What Films did You Watch Last Week (11/07 - 17/07) CLOSED

MINE

Jerry and Marge Go Large (2022 David Frankel) - 6.5/10

Kanal (1957 Andrzej Wajda) - 7/10

The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022 Loren Bouchard & Bernard Derriman) - 5.5/10

End of Sentence (2019 Elfar Adalsteins) - 6.5/10

The Proud Ones (1956 Robert D. Webb) - 7/10

Alien Nation (1988 Graham Baker) - 6/10


Television

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 1 (2000) - 8.5/10













Film Awards

BEST PICTURE - The Proud Ones
BEST ACTOR - John Hawkes (End of Sentence)
BEST ACTRESS - Annette Bening (Jerry and Marge Go Large)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Jeffrey Hunter (The Proud Ones)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Sarah Bolger (End of Sentence)
BEST DIRECTOR - Andrzej Wajda (Kanal)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - Kanal
BEST SCORE - The Proud Ones

None of yours this week. Mine:

Hell Night (Tom DeSimone, 1981)

Boring little horror movie that is only notable for it being Linda Blair's return to horror after the Exorcist and for being shot mostly with candlelight (giving a very Barry Lyndon feel to the thing). Other than that it's mostly a tedious watch. 2/10


Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

Over the years I've given Godard several chances and just never got him. I didn't care for Breathless, hated Weekend and felt Alphaville was a chore to sit through. This was intended to be my last chance with him, and I went into it figuring I wouldn't like it... well, much to my surprise, I did. Not only did I really like this one, I honestly think it's one of the best movies I've seen thus far this year. It's a clever little play on classic noir, being far more comedic in how it plays with expectations and Godard's usually annoying (to me) bit of trying to alienate the viewer actually come off as clever here. 9/10

Street Mobster (Kinji Fukasaku, 1972)

Entertaining Yakuza flick by the always reliable Kinji Fukasaku, that said it feels like a dress rehearsal for his much better Battles Without Honor or Humanity films. 6/10

Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)

I... I honestly don't even know what to say about this one. It's long, it's slow and not much actually happens... but it's stunning. Visually it's beautiful. The shots are brilliant. The performances grand. I've heard people jokingly sum it up as "Three men walk in the woods. One is nervous and the other too are way too easy going about it" and honestly that's pretty accurate. It just works. 10/10

My Bloody Valentine (George Mihalka, 1981)

A gem of an 80s slasher that I somehow missed out on despite being a huge horror fan. Lot of fun, some clever kills and not as terrible of performances as one sometimes sees. 7/10

The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)

Finally got a chance to watch this. This is one hell of a long movie (at almost three and a half hours) but I felt it was one I needed to do in one sitting and I'm glad I did. I know opinions on it are fairly divisive, but I fall into the group that thinks this is one of Scorsese's best (probably my fifth favorite of his films). It's a wonderful late career movie as while it stands on its own, it feels like he's been leading up to it throughout his work. It deals with his many usual themes (crime, guilt, honor, loyalty, religion) and tells a fascinating tale. The digital de-aging is at times impressive and others looks like your viewing a video game cutscene (particularly with de Niro). That stands out as the film's biggest fault to me, as the actors just don't quite look right (and given that most of them are in their late 70s don't always move like someone in their 30s or 40s during those periods). That said, it's a wonderful swansong to the gangster epics of Scorsese's career and I love that he got to reunite with so many of his "classic" actors. 9/10

The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971)

An adaptation of nine stories from Boccaccio's "Decameron". Stories are pretty silly and overall a very fun watch. To be avoided by those offended by blasphemies and sexual comedies as all the stories contain them. My personal favorite involved a man who had committed murder, rape, theft and various other crimes conning a priest during his death bed confession and achieving sainthood. 8/10

I do the same thing.