Last Movie You Watched

[NumberSix]

The Outrun (2024)

Did you know Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for four Oscars?

This might be her year. If she doesn't win, I'll be disappointed. Playing someone struggling with alcoholism is not anything new, but she avoids melodrama and communicates tremendous pain and humanity. It's quite something. I've been a fan for years, but this is another level from her.

The movie is gorgeously shot, too, and really uses music well.

[SimonNZ]

In the course of some featurette or other, I learnt about this and of course had to watch it: Kurosawa's adaptation of Dostoyevsky.

A local cinema is having a Kurosawa festival in November. They don't have The Idiot, but I'm excited at my first chance to be able to see Red Beard.

[Cato]

There is only one patriotic answer to that question, but that depends where you are.

Yes, e.g. Australia!

Paul Hogan is 84!  Oy!

Speaking of Australian patriotism, you have reminded me of this classic movie:



See:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080310/

[Karl Henning]

I have a feeling it's better than I'm giving it credit for tonight. I don't seem to be in the humor for an inter-war Berlin story: Bergman's The Serpent's Egg. Maybe I'll bail and try it another time. 

[NumberSix]

Yes, e.g. Australia!

Paul Hogan is 84!  Oy!

Excellent memoir from Paul. Interesting and funny.

[NumberSix]

Joker 2
I rated it 3.5/5 on this first viewing.

Spoiler free comments:

I fully expected to think this was the worst movie of the year, based on how everyone is talking. But I didn't.

1. I like musicals.
2. The Great American Songbook is life.
3. Gaga is delightful. I adore her outfit in the final courtroom scene.
4. This Harley was suitably bugnuts while not copying any previous versions of the character, especially Margot's.
5. Brendan f'ing Gleeson.
6. Phoenix is excellent. When is he not?
7. Loved the cinematography. So much smoke. . .

You know, in writing these bullet points, I just talked myself into an upgrade and a "like".

It did feel a bit long. I can't disagree there. And sometimes it got a little silly even for this film. (I guess they got tired of trying to think of ways to get Arthur a cigarette? So at some point, for the rest of the film he carried around a pack and lighter?)

If I see it again, I might give it 4 stars. Or I might downgrade it to 3 stars. Who can say?

[ritter]

Luigi Zampa's L'onorevole Angelina (aka Angelina), from 1947.



A vehicle for Anna Magnani, who is, well, very "Anna-Magnani-ish". Angelina is a strong-willed woman who stands up against profiteers and speculators in a post-WW2 Roman shantytown. There's some comic touches, and a love story (involving the daughter of the Magnani character and a rich heir, played by a young Franco Zeffirelli) leads to a happy end. All rather naïve, but cute-ish in a dated way.

[JBS]

Luigi Zampa's L'onorevole Angelina (aka Angelina), from 1947.



A vehicle for Anna Magnani, who is, well, very "Anna-Magnani-ish". Angelina is a strong-willed woman who stands up against profiteers and speculators in a post-WW2 Roman shantytown. There's some comic touches, and a love story (involving the daughter of the Magnani character and a rich heir, played by a young Franco Zeffirelli) leads to a happy end. All rather naïve, but cute-ish in a dated way.

I've never even thought of Zeffirelli as an actor.

[DavidW]

Joker 2
I rated it 3.5/5 on this first viewing.

I knew there had to be one person out there that liked it!

[ritter]

I've never even thought of Zeffirelli as an actor.

Neither had I, until last night!  According to Italian Wiki, he only appeared in this one and, in 2014, in a film called Il mistero di Dante (but that was more interviews and stuff like that).

He was a good-looking young man, it must be admitted (but  his role in Angelina didn't do that much talking).

[Wanderer]

An interesting read:

'An unmistakable stab at the USSR': Could Amadeus be the most misunderstood Oscar winner ever?

[Madiel]

An interesting read:

'An unmistakable stab at the USSR': Could Amadeus be the most misunderstood Oscar winner ever?

The thing about questions in headings is, people can suggest all sorts of things, ranging from plausible to ridiculous, and then say "hey, I was just asking".

[Wanderer]

The thing about questions in headings is, people can suggest all sorts of things, ranging from plausible to ridiculous, and then say "hey, I was just asking".

At least they suggest and not posit, like some others tend to do. Personally, I find this particular suggestion rather reaching, but the article itself includes interesting information about the film.

[NumberSix]

I knew there had to be one person out there that liked it!

I didn't love it, and I don't have any adoration for the original.

But I was surprised to find I kinda liked it. 

[Karl Henning]

I didn't love it, and I don't have any adoration for the original.

But I was surprised to find I kinda liked it. 

Given the material, this may be the optimal result!

Separately, I think @SonicMan46 will enjoy this:

[SonicMan46]

Given the material, this may be the optimal result!

Separately, I think @SonicMan46 will enjoy this:

Thanks Karl - just finished the video and really enjoyed - my favorite ST movie - Susan and I watched a few months ago!  Dave

[Karl Henning]

Bergman's The Touch (1971)

At the end of The Serpent's Egg, we learn the significance of the title, in a speech which rhymes curiously with the android Ash in Alien.

It was very interesting to see David Carradine in such a different context. The Serpent's Egg is something to watch only when one is in the humor for the moral darkness of inter-war Berlin. I stuck with it, nevertheless. But the experience was joyless, which made the movie a strange choice for one's birthday. 

"Man is a malformation, a perversity of nature."

[Karl Henning]

And, a feel-good movie to clear the air: Enchanted April.

[Cato]

And, a feel-good movie to clear the air: Enchanted April.

I do believe we have missed that one!  Thanks for the recommendation!

Recently from our archives...


Frozen River


People at the edge of society and on the edge...an excellent movie with Melissa Leo as the center of a broken family trying to keep from breaking apart even more.

[DavidW]

I just rewatched Friday the 13th, Part 3, which has the most in-your-face use of 3d I have ever seen in a movie. Not having a 3d version and those silly red and blue 3d glasses, it was doubly silly seeing it in 2d.

Do you remember the 3d fad of the 80s? And then the 3d fad of the late 00s? It seemed for awhile we were doomed to pay 3d fees for all our movies. They even made 3d TVs back then. Still didn't stick.