Film/Video Discussion Thread - The Bear and Badger

EvilRedEye

EvilRedEye’s Pretty Heavy Cinema Double Bill concludes with:

All of Us Strangers (2023) - Andrew Scott reconnects with his parents, who died decades ago, while pursuing a nascent relationship with handsome neighbour Paul Mescal. Pretty hard to discuss this one without completely ruining it but I thought it was excellent and had tears in my eyes in places. ★★★★★

All of Us Strangers definitely felt like the dessert film although since it’s also quite heavy, perhaps only in the context of literally coming after a Holocaust movie.

I would say if you could only pick one to see in the cinema, go with The Zone of Interest so you can watch it with a cinema sound system. If you have an OLED, All of Us Strangers has quite a lot of dark scenes that would quite honestly look better on your telly than from a projector.

EvilRedEye

davyK wrote:

Yojimbo is b&w but is super wide (2.35:1) Lovely.

I’ll have to check this out, that sounds awesome.

hylian_elf

Can’t believe there are people on this forum who haven’t seen Yojimbo before. WHERE YOU BEEN

hylian_elf

Yeah All Of Us Strangers is good. I wanna see Zone of Interest but can’t find a showing that suits me. It seems to be disappearing from local screens already.

g.man

hylian_elf wrote:

Can’t believe there are people on this forum who haven’t seen Yojimbo before. WHERE YOU BEEN

Yup, Yojimbo is a masterpiece.

Matt_82

I've actually never seen a Kurosawa film at all.

hylian_elf

*puts Matt on ignore list*

ShabbyMcCrabby

I know I've been tired lately but I don't think I sleep walked my way to seeing All of Us Strangers yet

jdanielp

Bob wrote:

So MI:Dead Reckoning If the bad guy

Spoiler:

Kills the driver and the guy shovelling coal the train will stop no matter how many controls he knocks off when the coal that’s burning burns out ??

Spoiler:

davyK

Matt_82 wrote:

I've actually never seen a Kurosawa film at all.

Kind of jealous of that.

Yojimbo inspired a Fistful of Dollars
Seven Samurai - Magnificent Seven
The Hidden Fortress - impacted on Star Wars (in particular the 2 droids)
Rashomon is a very modern feeling one - one event shown over and over from different perspectives.

There's a pile of Kurosawa stuff I've still to see. Fancy Throne of Blood next but he did more than just samurai films.

EvilRedEye

Poor Things (2023) - This wasn’t the one for me, I’m afraid. Emma Stone plays a woman whose baby’s brain has been implanted in her head, creating a sort-of new person in a quirky drama. It’s creative, at times visually impressive and has an interesting soundtrack but feels very try-hard - it’s oh-so-wacky and the characters say ‘fuck’ sometimes despite the period-esque steampunk setting! Haha, what?!

Mark Ruffalo is hacky and bad in this. The audience laughed twice in a film that was clearly intended to make the audience laugh more times than that.

Not bad, but left me a bit cold. If you like zooms this will be a five-star film for you. ★★★☆☆

Kow

I haven't seen it yet but I think Ruffalo is almost always bad. He's just a poor actor, who occasionally gets lucky, and should never be let anywhere near an accent.

EvilRedEye

Apparently Mark Ruffalo was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for this! Haha, I thought he was the worst thing about the movie.

Blocks100

Monolith (2022) - Australian sci-fi (although you'd never guess it) about people around the world who receive a mysterious 'brick' and then bad things start to happen to them. Told from the perspective of a podcaster who records the verbal testimonies of these brick-receivers (so you don't actually get to see much)

I don't usually go for these low-budget affairs (and ignore the Gruadian - it ain't no sci-fi, more psychological horror than anything), but the lead actress was pretty convincing and it conjures up some tense moments. Didn't see that ending coming though:

Spoiler:

davyK

Like the sound of that. Very much up my alley.

Diluted Dante

Blocks100 wrote:

Monolith (2022) - Australian sci-fi (although you'd never guess it) about people around the world who receive a mysterious 'brick' and then bad things start to happen to them.

Blocks100

Spoiler that Dante!

Dark Soldier

Blocks100 wrote:

Monolith (2022) - Australian sci-fi (although you'd never guess it) about people around the world who receive a mysterious 'brick' and then bad things start to happen to them. Told from the perspective of a podcaster who records the verbal testimonies of these brick-receivers (so you don't actually get to see much)

I don't usually go for these low-budget affairs (and ignore the Gruadian - it ain't no sci-fi, more psychological horror than anything), but the lead actress was pretty convincing and it conjures up some tense moments. Didn't see that ending coming though:

Spoiler:

Watched that the other day. Does a lot with its very mediocre budget. Easy 6 or 7.

djchump

WTF is Cate Blanchett doing in this film?!

Milla Jovovich, sure. Kate Beckinsale, absolutely. But Cate Blanchett?! Did she lose a bet, or is she being blackmailed?

Cos

Yeah, odd one. Best guess is she worked with Roth on House with a Clock in its Walls so maybe they’re friendly. Interested to see how it turns out, wrapped filming in 2021 then reshoots last year not done by Roth. Hot mess inbound?

g.man

Looks like Poundland Guardians of the Galaxy.

LivDiv

Them Production credits lol.
No thanks.

regmcfly

Cos wrote:

Yeah, odd one. Best guess is she worked with Roth on House with a Clock in its Walls so maybe they’re friendly. Interested to see how it turns out, wrapped filming in 2021 then reshoots last year not done by Roth. Hot mess inbound?

That's the answer.afaik Roth is a bit like Wes Anderson where he treats people really well on his sets, putting on nice dinners and not demanding massive amounts of takes, and wants them to want to come back, so he's built up a wee cadre of people

regmcfly

Reshoots will be the studio either adding more banter or action, but never a good sign

EvilRedEye

The Taste of Things (2023) - Some 19th Century French people cook and eat their way through two hours and fourteen minutes of culinary (in)action. It was perhaps a tad too long and I was starting to panic it was never going to end by the time it finally did. A nice palate cleanser that would make a nice lazy Sunday afternoon subtitle-em-up. ★★★★☆

davyK

djchump wrote:

WTF is Cate Blanchett doing in this film?!
Milla Jovovich, sure. Kate Beckinsale, absolutely. But Cate Blanchett?! Did she lose a bet, or is she being blackmailed?

regmcfly

Dune 2 reviews are through the chart. Very exciting.

hylian_elf

So miles better than the first part, hopefully.

EvilRedEye

The Iron Claw (2023) - I saw a couple of tepid reviews for this so wasn’t sure I was going to like it but I thought it was really good. Zac Efron is great in it. The cast is generally very good.

I see there’s been some controversy over the film excluding one of the brothers and I can see it both ways. As someone that isn’t familiar with the real-life events, there already seems to be a lot of characters and content in the story (the Guardian paradoxically criticised it for not providing the brothers with enough characterisation yet also wanted a whole additional brother!). But I can imagine if you were familiar with the real-life story the absence would rankle as the omission is in conflict with the themes of the film.

Overall, I thought this was a really well acted, solidly-made film. ★★★★☆

Dark Soldier

I also watched that recently. Phenomenal performances, the in-ring stuff felt really nasty and raw. But as someone who does know the overarching story it felt incredibly rushed and lost a lot of impact for me. Found the pacing quite off and nothing really felt...consequential, if that's the right word. I didn't generally care about those on screen or the events. It's well made and covers a decent chunk of the real life stuff but it would've been sensational as like a 4 to 6 part series I feel.

Howdy, Stranger!

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