Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

Woman of Straw (Basil Dearden, 1964) 7/10

Connery on a sabbatical after his first two Bond outings goes for a change of pace playing a cad in this colorful and old fashioned melodrama. An ailing, wheel chair bound tycoon (Sir Ralph Richardson) falls for his voluptuous nurse (Gina Lollobrigida) who in turn falls prey to the devious plans of his nephew (Sean Connery) who has eyes on his uncle's vast fortune. Smartly played by the three leads with debonair Connery, Lollobrigida perfect eye candy in her tight Dior outfits and Richardson walking away with the film playing one of the most despicable characters portrayed on screen - he is hysterically funny throwing nasty hissy fits, abusing his black servant (a dignified Johnny Sekka), oogling Lolobrigida and just plain making a nuisance of himself. The lovely Mallorca locations are an added plus.

[Reza]

Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi, 2016) 6/10

This is like "Rocky" - the feel good film of the year with the underdog(s) coming out on top during a rousing finalé. The underdogs in this fascinating true story are three sassy, smart African-American (read "black") women who overcame racism in white America during the early 1960s and proved their mettle in an unusual location - at NASA. One of numerous movies during the year that set out to prove the slogan "#oscarssowhite" wrong and actually managed not only to be a hit at the boxoffice but also managed to snag a best picture nod at the Oscars. The three women - "hidden figures" of American history - are smart, ambitious, skilled in aerodynamics and engineering yet can't get ahead at work (Octavia Spencer - nominated for an Oscar), get into grad school (Janelle Monáe) or get taken seriously (Taraji P. Henson, a quietly simmering standout). It's because they are black, they are women and it's 1961 - in the South. The story revolves around how they overcame bigotry and sexism to play important roles during the first flight that sent John Glen up into space. It's all very rousing but the screenplay plays out in a predictable and calculated way. Extremely well acted by the trio of actresses with smaller but effective roles played by Kevin Costner as the head honcho at NASA and Kirsten Dunst as a senior co-worker. Despite its small pleasures the film lacks sting. It's just too predictable and clean cut.

[Reza]

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) 7/10

A young black man comes of age dealing with his sexuality while growing up in Miami with his mother (Naomie Harris), who is a crack addict, and a sympatheic drug dealer (Mahershala Ali) who shelters and mentors him. The story of Chiron is told in three chapters: the uncertain boy, the vulnerable teenager and the remote young man. Acclaimed film which sympathetically deals with not only the "black experience" but also shows what it means to be black and gay with all it's lonely heartbreak and brutal repercussions. Jenkins' use of classical music (Mozart) along with Motown songs is an inspired choice as it automatically differentiates this film from many films that have dealt with the "black experience" and which use harsh rap music on the soundtrack. The lyrical music along with the stunning bright cinematography signal hope despite the harsh life the young man goes through. Well acted film has important things to say but it is by no means the masterpiece it has been declared to be.

[Reza]

Quantico - Season 1 (2015-2016) 8/10

I'm amazed a Hollywood studio would actually take a chance with having a Bollywood female actor play the lead in a tv series. This has the feel of "24" without being set during the course of one day. An FBI agent (Priyanka Chopra) is captured and held responsible for a terrorist attack in New York City. The story moves constantly between two time periods - nine months before as the FBI agent goes through her training period along with other recruits and the present as she goes on the run trying to prove her innocence. The plot concentrates on 10 recruits who become close friends and with the suspicion falling on one of them. Fast moving thriller is a fascinating insight into the methods of how the agents are trained along with an underlying message about the way the United States has driven terrorists to act the way they have. The young supporting cast works well with the star who is astonishingly comfortable playing in this Hollywood production.

[Reza]

Séance on a Wet Afternoon (Bryan Forbes, 1964) 8/10

Creepy and mannered psychological thriller. A mentally disturbed fake medium (Kim Stanley in an Oscar nominated performance) persuades her weak and downtrodden husband (Richard Attenborough who won a Bafta award) to kidnap a young girl, ask for ransom and then try and convince the child's distraught mother (Nanette Newman) that she has found the wherabouts of the child through a séance. Things don't go according to plan. Superbly acted melodrama helped in great part by moody and bleak cinematography gives this edgy story a touch of Hitchcock.

[Reza]

xXx: Return of Xander Cage (D. J. Caruso, 2017) 4/10

Xander Cage (Vin Diesel), believed to be dead, secretly returns (in this reboot) to a tough new assignment at the behest of his handler (Samuel L. Jackson) and a macho CIA operative (Toni Colette). The nonsensical plot has some rogue element swipe a "pandora's box" whereby he has total control of all the satellites up in space which one by one he threatens to drop on major cities. Two gangs - one led by Xander and his cronies and the other led by Xiang (Hong Kong martial arts star Donnie Yen) & Serena (Bollywood star Depika Padukone) - join hands to try and get the box to avert major disaster. This film is one long series of action stunts on land, sea and air. Every stunt has been copied from far better movies and the outrageous action set pieces veer into cartoon territory. Diesel, with a smirk and a quip, has great star presence and the assorted international actors in support go through the motions and are obviously part of this film for it to make money at the boxoffice in the Asian markets. Deepika Padukone, such a vibrant presence in Bollywood films, here is undone by an underwritten part and inexplicably speaks english with a South Indian accent making her character into a caricature. If Vin Diesel hopes to make this into a franchise then he will have to ensure better scipts otherwise it's pointless sitting through a loud film strung together via absurd action sequences. Watch this if you enjoy stunts and CGI effects. If you are looking for a meaningful story then avoid this messy film.

[Reza]

The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, 1964) 6/10

Rather overpraised chiller is silliness personified although it's the best of a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations that Corman directed with star Vincent Price in tow. The actor brings to it his special touch of artificiality in a deliciously camp performance as the maniacal Prince Prospero, servant of Satan, ruthlessly ruling over the peasants on his land. Holding forth over a session of masked role playing games with his courtiers he drools wickedly over farcical methods of killing and maiming humans for sport. The film has a lot of atmosphere, shot on left over sets from "Becket", elaborately costumed and superbly photographed in colour by Nicolas Roeg. Notwithstanding a couple of great set pieces - buxom Hazel Court drinking blood and writhing orgasmically at Satan's altar while weird men brandish daggers at her and later her trance-like walk through different coloured rooms - this is really pure nonsense. A Carnaby streetish Jane Asher, as the damsel in distress, is too contemporary - her hairstyles are strictly 1960s. Patrick Magee is good as the cynical sidekick. A fun film but hardly the classic some are claiming it to be.

[Reza]

Quantum of Solace (Marc Forster, 2008) 3/10

This is a direct sequel to Bond's previous outing "Casino Royale" with mutterings of "Vesper Lynd" and revenge in his eyes. It is also the most lifeless Bond film with a tepid villain (Mathieu Amalric), lackluster Bond girls (Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton - though fiery and very chic Dame Judi (as "M") makes every one of her scenes count, a silly plot (about eliminating a country's valuable water resources), scenes that should have made use of the widescreen are stupidly and much too often shot in extreme close-up, a lousy title song, badly chosen locations (the seedy slums of Panama substituting for Haiti, a desert in Chile and the Italian alps filmed in medium shot missing all the beauty of the surroundings. This is the only Bond film that has a foot chase, a car chase, a boat chase and a plane chase and all of them are pretty much a fizzle. And it's also the only Bond film where Bond doesn't get it up for Queen & Country. The only saving grace is Daniel Craig who moves through this supreme mess of a film using his sheer star presence.

[Reza]

Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016) 6/10

We have been conditioned through literature and cinema to feel a sense of awe and/or fear about the possibility of contact with aliens from outer space. There is none of that in this rather ponderous story of a group of giant pods that mysteriously appear in different parts of the world. The US government gets a top linguist (Amy Adams), who is carrying a lot of emotional trauma from her past, and a theoretical scientist (Jeremy Renner in a thankless part) to try and find out the purpose of the alien (giant octopus like apparitions) visit by trying to reach to them by deciphering their language. The film, shot with it's color drained, is like a hazy mournful dream as soldiers march, people revert to aggression towards the visitors, eerie sequences inside the pod (a moody score and outstanding art direction compliment these scenes) as the two try to communicate with the form-evolving creatures. This hokum has a message of tolerance and a plea for nations to come together buried deep within the schlock. Amy Adams holds it all together giving a strongly moving performance as the committed linguist who's past plays a role in helping her to understand the alien beings and their arrival. This could have been far more effective as a small and intimate little film instead of bloating it up in true Hollywood blockbuster fashion. One can feel that intimate little film stuck somewhere deep within the confines of all the unnecessary bloat. Oh yes, there's also a twist in the plot.

[Reza]

Moonlight (2016) Barry Jenkins 6/10

So what did you think of Moonlight?

[Precious Doll]

The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015) Lars Kraume 7/10
A Hologram For the King (2016) Tom Tykwer 4/10
31 (2016) Rob Zombie 4/10
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) Travis Knight 6/10
Suicide Squad (2016) David Ayer 2/10
Deepwater Horizon (2016) Peter Berg 4/10
Something Wild (1961) Jack Garfein 6/10
Star Trek Beyond (2016) Justin Lin 4/10
Jim: The James Foley Story (2016) Brian Oakes 4/10
Moonlight (2016) Barry Jenkins 6/10
13 Hours (2016) Michael Bay 2/10
Fatima (2015) Philippe Faucon 7/10

Repeat viewings

Conrack (1974) Martin Ritt 7/10
Gate Of Hell (1953) Teinosuke Kinugasa 7/10
Still Walking (2008) Hirokazu Koreeda 10/10
Midnight Express (1978) Alan Parker 4/10

[Precious Doll]

Burn Burn Burn (2016) Chanya Button 3/10
Shepherds and Butchers (2016) Oliver Schmitz 4/10
Closet Monster (2016) Stephen Dunn 6/10
Lion (2016) Garth Davis 5/10
Kalinka (2016) Vincent Garenq 3/10
The Ardennes (2015) Robin Pront 3/10
Ethel & Ernest (2016) Robert Mainwood 6/10
Chocolat (2016) Roschdy Zem 4/10

Repeat viewings

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) Albert Lewin 9/10
Thief (1981) Michael Mann 6/10 (Director's cut)
Tootsie (1982) Sydney Pollack 7/10
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) Albert Lewin 8/10
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) Charles B. Pierce 6/10
Fear City (1984) Abel Ferrara 7/10 (Director's cut)
Animal Farm (1954) Joy Batchelor & John Halas 10/10

[Reza]

Remorques / Stormy Waters (Jean Grémillon, 1941) 7/10

The star of the film is the raging ocean. Grémillon's film had a troubled production which started production in 1939, finished and released in 1941 when the Vichy government was in power and both stars - Gabin and Morgan - had left for Hollywood to escape the Nazis. All the shots with the boats on the sea were filmed at the end and the film was hastily completed. A tugboat captain (Jean Gabin), married to a clingy and unwell wife (Madeleine Renaud), has an affair with a magnetic, unhappily married woman (Michéle Morgan) of another boat's captain whom he rescues during a terrible storm. The film has exciting scenes on the wild seas of a ship's rescue but it really comes alive during the romantic interludes with the two jaded lovers both vulnerable and passionate in their mutual guilt. Not withstanding the potholes in the screenplay (adapted by Jacques Prévert) - and the mystery of Morgan's hair that keeps switching from brunette to blonde - this is a seminal film in a long list of french classics by great directors working at their peak during the 1930s and 1940s.

[Reza]

Naked Alibi (Jerry Hopper, 1954) 8/10

Cat-and-mouse game between a cop (Sterling Hayden) and a baker (Gene Barry) who is suspected of having killed three detectives. Tautly directed film ends up in a small seedy Mexican town south of the border. Gloria Grahame is the woman who gets caught between the two men. Low budget noir (photographed by Russell Metty) packs a punch with it's atmosphere and strong performances by the three leads - a tough but sensitive Hayden, a psychotic turn by Barry and the incredibly sexy Grahame who sings, pouts gets slapped around and gives the film just the right touch of oomph.

[Reza]

Night Must Fall (Karel Reisz, 1964) 9/10

Emlyn Williams old play gets a modern remake with an emphasis on the division of the class structure in Britain. A working class lad, who has "mommy issues", is a psychotic murderer - he carries his latest victim's head in a hat box - and gets employed as a handyman at the country cottage of an invalid old woman (Mona Washbourne) who lives with her posh young daughter (Susan Hampshire). The part time maid (Sheila Hancock) is the lad's girlfriend but soon he charms the other two ladies - the older one develops a possessive crush on him while the daughter is sexually excited by the virile young man. As expected the denouement involves a grand guignol moment which happens off camera although Reisz keeps the suspense going with sharp editing, a loud ominous score, odd camera angles (photographed superbly by Freddie Francis) and especially through Finney's magnificent performance. The actor takes the part and runs with it - part ham, part pathetic, part evil, part gleeful - and combines it all to create a sexually mesmerising character who manipulates all three women to his own advantage. He is matched in the acting stakes by Washbourne as the silly old lady who finds herself sexually awakening to the young man's attentions although she can be very abrupt in keeping him in place by making clear their class differences. This is a must-see and a forgotten film that needs to be rediscovered.