irrascible but very patient daughter (Deepika Padukone) who has resigned herself to a life of spinsterhood as caretaker to her selfish father and the taxi owner (Irrfan Khan) who drives them from Bombay to Calcutta with the constant bickering he incredulously puts up with. The Bengali milieu is lovingly created with a tour of the city of Calcutta (Howrah Bridge gets a look-in of course but the camera also captures the ghats, the skyline and the huge dilapitated family haveli with it's courtyard and rooms which have obviously seen better days). The entire cast perfectly captures the Bengali speech intonation and presents a way of life so typical to Bengal. The director is clearly paying homage to the great Bengali directors - Satyajit Ray and Hrishikesh Mukherji - who created remarkable films set in the same milieu. Also worth noting is the delightful cameo by Moushumi Chatterji as the aunt - the actress was one of Bachchan's former leading ladies - who creates sparks in her scenes opposite him. This is a lovely little film which should be seen preferably with one's parents.

[ITALIANO]

There are, as it traditionally happens in Italian cinema and today especially in Paolo Sorrentino's movies, lots of memorably weird characters in Youth, the celebrated director's most recent movie. This time the context isn't a big, opulent latin city, like in The Great Beauty, but a luxury spa in the Swiss Alps, and I guess that's partly why Youth isn't as good as its Oscar-winning precursor. The images and the landscapes are still gorgeous, but never as well-integrated in the storyline as in The Great Beauty, and Sorrentino seems less comfortable in this Central-European setting than, say, Olivier Assayas in his Clous of Sils Maria or, of course, Wes Anderson in Grand Budapest Hotel were.
Anyway, those weird characters include an obscenely obese South American former soccer champion (based on you-know-who), an elderly couple who never talk to each other at dinner, a shy prostitute, Miss Universe, a young American actor (Paul Dano) who's there to focus on his next important role but is mainly recognized by the people for having played a robot in a sci-fi flick he's ashamed of, a professional mountain climber, etc. Most importantly, there are a once-famous, now retired music composer and orchestra conductor (Michael Caine) and his friend, a film director (Harvey Keitel) working with his screenwriters on what will probably be his last movie. The two talk, at length, about old age, life, death, success, and what they remember and they have forgotten. The talk is sometimes brilliant, sometimes obvious - it's Ingmar Bergman crossed with Paul Haggis, and the final effect, while intelligent, is never completely satisfying. The movie is very good in some parts, but as a whole this meditation on regret and the passing of time isn't as moving as it could have been - or as Sorrentino could have made it in other circumstances (in a totally Italian production, made in Italian, for example?).
The actors are, needless to say, great. The two leads underact superbly. Rachel Weisz has a very good role as Caine's daughter and assistant, whose husband (who happens to be Keitel's son) has just left her for a spoiled younger pop star. She has a very good monologue - all in close-up - where she accuses his father of having always selfishly humiliated his long-suffering wife (who at one point even read her husband's love letter to another man).
The Keitel character talks often of Brenda, the movie star he worked so frequently with in the past and the one he's writing his next movie for - a two-time Oscar winner who has read only two books in her life ("one being her autobiography") - so it's not such a suprise when she turns up in the resort, directly from Los Angeles. She is played by a REAL two-time Oscar winner, Jane Fonda - and the scene where the aging actress, complete with Baby-Jane make-up, a mix of anger, bitterness and frustration, verbally destroys her former pygmalion, is so colorful that the movie instantly comes to life. But it's a problem when a movie NEEDS a showy scene like this in order to come to life.
It's not a bad movie at all. It's just not among Sorrentino's best. And those who didn't like The Great Beauty - there were several on this board - should probably stay away.

[Precious Doll]

Breathe (2014) Melanie Laurent 6/10
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) George Miller 4/10
Spy (2015) Paul Feig 7/10
Phoenix (2014) Christian Petzoid 6/10
Magical Universe (2014) Jeremy Workman 6/10
Watchers of the Sky (2014) Edet Bolzberg 8/10
Woman in Gold (2015) Simon Curtis 4/10

Repeat viewings

Dressed to Kill (1980) Brian De Palma 10/10
White Dog (1982) Samuel Fuller 10/10

[Heksagon]

From Losey I've only seen this one, The Servant, Accident, and The Go-Between. Which others would you deeply recommend me?

For whatever reason, I have for some time considered Joseph Losey as the most critically overrated film director ever. Those three films are all deadly boring IMHO. The only one of Losey's films that I've enjoyed is The Boy with Green Hair. Although there's plenty that I haven't seen, including Monsieur Klein. But at the moment, I'm not too enthusiastic about going out of my way to see them.

[Precious Doll]

Shield of Straw (2013) Takashi Miike 6/10
Blackhat (2015) Michael Mann 5/10
Marfa Girl (2013) Larry Clark 5/10
When Marnie Was There (2014) Hiromasa Yonebayashi 4/10
The Gate (2014) Regis Wargnier 6/10
Inside (2012) Zeki Demirkubuz 7/10
R100 (2013) Hitoshi Matsumoto 6/10
A Royal Night Out (2015) Julian Jarrold 2/10

[Precious Doll]

I like Losey's first Hollywood film, The Boy With Green Hair with Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan and Dean Stockwell in the title role, and his 1950 remake of M with David Wayne in the Peter Lorre role is an underrated gem. For late Losey,The Romantic Englishwoman contains a better Glenda Jackson performance than Hedda for which she received an Oscar nomination that same year.

What a shame that Losey's M has gone into complete obscurity. Whilst it doesn't match the original Lang version, it is nevertheless a rewarding version in its own right. I saw it back in a repertory cinema in the 1980's and haven't noticed any screenings in any form since. It also appears to be missing in action on home video as well.

The Boy with Green Hair does remain my favourite Losey film and it is such a shame that his last film Steaming was so underwhelming, particularly as it was based on a very popular stage play.

[Big Magilla]

I like Losey's first Hollywood film, The Boy With Green Hair with Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan and Dean Stockwell in the title role, and his 1950 remake of M with David Wayne in the Peter Lorre role is an underrated gem. For late Losey,The Romantic Englishwoman contains a better Glenda Jackson performance than Hedda for which she received an Oscar nomination that same year.

[CalWilliam]

Monsieur Klein (1976), Joseph Losey.

This film leaves me speechless. It's one of the most complex, intriguing as a concept movies I've ever seen. Since I didn't find any discussion about it on this board, I'd like you to write down your feelings about it in case you have seen it. If you haven't, I advise you to do so as soon as possible. It's an unknown gem.
Starring Alain Delon, with Jeanne Moreau and Michael Lonsdale. Screenplay by Franco Solinas and Costa-Gavras (uncredited). Outstanding art direction by Alexandre Trauner.
Delon's best performance.

It''s hardly an unknown gem. One of Losey's many great films.

Yes, thank you for saying it, Reza, but believe me, in Spain is unknown.
Do you think the film deals more profundly with the regret, the indifference or is it just a parable?
From Losey I've only seen this one, The Servant, Accident, and The Go-Between. Which others would you deeply recommend me?