Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Ruuuuufiiiiiioooooo

By the production company - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9617456, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61835921

For Sama - (2019)

This documentary gives you a real impression of what the civil war in Syria was like - a real hell on Earth. Two activists, Waad Al-Kateab and Hamza Al-Kateab get married and have a daughter around the time of the Arab Spring revolts and are hopeful that the reign of Bashar al-Assad is coming to an end. As the tide turns, Waad starts putting together a video for her baby daughter to see when she grows up - and Hamza organizes a hospital which takes care of an influx of wounded people pulled from the rubble of buildings that are constantly bombed. Their home, Aleppo, is slowly reduced to complete ruins. Be warned - this documentary contains very difficult to watch portions, mainly due to the number of dead children we see. If you're feeling a little peeved at Russia at the moment, this will do nothing to alleviate that either. "Why is the world letting this happen?" Waad keeps on asking - all for one man to cling on desperately to power. These two are torn, for to keep up the fight means putting their beloved daughter at risk. Oscar nominated - I've now seen 2/5 of the nominations for this year.

8/10


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Dovlatov - (2018)

I have to admit that I'm fascinated by what life was like in the Soviet Union. Chernobyl gave us a bit of an eye for the 1980s, and here we have the early 1970s in Dovlatov, a biopic about the famous Russian writer which takes place over a few days during a period where he struggles with what the regime is asking him to produce for newspapers - lies and propaganda. Sergei Dovlatov is yet to get his membership in the Soviet writer's union (it's kind of like one of those paradoxes - you can't publish anything without a union card - you can't get a union card until you publish something) - and he feels his way around the bureaucracy which basically runs on bribes, buttering people up, doing favours and luck. He's asked to write something about a group of engineers celebrating a Russian holiday by donning costumes and exhibiting breath-taking ignorance about everything, and a metro tunnel being dug which has happened upon a mass grave. All Dovlatov wants is to write with a modicum of honesty, but his superiors ask him to produce what would be humiliating prose. How can a great writer get anywhere in the Soviet system?

7/10

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Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Brilliantly bonkers slice of genre-defying multiverse madness from the people who brought you 2016's Swiss Army Man. Everything, Everywhere... has the same blend of deeply weird and a little bit gross and unexpected emotional weight. It's a sci-fi kung-fu action comedy that's also an existential family drama. There are deliberate references to other films from The Matrix and 2001 to In the Mood For Love and Ratatouille.

Michelle Yeoh stars as a harassed middle-aged woman, disappointed with her life, trying to do taxes and laundry and plan a party while her husband serves her divorce papers and her daughter is upset because her mother won't introduce her girlfriend to her traditional grandfather. Then, at the IRS office, her husband is briefly taken over by a version of himself from another universe and gives her some instructions - unlikely as it seems, she is the only one who can save the multiverse from an inter-dimensional evil. From then on, it's madness, with Sense-8 style tapping into the skills of herself in other universes, running from Jamie Lee Curtis' sinister IRS jobsworth, a lot of kung-fu and some wrestling with the meaning of life, generational differences and the nature of happiness.

It's at least 50% madder than any other multiverse movie currently out there (there's a universe where people have hotdogs for hands, for example). It manages to be really quite profound and also profoundly silly, sometimes at the same time. Sometimes it's a bit too much - but even then, that's kind of the point.

One of my favorite movies of all time, whether it should be or not.

Well, it's an interesting take, it's been a few years since I saw the film but regardless of who else took down McCarthy, it seems that Murrow was the person putting his very public reputation on the line and leading the public face of it. Of course, the fact that the Russians had spies here has little to do with it as we also had spies in Russia and none of that excuses McCarthy, who was a poisonous snake that ruined countless American lives. I tend to side with Murrow's personal risk on this.

You have good taste. Most of the time.

Set shortly after "Custer's Last Stand", Winchester '73 follows Lin McAdam (James Stewart), a cowboy that's determined to find a man called Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally) for unspecified reasons. Finding him in Dodge City, Kansas, but unable to fight him at the moment, they both enter a competition to win one of the coveted titular rifles. The possession of it becomes the driving force of the plot, as the rifle passes through different owners as the film progresses.

There are interesting little stories in every pit stop that the gun gets. From Native American leader Young Bull (Rock Hudson) to meek fiancé Steve Miller (Charles Drake) or outlaw Waco Johnnie Dean (Dan Duryea). In almost every one of them, there are tinges that make you want a bit more from each. Duryea, in particular, gives a really good performance, but I really enjoyed John McIntire as sly gun trader Joe Lamont, who proves to be a worthy rival to Brown early on the film, all in his effort to win the gun.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Probably my favorite Anthony Mann western.

Babes in Arms, 1939

Patsy (Judy Garland) and Mickey (Mickey Rooney) are the children of different vaudeville performers. When their parents go on the road and leave them behind, the teens decide that they will put on their own show. Some jealousy arises when Patsy is displaced in the show by a former child star (June Preisser).

This is one of those films that is a slightly thin story made mostly to carry you through a series of musical numbers. I was interested to see two different songs ("Singin' in the Rain" and "Good Morning!") that I so strongly associate with Singin' in the Rain.

Garland and Rooney both give their roles their all. Garland really projects that "it factor" that she had. While I know that her time in the studio system was not the best thing for her physical and mental health, she still seems to really sparkle here. The actors all have a fun and easy chemistry with each other.

There's also a fun turn from Margaret Hamilton (who would menace Garland as the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz) as a woman who is determined to have the children taken into custody from their parents who she believes is neglecting their educations.

The musical numbers themselves are pretty good. Although there is a blackface number that really grinds things to a halt. Yes, there is dialogue while they are in "costume", yes they do voices, yes the jokes are that the characters they are playing are low-class and stupid. We're supposed to be sad when a freak thunderstorm forces the audience to abandon the number, but I thought it was a relief!

Probably my favorite part of the movie was Preisser's character. She's a real hoot, and performs this memorable (if slightly also horrifying?) sequence of acrobatics.


This is part of a series the Criterion Channel has of Garland films, and I'm interested to see more of her.

5th Shorts Hall of Fame

The Heart of the World (2000) -

This is my second time watching this short and it's just as great as I remember it being. This time around, I appreciated the unique style of pacing of this short quite a bit more. The short moves at an incredibly fast clip and the story, editing, and music work in harmony at giving it this unique feel. In spite of the short only lasting 6 minutes, quite a lot happens story-wise which is squeezed into that timeframe. While doing this can often lead to the work in question suffering from a lack of breathing room though, I didn't feel that with this short since it remained easy to follow from beginning to end. The editing also contributes to this short's unique pacing (from what I read, the average shot in this film lasts for about two seconds). Finally, that the music moves at a fast clip as well further contributes to this feel. I also give this short credit for how it captures the feel of a silent film pretty well. I've seen a handful of films which simply put on a black and white filter, mute the sound, and consider that to be sufficient, but this short goes a couple steps further by adopting the unique framing and grainy/scratched film stock which is commonly found in silent films. The only thing Maddin might've forgotten about was the aspect ratio, but whatever. He still got more right than wrong. I wouldn't say I have any issues with this short, though while the ending is certainly surprising, I'm not sure how to interpret it. I may have responded better to a more grounded ending. Who knows. Regardless, this is still a great short film which I'm glad I rewatched.

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I'll have to watch the movie (Good Night, and Good Luck [2005]) to see what y'all are talking about. Might be able to fire it up this evening.

In real life McCarthy gradually slipped into monomania, likely fueled by his drinking and morphine addiction. He started seeing communists in every corner, and his over the top zealousness eventually got him censured by the Senate.

However it was later revealed that indeed communists and communist sympathizers HAD infiltrated the U.S. government at a variety of levels. Many were not actual Soviet spies, but rather "fellow travelers" who philosophically were in line with communism. Prior to McCarthy, communist infiltration had earlier been shown by the House of Representatives via its House Un-American Activities Committee starting in the late 1930s.

As far as actual Soviet spies, here is an extensive compilation of known spies uncovered in the U.S. counterintelligence Venona Project, listed here on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._Venona_papers

But in regards the 2005 film, I'll be able to comment on it once I've seen it.

Drug and alcohol abuse are poor excuses for abuse of power. It wasn’t his “zealousness” that got him ousted, but his afore mentioned abuse of power. Were there spies? Sure. But that’s completely different from the blacklist which were merely full of communist sympathizers. Which, btw, wasn’t illegal. And, as you noted, many in the government were alleged to have such sympathies, as well. Again, not illegal. Many of the people he went after weren’t some sort of “terrorists”, as he so often painted them, but merely people with a different ideology.
Many of his claims were, in fact, unsubstantiated.

GNaGL covers a lot of this, but I suspect many won’t be persuaded by it if they actually believe in McCarthy, and as such dismiss the film, which is a shame because it’s actually a great film.

Really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this movie, I think I rated it the same as you. I think it's the 2nd best of the backyard musicals that Judy and Mickey made together. I think Girl Crazy was the best and if you liked this film, you should definitely check it out. I also agree with you that June Preisser is funny as hell in this movie.

I'm currently about halfway through Ziegfeld Girl, and I think that Girl Crazy is next. (I'm watching them in chronological order).

Baahubali: The Beginning

Enjoyable but it’s no RRR.

3.5/5

Ziegfeld Girl is great...actually, I think Lana Turner kind of walks off with that one.

I watched the first part years ago but never got to the sequel. Now that I've seen RRR, I should probably fix that.

I’ve been meaning to watch this and it’s sequel for a couple years now. RRR was recently Playing at a local theatre near me, and it caught my at the time as well ( they actually play a surprising amount of films from India, albeit at a limited engagement).
There was a movement named for these types of films recently, and I can’t recall offhand what it was, but it’s something I may take a closer look at soon rather then later

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (2022)

I let my son (he's 9) pick a movie to watch tonight, and this is what he picked. And boy was it ... actually pretty good? It's not, you know, Citizen Kane, but it uses cultural references/Easter eggs to good effect, unlike some flashier franchises in recent years (looking at you, Star Wars and MCU), including a truly funny appearance by a character reviled recently on the internet. An unexpectedly pleasant surprise! 7/10