Well, I just saw a very unusual film. Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose based on a true story and starring Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver and Christopher Lloyd. Neil Gaiman voiced the mongoose.
A paranormal psychologist visits a family who claims to have communion with a talking mongoose. The whole village believes in the mongoose. Nandor Fodor does not believe in the mongoose.
The acting in the film was really top-notch. Pegg was outstanding with his strange little accent, but there were a lot of great performances here.
The story itself is very difficult to describe. It is at turns moving and funny. It’s about belief, but not in the way you might expect. It definitely takes the path less traveled in how it tells the story.
Not a whole hell of a lot happens in the film, but there are many ideas to chew on when you’re finished.
I liked it. I recommend it to people who like quirky, cerebral films. It gave me Wes Anderson vibes stylistically, so if that’s your brand of weird, you’d probably like it.
Have you seen the first version? That is the film that The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) which was also directed by Hitchcock. I watched both in a History of the Motion Picture class and I prefer the former to the later, though they are both good.
The Killer on Netflix. Michael Fassbender as an assassin directed by David Fincher.
I actually stopped watching 20 minutes in. After listening to his inner monologue about how precise and careful he is I watch him make dumb mistake after dumb mistake all in the name of ticking the boxes of all the cliche’ hitman tropes.
Want to set up a sniper nest in a nice dark penthouse? Nah, let’s light up the space with a nice workman’s light to look cool. Have multiple clear shots of your mark but instead wait till a call-girl is dancing around in front of it and accidentally shoot her instead. Have no plan on making a clean escape or lying low. Instead hop on a motorcycle in the middle of the night trying to evade police. Want to get rid of the helmet as evidence as discretely as possible? How about dropping it 10 feet off a bridge making a nice splash in the water below? Just too dumb to watch.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023). A bit of a brutal movie in what it depicts but a fairly good character story. Although the story flags toward the end, that part gives us some more insight into the main character. All of the performances were good with no one that I thought brought down the level of the movie. This was my first entry into The Hunger Games universe having heard of the books and the movies but not actually read or seen any before. As such I will spoiler the following From basic reading of wikipedia I understand that the protagonist in this movie is the antagonist in the others and I felt like they did a good job in respect to his turn to evil so to speak. It is completely believable as opposed to how it was tried in the Star Wars prequels for Anakin to Varder.You can see it and it does not feel like it was just one event or that it was really that far from his character.
The Marvels (2023). I enjoyed this more than I expected. I was not completely oblivious to the negative news about this film and although I tend to ignore that most of the time preferring to watch for myself I thought that perhaps I had seen all the good parts in the trailers I had seen. I was wrong. It was a lot of fun with some unexpected character growth as well as completely ridiculous moments. Also, although there was a fight scene toward the end, it was much more like Spider-Man: No Way Home in that it was localized to the main players instead of a huge big explosion fest which I liked.
Wish (2023). I am not quite sure exactly where to place this movie. It was beautifully animated with some interesting choices and the voice acting as well as the music was good. The message I felt had merit but was a little muddled. I laughed and was touched by this movie and at a length of 95 minutes I felt it did not overstay its welcome, so to speak. I actually was surprised at how quickly it got going and thought that they were going to drag it out more and happy that they didn’t. I understand that there is supposed to be a fair amount of nostalgia mixed in, but if so, it passed me by completely because I enjoyed it based on the story that was being told.
Yeah. They kind of hit us over the head with that having him recite his assassin mantra while doing the exact opposite. Tilda Swinton (the human Q-tip) was a too brief respite from a tedious film with a questionable moral compass.
I saw Saltburn today. It was directed and written by Emerald Fennell. I’d say it’s worthwhile.
Now I’m trying to decide what else to see over the long weekend. Of the ones playing locally this weekend, I’m trying to decide among Napoleon, The Marvels or Next Goal Wins. (Not very interested in the Hunger Games movie or Wish, the new Disney film.)
I enjoyed this but agree it was nothing to write home about. Completely with you on the daft things he did, especially at the start. That light was driving me mad! As for the dilly-dallying, he made out he was waiting til his heart rate dropped below 60 before he took the shot, but it wasn’t exactly at great distance was it!?
We saw it last night. The story: an introverted Oxford student is befriended by a rich and popular classmate, who takes him to his palatial estate for the summer.
The ending made me re-evaluate whether or not I liked it … and it changed my opinion from borderline “meh” to borderline “interesting”.
Emerald Fennell last wrote and directed Promising Young Woman, which I loved. And she’s also an actress, and played Camilla Parker-Bowles in The Crown.
Not a film I would otherwise see, but I’ve heard such good things about it.
It was genuinely entertaining, funny, sweet, and original. You can tell a lot of thought went into it. You get both dry British humor and physical comedy. And the slapstick scenes are done well, so that both kids and adults can enjoy it. Nicole Kidman is a hoot as the taxidermist villain.
There’s also a subtle pro-immigrant message.
I give it an A.
(I’ve been told Paddington 2 is a masterpiece, so that’s in our future as well.)
For a short while it was the single highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes. Then someone wrote a critical review of it. This dropped it down to being in a tie with Citizen Kane as the highest rated film of all time on Rotten Tomatoes:
I saw the new Napoleon biopic today. It starred Joaquin Phoenix and was directed by Ridley Scott. Fun enough and I was constantly reminded of the names of battles or people from long-ago history classes.
I saw Napoleon at a Cinemark theater. Instead of IMAX, they had their own proprietary XD theater and so I saw it in the biggest theater in XD at around noon. But there were only about a dozen people there, much less than capacity.
We watched Terms of Endearment because I read a news article that it’s come up on its 40th anniversary, and I’d never seen it.
I thought it was a fine movie, not overly maudlin despite the subject matter, and often quite funny. I thought everyone did a great job acting, but Shirley MacLaine knocked my socks off.
I do recommend it. A-
(A- because I had a hard time believing Jack Nicholson’s character was ever an astronaut. He didn’t say one intelligent thing or even seem smart. My husband is always pointing out when investigators at crime scenes don’t wear gloves and he said to me, “This astronaut thing is your ‘why aren’t they wearing gloves?’ isn’t it?” Goodamn it yes. Astronauts are ultra intelligent and screened for mental instability. Get it right!)
