Cinema and Movie Thread: coming 2 a theater near u

[BruceVC]

10 hours ago, majestic said:

Heretic (2024)

The only question left is does he dream me, or am I dreaming him?

Do Mormons have magic underwear? Are adult movies a tool of the Lord? Is Jar Jar Binks a prophet of Christ? Is Judaism related to The Landlord's Game, and if so, does that make Bob Ross the face of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints? How many similarities make plagiarism? Why does great responsibility come with great power? Was Voltaire the first Spiderman? Does someone really need to know what they're talking about, or is it enough to be confident about it? What does that have to do with Hugh Grant looking like an aging Jeffrey Dahmer? Can NPCs be resurrected? Can they go off-script? And lastly... is the pie a lie?

Well, pull up a chair, get your trusty Monopoly game box and strive to control the board.

If these questions didn't pique your interest, then I can't really help you. However, if you ever found yourself wanting to watch a horror film with a fantastically delightful and affable Hugh Grant that doesn't need jump scares to evoke a feeling of terror and dread, then you should give this a spin. Don't let the premise of "two young women walk into the house of an older man, and something's awry" let you be turned off for lack of originality, it is only the film's final act where it becomes somewhat rote (with or without following the red herring).

The performances of the actors make the film, and they smoothe over the (minor, but present) problems, and the return to standard horror form in the film's final parts.

I really enjoyed it, its hard to think of Hugh Grant in a diabolical role but he did a good job

The movie raised lots of religious and existential questions in an interesting way. I did assume it would be more supernatural but its well worth watching

I watched this captivating movie last week 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_(2024_film)

Its based on a true story about a white nationalist group that operated in the US in the 1980s and Jude Law is brilliant as usual

@Gfted1 and @rjshae

You should enjoy this movie 

 

 

 

[Amentep]

 

[Gfted1]

 

[LadyCrimson]

I guess that black cat animated movie, Flow, won the Golden Globe for best animation, beating Pixar/Disney etc. Now I must see it, and it's for rent on Prime now.
I'll report back.

[LadyCrimson]

Flow - that was quite impressive. Visual poetry, sometimes quirky/funny, sometimes touching, sometimes haunting/mystifying. No (human) dialogue, no conventional "plot" or explanations/answers, just follow some creatures as they navigate a happening in their world. The animals behave mostly like animals, outside of an ability to figure out how/why to use a boat rudder and perhaps a touch of "human-like" emotion reactions/awareness here and there. Or animal-like mixed with human-like, up for interpretation. I adored the cat of course but all the animals were fantastically done/animated and became characters I cared about on some level. It's like watching an animated short you find fantastic, where you're wishing it was not a short, and in this case, it isn't.

 I could have some nitpicks (I always have those) but not worth quibbling. For visual poetry type animation, I'd give it an 8.8/10.

There's a very very brief after-credits bit, easy to miss on streaming with them tossing up "WATCH NEXT" menus so you have to hit the "watch credits" to get there. >.>  It doesn't give answers either just a little coda for people to make folks wonder what the meaning is.

[Gorth]

Saw a Danish movie that I hadn't seen before. To be fair, it's relatively recent (by my standards). The style reminded me a lot of "Adams Apples" and "In China they eat Dogs". A comment said (correctly imho) the trailer doesn't do it justice (pun unintended) as it makes it look like a dime a dozen revenge movie. It's anything but "normal". It helps if like "Nordic Noir" style movies and the sometimes over the top dark humour which were also prevalent in the first two mentioned movies. Mads Mikkelsen is almost always fun to watch.

 

[Hurlshort]

I've watched a few movies recently. 

American Underdog - The Kurt Warner story. This story is actually one of the most fascinating in sports, so the fact they turned it into a fairly average hallmark movie is disappointing. Is it a football flick? A romance? A christian movie? Kurt Warner is pretty one dimensional and Zach Levi plays him as such, so I think they needed to go broader to make this a better movie.

Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent - Sooo good. Nic Cage plays himself as an unreliable narrator and it breaks a bunch of rules. Very absurd and fun. 

Back in Action - Cameron Diaz and Jaime Foxx had a lot of chemistry in this action flick. Two former spies deal with their teenagers. The teenage issues were extremely well written. As parents of two teenagers, I felt like the writers had taken notes on our daily stuggles. It was fun and set up well for a sequel. The kids outacted Cameron Diaz, but it doesn't matter. It was fun to see her back in action.

[Bartimaeus]

On 1/16/2025 at 4:11 AM, LadyCrimson said:

Flow - that was quite impressive. Visual poetry, sometimes quirky/funny, sometimes touching, sometimes haunting/mystifying. No (human) dialogue, no conventional "plot" or explanations/answers, just follow some creatures as they navigate a happening in their world. The animals behave mostly like animals, outside of an ability to figure out how/why to use a boat rudder and perhaps a touch of "human-like" emotion reactions/awareness here and there. Or animal-like mixed with human-like, up for interpretation. I adored the cat of course but all the animals were fantastically done/animated and became characters I cared about on some level. It's like watching an animated short you find fantastic, where you're wishing it was not a short, and in this case, it isn't.

 I could have some nitpicks (I always have those) but not worth quibbling. For visual poetry type animation, I'd give it an 8.8/10.

There's a very very brief after-credits bit, easy to miss on streaming with them tossing up "WATCH NEXT" menus so you have to hit the "watch credits" to get there. >.>  It doesn't give answers either just a little coda for people to make folks wonder what the meaning is.

Thanks for the recommendation, my nieces and I enjoyed it - though we all started to lose our minds a little after the 30th production company logo at the beginning.

Edited Monday at 07:15 PM by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Thanks for the recommendation, my nieces and I enjoyed it - though we all started to lose our minds a little after the 30th production company logo at the beginning.

Pretty sure they would love Heretic as well.

 

 

I'll get me coat.

[LadyCrimson]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Thanks for the recommendation, my nieces and I enjoyed it - though we all started to lose our minds a little after the 30th production company logo at the beginning.

lol, yeah all the co. logos/credits at the start of a lot of movies nowadays gets a bit excessive. Takes a lot of 'em to get indies (and sometimes even bigger budget) made these days I guess.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

The Substance (2024)

More than I should, I think of my younger self as a different person. Often with a jealous lens, like I could do better if I was 10-15 years younger and would have made different and better choices with who I am now. But that's all bull****. I'm still the same guy as 18 year old KP: prone to staying up later than I should because I got really into this or that, somehow both underthinking and overthinking everything, restarting every ****ing thing I do because I changed my mind or get annoyed by some insignificant nonsense so no progress is actually made, etc. I may be older and it materializes in different ways and through different lenses (ie "pruhsteege movees" instead of ****ty anime), but none of that has fundamentally changed despite that now I work out more, sometimes meditate (thanks David Lynch), and maybe have developed a modicum of discipline. What right do I have to look down on my past self? He may be a crazy ****up who should have worked harder and indulged less, but ultimately he got me to where I am today. All of that is still me, it's taken a lot of work to realize that and I think this film did help me in doing so.

Lizzy Sparkle shoots herself up with god knows what to be able to live as an idealized version of herself for a week before going back to her "real" body. But Sue is Lizzy Sparkle, the separation of them is an illusion imposed by herself. Piloting the Sue body she doesn't do anything different than she did before, she just gains more interest because she's now back to being hawt (even though Elisabeth Sparkle looks much better than Dennis Quaid, which I believe is a point, if not THE point) in a society/industry where that is THE currency, especially for the ladies. Which causes her to develop a body dysmorphia when piloting the Elisabeth body, beautifully communicated with that makeup scene. This dysmorphia and her addiction to being "perfect" shatters her mind, creating the illusion of two people when in fact she's just one person riding the highs and withdrawals. As Sue she can't help but take more and more and more, as Elisabeth she keeps enduring the ravages on her body because it's worth it to chase that high, both are fundamentally addicts. The end sequence is how it ends, with your body being ravaged and your mind lost in the high.

Easily one of the best movies of 2024 and the decade. 

The People's Joker (2022?)

I remember @majestic and I once talking about how the irl version of Darmok would be stuff like anime and superheroes. This film is pretty much that concept come to life, hijacking Batman to communicate gender dysphoria via a shoestring budget multimedia cluster**** that comes together beautifully. Frankly I do not see why WB tied to sue over this, not only would no one believe that WB would actually make something that feels handmade like this, but it actually does a better job of generating interest than the vast majority of content sludge being pumped out by the 600-pound sisterwives company. It just feels really genuine, like beneath the audacity of portraying Batman as a guy who became Elon Musk after he who failed to get on a legally distinct SNL there's an emotional core to this film that hits well, because it is someone's real story.