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

[Reza]

20th Century Women (Mike Mills, 2016) 8/10

At the heart of this coming of age comedy drama is an amazing performance by Annette Bening as a chain-smoking matriarch presiding over a towering and shabby mansion (in a perpetual state of renovation) in Southern California circa 1979. The film is a series of vignettes exploring motherhood, sexual freedom, punk music and a counterculture in the midst of self-discovery. The plot revolves around a teenage boy and his interaction with three women who influence his life - his loving, over-bearing, free spirit mother (Annette Bening), their purple tinted punk photographer lodger (Greta Gerwig) and the fragile young girl (Elle Fanning) from the neighborhood who frequently climbs into the boy's bed to get platonic sympathy. Each woman individually teaches him about life but in wildly differing and hysterical ways. The only other male influence in the house is the worker (Billy Crudup) helping in the renovation work and bedmate to two of the women on the side. The heartwarming and often hilarious screenplay (nominated for an Oscar) creates wonderfully real characters and situations but unfortunately the director's fanboy choice of the period's music - Devo, the Clash, Talking Heads, Black Flag - is so shrill and loud on the soundtrack that it grates on the nerves and often drowns out the dialogue. But this is a small complaint in what is a marvelously nostalgic film. Bening, Gerwig and Fanning are all amazing with one scene involving Fanning, discussing her sex life, side splittingly funny.

[Reza]

In a Valley of Violence (Ti West, 2016) 7/10

West pays homage to Sergio Leone during the credits using the same style letters zig-zagging across the screen with a jaunty score signalling Ennio Morricone in this tale of a mysterious stranger (Ethan Hawke superbly underplaying) riding into town and getting mired in revenge after a mindless act of violence which seems straight out of the Keeanu Reeves actioner "John Wicks". I suppose with westerns in such short supply nowadays screenwriters need to put in familiar bits and pieces to attract an older audience. The stranger, harboring scars from the past, gets needled by a vicious and cocky deputy marshall (James Ransone) resulting in a grusome bloodbath of epic proportions. John Travolta, in his first western, steals every scene as the Marshall who is quite fed up with the excesses of his son. This is a western which is heart wrenching, funny and horrific all at the same time.

[Reza]

Conduct Unbecoming (Michael Anderson, 1975) 8/10

"Conduct Unbecoming" was a phrase used as a charge in courts martial of the British Armed Forces in the 18th and early 19th centuries "for behaving in a scandalous, infamous manner, such as is unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman". A courtroom drama presented as a whodunnit and set in a British officer's outpost mess in the North West Frontier Province of India during the Victorian era. The plot revolves around a scandalous mystery which is exposed in a kangaroo court presided over by the senior officers in order to preserve the honour of the regiment. A newly arrived junior officer (James Faulkner) is accused of assaulting the pretty, flirtatious widow (Susannah York) of the regiment's revered hero. A court is quickly set up by the senior officers and they select another junior officer (Michael York) to ‘'defend'' the accused. When the investigation reveals certain nasty truths there is strong pressure to quickly cover up and convict the accused in order to uphold the honour of the regiment at all costs even if it means condemning the wrong person. The riveting plot is a harsh indictment of the British army, circa the 1890s. The film is mostly set bound with a few outdoor shots filmed on location in Pakistan (Islamabad and Kohat in the NWFP). However, due to sharp editing the story moves at a quick pace and belies it's stage origins. An extraordinary cast was selected to play the various characters and each is given a memorably dramatic scene to perform in the confines of the melodramatic and very suspenseful plot. The film is exquisitely designed with superb sets and costumes.

[Reza]

The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig, 2016) 5/10

An emotional journey of a typical teen (Hailee Steinfeld) - only this one never stops overreacting. Smart-mouthed, perpetually in a bad mood and overly theatrical she loses the plot when her childhood best friend starts dating her much hated older brother. Taking that as a betrayal of epic proportion she goes on a verbal rampage with no letting up. Steinfeld is very good but she gets to play such an annoying character that one wants to slap her face and force her to shut up. We are back in John Hughes territory with all the clichés intact of the misunderstood American high-school junior. The best scenes are between Steinfeld and a teacher (hilariously underplayed by Woody Harrelson) who tries to help her. The rest of the film is a one long messy shrill rant.

[Reza]

A Monster Calls (J.A. Bayona, 2016) 7/10

This invokes Roald Dahl's "The BFG" which Spielberg adapted for the big screen earlier the same year and Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth". The film hauntingly captures the scared and confused mind of a lonely young child (the superb Lewis MacDougall) who lives with his cancer ridden mother (Felicity Jones) and grim and overbearing grandmother (a miscast Sigourney Weaver). Dealing with such a traumatic moment in his life he conjures up a terrifying writhing 40 foot tree-monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) to distract himself. The tree forces the child to listen to three fables, which appear in a series of lovely animations that blend watercolor and stop-motion effects to heighten the film’s otherworldly quality, after which he demands the child relate the dream that daily scares him into waking up. Strange and memorable film with a lovely stung in the tail at the end that brings closure to the child after his mother passes away. The monster may or may not be a metaphor; either way, it leaves a strong impression created by the supern special effects team on the film.

[Reza]

In This House of Brede (George Schaefer, 1975) 6/10

A successful businesswoman (Diana Rigg), weighed down by life's issues, gives it all up and enters the convent to become a Benedictine nun. There she clashes with a senior nun (Pamela Brown), finds a friend in the Mother Superior (Gwen Watford) and grows fond of a young postulant (Judi Bowker) who reminds her of the past she left behind. Based on Rumer Godden's novel with it's central theme about spirituality, grief, envy, loneliness, jealousy, discipline and the universal feeling of love. Rigg gives a radiant performance hiding her pain and resolving to start life again.

[Reza]

The Shooting Party (Alan Bridges, 1985) 8/10

Exquisite, leisurely paced mood piece which resembles Jean Renoir's La Règle du jeu (1939) only here it's the British upper class showing their moral callousness on the eve of impending destruction just before WWI. A group of guests arrive at a country estate for a weekend shoot. For them the world is a prosperous unchanging world. It would take just that weekend for them to realise that their world is about to crash around them. The story deals with two different specimens of aristocracy. The host (James Mason) and his wife (Dorothy Tutin) are gracious not only to their friends, relatives and house servants but also to their rural residents. In contrast is their callous, competitive and supercilious guest (Edward Fox) whose wife (Cheryl Campbell) is having a fling with another of the guests. The film is a series of vignettes - a masked party, children playing backstairs, a poacher (Gordon Jackson) going about his business, young lovers whispering in corners, an eccentric anti-hunting advocate (John Gielgud) giving lectures about the evils of killing. It all comes to a head on the shooting field as two rivals head off into a competition resulting in tragedy which is a metaphor for the upcoming war and it's devastation leading to the breaking of class barriers. Atmospheric and bittersweet adaptation of Isabel Colgate's novel deals with themes of pacifism, animal rights and adultery. All the actors are wonderful with James Mason especially poignant in his last film performance.

[Reza]

The Ice House (Tim Fywell, 1997) 8/10

A decomposed body is discovered in the ice house on the grounds of a country estate which is the reclusive home to three lonely and supposedly lesbian women (Frances Barber, Kitty Aldridge, Penny Downie). The police investigation - headed by a nasty inspector (Corin Redgrave) and his homophobic lieutenant (Daniel Craig) - once again raises suspicion and anger amongst the villagers for the three women just as it did ten years earlier when the husband of one of the women mysteriously disappeared and she was accused of his murder. Superbly paced suspense mystery-thriller which delves into homophobia, spousal abuse, incest and murder with a final twist in the plot.

[Reza]

The Echo (Diarmuid Lawrence, 1998) 7/10

A tough reporter (Clive Owen) uses the help of an elderly lawyer (Richard Johnson), a streetwise teenager and a naive photographer to solve the death of a tramp found in the garage of a beautiful rich woman (Joely Richardson). A Minette Walters mystery is full of red herrings and things are not how they appear to be. Well acted.

[Reza]

M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (Neeraj Pandey, 2016) 4/10

From a humble background in Bihar a kid (Sushant Singh Rajput) rises to become the captain of the Indian cricket team. The dull by-the-numbers story of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's rags to riches tale from railway ticket collector to the heights of international sports fame. The only reason why this film exists is to appease the millions of cricket fans in India and beyond and it's boxoffice success brought the star a filmfare nomination for best actor for a rather dull performance. The character's life arc holds no drama other than his later success in the sport he is obsessed about. The screenplay plays it safe avoiding the controversies in his life and just plays to the gallery - most of the naive public who get what they want to see which is the game itself. Watch this if you love the sport otherwise avoid it like the plague. And at 3 hours it is an incredible chore to sit through.

[Reza]

Raees (Rahul Dholakia, 2017) 8/10

This harks back to the "angry-young-man" plots of the Amitabh Bachchan 1970s era although set during the 1980s in Gujrat, one of the few states in India where prohibition is enforced by law. The story of a child who works for a bootlegger (Atul Kulkarni) and who grows up to form his own bootlegging empire with help from a Bombay don. Raees (Shah Rukh Khan) wants money, success and respect and hates being treated unfairly. Has a mother who tells him that no business is beneath him, and no religion is greater than business, as long as they don’t harm anyone. It's Bollywood and "Mommy" advice is sacred even if assorted goons do get harmed along the way. It appears to be the norm in Bollywood now that when a star wants to reinvent himself and jump start a flagging career - go back to the original drawing board and ape Mr Bachchan Senior and you come out in a win-win situation (there is even a scene set in a drive-in theater playing a Bachchan film). The director brilliantly captures the tawdry Bollywood cinema of the 1980s - the superb production design perfectly "gets" that. The star not only receives a dramatic entrance - he is first seen flagellating himself during the Muslim Moharram religious festival his ripling muscular body covered in sweat and blood - but also gets a worthy opponent, the wily wisecracking inspector (superb Nawazuddin Siddiqui who upstages the star in all their scenes together) with whom there is a feverish cat-and-mouse game. The film manages to push all the right buttons - you have to be an avid Bollywood filmgoer to "get" it all - the characters, the milieu, the item number (former porno star Sunny Leone's attempt to go legit in a sexy dance number "Laila o Laila"), the wife (Pakistani star Mahira Khan who creates sparks holding her own opposite the "Mighty Khan" whether trading barbs or dancing with him in two musical sequences - all their scenes together have a gentle quality). This film is a "paisa vasool" crowd pleaser with the star giving a solid performance even if he still resorts to flashes of his old personas of "Raj" and "Rahul" which is probably intentional - the public wants that as they find comfort in old wine even if presented in a new bottle.

[Reza]

American Pastoral (Ewan McGregor, 2016) 5/10

Adaptation of Phillip Roth's Pulitzer prize winning novel spans 20 years and describes the collapse of the American dream and exposes cracks in the marriage of a supposedly perfect couple - a New Jersey jock (Ewan McGregor), son of a successful Jewish American glove manufacturer, married to a former beauty queen (Jennifer Connelly) and a devout Roman Catholic. The catalyst that causes a frission in their perfect life is their daughter (Dakota Fanning), beset by an emotionally debilitating stutter and outraged by the Vietnam war and racial unrest during the Johnson administration becomes grotesquely overweight and increasingly radical in her beliefs. After placing a bomb in the local post office which kills a man she disappears. Her parents are shattered - the mother has a nervous breakdown, an affair with their architect and a face lift while the father spends his whole life searching for his daughter and coming to the conclusion that everyone has a veneer of respectability but each engages in subversive behaviour. Forced to see the chaos in the collapsing "American pastoral" he realises that he cannot ignore the changes brought about by social unrest. The screenplay condenses the epic novel and spends far too much time on the lead character (who is basically a crashing bore) with only glimpses of the wife - Connelly who is superb as the distraught icy woman - and daughter who is such an unappealing character that one wonders why so much fuss is being made about her. McGregor (in his directorial debut) tries to bring shape to the material but is defeated and everything about the film comes off flat.

[Precious Doll]

Definitely interested in other recommendations.

I'll post something in the 'Missing in Action' thread under DVD discussions.

[Precious Doll]

Live By Night (2016) Ben Affleck 3/10
Beast (2016) Sam & Tom McKeith 4/10
Sssssss (1973) Bernard L. Kowalski 4/10
Denial (2016) Mick Jackson 7/10
Addicted to Fresno (2015) Jamie Bobbit 5/10
Goat (2016) Andrew Neel 6/10
The Night Digger (1971) Alastair Reid 6/10
United States of Love (2016) Tomasz Wasilewski 8/10
Creepy (2016) Kioyshi Kurosawa 7/10
Wiener-Dog (2016) Todd Solondz 6/10
Gimme Danger (2016) Jim Jarmusch 7/10

Repeat viewings

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) Joseph L. Mankiewicz 7/10
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone 6/10
Phantasm (1979) Don Coscarelli 4/10

[dws1982]

There is an Region B locked Blu Ray from the U.K. which is outstanding and is far superior to the American DVD that New Line put out years ago. However, the Blu Ray lacks the special features that the DVD has, most notably directer & writer (Russell Banks) commentary.

I bought a region-free player recently, so I may look into that.

I mainly got it to get movies that aren't available in the States or at least are more expensive in the States. So far I got (all UK versions):
Wooden Crosses
Les Miserables
Great Expectations
Rocco and His Brothers
The Gospel According to Matthew
The Shop on Main Street
Closely Watched Trains
Two for the Road (just made available in the States, but in a more expensive version)
Three Brothers (coming out soon in the States, but more expensive)
The Pianist

Definitely interested in other recommendations.