Films you have seen at the cinema 2023

[littlebabyjesus]

I've managed two MubiGo films so far this year. Trying to go to at least two a month, if possible knowing not too much about them beforehand.

Alcarrás

Catalan film about a peach farming family and their struggles to keep going when they're threatened with eviction. It's a really understated story with lots of subtle layers. They're losing the farm because the granddad never got a promise in writing dating back to favours during the Civil War. It's never stated but the favour in question probably resulted from protecting someone from the Republican side. A commentary on who owns what and why and how the past still shapes today. Within a slow pace, the characters are given time to develop. A family split between those who want to fight and those who don't. The eldest son both loyal to the farm and itching to break free. The younger children's fantasy adventures are brilliantly done, with some great shots of them playing with the equipment sent in to destroy their world. Recommended.

Holy Spider

Iranian film about a serial killer and a journalist following the story. The way the female journo copes with the restrictions of society and the patronising men around her is interesting, but I'm not sure I want to watch more serial killer films. It's very matter-of-fact about the killings - he thinks he's on a mission from god to strangle prostitutes. But it's grim and I just don't think I need it. The inevitable ending is done well enough, but I didn't need that either. I had a bad dream related to this film after watching it.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

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.

you a Mubi Goer?

I tried to get to this on the opening night but it was sold out. Then couldn't manage it after that.

 

[Sue]

you a Mubi Goer?

I tried to get to this on the opening night but it was sold out. Then couldn't manage it after that.

Yeah. I'm lucky because the films are often on at my local cinema so easy enough to fit them in if I want to see them.

 

[Dr. Furface]

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

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 watched it at the weekend at home. It's sad what's happening to it and to some of the residents - but hey, nothing lasts forever - although the thought occurred to me that if it were here they'd probably have all just been given a month's notice then kicked out!

I don't know if either of you know about or have seen the BBC Arena film about the Chelsea from the early 80s, which this is clearly a follow-up to - it uses bits of footage from it and some of the characters in it were in the original one. If you've never seen it - or even if you have - you're in luck as it's now on Youtube in its entirety, which it didn't used to be until fairly recently. Here you go...

 

[blossie33]

Thanks Dr. Furface !
I think I may have seen it but will definitely watch it again

 

[surreybrowncap]

I watched it at the weekend at home. It's sad what's happening to it and to some of the residents - but hey, nothing lasts forever - although the thought occurred to me that if it were here they'd probably have all just been given a month's notice then kicked out!

I don't know if either of you know about or have seen the BBC Arena film about the Chelsea from the early 80s, which this is clearly a follow-up to - it uses bits of footage from it and some of the characters in it were in the original one. If you've never seen it - or even if you have - you're in luck as it's now on Youtube in its entirety, which it didn't used to be until fairly recently. Here you go...

Thanks for that - yes I did spot that it was now available on YouTube.
It's also on BBC iplayer - along with several other excellent Arena documentaries.
I don't think that I ever saw it so will remedy that.
(Maybe today when I'm at work...!)

 

[Dr. Furface]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Corsage yet - and I'm most guilty because I've seen it twice, which is something I hardly ever do at the cinema. Vicky Krieps is terrific as the trapped, bored, spirited and self-obsessed Empress Elisabeth of Austria rejecting the stifling strictures of royal life. It may play fast and loose with the actualité but it's a brilliant portrait of a woman ahead of and out of her time, with echoes of Diana and certain parallels with our 'modern' royals.

If you're quick you can still catch it at a few screens in town.

 

[Knotted]

Went to see Eo last Monday and I can't get it out of my head.

It's a about a donkey and his journey and the various people he meets on the way who treat with various degrees of kindness, indifference and cruelty. But it's a donkey's eye view of the world and encompasses various snippets of dramas and some mesmerising abstract sequences. The story doesn't quite a have logical narrative structure rather I think of it as being a giant slow paced montage, where there's a certain (donkey's) distance to the various dramas. Not directly tugging at heart strings in a manipulative way but passive, non-judgemental and yet it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Big cinematic artistic imagery and an exceptional soundtrack. You will want to see it in a theatre and I'm thinking of going to see it again.

It's a Jerzy Skolimowski movie, whom I'm completely unfamiliar with. Must check his other movies out.

 

[shifting gears]

Donkeys enjoying a strong start to the cinematic year

 

[bmd]

Watched Broker this week. Every actor was superb, including the young kid who plays an orphan. The baby boxes made me think a lot about the state of women's rights in S. Korea. There was a Q&A at the end where it was mentioned that they're a thing in Japan too. The director, Kore-Eda Hirokazu talked about the film being about how we become a family.




Saw Aftersun a couple of weeks ago, which blew me away, especially the parts about how the father was so alone.




Wings of Desire has been digitally remastered and the sound has been remastered too. I really liked it but it seemed as though they had a Nick Cave lookalike for some parts of the film and actual NC for one scene at the end, which, if true, must be a good story. My girlfriend and I are still talking about the horrific clothes the main character was wearing at the end.




God Said Give 'Em Drum Machines which made me feel really sad for Blake Baxter who clearly had and maybe still has mental health issues that killed his career. Lots of incredible talent in the doc. though, which is about the birth of detroit techno.

 

[bmd]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Corsage yet - and I'm most guilty because I've seen it twice, which is something I hardly ever do at the cinema. Vicky Krieps is terrific as the trapped, bored, spirited and self-obsessed Empress Elisabeth of Austria rejecting the stifling strictures of royal life. It may play fast and loose with the actualité but it's a brilliant portrait of a woman ahead of and out of her time, with echoes of Diana and certain parallels with our 'modern' royals.

If you're quick you can still catch it at a few screens in town.

I fell in love with VK after seeing her in Phantom Thread and I love the look of this but never caught it at the cinema. Apparently there were three films about Empress Elisabeth out that month.

 

[blossie33]

Love Wings of Desire, I've seen it three times now, including the new remastered version. There are a few good short docs on the making of it on YouTube.

I'd like to see the Techno one, not sure if it's still around in London.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

This is a really beautiful, heartwarming story of a young teacher's trip to teach in a rural, isolated village in the Bhutanese Himalayas. It's a slow-paced, tender exploration of identity, rural living, community and Buddhist philosophy. If it doesn't bring a tear to your eye you will have failed the Turing test. Highly recommend.

 

[Idris2002]

Close

Two Belgian lads are so close they're almost like brothers. Their friendship is wrecked when they go to secondary school (or whatever it's called in Belgium) and some girl asks them if they're a gay couple. The consequences are severe.

Very well done, and a great relief to see a film that's intended for grown-ups.

 

[Knotted]

Well I saw Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last night. It's about 8 times better than it reasonable should be. Terrific fun. Sharp script and some ace physical comedy. Acting is not up to much except for Hugh Grant who is just perfect in his role.

 

[paul mckenna]

Till.

Black black comedy about a kid's awakening whilst travelling his ancestral home. Strong performances throughout despite the slightly far-fetched plotlines

 

[RedRedRose]

Well I saw Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last night. It's about 8 times better than it reasonable should be. Terrific fun. Sharp script and some ace physical comedy. Acting is not up to much except for Hugh Grant who is just perfect in his role.

The early setups and character backstory's weren't all that great, but as the film progressed it got better and better. (The early low-point which made me groan was the handling-human love story). By the end of the film, I was laughing at the innocuous jokes and was hooked on the heist plot. I also think there was enough there for the hardened purists: references to Forgotten realms lore, cameos from the 1980's cartoons, and a couple of the bigger monsters to feast over. And my wife who knows nothing of the canon, also managed to enjoy it.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

cameos from the 1980's cartoons

I almost missed that, it went by so fast - then I wanted to rewind and see it again.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Pearl - vintage Hollywood-style horror prequel to last year's 'X'. Great central performance from Mia Goth and plenty of good fun technicolour gore. Certainly passed the time.

Rye Lane - feel good meet-cute romcom. Very knowingly Love Actually if it was set in Peckham. Gorgeous cinematography. Enjoyed.

God's Creatures - Fairly by the numbers art-housey A24 piece about structural misogyny in a West Irish fishing community. Found the first half of this fairly dull, but overall okay.

 

[ruffneck23]

I've seen a few in the last month, I get cheap tickets and usually go in the afternoon when it's empty.


Avatar : Way of the water - meh
Shazam Fury of the gods - meh again ( but only 1 other person in the cinema)
John Wick 4 - I loved it.

 

[bmd]

I saw John Wick 4 too, ruffneck23. Loved it and really didn’t feel like it was too long, at almost 3 hours.

I saw the Belgian film, Close, which folded me in half with the power of it. Loved the colours. All of the actors were so good. The editing was excellent. I never felt like I’d been rushed through any part of it.

 

[Idris2002]

Beasts

French teacher and his wife retire, and relocate to a small village in the remote Spanish province of Galicia, where they plan to grow organic produce for sale in local markets, and renovate some derelict buildings "escape from the Chateau" style. It ends very badly for them. Not only is there the predictable "you ain't from around here, are you boy", stuff, the husband's opposition to the building of wind farms rouses the ire of his neighbours, who had been counting on the wind turbine money as their ticket out of rural peasant misery. It actually ends very badly for all concerned.

Based on a real case, apparently.

 

[RedRedRose]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Very standard fare. The writers clearly thought Jack Black piano singing a la Elton John was hilarious. I didn't.

 

[DaveCinzano]

The writers clearly thought Jack Black piano singing a la Elton John was hilarious.

I must have been asleep at that bit

 

[Knotted]

A little while back I went to see the Tamil movie Cobra. It was a very long meandering action film and I found it difficult to follow to be honest. One of the characters ended up having his psychological difficulties expressed by a shadow mime actor and then that all got mixed in with the action. This was very interesting, but it took a long time to get there.

Near the beginning there is a terrorist attack on the "Prince of Scotland's" wedding in a building that looked like St Paul's Cathedral located in... Edinburgh because Prince of Scotland. This was after the Mayor of France got assassinated. I thought that was a splendid piece of cultural ignorance. It was a good sequence though.

But mostly I was impressed by how abstract an action movie could get.

On the same day I watched Start Trek II : Wrath of Khan. It was the 40th anniversary. Not a Trekky and never seen it before. Honestly thought it was terrible.

 

[RedRedRose]

I must have been asleep at that bit

You didn't miss much.

 

[Part 2]

Beasts

French teacher and his wife retire, and relocate to a small village in the remote Spanish province of Galicia, where they plan to grow organic produce for sale in local markets, and renovate some derelict buildings "escape from the Chateau" style. It ends very badly for them. Not only is there the predictable "you ain't from around here, are you boy", stuff, the husband's opposition to the building of wind farms rouses the ire of his neighbours, who had been counting on the wind turbine money as their ticket out of rural peasant misery. It actually ends very badly for all concerned.

Based on a real case, apparently.

There's a documentary about the case which I'd already seen. Didn't ruin it as such but lost a lot of the tension. I found the final third of the film a bit slow.

 

[surreybrowncap]

LOLA...

Imaginative debut feature from director Andrew Legge.
Two sisters create a machine that can intercept radio and tv broadcasts from the future.
They discover the likes of Bowie, Dylan, The Kinks.....
Set in 1940's Britain they can help the war effort...
But as we all know - never mess with the future!
Filmed in black & white - mockumentary style..
Some of it using old cameras and newsreels - think Zelig..
Well worth going to see..
Packs a lot in with it's duration of around only 80 minutes...

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Rye Lane - feel good meet-cute romcom. Very knowingly Love Actually if it was set in Peckham. Gorgeous cinematography. Enjoyed.

It features Colin Firth, for most people that's where the similarity ends.....

Saw Cairo Conspiracy (AKA Boy from Heaven), Swedish / Egyptian film about a theological college in Cairo. Some implausibilities but gripping till the end.

 

[belboid]

Sick of Myself

Scandi oddity. An overly competitive couple vie for attention from the world, she taking it absurd lengths once he has become a (momentary) darling of the Norwegian (or Swedish maybe) art world. Frequently very funny, bordering, but just on the right side of, very silly.