Haven’t watched this yet, but we seem to be making our way through this year’s Oscar non documentaries. Caught Amy tonight. Cheery little film. Good, but I preferred the maker’s last one, Senna.
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This was not what I needed to watch to cheer myself up tonight.
Extraordinary film though. Not quite as bizarre as An Act of Killing, but very powerful and deeply personal.
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Perhaps The Day the Clown Cried or Sophie’s Choice ?
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I am informed that we will be watching the new Pee Wee film tonight.
And Mortdecai is apparently on Amazon, so that’s the evening sorted.
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Wasn’t really for me, but I’m not a big fan anyway. Very slight.
This one is just weird. Obviously, I’d seen the reviews so I wasn’t expecting greatness. But the books (and particularly the first one, on which this is loosely based) are, if nothing else, funny. This just wasn’t. At all. A really bizarre waste of a decent (and expensive, one would think) cast. The tone’s all wrong. A waste.
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Going on a Ben Wheatley marathon because of Mark Kermode and his High Rise review. Sightseers tonight, with A Field in England and Kill List to follow.
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He’s my favorite new director… I loved all 3 of his movies so far, plus his one or two Doctor Who episodes… And I’m so excited he’s directed High Rise!
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I really liked Sightseers but struggled with the other two (especially A Field in England). I know Wheatley and Jump don’t like exposition, but I could do with a little bit so I don’t end up needing to resort to Wikipedia to explain what I just watched.
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Yeah, Killlist and A field in England are pretty much inexplicable, but I like that they make no sense. The violence in these movies are pretty intense, too. I also generally don’t like movies where everyone is pretty reprehensible (how can you like anyone in Kill List), but I still love his stuff despite that.
A field in England is a great, cusp of modernity film - shifting from the old social order to the new, I think, from a magical world to a scientific one (or that’s what I got). Kill List… well, I got nothing on what that means, especially that bat shit ending… but man, was it well done.
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Just watched 99 Homes. Cheery little film.
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I thought Mortdecai was entertaining. Not a great film, but I liked the use of early-seventies music, from the period the books were actually written.
A break from the heaviness of Bosch, S1 that we ran through this week. Highly recommended.
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Tonight I watched Starred Up, as I continue to vaguely follow Jack O’Connell since he’s from my local area back home (in that vein, I’m still more of a Shane Meadows/Paddy Considine fan, to be honest).
Another cheery little film. But actually I thought it was pretty good.
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I got hooked, working through season 2 right now. There’s nothing especially specific that jumps out at you, no high concept stuff that you can hold in the palm of your hand to show off as a ‘reason’ to watch it. There’s just finesse and depth and all 'round decent writing and character portrayals, no especially weak links in the chain binding it all together. The characters and the actors who play them really live the writing and it just works.
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I’m going to go and see a double feature tomorrow… well, I’m going to go and see two films so…
Dheepan, same director as A Prophet and it won the Palme d’Or. Looks great.
…and maybe also Eddie the Eagle. 
Just saw Midnight Special and… well… I liked Take Shelter but this one didn’t quite live up to it.
The set up throughout the first third is quite good but whilst the sense of mystery was sustained and even unresolved throughout Take Shelter, Midnight Special wants to get quite quickly to an in your face confrontation with the mystery. Take that NSA, what do you make of THIS! And I think ends up cheapening the mystery through resolution. Perhaps Nichols caught a lot of flack for the way Take Shelter denied that tonic but… maybe he should have done the same this time.
Off to watch Mud in a minute, methinks.
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How was Eddie the Eagle? A loved one says thumbs up.
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I’ll post a review here tomorrow.
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I heard it was quite good, if not very accurate. Edwards was apparently actually a really good athlete.
I was quite excited to go snowboarding at the ski park in Calgary when I was there a few years ago.
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Did it upset him that the officials didn’t like him? “No! I thought it was funny. I’ve never really liked officials anyway. I’ve always had problems with the National Ski Federation [now British Ski and Snowboard]; they were bad enough being snobby. But the BOA were another level. Full of old boys’ clubs.”
I like him even more. Bloody, snobbish old-boys wankery.
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A few of my personal favs…Not sure if these are underrated or simply unknown.
7 Days 2010
Session 9 2001
Grupo 7 (Unit 7) 2012
Dancer In The Dark 2000
Mientras Duermes (Sleep Tight) 2011
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Saw Eddie the Eagle and was pleasantly surprised. Dealt with with pathos, and even though I knew there was many an embellishment, I thought those that were made were appropriate to the story.
I’ll try to keep out spoilers but if you’re going to see the film, go in cold and read the rest of this later.
There seems to have been some editing out of the villainous foil and his upper class, olympian asshole-in-arms for brevity, their thread seemed to be left hanging somewhat but for the most part it ticked along nicely.
I was pleasantly surprised with Hugh Jackman’s character arc, it nicely mirrored and supplemented the main story of overcoming the weight of one’s past and one’s circumstances.
It brought back memories of the actual events from back in the day and was maybe even a little inspirational. Some people in the audience even seemed to have shed a tear or two.
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