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

[Part 2]

First 4 episodes of Severance. Apple TV series directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle A dystopian mystery where workers for a company called Lomen have their work lives severed from their home life by an implant. Nobody knows what the company does.

Great cast and the characters and storyline are developing nicely and it's getting quite weird and dark.

8 of 9 episodes available, series finale next Friday with a second series planned for next year. I loved Escape at Dannemora that Stiller directed and hoping this continues to be as good.

 

[Reno]

Watched the first two episodes of the acclaimed Norwegian series Beforeigners, where millions of people from various periods of the past suddenly get washed up in bodies of water and then have to be integrated into society. It's focus is a mismatched cop duo of temporary detective being partnered with Viking shied maiden and it plays out as a procedural. Cute premise but this feels cobbled together from parts of better series like The Leftovers, Dark, The Returned, Alienation. It doesn't feel distinctive enough and the plot moves from one trope to the next. Probably will leave it here.

 

[Chz]

Watched the first two episodes of the acclaimed Norwegian series Beforeigners, where millions of people from various periods of the past suddenly get washed up in bodies of water and then have to be integrated into society. It's focus is a mismatched cop duo of temporary detective being partnered with Viking shied maiden and it plays out as a procedural. Cute premise but this feels cobbled together from parts of better series like The Leftovers, Dark, The Returned, Alienation. It doesn't feel distinctive enough and the plot moves from one trope to the next. Probably will leave it here.

It's a bog-standard buddy-cop show with an interesting twist to it. I thought it was plenty good enough to keep me occupied when there was nothing else on, but even though there's a Series 2 out there I haven't bothered to track it down.

 

[Part 2]

2 more episodes of Severance. It's really good and I'm trying to ration it knowing the season finale is coming on Friday.

Some characters are aware of the nature of the company but whatever it is feels completely unimportant as far as the storyline goes. Each time a new bit of information is presented it gets more ridiculous and cult like. Still all very dark and claustrophobic but it's got some very funny and sweet moments.

Ive read a lot of people find it too slow so might not be for everyone.

 

[Chz]

Sightseers
Sort of if Bonnie and Clyde decided to instead of robbing banks visit all of Yorkshire's greatest tourist attractions and murder people there.
Boy meets girl. Girls finds boy is mass murderer. Girl gets off on it and joins in the fun. Hilarity ensues.

 

[T & P]

Rewatching The Silence of the Lambs, which I have seen a fair few times, but not for a good twenty years. What a fantastically good film. The scene when we’re first introduced to Hannibal is just masterful, as indeed are all the other exchanges between him and Clarice. I still marvel at how absurdly brilliant Anthony Hopkins is in this.

 

[inva]

The Dark Mirror
1946 psychological mystery directed by Robert Siodmak, has some good bits - a nice opening scene, the film feels fairly well put together overall, and Olivia de Havilland delivers a decent central performance, but the plot is pretty ropey and the supporting characters are weak. In particular I found Lew Ayres' doctor character lacking any sort of charisma and a bit creepy doling out trite sexist psychology, which is not great when for much of the film he occupies the role of main investigator of the mystery. Not a terrible film, very much second tier though as far as noirish films of the 40s go and massively inferior to Siodmak's previous film The Killers.

 

[MBV]

Slow Horses (Apple TV) - Like Spooks but with Gary Oldham and grubbier.

 

[belboid]

Slow Horses (Apple TV) - Like Spooks but with Gary Oldham and grubbier.

saw the first couple of those (largely cos my friend made the holes in Gary Oldman's socks!). Okay, but could have been a lot better if that young bloke wasn't doing a Simon Pegg impression for some strange reason.

 

[The39thStep]

saw the first couple of those (largely cos my friend made the holes in Gary Oldman's socks!). Okay, but could have been a lot better if that young bloke wasn't doing a Simon Pegg impression for some strange reason.

Saw the first episode , it was promising but uneven . See how it goes

 

[Part 2]

2 more episodes of Severance and a few things are coming together ready for the season ender tomorrow.

It's probably my favourite series for a long time. I've watched a couple of episodes twice to make sure I've not missed something or to confirm an idea I've had. Don't think I've done that since Breaking Bad.

 

[rubbershoes]

Sightseers
Sort of if Bonnie and Clyde decided to instead of robbing banks visit all of Yorkshire's greatest tourist attractions and murder people there.
Boy meets girl. Girls finds boy is mass murderer. Girl gets off on it and joins in the fun. Hilarity ensues.

The Provisional wing of the Caravanning Association

 

[redsquirrel]

A Jeanne Moreau -> Jacques Demy mix up

Lift to the Scaffold - Rewatching this it is as good (maybe even better) second time around. Hits on the bullseye on just about everything, actors, plot, script, look, camerawork, score. And Moreau is wonderful, bringing that magnetic subtlety to the role

The Lovers - Malle's follow up to Lift again with Moreau who again makes the role hers, its hard to imagine anyone else playing the role. The plot is not much but the way it is delivered is brilliant. In less capable hands than Malle and Moreau the wandering through the countryside at night could be ridiculous but here it works.

Diary of a Chambermaid - Buñuel casts Moreau in the title role and then sets the action between the wars, a switch of time period and references to fascism work very well.

L’adolescent - One of Moreau's directorial efforts and from this you have to say it shame she did not do more. A girl on an age of adolescent goes to her grandmother for a holiday in the country just before the onset of WWII. Yet while the impending war is present in the background (the local doctor is Jewish) the strength of the film is that it focuses on the girl's, and villagers, life. It is not groundbreaking but it is very well done, Simone Signoret adds class as the grandmother.

Bay of Angels - Jacques Demy's second outing. Moreau is the gambling obsessed older woman the young man falls for and gets caught up by. The film is not an actual musical but virtually so, with a sort of crazed, woozy fantasy feeling.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - This has been on my 'to watch' list for a long time, big mistake in not getting around to seeing it sooner. It is as great as everyone says and if you haven't seen it then do so. Just gorgeous. I don't really know what else to say.

The Young Girls of Rochefort - The follow up to Umbrellas. While it is a good film for me it does not have that magic that Umbrellas does. I'm not totally swayed by Gene Kelly. It is also half a hour longer and maybe is just a little stretched*. That said the dry humour of the film hits its mark with me and it looks wonderful. Still worth checking out but maybe not straight after watching its sibling.


*Except TYGoR all of these films clock in at around the 90 minute mark, more modern directors would do well to bear that in mind and cut the fat.

-------

Also re-watched The Great War, very interesting seeing both the liberal interpretation of the First World War and the nationalist liberalism that created the scene for the war with the current Ukrainian conflict.

 

[not-bono-ever]

The latest kingsman. I have watched all of them whilst ripped to the gills, late at night and although stylised bollocks, I do seem to enjoy them. So there

 

[not-bono-ever]

Oh , and the man on the moon. Jim Carrey is great in it. Perfect for playing the off his face Kaufman

 

[T & P]

Nine Days. An independent fantasy-drama film about a man whose job is to assign souls for newborns on Earth, and must choose one out of a handful of candidates by way of a nine-day selection process in which they’re all presented with Freudian moral dilemmas.

I really liked it. Highly original script and thought provoking. The ending didn’t go the way I expected but it gets away with it. Would recommend. Sundance Festival winner for best script in 2020.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Nine Days. An independent fantasy-drama film about a man whose job is to assign souls for newborns on Earth, and must choose one out of a handful of candidates by way of a nine-day selection process in which they’re all presented with Freudian moral dilemmas.

I really liked it. Highly original script and thought provoking. The ending didn’t go the way I expected but it gets away with it. Would recommend. Sundance Festival winner for best script in 2020.

Is it 50% better than the Billy-Elliott-storms-the-Iranian-Embassy film?

 

[T & P]

Is it 50% better than the Billy-Elliott-storms-the-Iranian-Embassy film?

Never seen that one so couldn’t say. But I will say that I’m not always receptive to films I would describe as weird-arthousey with a thoroughly ambiguous ending, yet I really liked this one.

 

[Part 2]

Bull, recent revenge film from director of London to Brighton. It's quite like Dead Man's Shoes in many way but nowhere near as good. I wouldn't go out of your way to see it.

 

[Idris2002]

The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers

One night in 1928, in the industrial city of Iverstown, something terrible happened. One young man had to run away: two others stayed behind. In 1946, the first one comes back to town, gets mixed up with a girl, and discovers that the two people he left behind are now big wheels in the city's business and politics worlds. . . but not in a good way. The consequences of that night come back to haunt them all.

If you care about classic movies, you need to see this one. Barbara Stanwyck and a very young Kirk Douglas play two of the leads. Stanwyck is a Double Indemnity style sociopath: Douglas is not the classic tough-guy he normally played, in fact he's the opposite. Van Heflin is the lead, a professional gambler and WWII veteran who "once beat a murder rap in 'Frisco - claimed it was self-defence'. It's on YouTube - check it out. It will keep you guessing right up to the very end.

Reno - you must know this one, right? What's the Reno verdict?

 

[Reno]

The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers

One night in 1928, in the industrial city of Iverstown, something terrible happened. One young man had to run away: two others stayed behind. In 1946, the first one comes back to town, gets mixed up with a girl, and discovers that the two people he left behind are now big wheels in the city's business and politics worlds. . . but not in a good way. The consequences of that night come back to haunt them all.

If you care about classic movies, you need to see this one. Barbara Stanwyck and a very young Kirk Douglas play two of the leads. Stanwyck is a Double Indemnity style sociopath: Douglas is not the classic tough-guy he normally played, in fact he's the opposite. Van Heflin is the lead, a professional gambler and WWII veteran who "once beat a murder rap in 'Frisco - claimed it was self-defence'. It's on YouTube - check it out. It will keep you guessing right up to the very end.

Reno - you must know this one, right? What's the Reno verdict?

Thumbs up from me but I haven't seen it in at least a couple of decades. Should probably re-watch it.

 

[inva]

Seven Sinners
1940 Marlene Dietrich vehicle directed by Tay Garnett. Starts nice and briskly, quickly sketching the characters and setting with Dietrich as a singer who is chased by the authorities from island to island across the South Seas because of her riot-starting performances. Once John Wayne's Navy lieutenant becomes more central the film loses its momentum and the really the whole thing just falls flat. Dietrich is very watchable and has a couple of good songs, and there's a few decent jokes here and there, but most of the film is too by the numbers to stand out.

 

[Part 2]

Heads up for Mubi subscribers that Blella Tarr's Satantango was added today. Amazing....if you've got 7 hours to spare.

 

[Sue]

Heads up for Mubi subscribers that Blella Tarr's Satantango was added today. Amazing....if you've got 7 hours to spare.

Yes, saw that in the daily email. Knew it was long but didn't realise it was seven hours long...

 

[Part 2]

Yes, saw that in the daily email. Knew it was long but didn't realise it was seven hours long...

It's totally worth it...and it's done in 12 chapters so quite possible to watch in 3 parts.

Chapters 1-3: 137 mins. Chapters 4-6: 124 mins. Chapters 7-12: 177 mins.

 

[T & P]

I’ve already plugged this in the ‘non Netflix etc’ thread, but make no apology for doing so again. New Sky Atlantic mini series Julia, a new biopic about Julia Child, is fucking brilliant so far.

 

[Part 2]

The Outfit. A cockney tailor (or cutter as he prefers to be called) runs a shop in Chicago among warring gangsters who he makes suits for. The film takes place mostly over one night after he helps out members of one of the families.

I didn't like it. It's a play that aside from a few shots of it's outside (that looks like a cheap set), all takes place inside the shop. It's not really very cinematic. There were elements that reminded me of Rope and The Usual Suspects. I don't think I like Mark Rylance much and some of the acting was poor. .

That said some people will like this, it's like a murder mystery. I'd seen someone write that it was like the Coen brothers but didn't see that myself.

 

[T & P]

Malignant, the new James Wan (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring) horror film. I've always been a James Wan sceptic as find a lot of his work far too derivative and he's never encountered a horror movie cliche he didn't like, but this is my favourite film of his so far. The first two thirds feel rather stilted, like this is another killer-stalks-woman-who-he-has-a-psychic-connection-with thriller and it pretends to be a far more routine and serious horror film than it turns out to be. Two thirds in, the film pulls one of the most outrageous plot twists ever out of the hat, goes totally batshit and it becomes clear that this always was supposed to be tongue in cheek and OTT. The clunky dialogue and stiff acting which are initially off-putting, contribute to the campy vibe, the monster is truly grotesque and it climaxes with a fabulously demented show off between heroine and villain. The trailer doesn't give anything crucial away, btw.

Just watched this, and absolutely loved it. Fantastic silly yet enjoyable fun.

 

[Sweet FA]

Bull, recent revenge film from director of London to Brighton. It's quite like Dead Man's Shoes in many way but nowhere near as good. I wouldn't go out of your way to see it.

Watched this a few days ago. One for DaveCinzano's geezer film list. It's not great no...watchable though I thought. I always rate Neil Maskell and David Hayman's usually a safe bet. The set up is pretty good but
then it doesn't really do much. I think it suffered from not going full Dead Man's Shoes tbh. Also the ending

 

[Gramsci]

Looking around Mubi found film about Ukrainian conflict by Lithuanian director by Sarunas Bartas. Not a director Ive heard of before.

Made before Putin invasion. Its set in the ongoing conflict between separatists and Ukrainian army/ militias in Eastern Ukraine.

A young man is asked to drive to Ukraine from Lithuania with supply of supposedly humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian militia.

The film didn't get great reviews but I think in hindsight its got something to say. Its not gung ho about war or taking sides in simplistic way. So useful imo now that the war in Ukraine is now increasingly being seen in Europe in that way.

Film brings up issue of the voyeurism of those who look at war from the outside. One of the best bits of the film is the discussion the young Lithuanian has with ( from reading afterwards) two Ukrainian soldiers. Who berate him for coming and not understanding what war is really about.

Another theme in the film is that of people who are a bit lost. On the way they stop at a rather mysterious hotel and spend night drinking with a group of journalists.

War and chaos provides some people with an environment that reflects their personal turmoil. They feel at home in it. Later a Ukrainian soldier asks the young man why he has come to this war zone - if he is tired of living

An atmosphere of unreality pervades the film. As the van gets closer to the war zone the feeling of dread increases. As though War is a thing in itself.

Useful antidote to cheering on war.

Frost (2017) ⭐ 5.7 | Drama, Mystery, War

2h 12m | Not Rated

www.imdb.com