Past Lives (2023) - I watched this at home on my own. I ate fish and chips from the chippy at the start and then just after I finished that Netflix crashed so I got a chocolate chip Madeira cake from the kitchen and ate that. Then I had a cup of coffee from the bag that arrived today that claimed to have flavour notes of Terry’s Chocolate Orange and was really pleasantly orangey but didn’t taste of chocolate.

A 12-year-old Korean girl, Na Young, has a mutual crush on a boy in her class but emigrates to the US with her family, changing her name to Nora Moon and growing up into a woman played by Greta Lee. Twelve years after she departed, her former classmate gets in touch over the internet and they reconnect through online video calls, although again part ways as Nora wants to focus on her real-world life. Another 12 years passes and Nora is now married. What will happen when her former classmate enters her life once again?

There are strong themes of in-yun, the Korean idea that relationships develop over many lifetimes i.e. that if you casually bump into someone that means to knew each other in a previous life and if you are married you knew each other in 8000 previous lives.

I liked the general vibe of the film and the way it was put together. There are some really nice subtle performances from the two main leads, who both convey a lot with facial expressions. The decision to shoot the film on 35mm film adds a lot of visual texture to the film, particularly to the daytime outdoor shots of New York.

I found the central plot quite movie-ish though, although apparently the film is semi-autobiographical and the director has a lot of real-life receipts. Regardless, I think it’s a bit contrived for people in their mid-30s to have lives that seem to entirely revolve around brief encounters from their childhoods and even disregarding that criticism the film generally didn’t score a direct hit to the feels for me. Also, I think the characters could have been lit a bit more sympathetically in the scenes where they’re supposed to be in their 20s as it often highlighted rather than hid the texture added to their skin by the aging process.

I’d be very interested in watching the director’s second film as this is an extremely accomplished debut, just not laser targeted to my interests. ★★★★☆

Feels a l’il rude to be chompin’ through the Holocaust.

Those are good points, I hadn't thought of it that way.  There were people eating around me, and I took a protein snack but mostly because there was only one showing and it was bang at dinner time so needed something to keep me going until I got home.  But popcorn or summat?  Yeah, feels wrong.

I watched Zone of Interest on my tv while eating rigatoni al arabbiata and drinking beer. There were no repercussions.

Just got back from Dune: Part II and I loved it, it was, for me, so much more engaging than the first film. While Villeneuve can clearly do visuals and world building, there was certainly something off about the pacing of the first movie.

Even though I knew what was going to happen, I was engrossed all the way through. He gave more time for the main characters, with Bardem having the most fun, a great character in Stilgar, Butler ridding us of the comical Sting version of Feed, playing psycho very well and Chalamet was excellent here, growing into the messiah he needed to be. I'd say Ferguson felt a bit weaker here, compared to in the first film, she was bordering on hammy at times.

The action was paced well from the first tense guerrilla attack on the spice miners through to the Epic final battle, followed by the duel.

I think I gave the first film an 8, this is easily a 9, bordering on a 10 if it wasn't for the dodgy casting of Walken as the emperor.

He just literally takes you out of the film every time he talks. Bad choice Denis. Bad choice.

Last time I had a cinema interval was Titanic

It does annoy me when these mega directors get on their high horse about it. These people don't watch films like us mere mortals do.
The idea an interval messes with the story more than needing a piss for an hour is a nonsense.

Intervals, shmintervals.

Go to the toilets before the film. Fucking wimps.

2001 has an interval - remember seeing that when I saw it projected a year or two ago.

Some films do have natural breaks in them.  Lawrence of Arabia has one too as far as I remember.  As does Gone With the Wind.

Intervals annoy me.

Quite a lot the old epic-length silent movies are explicitly split into a Part 1 and Part 2 so the audience could have a break.

I have become used to my rare cinema trips being at Everyman. Glass of plonk, some decent snacks, comfy sofas. An interval means
a) I can relieve bursting bladder after said plonk
b) I can get more plonk without disturbing anyone

This is clearly the best thing for cinema

Cinemas are missing out on an obvious upsell here - VIP ticket which includes a single use 5 minute "pause button". Perfect for when you need to go for a piss, grab some more food or take a call from your pal.

Fucks sake lads bladders made of cardboard sort it out

DS lives off sugar water and salt. He probably pisses once a fortnight and it's like treacle.

So is it the Horlicks that does it do you reckon?