Films you've seen at the cinema: 2020

[gaijingirl]

Half Term and shit weather so it's been a film fest. Parasite, Doolittle, Sonic the Hedgehog, Emma (actually got the kids to sit through this), David Copperfield and hopefully today Jojo Rabbit. I feel like I've forgotten one.

Parasite is very thought-provoking - I really enjoyed DexterTCN's post - in particular about the differences in formal/informal speech. As I speak Japanese it was a bit frustrating for me to not be able to fully appreciate this in the film for myself - obviously language and class are so intertwined that we miss out on all that as a Western audience. I did enjoy it but now having read a bit more about it, I kind of want to see it again.

Doolitte was better than I thought it would be, Sonic was ok.

Emma was not as good as I had hoped. It was very pretty, beautiful clothes etc etc and the actress who played "Harriet" stole the show for me. She was fab. Somehow it all felt a little bit flat - I'm not entirely sure why. I was on edge throughout waiting for my 7 year old to throw in the towel and demand something more entertaining.

David Copperfield I really enjoyed - it is a bit of a crowd-pleaser "take your mum" film. Very easy going, very funny. I wish I had taken the kids to that one.

Hoping for Jojo Rabbit today and really looking forward to it.

Then no more films for another 6-7 weeks for me.

 

[spanglechick]

I saw Emma (slighly less sedate than previous version) and Greed yesterday.

Greed is good. (Sorry).

Winterbottom splices farce with some necessarily heavy-hitting truths and some shooting-fish-in-a-barrel satire. The ensuing morality salad isn’t quite note perfect (Isla Fischer’s character gets a bizarrely easy ride), but it’s better than 90% of British comedies.

 

[gaijingirl]

So instead of going to see Jojo Rabbit (I have spent a lot of time in the cinema this week) I watched Shoplifters after Reno's post reminded me of it.

I liked it more than Parasite, but then that might be because I love all things Japanese and it was a chance for me to hear the language too. I thought it was a fabulous film but heartbreaking in so many ways. I definitely felt more sympathy towards the family in Shoplifters than in Parasite but I think that's probably because their crimes were far more altruistic than in Parasite and they seemed to be far more obviously being fucked over in so many ways. Again it has made me want to see Parasite again - especially after reading a bit more about it from a Korean language/culture point of view.

Anyway - I'd definitely recommend Shoplifters.

 

[Orang Utan]

Love Shoplifters, beautiful depiction of how true loving families don’t have to be related by blood. The director has a new one, The Truth, out very soon - made in Europe with Catherine Deneuve

 

[blossie33]

So instead of going to see Jojo Rabbit (I have spent a lot of time in the cinema this week) I watched Shoplifters after Reno's post reminded me of it.

I liked it more than Parasite, but then that might be because I love all things Japanese and it was a chance for me to hear the language too. I thought it was a fabulous film but heartbreaking in so many ways. I definitely felt more sympathy towards the family in Shoplifters than in Parasite but I think that's probably because their crimes were far more altruistic than in Parasite and they seemed to be far more obviously being fucked over in so many ways. Again it has made me want to see Parasite again - especially after reading a bit more about it from a Korean language/culture point of view.

Anyway - I'd definitely recommend Shoplifters.

I had seen Shoplifters a while ago and I went to see Parasite last week - on reflection I totally agree with you, I do prefer Shoplifters for exactly the reasons you describe.

 

[Orang Utan]

Anyone seen 3 Iron? Another Korean film that has quite a few parallels with Parasite and Shoplifters

 

[Reno]

3 Iron has been on my “to watch“ list for nearly a couple of decades now.

I’m currently working my way though Hirokazu Kore-eda’s (Shoplifters) filmography, though not at the cinema obviously. I‘ve enjoyed each of the four films I’ve watched so far (Maborosi, After Life, Nobody Knows, Still Walking) with Nobody Knows being the stand out. It’s based on a real case of an mother abandoning her four children with the oldest one who is 12, being left to raise his siblings. The performances of the children are amazing and it’s another heartbreaker of a film, which is never manipulative or sensationalistic.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Greed is good. (Sorry).

Winterbottom splices farce with some necessarily heavy-hitting truths and some shooting-fish-in-a-barrel satire. The ensuing morality salad isn’t quite note perfect (Isla Fischer’s character gets a bizarrely easy ride), but it’s better than 90% of British comedies.

I was pleasantly suprised by Greed as I'd read a few iffy reviews. It will win no awards but that's not the point. It's incoherent as a whole but who cares when you've got lines like "i'm not a Gynaecologist but i know a cunt when I see one." There was a hastily added "in memory of Caroline Flack" who appears at the beginning but it lampoons the show(s) she was involved in. I wonder if she would've found it funny ?

 

[hash tag]

Liking this Parasite film posters from around the world – in pictures

 

[belboid]

The Personal History of David Copperfield.


One of those films that lets you know why the phrase 'an absolute delight' was invented. It's funny, I know every character involved, and a few of the lines (although it omitted probably the most famous after the opening paragraph!), but didn't really have a clue as to the plot. That Uriah Heep chap is really rather unpleasant! Dev Patel is magnificent, the energy and wide eyed joy he brings to the relevant bits. I even liked Hugh Laurie! Steerforth could maybe have been a bit more of a knob earlier on, but otherwise it's just marvellous.

 

[Sue]

Portrait of a Lady on Fire. A beautifully-shot love story from Celine Sciamma.

 

[Orang Utan]

Silent Running
1971 sci-fi, starring Bruce Dern, and directed by Douglas Trumbull, the sfx boffin who supervised visual effects on 2001, Close Encounters, Blade Runner and many other classic sci-fi movies.
Dern is great as a botanist in charge of the world's flora which has been put on 3 Ark spaceships, after Earth's environment has been degraded by human activity. To his consternation, Dern is ordered by his bosses to nuke the Ark he's on and return to Earth.
It's kind of silly in places, esp the scenes with Dern's robot assistants (I felt sorry for the little actors playing the drones as it did not look like a comfortable experience for them), but Dern plays his role superbly with a sincerity that strays into a kind of fanaticism, but you're with him all the way, despite the extremity of some of his actions..

 

[DexterTCN]

The Invisible Man. Really well made but partly stupid interpretation of the classic. there's no descent to madness here, he starts mad. It's all about Elizabeth Moss.

David McCallum is no place to be seen. But then, he wouldn't be.

 

[Part 2]

Silent Running
1971 sci-fi, starring Bruce Dern, and directed by Douglas Trumbull, the sfx boffin who supervised visual effects on 2001, Close Encounters, Blade Runner and many other classic sci-fi movies.
Dern is great as a botanist in charge of the world's flora which has been put on 3 Ark spaceships, after Earth's environment has been degraded by human activity. To his consternation, Dern is ordered by his bosses to nuke the Ark he's on and return to Earth.
It's kind of silly in places, esp the scenes with Dern's robot assistants (I felt sorry for the little actors playing the drones as it did not look like a comfortable experience for them), but Dern plays his role superbly with a sincerity that strays into a kind of fanaticism, but you're with him all the way, despite the extremity of some of his actions..

One of Kermode's favourites I think?

 

[Detroit City]

i'd like to see 1917 but it's no longer at my theatre

 

[belboid]

Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

At first glance it seems to have almost nothing in common with Celine Sciamma's most notable film (here anyway) Girlhood. Working class young women of colour are swapped for quite posh not quite so young white women in colourful settings, but the themes of sisterhood and patriarchal bullshit are still there in abundance (despite the near total absence of men). It's very slow, we can see what is coming a mile off, but that doesn't matter in the slightest. Superb use of music, with a couple of scenes reminiscent of the Diamonds scene in Girlhood for how music can just be transcendent and give us moments of absolute joy. Wonderfully acted and shot, and without any of the lingering perviness of the 'male gaze' getting in the way (a la Blue is the Warmest Colour) of the more explicit scenes (which aren't that explicit, interestingly (or not) the classification certificate describes it as 'sexualised nudity' which I dont think I've ever seen before.).

Go and see it (while I try and find a copy of Water Lilies with English subs)

 

[Orang Utan]

Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

At first glance it seems to have almost nothing in common with Celine Sciamma's most notable film (here anyway) Girlhood. Working class young women of colour are swapped for quite posh not quite so young white women in colourful settings, but the themes of sisterhood and patriarchal bullshit are still there in abundance (despite the near total absence of men). It's very slow, we can see what is coming a mile off, but that doesn't matter in the slightest. Superb use of music, with a couple of scenes reminiscent of the Diamonds scene in Girlhood for how music can just be transcendent and give us moments of absolute joy. Wonderfully acted and shot, and without any of the lingering perviness of the 'male gaze' getting in the way of the more explicit scenes (which aren't that explicit, interestingly (or not) the classification certificate describes it as 'sexualised nudity' which I dont think I've ever seen before.).

Go and see it (while I try and find a copy of Water Lilies with English subs)

Tomboy is great too.

 

[Orang Utan]

I have tickets for Misbehaviour and The Perfect Candidate this Wednesday but it’s been suddenly announced that my local cinema, the Hyde Park Picture House is showing Roma as one of their final films before they shut for a year for refurbishment. Thinking of sacking off the two films for Roma as I didn’t get a chance to see it at the cinema. Torn

 

[oryx]

I have tickets for Misbehaviour and The Perfect Candidate this Wednesday but it’s been suddenly announced that my local cinema, the Hyde Park Picture House is showing Roma as one of their final films before they shut for a year for refurbishment. Thinking of sacking off the two films for Roma as I didn’t get a chance to see it at the cinema. Torn

Roma is magnificent - beautifully shot, well-acted and moving. I seem to remember it got loads of awards, which IMHO were well-deserved.

 

[Orang Utan]

Roma is magnificent - beautifully shot, well-acted and moving. I seem to remember it got loads of awards, which IMHO were well-deserved.

Yeah, it is. I've seen it on Netflix but want to see (and hear) it on a big screen.

 

[oryx]

Yeah, it is. I've seen it on Netflix but want to see (and hear) it on a big screen.

I've only seen it on the small screen too, and also slightly regretted we hadn't seen it at the cinema. Missed it when it first came out.

 

[Orang Utan]

I've only seen it on the small screen too, and also slightly regretted we hadn't seen it at the cinema. Missed it when it first came out.

it had a very limited release. Netflix have been better since with a proper theatrical run for the likes of The Irishman and Uncut Gems

 

[May Kasahara]

Color Out of Space. Fabulously wild and horribly effective Lovecraft adaptation that makes you care about a well drawn family and their dynamic before subjecting everyone to a series of unpleasant events. Also features Nicolas Cage milking an alpaca. I really, really enjoyed this film.

 

[magneze]

Parasite. Superb. See it

 

[Orang Utan]

Little Joe
Weird little curate's egg of a film about the effects of a genetically engineered plant (that's supposed to secrete hormones to make people happier) on the scientists who've developed it, esp when the lead boffin brings one home. I found it quite baffling - from the direction of the actors delivering their dialogue in a stilted flat manner, to the weird framing or tracking of some shots, to the overly designed sets and costumes. The idea of plant pollen/spores controlling humans isn't exactly a new one - Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Happening immediately spring to mind, and the plot is nowhere near as dynamic as either of those films. The music choices are strange too - taken from a Japanese composer from the 70s rather than commissioned specially - lots of percussion and flutes that sound like a kettle going off. I wanted to hate it but I was never bored, just confused as to what the hell they were thinking.

 

[blossie33]

to Little Joe, it was quite weird and a bit like something from the 70's but I enjoyed it

 

[Reno]

I didn’t get Little Joe at all. It struck me as muddled and pointless with the (admittedly nice) art direction plastering over the lack of substance. Starts out intriguingly and then doesn’t really go anywhere. I really liked Jessica Hausner‘s previous film Lourdes, so this was a disappointment.

When this was announced I thought it would be a biopic of Warhol “superstar” Joe Dallesandro, who’s nickname was Little Joe.

 

[DexterTCN]

I'm not saying that that picture has a subliminal thing, I'll assume it's just me.

 

[Orang Utan]

System Crasher
German drama about a 9 year old girl in care who is so disturbed that she has frequent violent meltdowns and has been expelled from every institution she's sent to. Well-meaning and loving adults try to intervene, but from her point of view, every adult she meets lets her down. With an extraordinary performance from Helena Zengel as Benni, it's bleak and disturbing as fuck with some striking imagery but told with such compassion that it never strays into miseryporn.

 

[Orang Utan]

And Then We Danced
Georgian drama about Merab, a young dancer who becomes infatuated with a rival dancer and embarks upon an extremely risky relationship with him. Georgia is an ultraconservative country - apparently the third most homophobic country in the world (the actors required bodyguards while shooting), and the competitive dance 'scene within it is even more conservative, being focused on unyielding stiffness and hidebound tradition - the dance teacher yells at Merab for showing weakness and for being too soft. The performances are excellent but the characters are barely fleshed out - I wanted to know more about Merab's family and friends. It all comes to a head of course, but the plot works itself out in an unexpected but deeply satisfying way. It doesn't all work, but it's an important film all the same, if just to challenge Georgia's orthodoxy and intolerance.