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

Finished Banshee. What a fucking superb series that was. I know the amount of gratitious sex and nudity is off the scale and becomes comical in its quantity, but other than that is a fantastically good and gripping action thriller series.
 
I’ve already mentioned this in the Brave New World thread, but worth mentioning here as the other thread is about the book. I’m really enjoying the new TV adaptation that started on Sky last night. Not super amazing or anything but as an entertaining light thriller mini-series it’s pretty good. Do get past the first episode- it gets much better afterwards.
 
My Dinner with Andre, another famous Louis Malle film I've never seen. By now this may be more famous for the parodies about it, getting referenced as the ultimate "inaction film" and it's probably a film more talked about than seen. It came out when I was 18 and despite it getting great reviews and being an art house hit, I didn't rush to see a film about two men having a conversation in a restaurant. Finally catching up with it, I really liked it. I found it involving and the conversation resonates with much that is still going on now. For two thirds it's more of Andre's monologue, how he strives to have spiritual experiences, though thankfully they are not just of the crystal & chakra kind. Andre is a smart and interesting man, but Wallace eventually intervenes, pointing out that not many people (including him) have the means to have Andre's experiences. Some of us have to make do with the comforts of life found in an electric blanket.

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A Woman's Revenge - Adaptation of a French story, really rather good. All the sets, even the "outside" ones shot are purposely staged as if in the theatre, I'm typically not a particular fan of films of (modern) plays, they seem to static, but here the deliberately staginess of the sets and performances enhances the plot and material. Just a pity I missed the director's (Rita Azevedo Gomes) other films in this MUBI season.

Baxter, Vera Baxter - part of a series of films directed by Marguerite Duras, who wrote the script for the truly brilliant Hiroshima, Mon Amor. You can see the shared style running through the two films - the deliberately elliptical conversations. The continually playing music is a great contrast to the conversation and melancholy. Definitely recommend this - also has an appearance by a very young Gerard Depardieu. Looking forward to the rest of the season.

Bad Education - latest in Almodovar season, continuing in the same type of vein as Talk to Her, a filmmaker that knows his game and style totally and is at ease bringing together different parts of his earlier work while still moving forward.

Talking Heads - decided to watch the original set of six. It's become almost de rigour so satirise Bennet these days but seeing these again, and the NTs recent version of Madness of King George, you realise just what a great writer he is. Totally brilliant.
 
redsquirrel, I gave up on Baxter, Vera Baxter as I found the music so annoying. Probably didn't help that it was at the end of a very long week.
Personally I loved the music (and really enjoyed the film) but I can absolutely see how other people might find it grating. As soon as it started I thought this is going to go one of two ways
 
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Au revoir les enfants, which is based on a childhood experience Louis Malle had, where priests at his catholic boarding school sheltered a group of Jewish boys in occupied France.

Here Malle is revisiting and combining themes from Murmur of the Heart and Lacombe, Lucien both of which I liked better, they were more unpredictable. In those films I had didn’t always know how to feel about the characters, they kept me on my toes. This is a good film but a little too safe and maybe too awards-baity for me. It’s comparable to Truffaut's once admired and slightly overprsised The Last Metro.

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This is the real life case it was based on:
 
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Gangster Squad. Sounded right up my street. Post war LA cops taking on a big mobster. Decent cast, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Vonny Ribisi, Emma Stone. Unfortunately it was a big bag of shite.
 
Gangster Squad. Sounded right up my street. Post war LA cops taking on a big mobster. Decent cast, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Vonny Ribisi, Emma Stone. Unfortunately it was a big bag of shite.

That may be why it made every worst films list of its year
 
The Hunt (2020). A comedy-horror satire. I thought it was going to be a low-budget cheap entertainment film but I was surprised to see it had good production values and a solid cast including a multiple Oscar winner. It turns out it had meant to have had a proper theatrical release but along came Covid.

Hints of Animal Farm, Ready or Not and The Hunger Games.Turned out to be much better than I’d anticipated. Nearly as good as Ready or Not I’d say.
 
about 5 years behind the curve but watched I tonya last night. not exacyly uplifting
Wasn’t meant to be given the real life story it narrates. But I thought it was fucking great.

Historical films are not my first choice of genre to pick, and whereas I admire and recognise the talent required, I have zero interest in ice skating. So prior to seeing this film it didn’t tick any boxes for me. Yet I left the cinema highly satisfied.
 
i know. it was good but the violence didn't seem to fit for me in a black comedy

Violence usually is about laughing at transgressions, most of all acts of violence. I, Tonya never treats any act of violence as a joke though. If anything, it makes a case for a woman, who has been treated by the media as a punchline for most of her life.
 
We’ve been watching Fringe over the last few months, about to reach the fourth and last season. As a ‘leave-your-sense-of-disbelief-at-the-door’ type of sci-fi series, it’s not bad actually. Borrows a fair bit from The X Files but doesn’t have as high opinion of itself, and the story arch is pretty engaging.

As a JJ Abrams product it’s certainly better than Lost even if lacking the kind of budget and publicity the latter enjoyed. Haven’t finished the series yet though, so I can’t tell whether it will all end up having been a dream as well.
 
We’ve been watching Fringe over the last few months, about to reach the fourth and last season. As a ‘leave-your-sense-of-disbelief-at-the-door’ type of sci-fi series, it’s not bad actually. Borrows a fair bit from The X Files but doesn’t have as high opinion of itself, and the story arch is pretty engaging.

As a JJ Abrams product it’s certainly better than Lost even if lacking the kind of budget and publicity the latter enjoyed. Haven’t finished the series yet though, so I can’t tell whether it will all end up having been a dream as well.

First season owes a lot to X-Files and in a later series, there's a great little Twin Peaks reference... but the show takes an audacious story arc as it goes on and the ending (imho) is indeed, satisfying.
 
Wadjda. A Saudi film about a girl who wants a bicycle. This is the first Saudi film I've come across and whilst it isn't directly about religion, it shows how the religious derived rules are such a part of their lives.

Yardie. The best thing about it is that it didn't follow the plot of the book, and focused instead on D's quest for the truth.

Was Stephen Graham's accent meant to veer suddenly into London now and again?

And did I spot Idris Elba giving himself a brief vanity appearance as one of Rico's goons
 
A Sky documentary called 'In the Cold Dark Night' about the brutal lynching of a Tim Coggins, a young black man, in Georgia, Deep South US in 1983. Worth watching the re-examination of the case recently.
 
Wasn’t meant to be given the real life story it narrates. But I thought it was fucking great.

Historical films are not my first choice of genre to pick, and whereas I admire and recognise the talent required, I have zero interest in ice skating. So prior to seeing this film it didn’t tick any boxes for me. Yet I left the cinema highly satisfied.

Surfjan Stevens does a brilliantly scathing song about her

 
Upgrade
Really enjoyed this. Just an excellent dystopian sci-fi.

Icarus
Documentary vaguely related to drugs in cycling but then goes a bit sideways. Very watchable.

Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Finally got around to Episode II after watching Episode I a few weeks ago. I prefer this to Episode I - it's a better story. The problems from Episode I remain - the CGI is better but still a bit off, the acting is still wooden and Hayden Christensen is badly miscast.

The Old Guard
Massive bodycount. Fairly obvious plotholes all the way through. An enjoyable popcorn action film.
 
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