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Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| May 2017

I haven't seen enough to make the list I'd like to, so this is just me ranking the mainstream stuff I've been able to catch

1. Split
2. Logan
3. Get Out
4. GOTG Vol. 2
5. John Wick 2
6. The LEGO Batman Movie
7. Fast and Furious 8
8. xXx: Return of Xander Cage
9. Fist Fight

Mehhhhh.

The first 4 hours of Twin Peaks: The Return is, by leaps and bounds, the best new thing I've watched this year.
 
Colossal is a wonderfully unique, came out of nowhere suprise of a film. An original screenplay with such a bizaare weird premise made it to a mainstream release? Thats fantastic, I love it. I love this film.

Colossal is a story about alcoholism, abuse, what we do when our lives don't turn out as big as we expect, toxic masculinity and abusive relationship. And it tells us this story as part monster film, part Anne Hathway thing? Yeah its weird, but it works so well, its scary.

Part of why it works so well is how willing it is to go dark, particularly with Anne Hathway's character Gloria and the central relationship between her and the at first seemingly harmless childhood buddy Oscar played by Jason Sudeikis and how the interactions between them change over time as the relationship turns much darker than you'd think it would.

Using the monster in Seoul is such a weird yet clever metaphor for Gloria's destructive alcoholic behaviour cos of course, self destructive behaviour is never just that, is it? And it goes so quickly from this clever yet simple metaphor into something else, which corresponds with the relationship between Gloria and Oscar (without spoiling) that its just amazing, and by the end the intial alcoholism monster metaphor has been completely turned on its head into something... different. But brilliant.


Also looks amazing, beautifully shot. Excellently scored with great music, superbly acted, particuarly by Hathaway and Sudeikis in the lead roles. Fantastic from start to finish.
 
1. Logan
2. Split
3. Get Out
4. Personal Shopper
5. John Wick 2
6. Fast and the Furiosa
7. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
8. Lego Batman
9. Kong Skull Island
10. King Arthur


and yeah the Twin Peaks premiere is the best thing I've seen all year. If I could count that opening 2 hours (or 4) as a movie I think it would be a lock for at least top 3 by end of the year even.
 

Icolin

Banned
1. Logan
2. The Lost City of Z
3. Get Out
4. Song to Song
5. Split
6. Fast and the Furiosa
7. Kong Skull Island
8. T2 Trainspotting
9. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
10. Kong Skull Island

Honourable mention: Power Rangers.
 

big ander

Member
The Witch- basically, I'm never going into the woods again. It's impossible for me to feel much for the family though. I mean, they owned a plantation.
what?
No, i just assumed they were slave owners before being banished. Thomasin made a comment that she was washing her father's clothes like a slave; they were banished from their plantation and its "liberties". I took those words literally since everything else in the film is literal.That being the case, I don't feel bad about their demise. fuck em.
...what?


they didn't "own a plantation." they were residents of a religious settlement in NE, sometimes called a plantation (e.g. plymouth plantation) in the 1600s. it's not like, a southern plantation in the 1800s, and they sure didn't own it (they are very poor). they're banned for having a stricter interpretation of the scripture than the rest of the residents. that's all we're given. that you jumped from that to "they were banned for owning slaves" because thomasin says the word slave is a huge leap (the phrase "like a slave" is literally an analogy, for example—all it proves is that thomasin knows what a slave is), and it holds zero water with the historical knowledge that 1) there were relatively few slaves 2) only the very wealthy could afford them 3) even if the WERE somehow slaveowners...they wouldn't haven been banished for that because it was allowed.

I mean anybody can not like a movie fine cool but not liking a movie because you invented a factually invalid backstory...those are some impressive mental gymnastics my dude
 
Floating Weeds (1959)
Probably should have watched the original instead. This is about 35 minutes longer and I got pretty bored at times. Komajuro is a nice (if largely unlikeable) character, but I wasn't enthralled by anyone else.

The composition and the colors are great (understatement), but Late Autumn still stands out more to me. The difference is Late Autumn takes simplicity to the ultimate conclusion; so simple you start to anticipate each shot, angle, color, heightening the impact when it arrives. The camera becomes a character itself.
3.5/5
 

T Dollarz

Member
I haven't watched a new movie in over a month so I gotta catch up, but I'll just say that Logan, Get Out, John Wick 2 and Raw were all incredible.
 
Top 10 of 2017 so far:

1. Window Horses, or The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming
2. The Death of Louis XIV
3. The Lost City of Z
4. Logan
5. Get Out
6. Your Name.
7. Personal Shopper
8. Obit
9. The Salesman
10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (I wasn't sure what to put here but I just watched this one so sure why not)
 
XXX Return of Xander Cage
Wow this movie is cheesy as all hell. Vin Diesel being this cool eXtreme! sports guy was always weird to me. Even more so now that hes starting to show to be older and seems to have a lot less energy in his roles lol. Also the weird moment where he just was given a night with like 10 ladies... for... what reason? Just to have the spy who gets ladies role I guess.

Loved the diversity of the cast though. Main female being Indian and a badass was really cool. Lots of talent included just to include them though, too many characters not enough interesting moments for them. Also the surfing bikes in a big swell... yeah right lol. I know it was a movie, a cheesy spy one at that but come on.

John Wick
Never saw this but kept hearing all the hype. Great action revenge movie. Will try the second one some day. Not sure if I thought it was as amazing as everyone else but I enjoyed it. A lot more simple than I assumed it would be though. I thought there would be some amazing action scenes and an amazing plot to go along with it, but it keeps it simple. Cool premise for the assassins though.

Moonlight
Enjoyed it. As someone who grew up in the 'inbetween' parts of this setting (not the sexual orientation aspects of it) it struck a lot of cords seeing it. From the school stuff and beyond, it really brought back a lot of memories and reminded me how a lot of people with tons of potential don't "make it out" of the hood or make choices that keeps them there being something they are way better than. Same with people hiding who they really are out of some need to fit into the mold of their area. Good movie, definitely think different parts of it resonate with different people.

Get Out
A bit apprehensive about watching this cause I'm not into horror but I thought it was really good. Once again raked up some of the feelings of the "black experience" as some would call it lol. Loved the acting by the girlfriend as well. Really well done. Definitely a lot of "this is too real" moments, especially for us guys and girls who date interracially. The horror bits were a bit silly (once again I don't like horror) but their reasoning for it was definitely different. Cool movie that said a lot of what I thinking in similar situations haha.

Guardian's of the Galaxy 2
Loved it, bright and colorful. Really fun feel good movie but too much Starlord, not enough everyone. In my top 3 Marvel movies, but I need less universe building from Marvel, give me a Captain America Winter Soldier again, something smaller and more personal. Not everything needs to build up to almighty Thanos lol.
 

lordxar

Member
To the Wonder Malick just loves nature and pretty much fits a story over a NatGeo special. So if I ever find myself with a giant pile of cash I'm going to pay him to film a day in my life so I can see all the little moments I miss that he somehow puts on screen.

So we get Batfleck barely uttering a word in this tale. Much of the dialog is from the French girl...in French and much is whispered. Very little actual sound is present. So the story is told in a very hushed tone that you have to pay attention to the body language and actions of the characters which worked very well for this.

I think with my age and life experience that this was a good time to watch this. I'm sure if I'd saw this earlier in life it just wouldn't have had any impact at all but as it stands I can relate with and feel a lot of things shown here. I can see this not being for everyone but I really dug it.
 
Yep. It might be my favorite David Lynch thing, of the limited pool of David Lynch things I've seen.

have you seen Mulholland Drive? That's still the top for me (to the point where I think it might be my favorite movie of the century even, over stuff like lotr, tree of life, miami vice etc.), I also like Blue Velvet more too.

But this is indeed great so far. That we're getting 14 more hours of this is so exciting. It feels like he's been revisiting his whole filmography with it.
 
Colossal is a wonderfully unique, came out of nowhere suprise of a film. An original screenplay with such a bizaare weird premise made it to a mainstream release? Thats fantastic, I love it. I love this film.

Colossal is a story about alcoholism, abuse, what we do when our lives don't turn out as big as we expect, toxic masculinity and abusive relationship. And it tells us this story as part monster film, part Anne Hathway thing? Yeah its weird, but it works so well, its scary.

Part of why it works so well is how willing it is to go dark, particularly with Anne Hathway's character Gloria and the central relationship between her and the at first seemingly harmless childhood buddy Oscar played by Jason Sudeikis and how the interactions between them change over time as the relationship turns much darker than you'd think it would.

Using the monster in Seoul is such a weird yet clever metaphor for Gloria's destructive alcoholic behaviour cos of course, self destructive behaviour is never just that, is it? And it goes so quickly from this clever yet simple metaphor into something else, which corresponds with the relationship between Gloria and Oscar (without spoiling) that its just amazing, and by the end the intial alcoholism monster metaphor has been completely turned on its head into something... different. But brilliant.


Also looks amazing, beautifully shot. Excellently scored with great music, superbly acted, particuarly by Hathaway and Sudeikis in the lead roles. Fantastic from start to finish.

Totally agreed. Disappointed how few people here have seen Colossal.
 
have you seen Mulholland Drive? That's still the top for me (to the point where I think it might be my favorite movie of the century even, over stuff like lotr, tree of life, miami vice etc.), I also like Blue Velvet more too.

But this is indeed great so far. That we're getting 14 more hours of this is so exciting. It feels like he's been revisiting his whole filmography with it.

I've never watched Twin Peaks but have been binge watching the Bluray set I bought a while back. Super hyped since the revival is getting such rave reviews. Mulholland Drive is one of my fave movies of all time but Zodiac beats it out for movie of the century.
 

Blader

Member
have you seen Mulholland Drive? That's still the top for me (to the point where I think it might be my favorite movie of the century even, over stuff like lotr, tree of life, miami vice etc.), I also like Blue Velvet more too.

But this is indeed great so far. That we're getting 14 more hours of this is so exciting. It feels like he's been revisiting his whole filmography with it.

Yeah a few years ago. Really bizarre experience. Hated the first half with a passion, then found the second half extremely interesting. I will probably pick up the Criterion blu in the next sale and give it a rewatch once Twin Peaks wraps up.

I saw Blue Velvet in college and did not like it at all, but that's also probably due for a rewatch. I think Twin Peaks has probably inoculated me against Lynchisms that would've previously really irritated me.
 

Icolin

Banned
My favourite Lynch film has always been The Elephant Man, with Mulholland Drive in a very close second.

Call me a pleb, I know.
 

lordxar

Member
My favourite Lynch film has always been The Elephant Man, with Mulholland Drive in a very close second.

Call me a pleb, I know.

Ooh...I forgot he did Elephant Man. I haven't watched that since I was a kid but I loved it. Hmmm...now I need to dig that one up and Dune. Loved Dune too.

For me I'd say:
1. Elephant Man
2. Dune
3. Twin Peaks
4. Mulholland Drive - this was too much like TP for me so it just felt like a tv show with boobs.
 
Get Out: Well-made horror movie that starts with that "something's not quite right" tone and gets worse. Well-written and stays tense to the end. Glad they didn't go with the original ending.
 
Ooh...I forgot he did Elephant Man. I haven't watched that since I was a kid but I loved it. Hmmm...now I need to dig that one up and Dune. Loved Dune too.

For me I'd say:
1. Elephant Man
2. Dune
3. Twin Peaks
4. Mulholland Drive - this was too much like TP for me so it just felt like a tv show with boobs.

This list might be the most upsetting thing I've ever seen on GAF.
 

big ander

Member
Dune's a ton better than its reputation, and it's also way more "Lynchian" than detractors would have you believe. Direct address faces dissolving in and out of the stars, "the sleeper has awakened," innocence and goodness facing the vulgar violence of curdled masculinity. As mystical, expressionist and paradoxically pure/taboo as anything else he's done

That said it's his worst work I've seen
Twin Peaks > the elephant man = mulholland dr >= Eraserhead > Wild at heart > Fire walk with me > blue velvet > dune
 

Divius

Member
Currently on a Twin Peaks rewatch since it was ages since I saw it last. At season 2 episode 13. Can't wait to get myself a cup of coffee with some pie and dive into the new season.
 

kevin1025

Banned
Alien: Covenant

It's been a few days, so I've softened a tiny bit on it. But I really, really liked it. Fassbender playing a creation that plays God is a really interesting move, but it can be bogged down in a complete tonal shift of another movie fighting its way in. So you've got a heady look at what playing god is all about, and a slasher flick taped to its seams. And for that, I can see the hate or dislike that it gets. But it worked for me!

Colossal

Just got out of seeing this. My very first problem with the movie was
why not just avoid the park
? But quickly, it made up for that by tying the reasoning into who these characters are. It took a turn, and it took a turn hard, and for that I appreciate it even more. You don't see these kinds of stories too often, and done in such a way that could bring in people that normally wouldn't watch a movie like this. Hathaway and Sudeikis do the movie justice, and Vigalondo has made a damn fine movie.
 
Alien: Covenant

It's been a few days, so I've softened a tiny bit on it. But I really, really liked it. Fassbender playing a creation that plays God is a really interesting move, but it can be bogged down in a complete tonal shift of another movie fighting its way in. So you've got a heady look at what playing god is all about, and a slasher flick taped to its seams. And for that, I can see the hate or dislike that it gets. But it worked for me!

I got no shame about liking this wacky big budget B movie. But yeah, I can't really defend a lot of the dumber aspects to it and totally see why people hate it. This must be how people who liked Prometheus feel...or Disco and Batman bin Suparman.
 

smisk

Member
Haven't seen any of Lynch's stuff besides Twin Peaks and FWWM.. Is there a good place to start? Eraserhead is on FilmStruck and Mullholland Drive is on Netflix so those are the most accessible for me.
 
Life Is Beautiful/La Vita è Bella: A different take on a Holocaust movie. It starts off pleasantly enough with a man simply moving to a new town, with Jewish labeling starting to creep in as the film goes on. I really admire Guido for keeping the pretense of a game up for his son the whole way once they start going to the concentration camp. It's a lighter take on the Holocaust, but you know the real horrors lie underneath. I like it for that.
 
Haven't seen any of Lynch's stuff besides Twin Peaks and FWWM.. Is there a good place to start? Eraserhead is on FilmStruck and Mullholland Drive is on Netflix so those are the most accessible for me.

Eraserhead is a great jumping in point for some pure, unfiltered Lynch imo. It's also his first film, so chronologically it makes sense to start with that one.
 

kevin1025

Banned
I haven't seen Eraserhead in 16 years. Our art teacher showed it to us in grade nine.

I think some brains exploded that day.
 

nachum00

Member
My favourite Lynch film has always been The Elephant Man, with Mulholland Drive in a very close second.

Call me a pleb, I know.
I'm a huge Lynch fan and Elephant Man is probably my 3rd favorite after Mulholland Drive and Fire Walk With Me.
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Anyone else see "My Life as a Zucchini"?

Technically a 2016 release but Rotten Tomatoes has it as 2017 in the U.S.

I watched the original French with English subs - there's also an English dub co-starring Nick Offerman - and I'd currently rank it as my #1 for the year.
 
I got no shame about liking this wacky big budget B movie. But yeah, I can't really defend a lot of the dumber aspects to it and totally see why people hate it. This must be how people who liked Prometheus feel...or Disco and Batman bin Suparman.

Haha. I didnt like Prometheus much at all but these b-movie comparisons make me want to see covenant soon. I was considering skipping it in theaters but after hearing that it goes really hammy its got me interested.
 
Alien Covenant is definitely a hell of a lot more fun than Prometheus, and absolutely a big budget B movie, particularly after the fairly low key setup where the gore is turned up to levels I wasn't expecting. Unfortunately, I really, really, really, really, really x 1,000,000 don't like what Ridley is doing to the Xenomorph story, and I'm conflicted because Fassbender is doing a great job with the trash he's being handed. I mean, the story was already headed in this direction with Prometheus, but they make it so blatantly clear in Covenant's middle section that it was actually making me kind of angry while watching. At this point I'm getting afraid that by the time Ridley is finished murdering the pre-Alien 1 story, I won't be able to watch Alien with a clear head anymore. Not to mention how this is potentially making Aliens a bigger outlier, unless there are some even more ridiculous plot turns in the next 2-3 movies.

So what to make of Alien Covenant? Idk, there are some dumb fun set-pieces, some fun kills, and some disgusting alien births, and Fassbender is basically holding up the "acting" part of this by himself. On the other hand there's almost no ambition with the narrative to carry out the promise made by the ending of Prometheus (including a very disappointing end to that entire plotline/character in general), there's a lot of rehashing within the set-pieces I mentioned, the Xenomorph has lost any sense of presence, and there's no single sequence as good as the c-section from the last movie. The characters are a little less dumb, but even then the event that sets off this entire ordeal (and how it's handled beyond that) is some rookie mistake trash that I just couldn't take seriously. Like, how are so many idiots sent on these uber-expensive journeys? My God this is a colonization mission. They should be the best of the best, the most cautious, the most clever.

And yet I'll still be there for the next one. Why. why why why.
_____________________




Anyway, I'm about to do a Lynch filmography rewatch because Twin Peaks has me obsessed again, so the Eraserhead discussion is timely. It's weird that a movie so awkward, and so disgusting can also be so beautiful. The
visit from the Beautiful Girl Across The Hall + sex scene
is some god-tier surreal arthouse sensuality. Crazy that Lynch is still reaching back to weirdness from this movie in the new Twin Peaks.
 

overcast

Member
Fassbender needs to get back to finding some good scripts. He gave it his all for Covenant and was rewarded with that dumbass scene
where the alien raised his hands at him
 
Since some people are throwing out Lynch lists...

1. Blue Velvet
2. Mulholland Drive
3. The Elephant Man
4. Eraserhead
5. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
6. Lost Highway
7. Wild At Heart
8. The Straight Story
9. Inland Empire
10. Dune
 
Net_Wrecker I thought the
quaratine sequence with the backbursting alien
was probably this movie's equivalent to the c-section scene. The
chick who slipped on the blood and fired the shotgun off in the air
was a really nice bit of macabre slapstick.

Haha. I didnt like Prometheus much at all but these b-movie comparisons make me want to see covenant soon. I was considering skipping it in theaters but after hearing that it goes really hammy its got me interested.

I think it's a fun one to see on the big screen for sure. It's like if Prometheus took its head out of its ass and decided to have some actual fun with its absurd premise and themes. There are some really lovely gothic vibes in the double Fassbending second act of scenery chewing too.

lmao

That scene was so bizarre

Yeah it is. But it goes full tilt with such weirdness that I had fun with scenes like that. It's so gothic, and operatic, and hammy. Like Ridley crammed a lot of weird shit in this movie, it's kind of impressive. I'm all about the wacky Doctor Frankenstein/Mureau vibe it's going for.
 
Net_Wrecker I thought the
quaratine sequence with the backbursting alien
was probably this movie's equivalent to the c-section scene. The
chick who slipped on the blood and fired the shotgun off in the air
was a really nice bit of macabre slapstick.

If we're looking for a scene to compare directly, it would be that, yes, but I don't think it was executed as well. It's fun, and gets progressively more ridiculous/explosive as it expands beyond the room, but it wasn't gripping in the same way. It went from "Ew" to "Oh this is just goofy" real quick. The c-section is a perfect little blip of confined intensity housed in a terrible movie.

I am absolutely not down with the Dr. Frankenstein stuff though. If this was a different franchise, I might be singing a different tune, but that aspect of how this is unfolding is really annoying the hell out of me.
 
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