1990's Countdown Group Watch

Just finished watching Lawn Dogs.
Felt like a David Lynch movie in a suburb built by Tim Burton. & because I love both those filmmakers, I could get on board with the weirdness of this movie.


It felt like a dark novel, centered around or maybe even narrated by a kid. It felt creepy at times with the way Barton's character or her relationship with Rockwell was portrayed. In the end it made sense.


That's the beauty of this film. In the end it all made sense. Barton's character made sense. She is just a kid, who couldn't connect with the kids of her age & simply wanted to be friends with Rockwell. But she is just a kid, who didn't understand many things or what the consequences of her actions would result into.


Rockwell is just a nice lad, who sees the problems, but somehow still gets pulled into the very things he knows he should avoid.


I thought Kathleen Quinlan was wasted. I thought the little boy's character was hilarious & used well.


It is ambitious. Has a lot of symbolism in it.
I liked it overall, despite the (sort of) happy ending. I say despite, because even a darker sadder ending could have felt perfect.


Very interesting choice @Allaby

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Lawn Dogs was written by an American but directed by an Aussie, John Duigan, who is still best known for the Down Under coming of age flicks The Year My Voice Broke (1987), one of the earliest films for stalwarts Noah Taylor and Ben Mendelsohn, and Flirting (1991) with Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton. The period pieces Wide Saragasso Sea (1993) and Sirens (1994) (with Hugh Grant, Sam Neill, Tara Fitzgerald, and Elle Macpherson) followed. Sometimes having a foreign-born director can bring new insight to an American-set production, and though there is an intentional layer of artifice with Lawn Dogs trying very hard to set itself up as a fairy tale, there is an overall lingering lack of authenticity in the dynamics, even with the characters mostly set up as archetypes rather than something resembling reality. The tone never quite comes together.

Rockwell is magnetic, as always, and I appreciate that it doesn't cop out on its darker impulses throughout, which is why I have always liked it as an odd little flick. It simply isn't any more than that.

*the above screencaps are from my DVD copy

She lost me the minute she smushed a fly into the cookie. Yuck.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

@Holden Pike will choose the next movie!

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I choose...

I've heard of this movie before (though I associate the title with the Savage Garden song more than anything else), but had no idea what it was about. I just watched the trailer and now... I have my reservations.

But we'll see. I don't work again until Tuesday so I'll get to it soon.

Truly Madly Deeply
(Anthony Minghella, 1991)

If there's one thing that can reliably take me out of just about any live-action movie or television show it's ghosts or the resurrection of any dead character. So when I watched the trailer for this and saw that Alan Rickman plays a ghost, I had reservations. A lot of reservations. Having now seen the movie I can say those reservations were well founded. It's nowhere near as egregious as something like 2017's A Ghost Story (Sheet Affleck ) or that part of the show Grey's Anatomy where Izzy was having sex with her boyfriend's ghost, but I was never able to get past my aversion to the spirit BS and actually engage with the movie and its characters. Weirdly though I don't mind Ghost from 1990 (probably because Patrick Swayze was hot. Alan Rickman is no Patrick Swayze).

Which is not to say there's really anything wrong with it. The performances were fine. If this sort of story was my kind of thing, I would probably like it, but it isn't my thing and I didn't like it so here we are.

Truly, Madly, Deeply is a good movie, but the main issue for me was that I never got the feeling that Jamie (Alan Rickman) was a ghost.

Nina (Juliet Stevenson) can not only see him and talk with him, but she can touch him and even hug him. Plus, he doesn't just appear and disappear. He goes in and out of the room through the door, just like living people do. Nina even acts like he's real, by not allowing anyone into her house, as if she's worried that other people might see him too.

I might not have noticed this, but this movie is similar to the movie Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), (which is one of my favorite movies), which has Jolly (played by James Caan) as the ghost who comes back to help his widow Kay, (played by Sally Field). In that movie, I had no trouble believing that Jolly was a ghost.

But aside from that minor issue, I liked Truly, Madly, Deeply. Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson were both terrific in this, and they had great chemistry together.

I love Truly, Madly, Deeply! This is one of my favorite romances. Alan Rickman and Juliet Stephenson are perfect together. Their chemistry is off the charts. What a wonderfully written movie about loss and love and moving on.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Same here, not for me

Watched this earlier today. Felt more like a play than a movie.


Thought it was decent, but kinda hollow. The reason for it was the thin plot in itself. They spent ages setting up Juliet Stevenson's lonely life, but gave very little time for her thing with Mark, with whom I thought she had a great chemistry.
In fact I thought Stevenson was fantastic.


The resolution in the end was rather quick.


On a side note, I must mention the dialogues. Loved loads of them. Which is also why it felt more like a play.


Same. Band was big here during my school days.

I tried to watch this last night but only made it 12 minutes. It did feel like a play. Is that a British movie thing?

Think it was creative choice, which is down to the writer & director (same person in this case).


Like His Three Daughters (American film I watched this year) was handled, which I also felt was more like play than a movie. Down to the filmmakers.

@beelzebubble will choose the next movie!

I always find it strange when fantasies are written off because they aren't realistic enough. I guess by some of the above reactions, if there had been a scene where Jamie, or even better yet some ranking Angel or other authoritarian exposition-giver, would have detailed ghost rules it would somehow have been a better movie for some audiences? Jamie isn't a Gremlin. You don't need a set of rules for advancing the plot.



Truly Madly Deeply works for me and it is so simple, funny, and emotionally effective. Nina (Juliet Stevenson) is stuck in anger, sadness, and moving ever closer and closer toward utter despair. Her boyfriend Jamie (Alan Rickman) died suddenly and unexpectedly and she can barely function. She is surrounded by people who care about her, but this sadness overwhelms her. Then, suddenly, miraculously, he returns to her! She has thought she felt his presence or even heard his voice in the months since he died, but now here he is! Other than his constantly feeling cold, he is essentially back, resurrected by her grief and love. At first she is ecstatic, this is more than she ever even dreamed possible! But after that initial relief washes over her she begins to be annoyed by little habits of his. Of course these were habits he always exhibited, but in her grief she has conveniently forgotten any flaws or points of friction for an idealized memory that nobody could ever live up to. In fact, not even Jamie himself.

Once she has gotten what she wished for she slowly realizes that, as much as they loved each other, it is no reason to never love again. Finally she lets herself begin to see the world again, and to fall in love again. When at movie's end she is able to choose life over despair, Jamie has completed his mission. It is a bittersweet mission, of course, because it is wonderful to be loved so very much, but it would be selfish and pointless to let her continue to love something that is gone. The message is beautiful, the acting is superb, and the tone is one that I respond to in spades.



Filmmaker Anthony Minghella died too young himself, after directing only six feature films. He won Oscars for The English Patient and many cinemaniacs love his Talented Mr. Ripley, but for me he never made as sweet, funny, nor emotionally compelling a film than his debut, Truly Madly Deeply.

If this is in reply to my review, it had nothing to do with "ghost rules" or the fantasy not being realistic enough. In my opinion, the fantasy was too realistic. It didn't feel like Jamie was a ghost. It just felt like Jamie (and his ghost friends), were just a bunch of obnoxious people who were living with her.

I would have liked the movie more if it felt more like a fantasy, and less realistic.

Searching online for this one leads to some interesting results... But I did find a link and will watch it later today after work.