On Friday I watched
Calibre (2018)
Something fucked up happens to two lads on a hunting trip in a remote area of the Scottish Highlands, leading to some extremely tense situations... Don't want to give anything specific away, and it's not the most innovative film ever made anyway, but despite the somewhat predictable plot, the strong performances from the two leads and effective use of mood and tone meant that it was actually a very good film. I just stumbled on to it on Netflix, big fan of Martin McCann and it sounded intriguing so gave it a go. Recommend you guys do the same!
i agree with everything in this post.
on will ferrell, i can only tolerate him as a supporting character. for my money, his best movie roles were in "wedding crashers" and "old school." when he appeared out of the shadows in "wedding crashers" i was legit excited. you put him in lead and you get a handful of very good scenes but he tires me out after about 8 minutes of absurdity.
i watched "the intern" on a lark in a hotel and enjoyed every minute of it. liked it way more than i would have expected. i really liked deniro's relationship with hathaway.
I'm with Kubi. One of his definitive masterpieces.
Though Duelists is a splendid film as well.
I would levy this stronger against Barry, though obviously, it's a fitting description for both movies.
(an actual painting or a still from Barry Lyndon? The answer may shock you!)
Quit beating around the bush, moreorless. We all know who the true Oscar winner in both those films were.
The horny horse who was determined to upstage Carradine performance
This seems more like a more clear-cut win for Kubrick for me. Scott's film never reaches the dramatic heights Barry plays at. When Barry junior dies and everything afterward until the movie ends are some of the finest pieces of forlorn emotions ever put on screen. In comparison, you don't feel the same sort of sadness when Carradine has to leave his family and duel Keitel for one last time. (though in Duelists, the emotional punch is more Keitel's reaction to finally losing and forced to live by the terms Carradine sets down).
Also, from memory, I would also say that the Duelists don't exactly a bullseye with the execution of some of its story-moments. I'm thinking primarily of when Carradine goes to argue for Keitel being released. You sort of get the impression that he's doing this out of his own compulsions of honor, bringing a new dimension to the very concept. Keitel is the one who hounds after it -- who savagely demands satisfaction, ever forgetting about the cause of their original dispute and is merely being driven by the mad addiction of holding a vendetta. Carradine, however, acts as if he's opposed to all this. However, when he finds out Keitel is imprisoned and set for execution, he finds himself compelled to pull the strings. It shows that -- in a certain manner -- he's entrenched in this vendetta just as much as Keitel is, forced by own his honor to honor their rivalry even as he sees its madness and futility.
This is what I get Scott was going for. However, the emotions land rather haphazardly. It's not a perfect execution, not a perfect communication. Or that's what I remember thinking from watching the film 5 years ago.
It has the strange honor of possessing maybe the only realistic sword fighting scene in the history of film.
With you on that one. I liked some of what it was going for but it seem a little overdone.Watched Upstream Colour and I'm afraid to say I fall on the side that considers it mostly empty pretension. I mean yeah the details of the plot to just about make some vague sense but more in a kind of Matrix Sequels, who cares? fashion given the lack of weight behind them. That might be somewhat forgivable if the film really were the atmospheric visual extravaganza I'v heard it talked up as but honestly bar 1-2 shots in the woodland I didn't find it very impressive here at all, shadow depth of focus and lens flair do not genius make.
Just back from the cinema, where I saw:
First Reformed (2018)
First impressions are that it was incredible, a modern masterpiece for sure. The plot concerns Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke), a middle-aged pastor at an small, old church in upstate New York and the crisis of faith he experiences. He is haunted by the death of his son in the Iraq War and suffers from physical ailments (which later appears to be cancer), worsened by his apparent alcoholism. Although the specifics are not immediately clear, almost immediately you are given the impression that this is a man struggling with his faith and "the sickness unto death" (Kierkegaard is quoted later in the film) despite his role as a pastor. He begins to keep a journal to help, which are given in the form if voice-overs. I don't want to spoil the film by going into too much detail about what actually causes his "dark night of the soul", but he is asked by one of the women (Amanda Seyfried) in his church to speak with her husband, a radical environmentalist who has recently been released from prison and who wants her to abort their child. He has lost all hope and she asks Toller to speak with him. Soon a number of events occur which have a profound impact on Toller - leading him to question his faith, and deal with issues like mans search for meaning, pollution and global warming, the spiritual and profane, and so on. It's a very powerful film, one that leaves you with lingering questions after you leave the cinema.
The first thing I said to my friend was that it was like Diary of a Country Priest crossed with Winter Light with some Taxi Driver thrown in. It is very much in the mould of the first two films, stylistically it is very austere, it treats it's subject matter with seriousness, and there are several plot points (mainly early on) which are undoubtedly supposed to refer the view back to Winter Light. I doubt it was accidental. The aspect ratio of 1.37:1 would also seem to call back to those films. In some sense it updates the religious films of Bresson, Bergman, and Dreyer as well, for our own time period. The element of a diary/journal in a film like this obviously invites comparison with Diary of a Country Priest. The fear of nuclear annihilation in Winter Light becomes fear of global warming and the destruction of planet earth. The film thus seems to suggest that although the context is different, the anxiety and despair is the same. Not to say it is an utterly hopeless film, it deals with these complex issues but it is, of course, never fully resolved. The ending is extremely dramatic as well, I imagine some viewers might be polarised by it...but I found it very refreshing. The sort of film I just love to see in the cinema.
With you on that one. I liked some of what it was going for but it seem a little overdone.
Carruth has been pretty quite since, is that right?.
Some are born great
Some achieve greatness
Some have greatness thrust upon them
Christ, how old are ya, Punk. You gotta be in your late 17s.
Saw this earlier this afternoon -
The Rider (2018)
An excellent film. It's about a young rodeo star, Brady Blackburn, who is forced to question his sense of purpose in life after a severe accident which left him with a metal plate in his skull. Brady is told he should never ride again, but being prevented from doing what he loves, combined with the social pressures of being a 'cowboy', being tough and 'getting back in the saddle' begin to play on his mind. Interestingly enough, the film is mostly all true and actually happened to the lead actor Brady Jandreau (his real father and sister also star alongside him). Drawing from his real life experiences obviously allows Brady to really inhabit the role. The film is very restrained, but provides a subtle and moving look at Brady and his family, as well as the reality of the rodeo circuit. It seems to sit somewhere between a docudrama and a biography, while also containing elements of ethnography in it's portrayal of the masculine 'cowboy culture' of the real American West. It is very touching and very human without being mawkish or condescending. Visually, it also looked fantastic; full of sweeping vistas and dusty plains. It reminded me of Days of Heaven at certain points and you can't pay a much higher compliment than that.