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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.
Does anyone want to talk about any of the following?
Dunkirk (2017): ★★⯪
Wall-E (2008): ★★⯪
Forrest Gump (1994): ★★☆
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989): ★★☆
Companion (2025): ★★☆
Little Women (2019): ★⯪☆
Django Unchained (2012): ★★☆
Scarface (1932): ★★☆
The Great Dictator (1940): ★★☆
Maybe Little Women? Looks like you gave it a lukewarm rating. It has been a little while since I saw it, and I remember liking the overall story and the performances, but I had some issues with the directional choices. Scenes are very short and the narrative jumps around a lot. I think this removed any sort of drama or emotional impact, when seemingly pivotal dramatic things happen in a few minutes before we switch to another point in time. Nothing was allowed to settle. I remember liking the last half an hour much better because things slowed down a bit.
I liked the back and forth narrative. I think it gives a good contrast between the early life of the characters and their later life. This is also the umpteenth adaptation of the book, so Gerwig decided to do that to be different.
I will say that I was confused the first time I saw it until about twenty minutes in when I realized the narrative structure.
I just love the texture of the film so much though, the analogue feeling of everything and the score from Alexandre Desplat. It was also the performance that made me fall in love with Florence Pugh.
Yeah, it felt like some scenes were rushed, even though the movie was a bit over two hours. I also got tripped up trying to understand one sequence where the beginning and end of an important event is split up by a fantasy/daydreaming moment. I'm not experienced enough in film to know whether the issue was writing, acting, directing, cinematography, etc, but the movie never really pulled me in for whatever reason.
So many great movies listed on this list but it was a reminder that I want to pick up the UHD 4k version of Dunkirk. What a beautifully shot movie.
Yeah, 4K would really help because of all the landscape shots and closeups of faces. My local store only had the regular blu-ray, but I would have gotten the 4K one if they had it.
I'm sure it's still stunning on Blu-Ray.
A Knight's Tale - 8/10
Just such a brilliantly fun movie. Watched it probably 20 times as a kid and it holds up so well. Maybe that's the nostalgia talking though.
Rebel Ridge - 7/10
Pleasantly surprised by this. Had heard people call it a modern Rambo but I don't agree. Only very roughly does it follow some of the same story beats. But that's like comparing Groundhog Day to Edge of Tomorrow or something. Anyway, pretty good movie, great stoic main character, good supporting cast!
Watched Maria. Loved the music, sets, costumes, cinematography. It's a dark story.
As I mentioned in the music thread, I found myself watching clips from Bob Fosse's cabaret as a form of catharsis.
Captain America: Brave New World
This now officially holds the title for worst received MCU film, both by critics and audiences. The box office won’t be as bad as The Marvels but it’ll be on par with Quantumania.
This sucked man. Like it’s so poorly made. What’s interesting is that the director of this has experience on bigger budget movies (Cloverfield Paradox) yet it looks significantly worse than what we’ve seen from Thunderbolts (which comes from a team who’s biggest project was Netflix’s beef).
This movie was the last one made prior to Marvel starting to pivot (which explains its delay from May 2024).
I’m still looking forward to Thunderbolts though.
I’m Still Here
A Brazilian film that shocked everyone when it received a Best Picture nomination. This is the longest gap between nominations announcements and wide release that I’ve seen in a while. For comparisons: I watched Zone of Interest a week after nominations and I watched Women Talking the day of nominations.
It’s a good melodrama. I love the look of the film. The lighting and warmth we see in the beginning establishes this nostalgic feeling. Before we get into the drama when the lighting feels cold. And as we enter different time period the cinematography reflects it (we start in the 70s which is shot with a lot of grain and we progress to the 90s and 2010s with cleaner images).
Great performances all around, and it’s very well cast.
Rewatched 30 Days of Night thanks to the carrot thread, still holds up as solid.
There was a recent thread about books where explaining the plot ruins the novel, and I feel like this is an example the exact opposite of that: the plot sells the movie. In the artic, where nights last 30 days, a group of vampires lay waste to a town while the humans try to survive until sunrise. If that doesn't sound like a good time, you're on the wrong ride.
Spoiler thoughts on the movie
I think the main reason it works is because they understood just how much that plot could hold up. Fill the rest in with tropes and let the idea just be.That said, it does hold it back from being a great movie.
I think by far the biggest issue (past the tropes) is that it doesn't feel like 30 days and nights, it feels like a montage of happenings. I think there should have been scenes from inbetween "happenings" to really flesh out the characters, both human and vampire. This would make all the death in the film a lot more impactful too.
I personally would have rather had less action and less set up, and more time in the guts of it. But again, paint by the numbers to not fuck up such a good idea.
It's such a cool dynamic to have with the vampires though. Like it almost feels like a zombie movie with the suvrivors holed up and having to be afraid of being bit/turning. Except where as zombies are mindless and endless, it's a specific group of people.
And man, that overhead shot. I literally rewound the movie to take it all in better. The film does have some issues but everybody brought their A game. The directing, editing, sound, acting, etc. I think the visual effects are the only thing from a "movie" aspect that one can actually be critical of, and even then there's the understanding it's a lower budget film.
Though I did forget I had one other issue with it back in the day, that slapped me in the face once Ben Foster appeared: that he wasn't in the movie more. But I grew up on Flash Forward and love anything I see him or Jewel Staite in.
Sadly, Underworld isn't streaming; I'm assuming becauser it's still being played on network TV (which I would not have guessed beforehand...though I guess it's only gen y and older people that watch network TV these days lol). So that rewatch will have to be another time.
My wife and I watched Challengers today. She hated it and though I didn't feel as strongly about it as she did--I would probably say I liked it, even--I definitely didn't love it as much as I've seen other rave about it. I liked the score, though I felt the main theme started to get overused. I appreciated the changing POVs in the final scene but also got a little nauseous watching it. I will say this is the first movie where I've felt like Zendaya displayed some real acting chops. Usually I've found her pretty flat.