Sort of a carry over from the original AO (OAO).
The Sunlit Night If you are a fan of Jenny Slate and indie movies, this may be right up your alley. Nice watch on a Saturday afternoon. Jenny plays an artist whose career is going no where. Her sister is recently engaged and folks are splitting. She takes a job in very northern Norway to help a formerly famous painter with a new project, to paint a barn only using various shades of yellow.
Crash (2005) (Seen online as “2004.” Apparently it was not released for Academy Award qualification in 2004, only at a film festival.)
This won the Academy Award. No idea how, besides having a slew of actors and their actor friends vote for it, and five or six production companies and their employees voting for it.
Not saying it was bad, but it was very, very meh.
Blackkklansman The story of the first african-american police detective in colorado springs. By Spike Lee. Sometimes a little heavy-handed. Sometimes weird (and not super successful) cinamatography. But it never lost my interest. At times i held my breath, and at times i laughed, and overall, it was a moving film.
Watched Princess Bride tonight. Always a blast.
Yesterday, watched Greater (on Netflix). Faith-based film based on a true story (Brandon Burlsworth). Sort of Rudy clashing with The Blind Side.
We really enjoyed it. YMMV.
Last Christmas (2019)
I have no words.
Curiosity killed the …
As bad as advertised.
I saw the play 35 years ago (or so). It was never considered a great play, but a fun experience. It was huge for the tourists.
The cool aspect of the play was watching these actors virtually transform into cats, even when not from and center. Here the cats are a total anthropomorphism, which eliminates the thing that made the play cool
In the play staging was minimal, the alley, here they had to complete the anthropomorphism by making a cat centric world.
In the play good dancing, here they added CG and special effects, so what are we actually watching or care they can do it
In the play the costuming was amazing, using the cats fur to put across what their role was. Here it became the same problem
The music is mostly the same, but many of the early songs felt flat and lost me at the beginning. and if Judy Dench could ever sing she has lost it with age.
The comic relief (can only fat cats be funny?) was just over the top and annoying and the overall look was just creepy
Other than that a great film
Rhythm Section I was looking forward to this movie. I think Blake Lively can do some pretty good work and she doesn’t put out too many movies, so I expect that when she does, it will be enjoyable. This is billed a revenge movie where her family was killed in a plane bombing and the authorities haven’t done anything to bring in the bomber. She’s lost and has become a strung out hooker. She meets up with a former MI6 operative (Jude Law) and starts to become badass. It really ends there. Not really worth your time sad to say.
Plus One This is a little like The Holidate, a Netflix movie, but in this one, there are two long time friends who are both going to a bunch of weddings this one summer and they decide to be each others plus one. Pretty standard rom-com setup. Nothing new or really that interesting here. The only reason I watched it was for Jack Quaid, Hughie from The Boys. He was reasonable good as the male lead. It was worth seeing all of the speeches at the various weddings where people thought they were original, but they started to sound the same.
The Circle (2017)
Wow, another loss-for-words film-watching experience.
Hoping Emma Watson would expand her acting chops. Nope.
Dear White People (2014)
I recorded this on IFC, which usually show films uncut – it’s part of the appeal and part of their advertising, as the same movie will be shown cut up to < audio unheard > on AMC in a week – and it was all cut up to < audio unheard > . No fucks, no shits, but for some reason they kept in the n-word.
It wasn’t any good, anyway.
Not the last movies I watched, but they were on netflix and I quite like this type of genre.
In the Tall Grass
The Platform
Vivarium
Hard Kill This is the latest Bruce Willis action movie, although he plays the billionaire being protected by the young guns. Might be the worst Willis movie ever and that is saying something. The acting is atrocious, the plot is obvious and you can actually predict which good guy will get shot before it happens. I think it is people like me that have kept it trending on Netflix.
Like a Boss this came out earlier this year and we missed it at the theater, saw it on Netflix. Tiffany Haddish, (a family favorite), Rose Byrne and Salma Hayek star. Tiffany and Rose are long time friends with a cosmetic company that Salma wants. The pacing is so slow, almost didn’t make it to the end. Not really worth the time IMO.
The Babysitter on Netflix from a few years ago. A sort of slasher type movie and there is a sequel out now that’s on my list. If you like a lot of gore and blood, this might float your boat. I did laugh at some of the death scenes as they were a little unexpected. An we get Ken Marino as the dad, so what’s not to love.
Hillbilly Elegy - the movie was good, not great, Adams & Close should get noms. I could easily see Close get her first win
A Little Game This was from a few years ago. A 10 year old learns chess in the park from the irascible old man (F. Murray Abraham) and learns life lessons in the process. The girl who played the lead was great, but then we also get Ralph Macchio and Janeane Garofalo as her parents, yikes. Not great but mildly entertaining.
Stop Making Sense This was a 1984 Talking Heads concert movie. Really well done as a concert movie goes and they played everything a non-follower of the group would want to hear as far as I can tell.
Prospect
Interesting low budget sci-fi flick on Netflix.
I watched ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas. It was OK. Overall there’s nothing big in there. They pointed out two fortuitous timing things that really moved their career - the two years they took off for the drummer’s drug rehab allowed them to move beyond being a blues rock band and their noticing MTV early on and creating a style of video made them in some sense larger-than-life icons. But overall it will only be worthwhile if you like ZZ Top.
Noelle Disney movie from last year with Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader. They are Santa’s kids and one needs to take over the business. Nice enough diversion. Shirley MacLaine is elf Polly and kills it.
Mulan Also on Disney. Never saw the cartoon, so I can’t compare, but it is not for kids. I liked this a ton. I didn’t know the full story, but even having a good understanding of the plot beforehand, I still found it very entertaining. Highly recommend.
Little Italy This is a few years old starring Emma Roberts and Hayden Christensen. They are two kids who’s parents operated a very successful pizza parlor in Little Italy and then had a huge falling out and the dads are openly fighting. Emma goes away to become a chef (under Jane Seymour) and Hayden is an aspiring restaurateur who feels like he can’t abandon the family. Pretty standard rom-com, but it worked for me.
Don’t know if anyone cares, but I will not be posting movies like I did in the prior forum. Just a few select now and then
Zero Hour! (1957) ok, decent enough film, BUT this is the drama that Airplane (1980) is spoofing. There is really no humor in the film, but so many lines like “This was the wrong week to quit smoking” will have you laughing or more subtle things like the pilot being played by a HoF athlete…
Black Bear This is the latest from Aubrey Plaza. The story is told twice from sort of different perspectives and a change in who each actor plays. In the first version, Aubrey is an actress/director looking for inspiration at an out of the way lodge owned by a couple. In the second version, Aubrey plays an actress whose husband (the guy who played the male lead in the first story) is directing her in a movie that sort of replicates the first story but she is playing the woman who is part owner of the lodge. It wasn’t as convoluted as my write-up might indicate. It has a real indie feel and I liked it quite a bitt, but it won’t be for everyone.