What classics did you see last week ? (22 Dec - 28 Dec 2019)

What classics did you see last week ? (22 Dec - 28 Dec 2019) Jan 1, 2020 8:50:54 GMT mikef6 and HirundoRustica like this

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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 1, 2020 8:50:54 GMT

Jan 1, 2020 5:02:50 GMT morrisondylanfan said:

Happy New Year COE! Wishing you and family all the best for the year,and one of my most memorable trips to the cinema in the 2000's is seeing Crouching Tiger on the big screen with a family friend. Due to having fairly crap reading skills at the time, they very kindly quietly read the subs to me,as I became enchanted by the film. Speaking of enchanted,how did you find A Monster Calls to be? I found it to be a beautiful movie,with this being what I wrote in 2017:

For her lone non-franchise role of 2016, Felicity Jones gives a brilliant, drained performance as the mum, whose frail grasp on life Jones uses in open body language to show the love she has for Conor keeps her fighting. Taking the roots of the film at only 14 years old, Lewis MacDougall gives an outstanding performance as Conor,with MacDougall giving Conor a mix of maturity in caring for his mum, and a burning ball of rage of being unable to improve the situation. Each entering as outsiders, Sigourney Weaver gives an earthy performance as Grandma, whilst Liam Neeson towers above the house in a performance deep with gravitas as the Monster.

Completing the novel after author Siobhan Dowd died from breast cancer,the debut screenplay by Patrick Ness beautifully balances dark Fantasy with a heart-felt family Drama. Separating the encounters between Conor and the Monster into segments, Ness makes each story the Monster tells reveal aspects of Conor that he does not want to face. Respectfully treating mums battle with cancer,Ness avoids any drop of Melodrama to keep the struggle that the family are facing grounded,from the uncomfortable silences of Conor and his mum having difficult relationships with grandma and Conor's dad, (played by a very good Toby Kebbell) to Conor having to face his nightmare of seeing his mum get released from the pain.

Painting the Monsters tales on the screen,director J.A. Bayona and cinematographer Oscar Faura take each tale off the page with richly macabre, Eastern European puppet-inspired animation, backed by an icy score from Fernando Velázquez. Continuing on themes shown in 2012's powerful The Impossible, Bayona seamlessly blends a stylised poetic quality with a dazzling emotional rawness, with the meetings between Conor and the Monster being covered in fading reds and browns. For his major theme of the torn family unit, Bayona elegantly uses extended takes and close-ups on half faces to capture the bond between Conor and his mum,as Conor learns the meanings of the monster calls.
10.

Happy New Year to you too, morrisondylanfan.

I think I hired Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon out from the video store the first time I saw it. I hadn't really watched that subtitled movies beforehand, but this one caught my attention. In recent years I've been watching a lot more subtitled things (movies and shows). I think I've gotten a bit better at keeping up with the subtitles onscreen, though occasionally I miss a line or two (it doesn't help when they decide the font they're going to use for subtitles blends in with the backgrounds they're appearing over - choose a better font colour, people!). Still, it beats when TV shows have characters reading their phones and all there is is this tiny text message and it's so small I can barely see it. I either have to get up from the chair and take a closer look or 'pause' it (apparently my eyesight isn't what it used to be).

I agree with you regarding A Monster Calls. It was indeed quite a beautiful film. I think I've made it quite clear in other posts of mine that I'm not the biggest fan when it comes to children characters in shows/movies. While there have been exceptions, on the whole I find kid characters to be pretty annoying. However, sometimes films are made that are marketed as a 'kid movie' but are in fact quite 'adult' with the issues they explore. This movie did that. It took a very serious subject (one my family has experience with) and approached it in a respectful manner whilst also having these fantastical elements. Yes, Conor got angry at times and felt a bit 'bratty' on occasion, but in this instance his behaviour was at least understandable. So many movies write kid characters as annoying for no good reason (either that or they write them in a way they think people will like...but are so very mistaken).

I appreciate movies like this who don't 'sugarcoat' things. They address some harsh realities and I think these are the sorts of 'kid movies' that there should be more of. Felicity Jones was very powerful in the role. It's a shame she didn't get more recognition for it. Playing a victim of cancer isn't just about having a shaved head and looking sick, it's also about how a person acts - and Felicity delivered.

Toby Kebbell is an actor I've seen in other things, and I think he's quite good. It's just a shame that quite a few of the things I've seen him in either haven't been good at all (2015's Fantastic Four, 2016's Ben-Hur) or he's been CGI'd over (the more recent Planet of the Apes films - though he was very good in those ones). Hopefully he manages to score more movies like A Monster Calls where he can actually be *seen* as himself and the movie's of a good quality.

I've always liked Liam Neeson in most of what I've seen him in, and this was no exception. I was surprised by the humour that came from the Monster. And it wasn't 'silly' humour either, it was more dry/sarcastic - and all the more effective because of it, I thought.

This really does seem like an underrated/underappreciated movie. Thank you for your thoughts on it. Hope you have a good 2020.