Rate The Last Movie You Saw

No way! I was just asking if anyone had seen this. Surreal.

November (2017)


What a crazy film. Absolutely incredible cinematography, this one absolutely took me by surprise. A must see for fans of surreal/folklore.

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

Watched this one without subs, and I'm not sure it made much difference. It was too alluring to turn off.

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Fair point. Estonian Mythology isnt my strongest subject, so I dont think I would be able to spoil much for someone even if i wanted to! Its definintely not one that i'll forget for a while though.

I love that short so much.

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"Teachers" - (1984)

Another '80s teen comedy, but this is more of a black comedy. Darker than most with teen pregnancy, thievery, bullies and other issues that still linger today.. Maybe that's why it isn't rated as high as other films of that era. I found it funny with some great dialog from a pretty solid cast.

7/10

Not that I'm not curious about Estonian Mythology, but since there's no dialogue for about ten minutes into the film, by the time I realized that I didn't have a sub option, I already knew that I had to ride it out regardless. Definitely a testament to its power.

Ooops again



Damn it, I think you're right. The Last of Us was released in 2013 and the source novel for The Girl With All the Gifts published in 2014, but based itself on a 2013 short story by the same author : M. R. Carey. It means two works being produced at around the same time with remarkable similarities to each other. Interesting that his short story was titled Iphigenia in Aulis - that of a play written around around 405 BC, reminding me that no work is completely original - and to beware of the word 'ripoff'.

I didn't look hard enough, and thought they'd taken most of The Last of Us and rehashed it. Ignore that mini-review.


By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53208918

Maudie - (2016)

I really enjoyed this immensely. Maudie really showcases the talent of it's two leads. Sally Hawkins (who I've had a bit of a crush on since Happy-Go-Lucky) stars as folk artist Maud Lewis (maiden name Dowley.) A fascinating figure, self-taught and expressive in her painting. Her body cruelly twisted with rheumatoid arthritis, she nevertheless meets Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) by answering an advertisement for domestic help. The two marry, their fortune and love for each other riding crests of waves and diving deep down.

What a very talented man Ethan Hawke is - I've never seen him play a character like Everett Lewis. All pent up and angry, and yet shy and reserved outwardly. This story is really a love story, Maud's paintings come second to the remarkable journey these two people go on, and it illuminates her work all the more. She lived something of a painful life, but what we see inside of her from her paintings is a picture of love and happiness. A career high-point for director Aisling Walsh and writer Sherry White who have mainly had success on the small screen.

8/10


By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54671089

Marjorie Prime - (2017)

Another really good one this - science fiction along the lines of the incredible film Her. This is a future where it's possible to turn on a hologram of a loved one who has passed - and feed it all the events and personality quirks that person had. Eventually, through Artificial Intelligence, the hologram learns, increasing the likeness. This is what old Marjorie (Lois Smith) has. Her husband long gone and Alzheimer's Disease making inroads into her mind, she has the likeness of a younger version of the man she married to talk to (Jon Hamm.) He tells her stories that have been fed to him, but have been long forgotten by her.

Marjorie has a daughter (Geena Davis) and son-in-law (Tim Robbins) who come to visit - and they try to work out all of the grievances that affect most families...



8/10


By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65485372

Spontaneous - (2020)

I didn't like Spontaneous as much. Comedy-wise I feel it was reaching for Booksmart but it never felt as real. This isn't just a teen movie though, this is a faux-horror movie where members of Mara's (Katherine Langford) class start inexplicably exploding for no apparent reason. They explode into buckets of blood splashed around - we see no bones, skin or organs - so that takes the horrific edge off things and makes things funnier than they'd otherwise be.



Just your average teen 'coming-of-age' story, except with kids exploding all the time. It sounds more enjoyable than it actually is.

4/10


By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62938027

Come to Daddy - (2019)

Elijah Wood sports an Adolf Hitler haircut in Come to Daddy. Another odd character for him as Norval Greenwood - someone who is trying to reconnect with his father, having last seen him when he was only 5-years old. You might be able to see what's coming already, so I'll just say that this was fairly average fare. It was a decent horror/thriller/comedy, one where parts of it really worked well at times, but I can't see tomorrow's Criterion in desperate need of adding it to their collection.

5/10

I preferred Leviathan.

Wow. That actually looks really good to me.

Holy ****. I was interested in seeing this but that sounds like a direct rip-off of The Last Of Us and I don't know if I could get over that.

Hard to say, I guess, as both the short-story and the game were released the same year, with the full-length novel written the year after The Last Of Us. Development for tLoS began in 2009 and I can't find when the author says he started writing his short-story version, only that it came out in '13, and a film adaptation of The Last Of Us was already in the works when The Girl With All The Gifts novel came out, so who knows. But the similarities between the two are pretty startling it's not just the background story or anything, it's like, nearly the same story.
I guess I'll give it a spin and decide if I can handle it. I've been really looking forward to the The Last Of Us series coming out so maybe I won't, actually.

I have to say, I thought the climactic scene of JoBeth Williams was kinda jarring, though it's been a while.

I'm not saying they did but take a look at my post above about the timing. The Last Of Us was in development years before the short-story was published and was already in film development with The Last Of Us Part II already being written, by the time Carey had fleshed his story out into an actual novel. FWIW.

I'm strongly considering that one just to round that up. We'll see.

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Both re-watches. Excellent movies.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

I can't say anything about the similarities between the two as I haven't played The Last of Us. But the original short story was published in a collection released September 4th, 2012 (according to Goodreads) meaning it was written at least (and most likely, over) a year before the game was released. It was nominated for an award in 2013 (not published as implied earlier in this thread).

In any case, the film is only OK-ish, and I much preferred the book. The film makes changes to the characters and their motivations that contradict the book (too long time gone to be more specific, but I'm sure I've written about this stuff earlier).

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How often can you say that you've walked into a film completely blind, just a cover/poster and a short description, and be pleasantly surprised by it? Maybe back in the video rental days, but with the Internet and the constant bombarding of trailers, teasers, scoops, and news everywhere, it just doesn't happen often. But that's what happened last night to me as I browsed "Swedish movies" on Netflix and stumbled upon this neat thriller.

Red Dot follows a couple, David and Nadja (Anastasios Soulis and Nanna Blondell), as they head into a hiking trip to rekindle their relationship. Unfortunately, their romantic weekend is interrupted as they start being hunted and terrorized by an unknown shooter.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot