What film did you watch last night?

[Profpointy]

"The French Dispatch" the latest Wes Anderson film. A portmanteau film covering three stories from a fictitious magazine Kansas magazine covering a French town. The three stories cover respectively a modern art painter who's an imprisoned murderer and the art world's take on him; student protests along the lines of the events of 68; and a bizarre story of high end quisine combined with police and gangsters. Combines cartoon like elements, theatre like scene changes, narration and flashbacks, black and white bits interspersed with colour so it's a visual feast and you have to concentrate to see even half the details. Pure joy from start to finish. Stellar cast includes Bill Murray, Tilda SWinton, the bloke from Dune, the Felix Leiter guy and Madeleine from the last Bond film, Christoph Stolz, even Henry Winkler and Owen Wilson both unrecognisable

Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but 10/10 for me.

 

[mustang1]

Is The Stath in it? Or maybe Van Damme?

I think I saw van Damme in the distant background shooting an advert about some obscure beer.

 

[matticus]

"The French Dispatch" the latest Wes Anderson film. A portmanteau film covering three stories from a fictitious magazine Kansas magazine covering a French town. The three stories cover respectively a modern art painter who's an imprisoned murderer and the art world's take on him; student protests along the lines of the events of 68; and a bizarre story of high end quisine combined with police and gangsters. Combines cartoon like elements, theatre like scene changes, narration and flashbacks, black and white bits interspersed with colour so it's a visual feast and you have to concentrate to see even half the details. Pure joy from start to finish. Stellar cast includes Bill Murray, Tilda Winton, the bloke from Dune, the Felix Leiter guy and Madelein from the last Bond film, Christoph Stolz, even Henry Winkler and Owen Wilson both unrecognisable

Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but 10/10 for me.

I do love Wes Anderson, but they're inconsistent and this one is getting so-so reviews; I think we'll wait for the intimate small-screen showing.
(Rewatched Moonrise Kingdom recently - it's almost perfect! )

 

[swee'pea99]

The Greatest Show on Earth, or The Worst Movie Ever to Win An Oscar. Truly dreadful. Kind of mesmerising, it's so awful. But actually quite compelling, in a weird kind of way.

It isn't really a movie. Or rather, it's a number of movies crudely spliced together. A sappy romance/love triangle; endless film of circus performers trailing past serried ranks of punters in A Variety of Glittering Costumes; the pick, I presume, of that year's genuine circus performers doing their thing, whatever that happened to be (one example: horse-riding dogs, concluding with a little dog riding on the back of a larger dog riding on the back of a shetland pony - really quite impressive!); sub-plots that appear, disappear, and are never heard of again; and, strangest of all, extended documentary-style film with Cecil B De Mille doing the voiceover to extended (genuine) footage of Barnum & Baileys doing their thing. Over a thousand men putting up, taking down and moving the tent, eg. Fascinating, in its own way, but in no way a part of the 'movie'.

It really is a mess. And yet, as I say, I sat there in a kind of stupor throughout its ten and a half hour runtime. You couldn't take your eyes off the screen. Terrible, terrible bits of dialogue. Laughable blue-screen. Risible 'plot'. But also what was very clearly, behind it all, a farewell to what they must have known was a great, almost defining, but now doomed American institution. This film is whatever else, however big a train wreck , a heartfelt homage.

Which must at least in part explain, if not justify, the Oscar. The idea that this cinematic travesty, this great sprawling technicolour barf of a movie, won the Oscar for which Singin' in The Rain - surely a certainty in any movie-lover's top 100 if not top 10 Greatest Movies of All Time - was not even nominated - let me repeat that: not even nominated - tells you more about the Oscars than it does about The Greatest Show on Earth!

Enjoyed it enormously. Hence my absurdly generous 3/10.

 

[Eziemnaik]

The Gentlemen - after a forum recommendation. Guy Ritchie is the man to bash by oh-so-articulated-educated-wokey-wannabe film critics employed by The Guardian who love to complain that his movies do not shed a light on a plight of migrant transsexual women overcoming the entrenched patriarchy by the power of their convictions. As it happens it is a movie about migrants, but of a DIFFERENT KIND. All entertaining and fun it truly deserves bashing in the newspaper for it is Ritchies best movie since Snatch. 4/5

 

[Adam4868]

I do love Wes Anderson, but they're inconsistent and this one is getting so-so reviews; I think we'll wait for the intimate small-screen showing.
(Rewatched Moonrise Kingdom recently - it's almost perfect! )

That's the sort of dilemma I like....trying to pick your favourite Wes Anderson movie is almost impossible for me.I love Darjeeling probally reminiscing about India and travel though.Life Aquatic....love the Bowie soundtrack.But I'd probally go with the Royal Tenebaums,blew me away when it came out 😁
Damn how could I forget Grand Budapest Hotel....Feinnes best role for me !

 

[stephec]

I've just watched twenty minutes of Cats before having one of those, 'I only have some many hours on earth and shouldn't waste a single one of them,' moments before switching off. 😂

 

[AndyRM]

Finch - 6/10

I like Tom Hanks, and the dog in this looks an awful lot like my girlfriend's which is why I stuck with this predictable and very child friendly take on a post-apocalyptic road trip. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, and it's fine for what it is. Hanks' robot pal Jeff is cool too.

 

[AndyRM]

Last Night in Soho - 8/10

Mentally troubled fashion design student heads to London, with things starting off fairly normal then rapidly descending into a nightmarish psychological time travelling mystery/horror.

Edgar Wright has pushed the boat out with this one.

Looks as lovely as you'd expect from him, killer soundtrack and it was a nice touch to dedicate the film to Diana Rigg.

 

[matticus]

Damn how could I forget Grand Budapest Hotel....Feinnes best role for me !

Don't watch him in Bond straight away - it's very difficult to take him seriously.

 

[Profpointy]

That's the sort of dilemma I like....trying to pick your favourite Wes Anderson movie is almost impossible for me.I love Darjeeling probally reminiscing about India and travel though.Life Aquatic....love the Bowie soundtrack.But I'd probally go with the Royal Tenebaums,blew me away when it came out 😁
Damn how could I forget Grand Budapest Hotel....Feinnes best role for me !

Feinnes is indeed superb in that with his very camp comedic portrayal very different from what he's usually known for.

His best role for me was Coriolanus in the modern dress (with explosions and M16s) movie version. He portrays a very scary character indeed.
A brilliant film, probably the best filmed Shakespeare I've seen, even better than Bas Lurman's R&J or McKellern's Dick 3, and that's saying something.

 

[cookiemonster]

 

[yello]

You Can Count On Me (2000) Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo are both excellent in this. It's refreshing to watch a 'real people' story without zombies, aliens, car crashes or CIA terrorist conspiracy plots. A solid 8, bordering on 9, out of 10 for me.

 

[matticus]

John Wick 3

2 hours of complete bonehead nonsense.

Beautifully executed. Entertaining from start to finish.👍

(First one was much the same. Haven't seen JW2 yet! )

 

[swee'pea99]

Restrepo - a documentary portayal of a platoon of Americans fighting for their lives in a remote valley in Afghanistan.

Gut-wrenching stuff. The futility of the entire business, right up close. They try to establish themselves in a new spot, the 'bad guys' come and shoot at them, some of them get killed, some of the 'bad guys' get killed. They talk to the locals, trying to persuade them against the Taliban; the village elders say they have no problem with that, but the Americans keep killing their friends, parents, children. Eventually, clearly, the Americans will have to withdraw, and all will be as it was before their arrival, just with a few more corpses in the ground.

Real war. Messy, nasty, above all, utterly pointless. Lowering, but, in its unflashy, undemonstrative way, riveting. Should be required watching for anyone thinking of invading Afghanistan. Ever.