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

[Sabin]

/Tootsie (Sydney Pollack)/ -- 9.5/10

Great, but I have one reservation about the role and that is this: Michael Dorsey so successfully becomes Dorothy Michaels that his maturation doesn't quite land. One of the reasons why Tootsie was such a successful film is this is a fucking fantastic screenplay. It moves along so efficiently that it doesn't quite find time for me to register him as an evolving man. The film is so successful at explaining why he becomes Dorothy Michaels for the work and why he is stuck as Dorothy Michaels that the reason why he wants to reveal himself seems less for love and more because of exhaustion. The film also does an incredible job of making itself a social satire about then-contemporary gender roles that it becomes about so much more than this struggling actor. By the end of the film (especially in his final scene with Jessica Lange), I wasn't quite rooting for Michael Dorsey and it's not helped that Dustin Hoffman plays that moment a bit too smugly/confidently.

But it's a great, funny film full of performances that would have doubtlessly received nominations had they received more screen-time (Charles Durning, in particular) and of all the Oscars it deserved in 1982 I'll single out Best Film Editing as one that's less frequently cited. Far from the last time I'll watch this film -- possibly this year even.


/The Verdict (Sidney Lumet)/ -- 6.5/10

Well this is quite a bit overrated. I think there's a chance that nobody in this picture is on the same page. Paul Newman is playing it like The Verdict is an excuse for a character study in lost soul alcoholism (he's not wrong). David Mamet puts existential weight on the verdict itself. It has the appearance of both, Sidney Lumet can't seem to make up his mind which road to go down, but there's not enough of either to be either. It's a gorgeously dreary film, but whenever it zeroes in on the case itself it just feels like TV. I couldn't tell you what was so special about the book but it feels like an episode of Perry Mason...written by David Mamet, directed by Sidney Lumet, and starring these guys. To be fair, I haven't seen And Justice For All or any number of preceding courtroom films so I don't know how entrenched in mawkish tropes that era was, but watching it today it seems incredibly minor.

This feels like a strangely impersonal Paul Newman performance. The first act is the film's highpoint which sees Newman targeting his ambulance chasing lowlife's character sweet spots. James Mason is very good in his Oscar nominated performance, but for me one of the joys in the film (besides just looking at young Charlotte Rampling) was Jack Warden. This is not an Academy bait role but he's such an enjoyable actor and this is the kind of stock part he's made for.

[Precious Doll]

Tsili (2015) Amos Gitai 4/10 (DVD)
Land of Mine (2015) Martin Zandvilet 7/10 (Scandinavian Film Festival)
Maggie's Plan (2016) Rebecca Miller 4/10 (Cinema)
Demolition (2016) Jan-Marc Valle 4/10 (Cinema)
Embrace of the Serpent (2015) Ciro Guera 6/10 (Blu Ray)
Boy & the World (2013) Ale Abreu 4/10 (DVD)
The Mermaid (2016) Stephen Chow 1/10 (Blu Ray)

Repeat viewing

Girlfriends (1978) Claudia Weill 8/10

[Precious Doll]

Zootopia (2016) Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Jared Bush 6/10 (DVD rental)
Robot Overlords (2015) Jon Wright 2/10 (DVD rental)
Valley of Love (2015) Guillaume Nicloux 6/10 (DVD)
Goldstone (2016) Ivan Sen 6/10 (Cinema)
The Munekata Sisters (1950) Yasujiro Ozu 6/10 (DVD taken from video master)
Francofonia (2015) Aleksandr Sokurov 8/10 (Blu Ray)
Futureless Things (2014) Kyung-mook Kim 6/10 (DVD)
The Shameless (2015) Seung-uk Oh 6/10 (DVD)
The Tower (2012) Ji-hoon Kim 2/10 (DVD)

Repeat viewings

Claire's Knee (1970) Eric Rohmer 10/10
Inserts (1976) John Byrum 8/10

[ITALIANO]

quite fat as in the sterotypical Italian wife.

Well...

[Precious Doll]

Precious Doll where do you watch films....special screenings or on dvd?

Repeat viewings are almost always from my collection of DVDs/Blu Rays. Raging Moon is an exception because I taped off TV and watched without having realised that I had already seen the film (happens from time to time). My rating turned out to be the same as one I first saw it.

In the case of the films I watched for the first time I saw them as follows:

Knights of the Teutonic Order - Polish film festival at the cinema
Fassbinder - Documentary film festival at the cinema
Portrait of Teresa - DVD (taken from a video purchased from Movie Detective)
Landmine Goes Click - Blu Ray
The BFG - Regular cinema release
The Wait - Regular cinema release

Most of the films seen I saw in the first two weeks of June were at the Sydney Film Festival. For you interest I'm happy to include in what capacity I saw the films in the future.

[Reza]

Precious Doll where do you watch films....special screenings or on dvd?

[Precious Doll]

Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960) Aleksander Ford 7/10
Fassbinder (2015) Annekatrin Hendel 8/10
Portrait of Teresa (1979) Pastor Vega 5/10
Landmine Goes Click (2015) Levan Bakhia 6/10
The BFG (2016) Steven Spielberg 4/10
The Wait (2015) Piero Messina 2/10

Repeat viewings

Germany in Autumn (1978) Various directors including Fassbinder, Kluge, Reitz & Schlondorff 7/10
The Raging Moon (1971) Bryan Forbes 5/10
The Snake Pit (1948) Anatole Litvak 6/10

[Precious Doll]

One Angels Have Wings (1939) Howard Hawks 5/10

Oh wow, such a low rating?

Yeah I know. I first saw the first over 30 years on the big screen and didn't care for it. Given Criterion recently released it I thought I would give it another try given it's status. I still felt pretty much the same.

Cary Grant & Jean Arthur are two of the most charismatic actors of the era but they are stranded with characters that never come to life. It's also so dull though I must say I much prefer the model planes and sets than most the CGI garbage made these days. Rita Hayworth stands out as being utterly dreadful, it's hard to believe that she would go on to greatness of Gilda.

[Reza]

Next Time We Love (Edward H. Griffith, 1936) 8/10

For all the soap opera ingredients on display this is surprisingly a fairly sophisticated view on marriage, ambition, infidelity and divorce. The plot covers the trials and tribulations of a married couple - a foreign correspondent (James Stewart) and an actress (the incandescent Margaret Sullavan) - as both find their careers coming in the way of their happiness. His roommate (Ray(mond) Milland) forms part of the love triangle. The first of four memorable teamings of Sullavan and Stewart and both are terrific here thanks to their exceptional screen chemistry.

[Reza]

Udta Punjab (Abhishek Chaubey, 2016) 8/10

Extremely hard hitting exposé on the drug culture - the illegal manufacturing, the smuggling, the sale and the rampant addiction amongst the youth - in the state of Punjab in India. The story follows the paths of four individuals. A washed up druggie rock star (Shahid Kapoor) who finds redemption in his efforts to help a young girl. A poor migrant Bihari (Alia Bhatt) field worker who comes across a stash of drugs, tries to sell it but is caught and turned into a drugged out prostitute. A novice cop (Diljit Dosanjh) whose young brother is an addict and who makes an effort to bring down the corrupt politicians, police and drug mafia with the help of a doctor (Kareena Kapoor). The director succeeds with an accurate portrait of the Punjab milieu with a keen eye towards the sights and sounds of small town and villages and the people who populate them. Well acted by the entire cast with special mention to Alia Bhatt who gives a harrowing performance - totally devoid of makeup she creates a character so far removed from the cute and chic roles she is known for. Newcomer Diljit Dosanjh gives a subtle yet quietly powerful performance as the cop who develops a conscience when the drug problem hits close to home. The film loses a few points as the director forces a few cute Bollywood touches to what is otherwise a superb film.

[Reza]

Laughter (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1930) 5/10

Creaky early talkie that was somehow nominated for an Academy award for its screenplay - critics talking about its Lunitsch "touch"....well hardly!! An aspiring musician (a stiff Fredric March) comes back into the life of a former chorus girl (the delightful Nancy Carroll) who is now married to a rich much older man (Frank Morgan). She also strings along an artist who then latches onto her step daughter. Rather silly film emphasizing the virtues of living a carefree existence versus a life of luxury. The film drones on and on made even more monotonous by the absence of a music score.

[Reza]

Independence Day: Resurgence (Roland Emmerich, 2016) 3/10

Lackluster sequel to the 1996 blockbuster is set 20 years after. Aliens invade earth....again.....and a group of youngsters try to stop them from destroying all life. Boring action-adventure film which is strictly a repetition of countless similar themed films. Also not helping things is the lackluster cast of up and coming "stars" (Liam Hemsworth the most prominent) all of whom look bored while going through the motions. Amongst the veterans (Bill Pullman, Sela Ward, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, Vivica A. Fox) only Jeff Goldblum stands out although even he is not in his usual element thanks to the leaden screenplay concerning a mother-of-all alien in a space ship 3,000 miles long. Cartoonish action set pieces along with a whole lotta destruction with sadly zero character development are the order of the day in this sequel which is a waste of everybody's time.

[Reza]

The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955) 7/10

A man (James Stewart) seeking vengeance for his brother's death arrives in a town run by a ruthless cattle baron (Donald Crisp) and falls foul of his psychotic son (Alex Nicol) who is on a rampage of violence. Last teaming of star and director in this genre is another psychological Western this time with Shakespearean overtones (King Lear) with the almost blind land baron in a quandry about leaving his land to his adopted son (Arthur Kennedy) or to his own hot tempered psychotic son. Stewart, Crisp and Aline MacMahon (as Crisp's rival and former fiancé) are all very own good. Visually impressive, psychologically complex and brutally violent film goes on too long with the plot centering on the tortured family issues at the expense of Stewart's tortured psyche - his character remains on the periphery when it should have been center stage.

[Reza]

Wicked As They Come (Ken Hughes, 1956) 8/10

What MGM couldn't do for her it took a low budget British film to provide Arlene Dahl with the role of a lifetime. Old fashioned melodrama has the redhead climbing out of the slums of Boston and clawing her way to the top in London and Paris as she sleeps with and swindles assorted men to get what she wants. Getting to the top is the easy part but once there she has to face murder, a courtroom trial and a jail sentence before she realises true love is only to be found with the man she first rejected because he was poor. Dahl is superb as the cool and calculating femme fatale who has a deep rooted psychological problem when it comes to loving someone. A forgotten little gem.

[Reza]

One Angels Have Wings (1939) Howard Hawks 5/10

Oh wow, such a low rating?