List the films you've seen at the cinema: 2013

[Idris2002]

Hyde Park on Hudson.

50 Shades of Grey meets the Waltons meets The West Wing meets Downton Abbey meets the King's Speech.

It's a film you could take your Mum to, if your Mum was broadminded enough to watch a US president getting a hand job in a vintage car.

I'm not joking. An annoyingly weak and passive fifth cousin of Franklin Roosevelt is tapped by the Great Man to be his latest bit on the side. I mean, this woman is so vapid, she might as well be made out of patches of cloth stuffed with straw. Bill Murray plays FDR, and is not bad at all as the architect of the New Deal. Laura Linney is the cousin, Daisy.

The angle is that the King and the Queen Mum are visiting the president in the hope that they can persuade him to help out when the inevitable European war arrives. I'm not sure how much of this is based on historical fact, mind, but the King is presented as an inexperienced youth who benefits from the mentoring handed out by Roosevelt (the lass who plays the Queen Mum is the spit of Frances de la Tour, which I found a bit distracting).

It's very much a country house film, even if the country is a supposedly democratic one that purports to shun the aristocratic trappings of the UK. At one point, I began to wish for a cameo by Joe Stalin, who could remind the rest of the cast that in the USSR he could have them all shot.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I didn't realise the film-makers had access to your mind.

it's the future of cinema.

Just imagine all the great films based upon what people are thinking.

'I Must Remember Tea Bags'

'I Can Make That Train If I run'

'She's Not Wearing a Bra'

'I suppose I should Get Up'

'Fuck Him and His Deadline!'

 

[Silverghost]

I didn't realise the film-makers had access to your mind.

they didn't. It's syncronosity, my luv.. synchronosity.

To David Mitchell, really.

Care to watch it now? I dare you to step in to a little bit o' what minds're made of. Nonsense and the depth of it.

 

[Reno]

they didn't. It's syncronosity, my luv.. synchronosity.

To David Mitchell, really.

Care to watch it now? I dare you to step in to a little bit o' what minds're made of. Nonsense and the depth of it.

I will watch it, but I will wait and rent the Blu-ray.

 

[Silverghost]

I will watch it, but I will wait and rent the Blu-ray.

Alternatively, I could send you a pirated version of what I could get a hold of from over here in the equatorial band where I am currently.

 

[Reno]

Alternatively, I could send you a pirated version of what I could get a hold of from over here in the equatorial band where I am currently.

Thanks for offering, but that's fine. I'm in no rush and I prefer watching a Blu-ray to a DVD-rip..

 

[redsquirrel]

My problem was with the 15yr girl making a very clear rejection of her elders in light of the holocaust. That didn't seem plausible with the scant information she'd picked up during her journey. I'm not sure things could be so resolved in the days and weeks after the war.

Hang on before you said that the problem was that there were characters who refused to believe the Holocaust happened now it's the opposite?

And the "rejection of her elders" wasn't just based on the new information about the Holocaust but also on the fact that she lost both her parents and went through an extremely traumatic journey.

 

[Orang Utan]

Managed to avoid all reviews of Stoker and now regret it as it was balls. Sumptuous poo. The plot was predictable, so had no suspense whatsoever. And everyone is dressed fabulously and has nice curtains and sofas for no particular reason but to fill the screen with pretty.

 

[Sue]

I Wish. Too long* and quite dull. Should've gone to see something else.

* When did films all get so long? Can't remember the last time I came out of a film and thought, 'God, I wish that'd been longer'. Normally I feel like it's been half an hour too long and they didn't spend enough time or effort on the script.

 

[treelover]

Anyone been to see Lore?, its getting very good reviews, its about a young girl from a Nazi family who crosses the devastated country at war's end and is also about her coming of age, i have heard they use the hand held camera a lot though...

oops, just seen posts, didn't come up on search though...

still would like more reviews though..

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Hang on before you said that the problem was that there were characters who refused to believe the Holocaust happened.

re: Lore
Don't recall stating that but your explanation of the rejection is good.

Treelover, urbs seem to like it.

 

[treelover]

It looks like it is shot in a 'terrence malick' style...

 

[belboid]

A Canterbury Tale.

The last in the P&P season, and as great as ever. I hadn't really realised just how minxy Alison looks when we first see her.

Is Thomas Colpeper a holy fool? can't quite decide.

 

[redsquirrel]

A Canterbury Tale.

The last in the P&P season, and as great as ever. I hadn't really realised just how minxy Alison looks when we first see her.

Is Thomas Colpeper a holy fool? can't quite decide.

My favourite P&P, not their best film but I just adore it. Eric Portman is brilliant in it.

It looks like it is shot in a 'terrence malick' style...

Ermm, I guess it depends what you mean by a 'Terrence Malick' style. I mean there are some beautiful shots of nature but I don't think the comparison is particularly close (though I've only seen The Thin Red Line and Tree of Life so it might be closer to Malicks other films).

Anyway it's definitely worth going to see, really good performances from a young cast and it's shot well. The ending might be a touch heavy handed but that's probably been a bit picky.

 

[Maltin]

Arbitrage

Thought it was a very absorbing thriller, watching Richard Gere as a billionaire businessman try to juggle lots of balls while his world is potentially falling apart during the financial crisis.

Not really a spoiler but one issue that other people in the cinema seemed to have:

Spoiler

Judging by the reaction of some in the cinema, not everyone will appreciate the ending. I thought it worked very well. I don't think it helped that as soon as the film ended they switched the lights on rather than giving people time to think.

Whilst Gere plays a character who morally is pretty bankrupt, having him played by someone as handsome and charming as Gere suits the role perfectly.

 

[Dr. Furface]

Side Effects. Steven Soderberg's latest (and final?) film is not his greatest, but nontheless it's still an enjoyable watch, even though ultimately it's a load of old tosh. Fortunately I didn't read any reviews in advance, so I didn't know what to expect (I only bothered with it because it's showing at my fave cinema, The Tricycle) - and as it's a sort of homage to Hitchcock, if you fancy seeing it, I'd advise you not to either. It's well made (as you'd expect) with decent central performances from Jude Law and Rooney Mara as a psychiatrist and his patient respectively. It at first seems to be a film about depression and the pharmaceutical industry (which could have been interesting) but ends up something else altogether, which really stretches your credulity, but as I said it's enjoyable enough and I never felt bored. 6.5/10

 

[Part 2]

Anyone seen Broken yet?

 

[Reno]

Anyone seen Broken yet?

Had a chance to go to a screening, but it's been getting middling reviews, along the lines of it being well meaning, but not that great, so I left it.

 

[redsquirrel]

The Paperboy - Pretty good, there's a few mis-steps along the way, for examples I don't think the David Oyelowo character really works, but Cusak, Kidman and McConaughey are all good and there are some genuine laugh out load moments. There are also some very nice touch like having a photograph of George Wallace in the background of the scene at the lawyers office. It's not fantastic but it's a pretty enjoyable 90 minutes.

 

[Orang Utan]

Anyone seen Broken yet?

Off to see it tonight, but it looks a bit worthy.
It is my new resolution to go to the cinema every Tuesday, but I'm having trouble finding films I want to watch every week. It was a choice between Broken, Argo, Lincoln, Robot & Frank and Side Effects

 

[boing!]

Cloud Atlas - I liked it. If you can forgive some slightly cloying pseudo philosophy (as present in the book as the film) it's a decent, enjoyable and ambitious film.

 

[Orang Utan]

Broken was ok.
Really likeable cast/characters
Rory Kinnear is notable as a surprise hardnut and the young girl is outstanding
But the plot is overly melodramatic and contrived esp these unnecessary and annoying mini-flashbacks/flashforwards to increase tension.
Worth a watch

 

[Part 2]

Sounds like a film I can go to with the Mrs this Friday

 

[Schmetterling]

I think it would be extremely stupid and arrogant to have one character be a metaphor for the entire experience of the German population. I don't think the film is meant as an apology for the Germans and this is what you seem to imply by questioning its historical accuracy. One reason Lore deals with a 15 year old girl is because it is entirely plausible for a child not to have been aware of what really went on.

My dad who lived though the Dresden blitz was 13 by the time the war ended and he had no idea. A socialist for his entire adult life, he has always been very honest about who in the family were or weren't Nazis, so I don't think this is something he'd lie about. My stepfather, who is about the same age, is half-Jewish and survived by passing as Arian, growing up in the Bavarian country side where he was less conspicuous. His mother kept the truth about his father (an American Jew) from him and he had no idea how much he had been in danger till the war was over. I'm pretty sure he would admit to knowing about the Holocaust, but he didn't till after.

Check out the documentary Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary, a feature length interview with Traudl Junge. She also wrote a book much of the film Downfall is based on and she makes a persuasive case for how ignorant Germans could be, even when they were in the eye of the storm. Then again there certainly were plenty of Germans who did know or sort of knew but there never is only one way of how a population experiences history.

In the book/short story/chapter the film is based on the girl is about 12. I think the age was chosen so that it would have been plausible for her to have lived entirely throughout a period of ideological indoctrination.

I really liked it and would like to see it again. Both my parents went Auf die Grosse Flucht (the flight); they were born in 1936. To my Papa it was 'exciting'. Though as he becomes older and older he understands more and more (recently he has become, not obsessed, but preoccupied with a memory of his mother taking him and his younger, by four years, brother by the hands to stand atop a bridge with the intention of jumping into the river below. She came to her senses, thinking: 'I have two more daughters.' - (too old to be allowed on the trains with my grandmother so had to make their own way (14 and 16) from Lower Silesia to the 'relative' safety of as far west as they could get.). I see a lot of his habits/selfishnesses have a basis in the privation of the last war years and immediate post-war years.

My mother was completely traumatised - having lived in Stargard and then Stettin - the bombings, the alarms, the planes, the burnt bodies in the street, the smell of burnt flesh. Their boat was one of the last to cross the Baltic without being directly bombed - though boming went on around them.

So I recognised a lot of details from the stories we heard growing up. I don't necessarily think she was meant to represent the whole country; it was just her story.

As for the knowing/not knowing: I think that more people knew than admitted and conversely think that a lot less people knew than the rest of the world thinks. Just as there was a lot more dissent/underground resistance than was known at the time.

But on the whole I think the film makes most sense to Germans. Did I just state the obvious again?

 

[smorodina]

it's the future of cinema.
Just imagine all the great films based upon what people are thinking.
'I suppose I should Get Up'

I'd go watch this!
I am assumming comedy/ drama/ thriller/ elements of horror/ triller/ documentary plus an amazing soundtrack.
Spielberg to direct..

 

[fakeplasticgirl]

just back from seeing side effects. thought it started brilliantly, but my god, the final third was ridiculous

 

[Sue]

Broken was ok.
Really likeable cast/characters
Rory Kinnear is notable as a surprise hardnut and the young girl is outstanding
But the plot is overly melodramatic and contrived esp these unnecessary and annoying mini-flashbacks/flashforwards to increase tension.
Worth a watch

The acting was good (but then, it does have a very good cast) but not overly cheery. And yes, the ending was a bit much.

 

[Sue]

Side Effects. Hadn't seen any reviews and turned out not to be the film I thought it was going to be. Enjoyed it though.

 

[Part 2]

Broken was ok.
Really likeable cast/characters
Rory Kinnear is notable as a surprise hardnut and the young girl is outstanding
But the plot is overly melodramatic and contrived esp these unnecessary and annoying mini-flashbacks/flashforwards to increase tension.
Worth a watch

Had a chance to go to a screening, but it's been getting middling reviews, along the lines of it being well meaning, but not that great, so I left it.

We watched it last night. It was pretty much as OU described. I was worried it might be one of those films where having watched the trailer there wasn't much else to see but at least there was a bit more to it. I didn't think much to the dialogue at times.

I knew my Mrs would like it, she thought it was great. I'd probably give it about 6.5/10.

 

[Orang Utan]

There were some great moments of 'reality' that really rang true, eg the peg scene with her brother, and were rather heart warming. I think Rufus Norris is definitely a talent to watch. It was a good first effort.