I Just Watched... (Movies/TV/DVD)

[Brocklock]

Nomadland: This has got to get best picture award of the year in many awards ceremonies later this year, in fact I can't really feel there has been anything that's stood out this strong in 2021 for sure, as well as 2020 since covid hit. The themes in this aren't meant to connect necessarily, but wow do they ever resonate in this pandemic era we are all living. That's why I feel this likely will take alot of wins come Oscar/GG etc season. Francis McDormand absolutely hit a home run in her performance as well as a traveling and struggling wanderer of sorts, reeling from literally losing everything during the recession of the late 2000's, from her family to her home to even the township she lived in. What follows is a tremendous character piece on what happens to someone when that hard trauma from serious life shifts occur. This is the stuff that connects to me to the last ten months we all have lived in. With all the death surrounding us, and deep losses in one way, shape, or form....holy fuck did this one hit home. The way the on the road life was showcased had so many interesting layers to it as well. Seriously check this one out, it was a gem of an emotional ride rooted deep in heartfelt/heartbreaking moments and beautiful cinematography.

I've seen a lot of the big favorites for Best Picture like One Night In Miami, Sound Of Metal, Promising Young Woman, Judas & The Black Messiah, Trial Of The Chicago 7, Mank, etc and I thought only Sound Of Metal felt like one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I didn't care for Mank, but the other movies are all really good or borderline great. In a weird year like this, I'm fine with really good getting nominated for best picture. I'm still nervous that Hillbilly Elegy is gonna get nominated for a ton, but I'll save them thoughts for the Oscar thread.

I'm super pumped to watch Nomadland as well as Minari which I've heard a lot of great things about as far as the remaining Oscar contenders I need to see. Nomadland seems right up my alley as I loved Chloe Zhao's other film I've seen The Rider, and Frances is probably my favorite actress. She's incredible.

 

[King Kamala]

Watched Judas & The Black Messiah last night. Have to agree with my man @Brocklock that it doesn't quite reach level of best picture of the year. I thought it was very solid, 7.5/8 movie, great award worthy performances from Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield but it was just a missing certain something to boost it from very good to great. I thought it was super interesting companion piece/almost bordering on a response to BlacKkKlansmen. Whereas BKKK threw pulled jabs at concept of policing, this threw full on haymakers (BKKK was slightly better picture though IMO). I'm honestly somewhat surprised that a movie this anti-capitalist was able to be released by a major studio.

 

[Brocklock]

I love the man, but Martin Sheen as J. Edgar Hoover sucked and the makeup job was really close to Dan Aykroyd in Nothing But Trouble. No one wants to look at that. This movie didn't really need Hoover anyways. And if they did, it would've been smarter to get a less recognizable older actor than Martin Sheen.

Kaluuya and Stanfield were awesome and are award worthy and the musical score is really effective. Jesse Plemons is also, as usual, very good. I thought some of the shootouts and action scenes were really well done too. The script kind of prevents it from making the leap from really good movie to one of the best of the year.

 

[King Kamala]

Martin Sheen was totally distracting. And you're right. There really wasn't a need for a J. Edgar Hoover character at all.

 

[Brocklock]

I just saw an article that mentioned that Sheen hated playing Hoover and didn't really want to play him, but took the part because he loved everyone involved. Maybe that's why he seemed so uncomfortable.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I definitely agree with what has being said. I didn’t mind One Night in Miami or Judas and the Black Messiah but I think both could have been more than what they ended up being. Now I know Miami was based on a stage play, which means if they stay true to the source there are a bunch of limitations but both films had really talented casts and a really solid foundation and neither ended up being super memorable.

 

[Brocklock]

I liked One Night a little more than Judas overall I think. I have both in the 8/10 range though. One Night had a pretty iffy beginning despite there being some character actors I like popping up like Beau Bridges playing a typical white dude and Michael Imperioli getting put in something good again! Once they all got in the hotel room together and it got more playlike, it settled into a great groove. Kingsley Ben-Adir and Leslie Odom Jr. were terrific. It just felt a little lacking of something that would push it into that great movie level.

Honestly, I think I liked Da 5 Bloods better than both. It has faults and it's like Spike at his most in your face and least subtle, but I found it very powerful at times and I think the angle they took with Trump made for some of the best scenes this year. It's a movie that I want to watch again because it has some scenes that have really stuck with me since I've seen it. I'm already getting ready to be angry when Delroy Lindo gets snubbed for Tony Hop getting nominated for playing another Sullen old white guy or Gerald Old Man Manking himself for a nomination.

 

[King Kamala]

Idk. Da 5 Bloods felt a little bit closer to me than an interesting Spike (slight) misfire than continuing his return to form. I definitely liked parts of it but tonally, it felt all over the place and about half of Da Bloods felt like after thoughts (Isaiah Whitlock's and the car dealer). Like a ***/7 out of 10 movie. I'd be totally down with Delroy Lindo getting some nominations though. Delroy Lindo fucking rules and isn't in enough stuff.

 

[Brocklock]

Chadwick was pretty much a slightly extended cameo and probably has a better shot at a Supporting Actor nom than Delroy has at an Actor nom. Chadwick is a lock for Best Actor in a movie I haven't seen but in everything I've read will be a much deserving nomination for him, so if you are going to give a supporting actor nom to someone in this I liked Jonathan Majors and Clarke Peters more than Chadwick. Clay Davis as well tbh.

It's not top tier Spike, but 2020 isn't a top tier year for film (My favorite 2020 film is a doc about an Owen Wilson esque man trying to reclaim his creation Pepe The Frog from the alt-right so it's a strange year) and Da 5 Bloods just hit me harder than a lot of the other films in the awards hunt. There are some parts I downright disliked (Man that BLM scene was corny as hell), but Delroy Lindo probably gives my favorite performance of the year and the high points are so high. I think I am going to give it a second watch before the Oscars to see if my opinion goes up or down.

 

[Hoff]

Today we watched I Care A Lot on the Netflix (I think on Netflix?) and I think that ten years ago, maybe even five, I would have loved it. These days, I get too worked up about even fictional portrayals of evils that exist in the real world. The main character is a woman who is running the con of sticking the elderly into nursing homes with her as their court-appointed guardian, then ransacking their homes, selling everything, and getting rich. I don't know if it's that easy in the real world, but elder abuse and and manipulating well-intended legal systems for profit at the expense of others are very real issues and while I won't spoil the ending, she gets away with far too much for my liking and the movie very clearly paints her as an anti-hero and not the villain she is.

Rosamund Pike is tremendous in the role of an absolutely vile human being, and if you don't have the same triggers that I do, I'd recommend this in a heartbeat. However, for us little lawful good paladins out there, it's a lot to take in.

 

[RedJed]

Without getting into it too much, from checking out Judas and the Black Messiah last weekend, my immediate reaction was that the performances overachieved, and the script was a clunky mess a bit that will hurt its' efforts come award season. Agreed about Sheen's stuff too, I would have rather that have been completely left out of the final cut really. It came off way off tone from the rest of the film. The themes in this one were obviously powerful as fuck and the feeling I left at the end of this film left me dejected at the atrocities, but something didn't fully resonate in the execution.

FYI, Nomadland is on Hulu now if anyone wants to check that out....

The World To Come: Quite frankly, one of the most desperately isolating and brooding dramatic film I've seen in ages. In the same breath, quite thoughtful and romantic in a way I didn't necessarily expect, as I went in relatively blind to this and wasn't aware that this was more or less a lesbian romance film. The combination made it hard to connect to, but I still thought this was pretty well done, but could have handled an extended ending as there was some loose ends not fully addressed. Vanessa Kirby and Katherine Waterston had some incredible chemistry on screen, and the big payoff here was a passionate scene between them we got in chunks near the end. Before that, however, was some dark moments of dread and broken connections that lead to damaging effects. Kinda worth a look.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Affliction (1997) starring Nick Nolte, James Coburn, and Sissy Spacek
The story centers around a small-town cop in New Hampshire trying to piece together an "accidental" hunting death, which he believes to be murder. Based off the Russell Banks novel.

Really strong, bleak movie. Nolte is very good but James Coburn steals the movie entirely and his Oscar win was well-earned. It's worth checking this out just for his performance. The movie is more of a character study of Nolte's cop character being influenced by/following in his abusive father's footsteps while trying to solve this hunting accident he believes to be murder as his own life begins to completely unravel. I adore Sissy Spacek as an actress but she was kind of just 'there' in this movie compared to other stuff like In The Bedroom, which came out a few years later where she really stole the show.

6.5/10 mostly because the murder-mystery death aspect is very much a secondary thread to Nolte's character unraveling. Coburn kills it but the direction otherwise is okay for the time period of these kinds of movies. Not really standing out much enough for me to give it a higher grade.

 

[treble]

Today we watched I Care A Lot on the Netflix (I think on Netflix?) and I think that ten years ago, maybe even five, I would have loved it. These days, I get too worked up about even fictional portrayals of evils that exist in the real world. The main character is a woman who is running the con of sticking the elderly into nursing homes with her as their court-appointed guardian, then ransacking their homes, selling everything, and getting rich. I don't know if it's that easy in the real world, but elder abuse and and manipulating well-intended legal systems for profit at the expense of others are very real issues and while I won't spoil the ending, she gets away with far too much for my liking and the movie very clearly paints her as an anti-hero and not the villain she is.

Rosamund Pike is tremendous in the role of an absolutely vile human being, and if you don't have the same triggers that I do, I'd recommend this in a heartbeat. However, for us little lawful good paladins out there, it's a lot to take in.

I watched this the other day. It was distracting how much it was trying to steal Gone Girl's aesthetic, with the score being somewhat similar and having Rosamund Pike narrate it (intermittently).

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Continuing my run through random 90s movies with good actors/casts.

Nick of Time (1995) - Directed by John Badham (WarGames, Short Circuit, Point of No Return)
The husband of a California Governor's wife sets up her murder at a rally during a campaign speech. Christopher Walken and Roma Maffia's characters kidnap Johnny Depp & his daughter, giving Depp 90 minutes to assassinate the Governor or they kill his daughter. Just a solid hero has to race against the clock movie. Badham still knows how to direct a solid movie and there's enough tension that the movie doesn't ever feel like a slog. Depp and Charles S. Dutton are both solid and Walken gives a fun performance like he usually does. 6/10

 

[RedJed]

More theatrical experiences as of late....

A Writer's Odyssey: A Chinese high end action/fantasy film that has effects in it that quite frankly blew me away at the scope of them, made for quite the adventure to watch. The story was pretty elaborate and in some ways a bit underwhelming, but make no mistake, this felt like a hollywood summer blockbuster in some ways in how epic it felt overall. I dont think this is on VOD, but should be at some point. I had read only about 100 theaters screened this in the US through AMC mostly.

Adverse: Really surprisingly good drama/revenge thriller with one of the kids from the American Pie series of all things (Thomas Nicholas) starring as a down on his luck guy who is trying to get his life together, and is responsible for an out of control sister that falls into some bad situations with drug dealers, one thing leads to another and you probably know the rest. Sister gets in trouble, brother tries to bail her out of said trouble, gets caught in the middle of the madness, and one thing leads to another. Mickey Rourke plays the main antagonist, a drug dealer who is all over the place and my god, this guy has become a real life version of the Joker with the way he looks with all the facial surgeries or botox or whatever the fuck he's doing to his face.

Night of the Kings: French drama that was pretty powerful. Set in an almost Guantanamo Bay-like prison, a young guy is caught in the middle of madness of other inmates literally running the asylum, as a plan begins to come around to manipulate the naïve kid as a tradition when the red moon appears a person must be sacrificed by certain means, signaling some sort of attempted uprising in the prison and attempted murder of this guy. The man is forced to create a long winded story to narrate to the masses in the prison in how he got into the situation he was involved with to lead up to a final encounter at the peak of the evening with the red moon coming out and his life on the line. I'm not giving the description justice as it was a phenomenal film. Should be awards bait on some level.

Crisis: This appeared to be a Traffic-like film to connect to the opioid crisis, but holy shit did this fail on a variety of levels. I figure this was fucked primarily because of the Armie Hammer controversy, as he was the main star of this film. How they got Gary Oldman and Evangeline Lilly, and other notables names in small bit roles blows me away as this was terribly crafted by Nicolas Jarecki, who also starred in this as well. Three storylines kind of sort of fused into each other by the end of this, but how they went about it was such a damn mess. This was neither engaging nor enthralling.

 

[The Amazing Rando]

I watched Raya And The Last Dragon last night (for my work winky face) and while I am not much of a theater person it felt like a good bit of the staging and visuals were absolutely meant for a bigger screen. I hope more badass Disney princesses appear in the future, but I swear if they try to prequel/sequel this thing I'm going to be so angry. No spoilers, but a prequel would be potentially exciting but depressing and a sequel would no doubt feel like the cartoons from the 80s that were little more than animated toy commercials.

Still cried at the end though.

 

[Gary]

Two Spanish horror movies I recently revisited (one yesterday and one today) that hold up very well

[REC]: I remember liking but not loving it when I first saw it. Revisiting it yesterday, and I find it better-and scarier-then I initially did. Also, the final 10 or so minutes are terrifying, and at less than an hour and a half long, it doesn't have any room for fat.

The Day of the Beast: Watched this one today, and I'm shocked more people don't talk about it. One of the best horror/comedy films of the 90s, and filled with laugh out loud moments and even a few that are creepy.

 

[RedJed]

Boogie: This was pretty good, but felt unfleshed out and maybe too fast of a narrative with so much compelling directions they went with. But the themes here were strong and heartfelt. The sports element was minimal here and it was much more about personal, family and heritage dynamics. Really easy watch at around 80 minutes of actual story.

Chaos Walking: This was one confusing and frustrating film. On one hand it felt like a summer blockbuster, had all the elements to make a franchise situation from, the look and effects of the film were impressive as fuck, and the star power certainly was there. But unfortunately, all execution failed on this one. The script seemed unfleshed out, too many story aspects were left unsaid and unexplained, characters were not given enough backstory to understand their intentions, things generally that was happening was not explained why and how it was, I could go on and on. It's too bad because I would think the book this was derived from has much more coherance to it, but I felt too many plots and directions were left vague and confusing because they were setting up further sequels out of this. Otherwise, there was no excuse to not dig deeper into the major "why is this happening?" stuff going on in this one....and there was plenty of that stuff.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Moxie! (2021) Directed by Amy Poehler
Right up my alley. I probably would've adored this movie even more if I had seen it when I was 13-15 years old. Hadley Robinson plays Vivian, a teen high school girl who gets inspired by her mom's (Amy Poehler) 90s Riot Grrrl inspired years and starts up her own anonymous fanzine called Moxie, which soon causes a culture shift at her school. Not as funny/clever as something like Mean Girls but it works well as a modern-day teen take on that early 90s revolution concept.

It gets the message across fine although some subplots kind of get brushed aside. Robinson stands out and the other actors are mostly solid, not quite as memorably written as the cast from MG. I'll probably like this movie more than most people as the pacing didn't feel long at all and it just connected with me in all the right ways. I do kind of wish the boyfriend had a stronger actor but that's largely my only real gripe.

 

[strummer]

Watched "Youngblood" over the weekend for the first time in nearly 30 years and it occurred to me that mid thirties Patrick Swayze is playing a minor league hockey player hoping to get "drafted by the pros". Also other than a very problematic hazing scene I still enjoyed it for the most part. Seeing .Rob Lowe try to act serious is kinda weird in retrospect

 

[OldSchoolWrestling]

Moxie! (2021) Directed by Amy Poehler
Right up my alley. I probably would've adored this movie even more if I had seen it when I was 13-15 years old. Hadley Robinson plays Vivian, a teen high school girl who gets inspired by her mom's (Amy Poehler) 90s Riot Grrrl inspired years and starts up her own anonymous fanzine called Moxie, which soon causes a culture shift at her school. Not as funny/clever as something like Mean Girls but it works well as a modern-day teen take on that early 90s revolution concept.

It gets the message across fine although some subplots kind of get brushed aside. Robinson stands out and the other actors are mostly solid, not quite as memorably written as the cast from MG. I'll probably like this movie more than most people as the pacing didn't feel long at all and it just connected with me in all the right ways. I do kind of wish the boyfriend had a stronger actor but that's largely my only real gripe.

I enjoyed the movie and someone cut onions in my house that night.

 

[Laz]

Also really enjoyed Moxie. I had plenty of riot grrl friends in the early 00s, so the soundtrack alone was a nostalgic trip.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I just rewatched Rocky 5 to see if it is as bad as we mostly remember.

It was a little silly that Rocky was told he would not be able to raise money doing commercials because his past record of being arrested for being a hired goon would be outed and no one would touch him. He was already doing ads in part 2!

The son subplot was ok, but I rolled my eyes when the bullies who had been beating and robbing Sage ended up befriending him once he defended himself. Sage went from troubled youth to Daddy's boy after one quick chat. No follow up on how his thuggish new friends took to his renewed love of the straight and narrow.

The Don King parody character made sense in 1990 for pop culture relevance, but it was played too over the top and felt out of place in a Rocky film.

They also tried to update the music with the times and played rap/hip hop (MC Hammer!) for several scenes. They teased the classic Rocky theme songs, but it was just a tease.

They tried to make "Go For It!" the Eye of the Tiger of this movie by referencing the term at least twice and playing this music:

I enjoyed seeing how they hid Tommy Gunn's face in the final fight scene as Dick Slater took bumps for him.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Re-watched both classics Rain Man and Taxi Driver last night. Such classic performances although I liked RM more of the two and think Cruise's performance is really well done it seems most remember Hoffman's instead (rightfully so).

While TD was better shot/directed and DeNiro as Travis Bickle is an iconic performance (although I'd argue that Jodie Foster was the most memorable performance IMO), I think Rain Man was the stronger film of the two script-wise and Hoffman really killed it. With that said, both movies could've used some editing as parts felt like slogs to get through to get back to the thread of the movie.

Rain Man = 8/10. The direction was fine but this is on the strength of the story, the chemistry, and the performances between Cruise & Hoffman.
Taxi Driver = 7/10. I think both Scorsese and DeNiro have done better and a lot of what was left unexplained I felt hurt the movie more than helped it. DeNiro is great and Foster really stands out, impressively so, but I felt the script/story could've been... meatier for the character study it intended to be.

 

[Epic Springs]

I know at least @HarleyQuinn will feel me on this one but I just got done watching the classic Nickelodeon documentary "The Orange Years" on Hulu. I loved it and am glad they detailed the different eras along with the classic programming. There are some shows that were frustratingly omitted (Welcome Freshmen, Wild & Crazy Kids, My Brother and Me) and some some stuff I felt was glossed over but it was a very strong doc overall. This is something I heard talked about forever and am glad it was finally made. Recommended if you also grew up watching.

 

[SFH]

Been slowly taking the time to watch The Three Stooges shorts, in order. I'm into the 25th or so episode now. I considered doing a review on each episode like I did for every horror I watch in October (a poor man version of 909's eloquent reviews) but I think I got about 5 or so deep when I realized, "If I put in print that I found this very dated joke funny, I'm going to lose a lot of credibility with my social justice friends." Even if I tried to dress it up with, "well in 2021 this is a poor taste joke , and yes I realize the racial/sexual inequalities of the time, but at least Columbia pictures was giving work to women and people of color..." I think I'd get booed off of social media for a few days. So I'm just going to privately watch them.

I don't think I have the ability to write something that would fairly point out the good and bad of these shorts, time period context or not, without putting my foot in my mouth and then subsequently digging a hole deeper and deeper with, "what I meant was...." defenses. I'm too deep into the viewing experience to retroactively start writing anyway. Up to this point the most glaringly awful gag, for my world view, has been the 1936 Whoops! I'm an Indian and even that isn't me being altruistic. My older (adopted) sister is Native (and subsequently my niece and her child) and I get a little defensive on their behalf even if they give like maybe 15% of a shit about their heritage. I care damn it .


I'm a victim of circumstance.

 

[Laz]

"Them: Covenant" is an Amazon original that so desperately wants to be "if Jordan Peele did AHS," but only offers the most milquetoast and bougie takes on America's racist past with the blandest shock factor elements of horror imaginable.

So it's fucking AHS. Absolute fucking garbage that only works on a technical level.

 

[Youth N Asia]

Always meant to watch What We Do In The Shadows. Killed my cable recently, so I just started the series through Hulu, and goddamn this is so much funnier than I thought it could be. Still haven’t seen the movie. But I’ll hit that after the series.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Always meant to watch What We Do In The Shadows. Killed my cable recently, so I just started the series through Hulu, and goddamn this is so much funnier than I thought it could be. Still haven’t seen the movie. But I’ll hit that after the series.

The show is very good but the movie was even better.

 

[King Kamala]

Watched Body Brokers last night. Mostly cause my man Marc Maron devoted a whole week of podcasts a month or two back to shilling it, which is v. unusual for him. I can see why it spoke to him as a very outspoken sobriety guy since I think it examines the rehab industry in a way I don't think most people (self included) know about.

As much as I hate shitting on a small movie with a good intentions, this was not very good. Whole style and tone felt very mid '00s. Lead character was poorly written and poorly performed (Val Kilmer's kid!) that during the "shocking gut punch" ending, I let out a Gorilla Monsoon-esque "WHO CARES!?" It didn't seem like the movie wanted to know if it wanted to be an earnest expose or a pitch black comedy about the grift of the rehab industry.

I did really like a few things. Michael Kenneth Williams has a quite fun against type performance as one of the top recruiters for the treatment centers. If you want to see him as a slick, emotionally bankrupt and hypocritical con artist who inexplicably dresses in Western wear, this is the movie for you. Some great ideas there and it definitely wasn't boring but definitely not very good. 4.5/10