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

[T & P]

The Fabelmans. Spielberg’s semi- biographical uplifting drama about a budding teenage cinematographer in 1960s America, dealing with family trouble as well as antisemitism.

Very good, Took a while to get going for me, but then it really gets into gear. Fantastic performance by Carey Milligan and a breakout by Gabriel LaBelle playing teenage (non)Spielberg.

Not necessarily masterpiece but a pleasing, solid 8/10 for me.

 

[krtek a houby]

Sapphire & Steel - Assignment 4

That's more like it. This is the one a lot of people who were around for the show remember.

The faceless man who can move between pictures, the endless kaleidoscopic scream and some foreshadowing of the eventual fate of our heroes...

Assignment 2 still tops it and with only two more assignments to go, reckon it will be the best.

 

[Yossarian]

Not usually a fan of period dramas but A Personal History of David Copperfield, written, directed, and produced by Armando Ianucci was brilliant, the colorblind casting was an especially good touch. I hadn't read the book or seen any previous adaptations so it was all new to me, not sure how closely he stuck to the source material.

 

[belboid]

A Quiet Place 2

A not terrible sequel, but one that fails to satisfactorily build on the premise and promise of the first one. Some good sequences, tension is fairly satisfactorily maintained (and ripped apart), but, by expanding the world, but not developing the monsters at all, various bits just seem rather ridiculous. Every government in the world is clearly run by idiots. Why aren't the monsters constantly occupied by killing birds?

 

[krtek a houby]

Nope...Jordan Peel's hotly anticipated new film. Gave up half an hour from the end, it was just boring and I couldn't care less what happened.

I don't really get what people see in his films.

See also Prey that I watched because I've seen a lot of people saying is good. I was in the mood for a good action film but after waiting 45 minutes with a lot of dark scenes and not much happening I was bored.

Would say that Nope is currently one of my favourite films and it's got quite a few layers to it, as well as being innovative and entertaining. That's what JP does and why he's an excellent director.

Prey is the best Predator since the second one, and loved the direction it went in.

 

[inva]

Petite Maman
Been ages since I watched a film, I could've hardly picked a better one to start back up with, Céline Sciamma's magical, quietly spellbinding 2021 film about childhood, family relationships and I suppose bridging the gaps between people and generations. Sciamma must be one of the best directors right now, this is the third I've seen after Tomboy and Girlhood and all have been excellent. She seems to have a special skill at working with child actors and this really shines in the central performance by Joséphine Sanz. It's a short film, no wasted seconds and very understated with a lot of subtle, gentle power. Wonderful film.

 

[tommers]

Dungeons and dragons Honour among thieves.

Wow. Someone spent money on plot, actors and effects for a D&D movie. I'm in shock! Honestly, it was good fun. Art it ain't, but I totally recommend it anyhow.

Just finished this. It was really good. Funny and exciting and heartwarming and all that stuff. Really enjoyed it

 

[krtek a houby]

Sapphire & Steel - Assignment 5

The one where someone else took over writing duties, and it shows. Fair play for trying something a bit different, but the Agatha Christie style mystery is the least compelling of the stories.

 

[Elpenor]

A few I’ve watched over the last week or so

The Phenix City Story - a slightly moralising but enjoyable noir based on a true story about locals fighting organised crime and corruption in their city. Decent performances from the cast none of whom I’d heard of.

Beware my Lovely. A noir taking on the theme of home invasion, set at Christmas and involving a kindly old lady. But no it’s not the Night of the Hunter. Ida Lupino hires a drifter; Robert Ryan to do some oddjobs around the house. However it turns out his initial simple-seeming demeanour is far more disturbing that first seems. Ryan is horribly convincing as the tortured and unstable Howard. The action unfolds over the day and the suspense is gripping - and genuinely unnerving - right up until the end.

Crossfire. Robert Ryan again as he and Robert Mitchum, two soldiers about to be demobbed, both influential among their peers, are questioned after the murder of a Jewish man. Prime suspect though is one of their buddies, and he can’t account for his whereabouts. Gloria Grahame pops up as a B-girl. A rather hard-hitting drama this with a powerful speech from one of the detectives about how the little acts of prejudice lead to greater ones - one still relevant today.

The Blue Dahlia. Alan Ladd has returned from the war and discovers his dipso wife is cheating on him with a nightclub owner. His wife is murdered, and he winds up entwined with the wife of the nightclub owner, Veronica Lake. Some good twists and turns right until the end in this Raymond Chandler script and a strong supporting role from William Hendrix as a shell shocked army buddy of Ladd.

This Gun For Hire. Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd again (apparently a good combo as the below 5 ft Lake didn’t tower over Ladd unlike some leading ladies) in an adaptation of a Graham Greene book - one of his entertainments I reckon. A gunman is double-crossed by his client, an industrialist, and paid in stolen notes. He tracks him down to LA, with the help of Ladd, who he meets on the train who also happens to be the girlfriend of the cop assigned to the case and hired to work in the night club owned by the industrialist, who would be played by Steven Fry in a contemporary remake. Some good noir tropes including “chase across the railroad yards”.

Hells Island. A colour noir if that’s not a contradiction - one word review is “shit”. Anyway a sacked DA turned nightclub bouncer is recruited to retrieve a ruby from
a Caribbean island, intriguingly stolen by the woman who jilted him. A decent sounding setup, but boringly executed. The colour saturation, while appropriate to the tropical location, felt far too lively for the subject matter. Plenty of better noirs than this.

Kiss me Deadly. Ralph Meeker is a frankly rather unlikeable cheap PI doing seedy divorce cases with his secretary, often getting the evidence via entrapment. In a brilliant opening scene he picks up a hitchhiker, escaped from the asylum, who is scared for her life. Shortly before she is recaptured and killed, she asks him to remember her. There follows a number of twists and turns as you’d expect it’s a hell of a ride and really enjoyable. The final scene is much homaged in cinema, and directly pinched by Spielberg for Raiders of the lost ark.

 

[inva]

Twentieth Century
Howard Hawks' early screwball comedy from 1934 starring Carole Lombard and John Barrymore. Not massively funny, more like entertainingly ridiculous and clever, and Lombard and Barrymore are great and seem to be having a lot of fun with it. Not my favourite screwball, still very good.

 

[inva]

The Whispering Star
2015 post-Fukushima disaster film about a robot parcel courier directed by Sion Sono channeling a mix of Yasujirō Ozu and Chris Marker. Shot almost entirely in black and white except for a tiny amount in colour which I didn't understand the significance of I've got to admit, it's meditative and glacially slow as the courier Yoko Suzuki played by Megumi Kagurazaka does various domestic tasks around her tiny spacefaring house and occasionally delivers parcels over a timescale of years to scattered and lost human survivors (acted by residents of the locations, each representing a different planet, around Fukushima where it was filmed) of unnamed disasters. I liked Kagurazaka's performance, she brought a surprising charisma to a role that consisted in large part of staring blankly at stuff and I think the film relied on that a lot. Great sound design and equally good use of silence. The settings of empty countryside and decaying abandoned towns were really striking. Think I fell asleep at one point but probably didn't really miss anything, it's that kind of film, enjoyed it though!

 

[redsquirrel]

A few I’ve watched over the last week or so

The Phenix City Story - a slightly moralising but enjoyable noir based on a true story about locals fighting organised crime and corruption in their city. Decent performances from the cast none of whom I’d heard of.

Beware my Lovely. A noir taking on the theme of home invasion, set at Christmas and involving a kindly old lady. But no it’s not the Night of the Hunter. Ida Lupino hires a drifter; Robert Ryan to do some oddjobs around the house. However it turns out his initial simple-seeming demeanour is far more disturbing that first seems. Ryan is horribly convincing as the tortured and unstable Howard. The action unfolds over the day and the suspense is gripping - and genuinely unnerving - right up until the end.

Crossfire. Robert Ryan again as he and Robert Mitchum, two soldiers about to be demobbed, both influential among their peers, are questioned after the murder of a Jewish man. Prime suspect though is one of their buddies, and he can’t account for his whereabouts. Gloria Grahame pops up as a B-girl. A rather hard-hitting drama this with a powerful speech from one of the detectives about how the little acts of prejudice lead to greater ones - one still relevant today.

The Blue Dahlia. Alan Ladd has returned from the war and discovers his dipso wife is cheating on him with a nightclub owner. His wife is murdered, and he winds up entwined with the wife of the nightclub owner, Veronica Lake. Some good twists and turns right until the end in this Raymond Chandler script and a strong supporting role from William Hendrix as a shell shocked army buddy of Ladd.

This Gun For Hire. Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd again (apparently a good combo as the below 5 ft Lake didn’t tower over Ladd unlike some leading ladies) in an adaptation of a Graham Greene book - one of his entertainments I reckon. A gunman is double-crossed by his client, an industrialist, and paid in stolen notes. He tracks him down to LA, with the help of Ladd, who he meets on the train who also happens to be the girlfriend of the cop assigned to the case and hired to work in the night club owned by the industrialist, who would be played by Steven Fry in a contemporary remake. Some good noir tropes including “chase across the railroad yards”.

Hells Island. A colour noir if that’s not a contradiction - one word review is “shit”. Anyway a sacked DA turned nightclub bouncer is recruited to retrieve a ruby from
a Caribbean island, intriguingly stolen by the woman who jilted him. A decent sounding setup, but boringly executed. The colour saturation, while appropriate to the tropical location, felt far too lively for the subject matter. Plenty of better noirs than this.

Kiss me Deadly. Ralph Meeker is a frankly rather unlikeable cheap PI doing seedy divorce cases with his secretary, often getting the evidence via entrapment. In a brilliant opening scene he picks up a hitchhiker, escaped from the asylum, who is scared for her life. Shortly before she is recaptured and killed, she asks him to remember her. There follows a number of twists and turns as you’d expect it’s a hell of a ride and really enjoyable. The final scene is much homaged in cinema, and directly pinched by Spielberg for Raiders of the lost ark.

Some great flicks there Elpenor.
If you're looking for other colour noirs there's A Kiss Before Dying and Leave Her to Heaven.
And for Phil Karlson (director of Hell's Island and The Phenix City Story) check out his Kansas City Confidential and 5 Against the House. if you have not already seen them.

 

[The39thStep]

Some great flicks there Elpenor.
If you're looking for other colour noirs there's A Kiss Before Dying and Leave Her to Heaven.
And for Phil Karlson (director of Hell's Island and The Phenix City Story) check out his Kansas City Confidential and 5 Against the House. if you have not already seen them.

I'm about a third way through this book Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir by Foster Hirsch and its fascinating

 

[Sue]

Some great flicks there Elpenor.
If you're looking for other colour noirs there's A Kiss Before Dying and Leave Her to Heaven.
And for Phil Karlson (director of Hell's Island and The Phenix City Story) check out his Kansas City Confidential and 5 Against the House. if you have not already seen them.

Or Desert Fury with a v young Burt Lancaster and a slightly unexpected gay subplot.

 

[redsquirrel]

Or Desert Fury with a v young Burt Lancaster and a slightly unexpected gay subplot.

Oh not heard of/seen that one will need to check it out. Thanks

 

[Sue]

Oh not heard of/seen that one will need to check it out. Thanks

Saw it at the Cinema Museum quite recently. Suspect it's pretty unknown tbh.

 

[T & P]

Extraction II. I like action genre films, and actually reasonably enjoyed the first Extraction, but this is like John Wick on speed, and not in a good way.

 

[LeytonCatLady]

The first two episodes of Red Dwarf.

 

[inva]

Born Yesterday
Romantic comedy from 1950 directed by George Cukor. Based on a play and felt very stagey. Judy Holliday's performance in the lead is by far the highlight of an otherwise pretty flat and patronising film.

 

[LeytonCatLady]

EPS 3 and 4 of Red Dwarf. (3, Lister wants an evening with Kochanski's hologram which will mean switching off Rimmer, who refuses, so Lister decides to sit the chef exam which will allow him to outrank Rimmer if successful. 4, Lister discovers he's been immortalised as God in the cat Bible.

 

[Idris2002]

I forgot to mention it at the time, but the other week I watched the Michael Winner version of Death on the Nile, with Peter Ustinov as Poirot, and the likes of David Niven and Angela Lansbury backing him up.

David Suchet is usually considered the definitive on-screen Hercules P. but his Poirot is basically "Poirot as Tragic Figure", while Ustinov's approach is much more "See the Ultimate Detective At Work".

It all works very well, considering - worth a look if you're at a loose end.

 

[T & P]

Rewatched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Stands very well to repeat viewings. The chemistry between Cage and Pascal is palpable, and the latter in particular clearly had a whale of a time filming it.

 

[LeytonCatLady]

Red Dwarf, the first two episodes of Series 2.

 

[LeytonCatLady]

Thanks for the Memory and Stasis Leak from Red Dwarf, Series 2. (TFTM, Lister gives Rimmer 8 months of his memory because he feels sorry for him on hearing about his lack of a love life, but his intended kindness backfires! SL, they attempt to travel back into the past to warn the crew of the radiation leak that wiped everyone out).

 

[redsquirrel]

A whole bunch of Peter Bogdanovich films to coincide with his Melbourne Cinematheque season

Targets - I watched this a bit ago, and it stands up to a second viewing.

The Last Picture Show - As good as it is made out to be, Bogdanovich brilliantly captures the melancholy and disappointment of the characters, and gets top notch performances out of just about every actor, Ben Johnson is great.

What's Up Doc - Not the first time I've seen this, but just as wonderful as ever, O'Neal is excellent as the straight man. Great wordplay, well done, smart slapstick and just very silly. It does live up to the great screwball comedies of the 30s/40s, I don't know how anyone could not crack a smile from it.

Paper Moon - The last film in what is generally considered Bogdanovich brilliant start, O'Neal again turning in a good performance, the blend of drama and comedy is balanced excellently.

They All Laughed - revisiting the style of What's Up Doc? moved from San Francisco to New York, while not quite as sharp I think this is a considerably underrated Bogdanovich movie.

Saint Jack - Ben Gazzara is a pimp in Singapore in the 70s who befriends Englishman Denholm Elliot. Really great. I've not been outside the airport but it feels like a film that really captures its time and place. While stylistically not Bogdanovich what is considered Bogdanovich fare his ability to work with actors comes through. Gazzara is outstanding, his performance alone would make this something to check out but the whole film is well made, intelligent and really quite moving.

Noises Off - Film adaptation of the play about a play that fall apart. Again going down the the screwball/farce path. But not quite working this time, perhaps because screwball and farce are different things and in shifting this from the UK to the US it loses something in translation. Caine does not quite convince as the director of the ill-fated play. Watchable but not something to search out.

At Long Last Love - Another one of the New Hollywood 70s musicals that were critical and commercial failures, in the vein of New York, New York and One From the Heart. Bogdanovich has his characters fall in and out of love to Cole Porter songs. It was absolutely savaged at the time, in part because none of the actors which are particularly good singers or dancers (preceding Allen's use of similar limitations in Everyone Says I Love You), a criticism that seems to miss the wood for the trees. Yes Burt Reynolds is not the next Fred Astaire but that's the point. The whole film is artificial, and while it is definitely not in the same class as New York, New York like One From the Heart it has it moments and is at the very minimum an interesting failure.

I'd liked to have seen Like Squirrel's to Nuts but still no commercial release for the revised version.

 

[inva]

Days
2020 film directed by Tsai Ming-Liang. The second I've seen of his following Goodybe Dragon Inn which I think is one of my favourite films, this is the same ultra slow and sparse style and has similar concerns of loneliness, longing and deterioration. The LGBT theme which is really a minor sideplot in Goodbye Dragon Inn is much more central in Days as it follows ('follows' is maybe too dramatic, more like 'looks at') two characters whose lives are remote from one another, intersect, and then diverge again. Although I found Tsai's extreme style of static camera positions and excrutiatingly long takes had less impact this time round it still worked once I got into the right mindset for it and it produces some really striking images. Really effective use of sound too.

 

[redsquirrel]

Drowning by Number - In 4K UHD, my Favourite Greenaway, the black humour, strange games (in all senses) are great and Barnard Hill gives a wonderful performance. Even if you're not a Greenaway fan the quality of this version really brings the beauty of the film home, the colours, light etc is fantastic and makes it worth checking out.

 

[Elpenor]

A whole bunch of Peter Bogdanovich films to coincide with his Melbourne Cinematheque season

Targets - I watched this a bit ago, and it stands up to a second viewing.

The Last Picture Show - As good as it is made out to be, Bogdanovich brilliantly captures the melancholy and disappointment of the characters, and gets top notch performances out of just about every actor, Ben Johnson is great.

What's Up Doc - Not the first time I've seen this, but just as wonderful as ever, O'Neal is excellent as the straight man. Great wordplay, well done, smart slapstick and just very silly. It does live up to the great screwball comedies of the 30s/40s, I don't know how anyone could not crack a smile from it.

Paper Moon - The last film in what is generally considered Bogdanovich brilliant start, O'Neal again turning in a good performance, the blend of drama and comedy is balanced excellently.

They All Laughed - revisiting the style of What's Up Doc? moved from San Francisco to New York, while not quite as sharp I think this is a considerably underrated Bogdanovich movie.

Saint Jack - Ben Gazzara is a pimp in Singapore in the 70s who befriends Englishman Denholm Elliot. Really great. I've not been outside the airport but it feels like a film that really captures its time and place. While stylistically not Bogdanovich what is considered Bogdanovich fare his ability to work with actors comes through. Gazzara is outstanding, his performance alone would make this something to check out but the whole film is well made, intelligent and really quite moving.

Noises Off - Film adaptation of the play about a play that fall apart. Again going down the the screwball/farce path. But not quite working this time, perhaps because screwball and farce are different things and in shifting this from the UK to the US it loses something in translation. Caine does not quite convince as the director of the ill-fated play. Watchable but not something to search out.

At Long Last Love - Another one of the New Hollywood 70s musicals that were critical and commercial failures, in the vein of New York, New York and One From the Heart. Bogdanovich has his characters fall in and out of love to Cole Porter songs. It was absolutely savaged at the time, in part because none of the actors which are particularly good singers or dancers (preceding Allen's use of similar limitations in Everyone Says I Love You), a criticism that seems to miss the wood for the trees. Yes Burt Reynolds is not the next Fred Astaire but that's the point. The whole film is artificial, and while it is definitely not in the same class as New York, New York like One From the Heart it has it moments and is at the very minimum an interesting failure.

I'd liked to have seen Like Squirrel's to Nuts but still no commercial release for the revised version.

Another superb summary, I do value your posts when you watch a season of a director or actor, they are always informative and, for me anyway, they often open new strands of cinema, be it a genre or period I don’t know much about or a different directors oeuvre to explore.

I picked up The Last Picture Show on dvd a while ago, I must give it a watch

 

[redsquirrel]

Another superb summary, I do value your posts when you watch a season of a director or actor, they are always informative and, for me anyway, they often open new strands of cinema, be it a genre or period I don’t know much about or a different directors oeuvre to explore.

I picked up The Last Picture Show on dvd a while ago, I must give it a watch

Ta. Really miss having somewhere which will run that type of season. You do get extra insights into the work watching them in succession.
I also watched the films in Guerra, Bresson, Tony Leung, Monroe and Lancaster seasons the Melbourne Cinematheque ran and need to summarise those.

And very much looking forward to their French Crime 1945-1960 season some real classics there

 

[May Kasahara]

Last weekend's instalment of educating my teen in the classics: The Long Good Friday. Hadn't seen it for ages myself and although I had remembered its overall brilliance, I was delighted to rediscover so many amazing details that had slipped from memory. 10/10 (again).

Last night I watched Sleepy Hollow with my 11yo. Again, hadn't seen it for years and was delighted to find it just as thrilling and entertaining as I remembered. She loved it too