What films have you watched recently?

earwighoney

Philly_Q said: 

@earwighoney ;I get a weekend pass every year.  My brother discovered FrightFest before I did, if I remember right.  We didn't go to the very first one in 2000, we got tickets for individual films in 2001 and 2002, then from 2003 onwards it's been weekend passes all the way.  I just had to look on Wikipedia to remind myself of the history, it's amazing how much it's grown over the years, for better or worse...

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_FrightFest_Film_Festival

We've also been to all the Halloween all-nighters, which have turned into all-dayers the last few years, unfortunately - I used to enjoy the near-hallucinatory state of watching bad horror movies at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Highlights of this year?  Bearing in mind it's now 70+ films spread over 4 screens, and you can only see, at most, 25 of them, I probably missed some gems.  But these were all very good:

• What Keeps You Alive
• Tigers Are Not Afraid
• The Dark
• Incident in a Ghostland
• Summer of 84
• Killing God
• Upgrade
• Climax (if you're a fan of Gaspar Noe)

Thanks for the reply and for the recommendations, I'll read up reviews for them. 

The growth of the festival has been quite something.  How do you feel about the incredibly huge listings of films now?  I think it seemed a bit less daunting when the selection of films was a bit. 

Much respect to you for having a weekend pass since 2003!  It's been an ambition of mine to get a weekend pass and one year I will do it! 

Just looking at the FF wikipage and it's interesting to see names of films wwhich have become some of my all time favourite films, from the early days starting with Devil's Backbone, Frailty, Leslie Vernon and so on.  

earwighoney

The last film I saw was 'Ghost Stories', which is the cinematic adaptation of the play by the same name.  I've not seen the play but I was trying to imagine how the play would have worked as the screen adaptation was easily a lot more cinematic than other adaptations of films I have seen, Roman Polanski's Carnage being one of them.

The last film at the cinema I saw was 'Hereditary'.  Really hyped horror films can be divisive at times ('The Babadook' a possible example?), but I found a lot to enjoy in the film, the opening sequence in particular was a very interesting set piece. 

Kitsune

Last couple of films I've watched:

Goodbye Gemini
Les Frisson Des Vampires
Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Straight on Till Morning

Philly_Q

earwighoney said:

The growth of the festival has been quite something.  How do you feel about the incredibly huge listings of films now?  I think it seemed a bit less daunting when the selection of films was a bit. 

Much respect to you for having a weekend pass since 2003!  It's been an ambition of mine to get a weekend pass and one year I will do it! 

Just looking at the FF wikipage and it's interesting to see names of films wwhich have become some of my all time favourite films, from the early days starting with Devil's Backbone, Frailty, Leslie Vernon and so on.  

I think I'd be in the minority when I say that I don't really like the bigger selection of films.  I preferred it in the days when everyone was in the one screen and we all just watched everything.  It also meant we could have things like the Short Film Showcase (now relegated to the "Discovery" screens) and Andy Nyman's annual quiz (now gone altogether).

I think it's a bit contradictory.  The organisers make a big thing about having a weekend pass which guarantees you the same seat for the entire weekend, but at the same time they tell us how great it is that there are 40-odd extra films on three other (much smaller) screens.

To make matters worse, there's been a feeling in recent years that the best films aren't necessarily on the Main screen.  At best the allocation seems a bit arbitrary, at worst there's a suspicion that all the "mainstream" stuff ends up on the Main screen and anything a bit more interesting/challenging will now be on the Discovery screens.  There's now an inverse snobbery thing where some people feel they're too cool to be in the Main screen.  And it means two annual ticket scrambles, one for the weekend passes, then a few weeks later for the individual Discovery tickets.

Of course you can try to pick the "best" films, but that means having to read reviews, watch trailers etc which means you go into everything knowing too much about it (personally I prefer to know nothing!).  I don't like the feeling of watching a terrible film with the suspicion that I'm missing something good, but I don't mind watching a terrible film if there's no alternative and you know you can have fun slagging it off afterwards.

But as I say, I'm in the minority with that viewpoint....

earwighoney said:

The last film I saw was 'Ghost Stories', which is the cinematic adaptation of the play by the same name.  I've not seen the play but I was trying to imagine how the play would have worked as the screen adaptation was easily a lot more cinematic than other adaptations of films I have seen, Roman Polanski's Carnage being one of them.

The last film at the cinema I saw was 'Hereditary'.  Really hyped horror films can be divisive at times ('The Babadook' a possible example?), but I found a lot to enjoy in the film, the opening sequence in particular was a very interesting set piece. 

I haven't seen Ghost Stories or Hereditary yet.  I've heard good things about the former, less so about the latter although I'll definitely watch it.  I agree that the hyped films, the ones which get mainstream attention, often don't live up to expectations.  I wasn't a massive fan of The Babadook... it's certainly well made but I found both the mother and the boy very irritating... 

schrodinger1612

The Hunt (2012) Great film about a guy who is ostracised from his community after being falsely accused of molesting his best friend’s kid. Stellar performances all round. 8.5/10

vale

'la storia di piera' (1983). dir. marco ferreri.

hanna schygulla has been in my all time top half-dozen actresses for ages, since i saw rw fassbinders 'the marriage of maria braun' many years ago. anything she is in of his is worth viewing ('bitter tears of petra von kant', fassbinder again, another great one).

in this she plays a kind of feral manic-depressive nymphomaniac, the great marcello mastroianni (if you haven't heard of him go back to bed) plays her husband struggling to keep up with her, care for her, live with her (which drives him mad too), and a young isabelle huppert (all star cast) plays their daughter, who has her mother's hot crazy blood but some of her fathers perspective, so she is cursed with being crazy and being totally aware of it.

the plot is way too long and invloved to go into, and isn't really the main deal ayway. that just functions as a shifting context for what is essentially a character piece exploring this complex, loving, antagonistic, (occasionally incestuous) triangle of relationships as they age over a quarter century or so.

i really liked it, but then i'm biased because i will happily watch any of those actors in anything for a couple of hours and feel it was more than worth my attention investment.
critics will say the plot is kind of all over the place, which it totally is (if you are a plot person you will have a nervous breakdown). but if you can relax and accept that it doesn't really matter what the plot does, it just needs to disturb the water so the fish move around, you will be fine.

some of the incestuousy bits have attracted some neg reviews at imdb, but then some people can't handle that as a theme in any film under any circumstances. if it's essential to the plot (in this case i think it is) and not being presented in an graphically exploitative way or being used as the primary selling point to attract the wrong sort of people, i don't have a huge issue with it. in this case it is presented implicitly rather than explicitly. but trigger warning for some there.

it's utterly heartbreaking as you see schygulla's character (eugenia) struggle to live as the person she is in a time where women who where totally uninhibited and promiscuous ended up in jails or asylums, because society couldn't handle the threat they represented to the moral status quo.
and presented through the daughter's eyes (huppert as piera) even more harrowing. she knows, heart of hearts, that she is fully her mother's daughter, but she can also see what is in store for her if she accepts that self.

maybe watch it and make up your own mind.

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w300_and_h450_bestv2/36CACAvFr0jG4UnE2GrMacqODGa.jpg

boogieman

Logan Lucky. Full of almost unrecognisable stars: Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum, Seth McFarland, Dwight Yoakum among others. Clever and funny crime caper with an absolutely cracking soundtrack. It’s free on Amazon Prime at the moment and most definitely worth a watch. 

Fazer

Project Nim (2011) - documentary about a Chimpanzee, "Nim Chimpky", in the 1970s who was taken from his mother at birth and raised by a human family as an experiment.
The main part of the experiment was about linguistics and teaching him sign language, but also it's a compelling insight into nature/nurture, 1960s/70s idealism, and liberal values/worldview.
Highly recommended.

ICBM

Fazer said:

Project Nim (2011) - documentary about a Chimpanzee, "Nim Chimpky", in the 1970s who was taken from his mother at birth and raised by a human family as an experiment.
The main part of the experiment was about linguistics and teaching him sign language, but also it's a compelling insight into nature/nurture, 1960s/70s idealism, and liberal values/worldview.
Highly recommended.

It's actually quite disturbing, as to the way humans treat other intelligent animals - his treatment after he was put back into the 'system' was nothing short of imprisonment and torture.

I did wonder whether the experiment might have been more successful and less dangerous if they'd chosen a female - an adult male chimp is an extremely powerful, aggressive animal.

Fazer

I'm sure a full grown female chimp can still dispatch most humans, but yes, it wouldn't be the full 100% potential of the male.
Maybe there would have been other complications, like in this case Nim was hostile and competitive against the human males over the human females, if it was a female chimp it might have been more wanting to exert more dominance over the human females instead.

As well the way the discarded chimps were treated, what sticks with me most about the doc was the attitude of the humans in general; the naivety about nature vs nurture, that they thought they could raise it like a child, or even a fluffy little kitten.
The naivety and lack of respect for the truth about nature "red in tooth and claw".
On one hand they know it, but on the other there's this idealism in their heads: "if we just institute the right kinds of social programs, we can all live in peace and harmony".

mikeyrob73

Watched 12 Strong on my flight back from holiday, don’t bother with it, it’s a bit America,Fuck Yeah! 

Watched Supersonic on the flight out, it was decent, you kinda forget what a quick ascent to the top Oasis had. I’m off to watch Noel this evening 

Moominpapa

earwighoney said:

The last film I saw was 'Ghost Stories', which is the cinematic adaptation of the play by the same name.  I've not seen the play but I was trying to imagine how the play would have worked as the screen adaptation was easily a lot more cinematic than other adaptations of films I have seen,

@earwighoney ; I watched Ghost Stories last night and was wondering the same thing myself. I was quite surprised to hear it had been a stage play first, because it just seemed perfect for all the tricks a camera can play. Certainly enjoyed the film immensely.

ChuckManual

Jumanji (the new one)

I could be harsh about this film, but I watched it in the company of two 12 year-olds who laughed themselves silly at it - and that became infectious.

Citizen Kane it is not ...but viewed in the right circumstances (and company) it's a reasonable way to spend a couple of hours.

stickyfiddle

ChuckManual said:

Jumanji (the new one)

I could be harsh about this film, but I watched it in the company of two 12 year-olds who laughed themselves silly at it - and that became infectious.

Citizen Kane it is not ...but viewed in the right circumstances (and company) it's a reasonable way to spend a couple of hours.

I was super-cynical about it, but I watched it on a plane while ever so slightly pissed and laughed my socks off. It knows it's silly, and it owns it. 

Blueingreen

Scarface.  Can totally see why it's got a fantastic reputation from critics, fans and other directors.  Fantastic energy and invention and looks jaw-droppingly wonderful at times.  All the same, not quite my thing - too long, too over the top in places. 7/10 from me.

quarky

Hurricane - 6/10
About the Polish 303 Squadron during the Battle of Britain (or Bitwa dla Anglii). I quite enjoyed it despite the fact that the fight scenes were terrible (the planes seemed almost immobile) but the characters were interesting. Obviously a fair amount of fiction thrown in, but overall, not a bad film.

Squadron 303 - 5/10
About the Polish 303 Squadron during the Battle of Britain (or Bitwa dla Anglii). I quite enjoyed it despite the fact that the character development was terrible (I didn't really get any attachment to any of them) but the fight scenes were interesting. Obviously a fair amount of fiction thrown in, but overall, not a bad film.

Batman - The Dark Knight 8/10.
I forgot how good that film is. I didn't give it a fair viewing the first time I think because of all the hyper over Heath, but his performance *is* great. Coupled with a good story and good actors around him make for a great film. Made me realise though that I haven't actually seen the first film of that trilogy.

earwighoney

Philly_Q said:

 I haven't seen Ghost Stories or Hereditary yet.  I've heard good things about the former, less so about the latter although I'll definitely watch it.  I agree that the hyped films, the ones which get mainstream attention, often don't live up to expectations.  I wasn't a massive fan of The Babadook... it's certainly well made but I found both the mother and the boy very irritating... 

I agree about Babadook.  

@Philly_Q ;Have you seen 'A Quiet Place' btw?  Another film in the very hyped up modern horror films category.   

Bellycaster

Ghost Stories (Paul Whitehouse, Martin Freeman)

Very creepy and suspenseful, has some genuine scares in there and I haven't known many Horror films that have actually given me the chills recently.

You may or may not like the ending, but it is an explanation regardless of whether the viewer likes it or not. Having said that, if you just watch it for the 3 stories as stand alone entertainment, it is still scary and worth the watch.

I am pondering whether to watch "Winchester" or "The Night Eats the World" tonight?

schrodinger1612

Fargo (1996) I have seen this before but its genius shone through second time round. It’s about a guy in some kind of financial trouble, who orders his wife’s kidnapping so that her rich dad, his father in law, can pay the ransom. Darkly comic and highly recommended if somehow you haven’t seen it before. 9.5/10

Carrie (1976) Incredible build up to that prom scene. I love the contrast and sudden turn from her finally feeling as though she’s been socially accepted, to all hell breaking loose as she fucks shit up. 8/10

jrc2806

Extinction (Netflix). Plot revolves around a family man who has premonitions of an Alien invasion - brilliant 90 minutes spent watching this. All I can say is what a twist - did not see that coming...... 

9/10