What was the last film you watched? part 4

Almost Holy
https://youtu.be/t-uBjW9hhxc

Taxi Tehran
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b073bp67

The Villainess
https://youtu.be/-xm2CcFlJtw
https://youtu.be/Ts3JbwFl0HQ

Chemsex
https://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2015/dec/04/chemsex-video-review

ministry of fear
https://www.criterion.com/films/28065-ministry-of-fear
pretty good entry in a genre i like. there are absurd elements which make it more interesting than it would otherwise be, and it was interesting to me to see a scene in the tubes on account of an air raid.

John Wick 2. Not as good as the first one, but I nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed it. The John Wick movies are to the early 21st century what the Die Hard movies was to the 90s. Great action films.

A Dark Song. Horror movie in which the entire story is about two people casting a spell/doing a ritual. Never seen a horror movie like that ever. Quite original and enjoyable. A bit low budget, but that didn't get in the way of the story telling. Both creepy and contemplative.

The Handmaiden. It's ok.

Dispossession - the Great Social Housing Swindle. Well made documentary about social housing and in particular the current "regeneration" of many estates. Very interesting, simultaneously depressing and hopeful. Hopeful because it clearly sets out the problems, depressing because it's just so wrong.

Godzilla Monster Planet (anime). Really really good.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople, really enjoyed it. Had an actress in out of Eagle vs Shark too, another great film. 5*.

The Room - I am speechless. But I have a twisted thought that it was simply a genius subversion. The more people you watch it with, the better:)
Disaster Artist - I would say that it was a rather useless movie.

Bushwick - I liked the idea and the effort the filmmakers put into it.
Good Times - Rather unconventional, but in a good way. liked the acting a lot.
Gerald's Game - I read the book, so I was sceptical but it was done very well. I liked the ending in the book a little bit more, though.
Jigsaw - Waste of time.
Better Watch Out - Good acting.
The Distinguished Citizen - Simply excellent!
Justice League - Bad.

Sense8 (season 2) - I don't know the intentions of Wachowski, but to me, this was totally for the activists. In a good way. It is not class-oriented, rather lib-dem, but I think it is not so hard to ignore this and really enjoy the series. To me this is the best political-fiction TV series ever made. Hard to imagine what could top this in the future.

Menace II Society. Bit violent, not really for the faint of heart.

I, Tonya, loved it.
The Shape of Water, it was ok.

I wanted to improve my german and saw a ton of german-language movies a while back. Found some nice movies in the process (although nothing recent), if you don't mind subtitles. The Edukators - has some anticapitalist themes; the characters go around vandalizing rich people's homes. Lola rennt - supposed to be a philosophical movie, pretty interesting and has a nice soundtrack. Das Experiment - plot's a bit twisted; there's an english verison but the german seems better. Victoria - done in english and german and filmed in one take, good movie. Goodbye Lenin.

I saw both of these with English subtitles not long after they came out and thought that they were both good movies.

The Death of Stalin - great comedy movie!

Yeah I enjoyed those. (And I think it helps with learning a language to immerse yourself in the movies, music and so on, from there.) I'm always more impressed with foreign films than american ones. I guess the cultural and language differences enhance them in a way. Don't know how well I'd receive them if I lived there though. I thought some of Haneke's stuff was good too, Cache and Amour, but those are in french I think.

(Surprised there's two reviews of Edukators on libcom. http://libcom.org/news/article.php/edukators-anarchist-film-review-23122005 http://libcom.org/library/edukators-dir-hans-weingartner-germany-2005-film-review-%E2%80%93-tom-jennings. It would be neat to have a regular film review/recommendation section on here. I guess these movie threads are kind of like that.)

I recommend The Lives of Others and Barbara, if you haven't already seen them. I have a mild obsession with Communist East Germany.

Lady Bird - destined to be a massive classic I think. Beautifully done.

Heard of the first one but never got around to seeing it. Its cover art kind of reminds me of that movie One Hour Photo, which was okay if I recall correctly. Just reading its imdb they sound similar too, being about protagonists who become absorbed in other people's lives.

Previously this Sally Potter comedy film;
https://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-party-2017 and last this Yorkshire farm set drama
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/25/dark-river-review-ruth-wilson-clio-barnard
both recommended.

The Revenant (2015)

About frontiersmen on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s, and supposedly based on a true story, I found the film overlong. The backstory, instead of being short flash backs, is presented as the fevered memories of a wounded man. It was interesting and brutally realistic. The sequences with snow and braving icy waters reminded me of ‘Atanarjuat the Fast Runner’ (Canada, 2001). Recommended if you don’t mind the ‘wild west’, as a place of sudden death from multiple sources.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Yeah, I also tend to be more often impressed with foreign films than american films. I think the cultural and language differences may be a significant part of it but I also find that foreign films are more often more daring and seem more willing to enter into social terrain that US films are more generally unwilling to explore.

I'd agree it contained some great comedy, but did anyone else feel unease watching a film for laughs about such horrific events?

Yep. Presumably its the point of the film somehow but that doesn't help. The particular type of comedy and the famous American actors made it worse than it it had been done by the people affected more directly.

My ex-wife, whose dad was in Buchenwald and grandfather died at Sobibor told me she was going to watch it and asked me if it was any good. I told her she probably wouldn't like it, in spite of its comedic value. She decided to give it a miss.

I think that the film was not only a good comedy but had educating effect. The absurdity of it all makes people check the facts about the era. Not many films bring such outcome. So I think the authors did a good job although not in a direct way directly (hard to say if it was intentional or accidental).

I don't watch enough movies to know, but I guess it's different with lower-budget films, with indie filmmakers etc. I just meant for me wathching a foreign film with subtitles, some of the cultural stuff may go over my head, references and so on, and I might be more impressed with it than I should be.

Death of Stalin was okay. I don't think the actors/actresses were Russian though... It all felt a bit too Englishy in humor and everything. (Seems like some characters were doing an English-Russian accent thing, while everyone else spoke perfect English. Bit weird.) I guess the filmmakers weren't going for authenticity in that regard, among others. I still liked the cast -- not a movie buff, but it's not often I see mostly older cast members with leading roles, somewhat refreshing. Didn't realize until I looked it up that Palin was in it.

Has anyone actually seen Black Panther?And what did you think if so? I tend to watch about 1 film every two years, so haven't seen Death of Stalin, but have read a really negative review that quite made me want to see it.

Much like yourself I rarely go to the theater to see any movies and haven't seen Black Panther so I really can't tell you my opinion of it but I did come across several reviews by the leftish reviewers that are seriously critical of it.

Some Scathing Critiques of Marvel Studio’s ‘Black Panther’