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

Watched Boiling Point this afternoon. It's Stephen Graham as a head chef over the course of an evening.

90 minutes, one take. It's intense from the off, fast paced and the performaces are pretty good. I've never worked in a kitchen so no idea how realistic it is but there's a good range of characters that I could imagine people who work in the restaurant business might have come across. Would definitely recommend.
 
Finally got round to seeing Revenge. Thought it was okay, some very squirmy moments. Thought The Nightingale was a far better recent example of a re-framing of those themes.
 
Finally got round to seeing Revenge. Thought it was okay, some very squirmy moments. Thought The Nightingale was a far better recent example of a re-framing of those themes.
I thought The Nightingale was an overreach and it tackled its themes politics, race and gender without nuance, everything is predictable from the start. Compare it to The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, another historical Aussie revenge film, which isn't nearly as manipulative and it looks pretty clunky in comparison. Revenge on the other hand didn't pretend to be an important drama, it's a glossy take on an exploration film along the lines of I Spit On Your Grave and its lack of pretension made it far more enjoyable for me.
 
Confidence
1980 psychological/surveillance thriller directed by István Szabó. The last days of fascist rule in Hungary during WW2 provide the context for an intense character study of two strangers with resistance connections pushed together under the cover story of being a married couple. Found this totally gripping, its gloomy claustrophobic setting and close quarters camerawork draws you right into the kind of feverish emotions of these two characters (acted brilliantly by Ildikó Bánsági and Péter Andorai). Excellent film.
 
The Last Duel - pretty grim, dodgy accents (Americans pretending to be French without trying to mimic a French accent) and a rape scene we're asked to watch twice. But not delightfully super-medieval grim, so it's just kind of dull.
 
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The Last Duel - pretty grim, dodgy accents (Americans pretending to be French without trying to mimic a French accent) and rape scene we're asked to watch twice. But not delightfully super-medieval grim, so it's just kind of dull.
A friend compared it to a poor man's Rashomon.
 
The Sweet Hereafter
Ambulance chasing lawyer preys on small town after a school bus accident leaves a good portion of the town's children dead.
It's a critic's darling, but I remembered not caring for it that much 20+ years ago and thought I'd give it another try. (Mainly on the basis that we'd watched Sarah Polley's excellent biopic, and this was her first big role after Anne of Green Gables) No, I still don't get it. I mean, it's a very well put together film and there's no issue with the acting or anything like that. It just doesn't speak to me. It's meant to be full of Deepness on the Human Condition of Grief and all that jazz, but it didn't move me an inch. Maybe I'm just too cold hearted for it.
 
Death Proof (2007) - despite being a big Tarantino fan, I'd never actually seen this before; for some reason (I think because it was created as part of the Grindhouse double-bill) I assumed it was only about an hour long rather than a full-length movie. Was actually pretty good, some great individual performances, and the last 20 minutes was some satisfying revenge fantasy. 8/10
 
Death Proof (2007) - despite being a big Tarantino fan, I'd never actually seen this before; for some reason (I think because it was created as part of the Grindhouse double-bill) I assumed it was only about an hour long rather than a full-length movie. Was actually pretty good, some great individual performances, and the last 20 minutes was some satisfying revenge fantasy. 8/10
I saw it at the cinema when it came out. Thought it was really really bad and really really boring. And the women's dialogue sounded completely wrong/phoney.

(Apparently the shorter double bill version is better. At least it's shorter I guess.)
 
I saw it at the cinema when it came out. Thought it was really really bad and really really boring. And the women's dialogue sounded completely wrong/phoney.

(Apparently the shorter double bill version is better. At least it's shorter I guess.)
I guess it was meant to sound phoney as its directly playing up to BMovie archetypes
 
Watched Boiling Point this afternoon. It's Stephen Graham as a head chef over the course of an evening.

90 minutes, one take. It's intense from the off, fast paced and the performaces are pretty good. I've never worked in a kitchen so no idea how realistic it is but there's a good range of characters that I could imagine people who work in the restaurant business might have come across. Would definitely recommend.
have never worked in one either (only done dishwashing for corporate events)....are arsehole head chefs so common? fuck that shit.
this looks too stressful for me! That Champion Prick Gordon Jump Off A Cliff Please Ramsey has a lot to answer for, making staff abuse seem like the norm
 
have never worked in one either (only done dishwashing for corporate events)....are arsehole head chefs so common? fuck that shit.
this looks too stressful for me! That Champion Prick Gordon Jump Off A Cliff Please Ramsey has a lot to answer for, making staff abuse seem like the norm
I was telling some friends about it last nigth. One has a relative who's gone into cheffing over the past 2 years. After a couple of years doing school dinners and working at Betty's tea rooms in Harrogate he's moved onto a restaurant called Tatu. He's the most mild mannered fella but has had to start fronting up to people calling them cunts to establish himself as someone who won't be pushed about and bullied. He's in his 50s aswell, fuck that at that stage in life.
 
I started The Last Duel, but stopped around halfway in, as it was late - and honestly the more the story unfolded the more I feared an eventual failure of the righteous character, which would have proved a shitty precursor to my desperate endeavoring for some vague manner of functional human-like sleep, insomnia being the bane that it is (likeliest of my existence). I intend to finish it in the coming days, one of them..

that said it isn’t very good; but the actors are good. except ben affleck. fuck you ben affleck.
 
Almost finished season two of Love Life (via non legit source) and I'm enjoying it more than the season one (Iplayer). The leader actor is superb.

A very easy watch.
 
Watched two films from MUBI. Both low key and disturbing but imo very good films.


Azor. Quiet urbane Swiss banker and his pushy wife go to Junta Argentina to work deals with the rich elite. Co swiss/Argentinian film. Co written by Swiss / Argentinian writers. Though from interview at end of film looks like the Argentinian writer rewrote the whole film.

This is Argentina in late 70s. Military have taken over. The Swiss banker finds himself out of his depth.

No violence on screen. Rich parties, meetings with the elite. Nothing is quite what it seems on surface and a sense of dread runs through the film. As director says there is direct reference to Conrad heart of darkness at the end. Its a film about evil. How an ordinary man can get drawn into it.

Well worth seeing. Despite the lack of action I found it engrossing. Some great set pieces.


Premise of this film could have been really dodgy and exploitative. But becomes a rumination on loss and guilt. Very moving without being melodramatic.

The way the film is shot shows the deep isolation and loneliness of the characters.

Film starts with well off man and his "relationship" with his "daughter" who is an android. This film does take risks and the director pulls it off. Went into territory I was not expecting.

As Ive been watching Korean Netflix series going back to watch film makes me contrast film and TV series. Something about a film which is at slower pace. Runs with an idea. Without trying to overload one and hook one into the next series. Though I've liked the Korean series I've watched.
 
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Final Account. Made.over the course of a decade, director Luke Holland travels Germany and Austria interviewing those who witnessed and/or played a role in, the atrocities of the second world war. Beginning with their indoctrination into Jungvolk and the Hitler youth it's easy to see how the nazi ideology was sold or forced upon them often against the wishes of their parents. As I was watching and thinking just that, the tone changed when a woman with a smile on her face spoke fondly of the songs she sang...and still did. From there the film becomes very interesting as people defend their roles and consistently claim they weren't involved or they didn't know what was happening, with a few exceptions.

At one point an old man speaks to a group of teenage boys with their faces blurred out. My assumption is that they were a group thought to be at risk of involvement in neo Nazi activity. As he's trying to express his regret and guilt he's verbally attacked by one of the group for being weak minded and setting the wrong example. He's told he should be scared of Albanians ready to asault him. It's really uncomfortable viewing.

A very engaging documentary.. would recommend.
 
Final Account. Made.over the course of a decade, director Luke Holland travels Germany and Austria interviewing those who witnessed and/or played a role in, the atrocities of the second world war. Beginning with their indoctrination into Jungvolk and the Hitler youth it's easy to see how the nazi ideology was sold or forced upon them often against the wishes of their parents. As I was watching and thinking just that, the tone changed when a woman with a smile on her face spoke fondly of the songs she sang...and still did. From there the film becomes very interesting as people defend their roles and consistently claim they weren't involved or they didn't know what was happening, with a few exceptions.

At one point an old man speaks to a group of teenage boys with their faces blurred out. My assumption is that they were a group thought to be at risk of involvement in neo Nazi activity. As he's trying to express his regret and guilt he's verbally attacked by one of the group for being weak minded and setting the wrong example. He's told he should be scared of Albanians ready to asault him. It's really uncomfortable viewing.

A very engaging documentary.. would recommend.
I was reading an article about this the other day and am keen to see it. Where did you get hold of it?
 
I was reading an article about this the other day and am keen to see it. Where did you get hold of it?
I think he got it off a naughty channel. It’s only out in a few posh cinemas here. If you’re in that Lundun, it’ll be on somewhere.
My Everyman is showing it but I can sit on a big armchair and watch a big tv at home and not spend £13 to do so. And at home I won’t get interrupted constantly by other people having their smelly dinners brought in. So I shall wait for it to be streamed.
Sorry, that turned into an embittered rant about Everyman and nowt to do with what you asked. :oops:
 
I think he got it off a naughty channel. It’s only out in a few posh cinemas here. If you’re in that Lundun, it’ll be on somewhere.
My Everyman is showing it but I can sit on a big armchair and watch a big tv at home and not spend £13 to do so. And at home I won’t get interrupted constantly by other people having their smelly dinners brought in. So I shall wait for it to be streamed.
Sorry, that turned into an embittered rant about Everyman and nowt to do with what you asked. :oops:
Yea it's on the cinema HD app on my dodgy firestick.
 
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I've only seen two of Pablo Larrain's films and didn't get on with them, but I ended rather liking this. This film is very different from The Crown, less a conventional drama than a chilly mood piece, which means it's in my ball park. The film takes place over one Christmas with the in-laws where Diana comes to a decision. This has a very Stanley Kubrick quality and Sandringham is shot like the Overlook in The Shining. It's a little like a horror film and I suppose that's how the film feels about the royal family and their customs, ghouls stuck in time who perform an empty charade.

What really holds the film together is Kristen Stewart's performance of a woman on the verge. This Diana has seen many a Sandringham Christmas, she knows the routine and she wants out. Initially Stewart takes some getting used to, she's not the first actor you'd imagine in the part but she has Diana's mannerisms down and this isn't an impersonation, she conveys a fully rounded character, the only one in the film and that's by design. She is the reason why this film improves over Jackie, Larrain's previous film about Jackie Kennedy in the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination. Stewart is a more nuanced and a more subtle performer than Natalie Portman, Portman always strikes me as rather actorly. Even playing who was the most famous woman in the world, there is nuance and subtlety and even a sense of humor to Stewart's performance, you can read her every emotion on her face.

Those who get triggered by the subject matter and accent wankers need not apply but it's my 3rd favourite film of the year.

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Classe Tous Risques
1960 French crime film directed by Claude Sautet, Lino Ventura's fugitive gangster tries to return with his family to Paris only to find the favours he hoped to cash in were not worth much in a world that's no longer the one he knew. It's well made with a very good performance by Ventura, has that great noir fatalism and manages to give a decent sense of menace to shots of little French cars pootling along coastal roads. I felt this must owe a lot to the work of Jacques Becker and is very much in the vein of those bleak, gritty 50s crime films. Made me think I'd like to explore that sort of pre new wave era more - I've got some Clouzots lined up but get the sense there's loads of good stuff out there.
 
Benedetta, the new Paul Verhoeven film, a biopic about a real 17th century nun who was imprisoned for having a relationship with another nun. I've always been a big Verhoeven fan (and Showgirls-apologist) but his nunsploitation pic neither works as period piece nor is it trashy enough to be a lot of fun. The film looks cheap and there is something dated about its provocations even if it sticks reasonably close to the records till it veers off into a sensationalist finale which didn't happen. Mild echoes of Ken Russell's The Devils but not nearly as good.
 
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Rather enjoyed the first two episodes of Yellowjackets- a new 10-ep series on Sky about a girls ‘soccer’ team whose plane crashes in the wilderness, and judging by the snippets in the opening scenes, results in things getting pretty fucked up among the survivors.

Whereas the basic premise does so far feel like another reinvention of the Lord of the Flies, there is clearly more to it than that. The story is also told in two concurrently running timelines, alternating between the actual events in the 80s, and present day involving those who survived the ordeal.

Very solid casting and intriguing so far, so recommended based on the initial episodes.

 
First episode of 4 part series, Landscaper's starring Olivia Coleman and David Thewlis in the real life tale of Susan and Christopher Edwards who disappeared to France after burying her parents in the garden. When they started running out of money years later he made contact with the police and they returned to England to face the consequences.

This is as good as I'd expected from such acting talent and very different from the usual true crime series. Susan is an old film fan, there's shots where the couple morph into black and white scenes and there's breaking of the 4th wall. It's very funny and has a good supporting cast mainly amongst the coppers, one of who says fuck a lot. Also appearing briefly is Jason Williamson of Sleaford mods.

It's on the naughty channel so available on cinemaHD on your dodgy firestick... otherwise on HBO, wherever you find that?
 
Sicario (2015), which was always on my gritty-geo-political-dramas-to-watch list (along with Blood Diamond and Man on Fire) but ultimately turned out to be a bit disappointing; well shot (Deakins, so of course) and acted (one of the first times I've been able to understand every word Benicio Del Toro says) but the plot never really contained any surprises.
 
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