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

Cocaine Bear

Elizabeth Banks directs the best film about a killer bear since Grizzly. And it's intentionally bloody hilarious. Cast is magnificent; too many to name - lots of familiar quality actors giving it their very best.

Maybe some viewers might be a bit down on this being one of Ray Liotta's last roles but am guessing he would have got the humour of it.

Wicked fun!
 
Melody (1971)
Released in the UK entitled S.W.A.L.K.
A touching, delightful comedy of first love starring Jack Wild, Mark Lester and Tracy Hyde.
Directed by Waris Hussein - director of the first Doctor Who serial - and script by Alan Parker.
Nice Bee Gees soundtrack.
I grew up and lived around some of the film's locations..
Please to say that pubs The Pineapple (Lambeth North) and The Ship (Kennington Road) are still around today..
I watched this on DVD ...
But I've noticed that it will be showing on Talking Picture TV this Thursday @ 12.50pm..

 
I’ve watched some Sean Baker films over the last week. I had seen The Florida Project a while ago though that could do with a rewatch. Anora I caught last year and loved.

Tangerine, the one filmed on iPhones is by far the best. Incredibly funny throughout and full of energy, and a lot of the screwball comedy elements seen in Anora are present.

Red Rocket I found quite depressing given its subject matter (grooming) though. But very good performances, ably directed. At times I found myself almost rooting for the throughly unlikeable antagonist. And it felt a convincing look at life in a small American town.

Starlet was last nights choice. I can see Reno has enthused about this one. A charming tale of friendship and loneliness, as a young porn actress interacts with an older woman. Perhaps seeking a relationship that isn’t contractional and transactional (shades of Anora here perhaps particularly the ending how Ani responds to the gift). A lot quieter than the other two but no worse for it.

I see shades of Mike Leigh - though with more dreamy shots of sunshine, shining a light on an unseen America - in his work. The social realism and the humanistic portrayal of his characters, and the reluctance to apply moral judgments, particularly given his films focus on people at the margins of society - sex workers. At times there’s the intensity of something like Uncut Gems too.
 
Conclave over the last couple of nights. Very easy on the eye, Fiennes doing his Fiennes thing impeccably, fun skullduggery. Final twist aside, the Kabul cardinal’s emergence as a dark horse felt rather implausible, especially before he’d had the chance to rebuke Islamophobia. By the logic of the rest of the film, as a random newcomer he wouldn’t have had any kind of voting bloc or clique behind him. Maybe it all made much more sense in the book.
 
Silas Loom said:
Conclave over the last couple of nights. Very easy on the eye, Fiennes doing his Fiennes thing impeccably, fun skullduggery. Final twist aside, the Kabul cardinal’s emergence as a dark horse felt rather implausible, especially before he’d had the chance to rebuke Islamophobia. By the logic of the rest of the film, as a random newcomer he wouldn’t have had any kind of voting bloc or clique behind him. Maybe it all made much more sense in the book.
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I rarely care about plausibility when something is entertaining enough. And this was so entertaining.
 
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Silas Loom said:
I just want the in-universe logic to hold. I’d be fine if the boring reality was that conclaves were invariably decided in a drunken game of Twister.
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Do you think about that sort of thing while it’s happening or when you’re digesting it? I only tend to notice plot holes and other absurdities when in digestion phase.
 
Boy Kills World. An utterly mental and rather enjoyable dystopian action comedy film with surprisingly good production value and casting talent, including several award winning A-list actors.

It’s too mad to summarise but suffice to say there are themes from Kill Bill, Kingsmen, or Kick-Ass among others. And with a voiceover provided by the actor voicing Sterling Archer off the Archer adult animation show, and sounding just like him.

Silly as fuck, and as equally enjoyable.
 
Leon The Professional and I didn't finish it. Full of cliches: he's hardened by life but a child (always a child or a woman) finds his Achilles heel; you know he's ~different~ because he has some precise and pedantic habit (two cartons of milk from the shop). I only watched about half the film but I can tell how it ends already (his hard exterior will soften and he'll die but he'll save her! or maybe he will nearly die but barely survive). A lot of style over substance, love how they matched her Frenchie look to his Frenchie accent - yes I know it's supposed to be Italian. And all that could still work.

But it doesn't work because:
1) the writing - at least the dialogue - sucked; e.g. 11-year-old girl whose family got butchered five minutes ago is making ponderous conversation with deep insights.
2) the whole sexy child thing feels very fucking weird in 2025. It's the full Lolita: sucking on lollipops and cigarettes, rolling around on the bed, dancing suggestively, crop tops, etc. It could have made sense given her background if it was handled in a subtler manner but was very obviously exploitative and awkward.

I honestly don't see why this film is so feted. Everyone is wrong.
 
furluxor said:
Leon The Professional and I didn't finish it. Full of cliches: he's hardened by life but a child (always a child or a woman) finds his Achilles heel; you know he's ~different~ because he has some precise and pedantic habit (two cartons of milk from the shop). I only watched about half the film but I can tell how it ends already (his hard exterior will soften and he'll die but he'll save her! or maybe he will nearly die but barely survive). A lot of style over substance, love how they matched her Frenchie look to his Frenchie accent - yes I know it's supposed to be Italian. And all that could still work.

But it doesn't work because:
1) the writing - at least the dialogue - sucked; e.g. 11-year-old girl whose family got butchered five minutes ago is making ponderous conversation with deep insights.
2) the whole sexy child thing feels very fucking weird in 2025. It's the full Lolita: sucking on lollipops and cigarettes, rolling around on the bed, dancing suggestively, crop tops, etc. It could have made sense given her background if it was handled in a subtler manner but was very obviously exploitative and awkward.

I honestly don't see why this film is so feted. Everyone is wrong.
Click to expand...
It's definitely dated very badly.
 
Decided out of the blue to watch Get Out again tonight. As good if not better than the first time around. Certainly picked up on various details we missed in the first viewing. A brilliant film that not just stands up to repeated viewings, but gets better as you watch it again.
 
The Boy said:
Calvary (2014). Bleakly dark comedy about a priest who is told by someone in confession that he will kill him in a week. Brendan Gleeson is great, as usual. Chris o'dowd was more of a surprise. Aiden gillen can't even do his own accent.
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I watched this tonight,, having never heard of it until a few minutes before I started. Apparently it was pretty hyped at the time, but it all passed me by.

Anyway, it was brilliant and the quoted review sums it up perfectly. Gillen's accent was a real wtf moment for me :D
 
Fez909 said:
I watched this tonight,, having never heard of it until a few minutes before I started. Apparently it was pretty hyped at the time, but it all passed me by.

Anyway, it was brilliant and the quoted review sums it up perfectly. Gillen's accent was a real wtf moment for me :D
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Which streaming thingy is this on?
 
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