CS Film Club

[Dracula]

Originally Posted by JBond

I'll go with Beasts of the Southern Wild, but it's set at "long wait" on Netflix. I supose I could cut the wait time down by choosing a DVD instead of a blu-ray, but I kinda don't want to do that...

Though I strongly hesitate to recommend that outfit, BOTSW is the kind of movie that can probably be gotten pretty easily from a Red Box if you absolutely have to.

[PG Cooper]

Still waiting.

[JBond]

I sent him a PM.

[JBond]

Beasts of the Southren Wild (2012)

I did not get this film. As I've said before, it's rare for a movie to interest me that has little to no plot. I couldn't even really find any themes or characters to get behind, so I found this film to be pretty boring and rarely compelling.

I'm also pretty dumbfounded this kid is nominated for Lead Actress. Most of her dialogue is voice-over and her role mostly consists of walking around. I forgot where I heard it, maybe it was this site, but basically she was nominated for being cute.

*.5/****

[Dracula]

Originally Posted by JBond

I'm also pretty dumbfounded this kid is nominated for Lead Actress. Most of her dialogue is voice-over and her role mostly consists of walking around. I forgot where I heard it, maybe it was this site, but basically she was nominated for being cute.

Originally Posted by Dracula

Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts - The Impossible

4/5, not bad. I would have expected that actors had more respect for their craft than to nominate a six year old for being cute.

Anyway, I didn't connect a whole lot with the film's story either, but I respect it a lot more than you did. I guess this is one of the few cases where I think that nominating the film for BP is excessive, but nominating it for Best Director is spot on.

[JBond]

Ah, I hearby give you credit for the "cute" comment.

I dunno, I just couldn't get into it.

[MovieBuff801]

Originally Posted by JBond

Beasts of the Southren Wild (2012)

I did not get this film. As I've said before, it's rare for a movie to interest me that has little to no plot. I couldn't even really find any themes or characters to get behind, so I found this film to be pretty boring and rarely compelling.

I'm also pretty dumbfounded this kid is nominated for Lead Actress. Most of her dialogue is voice-over and her role mostly consists of walking around. I forgot where I heard it, maybe it was this site, but basically she was nominated for being cute.

*.5/****

Hmmph.

[PG Cooper]

Still waiting. Feeling lonely.

[PG Cooper]

I don't want to be a nag, but can I get a new partner? It's been almost a week since the new round started.

[JBond]

Doomsday? You up for it?

[Justin]

End of Watch

This really rubbed me the wrong way. Almost every character was cloying, grating, and completely unrealistic. By far the worst part of the entire film were the gang bangers. They were cartoonishly written. I realize Ayer lived in South LA, but...really? They spoke and acted like thug caricatures. I also didn't get much out of Gyllenhaal and Peña's performances as the two officers. Sure, everyone makes them out to be "best friends" or "brothers", but I never really got it from the acting, if that makes sense.

I hate being so negative about a film that revolves around a lifestyle that I'm unfamiliar with, but none of it was incredibly dramatic. In fact the ending was a little sudden and anticlimactic, and not in the ambiguous sense, either. Everything felt so rushed, jumping from one point in time to another with little or no time lapse to help us along. We're sort of hung out to dry. It certainly doesn't help us learn more about the characters; it just feels fabricated.

Rating: C-

[Doomsday]

PG Cooper, you are mine now, you belong to ME!

Brief Encounter
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
OSS 117: Lost in Rio
The Red Shoes

[Doomsday]

Oh and I saw the ones you originally posted for Daniel, mind throwing up another 4?

[Daniel]

UGH! sorry ... I suck.

[PG Cooper]

Originally Posted by Doomsday

PG Cooper, you are mine now, you belong to ME!

Brief Encounter
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
OSS 117: Lost in Rio
The Red Shoes

Sweet. I'll give one of the bottom three a go soon.

For you:

Le Samourai
House of Games
Rango
Paris, Texas

EDIT: Looks like I'll be seeing McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Originally Posted by Daniel

UGH! sorry ... I suck.

Hey man, no worries

[Doomsday]

I'll go with Paris, Texas, that has been on my list for a long time.

I'm glad you picked McCabe and Mrs. Miller, I've thrown it out a lot over the years and I think you're the first to watch it. I'm not a Robert Altman fan but I really like this one.

[PG Cooper]

All I've seen from Altman is Gosford Park, which I really enjoyed.

[Hollywood]

Review for Mary and Max

Side note, sorry you didnt like end of watch that much Justin.

Great movie, I didnt know what to expect when i was watching it not seeing the preview for it. That style of animation was great. Its about a young depressed girl in Australia Named Mary. And she has a birthmark in the middle of her forehead, and an alcoholic and shoplifting mother. And a father who puts staples in bags of Earl Grey tea and practices taxidermy in his spare time. Mary has very odd parents and they dont take care of mary too well so she decides to try and make a friend in the US and gets a address from the phone book. The person in the address book is Max, a 44 year old depressed man with Asperger's Syndrome, living in New York City. He is addicted to chocolate hot dogs, without friends, and hates it when people litter. They start mailing each other back and forth throughout the years and become friends and give each other advice and things.

The humor was light but still good. Not a movie for kids tho. It is defiantly worth checking out.


Gona review my movies by letters now instead of number of stars
B+

Im in for next round

[Justin]

Glad you enjoyed it. No need to apologize. I'm in for the next round, as well.

[MovieBuff801]

Lifeboat

Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors, and very rarely has he ever disappointed me so much with one of his films that I feel the need to give it a negative review. But, unfortunately, Lifeboat is one of those films. The film focuses on the eight survivors of the sinking of both a regular ship and a German U-boat in the middle of the North Atlantic, with one of the survivors being from the U-boat. the film takes place entirely in the lifeboat that they occupy. Overall, while it's certainly an interesting premise and the acting is good, I found the execution to lack any real sense of urgency or suspense. And coming from Hitchcock, that's rather disappointing. Hitchcock would go on to make other one-location films such as "Rope", "Dial M For Murder", and "Rear Window", but what made all those films so good is he found ways to ratchet up suspense, plus the stories were much more interesting. I liked the first half hour, but after that, I felt like the script never really found solid ways of holding my interest or attention.

*1/2 /**** (I feel so weird giving a Hitchcock film that low of a rating.)

In for the next round.

[JBond]

Ooo, sorry to hear.

[MovieBuff801]

Not as sorry as I am to report.

[shained]

I have Margaret on DVD. Will watch it sometime this weekend.

[PG Cooper]

McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Before I get into my thought, I feel I should mention that I had to watch this film online in quality that made it look like the film was shot in ****oscope. I don't know if that affected my thoughts on the film, but it may have.

Anyway, the film itself...

McCabe and Mrs. Miller opens with John McCabe (Warren Beatty) coming into the small town of Presbyterian Church. Lowly and rundown, McCabe quickly earns the respect of the locals through reputation and personality. He opens a small brothel which sees early success before the experienced Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie) enters to assist McCabe by expanding the business.

There are a number of elements I like about this film. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie both give very good performances, Robert Altman makes the setting really come to life, and there are some great scenes. A lot of interesting ideas are also explored, such as the behind-the-scenes running of the brothel and the film examines the myth making of the west. There's also smaller details which help the film feel real. There's a lot to admire here to be sure, and yet, I wasn't crazy about this film. I found this film kind of boring for most of the run time. Sure I like the ideas being explored, but none are given enough detail to be anything substantial. I also found the Leonard Cohen songs felt out of place in certain scenes. At the end of the day I just really couldn't get into this film. There are too many good things about McCabe and Mrs. Miller for me to dismiss the film, but I also can't deny the film did little for me.

Rating: C+

I'm in for next round.

[shained]

Margaret

Ok first off I would like to say that my score might be slightly influenced by the fact I watched 2 and half hours last night and the last half an hour today which is something I never do. It just so happened that IMDB and the cover for the film lied about the running time being 2 hours 30 minutes and not the 3 hours it ended up being and I really wanted to watch last nights UFC.....

I'd never heard of the film before seeing the link Drac provided when posting his list and my reasons for picking it was it seemed the easiest to get hold of and had actors I was familiar with. The one tidbit of knowledge the wiki link gave me was that the film was never finished by the actual director as he couldn't get agreement on his final cut and they had to bring in other directors to finalise the cut of the film. This had me worried that the film would be a bit of mess, although I guess having saw the 3 hour version this may have been Lonergans intended film?

I really enjoyed the opening hour and a bit of this film. It seemed quite grounded in reality and the interactions between Lisa, her family and friends seemed quite genuine and interesting. I enjoyed the shots of the film when the characters would be in a local situation i.e Cafe/Restaurant and the camera would pan out and you would hear the conversations of other people in and around the characters. These would add nothing to the story but it helped the realistic feel of the film shine through more.

I really start to get frustrated in the last hour and a half and this was all in part to the character of Lisa. Everything about the way she acted, very melodramatic, to the things she was saying, many racist comments, really started to get under my skin. Then her persecution of Mark Ruffalos bus driver and her attempt to get him fired over something that was completely accidental made me completely despise her character. It seemed my hatred was also mirrored by the best friend of the lady who had been hit by the bus as she seemed to grow tired with Lisa and voiced my exact feelings in a scene where she went at Lisa accusing her of acting like she is in one of her mothers plays.

In the end I was glad nothing happened to the bus driver and that Lisa ended up with nothing she wanted, i.e trip to her dads, being with Matt Damon.

I'm finding it hard to come up with a score for the film as I did enjoy the first half of the film and I know that what I felt during the second is probably what the director wanted me to feel but it just left me so frustrated and annoyed I couldn't really enjoy it if that makes sense?

Somewhere between a 6 and a 7/10. A few days to dwell on it will solidify what I think.