List the films you've seen at the cinema: 2019

[colacubes]

Rocketman

Despite my worst fears it was utterly terrific. I’m not a massive fan of Elton but the weaving of his songs into a suspension of disbelief biog is amazing. All performances were great but Richard Madden as his first male lover and then his manager is a magnificent performance of cold distance. My OH loathes any form of musical and loved it

The only bad thing about the film is the 1st 30 seconds of the end titles which really got on my tits as they completely ruined the previous fantasy. Leave as soon as the last song finishes is my advice

 

[krtek a houby]

Avengers End Game
Confession: I have only seen a handful of the 21 other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and have only seen two of them (Black Panther and Captain Marvel) at the cinema. I am also a 46 year old white man who is not the target audience of such films.

I'm a few years older than you and really enjoyed End Game. I'm biased, as I've been reading Marvel since 1974 (on and off), so I do like most of the films. All we had was crappy live action Spiderman and so-so depressing Hulk with Bill Bixby, back then so it was a delight when the kids who loved sci-fi/comics/fantasy grew up and started making all this into enjoyable popcorn pictures.

Is that what you mean by target audience?

 

[shifting gears]

Amazing Grace. Basically Aretha Franklin singing with a Gospel choir for an hour and a half. That voice.

Beats. It's 1994 and protests are underway against the Criminal Justice Bill, even in West Lothian, and two teenagers end up at their first rave. I really liked this and for once, it captures the party scenes really well. By coincidence, saw a play a few weeks back by the same writer and with one of the actors from this in it. That was excellent.

Madeline's Madeline. Unstable 16 year-old gets into acting, clashes with her mother and hero worships her acting teacher. The actor playing Madeline is great but the film itself is meh -- lots of it's about the process of developing an immersive play and found that pretty uninteresting tbh.

Barbican member perchance?

Only ask as I am and I’ve seen there the latter two you mention and have been considering the former!

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm a few years older than you and really enjoyed End Game. I'm biased, as I've been reading Marvel since 1974 (on and off), so I do like most of the films. All we had was crappy live action Spiderman and so-so depressing Hulk with Bill Bixby, back then so it was a delight when the kids who loved sci-fi/comics/fantasy grew up and started making all this into enjoyable popcorn pictures.

Is that what you mean by target audience?

nope, i meant young folk who grew up with those films.

 

[Sue]

Barbican member perchance?

Only ask as I am and I’ve seen there the latter two you mention and have been considering the former!

No, the last two I saw at the Barbican but free with Mubi Go... (I work within walking distance.)

 

[ginger_syn]

nope, i meant young folk who grew up with those films.

They were not just made for the teenagers

 

[krtek a houby]

nope, i meant young folk who grew up with those films.

The Marvel films I've seen over here - the audiences are anything from 20 to 70 years. I think it has universal appeal.

 

[Orang Utan]

The Marvel films I've seen over here - the audiences are anything from 20 to 70 years. I think it has universal appeal.

Well it doesn't, I can assure you. And it certainly doesn't work as a a stand alone film. You need to have watched all of the others for it to make sense.

 

[DexterTCN]

Booksmart. (perfect copies available for streaming online)

In the vein of Clueless, Mean Girls and Dazed and Confused but contemporaneous and imo better than those.

This is a little gem of a movie about two girls who graduate the next day and is the story of the 24 hour period. Olivia Wilde (sp?) first time director impresses, one of the girls is Jonah Hill's (Superbad) little sister and both play their parts faultlessly. Extremely funny although at one point I thought the acting was a little wooden.

 

[Orang Utan]

Saw the trailer for that and was in stitches at one of the characte's pronunciation of Barcelona. Can't wait to see it. There's been some brilliant coming of age movies recently. It's not just about tits and pie humping these days.

 

[Orang Utan]

What did you think about Beats, killer b?

 

[belboid]

Finally got around to seeing Endgame at the weekend.

Even having seen most of the films over the last ten years, it still needs to be that bloody long in order for half the audience to go 'who's that again?' a dozen times. very glad we'd only recently seen Infinity War cos otherwise it would have been totally confusing. As it was, it did everything it promised too, was ridiculously flash and fast, with some fine one liners. Which is what you want from an Avengers movie, I suppose.

Followed it with Beats, which is something of a contrast. The use of black and white is a little irritating, it doesn't really serve any purpose, tho it maybe made the film affordable to make, in which case I'll let it off. Which I should anyway, because otherwise the film itself is brilliant. Both at celebrating nineties club culture, and at male friendship. Wicked soundtrack too. Oh yes - it did bug me trying to remember where I'd seen 'mum' before - it's Lydia from Breaking Bad!

 

[killer b]

What did you think about Beats, killer b?

We didn't make it in the end - sabotaged by being too adventurous with food.

 

[Orang Utan]

We didn't make it in the end - sabotaged by being too adventurous with food.

Ah shame, i think you'd love it

 

[Orang Utan]

Finally got around to seeing Endgame at the weekend.

Even having seen most of the films over the last ten years, it still needs to be that bloody long in order for half the audience to go 'who's that again?' a dozen times. very glad we'd only recently seen Infinity War cos otherwise it would have been totally confusing. As it was, it did everything it promised too, was ridiculously flash and fast, with some fine one liners. Which is what you want from an Avengers movie, I suppose.

Followed it with Beats, which is something of a contrast. The use of black and white is a little irritating, it doesn't really serve any purpose, tho it maybe made the film affordable to make, in which case I'll let it off. Which I should anyway, because otherwise the film itself is brilliant. Both at celebrating nineties club culture, and at male friendship. Wicked soundtrack too. Oh yes - it did bug me trying to remember where I'd seen 'mum' before - it's Lydia from Breaking Bad!

I didn't see the point of it either, until the rave scenes iykwim

 

[gaijingirl]

Aladdin - probably give it about 6.5/10. It was good overall - especially Princess Jasmine - I thought she was pretty cool. Will Smith as the Genie - he just wasn't as funny as I'd expected. He was fine - but just fine really, not amazing. The songs and music was all great and visually it was stunning - especially the rooftop chase scenes. My kids liked it but haven't been raving on about it. I don't think it's one they'll demand to see again and again.

The Secret Life of Pets 2. Predictably cute and funny - very well observed cat/dog habits and Harrison Ford was super cool as the country dog. I quite liked that it touched on the idea of anxiety with one of the main characters. I want to say more about it but I fell asleep about 2/3 of the way through. Not because it was shit - just because I was knackered. I will probably try to watch it again to actually enjoy it more next time.

Can you tell it's half term?

 

[belboid]

I'm off to see The Lost Boys in the Devil's Arse tonight, should be a laugh. I hope.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

I'm off to see The Lost Boys in the Devil's Arse tonight, should be a laugh. I hope.

Been trying to process this all day. Nope, still none the wiser.

 

[Orang Utan]

Amazing Grace
Incredible Aretha Franklin gospel concert - I found it very moving despite my steadfast atheism. Unfortunately my viewing experience was ruined by a gentleman who kept looking at his phone. I told him very firmly to stop and he did, but then he got carried away (which I can't entirely blame him for) and started clapping along, but horrendously out of time. It felt like he was doing it on purpose just to annoy his fellow cinema goers. I spent too much of the film despising him to fully enjoy the film

 

[belboid]

Been trying to process this all day. Nope, still none the wiser.

Keifer in a cave!

The Devils Arse is a cave in the Peak District. They showed The Lost Boys, cos, y’know, they live in a cave.

The screen was too small, the sound was awful to begin with but got better. The most exciting bit of the evening was when a fight almost broke out.

But there were also bats flying in and out and across the screen, and it was generally pretty groovy.

Half Man Half Biscuit are playing there in a couple of months, tempted to book for that too.

Peak Cavern – Welcome to Peak and Speedwell Caverns at Castleton

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Keifer in a cave!

The Devils Arse is a cave in the Peak District. They showed The Lost Boys, cos, y’know, they live in a cave.

The screen was too small, the sound was awful to begin with but got better. The most exciting bit of the evening was when a fight almost broke out.

But there were also bats flying in and out and across the screen, and it was generally pretty groovy.

Half Man Half Biscuit are playing there in a couple of months, tempted to book for that too.

Peak Cavern – Welcome to Peak and Speedwell Caverns at Castleton

Everything about this is cool as fuck. I had no idea

 

[Sue]

Birds of Passage. Indigneous people in pre-cocaine trafficking Colombia get involved in the cannabis trade. And, unsurprisingly, it all goes horribly wrong. From the same team who made the excellent Embrace of The Serpent, a fascinating look into Wayuu culture and how it and two families are corrupted.

Booksmart. Two teenagers about to leave high school decide to throw caution to the winds. Some great lines and pretty funny overall but imo not as good as (other recent high schoolish film) Eighth Grade.

 

[shambler]

Woman at war

Icelandic choir leader single handedly disrupts an entire country's energy supply in battle against big energy. The lead character is inspiring, and the film carries some emotional heft, but any over-earnestness is pluckily and efficiently dismantled by a clever comedic element throughout. Beautifully shot. I fucking loved it.

 

[Sue]

Thunder Road. After the death of his mother, a man's life falls apart. Played for laughs but found a lot of this really sad and poignant. And fucking hell, how absent and/or useless his friends, family and work are as he falls apart. Excellent, if a little bit of a hard watch at times.

 

[Orang Utan]

I was going to see Diamantino as it looks bonkers, but alas, I got to the cinema and realised I'd left my keys at work and couldn't lock my bike up so no film for me. If anyone here sees it, please let me know what you thought of it, as the trailer makes it look either terrible or brilliant.

 

[DexterTCN]

Rocketman. Not what I expected. The slow advance of male-pattern baldness was really well done.

The manager John Reid was played by Rob Stark, in Bohemian Rhapsody he was played by Littlefinger. There you go.

Taron did all his own singing. Apparently the couple diagonally behind my daughter had a tizzy fit every time there was drug-taking or overt homosexuality (Pensioner Wednesday at The Vue) but I missed that.

 

[shambler]

High life.

Undesirables are trapped in space, possibly in an attempt to break through a black hole in search of unlimited resources, possibly not. A touching father and daughter relationship. Some enjoyable space-cabin fever drama at the outset, except this thriller aspect is neutered by a (lack of) narrative structure that is (intentionally) telegraphed. So more philosophical learnings? Too subtle for me. A big-budget, longer, more tasteful episode of black mirror. Less fun, though.

 

[Orang Utan]

Booksmart
2018/2019 has been a good year for coming-of-age movies. Maybe I'm at a stage in life where I can indulgently witness youngsters making their own stupid mistakes and social blunders with a distance that somehow enables a greater degree of empathy. I dunno, maybe you just get soft in your old age. But I loved this so much. Olivia Wild's direction of the actors is assured but she also moves the camera about thrillingly. The whole cast deserve an ensemble award but mainly cos they're all written so well (apart from the one note super camp gay sidekick of one of the supporting characters). The music is so well chosen too. 5 Barthelonas out of 5

 

[Orang Utan]

Greta
This seems like a 90s throwback film - overwrought thriller about a woman who is friendly to the wrong person and ends up being stalked in melodramatic fashion. Neil Jordan makes it better than it should be and his two leads (Chloe Grace Moretz and Isabelle Huppert), especially Huppert, help elevate it, but it's really the sort of stupid implausible overacted nonsense you normally get on ITV, except in New York, not Birmingham.

 

[Orang Utan]

Gloria Bell
Apparently, this is Sebastian Lelio's virtually shot-by-shot US remake of his own Chilean-made Gloria. He remade it with Julianne Moore after the success of his later film A Fantastic Woman, which I have yet to see. It's a remarkable film but I'd love to see it with the original as I suspect there are nuances I may have missed out on. It's about a woman in her 50s looking for love in shitty discos and meeting a chap played by John Turturro. Both want the same thing but their relationships with their families are so different that their future is in doubt. I don't think it quite works, so am interested to see the original to compare. Still, it's got some great performances in it and props to all the middle aged dancers in the film for dancing so self-consciously - spot on! 3 finger jabs out of 5