Movies you've seen recently (Part 2)

Cafe Society
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The Ugly Stepsister

Recommended.

An adult retelling of Cinderella with many, many changes. This update is geared entirely to an adult audience and it wisely changes its themes accordingly. It also leans in pretty heavily to the body horror genre, though nowhere even close to the extreme level of The Substance from last year. This movie is mild in comparison.

Very well made, one of the better 2025 movies I’ve seen this year. Great performances from everyone in it and it is my understanding this is also the debut from the director. It’s very impressive.

I saw it on Shudder, which I buy during summer vacation(I’m a teacher).

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Guardians 3. Meh, or even “meh-”. Not even a good soundtrack. A few good moments.

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Director’s Cut) (Amazon Prime)

Even in 1977 I enjoyed this as much as Star Wars. SW was more fun, this film was more meaningful. Surprised that a lot of people don’t like the musical aspects of this film, it never occurred to me that the keyboard “duet” between the spaceship and the keyboardist was considered draggy/dull/confusing. Different strokes/folks, I guess.

Am having a bit of a Mandela Effect with this one. I saw the original in theaters, I saw the Special Edition also in theaters, and this was my first viewing of the Director’s Cut. And there was a… not really a ‘scene’, but a shot… of Teri Garr idly using one of those Mark Eden bust enhancing devices while talking to Richard Dreyfuss. I remember because I asked my sister what she was doing (I was 10, she was 17) and was completely embarrassed when she told me “She’s making her boobs larger, John!”.

However, in the DC this shot wasn’t there. Now I’m wondering if I imagined it… anyone know where I can find the original movie? The scene and snippet(s) of conversation wasn’t relevant to the plot, it was more for character and scene setting (just like Roy Neary telling his kid that thousands of lives were at stake because he (the kid) didn’t know what 1/3 of 60 was, then getting into an argument over Pinocchio/Goofy Golf. Not germane to the plot, but it did a great job of showing Roy’s limitations as a father.)

Anyway, this is now going to bug me, lol.

Would like to note that this definitely a highlight of 1970’s Indifferent Parent movies. All her son’s toys start going off, the doggie door is banging (but I never saw a dog*), the kid is laughing up a storm, and Melinda Dillon just sleeps through all of this until a couple of the toys finally makes it in her room. Fortunately, she slept in her jean shorts and dress blouse (as we all do), so she didn’t have to dress up after she casually watches her son run into the woods, merely calling his name a couple of times.

And Roy, lol. Has a wife and four kids and doesn’t give then n(e)ary a thought when given the chance to join the Alien Spaceship Crew. And, shit, with both parents not working, you’d think they’d have time to clean that house, lol. AND WHAT’S WITH THE FAKE MASHED POTATOS??? IT’S NOT THAT HARD TO MAKE REAL MASHED POTATOS, RONNIE!!!

Anyway, 5/5, 10 stars, two thumbs up, it’s almost 2.5 hours long but it’s a quick 2.5 hours.

*Speaking of dogs, I noticed last night that a dog also walked out of the alien spaceship at the same time Barry (Melinda Dillon’s kid) walked out. Probably the longest-lived canine in history! In real life, that was Spielberg’s dog, who was also in Jaws.

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I’ve seen Close Encounters many times. I think I read somewhere that Spielberg regretted showing Roy Neary abandoning his family. (Although given the opportunity, who would have said no?) And in fact broken families became something of a theme in his movies.

And regarding Roy’s interest in going to see Pinocchio rather than going to Goofy Golf, remember that was a time when there was no easy way to watch a movie that was no longer in theaters; a limited re-release like this was probably their only chance to see it for years. Goofy Golf will be there tomorrow or next week or whatever.

Finally, there was this wonderful moment from Inside the Actors Studio in which James Lipton points out something to Spielberg that he didn’t realize.

Lipton: Your father was a computer scientist; your mother was a musician. When the spaceship lands, how do they communicate?
Spielberg: That’s a very good question. I like that. You’ve answered the question.
Lipton: They make music on their computers and they are able to speak to each other.
Spielberg: I’ve love to say I intended that and I realized that was my mother and father but not until this moment.

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Inna, as we discussed last night. She’s of the “the aliens will perform horrific medical experiments on me” mindset and has no desire to sacrifice herself in the interest of (alien) science, lol.

This is definitely one of those questions where I would expect a gender-divide in the answers… time to hit the Polls Only thread!

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As I said, I’ve seen Close Encounters a lot. At the end, Roy is with a group of what appears to be hand picked volunteers for the aliens to take but it appears that only Roy is invited to board.

There were other people drawn to Devils Tower whom we saw on the helicopter. They all seem to be older. Were they there for the same reason as Barry’s mother Jillian; to meet their family members who were returning?

Finally I love the bit in India where all of those people were chanting the five note theme. And then when asked where they heard the sounds, they all point straight up. And this is shot so all we see are arms raised.

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I’m pretty sure that the SE shows that all of them boarded, but Dreyfuss was taken to the side by one of the aliens.

In the DC, you do not see them on the ship, but you see that they’re no longer on the landing strip, so one would assume they were accepted as well. We ‘rewound’ last night to verify this (as much as one could).

It was also odd that a team of scientists would, as their last act on Earth, participate in a group prayer. But perhaps that’s just me.

I get the impression that all of them, Jillian included, came because they were compelled to. I don’t think that Jillian went specifically because she knew Barry was going to be there, she went because she needed to. At no point did she mention that she was there to rescue/get her son.

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Mystery solved: Teri Garr was using one of those devices in Oh God!, with John Denver.

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I just saw for the first time the 1963 movie LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER, which I’d always heard vaguely described as a minor classic, a delightful rom-com with a serious subject (abortion). It may be the worst movie I have ever seen. Just stinkola.

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Welcome to the Dope!

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1960s comedies do not age well, especially if the comedy is sexual/romantic in nature. Here’s my review of Coppola’s first big film, You’re a Big Boy Now, a film which finds rape funny:

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I kinda undertand the concept of using music to communicate (and the alien music blasting out the windows was cool)…but didn’t get why it was important to have Francois Truffaut giving equivalent hand signs. actually…I don’t really understand why Truffaut was in the film at all. :slight_smile:

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My guess? Lucas and Spielberg were fans.

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Call of the Wild (2020)

This would be an actually great movie except for making the most baffling decision to make the dog CGI. Now they could have switched and used a CGI dog for shots where obviously they couldn’t use a real dog or if the dog would be in danger, but it’s in CGI the entire time and the CGI doesn’t actually look that good either. Which is depressing because Harrison Ford gives an amazing performance in this movie, the best performance I’ve seen him give in the last 10 years

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A Bridge to Far 1977 all star cast
Link A Bridge Too Far (film) - Wikipedia

Dramatization of Operation Market Garden. A poorly planned and failed WW2 operation designed by General Montgomery.

Several books have been written about Operation Market Garden. The movie depicts the poor planning and misgivings of some of the British Officers. None wanted to openly question Field Marshall Montgomery’s plan.

The movie has a large cast of stars. A thousand air drops were staged and filmed. It’s a very ambitious attempt to tell the story of the units involved.

I found the movie interesting. It’s a bit confusing. There’s a lot of characters to follow.

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There are no rape scenes in the movie. There are scenes where a man chases a woman, but she gets away. It’s not clear if the man thinks that she wants to have sex with him but finds out that she isn’t interested or if he is trying to rape her. In any case, that is at most attempted rape. A woman in the film is called “slut”, but it’s clear that the people calling her that doesn’t know what they are talking about.

The main character of the film is a 19-year-old virgin. Two woman in the film want to have sex with him, but he doesn’t have sex by the end of the film. Both are about the same age as him. One is a woman who wants to be an actress but works as a go-go dancer to make enough to live on. One works for the main character’s father is a library. Both want to have sex with him, but he’s so incompetent that they don’t. At the end, he and the woman working in the library decide to run away together (and when they get to where they’re going they presumably will have sex).

It’s not a particularly good film, but it’s no worse that a lot of cheaply made films.

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Re: “You’re a Big Boy Now…”

Most 1960s sex comedies are cringe-worthy today.

I saw that film when it was released and the only thing I remember about it was that the music was done by the Lovin’ Spoonful. Included was the song “Darling Be Home Soon,” a favorite of mine then and now.

Coppola went over budget and the cost was a million, which was quite a bit in 1966. It didn’t break even until it was sold to television.

It had quite an impressive cast. Geraldine Page was nominated for an Oscar for it.

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A million U.S. dollars in 1966 is equivalent to a little less than $10,000,00 U.S. dollars today. The average American movie today costs $40,000,000 to $150,000,000 U.S. dollars. The cost of You’re a Big Boy Now was fairly cheap in 1966. You’re a Big Boy Now has a lot of things in it that now, 59 years later, look very old-fashioned. How many 1966 American movies look up to date?:

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The movie specifically covered the book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan. He also wrote “The Longest Day.” Some things were changed and others were simplified. The movie made it seem like there were only three bridges. The 101st had to capture multiple small bridges. The actions of the Polish Brigade were very simplified. For something as complex as Market Garden the movie did as well as could be expected. I highly recommend the book.

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He was there to teach Spielberg how to film kids so they behaved naturally in front of the camera ( Small Change for instance Small Change (film) - Wikipedia)
The outcome of that was the incredible scenes with kids in ET.

I saw Close Encounters opening day on 80mm and the collective gasp as that giant space ship came over Devil’s Tower has stayed with me.
Absolutely brilliant movie.