VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[LaGoosh]

I'm on a bit of modern era Spielberg kick at the moment. Watched Lincoln last night and it was excellent. Spielberg fills it to the absolute brim with amazing character actors in small roles with great dialogue so you combine that with Spielberg's masterful blocking and I had a grin on my face pretty much all the way through.

[Mr_Danger]

10 hours ago, Onyx2 said:

It's brilliant casting, but we'll have the inevitable flashback to the original crime, an episode on his abusive dad, an episode on the husband and wife getting together... 

I’ll look forward to season 2 where Cady and Sam have to team up to face a common evil. 

[DCW]

Dinner in America (2022)

Was googling indie sorta films and this got a good few mentions. Nerdie sheltered girl meets angry Punk rocker lad for a coming of age romance dark comedy. Really funny and has a good heart underneath all the swearing and violence. The song the main duo come up with is very addictive too. Well worth a watch. Features guest turns from the still lovely Lea Thompson as a cheating housewife and Gail the Snail from Always Sunny as the nerdie girls Mam. Watched it on me dodgy box so no idea which streaming service its actually on.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

On 12/4/2024 at 8:42 AM, LaGoosh said:

I'm on a bit of modern era Spielberg kick at the moment. Watched Lincoln last night and it was excellent. Spielberg fills it to the absolute brim with amazing character actors in small roles with great dialogue so you combine that with Spielberg's masterful blocking and I had a grin on my face pretty much all the way through.

Funny you mention him, once I’ve finished my Pixar marathon (just about to start Cars 3, fuck my life) I’m moving on to a big Spielberg watch. From Duel to Fabelmans. There’s quite a few I haven’t seen before, mostly from War Horse onwards. Not sure whether to watch Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories since they’re not solo efforts. 

[WyattSheepMask]

1 hour ago, DCW said:

Dinner in America (2022)

Was googling indie sorta films and this got a good few mentions. Nerdie sheltered girl meets angry Punk rocker lad for a coming of age romance dark comedy. Really funny and has a good heart underneath all the swearing and violence. The song the main duo come up with is very addictive too. Well worth a watch. Features guest turns from the still lovely Lea Thompson as a cheating housewife and Gail the Snail from Always Sunny as the nerdie girls Mam. Watched it on me dodgy box so no idea which streaming service its actually on.

Arrow Player has it over here, which you can get either on its own or through Amazon Prime as an add-on

[wordsfromlee]

24 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Arrow Player has it over here, which you can get either on its own or through Amazon Prime as an add-on

Or for free on Tubi

[Merzbow]

Yeah my recent rewatch was on Tubi, I've put multiple people on to the film this year and would like to think I'm part of why it's been getting all this love years after release (it's actually RedLetterMedia covering it and also becoming a Letterboxd fav).

[WyattSheepMask]

3 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

Or for free on Tubi

Ah thaks for that. I searched it on Just Watch and it only mentioned Arrow Player

[Devon Malcolm]

The woman I really fancy in the nearby coffee shop recommended it the other day so I'll watch it over the weekend.

[SuperBacon]

3 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The woman I really fancy in the nearby coffee shop recommended it the other day so I'll watch it over the weekend.

Is your first date going to be you comparing your Letterboxds? ❤️

[Devon Malcolm]

4 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Is your first date going to be you comparing your Letterboxds? ❤️

The only way I'd be less likely to get my leg over is if I mentioned UKFF.

[DavidB6937]

2 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The only way I'd be less likely to get my leg over is if I mentioned UKFF.

Ask her if its CM Punk's fault.

[Devon Malcolm]

Conclave (cinema)

Seems to be upsetting all the right people, which is a bonus, but it's a good old-fashioned conspiracy thriller with a great cast and an all-timer ending. Also unexpectedly features two of the biggest laughs of the year. Edward Berger's going far.

Christmas Eve in Miller's Point

Bizarre mash-up of John Hughes family comedy and Robert Altman ensemble drama. Doesn't really go anywhere but it's weird and amusing and features Michael Cera and Gregg Turkington in a buddy cop subplot. Odd, but good odd!

Io Capitano (Mubi)

Getting a lot of awards buzz but it's crap. Really selective in its thoughts on migrants from Africa, features some really out-of-place magical realism bullshit, and only really has its acting going for it.

Drift

Anyone interested in more Cynthia Erivo right now would do well to check this out. Great little drama about a Liberian woman who escapes to Greece after a political coup, with excellent support from Alia Shawkat, who's always really good.

Absolution

The latest Liam Neeson junk. Almost no action, because he's too fucking old, more a depressing crime drama about a mob enforcer with CTE. Ron Perlman's in it but not enough.

Marmalade

I wasn't buying this at all until about the halfway mark when it turns in a much more interesting direction. Worth perservering with if you like a bit of black comedy crime stuff.

1992

A fair bit better than the usual stuff Tyrese Gibson does in-between F&F films. An actually really solid crime thriller set on the night of the Rodney King riots, with a great Ray Liotta performance in one of his final roles. A nice surprise.

Salem's Lot (2024)

Actually, not too bad. The performances are not great and it's too slow at times but there are some stunning kill scenes and this didn't deserve to be buried, really.

The Outrun

Good year for Saoirse Ronan but she's at that stage where she's better than almost everything she's in. This is a case in point even though it's still a pretty decent drama about an alcoholic young woman who heads home to the Orkneys.

Hundreds of Beavers

Just not my thing at all. Hated all of the 40 minutes I watched it for, I can't believe it goes on for another hour. Balls to that.

Your Monster

UKFF favourite Melissa Barrera falls in love with the monster in her closet in a pretty cute horror romcom, similar to stuff like Warm Bodies. Just not as good but the ending to this one is awful. 

Bad Boys: Ride or Die

The previous one was complete shit but somehow this one is entirely watchable. I can't predict this series at all. Just give the new characters something to do ffs, Martin Lawrence is out of breath just saying his lines.

[DCW]

We watched Absolution the other night and were very disappointed it wasn't the usual Neeson job lot. Instead it was just fair bloody depressing and shitely predictable, not the good predictable where you at least gain some sort of satisfaction at the ending. Not enough Perlman is right too. He was barely in it. Whoever played his daughter doing her pound shop Amy Adams in The Fighter impression was annoying as feck as well.

[organizedkaos]

Just for a alternative view I thought Hundreds of Beavers was fantastic, totally understand if it's not your thing as it's extremely a specific thing.

A sort of marriage of Jacques Tati, Chaplin and Mario Kart. Incredibly stylised and basically a live cartoon but if you get into it's rhythm the whole thing starts to feel like this amazing clock mechanism where joke cogs cycle into each other intersecting and adding to each other and growing and growing. It definitely did take a moment to get used to it's style and it's got that weird modern low budget thing where some elements look great and others look shonky. Also as I said, live cartoon, it's a unique thing and pretty off from the sort of stuff I like but it's just so... well crafted in it's low budget, comedy beaver suits scrappyness..  Regardless of the "construction" it's just a unique style of film making made by people who had fuck all resources and still seem to have steadfastly stuck to their artistic idea.
I really dug what it did and straight up applauded (to no-one) when it ended and I'm not that sort of physical reaction type person. It just felt like both this incredible feat of creation and the final joke's callback on a callback on a callback was perfect.