The Official Last Movie You Saw Thread (Part 2)

[KCKUKFan]

Nolan movies, ranked:

1) Dunkirk
2) Memento
3) Inception
4) The Dark Knight
5) Insomnia
6) Interstellar
7) The Prestige
8) Batman Begins
9) Following
10) The Dark Knight Rises

[UK8STL11]

Nolan movies, ranked:

1) Dunkirk
2) Memento
3) Inception
4) The Dark Knight
5) Insomnia
6) Interstellar
7) The Prestige
8) Batman Begins
9) Following
10) The Dark Knight Rises

Dunkirk #!??? Wow, we must have watched different versions of it. I would rate it right in the middle of Nolan's movies. I have not seen Following or The Prestige though.

[KCKUKFan]

I guess we're just going to have disagree on "Dunkirk."

I was fully immersed in the experience from the very first frame. The movie was lean and mean and had a propulsive energy that didn't let up until the credits. One of the most visceral war films I've ever seen, and there was hardly any gore.

[Joneslab]

In the Shadow of Iris.

aka The Shadow of Iris.

aka Iris.

A French thriller that can't even settle on a title. It's distributed by Netflix and wants so badly to be Hitch****************ian but wildly fails, and in fact about midway through even the guy running the subtitles gives up (there are tons of grammatical errors in the last half). Then it goes for swanky and it falls flat there as well. Mostly it settles into long sequences where a Very Important Score plays in the background and empty characters stare into the middle distance. The twists are obvious, the action sequences involve people following other people through crowded rooms, and there is no sense of impending danger because the stakes are never fully explained.

There are some great Hitch**************** knock-offs out there but this isn't one of them. A mind-bendingly terrible movie.

[Joneslab]

The Truman Show, again. A masterwork.

Sicario because of all the reviews on this thread. Very good but not great. It's uncomfortable how Emily Blunt gets beaten down--which is partly the point of the movie, but it's still difficult to watch the heroine get the crap kicked out of her for the entirety of the film's running time. Interesting commentary on the CIA's role in the drug war and immediately reminded me of the rumor I've always heard that the CIA was behind the crack epidemic in the inner city. Loved the Hitch****************ian cat-and-mouse scene in the middle of the film where they're trying to cross the border. A couple of the other set pieces didn't work as well for me.

Villeneuve is a genius but this isn't my favorite film of his.

[KCKUKFan]

The Truman Show, again. A masterwork.

Sicario because of all the reviews on this thread. Very good but not great. It's uncomfortable how Emily Blunt gets beaten down--which is partly the point of the movie, but it's still difficult to watch the heroine get the crap kicked out of her for the entirety of the film's running time. Interesting commentary on the CIA's role in the drug war and immediately reminded me of the rumor I've always heard that the CIA was behind the crack epidemic in the inner city. Loved the Hitch****************ian cat-and-mouse scene in the middle of the film where they're trying to cross the border. A couple of the other set pieces didn't work as well for me.

Villeneuve is a genius but this isn't my favorite film of his.

Looking forward to what Villeneuve does with "Blade Runner 2049."

[George]

Looking forward to what Villeneuve does with "Blade Runner 2049."

Yes.

Also looking forward to Wind River and Soldado, which is the sequel to Sicario.

[Joneslab]

The Big Sick.

Sometimes a movie comes along that hacks a genre. It takes all the concepts we've seen a million times, twists those concepts up, and comes out with something completely new. There have been recent examples of this at the cinema: Mad Max: Fury Road. It Follows. Get Out. Edge of Seventeen. Add The Big Sick to that list, because it completely tears down and rebuilds the rom-com. It's a kind of movie you've never seen before wrapped in the type of movie we've all seen before. Every scene is fresh and original, the acting is superb (I flat-out loved Holly Hunter in this), and by the end you feel like you've lived with these characters. That's the mark of a great film.

One of the two or three best in the Apatow line, and that's saying something. The best thing I've seen this year so far.

[Joneslab]

Nocturnal Animals.

A slight experiment in brutalism that is far from a masterpiece but sticks in your mind after it's over. This movie is a mutt: part woman-trapped-in-a-terrible marriage drama, part revenge thriller, it traces the life of a woman played by Amy Adams who has a lout for a husband and is some kind of curator of brutalist art. (The opening sequence of this is horrific to look at, and this becomes the movie's theme: "We dare you to look away.") One night Adams' character receives a manuscript from her first husband, and the movie begins to fold in on itself, telling the story of both the manuscript and Adams' present-day life. The movie tries to be David Lynchian but doesn't make it (there's an early scene on a lonely Texas road that's got all kinds of Lost Highway references), and so it settles in to a pretty straightfaced psychodrama about midway through. Like The Words, which I respected but felt was weirdly clumsy, the conceit of the story-inside-a-story makes it so that the thriller elements become meaningless: we know those characters are fiction and so their death doesn't matter. What we're left with then are the stark visuals and the brutal simplicity of Jake Gylenhaal's character's slowly unspooling revenge fantasy.

Not a masterpiece by any means but the narrative is so strange, its beats so unusual, that you have to pay attention. I've found myself thinking about it quite a lot since last night, and it actually made it hard for me to sleep--something that literally never happens after I watch a film. Recommended.

[KCKUKFan]

Nocturnal Animals.

A slight experiment in brutalism that is far from a masterpiece but sticks in your mind after it's over. This movie is a mutt: part woman-trapped-in-a-terrible marriage drama, part revenge thriller, it traces the life of a woman played by Amy Adams who has a lout for a husband and is some kind of curator of brutalist art. (The opening sequence of this is horrific to look at, and this becomes the movie's theme: "We dare you to look away.") One night Adams' character receives a manuscript from her first husband, and the movie begins to fold in on itself, telling the story of both the manuscript and Adams' present-day life. The movie tries to be David Lynchian but doesn't make it (there's an early scene on a lonely Texas road that's got all kinds of Lost Highway references), and so it settles in to a pretty straightfaced psychodrama about midway through. Like The Words, which I respected but felt was weirdly clumsy, the conceit of the story-inside-a-story makes it so that the thriller elements become meaningless: we know those characters are fiction and so their death doesn't matter. What we're left with then are the stark visuals and the brutal simplicity of Jake Gylenhaal's character's slowly unspooling revenge fantasy.

Not a masterpiece by any means but the narrative is so strange, its beats so unusual, that you have to pay attention. I've found myself thinking about it quite a lot since last night, and it actually made it hard for me to sleep--something that literally never happens after I watch a film. Recommended.

I thought this was a pretty fantastic movie, driven by committed performances by Gyllenhaal, Adams, and particularly Kentucky's own Michael Shannon. What really surprised me is that it was directed by fashion designer Tom Ford.

Saw "Annabelle: Creation" this weekend, based on the positive buzz (and the four minute sneak peak of "IT" attached to the front-end). I'd never see the first "Annabelle," nor did I care to, and I'm not a big fan of the "Conjuring" family of horror films. But this had some solid atmosphere and good jump scares.

"Detroit" was good, but not great.

Speaking of David Lynch... I mentioned it in this thread earlier, but the "Twin Peaks" revival on Showtime continues to get weirder and more awesomely... David Lynch... as the weeks go on. Highly recommended if you're a fan of Lynch. If not, avoid like the plague.

[Joneslab]

I thought this was a pretty fantastic movie, driven by committed performances by Gyllenhaal, Adams, and particularly Kentucky's own Michael Shannon. What really surprised me is that it was directed by fashion designer Tom Ford.

The visuals in the film are interesting in that they strike harshly against the flat Texas landscape shown in the manuscript scenes. I imagine that Ford's interest in the project was that he could set two completely different moods.

One...call it a curiosity I had about the movie was its subject matter. It's based on a novel I downloaded a year or so ago. I couldn't get through it. It wasn't bad, just oddly simplistic. I just don't think it's a great story. I've read thrillers that are far, far, FAR more twisty. I've read dramas that are much more cutting. It just seems like a story that doesn't have much going for it.

But as I said when you put the whole thing together, visuals and mood and narrative and all, it's a film that kind of hangs with you.

[KCKUKFan]

The visuals in the film are interesting in that they strike harshly against the flat Texas landscape shown in the manuscript scenes. I imagine that Ford's interest in the project was that he could set two completely different moods.

One...call it a curiosity I had about the movie was its subject matter. It's based on a novel I downloaded a year or so ago. I couldn't get through it. It wasn't bad, just oddly simplistic. I just don't think it's a great story. I've read thrillers that are far, far, FAR more twisty. I've read dramas that are much more cutting. It just seems like a story that doesn't have much going for it.

But as I said when you put the whole thing together, visuals and mood and narrative and all, it's a film that kind of hangs with you.

The "manuscript" story was fairly typical revenge narrative. What I enjoyed (much, much more) was the real life basis for the story. When *SPOILER* Gyllenhaal leaves Adams high and dry at the end of the movie, you can truly feel the daggers. It's wasn't until that conclusion that I realized how much the movie had buried itself under my skin.

[Joneslab]

Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Spider-Man goes YA. The most interesting thing about this movie is how much it gives itself over to the '80s vibe. There's a Breakfast Club sequence, a riff on Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and enough John Hughes nods to choke a horse. But this only adds to the cleverness of the movie. Sure there's very little original here (there's a high school party gone wrong, an unrequited crush, a geeky friend, a hapless gym teacher), but its unoriginality becomes its strength: it adds to the sense of careening fun the movie manages to hold through its pretty substantial running time. There are about three unbelievable action sequences; the scene on top of the Washington Monument might be the best thing ever pulled off in a Marvel movie. And the way the movie kind of weaves in "heavy" stuff--What happens after high school? Is school really worth it?--is surprisingly deep.

Maybe the best Marvel film I've seen and a master class on how to make a popcorn flick. Another gem in what has been a fine summer at the movies.

[Joneslab]

Oh yeah. Teaser for Season 4 of Black Mirror:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH85obU350E&feature=youtu.be

[KCKUKFan]

Oh yeah. Teaser for Season 4 of Black Mirror:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH85...ature=youtu.be

Can't wait.