list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Mark Felt

Though somewhat miscast and sporting an unconvincing American accent, Liam Neeson portrays the elusive and shrouded FBI Deputy Director who under Richard Nixon became the nation's ultimate secret-keeper and eventually its most famous informant.   The film is a worthy followup, or should I say companion piece, to 1976's All the President's Men, revealing the story of Watergate from the side of Federal law enforcement and the independent, compartmentalized way in which the US government works.   Subdued, gloomy, foreboding in a slowly creeping way, Mark Felt gives us a missing but crucial piece of the puzzle to that whole rotten stinking period in American history.





Edited by Atavachron - January 22 2018 at 00:58

The Foreigner

Tight and terrific action-drama with Jackie Chan as a British citizen whose daughter is killed in a neo-IRA bombing.   When Irish ex-terrorist Pierce Brosnan who now works for the British government refuses to reveal the identity of the bombers, Chan (who's sixty-three BTW) goes on a mission to find his daughter's killers.   Based on Stephen Leather's 1992 novel The Chinaman.

Suburbicon

Based in part on real events, this Coen Brothers script as directed by George Clooney is a near miss for the usually spot-on creative team as it tackles a tragic series of hate crimes in 1957 Pennsylvania with the brother's bizarre comedic sensibilities.   And that doesn't quite work here.

Irony, treachery, paranoia, denial and death are covered in typical Coen style but, maybe because of Clooney's influence, the film tries to also be a message-sending morality play of which it has little gravity or purchase.   The screenplay was written in '86 and, in the context of our time (and standards the Coens have attained), has not aged well, would've benefited from a retreatment, and a much, much better director.

An unthoughtful and rather cruel comedic version of a terrible moment in American history, Joel and Ethan can and should do better and George Clooney should stick to what he does best: Gourmet coffee commercials.

Picnic - 6/10
10 Rillington Place - 8/10 (it's hard finding thrillers with a great script and without filler)
Noon Wine - 8/10 (I can see why this is Peckinpah's favorite)
The Devil and Daniel Webster - 10/10
I, Tonya - 7.5/10
Lean on Me - 7/10
General Della Rovere - 8/10 (Vittorio De Sica is my favorite director, and he's a fine actor in this!)
Bellisima - 9/10
The Ascent - 8/10
Keetje Tippel - 8/10

Atavachron wrote: Mort Sahl, huh.  You don't hear that name much anymore.  Lenny, but not Mort.

I never understood that.. One of the serious mysteries of my life.. Mort is on tonight - and he takes questions on Periscope.

Atavachron wrote: Yeah he's a survivor, isn't he.  I saw him in S.F. in the 80s, he was still holding a newspaper.

I'd love to hear about it.. I'm 35, and in 17 years, the only people I've talked to were Paul Krassner and another author on comedy.. But I did see meet Mort 4x (2 different trips).... A pilgrimage :)

Atavachron wrote: I think it was at the hungry i, or maybe the Purple Onion when it still existed.  Very intimate, good set.  Mort's style was always a bit dry for me, it was as much commentary as comedy.  My Dad got me into Lenny, so Mort was always a part of things.

Interesting.. I like Mort's interviews just as much as his records.

I could never get into Lenny Bruce, and I listened to all the records, etc.. Do you know/like Bill Hicks? There is no greater feeling than laughter, yet it's the most difficult for me to find, regardless of all the stuff I saw live or on TV.

P.S. - Love the JFK quote.

City Lights - Charlie Chaplin (1931)

Edited by Larkstongue41 - March 09 2018 at 11:55

The Shape of Water (2017) Guillermo del Toro

When movies are in the beauty of a Wordsworth poem and tranquil as a Monet and smooth like a Grieg piece you know your into a treat. From start to finnish your brought into a 1950s post- war America,when segeregation and Mc Carthisme ;distrust of others is very much at play. About a woman whom befreinds a creature of humanoid shape,yet not of human sapience; so it is treated like an animal. Movie is good as depicting the time its set in, mistreatment of other then White sucessfull White families are treated with not to hidden discrimatory. So the treatment of the creature just makes it more clear hiw much civil right moovments were so crucusl as it is. How people in power and in the position and right to what is deemd truth is in force and how that affects poeple whom looks different.It stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer all plays their part very weøl. Michael Shannon does a good roal as a misagoistic viallin,he knows how to pøay the intencity of a viølain better then most. Peter Jenkins plays an astounding role Bug Dough Jones and Sally Hawkins steal the show. Magnificant film
9/10

Thor: Ragnarok

A nice departure for Marvel in this colorful, cyberpunky third Thor entry with Cate Blanchett as the Goddess of Death and Jeff Goldblum a wacky Ringmaster (plus an appearance by Benedict Cumberbatch) as Thor and Hulk battle their way off a backward neo-industrial world with the help of a Valkyrie.   The film has plenty of good humor, theatricality and absurdity missing from other Marvel flicks and exercises its comic book origins with old-school production design, Wizard of Oz-like sensibility, and a cool 1970s-style synth score.   Thor:Ragnarok is far from perfect and there certainly are better superhero movies, but with lines like "Guys, we're coming up on the Devil's Anus..!",  it's hard not to smile and have fun.