November - Films

I did watch a couple of films, but another rewatch of Korean film I Saw the Devil was the only thing that made me extremely happy. Sorry Carol, but I'll be happy when Halloween and the outpouring of horror films is over!

>1 .cris: That's okay. I can watch horror films even if it isn't Halloween:)

Best of October: The Last season of Justified & Mr. Mercedes
Worse of October: The Coroner & The Purge

Best - Bunny Lake is Missing
Worst-A Bigger Splash

Chasing Shadows (2014 Mini series)
5/5

Chasing Shadows is a 4 part drama which follows the crimes investigated by troubled Detective Sergeant Sean Stone as he struggles to collaborate with colleagues DCI Karl Prior and Ruth Hattersley when investigating the disappearances of Taylor Davis and Stephen Eli.

Loved this mini series. The character of Det. Sean Stone reminded me so much of a friend I worked with for 10 years. He had absolutely no social or people skills whatsoever...but was one of the the most generous individuals I have ever met. People either loved him or hated him and unfortunately it was more of the latter. Det. Sean Stone is exactly like my friend.

The Other (1972) Based on the novel by Thomas Tyron
4/5

In the summer of 1935, 12-year-old twins Niles and Holland Perry live with their family on a Connecticut farm. Their loving grandmother Ada has taught them something called "the game." A number of accidents begin happening, and it seems to Niles that Holland is responsible. It is Ada who begins to see the truth, and she is the only one who can stop this macabre game of murder.

It's an interesting story based on the old world legend of "The Changeling". You know about half way through the movie how it's going to turn out.

Iceman (1984)
2/5

An anthropologist who is part of an arctic exploration team discovers the body of a prehistoric Neanderthal man who is subsequently resuscitated. The researcher must then decide what to do with the prehistoric man and he finds himself defending the man from those that want to dissect him in the name of science.

A confusing movie on several levels. it had an interesting plot but it was never really built upon. Bringing the man back to life after 40,000 years of being frozen in a block of ice was beyond unimaginable. The poor thing spent most of his time alive in a staged setting being scared out his mind. To make maters worse...there was really no ending that brought any of the story together.

Viewed a Netflix B-movie double feature Saturday.

Fractured. Dad (Sam Worthington) brings daughter & wife to an isolated clinic off the highway after daughter fractures her arm in a fall at a highway rest stop parking lot. Daughter and wife taken downstairs for MRI to check for possible concussion. Only one parent allowed, so Dad stays upstairs in the waiting area. After dozing off, Dad asks about his family at reception desk, and they have no record of any check-in. Nobody remembers them, and Dad understandably aggravated. Police and staff think he's delusional. Is he crazy or is the clinic into something sinister? For me, deja vu all over again, using the deceptiveness of movie "reality," which has been a film trope from the beginning of the technology. Best part is it in the setting, playing on the general discomfort at visiting the hospital emergency room: the endless waiting of triage, the interminable, somewhat invasive, paperwork needed for admittance, not having the right insurance coverage and the bureaucracy involved, the corridors with passages to who knows where ... Ending unfortunately unsurprising (deja vu etc); one expects a good B-movie to come up with a twist to the usual resolution, but OK direction given the material.

In the Shadow of the Moon. This one I enjoyed quite a bit more. Begins in 1988 Philadelphia, with 4 mysterious, gory deaths (injection that causes brains to dissolve). Turns out to be a time travel film with a 12 Monkeys theme. Checked it out on IMdB and has a lot of outraged reviews by right-wing "patriot" viewers, who interpret the film as liberal Hollywood snowflake SJW Antifa propaganda. If you could go back in time and kill ... Hitler? The 9/11 hijackers? How about the Al Qaeda planners? How about using drones to kill terrorists who haven't yet attacked a target? What if the drone attack kills family members as collateral damage? Or maybe blowing up a Federal building in Oklahoma? What about the innocent people therein? Nits make lice, right? So, the clever and disturbing creators use a (left-wing) terrorist attack initiated by people of color (a significant detail immediately caught by the patriot reviewers) to kill a right-wing terrorist, but with some collateral damage to "innocent" folks who somehow engendered the terrorist. Though there is the unambiguous collateral damage when the "hero's" partner, who is black, gets a shotgun blast to the face by the assassin. One thing I couldn't quite figure out was why the "assassin," the "serial killer," needed to go back to 1988 when the physicist in 2015 claimed the poison could be injected into victims from the past from the "future" with remote control. Also, what can and can't be changed in the future by meddling with the past seemed a little confused. What might be a preferable ending would be to use the magic of the movies to see the future changed, then a skip in the projection, and then the future reverting to the original bad end, and then another skip and the good ending is restored, and then another skip ... Roll credits!

>7 featherbear: I saw Fractured. What was the daughter's yellow scarf doing under the hospital bed? That seemed like cheating, rather than misdirection!

The Upside (2017) Based on a true story
5/5

Philip is a disabled white billionaire, who feels that life is not worth living. To help him in his day to day routine, he hires Del, an African American parolee, trying to reconnect with his estranged wife. What begins as a professional relationship develops into a friendship as Del shows his grouchy charge that life is worth living.

It was much better than the description says. This is a good movie...simple as that. It is well acted...heart warming...funny... and last but certainly not least...you feel good after watching it.

>9 Carol420: I haven't seen this one but the original film was a French film titled The Intouchables. I really enjoyed that version. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675434/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

>7 featherbear: Will have to add Fractured to my movie list!

>10 JulieLill: There weren't that many differences, but I thought Omar Sy had so much more charisma and charm than Kevin Hart. The Intouchables is one of my 10/10 films.

Ben is Back (2018)
3.5/5

Follows the charming yet troubled Ben Burns, who returns home to his unsuspecting family one fateful Christmas Eve. Ben's wary mother Holly Burns, welcomes her beloved son's return, but soon learns he is still very much in harm's way. During the 24 hours that may change their lives forever, Holly must do everything in her power to avoid the family's downfall.

Her son is checked into drug rehab, and as she pulls up to the house on Christmas Eve she sees him in the front yard. What is her first reaction? Total joy or immense trepidation? The movie had a strong beginning but begins to falters quickly when others are brought on the scene. I believe that every parent will understand the desperate feelings of this mother. The ending was very abrupt and didn't let the audience know if Ben was alive or dead. That was disappointing.

Wiener Dog (2016)
1/5

A dachshund passes from oddball owner to oddball owner, whose radically dysfunctional lives are all impacted by the pooch.

I really tried to like this film. The dog was so unbearably adorable and sweet. The people were all so unbearably gross, negative, overbearing, obnoxious, disturbed...they were unimaginatively horrible! I felt so sorry for the poor little dog. This was produced by Amazon studios. Shame on you Amazon!!!!

The Band's Visit 2007 Arabic
5/5
A delightful movie, winner of many awards, the subtle humor and tenderness running thru this movie make it a gem for me.

Last Christmas
3/5 stars
A young British woman is just living a messed up life which starts to change when she meets a young Asian man. This was interesting and there is a big twist at the end. Nice film, at times a little slow but I liked the twist ending.

Unleashed
4.5/5 stars
I loved this movie about a young woman whose boyfriend stole their idea for a computer program and dumped her. After she moves with her pet cat and pet dog, to a new city, the Super Moon happens and her pets turn into humans. With the help of her neighbor they look for her pets and of course they don't know that they are now humans. The two actors who play the human versions of her pets are just completely hysterical.

>17 JulieLill: I loved the guy that played the cat. He had those moves down pat.

>18 Carol420: He was good!

Missing Link
4.5/5 stars
A wonderful story of a creature (Mr. Link) who is looking for his relatives with a group of explorers as they travel to Shangri-La. I give a lot of credit to the makers of this film. Making a stop-motion animated film is not a easy film to do.

>20 JulieLill: I thought Mr. Link was rather lovable:)

Echo in the Canyon
4/5 stars
Wonderful documentary about music and LA's Laurel Canyon that produced the California sound in 1965-1967. Bands, including The Byrds, the Beach Boys and others came together to produce a new sound as folk music declined. There is also a separate CD with the songs on it but I haven't listened to it yet but I really enjoyed this show on DVD.

Bull Season 1 (2016)
5/5

Michael Weatherly as Dr. Jason Bull in a drama inspired by the early career of Dr. Phil McGraw, the founder of one of the most prolific trial consulting firms of all time. Brilliant, brash and charming, Dr. Bull is the ultimate puppet master as he combines psychology, human intuition and high-tech data to learn what makes jurors, attorneys, witnesses and the accused tick.

It's an interesting concept and it's fun to watch it works. Bull himself is a little hard to take sometimes as he comes across often as very self centered...but more annoying is the people (not his team)...that hires him and then won't listen to him. I have season 2 on hold.

>23 Carol420: I like the cast of Bull.

Maiden - The Finish Line Knows No Gender
4/5 stars
Wonderful true film about 26 year old Tracy Edwards from England. In 1989 she was at loose ends and wanted to participate in the Whitbread Round the World Race. No sailing ship would take her on because she was a girl so she bought a run down boat and got a crew of all women to participate in the race. I loved it.

Channel Zero - Candle Cove - Season 1 (2016)
2.5/5

Channel Zero: Candle Cove centers on one man's obsessive recollections of a mysterious children's television program from the 1980's, which almost no one seems to remember. He grows increasingly suspicious of the role it may have played in a series of nightmarish events from his childhood, including the disappearance of his twin brother.

I don't see how the SyFy channel ever made more than one of this series. The plot was good but the characters were cheesy...especially those of the TV show itself. I think it may have moved along better if there had only been 3 episodes instead of 6. It seemed that the producers were stretching to follow the story line and bring it to a conclusion. The bad guy was a surprise though.

Angie Tribeca season 1 (2016)
0/5

Lone-wolf detective Angie Tribeca and a squad of committed LAPD detectives investigate the most serious cases, from the murder of a ventriloquist to a rash of baker suicides.

it's advertised as being a comedy series. Comedy would indicate that it is suppose to contain some degree of humor...a bit of hilarity...WRONG! I watched the pilot and one episode before giving it up. It's just stupid. I believe it wanted desperately to be like Naked Gun, or Airplane, or Police Academy No where in the ballpark.

Ma
3/5 stars
Sue Ann (Ma), played by the wonderful Octavia Spenser, lives in a small town and was shunned by the kids at school. When she is an adult, she comes across a group of high school kids who need a place to hang out so she lets them have parties at her place thinking that she is their friend. Unfortunately, that is not the case and she starts terrorizing their group. I am not a big horror fan but I could not stop watching this. There are also a lot of twists and turns that made it very interesting. It'll never win a Oscar but I got a kick out of it.

>28 JulieLill: You sold me on that one!

S.W.A.T. Season 1 - (2017)

Follows a locally born and bred S.W.A.T. lieutenant who is torn between loyalty to the streets and duty to his fellow officers when he's tasked to run a highly-trained unit that's the last stop for solving crimes in Los Angeles.

I really like Shemar Moore or I probably would never have watched this. I missed him when he left Criminal Minds. It's a typical cop show but with a lot more shooting. I'll watch season 2. I thouight it was good...but I didn't think it was spectacular.

Thanks to HBO it was a morning of "have/read the book, have seen the movie before, but it's good enough to watch again"...

Disclosure by Michael Crichton - movie left out one of the funniest lines from the book (Mark Lewyn, Dennis Miller's movie character) "This is the taller than Mickey Rooney Award. You can still be very short and win."

Chocolat by Joanne Harris - movie is different from the book in some ways (I like the movie better, it never fails to enchant me).

>31 rhinemaiden: Hello. Are you from Germany or had the names you wanted already been taken? I haven't read Chocolat, but loved the film. I have to say Johnny Depp has never looked hotter!

>32 .cris: .cris.... no I'm not from Germany... I happen to like Wagnerian opera, especially The Ring Cycle. I can see myself as one of the nymphs frolicking in the Rhine, guarding the gold.

>33 rhinemaiden:

Can I respectfully ask you to remain fully clothed while posting in this group. 🙈

>34 .cris: .cris..... LOL

Dark Summer (2015)
3/5

A 17-year-old is on house arrest for the summer while his mother is away on business. A horrifying incident occurs leaving an ominous presence in the house.

An okay idea.. and it could have been interesting but it was too fragmented. Nothing was ever explained or a reason given for it. It did have a surprise ending...but if I had been more alert I probably would have seen it coming. The ghost story junkie in me says if you want a good ghost film...skip this one.

TCM gems seen this month:

Seven Samurai, 1954. Akira Kurosawa dir., one of Toshiro Mifune's early films. This was a re-watch -- I've seen it several times, more moving every time I've seen it. I believe TCM used the Criterion Collection's restored version, uncut of course. It looks fantastic. The final battle in the rain is amazing: editing, photography, sound, framing to bring out the terror and confusion. No CGI in those days, so it seems even more real. But I loved every minute.

This Gun for Hire (1942). Frank Tuttle, dir., Alfred Seitz, photography. Albert Malz, W.R. Burnett, screenplay, based on Graham Green's novel A Gun for Sale. Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston. Never seen this before, and maybe the first time I've seen Veronica Lake on screen (she sings, too, unless it was dubbed. Pleasant voice in any case). She plays a gutsy character with a soft side and integrity convincingly for me. Ladd's killer, Raven, is an iconic performance that seems obviously to have influenced mafia movies and yakuza genre films, and the guy at the top, Brewster (brief but telling performance by Tully Marshall) is a precursor of the patriarch in Bogart films and Chinatown. Never seen anything by this director before, but it struck me as film noir at its noir-ist, e.g. the photography of interiors during the chase in the last part of the movie. Every scene counts -- the cat & hitting the maid at the beginning echoes throughout the film. The killing at the beginning of the film is so cold-blooded (for the time) that the fate of Raven's hostage is suspenseful all the way through.

Metropolis (1927) Fritz Lang, dir. Thea von Harbou, screenplay. Photography, Karl Freund, etc. Art Direction, Otto Hunte. Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, actors. This is a long (130 min.) silent film, on my movie bucket list for some time. It was restored from surviving prints, so it's not always visually consistent -- some sections are clear as day, others are like seeing the action through a curtain. I've seen a couple other films by the director: The Big Heat, M, but these were all sound films, the former from the 50's, the latter from 1931. His style of direction seems to change from silent, to early sound, to Hollywood noir. Art direction is dazzling, an Art Deco vision of the future (takes place in 2026). I think the music is the original score and enhances the film. The vision could easily be seen as a case of "the more things change, the more they remain the same;" plutocrat and the well-heeled live in the penthouses of skyscrapers, workers toil below, sight unseen. I had a hard time following the plot, and I found myself pausing in the early reels. Also, the conventions of highly theatrical silent film acting bothered me a bit more than usual. But the turning point is when the inventor & the plutocrat create a robot to take over the identity of Maria, a charismatic type feared by the plutocrat as a potential rabble rouser. The idea is to use the robot to do some actual rabble rousing, which results in the power source of the city stopping and causing an enormous flood. From the man-made disaster it's all vigorous action from then on, as good as anything in D.W. Griffith. It's funny, crazy, suspenseful and made the experience worthwhile. However, if you think this is more trouble than it's worth, I do think the sound films are the place to start. Peter Lorre's role in M may be his greatest, and The Big Heat is a top film noir.

Ford v. Ferrari
4.5/5 stars
Very enjoyable film about race car drivers and the need to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France in 1966. Matt Damon and Christian Bale did wonderful jobs in their roles.

>38 JulieLill: Sounds like fun, even though I find motor racing pretty pointless!

More TCM movies:

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). Frank Capra, dir., Julius & Phillip Epstein, screenplay. Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Jack Carson, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, John Alexander. B&W. About all I knew was that it was about 2 elderly women poisoners (Hull & Adair). It turns out to be a screwball comedy. Enjoyably funny, characterized by loony entrances and exits performed with the rapidity of screwball (I believe it originated in a stage play) and a nutty performance by John Alexander as their brother, who thinks he is former President Roosevelt (Teddy, not Franklin Delano). Cary Grant is the most recognizable, but he struck me as the weakest member of the cast. He is yelling at the top of his lungs continuously once the main action gets rolling. I thought that this might have been one of his early films, but when I checked the date, it postdates Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Awful Truth. Part of the problem may be the director; maybe screwball isn't Capra's style. Grant plays Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic and author of a screed against marriage, who is getting married anyway to Elaine (Laine). For compromising his integrity, fate traps him in his aunt's and mother's house with brother "Teddy," and, shortly after, his bad sheep Brewster brother, an escaped convict with a face showing the signs of a botched plastic surgery job. I seem to recall the role had been intended for Boris Karloff, and Massey is made up like the Frankenstein monster. He brings along Dr. Einstein, his plastic surgeon (Peter Lorre), for a do-over. Jack Carson plays O'Hara, the neighborhood cop, who keeps interrupting the proceedings to get Grant to read a script he has written. Given the date of the film, in the middle of WWII, the reason behind the murders seems to be pretty distasteful. Not sure why Teddy is not considered to be a candidate for extermination, but maybe the movie is making an inadvertent point about genocide supporters.

Closely Watched Trains (1966). Jiri Menzel, director. Bohumil Hrabal (screenplay, based on his novel), Cast: Vaclav Neckar (apprentice train dispatcher Milos Hrma), Josef Somer, Jitka Vendova. B&W with subtitles. Takes place in German occupied Czechoslovakia during WWII; from the B&W and style of the film, you'd almost think it was contemporaneous. Much of the comedy centers around the dispatcher's attempts to become a man by losing his virginity like his dispatcher superior (Somer) who is something of a lothario. His girlfriend, a train conductor (Jitka Vendova), is happy to help, but his bewilderment -- he hasn't had the benefit of sex education -- almost leads him to suicide, but is talked out of it by his doctor. That's the comedy part. The dark part is that Czech partisans (or terrorists from the Nazi point of view) persuade the dispatchers to sabotage a German munitions train, which the senior dispatcher conveniently assigns to the apprentice. The cosmic comedy is that it could be argued that the young man is a lot more "manly" for taking on the sabotage responsibility than for his (temporary) issues with the mechanics of intercourse. Somewhat unexpected conclusion, given that the film opens with Milos Hrma narrating the context. The best parts are the little vignettes featuring the small town's eccentric characters.

Two WWII documentaries, short films:

The Battle of Midway (1942) John Ford, director with shared credit for the screenplay and photography. The film is in color, only around 20 minutes. This is the same John Ford who is best known for his westerns The Searchers and the Hollywood WWI movie They Were Expendable. Props to Ford and the other production crew members, many of whom (including Ford). The documentary is and was intended to be war propaganda, and most of the sea & air battle is not recorded, shots of anti-aircraft guns is how the film mostly functions to show the course of battle. Toward the end, the return to base of wounded seamen and airmen is noteworthy. The most artistic sequence for me was a bombed, burning ammo dump emitting a huge black cloud of smoke, with the camera zooming in until what seems like pure black seems to fill up and engulf the frame.

The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) Directed by Wiiliam Wyler, the Hollywood director of The Best Years of Our Lives. The film was in color; weirdly, I watched it couple of weeks ago & somehow I remember it in black and white (not the case with The Battle of Midway). This film documents the last mission of the Memphis Belle, a B-17 bomber, the target a submarine pen in Northern Germany. Unlike The Battle of Midway, the film is very focused, which made it suspenseful like a Hollywood movie. The mission is seen within the bomber, at an altitude fatally low in oxygen & freezing cold, which the embedded film crew, including Wyler, shared with the bomber crew.Though I knew the Belle would return safely, I was still on the edge of my seat with a feeling of dread. As the enormous bomber fleet nears its target, they first see flak (anti-aircraft shells set to explode at the same altitude as the attacking aircraft sending shards of metal everywhere). Wyler lost the hearing of one his ears when one of the shells exploded close to the plane. Then the bombers are attacked by the German fighters. Due to flak and fighters, one of the bombers is damaged and goes down in a fatal dive, with observers hoping to see the parachutes of the crew. The extent of damage on the ground and to the bomber group, and the number of casualties on both sides is not given, but the relief in getting back to their airfield is palpable.

>40 featherbear: You're obviously a serious film buff and your reviews are well thought out and beautifully written. Julie will watch old classics, but I just want to be entertained, and rarely go back any further than the 90's. Any old films I've seen I've watched with my grandparents on their tiny black and white telly, that needed the occasional sharp tap on the top to make it behave. Arsenic and Old Lace is a wonderful film, but I always felt the two batty sisters were dispatching their male callers out of kindness, because they seemed lonely.

>41 .cris: I will watch pretty much anything if it interests me no matter what year it was filmed in.

Here's a link to New Yorker critic Richard Brody's The Twenty Seven Best Movies of the Decade. New Yorker, 11/26/2019. Brody is a cineaste to the max.

Compare Manohla Dargis' (NYT's cineaste) & A.O. Scott's (NYT's the average film buff's taste), NYT 11/24/2019: The 10 Most Influential Films of the Decade (and 20 Other Favorites). Conveniently, NYT has each critic's selections segregated.

>41 .cris: To each his or her own. I do think you might find The Seven Samurai entertaining. I'm just watching the classics because TCM has had some really good offerings this month, & I'm old & I want to take advantage of the chance to clear some titles from my bucket list. For recent stuff, I have Midsommar, Alitta: Battle Angel, Godzilla King of the Monsters, & The Irishman (Scorsese, Netflix) on queue. Just saw Us (2019) on HBO.

I checked the critics lists and have to say I didn't like many of those that I had seen. Toni Erdmann was sheer torture and Moonlight failed to interest me (other than the wonderful performance by Mahershala Ali). I'm big a fan of Wes Anderson and that pleased me no end. I did like The Seven Samurai, but Toshirô Mifune was walking a fine line with his over-acting, yet the recent remake of it The Magnificent Seven (2016) just didn't make any sense. There seemed to be no reason why these strangers should band together to help a village under siege. It certainly wasn't for honour. I've tried other Akira Kurosawa films but couldn't last the distance. As you say, It's horses for courses.

Doctor Foster 92015) - BBC
3/5

A trusted GP sees her charmed life explode when she suspects her husband of an affair.

I usually like what BBC produces but while this wasn't entirely bad...I've seen better from them. If anyone can watch all 5 episodes without wanting to kill the entire cast...you have my admiration. All I can say is these people deserved one another. No need to inflict themselves on anyone else. It's like a train wreck that you can't look away from.

>46 Carol420: I think our good doctor deserved to be committed to a mental health facility, rather than dealing with coughs and sneezes. There is a second series, which is more of the same. I bailed after one episode.

>47 .cris: Hi cris I am with you, the first series was OK the second not for me, overacting and corny...

>47 .cris: >48 aussieh: I think I'll skip out on another season and go with the ones I know I like and want more of..Like Midsommer Murders... Father Brown...Chasing Shadows.

The Midnight Man (2016)
3/5

A girl and her friends find a game in the attic that summons a creature known as The Midnight Man, who uses their worst fears against them.

It's been done several times over and usually has the same start...an old game that someone can't leave well enough alone and actually starts to play with disastrous results. SURPRISE!!! This one was just cheesy enough and creepy enough to be frightening...even if you did know what was bond to happen.

La Femme Nikita (1990)
5/5
Great french thriller, loved the casting it was a rewatch for me and still enjoyable.

Red Joan (2018)
3.5/5

English born Joan Stanley, a Soviet and communist party sympathizer, becomes employed as a British government civil servant, and gets recruited by the KGB in the mid 1930s. She successfully transfers nuclear bomb secrets to the Soviet Union (Russia), which enables them to keep up with the west in the development of atomic weapons, and remains undetected as a spy for over a half a century.

i have not heard of the ''granny spy'' until now. This was a good melodramatic historic movie. Judi Dench presents a remarkable performance (as always), in this drama that jumps back and forth from the past to the present. The present is spun around the police interrogation, and dialogues with her holier than thou lawyer son. Was she right or was she wrong? She said she and the others did it to prevent another war like WWII. It was the climate of the times and the viewer will go back and forth in their views.