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Midweek Movie Free Talk
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
I watched Dune Part 2 the other night. Had to rewatch Part 1 before it since I'd only see it once like a year ago. Anyway, it was decent. I will say that the second half felt rushed. There were some weird cuts. Like there's one scene where it appears one of Stilgar's people, Channi's friend, gets caught by the Harkonnens. But it wasn't quite clear how she got caught, why she was where she was, and what showing her getting caught even added. Even rewatching the scene, my friends and I were still confused.
Next, there was the scene of the big battle, the final showdown. The emperor and the
SauerkrautSardaukar were on Arrakis with multiple legions and machines of war. Then we see Maud'Dib and what looks like thousands upon thousands of his fighters and supporters rushing down the dunes to fight. It looked like it was setting up to show us this gigantic, epic, hand-to-hand, slog of a battle. Like something from Braveheart or LotR. But then all of a sudden Paul and his contingent entered the emperor's throne room, killing the handful of Sardaukar guards. Wha...? What happened? There was a brief scene of the battle outside, but it was so quick. And how did Paul get inside the fortress thing so fast anyway? Felt like we got robbed.There were one or two more moments like that, but those two were the main ones. The runtime is like 2hr45min. So to me, if they were trying to cut scenes for time, I didn't see the point. Movie's almost 3hrs as it is.
Beyond that, I was pleasantly surprised to see Lea Seydoux and Austin Butler in the movie (I'd forgotten seeing him in the trailer). Butler, I think, did an excellent job of portraying Feyd-Rautha. Less pleasant was seeing Christopher Walken as the emperor. That was unexpected and even jarring. All I could think of was "More cowbell!" Javier Bardem and Rebecca Ferguson were great as well. Though I'll watch anything with Bardem. Both Stilgar and Jessica are really interesting characters to me and helps that the actors played them very well.
Letterboxd Wrapped came out:
241 Film Logged // 67 Films Reviewed // 451 Hours Watched
Most Watched Actor: Willem Dafoe // Most Watched Director: John Huston
Highly Rated 2024 Films: Dune Part Two (5/5) // Anora (5/5) // The Substance (4.5/5)
Most Watched Week: April 1-7 (14 Films Watched)
Most Watched Day: Sunday (62 Films)
First Watch of the Year: Summertime (1955) // Last Watch of the Year: The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Milestones: 50th Film: The Best Years of Our Lives // 100th Film: Dickson Greeting // 150th Film: From Here To Eternity // 200th: Vox Lux
Most Watched Theme: Moving relationship stories // Most watched nanogenre: Gory, Thrills, Haunted
That's a really cool feature. I wish IMDB had something like it but since letterboxd doesn't have TV shows*, I won't migrate. Despite it seeming like a much better site
*announced a year ago but still not implemented for some reason
well, @winther -- the time has come to talk about The Beast / La bête (2023).
First, I really liked the first half of this film. That title card was my favorite in a long time. The last half of the movie was a slog for me. I didn't hate it, but it felt like a lot of time on one time period vs the others. It also felt like a mix of Lynch, Herzog, and even a little Malick -- in a good way. I liked the overall ideas, but ultimately it felt like it would have been an excellent Black Mirror feature.
The general premise could definitely have been a Black Mirror episode, but this is way too artsy for that. This is really the kind of film that will give people vastly different experiences but those are usually the most interesting films, at least compared to those that are just universally loved. I found this to be borderline brilliant, though not quite.
I was hooked from start to finish, even though it has its slower periods where the plot doesn't go much anywhere and I was to an extent sort of waiting for it to get going, I never knew exactly where it was going to go next. It constantly caught me by surprise, but I never lost the connection with the narrative. I wasn't expecting everything to be completely explained or neatly tied together in the end, as it is clearly not that kind of film, but I was waiting for something to become clearer in the end. I found the ending to be very fitting and show that ultimately the film is about how technology dehumanizes and ultimately destroys human relationships. It is a fitting theme for the whole current zeitgeist on AI.
The comparison to Herzog and Lynch is apt, but it doesn't reach the levels of those filmmakers.
At first I thought it was going to be like Eternal Sunshine with lots of jumping around, etc. Its definitely stuck with me more than I thought it would.
But yeah, overall I think I'm pretty much with you wrt the ending. For me, the pace was just off.
It does have the familiar pacing problem that seems to creep into most modern films that are more than 2 hours long. Somehow 100 to 120 minutes are good, and long epics clocking in at 3-4 hours are also fine, but the ~2:20 runtime very often have pacing issues and feels at least 20 minutes too long. I felt the same with Anora, The Substance and Poor Things. All good films, but they all have a period where the film seems to just repeating its thematic premise and I am waiting for it to make its next move so to speak. In The Beast it also got to a point where "Yeah, I get it. The three timelines are connected. No need to show the exact same scenes play out multiple times.".
Do you have other backlog films you want to watch by next Wednesday? :)
I have the following on my up and coming want-to-watch list: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Birds, Nosferatu the Vampyre (Herzog's version) and L’Avventura.
haha yeah, but not as many. A Different Man, 10 Things I Hate About You, Wuthering Heights (1939) — it’s all in this fancy calendar system i built that has issues, but works perfectly within the Apple ecosystem.
I’ll pop in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance —- I love Lee Marvin. I’ll do this first.
I keep bumping back dates due to social things, but I do my best to hit the dates.
I was trying to join in on the conversation but I couldn’t find the subtitles for The Beast file that I downloaded. I’ll throw my hat in for L’Avventura though.
Pink flamingoes - so i didn't really know what this was about before going into it. What a trip it was! I had to stop 15min in and google if I was watching the right thing coz it was madness. Very fun movie and by the time it was finished i felt like I had achieved something haha.
Return of Godzilla (1984) - this was a fun Godzilla movie. Godzilla is more of a character in it and seems to really dislike people. Also his eyes look much better than in the first film. Godzilla is back and he's pissed(said in a bill hicks voice). Iv got a few more Godzilla films on the list so I'm looking forward to see how the series develops.
Has anyone seen Love Lies Bleeding with Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian? I am not really understanding why it has gotten so much positive buzz. I had similar sentiments on other A24 "horror"-type films such as X and Pearl. It is just all over the place in terms of style and genre, and it doesn't seem to want to say anything specific. There may be an underlying comment about toxic masculinity somewhere, and genre mashups can be cool, but this just jumps between cheesy 80's exploitation pastiche, lesbian drama, bloody revenge gore, an attempt at a Coen-like script, modern body horror in the vein of Titane and The Substance, even a sports film to a degree and it never settles on anything and all the various parts didn't add up to much for me. It also has that, to me, really off-putting A24 overly stylized attempt at a gritty look that just looks extremely digital and artificial. It didn't create a proper sense of being in the 80s, just like the attempted 70s style in X didn't work for me. A24 is of course putting out a great deal of very different films, but I am starting to feel a little less enthusiastic about their output lately, as they seem to not properly break boundaries or expectations anymore, but just doing what has worked in the past.
I watched it in June and yeah I agree with you, I don't understand the praise. Here's the comment I made back then:
You have me thinking now about this movie. I saw it in the theater going in not knowing a thing about it. I remember the “grindhouse” aspect landing more unpleasant instead of fun to me, but then I’m a cis guy who probably “enjoys”/tolerates men in pain more than women in my entertainment. (Just a passing observation and an awareness of my own tendency towards a caveman-like hetero-normative gender thinking.) Women kicking ass? Absolutely. Women in agonizing pain? Less fun than men in agonizing pain. Maybe that’s something for me to take a look at someday, but I’m okay probably never getting to it.
But that’s like the only passing feeling I can remember getting from it. I remember events of the film now because of this thread, but it sure didn’t linger or elicit much thought after.
I guess my feelings are along the lines of “well, that was different and I’m glad they went for it I guess, but I’m not sure what ‘it’ was or that they landed it.”
I’m glad I gave it my $10-12 at the theater to support “risky” cinema, but I think that’s the reason for the praise too. It wasn’t great, but at least it tried to be different.
I just saw a movie called Never Let Me Go from 2010. I've known about it for a while, I don't actually remember why I first heard of it. My original memory of it was that it was nominated for Cinematography at the Oscar's but that doesn't appear to be the case. Anyways, I ran into a post on Reddit about high brow literature and the book that this was based on was mentioned. I figured I might as well watch the film.
I don't usually talk about non-new releases on here. I'm not sure why, I don't often review older films on my Letterboxd either. But this reminded me of something that happened to me recently, which aphoenix was kind enough to let me vent about a few months ago.
I was part of a love triangle. These two girls, who are friends, liked me. One was shy and the other was extroverted and forward. The shy one liked me first but the extroverted one swooped in and we began hooking up, it was my first ever romantic experience. I always thought me and the shy girl made more sense as a couple, but I made a decision out of frustration over any sort of logic. Anyways, the shy girl began giving me really sad looks during our time together. I'm sure she thought the same as I did.
The movie gave me a perception on what she might have been feeling during that time. And perhaps what could have been after her friend and I split. I think there was an opening for me and her to be together after that, but I wasn't brave or willing enough to pull that thread.
I was shocked on how close this movie was to portraying that dynamic and even outright saying things that I was thinking during those times. The movie itself is good. It's an elegant film, handsomely made, wonderfully acted. It's perhaps the only posh script Alex Garland ever wrote. It's shot beautifully, it's score is tragically beautiful.
It hit me too hard I had to write about it.
Soldier - 7/10
Seems underrated. It's a simple straightforward action/sci-fi flick, Kurt Russell starring. Feels like an 80's Schwarzenegger or Stallone movie but pretty fun all the same.
Hitman - 7/10
I have a soft spot for this movie. I watched it like 10 times when I was in my teens - it was one of only a few dozen dvd's I had. It's been about a decade since I last watched it though so it was fun to remember everything. It doesn't pretend to be anything it's not, it's just a lot of dumb fun that I have nostalgia about!
Hitman: Agent 47 - 1/10
I barely even knew this existed but decided to do a twofer. I had low expectations going into it but good grief, everything was awful. Not a single saving grace. It was a chore to get through and I actually don't know why I watched until the end lol
There is only one other movie I have ever rated 1/10, Primer. It's an interesting premise, but it's completely unheard of to need graphs and half a dozen rewatches to understand it. Makes for a true turd. I would rather watch literal garbage.
La Femme Nikita 3/10
I know no superlative for how badly this movie suffers from the born sexy yesterday trope, and for the crazy woman trope. Both some of the worst tropes I know. She is either screaming, crying, or laughing hysterically - at best she is dissociating. All over the place in almost every scene. A disjointed movie overall. It felt like it wanted to go in half a dozen different directions just like its main character. Not much about it made sense to me outside of maybe the first 20-30 minutes which were pretty good.