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What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

Loving Vincent (2017) - IMDb
Each frame is apparently done by oil painting. It looks good, too good, and it does appear to have been based off green screen type stuff (Loving Vincent: The film made entirely of oil paintings) However I did find some of it to make me feel a little dizzy. Probably just me.
The story itself is about a lad who is trying to deliver Vincent's last letter, and ends up being a kind of investigation into his last days of being alive.

I'm giving it a 6/10 but that's mainly for how the film was done to be fair. The story itself really isn't that interesting, but it's a feat in film-making.
 
The Founder (on Amazon) - Michael Keaton stars as Ray Kroc, the man who (while wasn't the founder) grew McDonalds to the worldwide business it is today.

Keaton plays Kroc as a likeable, but failing, travelling salesman, alone in hotel rooms listening to motivational records, who stumbles upon the McDonald brothers little burger joint where they have developed a way to deliver prefect burgers and shakes quickly and efficiently. In this he sees an opportunity and talks the very humble McD brothers into starting a franchise operation.....this takes off, but for Kroc the next buck is never far from his sights and he wants more more more....regardless of what is in his way.

It's an interesting film, and entertaining, but ultimately it boils down to the bastards win and the good guys get sucker punched out of the game, and that is what underpins the American dream; Take what you want and fuck everyone else.....

So for all it's brightly coloured 50s nostalgia and an enigmatic performance by Keaton, it's basically a film about a loser who hits the big time by being a cunt to the very people who offered him the opportunity in the first place.

Oh, and they completely waste Laura Dern having her play his wife who just sits at home a lot waiting for him to take her out to dinner.
 
Manhunt: Unabomber - Rather over-stretched (could have been a few eps shorter IMO) but better and certainly much more compelling than you might think. Several cuts above the usual FBI profiling / true crime / airbrushed crime drama. Visually it's positively arty- some really well-done prefiguring and a nice weaving of nature motifs throughout; Paul Bettany does terrific work at opening a small window into Ted Kaczynski's thought process, not easy with an antisocial hermit; there's some agreeably acerbic stuff on FBI machine politics and how the media (and toads in the law-enforcemtn hierarchy) get to sway how these sorts of 'manhunt' stories are told. And without soft-pedalling the impact on the bombs' victims at all, it quietly points out, again and again, and sometimes quite subtly: didn't this guy have a point after all?
 
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TruXta said:
Surely not to show Kroc in a good light.
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It doesn't go out of its way to show him in a bad light. If anything if presents the original owners as a couple of unambitious nice guy losers, and while not quite celebrating Kroc's ruthlessness certainly doesn't condemn him for it.
 
Made in Dagenham - fucking BRILLIANT, love love loved it :cool: :thumbs:

Girl With A Pearl Earring - read the book years ago, enjoyed the film.

Into The Forest - a good film, if dark and disturbing at times, with one of the shittest fucking endings ever :mad:

Noah - errr :D That's...an interesting interpretation :D:confused::D
 
Roman J. Israel, Esq.

That Denzel can act is unquestionable, and here his performance is very strong indeed. Unfortunately it is the only thing about the film that is of note (except for the soundtrack), with a female lead providing little more than an attractive but unconvincing social activist cypher (Carmen Ejogo) and Colin Farrell being as uneven as ever - in his performance as a transformation (not helped by the way his character has been written). It really isn't clear what the film is trying to achieve, or indeed the audience for which it was intended - and the ending is deeply unconvincing and problematic.

5/10 for the film.
 
The Shape of Water.

This started with the suggestion of something good - a possible exploration of sexuality, otherness, power, religion, only to slowly unfurl in to a beautiful confection with little or no substance. It is a joy to watch the careful composition of colour, scene, and movement but this is not matched by the story - shallow and unsophisticated.

6/10
 
Beats & Pieces said:
The Shape of Water.

This started with the suggestion of something good - a possible exploration of sexuality, otherness, power, religion, only to slowly unfurl in to a beautiful confection with little or no substance. It is a joy to watch the careful composition of colour, scene, and movement but this is not matched by the story - shallow and unsophisticated.

6/10
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I disagree about substance. Sally Hawkins, playing a mute, gives an exceptionally expressive performance. The film is all about her journey, her limits, crossing those limits.

And masturbating, lots of masturbating.

I agree it's a joy to watch though.
 
DexterTCN said:
I disagree about substance. Sally Hawkins, playing a mute, gives an exceptionally expressive performance. The film is all about her journey, her limits, crossing those limits.

And masturbating, lots of masturbating.

I agree it's a joy to watch though.
Click to expand...

The opening scene was fantastic - but contributed to the sense of disappointment that followed - it started out very strongly placing the woman's sexuality before the viewer - only to fall away.

Post

This is a very old fashioned film, presenting the world as a place free of moral ambiguity or difficulty. It is a piece of self-conscious Amercian myth making - and (despite the presence of Hanks and Streep) is utterly dull as a result.

4.5/10
 
The Snowman (2017) - IMDb
Everything about this film said I should have loved it, however it's just plainly poorly executed and with a terrible predictable ending. Every cliche that you could ever put into a murder/mystery/serial killer story is here and there is a reason a lot of this stuff gets made for multipart TV dramas these days.
5/10
 
cybershot said:
The Snowman (2017) - IMDb
Everything about this film said I should have loved it, however it's just plainly poorly executed and with a terrible predictable ending. Every cliche that you could ever put into a murder/mystery/serial killer story is here and there is a reason a lot of this stuff gets made for multipart TV dramas these days.
5/10
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Haven't seen it but the Jo Nesbo books are pretty enjoyable. Yeah, the maverick cop, enemies within the force, hard drinking cliches are there but over the series you're pretty much rooting for Harry.
 
I, Tonya

A very enjoyable film, featuring some great acting. Margot Robbie is good, Allison Janney is especially compelling as her Mother.

8.5/10
 
Get Out

A 'B movie' setting itself up as a critique of white liberal racism - but failing so very hard to escape the paradigm it wants to subvert. Oscar worthy? No.

But don't say that out loud.
 
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