Films you watched recently

[mickilennial]

tfw the last jedi is the worst star wars film since attack of the clones

[AfterHours]

Saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was ... an entertaining divertissement, because I was with family on Christmas and we were just kicking back for some casual fun, and I wasn't attending the film in order to see the follow-up to Persona or Satantango ... But overall (disassociating oneself from the mouth-frothing-fandom that surrounds this franchise) it was utterly mediocre. You would think that with an endless, gazillion dollar budget, they could come up with some jaw-dropping cinematic artistry to relay the philosophy/mental states/miraculous phenomena of the Jedi and Rey's quandaries of her own powers, but man that was embarrassing (except the kind-of-compelling scene where Luke was asking her what she sees). Other than that, it was like something out of a Disney cartoon (oh wait...) -- that makes a satirical film like Zardoz look like Tarkovsky directed it. It WAS momentarily redeemed by some of the Rey/Kylo Ren scenes (such as during the build-up to their meeting with some innuendo/allusions to a sexual attraction), and most notably the scenes with Snoke vs anybody. These added some needed tension/suspense to the obvious proceedings. There was also a fairly compelling scene following Leia's ejection from her ship that approached cinematic artistry and beauty, and some serviceable suspense aboard Leia's ship during the evacuation scenes. The film has some other good moments/scenes here and there, and stays a mildly entertaining course most of the way through. But the vast majority of it was just going through the obligatory motions of this-is-a-blockbuster-so-heroes-obviously-overcome-all-odds-with-minimal-suspense-and-minimal-creativity/cinematic-depth-relaying-it... Anyway it was a 1/2 or maybe a full step down from (the hilariously overrated but serviceable and efficient) The Force Awakens, which I thought was 5.5-6.0/10...

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Rian Johnson (2017) 5.0/10
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

[Hayden]

Lady Bird gets a solid 9 teenage adolescents out of 10 from me.

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

January is catch up season for me, since the movies in the theater are trash, and most of the 2017 releases are now on DVD or streaming.

Mayhem: B-

Ingrid Goes West: B-

A Ghost Story: C+

Brawl in Cell Block 99: A

Although it would be nice to elaborate on all of these, Brawl in Cell Block 99 is the best movie I've seen from 2017 so far. I haven't seen Shape of Water of Three Billboards yet, which I know will probably surpass this movie, but for right now, this is easily the best. If you like unnecessary 70's style grindhouse violence, then this movie is for you. I've never cared for Vince Vaughn that much, but boy did he prove me wrong in this movie, he deserves a nomination for something. Do they have "comeback actor of the year award"? This film is directed by Steven Craig Zahler who has absolutely won me over with his first two features. 2015's Bone Tomahawk was an absolute knockout Horror/Western hybrid, and now Zahler has crafted a brutal prison film. Not for the faint of heart, or the squeamish. It starts off slow, but the last hour or so are as tense as anything I've seen in quite a while.

[hereforashortime]

Wow 15:17 to Paris is really bad. Like not just bland bad, like awful bad. If your goal is realism by casting unknowns in the lead, then why would you put a ton of sitcom actors in the supporting roles. Pretty sure Eastwood has officially lost his mind.

1.5/10
_________________
Nothing really matters, anyone can see, nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me.

[Antonio-Pedro]

It's such a beautiful day made me cry like a wimpy fox for like 5 minutes straight, fantastic movie, I wouldn't think animation could go as further as this.
_________________
Top 100 Hits you must hear before the u... of beauty

[hereforashortime]

What does everybody think of Black Panther?
_________________
Nothing really matters, anyone can see, nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me.

[Puncture Repair]

Went to see Lady Bird in a party of four and I was worried I'd be the grumpy git that didn't get it, but surprisingly everyone was indifferent about it. We all thought it was setting itself up to be about the relationship between her and her Mum, but it seemed to ditch that and just be yet another story about the odd-girl learning that rich, cool kids are all dead inside. I'd take Mean Girls any day.

Saw Three Billboards a couple weeks ago and any doubts I had about it were pretty much washed away about two thirds in. Pretty much flawless storytelling. A few on-the-nose moments, and I think everyone saying the film is a social-commentary are reaching just a bit far, but a really great sense of place populated with some of the best characters I've seen on screen for some time.

Also whew that Lucas Hedges kid is appearing in everything Best Picture right now. Saw Manchester by the Sea (which I absolutely loved) just in December and now he's everywhere.

[Hayden]

Some recent watches (like, last 2 months) of new/newish films alongside super lazy ratings instead of thoughtful commentary:

Polina (2016) - 3/5
Happy End (2017) - 2/5
Felicite (2017) - 3.5/5
I Am Not A Witch (2017) - 3.5/5
Phantom Thread (2017) - 4/5
Kaili Blues (2015) - 3.5/5
Final Portrait (2017) - 3.5/5
Wonderstruck (2017) - 2/5
BPM (2017) - 3/5
Darkest Hour (2017) - 2/5
Faces, Places (2017) - 3.5/5
Thelma (2017) - 3/5
The Shape of Water (2017) - 4.5/5

Mixed bag. Unfortunately 2017 wasn't reeeeaaallly my year for film, def some good stuff of course, but I felt like it was a bit uninspiring as a whole. Coco's a runaway for my favourite of the year, and then a whole bunch of things are tied on a tier below. Luckily 2018 looks like it's poised to be tasty.

[zdwyatt]

Collateral (2004) - 3/5 - This one had potential but I hated the ending. It felt like it was building up to something more interesting and then it didn't. Also, Tom Cruise's hair was very distracting.

28 Days Later (2002) - 3/5 - My first thought was that this has been done better. Then the internet informed me that this film was largely responsible for the resurgence of zombie entertainment (I did not realize it was so old when I was watching it). So I have to amend that to, "Way to reinvent the concept, but it's been done better since." I also thought the overall arc was a little trite (the real monster is us!).

Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 4/5 - Wes Anderson is kind of hit or miss for me (hate Rushmore, love The Royal Tennenbaums) for reasons I can't really pin down. This one I quite enjoyed. It's definitely peak Wes Anderson: symmetrical centered shots, yellow color grading, a mess of famous actors, wackiness. Shrug. It worked for me.
_________________
Currently enjoying Tenkiller by Marie/Lepanto and Songs of Praise by Shame.