cold war (2018) 4.5/5 unlike the other black and white, foreign language, critically praised film i watched this week, i completely fell for this one, mainly because it has a controlled focus that makes every step it takes completely fascinating. it manages to tell a complete love story (something i'd generally rather avoid, but they completely sucked me into this one) while also giving us a horror story of 20th c totalitarianism in a very tidy 88 minutes. and it manages to be a great musical too, spanning polish folk to jazz, & it gives one of the best illustrations of how jarring & exciting it must have been to hear rock music for the first time i think i've ever seen on film.

and it does it all in the time it takes that other b&w film to get started. by the time the ushers were cleaning the popcorn from the aisles at the end of cold war, roma was just coming up on its first big event.

[Edited 1/6/19 19:35pm]

Game Night, 7.5 out of 10.

damosuzuki said:

cold war (2018) 4.5/5 unlike the other black and white, foreign language, critically praised film i watched this week, i completely fell for this one, mainly because it has a controlled focus that makes every step it takes completely fascinating. it manages to tell a complete love story (something i'd generally rather avoid, but they completely sucked me into this one) while also giving us a horror story of 20th c totalitarianism in a very tidy 88 minutes. and it manages to be a great musical too, spanning polish folk to jazz, & it gives one of the best illustrations of how jarring & exciting it must have been to hear rock music for the first time i think i've ever seen on film.

and it does it all in the time it takes that other b&w film to get started. by the time the ushers were cleaning the popcorn from the aisles at the end of cold war, roma was just coming up on its first big event.

I've been looking forward to Cold War ever since I saw the teaser clip where the female lead dances to "Rock Around the Clock" (just beautiful filmmaking).

And I, too, thought Roma was no big whoop. Sooo overrated.

Barton Fink

I used to think I didn't care for the Coen Brothers. "Too self-consciously quirky for my tastes," thought I. ...This perception was probably the result of a combination of my recollections of Raising Arizona and the various trailers/clips I'd seen over the years.

But then I saw Burn After Reading and enjoyed that. Then Hail, Caesar! - and I enjoyed that even more. Then The Big Lebowski - and I loved that!

So, lately I've been exploring their filmography a little more.

I've watched the Tom Waits and James Franco segments of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and those were entertaining. Yesterday, I watched Barton Fink.

I liked it a lot. I'd give it three stars (out of four).

Once upon a time Jesse Johnson released an album called "Shockadelica". But the "Shockadelica" album did not have a song named "Shockadelica" on it. Prince said, "Jesse, my man - how can you have an album with a great name like 'Shockadelica' but not have a song called 'Shockadelica'? Any album named 'Shockadelica' MUST have a song named 'Shockadelica'. This is an immutalbe rule of funk".

So Prince wrote his own song called "Shockadelica" and it was an instant funk masterpiece, proving once and for all that the words Prince spoke back in 1980 were, are and will always be true:

"I am always right. Even when I'm wrong, I'm right".

This leads us to the movie my son and I watched Friday evening. In fact, my son - a filmophile who could discuss the cinema with best of you guys - is the one who chose "Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies". Yes, he really did.

I assume he picked it based on the fact that he's studied in Germany and is fluent in the language, thus he would better understand the multi-cultural aspects of Teutonic zombies.

As for me, they had me at "zombies"! You know I love a great movie title and "Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies" is a great movie title.

And............................................this is one of the worst, dumbest, pointless movies ever made. To make matters worse, it violates Prince's Title Postulate.

There is not ONE zombie or person of any condition wearing lederhosen. Not. ONE. And I was expecting a movie full of this:



and this:



or at least this:




What this movie does have is complete nonsense. Nothing makes a lick of sense. Plot lines are introduced and then forgotten. Zombies are rendered inoperable by music, but no one ever thinks to hit the Apple Play button. This is a complete waste of time. I guarantee you that everyone who put money into this turkey is still complaining about the absence of zombies in lederhosen.

Don't watch this movie. It gets a 0.

RodeoSchro said:

Ace said:

damosuzuki said:

cold war (2018) 4.5/5 unlike the other black and white, foreign language, critically praised film i watched this week, i completely fell for this one, mainly because it has a controlled focus that makes every step it takes completely fascinating. it manages to tell a complete love story (something i'd generally rather avoid, but they completely sucked me into this one) while also giving us a horror story of 20th c totalitarianism in a very tidy 88 minutes. and it manages to be a great musical too, spanning polish folk to jazz, & it gives one of the best illustrations of how jarring & exciting it must have been to hear rock music for the first time i think i've ever seen on film.

and it does it all in the time it takes that other b&w film to get started. by the time the ushers were cleaning the popcorn from the aisles at the end of cold war, roma was just coming up on its first big event.

I've been looking forward to Cold War ever since I saw the teaser clip where the female lead dances to "Rock Around the Clock" (just beautiful filmmaking).

And I, too, thought Roma was no big whoop. Sooo overrated.

that scene is probably my favourite movie moment of 2018.

i shouldn't be so pissy about roma, i suppose, because i did just catch it at home instead of making myself go to the theatre, & i have to think it would have played much better as a theatre experience. but it just made no impact on me whatsoever, where-as cold war just felt perfect, almost magical. if you do see it, i'll be very curious to hear what you think.

a matter of life and death (1946) 3.5/5 a young airman miraculously survives bailing out of his aeroplane without a parachute & falls in love with an American radio operator. but the officials in the other world realise their mistake, and despatch an angel to collect him. lots of winning qualities, undeniably, but just a bit too syrupy for my tastes. i enjoy a touch of guilelessness in a film, & i think 50s & earlier melodrama is something to be savored & generally applauded, but this just slightly tipped over into a zone that occasionally annoyed me rather than charmed me.

[Edited 1/7/19 19:56pm]

The Oath

Now here's a nice surprise! This is a movie that I could totally imagine happening to me, and that's why it's pretty impacting.

onlyforaminute said:

RodeoSchro said:

Once upon a time Jesse Johnson released an album called "Shockadelica". But the "Shockadelica" album did not have a song named "Shockadelica" on it. Prince said, "Jesse, my man - how can you have an album with a great name like 'Shockadelica' but not have a song called 'Shockadelica'? Any album named 'Shockadelica' MUST have a song named 'Shockadelica'. This is an immutalbe rule of funk".

So Prince wrote his own song called "Shockadelica" and it was an instant funk masterpiece, proving once and for all that the words Prince spoke back in 1980 were, are and will always be true:

"I am always right. Even when I'm wrong, I'm right".

This leads us to the movie my son and I watched Friday evening. In fact, my son - a filmophile who could discuss the cinema with best of you guys - is the one who chose "Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies". Yes, he really did.

I assume he picked it based on the fact that he's studied in Germany and is fluent in the language, thus he would better understand the multi-cultural aspects of Teutonic zombies.

As for me, they had me at "zombies"! You know I love a great movie title and "Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies" is a great movie title.

And............................................this is one of the worst, dumbest, pointless movies ever made. To make matters worse, it violates Prince's Title Postulate.

There is not ONE zombie or person of any condition wearing lederhosen. Not. ONE. And I was expecting a movie full of this:



and this:



or at least this:




What this movie does have is complete nonsense. Nothing makes a lick of sense. Plot lines are introduced and then forgotten. Zombies are rendered inoperable by music, but no one ever thinks to hit the Apple Play button. This is a complete waste of time. I guarantee you that everyone who put money into this turkey is still complaining about the absence of zombies in lederhosen.

Don't watch this movie. It gets a 0.

Dang Rodeo, must've been really bad you didn't even bother to share the plot.

Not even Wikipedia explains the plot! But since you mentioned it, LOL.......

Two dudes are helicoptered to the top of a mountain for some rad snowboarding, which is being filmed for some reason. The first dude makes it down just fine but the second dude disappears - and then reappears naked. That was his "big joke". Unfortunately for him, his biggest fan is waiting for him at the bottom of the run. And she's a young girl in a wheelchair. It doesn't end well, as you can imagine. In fact, the helicopter pilot says "Screw it!" and leaves the two dudes and one girl behind. (the girlfriend of the naked snowboarder, who is super PO'ed at him). They are stuck at the top of the mountain, so they go to the mountaintop restaurant.

(It's never explained how the wheelchair girl, her mom, and the film crew got to the bottom but apparently they did, because there aren't any wheelchair zombie girls later in the movie. There should have been, though. That would have been an improvement over what they had.)

It's the last day of the season, so the restaurant is throwing its End Of The Year Party! The resort owner and his partner are there, with a Russian investor they hope will give them some money and save their ski resort. The resort owners' pitch was that they'd invented a new kind of snow that wouldn't melt, so the resort could offer skiing all year long. But it turns out that the goo that makes that snow also makes you a zombie.

And the Russian investor is Zombie Patient Zero. He got gooed. He is slowly turning into a zombie, but the investors think he's just a drunk Russian. He wanders out onto the dance floor, where he bites a non-lederhosen-wearing young woman. But wait! Later in the movie we see that music lulls the zombies into a trance dance and renders them harmless. Why didn't that happen to the Russian investor?

Thus begins the zombiefication of the End Of The Year Party. Some mayhem ensues, and our three heroes - along with the resort owner and the Stereotypical German Fraulein who runs the restaurant - end up safe in an attic. Everyone else is either becoming a zombie, or is being eaten by zombies. I guess the resort owner's partner got eaten, because he didn't make the Survival Squad but we never see him again.

One dude calls his cousin, who is an expert in zombie movies. "How do we fight these zombies?" asks the dude. "It depends on what kind of zombie movie you're in!" replies the zombie expert. Cool! We're going to have a movie that breaks down the Fourth Wall!

Except we don't. There are no more references to the zombie expert, or what kind of movie they're in, or anything at all that had to do with that scene. By the way, even though that cell phone call went through just fine (all the way to DENMARK, too!), no other phone call of any kind is henceforth possible.

Instead, the Survival Squad decides to make a break for it on a giant snowmobile that's outside. Three of the group make it to the snowmobile - the resort owner, the naked snowboarder (who put his clothes back on awhile ago), and his girlfriend. The other snowboarder and the Stereotypical German Fraulein can't get there, so they have to fight their way through zombies back up to the attic.

The snowmobilers get about 1/4 down the mountain and then the resort owner runs into a deer/ditches the other two people for reasons unknown. The resort owner is rewarded for his treachery by getting eaten by zombified deer.

Meanwhile, the two Survival Squad members who were stuck behind have reached the safety of the attic again, but it turns out the snowboarder had been bitten in the stomach by a zombie. He is getting zombified! He tells the Stereotypical German Fraulein to kill him but she can't; that is, she can't until he goes Full Zombie and tries to eat her.

The Stereotypical German Fraulein grabs two ski poles and says "Now you zee me!", runs the ski poles through the snowboarder's eyes and out the back of his head, and says, "Now you don't!" As entertaining as that is, it doesn't kill the Zombie Snowboarder. It just makes him a blind zombie with ski poles run through his head.

The naked snowboarder and his girlfriend make it back to the resort, where they realize that music puts zombies in a trance. So they slice off some zombie heads while the zombies are swaying back and forth to Wagner. But the concerto ends and the remaining zombies return to their natural zombie ways.

While that's happening, the Stereotypical German Fraulein finds a hidden trove of Nazi weapons, including a giant machine gun. She straps on some bandoliers and starts blowing away the zombies.

The naked snowboarder and his girlfriend mount their snowboards and decapitate some zombies. It's as stupid as it sounds.

There's really no resolution. The Survival Squad never knows why the zombies appeared, or what made them zombies, or anything like that. About the only thing that happens is that the zombified dude snowboarder stumbles towards his friends (he still has ski poles run through his eye sockets and out the back of his head), and they get him to walk into the straps of his snowboard, whereupon he starts snowboarding down the mountain.

"He's finally happy," says the naked snowboarder but just then the zombie snowboarder runs into a tree, which finishes the job of completely skewering the ski poles all the way through his head, killing him.

The end.

HAPPY NOW?!?!?!?!?

The Favourite (2018)

The 8th year of a given decade is prone to put out great period pieces with contemporary sensibilities: Like The Lion In Winter (1968), Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Elizabeth (1998). I'd add The Favourite to that group. It's a fine movie about British court intrigue in the early 18th century under the reign of Queen Anne. As the once and future rivals, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are in typical fantastic form.

But as Queen Anne, Olivia Colman is a revelation. She is the emotional and dramatic center of the film. And she makes it truly special.

damosuzuki said:

Ace said:

I've been looking forward to Cold War ever since I saw the teaser clip where the female lead dances to "Rock Around the Clock" (just beautiful filmmaking).

And I, too, thought Roma was no big whoop. Sooo overrated.

that scene is probably my favourite movie moment of 2018.

i shouldn't be so pissy about roma, i suppose, because i did just catch it at home instead of making myself go to the theatre, & i have to think it would have played much better as a theatre experience. but it just made no impact on me whatsoever, where-as cold war just felt perfect, almost magical. if you do see it, i'll be very curious to hear what you think.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

I think Roma is the best directed movie of the year by far.

Chacun son gout (as they say).

Some very pretty mise-en-scene, but I didn't see the need to show the political situation in the country, for one (am I missing some tie to the main story?). And here are some blurbs from Rotten Tomatoes that pretty much reflect how I felt about the rest:

- James Clay (Fresh Fiction)

- Christopher Lloyd (The Film Yap)

- Kevin Maher (Times [UK])

Ace said:

RodeoSchro said:

onlyforaminute said:

RodeoSchro said: Dang Rodeo, must've been really bad you didn't even bother to share the plot.

Not even Wikipedia explains the plot! But since you mentioned it, LOL.......

Two dudes are helicoptered to the top of a mountain for some rad snowboarding, which is being filmed for some reason. The first dude makes it down just fine but the second dude disappears - and then reappears naked. That was his "big joke". Unfortunately for him, his biggest fan is waiting for him at the bottom of the run. And she's a young girl in a wheelchair. It doesn't end well, as you can imagine. In fact, the helicopter pilot says "Screw it!" and leaves the two dudes and one girl behind. (the girlfriend of the naked snowboarder, who is super PO'ed at him). They are stuck at the top of the mountain, so they go to the mountaintop restaurant.

(It's never explained how the wheelchair girl, her mom, and the film crew got to the bottom but apparently they did, because there aren't any wheelchair zombie girls later in the movie. There should have been, though. That would have been an improvement over what they had.)

It's the last day of the season, so the restaurant is throwing its End Of The Year Party! The resort owner and his partner are there, with a Russian investor they hope will give them some money and save their ski resort. The resort owners' pitch was that they'd invented a new kind of snow that wouldn't melt, so the resort could offer skiing all year long. But it turns out that the goo that makes that snow also makes you a zombie.

And the Russian investor is Zombie Patient Zero. He got gooed. He is slowly turning into a zombie, but the investors think he's just a drunk Russian. He wanders out onto the dance floor, where he bites a non-lederhosen-wearing young woman. But wait! Later in the movie we see that music lulls the zombies into a trance dance and renders them harmless. Why didn't that happen to the Russian investor?

Thus begins the zombiefication of the End Of The Year Party. Some mayhem ensues, and our three heroes - along with the resort owner and the Stereotypical German Fraulein who runs the restaurant - end up safe in an attic. Everyone else is either becoming a zombie, or is being eaten by zombies. I guess the resort owner's partner got eaten, because he didn't make the Survival Squad but we never see him again.

One dude calls his cousin, who is an expert in zombie movies. "How do we fight these zombies?" asks the dude. "It depends on what kind of zombie movie you're in!" replies the zombie expert. Cool! We're going to have a movie that breaks down the Fourth Wall!

Except we don't. There are no more references to the zombie expert, or what kind of movie they're in, or anything at all that had to do with that scene. By the way, even though that cell phone call went through just fine (all the way to DENMARK, too!), no other phone call of any kind is henceforth possible.

Instead, the Survival Squad decides to make a break for it on a giant snowmobile that's outside. Three of the group make it to the snowmobile - the resort owner, the naked snowboarder (who put his clothes back on awhile ago), and his girlfriend. The other snowboarder and the Stereotypical German Fraulein can't get there, so they have to fight their way through zombies back up to the attic.

The snowmobilers get about 1/4 down the mountain and then the resort owner runs into a deer/ditches the other two people for reasons unknown. The resort owner is rewarded for his treachery by getting eaten by zombified deer.

Meanwhile, the two Survival Squad members who were stuck behind have reached the safety of the attic again, but it turns out the snowboarder had been bitten in the stomach by a zombie. He is getting zombified! He tells the Stereotypical German Fraulein to kill him but she can't; that is, she can't until he goes Full Zombie and tries to eat her.

The Stereotypical German Fraulein grabs two ski poles and says "Now you zee me!", runs the ski poles through the snowboarder's eyes and out the back of his head, and says, "Now you don't!" As entertaining as that is, it doesn't kill the Zombie Snowboarder. It just makes him a blind zombie with ski poles run through his head.

The naked snowboarder and his girlfriend make it back to the resort, where they realize that music puts zombies in a trance. So they slice off some zombie heads while the zombies are swaying back and forth to Wagner. But the concerto ends and the remaining zombies return to their natural zombie ways.

While that's happening, the Stereotypical German Fraulein finds a hidden trove of Nazi weapons, including a giant machine gun. She straps on some bandoliers and starts blowing away the zombies.

The naked snowboarder and his girlfriend mount their snowboards and decapitate some zombies. It's as stupid as it sounds.

There's really no resolution. The Survival Squad never knows why the zombies appeared, or what made them zombies, or anything like that. About the only thing that happens is that the zombified dude snowboarder stumbles towards his friends (he still has ski poles run through his eye sockets and out the back of his head), and they get him to walk into the straps of his snowboard, whereupon he starts snowboarding down the mountain.

"He's finally happy," says the naked snowboarder but just then the zombie snowboarder runs into a tree, which finishes the job of completely skewering the ski poles all the way through his head, killing him.

The end.

HAPPY NOW?!?!?!?!?

BWAH!! That does sound terrible. And yes, though I really hadn't expected you to do that.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book which are highly enjoyable, we’re flawed in their direction

If you find a movie highly enjoyable, isn't that a movie that was "well-directed" to you?

I mean, I know what you mean, but I don't personally judge movies that way. So, something like Roma can have some gorgeous frames, but as I found it kind of a nothing story that moved along too slowly, it's not "well-directed" to me.

It reminded me very much of some of the '40s, '50s and '60s B&W foreign films we were shown in film class. Lots of lingering scenes where not much happens, in the name of "realism" (or just pretty "mise-en-scene"); the rhythms were very, very familiar to me. So - in addition to finding it boring and without much of an ending - I found it derivative.

We're not gonna change each other's minds, anyway.

[Edited 1/9/19 0:35am]

Ace said:

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book which are highly enjoyable, we’re flawed in their direction

If you find a movie highly enjoyable, isn't that a movie that was "well-directed" to you?

We're not gonna change each other's minds, anyway.

Movie making is a collaborative effort, and you can easily spot where one link in the chain is busted.

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) - A woman in Harlem embraces her pregnancy while she and her family struggle to prove her fiancé innocent of a crime.

If you liked Barry Jenkins' previous film, Moonlight, then you'll like this one too. It has many of the same qualities--excellent acting performances, gorgeous cinematography--only missing Moonlight's powerful finish. However, it's still a wonderful ride. 4.5/5

sexton said:

gandorb said:

The Untamed -2016.....horror/sci-fi/sex .....from spain. 4/5

Mary Poppins Returns (2018) I really wanted to love this because I adore musicals, and despite the incredible visuals and the efforts of the cast led by the amazing Emily Blunt, I still prefer the classic Mary Poppins (1964). IMO no one can compete with Julie Andrews . Plus, the songs were better and memorable eg. the iconic Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and my fav Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag). When I left the cinema I couldn't remember any of the new songs and usually I buy the sountrack if the songs stick in my head, and these ones were lacking. I give this a 3.5 out of 5 A nice and charming film that didn't really need to be made.

[Edited 1/11/19 21:29pm]

enemy (2013) 3.5/5

left me flummoxed, but in a pleasant, head-spinning way that makes me want to dive into message boards to see what people make out of this in a way that i haven't since...mulholland drive, maybe.

not that i think this is on that level of greatness, but it is weird & spacey & intriguing enough that i might watch it again tomorrow night.


green book (2018) 3.5/5

it's perfectly fine. it's funny & warm, & while it occasionally flirts with being cloying, it's hardly the worst offender among oscar friendly films you're likely to see any given year. there is nothing wrong with it, other than the fact that it felt a touch too perfectly programmed. it's competent & heartwarming & has enough not too overblown but overblown enough moments to win a slew of awards, i'm sure.

also has very convincing music scenes. i'm assuming digital effects were used to show ali playing. maybe if i looked closely on a rewatch i'd see the seams, but it sure looked perfect last night.

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Funny, absurd, timely, suspenseful, and an ending more bitter than sweet. Just what you'd expect from an outstanding Spike Lee film.

when judged against his best . . . .75

overall:

Destroyer (2018)

Nicole Kidman is as good as advertised in this intriguing film that flubs the landing. Solid turn from Sebastian Stan as well.

.25

[Edited 1/16/19 15:01pm]

The Favourite (2018) - In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne occupies the throne and her close friend, Lady Sarah, governs the country in her stead. When a new servant, Abigail, arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.

This is the most conventional of the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed movies I've seen, but some disturbing elements are still present. There has been much talk about the closing scene and what it exactly means which I found to be well done. 4/5

Vice (2018) - The story of Dick Cheney, an unassuming bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as Vice President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.

There were a few laugh out loud moments in the film which contrasted sharply with other truly frightening scenes. I see why Christian Bale won the Golden Globe for his portrayal of Cheney--and also why he thanked Satan for the inspiration. 3.5/5

damosuzuki said:

enemy (2013) 3.5/5

left me flummoxed, but in a pleasant, head-spinning way that makes me want to dive into message boards to see what people make out of this in a way that i haven't since...mulholland drive, maybe.

not that i think this is on that level of greatness, but it is weird & spacey & intriguing enough that i might watch it again tomorrow night.


green book (2018) 3.5/5

it's perfectly fine. it's funny & warm, & while it occasionally flirts with being cloying, it's hardly the worst offender among oscar friendly films you're likely to see any given year. there is nothing wrong with it, other than the fact that it felt a touch too perfectly programmed. it's competent & heartwarming & has enough not too overblown but overblown enough moments to win a slew of awards, i'm sure.

also has very convincing music scenes. i'm assuming digital effects were used to show ali playing. maybe if i looked closely on a rewatch i'd see the seams, but it sure looked perfect last night.

ReL Green Book, it sounds like your heart wanted to like it more but your mind wouldn't let it! That damn mind ! I succumbed to this movie but have had that happen to me while watching others.