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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 2, 2024 16:29:55 GMT
I was compelled to watch The Killing of the Sacred Deer again yesterday for two reasons. One was because I needed to see another movie by Yorgos Lanthimos after Poor Things. I also have the DVD of The Lobster, but I specifically needed to see Barry Keogan again after all of the controversy with Saltburn. I remembered him very clearly from Sacred Deer because he totally traumatised me with his weirdness back then and I never forgot his performance. I don't know how old he really was, but he was playing a 16 year old. And Barry Keogan in The Banshees of Innisherin was also unforgettable as the sexually molested simpleton. Anyway, I confirm that that first performance in Sacred Deer is as creepy as I remembered, even worse than his character in Saltburn. Looking a bit deeper into his biography, I saw that such roles must be easy for him since his drug addict mother died when he was 12 and then he proceeded to go to 13 different foster homes before his grandmother took him in.
Still, I hope that he progresses to more "normal" roles if he can do that. He was a sweet young teenager in Dunkirk before his tragic death at the hands of Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy being the psychotic one this time).
Lugg, if you have not seen the rest of Saltburn yet, it might intrigue you to know that the movie ends 15 years after the early events. But the Downton Abbey vibe never ends.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 2, 2024 19:39:07 GMT
Oh god in heaven! I just looked up Saltburn and was enjoying reading this article: How Saltburn became the unlikely family film of Christmas 2023, when I ran smack into one of the reasons Saltburn has the reputation it has. I did not read any further and am gagging even as I type. Interesting information about Barry Keogan's background, Kerouac. It's amazing and admirable that people can channel awful circumstances in their lives into art. Prince Amponsah, whom I just saw in Station Eleven may well be the poster child for that.
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Post by Kimby on Feb 5, 2024 3:12:05 GMT
The Kimbys dug deep for an oldie last night: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, from 1970. A real blast from the past. Set in LA, it starred a couple of Playmates of the Month, and featured lots of sex drugs and rock n roll. It was directed by Russ Meyer, and written by of all people, Roger Ebert, he of Siskel and Ebert At The Movies. It was filmed around the time of the Charles Manson murders. Lots of well-endowed ladies, and square-jawed men with soulful eyes. And killings ,too. www.imdb.com/title/tt0065466/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
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Post by Kimby on Feb 8, 2024 3:07:12 GMT
Another oldie, and one of Siskel and Ebert’s “Buried Treasures”, Gates of Heaven, about a California pet cemetery and the folks who run it and those who buried their little fur babies there.
It is actually a documentary, but the people are so eccentric and earnest that as we watched, we were wondering if it wasn’t scripted, like the Christopher Guest mockumentaries Best in Show and This is Spinal Tap. But it’s real.
This was one of Roger’s favorite movies ever, but it wouldn’t make my top 100.
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Post by Kimby on Feb 11, 2024 15:40:24 GMT
In honor of Valentine’s Day, our local PBS station aired 1970’s L❤️VE Story. It was nostalgic to watch, but hasn’t aged well. In particular, the acting was not as realistic as today’s performances. I was surprised to see that it was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including best picture and 3 of the 4 acting awards. It won only one, for best musical score, though it did win big in the Golden Globes awards.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 11, 2024 16:11:09 GMT
I found it grotesquely terrible at the time and am appalled at the idea that it received so many Oscar nominations. I have been convinced for the last 50 years that Ali MacGraw is one of the worst actresses in the world. I'm not surprised about Best Musical Score, though, because I heard it the other day on the radio and instantly knew what it was, which is rare. Michel Legrand and Francis Lai provided the movie industry everywhere in the world with an amazing number of memorable pieces. Of course, they were specialised in "love themes" and left most of the monumental adventure music to John Williams, Howard Shore and others.
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 11, 2024 19:01:34 GMT
In honor of Valentine’s Day, our local PBS station aired 1970’s L❤️VE Story. It was nostalgic to watch, but hasn’t aged well.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2024 21:33:37 GMT
I thought about watching Gates of Heaven, but the trailer made it look pretty boring, plus Kimby seemed underwhelmed.
I can proudly state that I have never watched Love Story nor shall I ever. If that sounds rigid, please know that I absolutely hate having to vomit.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 15, 2024 22:15:20 GMT
Been watching more than half of 'Marry' with J-Lo. I suppose it is a US attempt at copying Notting hill. Except they removed every bit of humor and replaced it with long speeches that are supposedly moral. It just left me braindead. I don't suppose the dubbing helped much either.
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 16, 2024 21:53:09 GMT
Just watched The Kings Speech for the first time. Bloody good film.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 19, 2024 6:42:26 GMT
I watched the BAFTA Awards last night. It's very commendable that they condense the entire show into two hours, but I still disapprove of giving half of the awards in 10-second pre-recorded snippets. I find it extremely disrespectful to the industry because it isn't just the stars who make the movies.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 26, 2024 4:13:38 GMT
Last night I watched American Fiction because a friend had been urging me to do so.
I absolutely understand why she was so impressed by it and why it was up for so many awards. The casting is excellent and the acting is good throughout, with the lead, Jeffrey Wright, just a triumph of subtle perfection. It's hard to take your eyes off him.
This movie is billed as a comedy with the usual "hilarious" or "laugh-a-minute" tags on it. It's a very good movie & indeed amusing, but don't expect side-splitting, as it's fine without that. And yes, you'll be able to pick a few holes in it, but also be able to overlook those holes.
As a white person, I can assure you that the movie nails what twits white people can be when they're being white people twits -- and those parts are pretty funnny.
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Post by Kimby on Feb 26, 2024 4:20:19 GMT
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, what a sweet, wise, funny, perfectly made film. Animation and live (action). A film within a film, as a videographer moves into the Airbnb where Marcel and his snail family have been living. Leslie Stahl and 60 Minutes make an appearance.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 26, 2024 5:53:37 GMT
I almost went to see it, but...
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 27, 2024 20:58:39 GMT
So, I watched Anatomy of a Fall again this evening, first small screen showing in France. I wasn't a fan of it last year, but I was clearly wrong considering all of the awards that it has won with the Oscars coming up next month still. And I have still not warmed up to it even though I will never deny that it is excellent. (Another movie to which I reacted this way was One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.) I thik that one thing that annoys me a bit is the fact that half of it is in English. Since Sandra Hüller speaks good French, I consider this to be an artifice to make it more palatable to international audiences. And it clearly paid off.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 9, 2024 20:15:50 GMT
I'm wondering if any of you in the other countries has a television programme like Les Rencontres du Papotin which gobsmacks me once a month. A group of about 20 people with autism interview a personality, and of course their questions are often wildly unpredictable. Tonight they interviewed a 99 year old woman who had survived the concentration camps ("Did it bother you to be naked in front of your husband after being stripped in the camp?"), but other guests have been Emmanuel Macron ("You shouldn't have married your teacher.") and various pop stars and actors and actresses. It is amazing to see people without social filters on television. Often the guests are moved to tears.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 10, 2024 4:19:33 GMT
Another old one from 1971. Harold and Maude. Not successful when it debuted, but has become a cult classic. I was familiar with some of the plot, but don’t think I’d ever seen it. Or maybe I had, but didn’t remember it. I liked it.
Edited to add Reading the booklet enclosed with the DVD, I learned that director Hal Ashby also directed The Landlord (1970), The Last Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Coming Home (1978) and - one of my favorite films - Being There (1979).
The message of Harold and Maude “doesn’t position rebels against the establishment, or any group against any other group. It just wants people to be themselves and to be appreciated instead of judged - and to spread bliss by reaching out.”
We could use more of this today…
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 10, 2024 6:24:00 GMT
Harold and Maude played for more than ten years in Paris and was later adapted to a stage play.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 10, 2024 12:02:36 GMT
Another old one from 1971. Harold and Maude. Not successful when it debuted, but has become a cult classic. I was familiar with some of the plot, but don’t think I’d ever seen it. Or maybe I had, but didn’t remember it. I liked it. I loved that one.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 10, 2024 13:39:19 GMT
I watched bits and pieces of Barbie on television today while attending to other matters. Since I had seen it at the cinema, I had no need to pay close attention. However, I was impressed by the advances in CGI these days. Even though it was playing in the original language on my television, obviously most people would be watching this in French in France, and all of the signs everywhere or on the Barbie packages were in French, looking as though it had been filmed that way. That used to be far too complicated to do but now it's a snap.
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Post by lugg on Mar 13, 2024 20:32:53 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 13, 2024 23:20:00 GMT
I just glanced at the review you linked. It looks real skippable to me.
I like Julia Roberts as an actress, but it seems she gets put into a lot of unworthy productions.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 14, 2024 8:33:28 GMT
We watched Leave the World Behind a few weeks ago, Jeff likd it more than me...but it wasn't terrible We watched Damsel on Netflix...probably aimed at a much younger audience. A pretty predictable Princess/Dragon story. Millie Bobby Brown was ok if a bit screamy... BUT the wonderful Shoreh Aghdashloo voiced the dragon...I've loved her voice (she sounds like she smokes 80 a day) ever since I saw her in The Expanse. Ray Winstone is in it too and doesn't make a complete pigs ear of trying to talk posh We quite enjoyed it.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 18, 2024 4:38:54 GMT
AIR, the story of how Nike courted Michael Jordan’s mama to get him to endorse their shoes. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as Nike execs and Viola Davis as Ma Jordan. Really well done. Nice ‘80’s nostalgia montage at the start.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 22, 2024 11:27:23 GMT
I watched Aftersun on the small screen after having seen it at the cinema. Still one of the most melancholic holiday movies in memory. Paul Mescal is a fantastic actor.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 22, 2024 13:21:07 GMT
Another animated film, Elemental, a Disney/Pixar collaboration that creates a whole nuther world in which all the “people” are from one of four tribes, Fire, Air, Water and Earth. The fact that these are the classical four elements is never mentioned, so I guess that’s for the adults in the audience.
The heroine “Ember” is a fire person, the daughter of a shop owner who hopes to take over the shop - if she can learn to control her temper and exasperation with the customers. A crisis strikes the shop when a water pipe breaks and out pops a water person “Wade” who happens to be the city’s water inspector. He immediately cites the shop for multiple code violations and we soon meet the mayor who is an air person. This takes place at a ball game (rather like Harry Potter’s Quidditch) between two teams of air people.
The fire daughter and the water inspector become sweet on each other - his family is warm and welcoming toward her, but her family is skeptical. (The earth people have almost no action, just stand around sprouting trees and flowers and smiling a lot.)
There are lots of positive messages about inclusiveness and impulse control, and a happy ending (which I woke up to see), plus a really nice song performed by Lauv “Steal The Show”.
I loved a similar message film Wall*E, and wasn’t as moved by Elemental.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 22, 2024 21:39:50 GMT
We tried to watch the last Indiana Jones. We stopped at mid movie. Just pathetic.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 31, 2024 9:00:11 GMT
I have always preferred Ryan Gosling's dark roles (The Place Beyond the PInes, Blue Valentine...) to the warm and fuzzy ones (The Notebook, La La Land, Barbie...) so I watched Half Nelson again today. Devastating!
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 31, 2024 16:59:26 GMT
Hm -- never even heard of Half Nelson.
The first thing I saw Ryan Gosling in was Lars and the Real Girl, which I watched online. I don't even know how I came across it, but do remember thinking how good all the actors in it were. Then, when I watched it again years later, I was blown away by how really, really good Gosling is.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 1, 2024 3:41:01 GMT
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