Films you have seen at the cinema 2023

[T & P]

Babylon. The new Damien Chazelle Hollywood epic, which I was lucky enough to catch at a preview screening.

A bit of a mouthful. I was underwhelmed by the opening third. The shock value of the party lifestyle excesses of Hollywood in that era soon wears off, and I was left fearing the whole film might be a long parade of tits, cocks and cocaine piles. But the film then becomes more three dimensional and the story moves on, as well as becoming dark as fuck in places.

The final third was stretched a good 15 minutes too much, and the closing scene is cheesy as fuck and superfluous. But still a good conclusion.

Overall it is a flawed filmed, but just about a 7/10 overall, with excellent production values, and more importantly, some great individual performances. Margot Robbie is fucking superlative and alone worth the admission price. If she doesn’t get at the very least least an Oscar nomination, I’ll be tempted to get my tinfoil hat out and suggest the film is being punished by the Academy, because sure as hell it paints Tinsel Town in far less than a flattering light.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Not been the cinema in years - think the last time was when they reran 2001 some years back. They're probably still plague pits so best avoided.

eta - just checked, it must have been around 2014/15.

 

[metalguru]

Saw Babylon yesterday.... I loved it:

• It's a love letter to the early days of Hollywood and it looks great throughout
• It's really worth seeing on the big screen. The section where several silent films are being filmed outside at once is spectacular and one I won't forget in a hurry
• The performances are great: particularly Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Li Jun Li, Fiego Calva and Jean Smart.
• It's got an incredible sense of humour, which is something that reviewers such as Mark Kermode seem to completely miss.

There are some flaws: it could have been shorter - with a very dark set-piece section that could have been omitted and meta-ending that should definitely have been cut.

But overall - what a blast!

 

[Sue]

Enys Men, Mark (Bait) Jenkin's latest. So while I'm not quite sure what was going on, I really enjoyed it. And the 70's look and feel is spot on.

Detour, classic 1945 noir. I'd only seen this on tv before so great seeing it on the big screen. It's got a 68 minute runtime so not a minute is wasted. Modern directors with their two hour plus running times could do with taking note.

Celine et Julie vont en bateau, a classic of French cinema I'd never seen. The opposite of Detour -- it's more than three hours long and wanders all over the place -- but I really enjoyed it.

 

[T & P]

Saw Babylon yesterday.... I loved it:

• It's a love letter to the early days of Hollywood and it looks great throughout
• It's really worth seeing on the big screen. The section where several silent films are being filmed outside at once is spectacular and one I won't forget in a hurry
• The performances are great: particularly Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Li Jun Li, Fiego Calva and Jean Smart.
• It's got an incredible sense of humour, which is something that reviewers such as Mark Kermode seem to completely miss.

There are some flaws: it could have been shorter - with a very dark set-piece section that could have been omitted and meta-ending that should definitely have been cut.

But overall - what a blast!

I pretty much agree with all of your review, but I would not quite describe the film it as a love letter to Hollywood given the amount of shit we also get to see about how horrible the industry could be. It's more a warts-and-all love letter, like someone telling you how much they love you but also what a horrible cunt you can be sometimes

Some cynics are in fact already suggesting the film is not getting as high praise and early nomintations/ awards as it should precisely because it exposes an ugly underbelly of the industry Tinsel Town would rather doesn't get talked about, even if it was nearly a century ago.

Margot Robbie has already been overlooked for a couple of minor awards. Whereas I cannot express an opinion on whether she absolutely deserves to win the Oscar since I haven't watched most of the other films that are rumoured to be on the run for best leading actress, there's just no fucking way there have been five other performances this year better than that. Yet she's not being talked about as being in contention for a nomination. I'm no conspiracy theorist but that would send my eyebrow flying higher up than Roger Moore's.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Tar - a drama about a female conductor. On the plus side it has a stunning central performance from Cate Blanchett, cinematography to die for and a fantastic score. On the downside, it’s baggy, narratively ill-disciplined and lacking the depth it thinks it has (there’s a chance I missed its depth of course). It’s around 2h:40 and really doesn’t need to be. It has heavy dialogue scenes that ramble on without serving any plot point and features tonnes of ancillary plots that seem to go nowhere. And what’s the overarching message of the film?

Spoiler

That people in the arts often abuse their power? That ‘geniuses’ are often deeply flawed people? Well I never! Not saying all movies have to have a super deep point, but for one as sprawling and wordy as this one, you expect a bit more bang for your buck.

In all, a delightful spectacle to watch. Performances, score and cinematography all totally award-worthy. But, for me this was a film less than the sum total of its parts.

 

[Sue]

Babylon. Well, this was a mess. Way too long, overdone, empty. Maybe that's the point but I just didnt care about any of it. I'd recommend staying at home and watching Singin' In The Rain/reading Hollywood Babylon instead.

Feels like Chazelle's going full Tarantino (and that's not a compliment). His films (well the three I've seen anyway) get worse as he gets more budget. Too long, lacking in any discipline, too much referencing other films. Meh.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

A Man Called Otto - really enjoyed it. It could have gone down the sentimental route but didn't. I thought it was both funny and moving.

 

[Idris2002]

Babylon. The new Damien Chazelle Hollywood epic, which I was lucky enough to catch at a preview screening.

A bit of a mouthful. I was underwhelmed by the opening third. The shock value of the party lifestyle excesses of Hollywood in that era soon wears off, and I was left fearing the whole film might be a long parade of tits, cocks and cocaine piles. But the film then becomes more three dimensional and the story moves on, as well as becoming dark as fuck in places.

The final third was stretched a good 15 minutes too much, and the closing scene is cheesy as fuck and superfluous. But still a good conclusion.

Overall it is a flawed filmed, but just about a 7/10 overall, with excellent production values, and more importantly, some great individual performances. Margot Robbie is fucking superlative and alone worth the admission price. If she doesn’t get at the very least least an Oscar nomination, I’ll be tempted to get my tinfoil hat out and suggest the film is being punished by the Academy, because sure as hell it paints Tinsel Town in far less than a flattering light.

I thought Babylon was a dreadful piece of shit, and I'm actually getting angrier about it the more I think about it.

Robbie was good - but she just didn't look like a 1920s film star, or a 1920s person of any kind, come on!

As for painting Tinsel Town in an unflattering light - what was the deal with the Harvey Weinstein look-alike brought on in what is essentially a non-speaking part? I have the awful feeling that this is the first post-MeToo movie, and not in a good way. The blackface stuff left a bad taste in the mouth, and I'm really not sure about Damien Chazelle's motives with that one (and you know who else was named Damien?).

As for the really dark Blockhouse sequence, well I felt like I was getting an unwanted tour of the unclean inside of Chazelle's head.

It also felt like he'd got the wiki page for "early Hollywood" and went through it checking off the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, Anna May Wong, Dietrich's gender bending, etc., etc.

Finally, as Mrs Idris pointed out to me - the final sequence seems to take place in a racially integrated movie theatre - hardly accurate for 1952, surely?

 

[Idris2002]

Is Reno still around? I'd be interested in his take on the gigantic farrago of nonsense that is Babylon.

 

[Sue]

As for painting Tinsel Town in an unflattering light - what was the deal with the Harvey Weinstein look-alike brought on in what is essentially a non-speaking part?

Yes, that was weird/disturbing. He did very much resemble him too.

It also felt like he'd got the wiki page for "early Hollywood" and went through it checking off the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, Anna May Wong, Dietrich's gender bending, etc., etc.

Yes, including basically nicking that whole scene -- the tux, the kissing a woman mid-song -- from Morocco. Meh.

And all that re-doing stuff from Singin' In the Rain -- the crinkle crinkle, the cavalier costumes, sneaking in to see the audience reaction/laughing -- I thought that was ill-judged to say the least, given SITR did it so much better.

Is Reno still around? I'd be interested in his take on the gigantic farrago of nonsense that is Babylon.

He came back but think he's disappeared again alas.

 

[T & P]

I thought Babylon was a dreadful piece of shit, and I'm actually getting angrier about it the more I think about it.

Robbie was good - but she just didn't look like a 1920s film star, or a 1920s person of any kind, come on!

As for painting Tinsel Town in an unflattering light - what was the deal with the Harvey Weinstein look-alike brought on in what is essentially a non-speaking part? I have the awful feeling that this is the first post-MeToo movie, and not in a good way. The blackface stuff left a bad taste in the mouth, and I'm really not sure about Damien Chazelle's motives with that one (and you know who else was named Damien?).

As for the really dark Blockhouse sequence, well I felt like I was getting an unwanted tour of the unclean inside of Chazelle's head.

It also felt like he'd got the wiki page for "early Hollywood" and went through it checking off the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, Anna May Wong, Dietrich's gender bending, etc., etc.

Finally, as Mrs Idris pointed out to me - the final sequence seems to take place in a racially integrated movie theatre - hardly accurate for 1952, surely?

I guess I’ll better return the 4-disc special edition DVD I was going to get you for your birthday then

Anyway, before we finish discussing the film, just to share a bit of trivia that has amused me (but then perhaps everyone knew already and I am the only fool who hadn’t realised right away). I’m sure I’m not the only one to have thought over the years how alike Margot Robbie and Samara Weaving look. I’ve just learned that in the silent film scene, the actress Robbie’s character was replacing and who looks just like her is not played by Robbie as I had believed, but by Weaving

 

[Sue]

I'm sure I’m not the only one to have thought over the years how alike Margot Robbie and Samara Weaving look.

I'd never heard of her till I read your post so...

 

[T & P]

I'd never heard of her till I read your post so...

That’s probably because you’ve seen her in movies and assumed she was Robbie

She’s been in a lot of films, including high profile ones such as Three Billboards… If you like horror-comedies, she’s the main lead in Ready or Not, a film of the subgenre I can’t recommend enough.

Daughter of Hugo Weaving, aka Agent Smith.

 

[Sue]

That’s probably because you’ve seen her in movies and assumed she was Robbie

She’s been in a lot of films, including high profile ones such as Three Billboards… If you like horror-comedies, she’s the main lead in Ready or Not, a film of the subgenre I can’t recommend enough.

Daughter of Hugo Weaving, aka Agent Smith.

Just looked up her Wikipedia and that's literally the only thing I've seen that's she's in. And I saw that five years ago or something so...

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Skipping Babylon was an easy one for me. I hate musicals, especially really long musicals, especially really long musicals with really poor reviews.

 

[metalguru]

It’s not a musical - even though it references Singing in the Rain.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

It’s not a musical - even though it references Singing in the Rain.

Ah, I guess I shouldn't have assumed, although in this case I'm glad I did.

 

[Sue]

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. From the trailer, this looked like a documentary all about artist Nan Goldin's fight to remove the Sackler name from art galleries and museums because of their links to oxycontin and the opioid epidemic. It's actually about a third that, two-thirds stuff about her life so not quite what I expected. Turns out her life has been really interesting and this has got loads of great photos and footage of lesbian/gay/art life in Boston and NY in the 70s and 80s. Her discussing things that happened then is fascinating and sometimes very sad. There's also a lot of family stuff and some pretty jawdropping revelations of generational trauma and its consequences, especially near the end.

However a major weakness is that it never explains very clearly why the Sacklers are so bad and why they/their company were worse than any other pharmaceutical company. There's an investigative journalist who mentions a few things but it would have massively benefited from more background from him right at the start. There's also mention of the company being found guilty of federal crimes but again, we never find out what those crimes were.

So overall, I thought this was very interesting and definitely worth seeing, if it wasn't really what I expected or what the trailer seemed to promise.

 

[Pickman's model]

Emys men. Good film from the same man did bait. Got free bfi tickets, but well worth paying to see

 

[blossie33]

Dreaming Walls - doccumentary film about the remaining tenants in the famous Chelsea Hotel in New York which is undergoing renovations.
Interesting characters and also a little sad.

 

[TopCat]

Emys men. Good film from the same man did bait. Got free bfi tickets, but well worth paying to see

I saw it the night before I saw you. An interesting film. That fucking generator needed a better muffler.

 

[Pickman's model]

I saw it the night before I saw you. An interesting film. That fucking generator needed a better muffler.

And she needed a spot more tea and petrol. And another book

 

[nosos]

Saw Till this afternoon and it was stunning. First time I've cried at the cinema for ages.

 

[Fluffy clouds]

Empire of Light was stunning.
Set in Margaret 1981 in a cinema

 

[Sue]

The Whale, Darren Aronofsky's latest with Brendan Fraser playing a morbidly obese man trying to (re)build his relationship with his daughter.

I generally find Aronofsky's films interesting -- you never quite know what to expect so even those I've not been that keen on have had something about them -- which is partly why I found this so disappointing because it's a v straight telling of a very low-key story.

It has PARALLELS between this strand of the story and that which are very SIGNPOSTED and it's horribly over-sentimental in places -- those bits have transcendentally sentimental music too just in case you hadn't got the point. And the ending, Jeez. Not good and not very original either.

It does have its good points -- his friend Liz is great and his daughter reassuringly annoying and teenagerish. Fraser is also good though his character is ultimately a bit cloying.

Spoiler

I found the reaction of his students when he finally revealed himself -- the shock, taking pictures of him with their phones -- really strange. I mean yes, he's very large and likely not what they were expecting but in a county with a massive obesity problem, their reactions felt kind of unrealistic.

So yeah, it's kind of okay if you like a bit of 'sentimental not really fighting against the odds and losing' kind of thing but if you're expecting interesting and inventive, this probably isn't the one for you.

 

[metalguru]

Empire of Light was stunning.
Set in Margaret 1981 in a cinema

I liked it a lot as well. It's not a perfect film script-wise imo - but it looks great and the performances are excellent.

 

[Part 2]

I Get Knocked Down. As music documentaries go it's fantastic, very uplifting, very funny. Seems to have limited showings so far but hopefully more to come, it's very good.

eta: more showings here, lots with Q+A...https://musicfilmnetwork.com/

 

[surreybrowncap]

Dreaming Walls - doccumentary film about the remaining tenants in the famous Chelsea Hotel in New York which is undergoing renovations.
Interesting characters and also a little sad.

I'm going to catch this over the weekend..

 

[Idris2002]

The Fabelmans

Thinly-veiled autobiography from Steven Spielberg, who takes us back to the post-war middle-class Jewish American world he grew up in, and shows us how he got the motion picture bug at an early age, and never recovered.

Some things in it were a bit annoying, as you'd expect from Spielberg, but he always knows what buttons to push, and push them he does.

Judd Hirsch, as the eccentric uncle, steals the entire show as the family's embarassing uncle from the old country. He's only in it for eight minutes, but I'd happily watch him do a one-man stage show in this character.

Vastly preferable to that Babylon rubbish, I'll tell you that much for nothing.