I watched Barbarian, which was gross but well-done (though I genuinely thought the lead actor was someone else until I saw her name). Then I watched Giant From The Unknown so I could sleep.
And to complete the circle: the first movie little Sammy Fabelman/Spielberg saw, that broke his mind and set him on his path – The Greatest Show on Earth, directed by C.B. de Mille and starring Charlton Heston.
Our regional library offers a streaming channels from which you can watch up to 10 videos a month. Back in the late ‘70s I’d enjoyed a French film, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, and the library channel provided a way to revisit.
The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign, and starred Depardieu (which meant nothing to me in the ‘70s). It’s a deadpan comedy about a simple man who’s in a panic because his wife is losing interest in everything — including their marriage. His solution is to ask random strangers for help and advice.
The movie was still charming, but there were maybe five elements that have become less socially acceptable in the last 45 years — things like a light face slap, and casual female nudity without reciprocal male nudity.
Two more …
As mentioned in my post about Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, I was inspired to follow up with his earlier 2017 production, The Square. Despite its outrageous dinner scene rivaling anything in Triangle of Sadness, I thought it was overall a bit more subtle and cryptic than the latter. It has quite a few funny moments and won tons of accolades, but I suspect many would find Östlund to be something of an acquired taste. The above link is a good overview of the film. I enjoyed it but not sure I can recommend it for everyone, although it was yet again a favourite at Cannes, and it, too, won the Palme d’Or.
Another one I just saw was Boiling Point, a British production from 2021. It centers entirely around one night’s events at an upscale restaurant from the standpoint of the kitchen and wait staff. Sounds kind of boring but it isn’t; it’s extremely well made and got many award nominations and a handful of wins. It’s meant to be a straightforward dramatization of the stresses and challenges of that environment and how people react to it, but there’s enough richness of interaction and social hierarchies on display that if one is so inclined it could be taken as a metaphor for modern society. It was filmed entirely on location at Jones and Sons, an upscale restaurant in Dalston, East London.
Definitely one of the “I did not see that coming!” movies of this year.
What did you think of Triangle of Sadness?
Shit, you dated her too?
(sorry)
Would you believe I have been so interrupted, I have about 30 minutes left still? Rare for me to breakup movies this much, but I’ve been interrupted.
It is MUCH better once…well, once the cruise on the yacht…is not so nice.
I watched Steel Flowers last night and it was a unique viewing experience of this beautiful heartwarming film for me. This was the first time I’ve watched a foreign language (Korean) movie without any subtitles and without understanding the language.
Fortunately, there’s very little dialogue and these reviews summarize the movie well: https://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/steel-flower-review-busan-film-festival-1201609645/, Modern Korean Cinema: Busan 2015 Review: STEEL FLOWER Offers Wilted View of Korean Youth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Hs49eYKps
Huge credit to Jeong Ha Dam whose expressions and movements say far more than anything she could express with words in her often mute performance.
Ha Dam deservedly was nominated for and won several film festival Best Actress awards for her performance in Steel Flower
Here’s a beautiful reading of some of the scenes by her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF9Lzts04TA
I finished the movie and thought it was good, but not outstanding. Nice to see something different, but it didn’t really make that much of an impact on me.
It won’t make my top 10 of the year and I’m surprised it won the Palm d’Or.
Good, though.
I just watched See How They Run. I would describe it as a farcical meta take on an Agatha Christy whodunit that seems to be trying really hard to be a Wes Anderson film. Without revealing too much, it was enjoyable but at times kind of got lost in it’s own cleverness.
I have no quibbles with that. I’m glad to have seen it and I think it makes an entertaining and humourous statement about how the rich and famous live in an artificial world largely of their own creation, and how useless many of them are, but I don’t think of it as a particularly impactful movie. As I said after watching The Square, Östlund is something of an acquired taste. Still, I’m planning to watch Force Majeure next, probably his highest rated film.
Last night, for the first time ever, I watch the original Planet of the Apes all the way thru. OMG - was there no subtlety in 1968? The music, I assume, was meant to be dramatic. I found it to be jarring and almost painful. The acting was just a tad over-the-top. The message, or the allegory, or the symbolism - whatever - was so in-your-face. Then again, it was made over half a century ago and I had to keep reminding myself of that. And to be fair, I’m not much for sci-fi (if that’s the correct category for this movie.)
I was proud of myself, tho - I refrained from snarking. Spousal unit doesn’t like when I snark about movies that he likes.
And that’s the movie I’ve seen more recently. Thank you for your attention. 
For years, I was surprised that Rod Serling could be involved in writing something so unsubtle, given some of the things he’d done on The Twilight Zone. What I didn’t realize was that he wasn’t a co-writer, he was a first draft writer, and all sorts of hijinx happened after he was done with the script
Watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time in probably decades. It’s just as delightful as it’s always been, despite Judy Garland’s awful backstory. Available on HBO, if you’re interested.
Just finished watching King’s Row this morning (I was interrupted yesterday). Very representative of its time (early 1940s). Probably Ronald Reagan’s most well thought of performance. He was o.k. I’ll never forget “Where is the rest of me?”
I didn’t know much about it ahead of time, but my sister read up on it. The character that was supposed to be insane and was killed by her father who then shot himself? In the book, the murder/suicide was really over father/daughter incest. Guess that was a bridge too far for the times.
It was long and rather slow, and I think Bob Cummings was miscast, but it kept my interest. Ann Sheridan was good. Typical bombastic intrusive movie score.
Some of it was used as the temp score for Star Wars, hence why it sounds so similar to John Williams.
Just finished watching it, and I totally agree. Fantastic performance by Goth. I’d never heard of her before although I now see she’s appeared in about a dozen movies before, including X. She also co-wrote the script for Pearl. Very talented young lady.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in a smart, psychological horror thriller. I’ve seen it described as a “slasher” film which I think is very unfair as it’s not in that mindless genre at all.
There really are not that man kills and the “kill kill kill” style is nowhere to be seen in this. This isn’t Terrifier 2 or a mindless kill-fest. It’s really about her character and that final shot that they hold during the credits is still in my mind.
So I wasn’t hallucinating? I knew I was hearing it!