Nobody cares, nobody is interested. Your attempts to launch a bun fight/point score/ do a gotcha have crashed and burned.
Films you have seen at the cinema 2024
- Thread starter metalguru
- Start date
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
I care. Hence my question. I think it’s important to give awards based on merit. Tokenistic gestures get my goat.
That's great. I hereby award you a like.
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
Queer. I approached this with low expectations, primarily because Daniel Craig didn't seem an obvious or ideal candidate for this part, but I was more than pleasantly surprised, both with the film as a whole, and particularly by Craig's performance, which seemed credible enough and, especially at the end, actually quite moving. He was quite a revelation, to be honest. Drew Starkey in the main support role as his younger lover is also impressive. Although its scenes are overly stylized, I still liked the look of it, and I didn't feel that it dragged. I can't say how well it compares to the book as I haven't read it - although many years ago I read its predecessor, Junky, which I loved - but I plan to now.
Last edited:
PTK
Paul Kegan
I saw The Universal Theory this afternoon. Some of the physics in it was quite realistic. The scientists looked like photos that I have seen of physicists of that generation. I thought that it looked beautiful. When they were checking into the hotel, I thought that there was some unspoken tension with the hotel clerk that I thought might have something to do with the Second World War, and I thought that the story of what the physicists had done in the War was handled well. I thought that the men in the tunnels story was a little childish. I loved the multiverse stuff. Notice that in the narration at the end, there is evidence that the hero lives in an different universe to us.
The music was too intrusive at times, in the "action" scenes.
Elpenor
Well-Known Member
The Apartment
I hadn’t seen this before, but it was on at the Picturehouse so I went along. I have been feeling pretty low all week and hoped it would be a diversion from my mood. All I knew was it’s often regarded as Billy Wilder’s best film.
Anyway this made me laugh, it made me cry. It took me away to another world for a few hours and that’s what I love most about going to the cinema.
Sorry; not really a review.
I hadn’t seen this before, but it was on at the Picturehouse so I went along. I have been feeling pretty low all week and hoped it would be a diversion from my mood. All I knew was it’s often regarded as Billy Wilder’s best film.
Anyway this made me laugh, it made me cry. It took me away to another world for a few hours and that’s what I love most about going to the cinema.
Sorry; not really a review.
A terrible film, twice as long as it should be.
braindancer
not for long
I am being kicked out of my house tomorrow night by my teens so I need to go to the cinema. Local is showing Blitz and Queer. I can't decide which to go to. Tell me film buffs of Urban!
Orang Utan
They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist
Blitz in the early evening slot, then Queer
I love The Apartment. And it's definitely a Christmas movie.
(Wilder made so many great films, it's hard to pick a best.)
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Not at the cinema, but I watched Sunset Boulevard for the first time a few weeks ago. How I'd never seen it, I don't know. That's got to be up there.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
One of the greatest lines in cinema: "All right Mr Demille, I'm ready for my close-up".
Also starring Buster Keaton!
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
If you've only got time for one, I'd say Blitz - there's more going on in it and it does give you a feel for what it might have been like to live through those times. It's far from perfect - it was a bit too corny and stereotyped for me - but of the two it's the more entertaining, and you'll see lots of familiar faces, inc. a certain Paul Weller going down the tube station at midnight.
Last edited:
braindancer
not for long
Thanks! Definitely only got time for 1 - and they are both only on once and at the same time anyway. Blitz it is.....
Can't wait to see this!
Shut up and deal.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
The best last lines of all cinema. It's like he got the last line then worked backwards.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Totally unheralded. I'm not even sure he got a billing. All the 'waxworks' were massive silent movie stars.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
I watched this again last night because of this thread. He does the right thing in the end but fuck me you want to give Baxter a shake. It's actually quite a terrifying portrayal of the tyranny of the boss in the US corporate world.
I might be overthinking this, but Wilder himself was an immigrant and it is the immigrants who provide the humanity that finally saves him.
Oh absolutely. The men and the environment are awful. And I mean Shirley MacLaine...
Well, nobody's perfect
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
You want to give her a shake as well but obviously for very different reasons. The two leads are of course sympathetic (just about, I mean she's just tried to kill herself and you're still sucking up to Sheldrake????), good people who are caught up in that awful environment and making terrible decisions. Everyone else is awful really, except for the doctor and his wife. Who are the two outsiders.Oh absolutely. The men and the environment are awful. And I mean Shirley MacLaine...
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
That film couldn't be made now. A week's wages of an office clerk for the month's rent for an apartment in Manhattan? forgettaboutit
So in a slightly random derail...
Some years ago, I went to a theatre thing with Barry Humphries (yes, THAT Barry Humphries) who it turns out was an expert on Weimar art and cabaret music. (He was also the SIL of Stephen Spender who spent time with Christopher Isherwood in Berlin in the 30s. And apparently said it wasn't at all like Cabaret.) Back in the day, he tracked down some of the emigres from the Berlin cabaret scene who'd washed up in Hollywood, many of whom had then desperately tried to get family and friends out of Germany. (Like Frederik Hollander who wrote the music for (and appeared in) another Wilder film, A Foreign Affair.)
Wilder was of course one of those who'd left Germany in the 30s (I think much of his family in Europe died in the Holocaust) and was one the people Humphries met on his travels. Though IIRC, Humphries was (unsurprisingly) completely overwhelmed meeting him. Anyway, Humphries' show was great -- so many stories of people he'd met and so interesting to discover how knowledgeable he was about the period.
The Wilder-scripted Hold Back the Dawn shows an initially more cynical view of immigrants but.... Olivia de Havilland and Charles Boyer! (If I can never believe de Havilland playing plain.
)Anyway, derail over.
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
I quite liked Queer, it captured the Willian Boroughs feel. But I didn’t realise till after I saw it that all the locations are actually done with miniatures. I’d just assumed it was all CGI but no. Practical effects. It’s stunning to look at.
Loved conclave too. The book is great and the film almost as good.
Loved conclave too. The book is great and the film almost as good.
