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

[Orang Utan]

John Wick 3 - Parabellum
Keanu Reeves' former stuntman jumps the horse in this spectacular but also somehow boring 3rd go in the franchise about a taciturn man double-tapping people in the face in whilst bathed in blue light, usually in a room clad in marble, all because some bad men shot his dog. 2 murder-by-books out of 5

 

[Orang Utan]

Shit, I also forgot I saw a Filipino film called Nervous Translation, a kind of fantastical domestic drama about a neglected 8 year old girl who makes her own world by transcribing the noises she hears around the family flat she's trapped in while the adults are at work. She's obsessed with transcribing noises, perhaps because the only communication she has with her father are audio cassette recordings meant for her mother that he records for her while he's working away in Dubai. It's set in the 80s around the fall of the Marcos dictatorship and there's definitely a political subtext I'm missing entirely, but I mostly liked it, cos it was great a showing how children create their own worlds, but I did fall asleep a couple of times and I did feel occasionally bewildered by what was happening.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

John Wick 3 - Parabellum
Keanu Reeves' former stuntman jumps the horse in this spectacular but also somehow boring 3rd go in the franchise about a taciturn man double-tapping people in the face in whilst bathed in blue light, usually in a room clad in marble, all because some bad men shot his dog. 2 murder-by-books out of 5

Innovative use of a horse to kill a baddie tho

 

[Orang Utan]

After 82: The Untold Story Of The AIDS Crisis In The UK
Intriguing oral history in which survivors of the crisis talk of a fearful time when so little was known yet so many were dying. It's accurate to describe them as survivors - one talks about how the constant toll of friends and lovers dying caused in him complex PTSD, which is more commonly acquired on battlefields in and in torture chambers. I was glad to have watched the film, yet felt so drained by it that I could not face staying on for the Q&A featuring elderly men talking of a terrible time in their lives.

 

[DexterTCN]

John Wick 3 - Parabellum
Keanu Reeves' former stuntman jumps the horse in this spectacular but also somehow boring 3rd go in the franchise about a taciturn man double-tapping people in the face in whilst bathed in blue light, usually in a room clad in marble, all because some bad men shot his dog. 2 murder-by-books out of 5

Marble was in the second film, his dog was shot in the first.

You get that the blue light means he's in kill mode, right, part of the thing? He's lit in other tones at other times.

It's great film-making that steps into Korean-level action territory such as The Raid films and The Villainess (which is reffed in 3)

5 Haille Berrys out of 5.

 

[Orang Utan]

it's all one film

 

[Orang Utan]

Marble was in the second film, his dog was shot in the first.

You get that the blue light means he's in kill mode, right, part of the thing? He's lit in other tones at other times.

yes, it looks lovely. what youtube vid did you get that from?

 

[Orang Utan]

Just going through my ticket receipts and I missed a whole bunch of stuff. I bought tickets for a bunch of things but didn't make it cos my brain or body wasn't co-operating. High Life, Madeline's Madeline, Vox Lux and Diamintino are the main ones. Especially gutted about missing High Life.

 

[DexterTCN]

yes, it looks lovely. what youtube vid did you get that from?

It's been a few places...might have been one with an interview with the directors or cinemawins. Nerdwriter, Lessons from the screenplay, movies with mikey, beyond the trailer, ...the quality of videos available is stunning both in variety and education if you like a movie.

 

[Orang Utan]

But I did also see:
Rafiki - Kenyan coming-of-age drama about two teenage girls from rival families (their fathers are political opponents) who fall in love. It's quite coy (understandably so considering the legal situation in Kenya) but it's devastating in its depiction of the dangers of being yourself in an intolerant society. Wanuri Kahiu's film is not all glum though, and shows hope for the future with its portrayal of the young people, dressed to impress and lusting for love in a Nairobi that looks fun to go out in (but only if you're straight )

 

[Orang Utan]

I also saw Out Of Blue, but can't remember anything about it at all. WTF? It must have been shite.

 

[8115]

Just going through my ticket receipts and I missed a whole bunch of stuff. I bought tickets for a bunch of things but didn't make it cos my brain or body wasn't co-operating. High Life, Madeline's Madeline, Vox Lux and Diamintino are the main ones. Especially gutted about missing High Life.

A lot of people didn't like High Life but I really enjoyed it.

 

[Part 2]

Maradona - documentary by the maker of Senna, and Amy. Lots of personal archive footage, the film focuses on his time playing at Napoli during which he won Serie A with them and the World Cup with Argentina aswell as comitting the 'hand of god' incident. I'm not a massive football fan so only know what I've seen in the media about him. It opened my eyes to a lot of stuff about the way he was treated, rather than just being a fotballer with a cocaine habit who hung around with gangsters. It's hard to imagine coming from sharing a shack with your family to having the world at your feet for such amazing talent then being turned upon so harshly. My son and I talked about it for ages after which for me is always a good sign of a good film.

 

[D'wards]

Booksmart. It was quite good, but not as good as I expected judging by the reviews.
It has been compared to Superbad, but then I wasn't crazy about that either, despite everyone saying it was at the peak of the genre.
I much preferred Ladybird, on a similar theme but different style

 

[Sue]

Booksmart. It was quite good, but not as good as I expected judging by the reviews.
It has been compared to Superbad, but then I wasn't crazy about that either, despite everyone saying it was at the peak of the genre.
I much preferred Ladybird, on a similar theme but different style

Have you seen Eighth Grade? Also out recently and imo better than Booksmart.

 

[Orang Utan]

Mid90s was also great

 

[Orang Utan]

Ma
Good old fashioned nasty domestic horror with Octavia Spencer as a lonely vet's assistant who lets a group of teens drink in her basement and gets too attached, going into full slasher mode. It would be a two starrer if it didn't star Spencer, who is brilliant, playing the perfect mix between vulnerable and deranged. Three mortifying robot dances out of five

 

[Orang Utan]

Rocketman
Director Dexter Fletcher proves himself to be a great director of musicals, esp dance numbers, after scoring high with Bohemian Rhapsody. Lee Hall creates a better story here, but it's quite the standard addiction story. The therapy/AA scenes are good, the costumes and set design fabulous the choreography outstanding, and it's great to see Elton John's sexuality to be portrayed so unapologetically, but it suffers from having a soundtrack by Elton John, whose musical appeal has always escaped me. Two outrageous pairs of spectactles out of five.

 

[Orang Utan]

Brightburn
A dark inversion of the Superman/superhero mythology: what if superman wanted to destroy us?
Not enough is really made of this idea, but it's visually inventive, with some old school practical effects providing us with shocking gory moments that reminded me of the Final Destination series. Three creepy kids in homemade masks out of five

 

[Orang Utan]

Thunder Road
Jim Cummings, who stars, writes, directs and edits, crowdfunded this after a ten-minute version (featuring the first scene of this film) won Sundance. It's an at times excruciating but very funny comedy about a cop falling apart and making poor decision after poor decision after his mum dies and he embarrasses himself at her funeral. Jim Cummings has such an expressive face that you feel for him no matter how pathetic or needy he behaves and there are so many touching moments in this that it almost ends up as a feelgood film, though not quite. Nothing about this film is expected or trite. Can't wait to see what he does next. Four snotty public breakdowns out of five

 

[Orang Utan]

Sometimes Always Never
Bill Nighy is very good at leaning to one side and making arch comments. He does this a lot here, while trying on (unsuccessfully) a Scouse accent. He plays a verbose tailor who know a lot of words but cannot talk to his family, one of whom has been missing for years, after an argument about a two letter word in a Scrabble game. It has an excellent script by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and the cast is excellent, but it doesn't ultimately go anywhere. Three Qis out of five

 

[DexterTCN]

Brightburn
A dark inversion of the Superman/superhero mythology: what if superman wanted to destroy us?
Not enough is really made of this idea, but it's visually inventive, with some old school practical effects providing us with shocking gory moments that reminded me of the Final Destination series. Three creepy kids in homemade masks out of five

I didn't like it at all, mainly because I thought it was a great idea done badly. No heart.

Chronicle from 2015 took the same kind of idea and did it much better.

 

[Sue]

Protect the Girls. Follows a day in the life of a fictional Hooters-style bar. Not much happens but thought this was really good. Regina Hall, as the manager holding things together, is excellent.

In Fabric. Slightly difficult to classify but bad things happen to those who wear a mysterious red dress. Bits of it have a distinct look and feel of Hammer Horror, with some HR pseudo nonsense that made me laugh and a touch of Suspiria thrown in for good measure. Doesn't make a whole load of sense but I quite liked the utter randomness of it all. (And the Hammer Horror touches made me feel quite nostalgic.)

Also refreshing to see two films on general release with not only a middle-aged female lead but a black middle-aged female lead at that. (Marianne Jean-Baptiste is the lead of In Fabric.) The first two don't happen very often, all three even more rarely.

 

[DexterTCN]

Spiderman: Far From Home.

aka the european tour. Perfectly decent for what it is, lots of callbacks to Endgame and Iron Man, lots of laughs. Aunt May gets laid.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Anyone seen Midsommar yet? It's got my darling Florence Pugh in it so I shall try to make the effort.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Anyone seen Midsommar yet? It's got my darling Florence Pugh in it so I shall try to make the effort.

Saw it Friday.

Very good, much better than Hereditary.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Saw it Friday.

Very good, much better than Hereditary.

Great. Must try to get to see it this week.

 

[metalguru]

Vita and Virginia

I did have my doubts about this, despite the good reviews. "A hothouse of patrician passion" - 3/5 stars out of 5 - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian."The affair between Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf is winningly recreated by Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki"

it isn't very good: terrible mannered acting, intrusive and poor soundtrack. It's not in the least bit exciting or erotic even. But it was nice to look at and gave a sense of what it was like to live in beautiful surroundings.

 

[Wilf]

Great. Must try to get to see it this week.

Saw it on Sunday. Loved it, in part because I like long, slow building films. Beautifully shot, lots of weirdness, mixture of horror and occasional comedy. And with a tiny, tiny spoiler that you'll have already twigged if you've seen the trailer...

Spoiler: not much of a spoiler

... an excellent revisiting of the Wicker Man.

I'm not entirely sure the message(s) in the film were that clear or, more likely, that I interpreted it right. But it certainly works at the level of sit down, watch it, go with it.

 

[RubyToogood]

Apollo 11. Quite gripping and fills in lots of bits you didn't know about. It brought home to me how incredibly complex the whole thing was. It's pure archive footage with no narration or interviews.

One of my takeaways from it was the serried ranks of balding men who staffed the whole thing. The workplace and men's hairstyles have changed.