What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Guybrush]

I'm game for Welcome to the Dollhouse. Loved Happiness and a film about a girl's awkward upbringing will be easy to sell to the other half

If you liked Happiness, I'm pretty sure you'd like Welcome to the Dollhouse too

[Guybrush]

Today I saw Benny's Video:



It is a fairly sterile and bleak german drama movie from 1992 by Michael Haneke that tells the story of a psychopathic teenager whose obsession with films and filming things might be a metaphor for his detachment to human nature. It's also about his parents who, without spoiling too much, eventually have to deal with their son's misdeeds.

It is occasionally an uncomfortable watch, even right from the start as the movie opens with a real movie of a pig getting killed with a bolt gun. This is of course one of Benny's home videos. Later violence is sparse and happens off-screen, but there's something about how there's no creepy music, there's no narration, little camera movement. We're just flies on the wall quietly watching the life of this psychopath. There's no rush and scenes are often quite long. It's like a quiet nightmare. Really, kudos to Haneke for the clinical way this movie is put together. The way he shoots his scenes and put this movie together definitely creates an uncomfortable mood.

While Haneke seems very proficient, it unfortunately doesn't make for a very entertaining watch. In a sense, it feels like a film students film. It might be interesting to analyse from a methodical standpoint. But as someone looking for entertainment, I would prefer the clumsy poetry of a Von Trier movie or just something a bit faster paced.



I haven't watched much Haneke yet, but I did like (and prefer) The Piano Teacher.

[Marie Monday]

Welcome to the Dollhouse is fucking great. Like guybrush says, it's wonderful how it's simultaneuously so over the top and at the same time the most real depiction of early teenage misery

Also the bit with the band of kids playing in the garage is fantastic and somehow has become a vital part of my views on amateur music

[Guybrush]

Also the bit with the band of kids playing in the garage is fantastic and somehow has become a vital part of my views on amateur music

It's the most I've laughed watching a movie in a long time. Their instruments are like a clarinet, a synth and a drumkit that is brilliantly funny.

Last time I saw this was about 20 years ago, so I figured it was time for a rewatch; Sam Raimi's Darkman:



I didn't actually like it that much the first time I watched it, but I thought perhaps I'd appreciate it more this time around.

The premise is kinda cool. You have this Robocop-ish start where he gets all fucked up by the bad guys. He survives, but becomes a homeless, vigilante burn victim wrapped in bandages. His super power is being super emotional (including rage) and, because he's also is a scientist working on skin grafts, he makes super realistic masks so he can impersonate others. Never mind that he is played by Liam Neeson who's a tall guy with some very prominent features (honk, honk) .

The movie has good casting in Neeson and Frances McDormand. They both perform well, especially Neeson's tormented protagonist. Unfortunately, the movie and titular character never get quite as epic as the poster / cover art suggests. There's also a lot of wonky green screens and the big action scenes aren't all that interesting, even though he's hanging from a helicopter like supercop at some point.

Raimi has fun direction at times, but this movie feels overly ambitious compared to the end result. It's still passably entertaining and worth checking out for the curious.

[Janszoon]

@Guybrush I saw Darkman in the theater as a 13 year old and loved it. I watched it again college, when I knew a lot more about Sam Raimi movies (and also knew who Neeson and McDormand were) and I'd say I liked it a little less but understood it a lot more.

[jadis]

I doubt that Darkman or Spiderman or any of that would be up my alley but Raimi's Simple Plan (1998) is a really beautiful film. Broke my bleeding heart!

 

[jadis]

Today I saw Benny's Video:



It is a fairly sterile and bleak german drama movie from 1992 by Michael Haneke that tells the story of a psychopathic teenager whose obsession with films and filming things might be a metaphor for his detachment to human nature. It's also about his parents who, without spoiling too much, eventually have to deal with their son's misdeeds.

It is occasionally an uncomfortable watch, even right from the start as the movie opens with a real movie of a pig getting killed with a bolt gun. This is of course one of Benny's home videos. Later violence is sparse and happens off-screen, but there's something about how there's no creepy music, there's no narration, little camera movement. We're just flies on the wall quietly watching the life of this psychopath. There's no rush and scenes are often quite long. It's like a quiet nightmare. Really, kudos to Haneke for the clinical way this movie is put together. The way he shoots his scenes and put this movie together definitely creates an uncomfortable mood.

While Haneke seems very proficient, it unfortunately doesn't make for a very entertaining watch. In a sense, it feels like a film students film. It might be interesting to analyse from a methodical standpoint. But as someone looking for entertainment, I would prefer the clumsy poetry of a Von Trier movie or just something a bit faster paced.



I haven't watched much Haneke yet, but I did like (and prefer) The Piano Teacher.

I love La Pianiste. I think he absolutely nailed the darkest pathologies of the world of classical music (I like the French title cause it refers to her obviously frustrated aspiration of being a concert pianist) 

Benny's Video too. I love every frame. The scenes in Egypt are devastating.

I think your review of this Austrian film is very perceptive. I'd say the video thing is more than a metaphor in the sense that it's completely central to the world inhabited by the characters. On me it had a very powerful effect but everyone experiences these things differently

[DJChameleon]

It's the most I've laughed watching a movie in a long time. Their instruments are like a clarinet, a synth and a drumkit that is brilliantly funny.

Last time I saw this was about 20 years ago, so I figured it was time for a rewatch; Sam Raimi's Darkman:

I need to re-watch this. I feel like I was waaaay too young to understand it when I first saw it. Similar to Dark City. I need to re-watch that as well.

[Guybrush]

I need to re-watch this. I feel like I was waaaay too young to understand it when I first saw it. Similar to Dark City. I need to re-watch that as well.

I'd say both are flawed movies with interesting premises 🤔 Dark City is the better one of the two, I think.

[Guybrush]

Just saw this one:



Michael Mann's Manhunter from 1986.

It's pretty good and has some interesting trivia attached to it. It's a serious thriller about a retired FBI profiler, Will Graham, being pulled back in to investigate the up and coming serial killer nicknamed The Tooth Fairy. Along the way, Will seeks out help from his nemesis, the incarcerated Dr. Lecther.

This is the first film adaptation of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lechter books. Specifically, this is an adaptation of Red Dragon, a book which was also used for the 2002 adaptation of the same name. Lechter isn't portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in this movie, but by Brian Cox, which is a little strange. He does an okay job, although not quite as creepy as Hopkins.

Supposedly, directing duties were offered to David Lynch who thought the script too violent. It went to Michael Mann instead who seems to have taken the job very seriously, including spending time with FBI profilers and taking some inspiration from his many years correspondence with convicted murderer Dennis Wayne Wallace. The end result is smart and exciting and not actually all that violent. Rather it is a slow burn like some of the later movie adaptations. I'd rate it:



If you're going to watch the Hannibal series - unless you read Thomas Harris, this movie might actually be a good start as it gives a rough background for Will Graham and Hannibal Lechter.

[Lexi Darling]

Wee Sing in Sillyville (1989)

Another week, another slice of children's schlock, though this one I actually grew up with. I don't think I'd seen this since around 1995-96 or so, it was a real blast from the past.

I'm actually kind of unsure of how well-known this series is, but if you're not familiar, it was a series of VHS "films" released in the 80s and 90s. My sister and I had at least four or five of them, and this one I think was my favorite as a kid. The videos were hour long musical romps featuring a bunch of public domain folk songs, children's songs, etc.

My sincere thanks to the man of the house for humoring me with my request to watch this, when I first approached him with the idea he looked at me like a deer in the headlights, as he was not familiar with this or the series. But roasting kids' media is a pastime of ours, and we ended up having a great evening. It all came back to me once I started watching it, I remembered nearly every scene. I must have been around 4 or 5 when in first saw this.

The plot revolves around two hapless children who are sucked into a magical world where four different colored tribes of equally whimsically obnoxious characters all hate each other and they must learn to overcome their prejudices and work together, or something. These tribes all sing traditional songs in pretty corny musical numbers.

I would not recommend watching this unless you actually did so as a kid or you are highly inebriated, which applied to myself and Mr. Waffles, respectively. I'm sure to any sober adult with no connection to it it would seem like a freakish 80s fever dream. But to me, it was a fun relic of my childhood to revisit and seeing the mister's incredulous reactions was a great way to do that.

[Guybrush]

I doubt that Darkman or Spiderman or any of that would be up my alley but Raimi's Simple Plan (1998) is a really beautiful film. Broke my bleeding heart!

Never seen this one 🤔 thanks for the tip!

Last movie I saw was this one:



The Korean drama movie Secret Sunshine from 2007 by director Lee Chan-Dong.

I don't want to spoil it but, it's a drama about grief and tackling it and the role religion can play in that. It has some very insightful criticism regarding faith and forgiveness that have been bugging me for years, but that I rarely see come up.

It is superbly acted by the lead in a role that seems extremely demanding. Those with short attention spans who don't like dramas probably wouldn't like this, but I found it very engaging.

[Guybrush]

Saw this thing:



It's not bad, yet there's plenty not to like about it.

If you're also a little late to this, you may wonder WHAT it is. It's actually a Forgotten Realms fantasy movie centered on the Sword coast and Neverwinter that features some usual D&D tropes along with Faerun specifics like elk tribe barbarians, harpers, Elminster, Szass Tam, etc.

The good is it's fairly entertaining throughout. The actors are okay and it was fun to see Hugh Grant back on the screen and in a role that was fun and kinda suited him.

The bad is it feels like Disney made a D&D movie like they might have made a Marvel movie. While the story has some surprising and imaginative turns that I enjoyed, it does seem predictable in its basic narrative structure and a little superficial. It's more Princess Bride than Lord of the Rings.

To me, it doesn't feel like quite the right tone for a Forgotten Realms movie, but then again you probably can't treat it like it's early seasons of Game of Thrones either.

At least it's fun and I enjoyed it a lot more than the latest Ant-Man movie. If you're an old D&D/Forgotten Realms nerd like me, just don't take it seriously and you'll probably enjoy it.

[Lexi Darling]

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

Watched this the other night at the mister's request. He thought it would be important for us to watch together; as much as we kind of appropriate very heteronormative gender roles in our own relationship, we both strongly identify with LGBT identity. He first watched it when he was a teenager, but I had never seen it.

I didn't know much about this movie going in honestly. I remember seeing it in the video rental store in the early 2000s and thinking it was probably one of those corny turn-of-the-millennium teen comedies. I became aware that it was focused on gay issues at some point, but I was mostly going in blind.

It was a great experience, I really liked that it was ultimately positive and uplifting in spite of its generally heavy subject matter that hits home for a lot of us LGBT people. I really did almost tear up at the end. As someone who resented the masculine gender roles pushed on me from a young age (and in my case eventually came to terms with it through veering to the extreme in the other direction and embracing hyperfemininity, lol) I really think the message of this movie is important. Not everything in it works, and it's got some stuff that was a product of the time, but ultimately I don't see it as taking the tragic horror of conversion therapy lightly, rather illustrating how fucking ridiculous enforced gender and sexual conformity is and always has been in a satisfyingly cathartic way.

I'm not a lesbian, but I think anyone who is LGBT, queer, GNC, acespec, or just desires to be true to themselves can find something to relate to in this movie. My only regret is that the mister didn't make me watch it sooner.

[Psy-Fi]

The Satan Bug (1965)

60's sci-fi/crime/suspense thriller about a deadly virus created in a top-secret lab which goes missing after a scientist at the lab is murdered. Starring George Maharis along with a cast of familiar stars of the time like Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews and Ed Asner, among several others.