VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Merzbow]

We're All Going to the World's Fair, I saw that it had a very high RT rating from critics and horrendously low rating from punters so had to check it out. First thing, it's absolutely not a horror film as often listed, it's just a well made and slightly weird coming of age story of a sad lonely girl who's into creepypasta.. it felt like it was created by someone who was brought up on the fringes of 00's internet.

A solid low budget debut from both director and lead actress.

[Devon Malcolm]

48 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

We're All Going to the World's Fair, I saw that it had a very high RT rating from critics and horrendously low rating from punters so had to check it out. First thing, it's absolutely not a horror film as often listed, it's just a well made and slightly weird coming of age story of a sad lonely girl who's into creepypasta.. it felt like it was created by someone who was brought up on the fringes of 00's internet.

A solid low budget debut from both director and lead actress.

Yeah, I loved this, was highly recommended to me by Mr. Seven. Really challenging in its themes as well, just a great take on so many things.

[Merzbow]

13 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Yeah, I loved this, was highly recommended to me by Mr. Seven. Really challenging in its themes as well, just a great take on so many things.

It was uncomfortable viewing at times, and it was an interesting and maybe needed take on the "creepy old guy online" too.

I said elsewhere but I can see influence from a specific fucked up 4chan era which hit me as I have a good friend who was caught up on the wrong side of it.

[Devon Malcolm]

6 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

It was uncomfortable viewing at times, and it was an interesting and maybe needed take on the "creepy old guy online" too.

I said elsewhere but I can see influence from a specific fucked up 4chan era which hit me as I have a good friend who was caught up on the wrong side of it.

The director has a film coming out this year called I Saw the TV Glow that's got a huge reception at Sundance. The cast might be one for the Weird Casts thread, actually.

Quote

• Justice Smith as Owen
  • Ian Foreman as younger Owen
• Brigette Lundy-Paine as Maddy
• Helena Howard as Isabel
• Danielle Deadwyler as Owen's mother
• Lindsey Jordan as Tara
• Fred Durst as Owen's father
• Amber Benson
• Michael Maronna
• Conner O'Malley
• Emma Portner
• Danny Tamberelli
• Phoebe Bridgers
• Haley Dahl
• Kristina Esfandiari
• Jonathan Chacko
• Caroline Polachek

 

[SuperBacon]

18 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The director has a film coming out this year called I Saw the TV Glow that's got a huge reception at Sundance. The cast might be one for the Weird Casts thread, actually.

 

That just got a really positive review in The Guardian, that I read as I was doomscrolling at 3am. Not normally one for reviews before a film but it caught my eye. Sounds great.

[Loki]

11 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

he aspect ratio was a bit jarring at first

I've seen a few films now shot in 4:3 at the cinema.  It seems to be in vogue at the moment, possibly with younger directors who have grown up in a widescreen world so it's something fresh rather than just "tv format".  Although David Lynch is a fan and he's not young.

I understand some of the aesthetic considerations.  The Eight Mountains looked great in 4:3 I think because they were trying to show great elevation changes and slopes and so on, and the perceived increase in height of 4:3 sort of helped that.  Also it was an amazing film generally.

But it doesn't translate very well back onto modern widescreen tvs imo.  In the theatre 4:3 still looks BIG, but a 34" tv in widescreen mode is pretty small.

11 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

would’ve been hailed as the greatest film ever by the people on my course

Yeah, it had that film school feel to it, in the way Christopher Nolan films are like a film school final project with a huge budget.  Look at me, deconstructing an reinventing cinema!!

[Keith Houchen]

7 hours ago, Merzbow said:

"creepy old guy online"

That’s my new Twitter bio. 

[DJM]

16 hours ago, Merzbow said:

We're All Going to the World's Fair, I saw that it had a very high RT rating from critics and horrendously low rating from punters so had to check it out. First thing, it's absolutely not a horror film as often listed, it's just a well made and slightly weird coming of age story of a sad lonely girl who's into creepypasta.. it felt like it was created by someone who was brought up on the fringes of 00's internet.

A solid low budget debut from both director and lead actress.

I hated We're All Going to the World's Fair and found it to be an awful, tedious film and one of the worst things I'd watched in years. Good to know that there are people who like it though.

I didn't hate Saltburn and thought it was a decent film, but it doesn't live up to the hype and doesn't deserve the attention it's been getting. Emerald Fennell's previous film Promising Young Woman is a much better film.

A few films I've watched over the last couple of weeks:

Silent Night, the latest film from John Woo, was really disappointing and just ended up being a really average revenge-action film that lacked any good action or thrills.

Rebel Moon (Part One) was a generic sci-fi movie in pretty much all areas, whilst The Creator was a good sci-fi action movie with some great visuals, on half of the budget of Rebel Moon.

Renfield was entertaining enough with Nicolas Cage good as Dracula, but yet still a quite underwhelming horror-comedy.

When Evil Lurks was a very good horror film, with a few memorable disturbing scenes. The director's previous film Terrified, whilst a bit of a mess, was also pretty good and an effective supernatural horror film.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

Whiplash - an alternate universe where Vern Schillinger conducts music and wears inexplicably tight t-shirts. 4/5

The Limey (first watch) - Terrence Stamp baffling Americans with Cockney rhyming slang. Bill Duke makes a cameo. What more could anyone want. 4/5

It’s A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (first watch) - some of the voices sound very off and it has little of the charm of other Muppet films. You do get Joan Cusack and a lot of Pepe the prawn though. 2/5

[Chris B]

Saltburn was okay, but I'm baffled as to why they played it like the ending was some big reveal. In fact, I think they did the final scene purely to prevent people going 'was... was that it?' at the end. Overall, if it wasn't for the more outrageous stuff, I think nobody would have paid attention.

[wordsfromlee]

Joy Ride

It's not any where near the level of Bridesmaids, regardless of how hard it tries to be.

[Mr_Danger]

Killers of the Flower Moon. Look, we all know what we’re getting with Marty these days. The craft is impeccable, the stories are unbelievable and the acting is top tier. What I struggled with with this was how difficult it was to see these utter evil cretins getting away with literal murder for so long and having to spend so much time in the company of irredeemable men. Unlike Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas there’s no lightness and the characters don’t have the charisma of a mobster or a good time shyster, they’re just terrible cunts. Luckily Leonardo Di Caprio is about one of the few Hollywood actors who can carry a character like Ernest Burkhat, a feeble simpleton. Unluckily it feels like the excellent Lily Gladstone should have been front and centre here and the perspective of the natives should have been a bigger part of the story. It’s a big story and he clearly wants the light shining on the overlooked villainy but I just wish it wasn’t so focused on their point of view.

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, Mr_Danger said:

Killers of the Flower Moon. Look, we all know what we’re getting with Marty these days. The craft is impeccable, the stories are unbelievable and the acting is top tier. What I struggled with with this was how difficult it was to see these utter evil cretins getting away with literal murder for so long and having to spend so much time in the company of irredeemable men. Unlike Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas there’s no lightness and the characters don’t have the charisma of a mobster or a good time shyster, they’re just terrible cunts. Luckily Leonardo Di Caprio is about one of the few Hollywood actors who can carry a character like Ernest Burkhat, a feeble simpleton. Unluckily it feels like the excellent Lily Gladstone should have been front and centre here and the perspective of the natives should have been a bigger part of the story. It’s a big story and he clearly wants the light shining on the overlooked villainy but I just wish it wasn’t so focused on their point of view.

Yeah, it didn't really work that well for me either. I've always said that I value Scorsese more as a film historian and preservationist than a filmmaker, and it's because he's always been choppy with me. He has made great films, of course, but for me personally there's also a lot in there I didn't care for that much and films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull that I liked but not to the degree that everyone else does.

This was a 206 minute film - how was so little comparative time spent specifically on the Osage? Also, aside from Gladstone, did anyone put in a good performance? Saw someone in a review say "It's three and a half hours of Leo and Bob doing Grumpy Cat impressions and Lily Gladstone being a goddess".

[Loki]

The book wasn't exactly conducive to a great movie in that there was no happy ending, the bad guys won and the Osage got historically screwed forever.

[Devon Malcolm]

The Holdovers (cinema)

Wonderful. I wouldn't commit to saying it's Alexander Payne's best because he's usually about as good as this. But it's a special kind of filmmaker that can elicit genuine sympathy for boarding school lads and a bastard classics teacher. Very, very funny and Paul Giamatti is as good as you've heard.

The End We Start From (cinema)

Mostly an acting masterclass from Jodie Comer and support cast attached to a bleak climate change disaster drama, but well told and it doesn't outstay its welcome.

Killers of the Flower Moon

It's ok. But its focus wasn't what I wanted from this story and I actually found a lot of the acting to be mediocre-to-bad outside of Lily Gladstone. What the fuck was Brendan Fraser especially doing? Marty's had much better days than this.

Blaze (2022)

You won't have heard of this but you should. A stunning Aussie drama about a 12 year old girl dealing with trauma after witnessing a rape and murder. One of the best films I've seen on this subject, possibly ever. Great performances and imaginative visuals. A real shame it's largely unknown.

Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain

Daft but not particularly funny. Could have been something really good if it had some actual jokes in it. Conan O'Brien's the best thing in it although I'm not sure why he is in it.

Pretty Red Dress

Nicely acted story about a black man experimenting with cross-dressing and gender roles. Suffers a bit from one or two too many clichés but handles its subject with tenderness. Alexandra Burke is in it, if you remember her, and she's good.

You Hurt My Feelings

Pretty good comedy about Juia Louis Dreyfus overhearing her husband saying he hates her new book. Excellent cast and really funny in places, even it feels more like a sitcom pilot than a film.