Movie Record 2023 Edition - The Bear and Badger

davyK

Scott of the Antarctic starring John Mills starts off as a jolly-good-show-he's-the-right-sort type of thing which soon falls away to describe in (as far as I know as I have watched The Great White Silence) a fair bit of factual detail, the doomed race to the South Pole. It appears documentary-like at times and it doesn't put a sheen on things, using the diaries of Scott's team as narrative.

LivDiv

1. Men
Woman goes to village full of same face stalky men.
Horror ensues.
[6]

Dark Soldier

Such a good ending. Watched it at the cinema and about half the people there walked out at some point.

LivDiv

It's certainly a thing.
I mostly found it funny. I don't think the rest of the film really earns it if that makes sense.

b0r1s

2. The Banshees of Inisherin - a beautifully shot tragedy with top performances from all actors ostensibly about friends falling out but had a broader message (I felt) about the divide* in Ireland.

*I know little about the birth of the conflict.

davyK

It's set during the Irish Civil War. Something that isn't talked about a great deal. It started after an Irish election for acceptance or rejection of partition (the deal fostered by Michael Collins)Those backing partition won the election. But a Civil war started and the death toll was higher than in the US war of independence.

We have been killing each other off and on ever since.

b0r1s

Your last sentence mirrors the line on the beach, which I guess is the real point of the film.

ShabbyMcCrabby

Gremill wrote:

1. It Follows Creepy as all hell to the point where I thought I might have to turn it off it was freaking me out so much. Extremely effective horror with a superb synth-score by Disasterpeace, it lets itself down slightly with a few cheap jump scares, but on the whole builds the tension to almost unbearable levels at times. 8

I feel like it earnt those jumps. It definitely had me thinking about exit strategies when I got home after seeing it. I lived in a second story apartment at the time so I would have been pretty fucked.

davyK

b0r1s wrote:

Your last sentence mirrors the line on the beach, which I guess is the real point of the film.

Sigh. Aye.

davyK

The Ascent (1977) is a real kick in the teeth. Set in WW2 Belarus and is about 2 partisans caught by the Nazis and the moral quandries that emerge.

The lady who made this had her life tragically cut short. Her husband made Come and See. Quite the power couple.

On Criterion BluRay. This deserves more recognition as it's superb but it's not comfortable viewing despite it not being as visceral as something like Come and See. It's a very human, spiritual film - the acting is spellbinding.

tin_robot

White Noise
I've never read the novel on which this is based, knowing little about it other than that it's one of the many deemed "un-filmable" in the past. So, like all un-filmable films, here's the movie.

It's a rambling tale, about an academic and his family, whose comfortable lives are turned upside down by a disaster, bringing them face to face with their own mortality. It's beautifully shot, well performed, and utterly lacking in momentum. When the disaster happens I found myself thinking, "OK, here we go", but it continues at a languid pace.

That's kind of the point of course but it still doesn't help. The film is bristling with ideas, but you never get the feeling that it feels we should be taking them terribly seriously. There are, similarly, a whole bunch of impressive moments - a double handed "Hitler and Elvis" lecture, a spectacular train crash, a station wagon river trip, a hospital dash - but none carry any real weight.

Indeed, it's literally only in the closing credits when the film truly comes alive. A glorious celebration of the beauty of our mundane lives. It's a wonderful way to end the film - but it's hard to justify sitting through the rest to get there. (Particularly when that ending is pretty similar to the one that Baumbach also wrote for the Fantastic Mr Fox movie).

Deerskin

Absurdist french black comedy in which a recently divorced man becomes utterly obsessed with his new deerskin jacket. Is it a critique of consumerist culture? Is it a reflection on the nature of film makers, and the steps they're willing to take to fulfill their vision? Or is it just very silly?

Probably all of the above. For the first 30 minutes I was conjuring all sorts of ideas in my head about where the film was going, but ultimately I was wrong on all counts. There's not really anything of any substance here, but it's a fun time. Short, strange, sinister and silly.

Gremill

2. Men
Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear and Rory Kinnear and Rory Kinnear and Rory Kinnear and Rory Kinnear are outstanding in this almost completely unhinged folk-horror tale that goes to some deeply disturbing places. It looks and sounds stunning and has an atmosphere of oppressive dread and malice from the outset - but I can see why some people hated it. I loved it though, don't think I've seen anything quite like it before. 8

Gremill

Dark Soldier wrote:

Such a good ending. Watched it at the cinema and about half the people there walked out at some point.

I thought the ending was amazing.

LivDiv

2. Bronson
Hardy chews the scenery in superb, heavily stylised biopic. LUTON.
[9]

Cos

2. Glass Onion
Enjoyable whodunnit sequel. It didn't hit the heights of the original but thought it did enough to stand apart and be a good film in its own right. Craig is having a ball but rest of the performances were patchy and most of the cast felt somewhat underused. Still, the central plot was engaging and I didn't spot some of the telltale elements so I really was kept guessing most of the way and fell for a couple of red herrings. The payoff was spectacular but didn't feel like enough somehow. I doubt I'll revisit this as I have with KO but it's fun while it lasts. [7]

davyK

Captain America : The Winter Soldier Top notch Marvel entry. End to end entertainment. Glad I caught this one.

LivDiv

3. Rocky
No good bum gets good but not quite good enough.
[8]

LivDiv

Weird one is Rocky.
It's a great film and the best story of the series that it spawned but also unique amongst them.

The other 7(?) Films in the Balboa universe plus the game and action figure of a side of beef have in time increasingly less to do with the grounded, gritty often quite depressing original. Paulie is probably the epitome of this, I totally forgot what a drink asshole he is, a long way from the secret robot shagger he becomes.

Wookienopants

davyK wrote:

Captain America : The Winter Soldier Top notch Marvel entry. End to end entertainment. Glad I caught this one.

It's one of the best. Simply brilliant

Moot_Geeza

LivDiv wrote:

Weird one is Rocky.
It's a great film and the best story of the series that it spawned but also unique amongst them.

The other 7(?) Films in the Balboa universe plus the game and action figure of a side of beef have in time increasingly less to do with the grounded, gritty often quite depressing original. Paulie is probably the epitome of this, I totally forgot what a drink asshole he is, a long way from the secret robot shagger he becomes.

Yep, OG Paulie is a cunt. It's nice to have the sequels and I do enjoy all of them (even V, which is the fun kind of awful), but the first one is a genuinely great film.

Moot_Geeza

I haven't seen II for years, but it's not far off the quality of the first one, from what I remember? Might treat myself to a rewatch.

Minkymu

i prefer rocky 2

LivDiv

Yeah Rocky II is definitely closer. I think Rocky kinda needs it as well, the movie and the character need that win.

Minkymu

LivDiv wrote:

Yeah Rocky II is definitely closer. I think Rocky kinda needs it as well, the movie and the character need that win.

yes a rare sequel by the fact it actually makes the original better with some satisfying call backs and pay offs.

Then they go a bit daft from 3 onwards

acemuzzy

I've never seen a Rocky. Maybe I should...

Wookienopants

acemuzzy wrote:

I've never seen a Rocky. Maybe I should...

Yes you should. They are excellent. Except for V.

Moot_Geeza

acemuzzy wrote:

I've never seen a Rocky. Maybe I should...

Even Michael Owen's seen a Rocky film.

davyK

Minkymu wrote:

LivDiv wrote:

Yeah Rocky II is definitely closer. I think Rocky kinda needs it as well, the movie and the character need that win.

yes a rare sequel by the fact it actually makes the original better with some satisfying call backs and pay offs. Then they go a bit daft from 3 onwards

3 has "There is no tomorrow" but the rest of it is hokum + the homo-erotic beach dancing.

LivDiv

1 and 2 are 70s movies. 3,4,and 5 are 80s and it very much shows.

LivDiv

4. Office Space
Mike Judge does anti corporate job porn. Hilariously cynical new American Dream.
[9]

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