VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[Devon Malcolm]

I don't have any hesitation saying it's the best performance I've seen from Demi Moore. Technically brilliant and incredibly brave.

I wouldn't personally have it as a film of the year contender either but The Substance was excellent. For performance of the year, right now (I'm still working through a 2024 backlog) I'd have Mikey Madison's down too, just ahead of Courtney Eaton in Parachute.

[cobra_gordo]

It's up there for film of the year for me, despite missing the last 5 minutes because I had to leg it to our bathroom as I thought I was going to throw up. Five fucking stars.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I don't have any hesitation saying it's the best performance I've seen from Demi Moore. Technically brilliant and incredibly brave.

I wouldn't personally have it as a film of the year contender either but The Substance was excellent. For performance of the year, right now (I'm still working through a 2024 backlog) I'd have Mikey Madison's down too, just ahead of Courtney Eaton in Parachute.

She was fantastic, such a good film as well, possibly my favorite of the year. Haven't seen Parachute but thought Willa Fitzgerald in Strange Darling was phenomenal. 

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

She was fantastic, such a good film as well, possibly my favorite of the year. Haven't seen Parachute but thought Willa Fitzgerald in Strange Darling was phenomenal. 

Agreed, hope she gets a pile of work off the back of it.

[johnnyboy]

Babygirl

Certificate 18 for strong sex scenes... Where were they?

A bit like a gender-reversed Secretary with added family drama.  Not bad, but I wouldn't flock to your local Odeon.

Antonio Banderas.  (Massive spoiler)

Spoiler

Apparently he hadn't make Nicole Kidman's character orgasm in 20 years.  What hope for us mere mortals?

 

Edited January 7, 2025 by johnnyboy

[FLips]

Friday

Thought it was alright. Cringey stoner comedy aside there's enough going on without it where the film still ends up decent. Great characters and some fun comedy, can't complain too much.

Fist Fight

Enjoyed this. It's chaotic but everyone involved turns it up to 100 and sinks their teeth into a really stupid concept. Surprised to see this got panned critically because I thought it was a fairly easy to watch 90 minute dumb comedy.

Edited January 8, 2025 by FLips

[johnnyboy]

Here

Forrest Gump and Walt DIsney's Carousel of Progress had a baby that's presentation is inspired by a graphic novel.

De-aged Hanks was a bit uncanny valley, but overall I loved the concept, execution, and the amount that this made my face leak.

It will be a bit too sickly and schmaltzy for some, but I absolutely loved it and could happily watch it again, which I might actually do once it's on general release.

[SaitoRyo]

Betrayed

FBI agent Debra Winger goes undercover as a combine driver to investigate potential white supremacist activity in the Midwest. She falls for handsome farmboy Tom Berenger (natch), who turns out to be a big, dangerous piece of shit. 

I liked parts of this, but it went on a bit and there's a few unbelievable moments/scenes that took me out of it. Winger and Berenger are both really good in it, mind, and there's a bunch of good actors showing up to support, including John Heard, Ted Levine and Frasier's dad. Quite uncomfortable in parts due to the subject matter, especially when the child actors are reciting some very hateful dialogue. 

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

Tom Berenger

I am simply incapable of seeing his name without recalling 1994's Chasers, which also featured Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell and Erika Eleniak, who all delivered exactly the performances you wanted, for very different reasons.

[SaitoRyo]

53 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I am simply incapable of seeing his name without recalling 1994's Chasers, which also featured Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell and Erika Eleniak, who all delivered exactly the performances you wanted, for very different reasons.

Too many legends.

[Devon Malcolm]

Tom Berenger has been in five Sniper films. And that might sound like a lot until you discover they're releasing the 11th in the series this year.

[Merzbow]

Linda Linda Linda might just be the cutest film I've ever watched, it's a pretty straightforward and simple film about a group of highschool girls starting a new band after an injury and a teenage falling out ends the previous one for the moment. But everything feels so natural and hopeful without being saccharine, plus it's shot so beautifully and is the perfect early 00's Japan time capsule.

Even the older musician ex boyfriend who would usually come across creepily is the sweetest guy.

[Lorne Malvo]

Nosferatu - I was so close to loving this at times, but it just about fell short. Still, I did really like it. It's absolutely stunning to look at, Hoult, Depp and Dafoe all ham it up brilliantly and some of it is genuinely creepy. I did have a few issues - the pacing was a little off (there's about a 20-minute slump in the middle) and I think they overplay their hand with Orlok (at the start he's a very scary figure but by the end, when you've seen him have full-blown dialogue scenes he had lost his presence for me). I also wasn't huge on the design of Orlok, the moustache really threw me at first. Still, these are minor quibbles and I'd go as far to say it is the definitive Dracula adaptation (although none of them have really nailed the pacing/3 act structure of the book - the 2020 Dracula BBC show came closest but it's horrible final episode let it down). A very good start to the year.

We Live in Time - I really liked this, but weepie rom-coms are a guilty pleasure of mine (admittedly this is much more rom than com). Florence Pugh as great as ever and Andrew Garfield his usual dependable, likeable self. The nonlinear structure was a git of a cheap gimmick to make it stand out from other films of this ilk but it worked.

Edited January 10, 2025 by Lorne Malvo
Bacon, I can't spell.

[Chris B]

27 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

 I'd go as far to say it is the definitive Dracula adaptation (although none of them have really nailed the pacing/3 act structure of the book - the 2020 Dracula BBC show came closest but it's horrible final episode let it down). A very good start to the year.

 

While I'm going to gloss over the fucking awful 2020 Dracula show, I agree otherwise - good adaptations are a pretty rare thing. Part of the problem is that Dracula is an absolute bastard to adapt.

Who's the protagonist, for starters? The only one that makes sense is Mina, but she gets a relatively low amount of time in the book. Harker's the obvious one for parts of it, but he's missing for loads of it, due to the way the novel jumps all over the place. The story's actually about a group coming together, mainly because Dracula attacked a girl they all genuinely adore (and her treatment in the BBC version is part of why I hated it). But that's really difficult to adapt into a film-length, because so much time is taken up with the (brilliant) opening sequence.

That the original Nosferatu managed to adapt the novel that well (and far better than the Lugosi film in a lot of ways) is astonishing. And it adds in the plague stuff (in the shadow of the 1918 pandemic) and, erm, an awkward element of antisemitism.

But what adaptations are better than this new one? The only ones that, for me, come close are the 1958 Lee/Cushing film (which jettisons the plot in favour of capturing the spirit), Bram Stoker's Dracula (which is magnificently silly, and I've come around after hating it for decades) and the BBC Louis Jordan version (which is on YouTube and worth a glance). I did a podcast a little while ago about the time Jack Palance played Dracula and that is not a good film, yet it's troubling my list of all-timers, because so many are crap.

[BomberPat]

I thought the BBC adaptation had its moments - the first episode was very strong, and it seemed to try to focus on elements that weren't done to death in other adaptations, like spending a lot more time on the Demeter. I even enjoyed the mad twist before the final episode, but the follow-up on it was dreadful, and very Doctor Who (in the worst way). It was Steven Moffat all over, really, just having too many contradictory ideas at once but still trying to do all of them.

I saw a comedy play about Dracula, where the pretense is that it's a lecture by the real Van Helsing, and he's telling you what really happened, but in "The Play That Goes Wrong" style, the actors are useless and everything keeps falling apart. But there's a point where they try and speed through a chunk of the story as quickly as possible, and it has my favourite moment of adapting Dracula ever, which is a single scene of Jonathan Harker screaming, "WHY AM IN A CORRIDOR?!".