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

The People - 1972 sci fi, folk horror, Pollyanna meets the X Files. Kim Darby, Daniel O'Herlihy and William Shatner

Not too bad telly film about difference and acceptance, with the Shatner toning it down a bit.

Minus points for rubbish editing, though.
 
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Pearl - horror prequel to X and superior in every way.

Mia Goth is absolutely brilliant and honestly one of the best actors I've ever seen.
She would get an Oscar if the Oscars gave Oscars to films like this. Which they don't.
Also didn't realise until after I'd seen X and watched the reciew that she played the nutty old woman also
 
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Ranbay said:
Yeah man
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Well, we’ve just watched it and I thoroughly thank you for your endorsement. We were a bit reluctant to trying it out when we first saw it advertised on Apple, but on your recommendation and the pretty positive reviews we decided to give it a go today, and yes, it is surprisingly good, gripping and completely different to what I had expected :)

I shall now go to research the story further. Apparently a few things were embellished but the core story is true.

Everyone knows the Maxwell family are complete cunts, but I didn’t know they had their greedy fingers on this pie.
 
The Searchers.

One of the greats of any genre. Epic in scale, wonderfully shot and Wayne’s finest performance. I was very lucky to visit Monument Valley when I went to America in 2015 and having seen the landscape with my own eyes I can appreciate just how good it looks.
 
Rye Lane, brand new "rom com" with winning leads, and a gorgeously shot Peckham and Brixton.

My favourite city based romance since Once! Both films make the smiles come.
 
The French Dispatch

Ah, this is the Wes Anderson I know. Grand Budapest and Isle of Dogs were a blip of excellence in an otherwise irritating career. Long story short, if you like Wes (and many do) then you'll like this. If you're not normally a fan but are willing to give him a chance after GBH and Dogs, this is a return to his usual total style over substance ways. At least in this case it is offered up as a sort of anthology, so there's an excuse for utterly no plot to hang together. I wanted to like it - like always with Wes - just for how pretty it is, but it annoyed me too much. Oooh, look at how kooky we've written everyone. sigh
 
A Man Called Otto. Very good, actually. Rather sad in places, but also heartwarming and humorous in others. Good performance by Hanks, even though he wouldn’t have been my first casting choice for such a role.
 
The39thStep said:
Re watched Bladerunner 2049 . I've rigged up my Nad amp and Mission speakers to the TV and the difference in sound really improved the atmosphere. Great film .
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HZ gets a bit of grief, but the score on that is phenomenal. Especially when saw it in the cinema.

Dunkirk was another one of his that had astounding sound. Was almost the star of the film, imho.
 
Front Line Kids (1942 ... or maybe 1945 depending which box it came in) - ancient, creakily-staged, farcical comedy about high jinks of a gang of cute juvenile delinquents trying to avoid being evacuated from the East End to the countryside and preferring to get embroiled in a complex-but-inconsequential plot about a giant case of stolen jewels being hidden (or not) in a slightly dodgy hotel. The madcap antics are a bit too anodyne to work but it's a fascinating little time capsule of how divided and highly-strung "Blitz spirit Britain" actually was. Lots of comedy of class manners, some classic British Film Battleaxes of the old East End school ("Loving caaaaare?!? What those little hooligans need is BORSTAL!"), some good in jokes about blackout-breakers, spivs, stolen goods, draft dodging, hopelessly posh social workers and so on and on.

The Nest (2020) Roiling, disturbing, what-the-heck's-going-on-here psychological drama from the director of Martha Macy May Marlene - it's the mid 80s and a glib-but-desperate Jude Law is bringing his American wife and young family back to Britain so he can cash in on the coming financial boom. They buy a massive pretentious house and seem to have much more money than they actually do ... but they're also hung up on British class markers, don't like each other much any more and weird disturbing things (no gore) seem to keep happening. Couldn't properly tell you what it's all meant to MEAN but the performances, cinematography, pacing and mood-building are great. Sustaining long lasting dread and unease without actually showing you any of the scary stuff is hard but it works really well in here. Properly off key.
 
In the Wake of the Bounty

Odd mix of drama and documentary, flits between 1810, 1789 and present day (1933) . A very truncated mutiny and then the relatively sanitised history of Pitcairn. Plus, a look at the remains of the famous ship. Possibly.

Erroll Flynn stars in this very 1930s version of the story.
 
Coogans Bluff. Early Clint Eastwood film with him stepping out of the Man with no Name shadow and the start of his successful partnership with director Don Siegel.

Felt very dated, with the humour and the sexual mores fairly uncomfortable to watch. Plot had a few gaps which Wikipedia says is down to some scenes being edited out. Undeveloped female love interest, which I suppose is standard for films of this era.

That said the opening and closing action scenes were good, and I really enjoyed the score, and the street shots of New York were interesting. One of the few Clint films I’ll probably not watch again.
 
Blue Ruin (2013) a fast-paced revenge movie, with a recently down-and-out deciding to take on the local mob with mixed consequences. Highly recommended. This makes me want to seek out the directors other film Green Room.
 
Bullet Train - Brad Pitt, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Michael Shannon all go to waste in this Guy Ritchie/Kill Bill era Tarantino knock-off.

The director is capable of doing better, having done John Wick and Atomic Blonde. It's not completely terrible, BTH's roving British accent is fascinating and ATJ is immersed in his (slightly annoying) bickering hitman persona.

Come to think of it, ATJ is a bit of a chameleon, am always surprised when the credits roll and his name comes up.

Want to read the trilogy this is based on.
 
RedRedRose said:
This makes me want to seek out the directors other film Green Room.
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Green Room (2015) A DIY punk band accidentally does a gig at a Neo-nazi venue and all hell breaks loose. I thought it did a good job of blending the subcultural with the violence and gore, although, I was less convinced with the drug dealing stuff. Overall, I was satisfied, but Blue Ruin was a slightly more accomplished film.
 
One Way or Another - Fantastic film by Sara Gomez, a Cuban director that sadly only made this single feature film due to dying young. Both this and her short I'm going to Santiago are on MUBI and anyone who has a subscription and not yet checked them out should do so. The basic plot, romance across the class divide is nothing new but the context of it in Cuba post revolution makes it absolutely fascinating, and Gomez's quality raise the film to real top quality.
Also more workers committees to rule on disciplinary matters :cool:

The Legend of King Crab - A good Italian film, set in present and ~1900s and in Italy and Tierro del Fuego, mixing legend, stories and drama. Very well done and looks good.

The Traitor - biopic of one of the first mafia informers. It is done well enough but is all rather by the numbers. Having re-watched Il Divo recently it was interesting to see some of the same events/people from two different angles.
 
Flux Gourmet

I do like Peter Strickland films and this shows off many of the reasons why. Absurdist, stylish, witty, bizarre, magnificent sound and a great cast. But it is probably the shallowest of his films, the pomposity and pretentiousness he is pricking is an easy target. I suspect the main reason for the setting is so that he could make a terrible joke about 'sauce/source material.' There are worse reasons.
 
Couple of noir films the last two nights.

Detective Story. Kirk Douglas is an obsessed cop in this tight adaptation of a play ably directed by William Wyler which takes place during the early evening at a New York police station. The action moves quickly as criminals and victims come and go. Beautifully shot and paced.

The Big Sleep. Bogart and Bacall. Thanks for the recommendation a few pages back - I think it was Sue and belboid - just so enjoyable to watch. Bogart so effortless as the wisecracking Marlowe. The plot confused me a bit - thought I was a bit pissed - but watching it unfold was a great pleasure.
 
Working my way through this list provided by Reno (hope he’s well) on another thread from some years back. Have to say how much I value his posts on the subject of film, as he gives not only his personal view but also summarises received opinion and the history which I find is a good way to find the less obvious recommendations :)

Tonight it was Laura. I quite enjoyed this tale of obsessive love seen from a few angles towards the eponymous character. The villain felt a little obvious but I rather liked the portrayal and there were some killer lines.
Reno said:
Yes, more my cup of tea as well.

Point Blank does counts as a "Neo-noir". So far it's only out on DVD in the US.

My favourite Film Noirs (up to and including the 50's) are The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Laura, Double Indemnity, Gun Crazy, Detour, Mildred Pierce, The Lady From Shanghai, Out of the Past, The Reckless Moment, The Night of the Hunter, The Big Heat, Touch of Evil and Kiss Me Deadly.

My favourite neo-Noir films are Chinatown, Body Heat, The Long Goodbye, The Last Seduction, Point Blank, Blood Simple and House of Games
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Elpenor said:
Tonight it was Laura. I quite enjoyed this tale of obsessive love seen from a few angles towards the eponymous character. The villain felt a little obvious but I rather liked the portrayal and there were some killer lines.
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Laura is a great film. Cracking dialogue and the beautiful Gene Tierney to boot.

I'd also add In a Lonely Place, The Third Man and Notorious to that list. :) Oh and Gilda.
 
Culloden - BBC film from 1964, reporting from the battle between Highland clans against the Duke of Cumberland and other nasties. Feels like it was way ahead of its time.
 
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