Midweek Movie Free Talk

I finally watched Sinners about two weeks ago. It was really really good and I have enjoyed getting to dig into the analysis of symbolism and other discussions of the film

I rewatched PhoneBooth (2002) for the 10th time or something last night and it made me think why I like this movie. I'm deeply fascinated by honesty and authenticity, probably because I've struggled with these issues in my own life and just recently in the last couple of years really worked on it myself. Colin Farrell delivers in his role and while this is probably before he was revered as a top performer this movie really shows his abilities. Plus how great is Kiefer Sutherlands voice! Great casting. I'm always drawn to movies that takes place in a single environment because it relies heavily on characters, performances and a great idea. PhoneBooth does this very well IMO and with just the right duration (81 minutes).

I'm open to suggestion in this "genre" including horror cause I know it's a classic approach in that genre.

My wife and I finally watched alien covenant since we have been enjoying the show and both like Prometheus.

Man was it rough. I love the world and characters but really struggled to enjoy this movie. Maybe a second watch would help but that’s for another time. Curious to hear if anyone here really enjoyed the movie.

At least we had Romulus and now alien earth doing the franchise justice. Also, the sequel to alien isolation can not come soon enough.

Clue (1985): ★⯪☆ (rewatch)

Some of the jokes land, some of them don't. My theater got the least-popular ending.

The Breakfast Club (1985): ★★☆ (rewatch)

I liked this a bit more than the first time I watched it. The theater experience helped - it was half full of mostly 50- and 60-somethings who would have been the target audience when the movie originally came out.

The Conjuring: Last Rites

I had only seen the first Conjuring film from the mainline franchise and I saw it when I was 14. It was one of the first horror films I saw voluntarily (I used to be terrified of them). And I had seen Annabelle Creation, Annabelle Comes Home, The Nun movies, and La Llorona (which is adjacent to this universe). So i decided to watch Conjuring 2 and The Devil Made Me Do It to watch Last Rites in theaters. I didn’t care for either of those two. I don’t like James Wan as a director. I think Devil Made Me Do It was visually better but messy and boring. I would say the first Conjuring and Annabelle Comes Home were the only ones I’ve truly enjoyed.

I enjoyed this a little bit. Michael Chavez is behind it (Devil Made Me Do It and La Llorona). And, while he’s not some great director he does a pretty good job at crafting the haunted house sequences here. I think the weakest parts of the movies is the love story it’s centered on. The romantic aspect of the previous films only works because of Wilson and Farmiga’s chemistry. In fact I would say the films are mostly built on Wilson’s charisma alone.

But yeah decent horror movie fare.

Just got around to seeing Weapons last night in theaters before it moved over to streaming- I really liked it! I was hopeful given Barbarian from the same director a few years backs, but the optimism was very cautious.

I found it a really good balance of tension, jump scares, and gore. Similar to Barbarian, there was occasional comedy to relieve the tension and then whiplash back into the horror. Additionally, the movie has some really overt symbolism that was simultaneously on-the-nose, but still ambiguous enough to leave me with some fun questions to mull over at the end. I give it a solid thumbs up. My partner also liked it but said the gore was sufficiently off-putting that they wouldn't want to revisit it for a few years, so heads up if you're squeamish!.

Watched Tár from 2022. One of those film experiences that I am definitely not done pondering over, and it is difficult to define what makes it work so well. Most of all, I simply liked how this was made, how it approached telling its narrative, the mental deroute, the shifts, the loss of control, the importance of sounds, and most of all - how the film lets me keep my confusion and doubt. I was left to fill in the blanks many places, where other films would have added several transfer scenes. It is gradual, as the beginning of the film really takes it times with things that seem less relevant, but then suddenly things goes fast by and everything makes perfect sense in the end. Perfectly structured and built-up from start to finish. This really deserved the Oscars more than Everything, everywhere, all at once that year.

I didn't know much about it before, but I like classical music and the whole setting was great to sort of "be" in. Maybe I expected something like a mix of Black Swan and Whiplash, and those are not completely missing the mark in terms of comparison, but this is really something else. Maybe closer akin to The Piano Teacher. Definitely not done with this film. And I want to listen to Mahler again.

Islands (2025) is a great little film. The cast is outstanding, but Sam Riley has such a natural cool about him.

Great little film with some really great, subtle acting from Stacy Martin, too.

I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion for this, but my wife, kids and I love the movie Captain Ron, and watched it just last weekend. We watch it at least once a year, and I don't care how bad it sucks, I love it.

Does anyone know if the Downtown Abbey movie would make any sense to someone who hasn't seen any of the prior material, but is intrigued by the concept?

I wasn't particularly interested, but I went to watch another movie in the theater today. On the way to my screen, I walked past an auditorium showing it that was 100% sold out. As I left my movie, the same auditorium as before was in the middle of another showing that was 80% full. So naturally I checked its reviews once I got home, and they seem to be quite positive. My concern is just about being able to understand the plot without having seen the rest of the series beforehand.