# Movies you've seen recently (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 27, 2024, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288 "2024-08-27T05:10:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 92
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1821 "2025-04-10T18:44:57Z")
I also really liked **Presence**. The marketing really failed this one. It’s not really a horror movie. If you go in expecting a haunted house film, I can see why you’d be disappointed. I thought the technique of filming entirely from the ghost’s POV with a handheld cam was really cool. Actually, let me clarify. The first time I saw the film (with a Q&A with the writer, director & cast) I felt similar to **Wolfpup**. But that was because I thought it would be something it wasn’t. I decided to see it a second time and then I really enjoyed it on its own terms. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1822 "2025-04-10T20:59:55Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > _Smithereens_ is about a runaway named Wren who tries to become a figure in the New York punk scene but she’s kind of aimless and doesn’t know how to do it. Along the way, she gets kicked out of her apartment, gets involved in a number of parasitic relationships, and helps a musician steal money so they can run off to California. He leaves without her and she tries to rekindle and on-and-off again relationship with a friend living in a van but she ends up missing her chance with that as well. > > It’s an interesting watch, imo. It’s not a complicated story and the acting isn’t the greatest but the gritty drama of a young woman trying to find herself and making mistakes and wrong choices along the way makes an interesting story. Wow, I watched that ages ago, but had forgotten the name. I remember really liking it at the time. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > How was Richard Hell as Eric? I thought he was fine. I was a little surprised he did as well as he did. He definitely did not embarass himself. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1823 "2025-04-10T21:19:32Z")
The Substance, with Demi Moore and Margaret Qually. I had problems with this, as with all premise movies whose premises don’t make much sense. Sci-fi nonsense about swapping bodies one week at a time (with much full frontal nudity for those into that sort of thing) but, as per Gremlins, they don’t follow instructions and so are turned into repulsive homunculi at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1824 "2025-04-10T22:25:38Z")
I know this thread has survived quite a long time without one, but is it perhaps time to request a “No Spoilers” tag in the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1825 "2025-04-10T23:23:24Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > Margaret Qually. Qualley. One of my top films last year! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1826 "2025-04-11T10:17:27Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > **Black Bag** is the sort of the movie there should be more of: an incredibly stylish spy thriller that bounces interesting (but not always likeable) characters off each other, explores issues of marital trust/fidelity through the lens of espionage and betrayal, with enough Le Carre to feel sophisticated and enough Bond to feel fun, and wraps up cleanly and satisfyingly after 90 - count them - minutes. Stop off at the local diner and this is at the top end of cosy couples mid-week date night stuff. More please. I said I was going to opine on **Black Bag** (2025) after I saw it, and now I have, and I completely agree! Stylish and sophisticated, it`s a gripping thriller with an intricate plot full of twists and turns. For those planning to watch, if you’re anything like me I suggest turning on the subtitles right from the start. You don’t want to miss a word of dialog, and plus it helps with some of the initialisms they throw in. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1827 "2025-04-11T11:53:34Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > One of my top films List your others so I’ll know to keep far away? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1828 "2025-04-11T12:31:49Z")
Anora, Nickel Boys, Conclave. Steer clear! ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1829 "2025-04-11T13:19:58Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > it`s a gripping thriller with an intricate plot full of twists and turns. Glad you enjoyed it too, but I would say that honestly the plot is not that intricate. That’s a good thing! It’s interesting and involved enough to keep you watching, but at the end you’re not looking back wondering how to explain things or how cause A related to effect F, it’s all perfectly straightforward. An absolutely solid middlebrow movie of the kind that should be made more often. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1830 "2025-04-11T13:34:45Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > Glad you enjoyed it too, but I would say that honestly the plot is not that intricate. Maybe “intricate” wasn’t quite the right word. I’d certainly say there are surprises as the plot evolves. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1831 "2025-04-11T13:47:57Z")
**Dark Waters** (2009). A really excellent film, all the more absorbing because it’s based on a true story. Mark Ruffalo plays Rob Bilott, a lawyer in a law firm that specializes in defending large corporations (Anne Hathaway plays his wife). Bilott is approached by a West Virginia farmer who believes his land and dairy cattle are being poisoned by an adjacent landfill operated by the Dupont chemical company. I won’t say more so as not to spoiler the movie, but suffice to say that after Bilott takes the case just to help out the old farmer, things begin to escalate to a massive scale. Highly recommended. Just as a side note, the legal wrangling was over PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid, also referred to by Dupont as C8) which was used in the manufacture of Teflon until 2010. It’s one of the “forever chemicals” that don’t break down and that the body can’t remove. A note at the end of the movie mentions that virtually all living creatures on earth, including 99% of humans, have some amount of PFOA in their bodies. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1832 "2025-04-11T15:00:32Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > **Bottoms** > > This is one of my daughter’s favorites and we watched it last night. I thought it was very funny and had kind of a _Heathers_ vibe though _Bottoms_ doesn’t seem quite as dark and is more of a wackier, satirical movie. Marshawn Lynch is hilarious as a teacher who barely cares. > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH5NAahf76s&ab\_channel=AmazonMGMStudios](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH5NAahf76s&ab_channel=AmazonMGMStudios) [Murderville](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN9b35D06D8) is a comedy police procedural on Netflix. Every episode they ‘train’ a new rookie to solve that distinct murder case and the rookie is played by a celebrity guest with no script who has to improvise. Sometimes it’s strange, sometimes it’s hilarious. One thing stands out, Marshawn Lynch is a secret comedic genius. He was wasted as a Running Back. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1833 "2025-04-11T15:16:00Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > One thing stands out, Marshawn Lynch is a secret comedic genius. He was wasted as a Running Back. Absolutely! Dude takes hold of that episode and frreakin’ **OWNS IT**.Unquestionably the best guest on that show. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1834 "2025-04-11T17:30:37Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Rob Bilott I want to see this film sometime. Rob Bilott graduated from New College (of Florida), where I graduated from. He did his law degree at Ohio State, where I have a master’s degree from. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1835 "2025-04-11T17:53:06Z")
Minor nitpick: I think the film was made in 2019, not 2009? I remember seeing it in early 2020 just as covid was about to hit. Agree with you on the film, I found it a very interesting watch, one of those films that makes you angry at the brazen arrogance of large corporations. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1836 "2025-04-11T17:58:33Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > Rob Bilott > > I want to see this film sometime. Rob Bilott graduated from New College (of Florida), where I graduated from. He did his law degree at Ohio State, where I have a master’s degree from. I very highly recommend it, especially if you have any connection at all to Billot. Even accounting for the likelihood that films like this take a few liberties with the facts, the man is unquestionably a real hero, and went through tremendous stress and personal sacrifice to accomplish what he did. I’m surprised that DuPont didn’t try to sue the filmmakers. Or maybe they did. > [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Minor nitpick: I think the film was made in 2019, not 2009? You’re right, I screwed up. I looked up the release date and then promptly forgot due to senility! ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1837 "2025-04-11T19:19:26Z")
Lynch did great on that show. He’s in the recent action comedy _Love Hurts_, with Ke Huy Quan, as a fictionalized version of himself. I haven’t seen it yet. My favorite moment of _Murderville_ is when Patrick Bateman reacts to some stupid thing Will Arnett does with, “Oh… You’re a clown.” with the sudden realization that Arnett’s detective character is NOT there to help, but to distract. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2025, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1838 "2025-04-12T16:15:18Z")
**In the Lost Lands** Pretty much not recommended. I mean, it was OK. But it suffers from everything clearly being shot in a studio and all the outside scenes are clearly using digital paintings/sets and none of it looks real. Also shot way to darkly, which is a odd choice since they had total control over lighting indoors. The movie? A jumbled mess. I liked it more than most people would as this was a movie I went in hoping for it to be good. I kind of willed myself to give it 6 out of 10, but being more objective…It think most people would give it thumbs down. My thumb is sideways. It’s a dark fantasy film and if you like that genre, you might enjoy it to a certain extent. Paul W Andersen and Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista. Actors do fine, directing is subpar. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1839 "2025-04-12T16:23:39Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > **The Gorge** on Apple TV+ with Miles Teller and Anya-Taylor-Joy. > > The best part of the film was their long distance romance, but as a whole the movie was a bit if a messy genre mashup that didn’t quite fit together. Watched this last night and I agree with your comments entirely. The long distance part was great, there was just enough character background (even if they were both trope-y) to have you rooting for the two of them. And then he drops into the gorge and the whole thing turned into a big steaming pile of cliches. Too bad. It started off promising and just went to shit. My least favorite part, of several: she very stupidly gets snared around the ankle in an obvious trap that they explicitly acknowledge is a trap and that someone of her skills should not have fallen for, and gets dragged by a horse for a good long while. While getting dragged, she is literally IMPALED on a branch before suffering what must have been a severe concussion. Then she is hung up by her hands for a while (a. for no good reason and b. without appearing to suffer any pain from that) and awoken when the bad guy TWISTS the branch that’s still sticking out of her abdomen. After a fight scene to escape, Levi asks her if she’s OK and she says (something like) “I’m good” or “I’m fine.” And then proceeds through several more action sequences with no treatment and no ill effects. REALLY? You couldn’t even have her bleed or limp a little, people?? I mean, I understand she’s a hero, but come on, filmmakers. Ludicrous. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/1840 "2025-04-12T16:29:09Z")
We also _tried_ to watch [An Invitation to Murder](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11773810/), on Amazon Prime - a kind of homage to classic Agatha Christie, and only lasted 10 minutes. The acting (and writing and directing) was so atrocious it was embarrassing. Just awful - had to stop. Hard pass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288.md?page=91) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288.md?page=93)