Media itt: movie/film discussion - Beware Spoilers

[ryo yamada2001]

this is neat because on my birthday (oct 26) i always remake my top 25 films list, even though it's becoming increasingly possible to order let alone choose which films make the list: here

top 25

Crash (Cronenberg)
Heat (Mann)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper)
The Matrix (Wachowskis)
Angel's Egg (Oshii)
The Matrix Revolutions (Wachowskis)
Ghost in the Shell (Oshii)
Knock at the Cabin (Shyamalan)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (Varda)
House (Obayashi)
Rehearsals for Retirement (Solomon)
New Rose Hotel (Ferrara)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Cat Soup (Sato)
Miami Vice (Mann)
Melancholia (von Trier)
Halloween II (Zombie)
Gummo (Korine)
Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
American Psycho (Harron)
Runaway (Kanye West)
Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
Trainspotting (Boyle)
The End of Evangelion (Anno)
Hana-bi (Kitano)

spent most of the year focusing on tv anime and such (and i'll spare y'all the thoughts on those lol), so didn't see as many movies as i'd liked. nonetheless, i still managed to see so many beautiful films, and discovering myself and some of my favorite directors in the process. more than ever i'm convinced movies are sacred, magical things and that it's something worth living for

my first time watches that i've hit with a 5/5 this year, in watching order:
- videodrome (cronenberg); so dense, atmospheric, and fascinatingly philosophical that after the credits it felt like 8 hours had just passed. it's the experience i only really get from binging a book, except in cinema form. but cronenberg's work remains so wonderfully grotesque that it's a joy to watch also
- king of new york, the addiction, new rose hotel, bad lieutenant (ferrara); formalist excellence within sleazy frameworks, few things more poignant than king of new york's ending, more visceral than the addiction's graduation party, more prescient than new rose hotel (my favorite review ive ever written), or deeply moving as bad lieutenant's apparition of christ. very wounded, intimate, spiritual, conflicted etc. a remarkably rewarding filmmaker and i cannot help but commend a man who bleeds himself and all of his faults upon his own canvas
- the passion of joan of arc (dreyer); one of the most spiritual experiences i've ever had, genuinely has remained with me for months. joan being burned at the stake could be considered the best scene of all time, and it was made in 1928. they'd solved the movies back then everything we got after is just bonus tbh.
- knock at the cabin (shyamalan); in a year and decade where homophobic and transphobic sentiment is on the rise, where queer people are getting increasingly endangered in the US, where it feels like the apocalypse is perpetually right around the corner, where all feels truly lost, knock at the cabin was such a revelatory and important movie that asserted that we're always going to be here, we're always going to matter, we will always persist. it's a queer movie that acknowledges all that is lost but all that can and still will flourish; an assertion that we deserve to live even in times where it gets so difficult to believe that. a declaration of love from shyamalan, cried so much over this
- digimon adventure (hosoda); won't talk about this too much but hikari struggling and fighting so so hard to save the friend she'd made just earlier in the day just makes me sob man

movies i saw in cinemas this year:
- shoplifters (kore-eda; obviously good while not exactly my speed, sakura ando might be the best actress nobody talks about)
- m3gan (cringe)
- creed iii (potent cinema, quite hopeful about mbj's future directorial career)
- fast x (real cinema, from the flame to the kid to the nos to the dom to the cross to the bicep through the fucking car. real cinema is fucking back)
mission impossible dead reckoning part one (funny how a movie warning about the spooky AI might as well have been made by AI)
- oppenheimer (visceral and a behemoth, turned me into a nolan believer)
- barbie (i turned around and saw all of the teenage girls in the theater crying, like damn. whatever i can say about how shallow i find its feminism has to be offset by the fact this is probably the first time all of those teenagers found representation and catharsis through film, and that's ultimately what it's about to me. + immaculate production design and ryan gosling swept)
- killers of the flower moon (more qualified people have spoken about the decision to focus on ernest burkhart over mollie -- i think it undercuts some of its potential, as scorsese seems to struggle to balance ernest's filmic arc and the very real and very serious ramifications of the Osage's killings -- but its admirable that its been made regardless)

other things i wanna talk about a bit:
- watched a few de palma's this year. great movies but the one that stuck with me most is blow out (ending; nsfw). jesus christ man. i think the montage scene assembling the crash's pictures and sound together is one of the most essential scenes in film history. de palma remains underrated; capable of mending fierce political expression with formalist (re-)construction. and then u got shit like snake eyes which is just a pure fun sugar rush so who knows
- twilight baseball scene. sickly blue filter gives a persistent feeling of cold and wetness in some forgotten bumfuck part of the US where nothing ever happens. awful awkward stilted conversations between people who are experiencing these feelings for the first time. such a fascinating document and depiction of contemporary youth novel aesthetics/being an edgy high schooler. can't help but be sucked into its forgettable mundanity and its subsequent suspension thereof, climbing through treetops and exploring a world totally unknown like bella does. so it's unstylish and lame and every line is difficult to get through (though very funny in retrospect, like how we laugh at the cringey we used to say) but that doesn't make twilight bad; it makes twilight all the better!
- looking for an angel. queer people die too much
- i understand why southland tales is so divisive (though i think its aesthetics of screens-within-screens causing information overload is incredibly inventive and prescient) but even then its ending gotta be so undeniable, "i forgive you" (nsfw) being one of those things that have sat with me all year
- miami vice (2006) is unreal. colin farrell gives one of the best performances in film history here. painting with digital. fucking unbelievable
- im too tired to write more but please watch rehearsals for retirement by phil solomon. perfect movie in just 12 minutes, perfect editing cinematography storytelling through visuals further developing the medium through a deeply personal way
- my goal for this year is to watch at least the movies in this list, though i may deviate from it

full list of things i've seen incl. tv & anime

ignore the top 4 labels (its for picking letterboxd favorites, i wanted to change my lineup every month but i fell off halfway through the year)

i'm still at the start of my journey through cinema and it's so exciting. i already love it so much and i can only feel my love for the movies grow each passing year. god bless. wishing y'all another wonderful year with the movies, may you find a bunch of new favorites. thank you bkc for tagging

 

[Eagle4]

!! loving all these write-ups, seems like everyone's had a very cinephilic year

fave first-watches this year:

Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier, 1962) - plotless by design, a sprawl of shaggydogs and blind alleys, as if the narrative itself can't decide what it wants to be, held together through thrilling musicality, through rozier's bravura, through the weight of all there is yet to come. takes on an enormous degree of potency knowing this time that he captures has passed: everything is so real, so fierce in its realness, and so transient, too.

Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001) - possibly the most intense, stomach-churning film i've ever seen. ridiculously visceral, unapologetic examination of male entitlement, sisterhood dynamics, the desire to be liberated and the revulsion regarding how exactly to go about that. off-kilter in all the right ways, from the incongruous music cue to the dread-inducing drive back to that seemingly outta-nowhere ending. no straight answers: just brutal, glorious finality. horror film through and through.

(also went on a bit of a breillat kick w/ this year's LAST SUMMER and her debut A REAL YOUNG GIRL, the latter being barnstormingly brilliant)

Baxter, Vera Baxter (Marguerite Duras, 1977) - maybe my favourite use of non-diegetic music in a film ever: the backing track to centuries of stolen agency. boxy compositions of a mansion stripped of its decadence, now a home for apparitions to wander around in. silhouettes glowing against a pale sky, or caught in reflections. cuts to landscapes so empty and lonely that they can only compound the oppressive interiority. this film is extremely my shit --- the dialogue is often impenetrable but i don't think duras minds, she applies such a rhythm to what is essentially two extended conversations that i felt *everything* regardless. also, bit of a tangent but this film reminds me of when i was couchsurfing round a friend's in brussels last november and she insisted on playing the same song on repeat at 2am as she worked on her uni project while i was trying to sleep. anyway.

Other great non-2023 releases i've seen this year have been An Autumn Tale (Rohmer, 1998), Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul, 2004), and Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001)

In terms of 2023 releases, I'd put my current top 10 as this (yes i'm very aware most of these aren't 2023 releases but hey life has been hectic):

1. De Humani Corporis Fabrica
2. Saint Omer
3. The Girl and the Spider
4. Unrest
5. Falcon Lake
6. Skinamarink
7. Rotting in the Sun
8. MI7: Dead Reckoning Part 1 (glad to see everyone here is a fan of this one)
9. Godland
10. Asteroid City

other films i liked this year: Last Summer, Anatomy of a Fall, Club Zero, Killers of the Flower Moon, Bottoms
films i thought were just fine: Oppenheimer, They Cloned Tyrone, Spiderverse 2, Dungeons and Dragons, John Wick 4, Afire, Passages
films that were uhh not great: The Royal Hotel, Barbie, GotG 3, Knock at the Cabin
films that kinda sucked: No One Will Save You, Haunting in Venice, No Hard Feelings, Indiana Jones 5, Beau is Afraid, Past Lives, Infinity Pool

also not sure too much has changed w/ this list but here's my top 20 all time (changes every day though)

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1. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Schrader, 1985)
2. A Summer's Tale (Rohmer, 1996)
3. Playtime (Tati, 1967)
4. I Knew Her Well (Pietrangeli, 1965)
5. Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (Akerman, 1978)
6. Man With a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)
7. House of Tolerance (Bonello, 2011)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
9. Ratcatcher (Ramsay, 1999)
10. Adieu Philippine (Rozier, 1962)
11. The Aviator's Wife (Rohmer 1981)
12. 35 Rhums (Denis, 2008)
13. Dillinger is Dead (Ferreri, 1969)
14. Red Desert (Antonioni, 1964)
15. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Greenaway, 1989)
16. Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara, 1964)
17. Inherent Vice (PTA, 2014)
18. Airplane! (Various, 1980)
19. The Naked Island (Shindo, 1960)
20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)

 

[chimp]

It's November 1st! My favorite month is finally here! And thus, so is another round of our yearly movie round-ups!!!

Of course, before I get to that, I must link this post about my own adventures in making a movie...please do check it out: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/i-made-a-movie-kinda.3730604/#post-9842728

ANYWAY, I didn't have much as much of a Hooptober this time around--I wound up with less than half of last year's total, though I did see some great stuff of course--so I'll skip the "writeups" of last year in favor of a sparser approach. Also, I did start the month with a rewatch of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Ya gotta. Classic Leatherface and his wacky shenanigans. I still have a few Hoopers I gotta get to (Mortuary, Poltergeist, Night Terrors)...but he's really become a favorite of mine.

1. Djinn (2013, Hooper) - had some characteristically great Hooper ideas--the midpoint is generally solid--but overall the whole thing is too TV movie-drenched. Much better than it would've been in anyone else's hands but still not exactly good
2. Salem's Lot (1980, Hooper) - watched the full miniseries cut, surprised by how much it dragged, and I ultimately found it to lack bite (ha)
3. The Damned Thing (2006, Hooper) - now this was more like it! Genuinely unsettling and nasty all the way through
4. Sleepaway Camp (1983, Hiltzik) - speaking of nasty, this was surprising in that regard with how cruel all the kids were. Pretty decent
5. Shocker (1989, Craven) - liked a lot! This is far too underrated, Craven was really in the zone here
6. Ravenous (1999, Bird) - tonally strange, ultimately liked it decently enough, though it took a while to catch on to what it was doing (less horrifying than you'd expect, more snowy and atmospheric than you'd expect)
7. Body Parts (1991, Red) - liked a lot, very fun slasher riff on Cronenberg or something
8. Murder Party (2007, Saulnier) - not great but ultimately charming in its heart
9. The Undertaker (1988, Steffanino) - liked a lot, grimy slasher in the vein of Maniac and such
10. Loft (2005, K. Kurosawa) - the best horror I saw all month, Kiyoshi masterfully doing what he does best and really dragging out the pace to wonderful effect, everything is firing on all cylinders here
11. The Scary of Sixty-First (2021, Nekrasova) - wonderful 16mm cinematography in an exploitation horror riff on Eyes Wide Shut, very fun
12. The Love Witch (2016, Biller) - liked the ideas, less so the bloated execution of everything beyond how it looked
13. Knife + Heart (2018, Gonzalez) - very solid modern giallo with a much more personal impact than most in the genre, the ending is particularly excellent and the whole thing looks incredible
14. Train to Busan (2016, Yeon) - a blast! I'm not normally a fast zombie guy but this brings the intensity so nicely I didn't mind
15. Kill List (2011, Wheatley) - had to cleanse Meg 2 from my system somehow...anyway I'm not sure about how the ending fits (though in and of itself it is good) but overall this is quite good and takes a really interesting approach throughout
16. Aenigma (1987, Fulci) - started stronger than it finished so overall just decent, but has some really great atmosphere and camerawork going on
17. Def by Temptation (1990, Bond III) - feverish mix of joyous fun and devilish intensity, also looks absolutely amazing
18. The Howling (1981, Dante) - this was really great, and I think I prefer it to its most common point of comparison, An American Werewolf in London. Should be much more well-regarded!

So now, since for many of us, our top 40/50/whatever isn't changing (that much, anyway, and if anything it's just growing more and more--though maybe I'm just speaking for myself), I once again invite everyone to post their favorite things they've seen over the past year! Of course, if you want to post your top (insert number here), I have no objections.

Personally, I limited myself to that which I gave a 9 or 10 out of 10--assigning numbers to this stuff can of course be incredibly silly (and I easily could've added MANY more films which I loved similarly), but is basically my necessary arbitrary cutoff so I don't list literally hundreds more things I really enjoyed...I have seen a lot (too much) since last November 1st. I also did more director binges than I've done in the past, hence why a lot of names appear repeatedly and in close proximity! For my own sake/time, I had to stop myself from writing about all of these...though maybe I will come back to them and describe (some of) the impact they've had on me.

1. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974, Peckinpah)
2. Le bonheur (1965, Varda)
3. Shallow Grave (1994, Boyle)
4. Mean Streets (1973, Scorsese)
5. All That Jazz (1979, Fosse)
6. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939, Mizoguchi)
7. White Material (2009, Denis)
8. Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018, Bi)
9. The Searchers (1956, Ford)
10. Coach to Vienna (1966, Kachyňa)
11. Bad Lieutenant (1992, Ferrara)
12. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Pontecorvo)
13. A City of Sadness (1989, Hou)
14. Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Hou)
15. The Assassin (2015, Hou)
16. Millennium Mambo (2001, Hou)
17. My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989, Tam)
18. Lifeforce (1985, Hooper)
19. The Last Wave (1977, Weir)
20. The Headless Woman (2008, Martel)
21. La ciénaga (2001, Martel)
22. Diary of a Country Priest (1951, Bresson)
23. The Parallax View (1974, Pakula)
24. Koyaanisqatsi (1982, Reggio)
25. A Short Film About Love (1988, Kieslowski)
26. A Short Film About Killing (1988, Kieslowski)
27. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972, Fassbinder)
28. Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974, Rivette)
29. Amsterdamned (1988, Maas)
30. Sunset Blvd (1950, Wilder)
31. India Song (1975, Duras)
32. Vive l'amour (1994, Tsai)
33. Kagemusha (1980, A. Kurosawa)
34. Abhijan (1962, Ray)
35. Skinamarink (2022, Bell)
36. Toute une nuit (1982, Akerman)
37. The Last Days of Disco (1998, Stillman)
38. The Leopard (1963, Visconti)
39. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, Altman)
40. Le deuxieme souffle (1966, Melville)
41. Dersu Uzala (1975, A. Kurosawa)
42. Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Aldrich)
43. Vampyr (1932, Dreyer)
44. In a Lonely Place (1950, N. Ray)
45. The Murder of Mr. Devil (1970, Krumbachová)
46. Canal (1957, Wajda)
47. Tokyo Sonata (2008, K. Kurosawa)
48. Scenes from a Marriage (1974, Bergman)
49. Rififi (1955, Dassin)
50. Le cercle rouge (1970, Melville)
51. Landscape in the Mist (1988, Angelopoulos)
52. Stray Dogs (2013, Tsai)
53. The Piano Teacher (2001, Haneke)
54. Army of Shadows (1969, Melville)
55. Tár (2022, Field)
56. Rear Window (1954, Hitchcock)
57. Play It As It Lays (1972, Perry)
58. Short Cuts (1993, Altman)
59. Lilja 4-ever (2002, Moodysson)
60. Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Leone)
61. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2002, Wang)
62. Angel Dust (1994, Ishii)
63. Earth (1930, Dovzhenko)
64. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989, Greenaway)
65. Fires on the Plain (1959, Ichikawa)
66. La captive (2000, Akerman)
67. Wings (1966, Shepitko)
68. Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (1975, Shinoda)
69. Pale Flower (1964, Shinoda)
70. Ulysses' Gaze (1995, Angelopoulos)
71. Barry Lyndon (1975, Kubrick)
72. A Spring for the Thirsty (1965, Illienko)
73. Salto (1965, Konwicki)
74. Badlands (1973, Malick)
75. A Page of Madness (1926, Kenosuga)
76. A Touch of Zen (1971, King)
77. Himiko (1974, Shinoda)
78. Black God, White Devil (1964, Rocha)
79. Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974, Terayama)
80. This Transient Life (1970, Jissoji)
81. Across 110th Street (1972, Shear)
82. Eureka (2000, Aoyama)
83. Ganja & Hess (1973, Gunn)
84. Songs from the Second Floor (2000, Andersson)
85. L'intrus (2004, Denis)
86. Platform (2000, Zhangke)
87. Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999, Jann)
88. Variety (1983, Gordon)
89. Goyokin (1969, Gosha)
90. Samurai Assassin (1965, Okamoto)
91. Patlabor 2 (1993, Oshii)
92. Take Out (2004, Baker / Tsou)
93. In a Year with 13 Moons (1978, Fassbinder)
94. The Wages of Fear (1953, Clouzot)
95. Diabolique (1955, Clouzot)
96. The Mother and the Whore (1973, Eustache)
97. The Amazonian Angel (1992, Klonaris / Thomadaki)
98. Until the End of the World (1991, Wenders)
99. Perfect Days (2023, Wenders)
100. Mandala (1971, Jissoji)
101. Ordet (1955, Dreyer)
102. Face to Face (1976, Bergman) - I had to make an exception for this, which stands head and shoulders above as the single best film I've seen all year. Cinema at its most powerful and harrowing. I genuinely felt indecent watching Liv Ullman go to the horrible places she went--I can't recall anything else in recent memory that provoked anything close to resembling the reaction this one got out of me. I can only attribute its lack of regard as among Bergman's best due to its relative obscurity--it is quite difficult to find--but I cannot emphasize enough how incredible it is. Please seek it out, and just as you would with Scenes from a Marriage/Fanny & Alexander, the extended TV cut is the only way to go, especially since it's still only in the ballpark of three hours.
103. tokyo.sora (2002, Ishikawa)
104. Fanny and Alexander (1982, Bergman)
105. World on a Wire (1973, Fassbinder)
106. Devi (1960, S. Ray)
107. Su-ki-da (2006, Ishikawa)
108. Soleil Ô (1970, Hondo)
109. Night and the City (1950, Dassin)
110. The Girls (1968, Zetterling)
111. Taipei Story (1985, Yang)
112. Places in Cities (1998, Schanelec)
113. Petite maman (2021, Sciamma)
114. La vérité (1960, Clouzot)
115. La prisonnière (1968, Clouzot)
116. The Days Between (2001, Speth)
117. Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)
118. The Sun in a Net (1962, Uher)
119. Dragon's Return (1968, Grečner)
120. The Holy Girl (2004, Martel)
121. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999, Kiarostami)
122. Out of the Past (1947, Tourneur)
123. Nostos: The Return (1989, Piavoli)
124. A Day Off (1968, Lee)
125. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980, Fassbinder)
126. The Weeping Meadow (2004, Angelopoulos)
127. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, Petri)
128. No Home Movie (2015, Akerman)
129. Dreams (1955, Bergman)
130. Summer Interlude (1951, Bergman)
131. They Live By Night (1948, N. Ray)
132. Pickup on South Street (1953, Fuller)
133. Our Daily Bread (1970, Kaul)
134. Deep Cover (1992, Duke)
135. At the First Breath of Wind (2002, Piavoli)
136. The War is Over (1966, Resnais)
137. Devil in a Blue Dress (1995, Franklin)
138. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023, Scorsese)
139. Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, Varda)
140. Bigger Than Life (1956, N. Ray)
141. Underworld USA (1961, Fuller)
142. My Night at Maud's (1969, Rohmer)
143. A Face in the Crowd (1957, Kazan)

As for 2023 releases, Perfect Days is my favorite so far--utterly sublime stuff, Wenders really is amazing--and Killers of the Flower Moon is not far behind. I was utterly absorbed to the point where I would've watched another hour, easily. I can't praise it enough, but I want to highlight the ending as particularly astonishing.

I also very much enjoyed Anatomy of a Fall, Kore-eda's Monster, and the new Mission Impossible, which I think is the best in the series. As a huge fan of Under the Skin/Glazer in general, I cannot wait to see The Zone of Interest.

col49 trc BIHI Tomahawk mathsman 5imian Eagle4 ryo yamada2001 and of course anyone else who feels like posting--please share your favorites of the past year, this October, all-time, whatever. I love reading these and, as always, adding to my never-ending watchlist!

CINEMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ayo, I also watched Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia this year. I have a friend who is into westerns like that, and I have a soft-spot for 'unconventional' movie titles. Like 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives'. How can you pass up watching a movie with a title like that?

Also, anyone else excited for Ridley Scott's Napoleon? Finally a film for us short kings.

 

[Local Dog]

I watched The Boy and the Heron today. It was very nice. I see a lot of people being confused by the movie and overwhelmed by the variety of topics it covers, but I think when you approach the movie as more of an experience instead of a conventional story, it works very wonderfully. It just makes intuitive sense, even if it's logically rather difficult to break down

Not my favorite Miyazaki movie, but very well made

 

[ZippyDoo200]

Godzilla Minus One was really overrated in my opinion. The acting of the male lead, story, cinematography, and presence of Godzilla was fantastic, but I have serious issues with how the character's progression was written.

The female love interest has LITERALLY NO personality or character. The way the whole family dynamic comes together while still maintaining the female protag's "purity" was so typical of Japanese stories. It's bad character writing even separate from it's gross reflection of reality.

spoiler

Also finally in the end, the male Protag can live happily ever after and "claim" the girl since she's still alive. If this trope doesn't bother you then more power to you.

Still an alright movie though. But the characters are way way too weak to make it anything but alright. In my opinion.


The only other movie I watched in 2023 was "Leave the World Behind." Which is really the ONLY movie you need to watch, ever. Not that it was "perfect" but it was meaningful and potentially prophetic.

 

[Myzozoa]

It's been too long since I posted itt.

The main reason is that I have now reached the point in my life where I fall asleep if I try to watch movies a lot of times. So take all of these reviews w a grain of salt.

Leave the World Behind 7/10

The premise is basically that Julia Roberts' character takes her NYC-rooted family out to the suburbs to an Airbnb one weekend, at the same time America is attacked in such a way that all communications get cut and maybe power gets lost idr. That same night, a man and his daighter arrive claiming to be the owners of the house and asking for shelter as America has been attacked and cities are in chaos. There is survival and psychological drama between the 2 families and survivalist themes as the characters observe signs (planes falling out of the sky) that the current economic order is collapsing. Often times the narrative of an attack on America comes through in dialogues espousing what are essentially paranoid fantasies of a foreign attack on America, a country w military installations in 100s of countries, by China and Iran supposedly. By the end of the film, the main characters speculate that it is actually a domestic coup aimed at replacing the American government, with leaflets being dropped from the sky in arabic and chinese being meant to confuse people and cause chaos in order to create a new order out of it. At the very end, as NYC is seen w multiple mushroom clouds, the young daughter of Roberts' character just wanders off to watch the last episode of friends. I recommend this movie pretty highly even though it doesn't sound that exciting because it has a meaningful commentary on how people compartmentalize and try to escape into denial or paranoia as our world crumbles from climate change and our society becomes more brutal and divided. We just watch more netflix like the little girl at the end.

The Innocents 8/10

This is a movie about children developing telepathic powers in the Scandinavian 24 hour sun time of year. They do really horrifying things with these powers hence the term 'The Innocents' the movie calls into question how innocent children really are. Do they really not understand? Really? I have to warn you this movie depicts very disturbing things and is a wildly successful psychological horror. Interesting horror setting with the 24 hour sun, isn't that quite horrifying in some ways, to never have day turn to night? Definitely recommend if this genre is your jam and you don't mind subtitles.



No One Will Save You (6/10)

Kind of a weird one. Basically this girl is a pariah in the town because she killed her friend as a child. Aliens invade the town and she tries to defend herself. Eventually the aliens use their powers to take control of all the townspeople, using them to attack the protagonist. Eventually they catch her but after probing her memories they decide to release her and she resumes her life in the town w the aliens controlling the townspeople and making them be nice to her. Some weird shit for a plot, but this one is worth watching if ur a nerd because there is no dialogue and because it is p scary and because it is a p good set-up.


It Follows (9/10)
This one will fuck you up. The premise is that a stalker haunts this world, following one person to kill them at a time. The only way to escape it once it comes after you is to have sex with someone, who it will then go after. If it kills that person, it will then go after you again. So basically if you get it going after you gotta have sex with someone and then get them to have sex w another person asap too. Really good set-up, super scary and just all around good film. Don't wanna get too into it cause it's not v fresh in my mind, this was my Halloween movie this year <3.


Bottoms (8/10)

A movie about high school lesbians starting a fight club to try to get w more girls. It's pretty slick and self aware, but why is it called Bottoms? No one will ever know or remember. Not very fresh in my mind so again not going to get into the weeds about it, just a very funny movie.


Talk to Me 8/10

Another horror film that succeeds on a psychological level by depicting the innocence of children as vicious. It has many other elements.The basic premise is that kids get a hold of an artifact that lets you communicate w the dead, but if you use it for too long they'll come to take you away with them. One of the main characters obsesses w using the artifact to communicate with her dead mother causing the spirits to come for her and others around her.

 

[chimp]

Hijacking this thread for the

92nd Annual Chimpcademy Awards!!!​

As you can see, all the greatest stars are out on the red carpet.

Presenting the awards tonight we have special guest.....

Nicole Kidman!

We come to the Chimpcademy Awards to laugh, to cry, to care. Because we need that, all of us. That indescribable feeling we get as the lights begin to dim and we go somewhere we've never been before. Not just entertained, but somehow reborn together. Dazzling images on a huge silver screen, sound that I can feel. Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this. Our heroes feel like the best part of us, and stories feel perfect and powerful.

Because here...

They are.

Without further ado, let's present the Chimpcademy's nominees and winners for this 2023. (See the ranking below for all the eligible films)

and the award goes to....

ROBERT DE NIRO!!!

and the award goes to....

LILY GLADSTONE!!

This award spans the whole animal kingdom, from primates to felines to avians. But which will come out on top of the food chain?
The award goes to....

Lylla!!! (the Chimpcademy had to beat the monkey bias allegations)

This category is a little out there, it's for things that are cool and made the Chimpcademy go "woah! cool!" ranging from decapitated heads to allegories for the universality of death and cool CGI.

And the award goes to.....

THE PUSS IN BOOTS WOLF

Our last award for the night!!! We have many great directors, including two Palme d'Or winners! Our nominees range from ol' Marty for bringing the story of the Osage murders to the big screen to Julia Ducournau for bringing the story of the sex with a car to the big screen.

And the award goes to....

Martin Scorcese!!!!!

Anyway here is my 2023 rankings from most favorite to least favorite ok bye hope you enjoyed the show

Skinamarink

Manchester By the Sea

The Blair Witch Project

Nope

The Boy and the Heron

Spirited Away

Reservoir Dogs

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Raging Bull

Grave of Fireflies

Killers of the Flower Moon

Hoop Dreams

Breaking Bad

Barton Fink

The Big Lebowski

The Shawshank Redemption

Gladiator

Middleditch & Schwartz

Little Miss Sunshine

Asteroid City

Glass Onion

12 Angry Men

Inside Out

Howl's Moving Castle

Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

1917

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

I Think You Should Leave

The Whale

Titane

Guardians of the Galaxy v.3

The Princess Bride

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

My Neighbor Totoro

Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers

Another Round

Fight Club

Psycho

Ocean's 11

Zootopia

The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Five Nights at Freddy's

Clue

The Dark Crystal

Napoleon

Knock at the Cabin

Missing Link

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Barbie in the Nutcracker

Joy Ride

V For Vendetta

Cocaine Bear

 

[BKC]

The Innocents 8/10

This is a movie about children developing telepathic powers in the Scandinavian 24 hour sun time of year. ... Interesting horror setting with the 24 hour sun, isn't that quite horrifying in some ways, to never have day turn to night?

Insomnia (1997) uses this setting incredibly well, and is excellent in its own right!

 

[Redless]

Due to my own poor (?) choices, I now live with my parents, which is mostly bad but it means that I consume a lot more films. Here are the films I saw recently that I thought were notable:

The Thing: Completely genius premise. I wish it emphasized the psychological horror that comes with not trusting your teammates rather than having the rubbery monster pop up every 15 minutes. Still amazing. 3/5.

Alien: After watching and being impressed by The Thing, I was excited to see how the other classic horror film, "Alien" held up. I thought it was ass. It made me laugh with how stupid and absurd it was. 1/5.

Sunshine: This film from Danny Boyle (Trainspotting guy) does both Alien and Interstellar better than each of those films does themself. It probably overtakes 2001 as my favorite "space" film. It's very good at evoking the inherent lovecraftian horror of the sun while still having characters that act like astronauts. Super underrated. 5/5.

The Graduate: I loved this film. The first half dozen scenes are among the funniest things I've ever watched -- shoutout to the shot of Benjamin in the pool. A deserved classic. 4/5.

Memento: This film is probably top 5 OAT for me. I'm a sucker for any piece of fiction that plays with the idea of memory, and Memento does it excellently. My other favorite "memory" fiction is "There is no Antimemetics Division" which you can read here: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub. 5/5.

The World's End: This is the third film in the trilogy that starts with "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz". I thought it was the best of the three, although all three are amazing. I feel it's a film that needs to be watched without knowing what it's about. 5/5.

Coraline: More suited to animation than maybe any other film I've ever watched. It's a film about a child but meant to be enjoyed by adults. 4/5.

My Dinner With Andre: Andre is "improvisational" in his worldview, and yet he insists on monologuing that worldview rather than having a conversation with Wallace, which is the least improvisational thing imaginable. 3/5.

 

[Theia]

Sorry for the necrobump @ mods

For the past few months, a group of friends and I have gathered every Saturday night at 7 PM to watch a movie or a show together. It's one of the highlights of my week, every week. Someone different picks the movie every week and that's led to an interesting variety of stuff, most of which I have never seen before. We watched our tenth tonight, so here's my opinion of all ten of our past movie night watches. There's definitely going to be spoilers in here so tread carefully etc.

1. A Silent Voice - 1/13/24 - Recommended by TPP

I cannot lie, we spent most of the runtime of this incredibly serious movie shitposting about bread. It was a good movie with an important message about redemption and forgiveness that has a lot of serious moments, like the scene where Shoko tries to commit suicide, but they just eat so much fucking bread in that movie that I literally cannot focus on anything else. 10/10 would watch again.

2. Your Name - 1/20/24 - Recommended by TPP

I honestly didn't have high expectations for this movie after reading the synopsis. I figured it would just be a "haha, they switched bodies and now they're going to have a meet-cute." To say this movie blew my expectations out of the water would be an understatement. The first half was about what I expected, very meet-cute with a bunch of "boy explores having a girl's body"-type beats, but when you get to the twist of the movie and find out that she lives in the past and is dead, well that hit me like a fucking freight train. And the scene where their timelines cross and they meet for the first time drove me to tears. I loved this movie a lot, it's definitely one of my favorites we've watched.

3. One Piece Live Action - 1/27/24-2/17/24 - Group Recommendation

This is technically not a movie but it is the next thing we watched. I've never seen or read One Piece but my good pal teal6 is a huge One Piece fan, and, after watching this, it's not hard to see why. The theme of found family is one that is near and dear to my heart and Luffy is just such a genuine and kind character. Most of the characters in general are very loveable and interesting, with my favorites among the Straw Hats so far being Luffy and Zoro. I have also been reliably informed (by teal) that Luffy is canonically asexual, which is some of the best representation we could ask for. I think the character that took the show for me was Buggy. His actor was excellent and really sold the character for me, I was excited every time he was on screen. I cannot stand Koby though, I think he's a sniveling useless nerd and I pray he gets killed soon (I know he doesn't but still.) I cannot wait for Season Two to come out.

4. The Princess Bride - 2/24/24 - Recommended by get backer

The first and only movie on this list that I had seen prior to movie night. We ended up watching this one because teal had never seen it before and that is for sure a crime. This movie is perhaps the most quotable movie ever made, and packs a lot of humor and genuine feelings into its 98 minute runtime. I'm extremely biased towards this movie because I watched it like 100 times as a child, but it's so genuinely difficult not to like this movie. All of the characters have a ton of personality and there's some really well-choreographed fight scenes on top of a romance plot, so there's really something for everyone. If you have not seen this movie, go watch it.

5. A Whisker Away - 3/2/24 - Recommended by Leru

Leru is banned from picking movies for movie night after this.

6. The Truman Show - 3/9/24 - Recommended by teal

A classic I'd heard about in passing but never seen before. This movie's premise is really interesting and Jim Carrey gives an excellent performance as Truman. I was riveted throughout as we followed Truman's slow descent into hysteria as the carefully constructed world around him starts to crumble, culminating in an excellent scene where his wife breaks character and has a breakdown in the face of Truman's unraveling grip on the world around him. The final scene of Truman in the boat talking to the show's producer is powerful if on-the-nose man vs God moment, and the way Truman decides to leave the set is a testament to the will of man, a cinematic theme which teal and I share a love for. Perhaps improbable, but another great recommendation from the denizens of the Orthworm Cult.

7. House (1977) - 3/16/24 - Recommended by col49

Of the regular attendees of movie night, col is probably the one with the most knowledge and experience in movie watching. His pick for this was House (1977). I think there are other Houses, col specified (1977) when he picked the movie so I have been doing the same since. I have never done acid, but if I were to do acid, I imagine it would be similar to this movie. I don't really like horror, but the combination of goofiness of the movie and good company on movie night meant it wasn't a big deal. I'm not sure how to explain the plot of this movie, other than it should probably be called Cat (1977) and there's a character named Kung-Fu whose whole personality is that she kung-fus ghosts. She's the best character by far. I think it's an interesting approach by the director to a message about how time takes us all eventually and the ways in which we need to cherish the life we are given. Definitely a good watch if you don't mind some nastiness.

8. Interstellar - 3/23/24 - Recommended by scionicle

Another one of the Big Movies that I never saw, it was at this point that we threw the rule of "pick a movie that isn't too long" out the window. In short, Interstellar is another one of my favorites that we've watched. I cannot speak at all to the scientific accuracy of this movie because I do not science, but as for the emotions evoked, it's unparalleled, even by Your Name. The soundtrack for this movie is also excellent and insanely well done. Did I cry? Yes. I cried a lot. The scenes of the crew receiving the video messages from their families after losing 23 years on the water planet and having to watch their kids grow up after what only felt like a few hours to them were genuinely heart-wrenching, and the scene of Cooper in the bookshelf dimension watching his past self leave Murph and begging her to make him stay and not go on the doomed mission was another one that moved me to tears. This is another great film that follows the theme of the Will of Man and the lengths we will go to in order to survive and I recommend it highly if you ever have three hours to kill.

9. Barbie - 3/30/24 - Recommended by ken

Like Interstellar, I have a lot of thoughts on this movie. Unlike Interstellar, most of those thoughts aren't happy ones. To get the good out of the way, the soundtrack for this movie slaps and there are some genuinely funny moments in it. For the rest, rant warning. Barbie is a movie that is packaged as a self-aware feminist comedy. It's not. What it is is two hours of you being beaten over the head with what basically sounds like someone's vaguely unhinged Twitter where they tweet about how much they hate men seventeen times a day. There is zero subtlety, zero exploration of actual feminist issues, and zero efforts made to actually say anything. It's trying not to take itself too seriously while conveying opinions on serious topics and it doesn't really do either well. It's a blatant attempt to profit off the fact that social justice sells while just being a big commercial for the Barbie brand, and is heavy-handed and clumsy to the point that you wonder if they even fucking tried at all. It comes off as a parody, as the kind of batshit crazy strawman constructions of misandrist feminism that right-wingers come up to discredit the movement. It's virtue signaling of the highest order, "oh look a main character called Barbie a fascist, look how woke we are." It's fake, commercialized, and disappointing in every way. I hate this movie so much, not because it's a bad movie, but because of how completely underwhelming it was for what I had genuinely hoped would be a movie about female empowerment and how lazily the writers incorporated any sense of feminism. Disappointing, the first movie night movie that did not hit for me. Would not recommend.

10. Oppenheimer - 4/6/24 - Group Recommendation

Since we watched Barbie last week, we obviously had to complete the duo and watch Oppenheimer this week. Unlike Barbie, I really enjoyed this movie, even though I missed bits and pieces of it to deal with some personal issues. Another movie where the soundtrack is fantastic and does an excellent job of conveying tension in scenes. The actors were all excellent and conveyed so much emotion in basically every seen, it was hard not to be captivated by the movie. It's a bit fragmented, jumping back and forth between following Oppenheimer's life up until the bombs are completed and dropped, a kangaroo court hearing meant to strip him of his security clearance and credibility, and the confirmation hearing of Lewis Strauss as the Secretary of Commerce. This makes it a bit hard to follow at first, but you get a good feel for who everyone is eventually. The last act of the movie, after the bombs are dropped, is my favorite part of the movie, though I know get backer disagrees with me here. The science stuff is cool and all but I really enjoy the way Nolan portrays Oppenheimer's struggle after the bombs are dropped, the way in which he's haunted by the blood on his hands and how those moral conflicts end up being his ultimate downfall as his opposition to further weapons development results in political opponents trying to bury him. Oppenheimer's insistence that we don't need weapons and that the existence of the bombs will deter all future conflicts are poignant in today's political climate and a stark reminder of the horrors that we as humans are capable of. Again, if you have three hours to kill, this is a good one to kill them with.

---------------------------

I am by no means a writer, movie reviewer, or anything close to a cinephile. I just really enjoy the weekly movie night ritual, getting to spend time with friends sharing an experience, and getting to see new films and shows. I might be way off base about some things here and that's fine. You might not agree and that's fine. I'll try to write these after we watch them next time, instead of trying to remember all ten of the movies, so I can give better reviews, since you can definitely see some recency bias here.

This was more of a ramble than anything, I just wanted to talk about stuff, so thanks for reading if you did.

 

[Karxrida]

Theia if you don't mind another recommendation with a classic twist, I suggest The Court Jester. Very underrated comedy from the 50s that takes place in medieval times. Lots of good wordplay that still lives rent free in my head even though I haven't watched the movie in like a decade.

Damn, need to dig up my copy and see what other good classic movies we own. My older sister was super into those in high school and we have a decent collection of DVDs.