Last Film You Saw

Blitz , seen it before but was struggling to find something last night
Can't go wrong with Jason statham films if you don't want to think to much about what you're watching
 
Lavinda Past said:
I didn't know that. Thanks for the information.

If I ever get to see it, I hope it's a better script than 'Otto'.
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I think it got a lot of hype because of Hanks, but just felt the plot completely lacked any depth. Miserable old fucker who hates people and life, realises actually there's some good out there. I can't see the Swedish version being so much better it makes it worth watching. Just watch After Life, which tells the same type of story in a much better way.
 
"American Fiction".

I'm embarrassed to say I've had it sat on my drive for a couple of years and never got around to watching it until today. What a thoughtful and exposing film!

I really enjoyed the layers peeled away and final acceptance it delivers at the end. Jeffrey Wright has been on a real roll over the last couple of years. He reminds me of Washington in his 'every-kind-of-genre' guy that Washington does so well; always him with the right kind of nuance to the role.

If you're open to well made stories and, maybe, stepping out of your usual comfort zone, I think it's well worth exploring.
 
supercity88 said:
I think it got a lot of hype because of Hanks, but just felt the plot completely lacked any depth. Miserable old fucker who hates people and life, realises actually there's some good out there. I can't see the Swedish version being so much better it makes it worth watching. Just watch After Life, which tells the same type of story in a much better way.
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Can't be as shit as that Greyhound film he's in. What a load of daft CGI bollocks.
"Twenty eight degrees rudder" half the fucking dialogue is like a foreign language aboard his magic ship..
1/10
 
Blackberry (on Netflix) - 6/10. Watchable, if slightly cliched charaterization (borderline autistic engineer genius with no people skills and the ball busting phone smashing 90s business tool) about, well, Blackberry. Fascinating story though.
 
mexico1970 said:
I'm off to see the new Jurassic World tonight and before anyone says the CGI on the Dinosaurs is excessive it's because they couldn't rustle up a few live ones for the film.

Everyone knows they went extinct because the world is flat.
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It was shit, the little Land That Time Forgot Dinosaur was shit, Scarlett Johansonn was shit and the film lacked any real proper direction.

The shitgibbon at the end looked like Ripleys Alien, if you're reading this trailer don't waste your money it is shit.
 
mexico1970 said:
It was shit, the little Land That Time Forgot Dinosaur was shit, Scarlett Johansonn was shit and the film lacked any real proper direction.

The shitgibbon at the end looked like Ripleys Alien, if you're reading this trailer don't waste your money it is shit.
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I was gonna warn you but decided to see what you thought about it.
 
Bigga said:
"American Fiction".

I'm embarrassed to say I've had it sat on my drive for a couple of years and never got around to watching it until today. What a thoughtful and exposing film!

I really enjoyed the layers peeled away and final acceptance it delivers at the end. Jeffrey Wright has been on a real roll over the last couple of years. He reminds me of Washington in his 'every-kind-of-genre' guy that Washington does so well; always him with the right kind of nuance to the role.

If you're open to well made stories and, maybe, stepping out of your usual comfort zone, I think it's well worth exploring.
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Ah I was trying to remember what this film was called the other night but I couldn't remember. Been meaning to watch it for ages
 
Took my boys to see Superman in 3D at the IMAX in the Printworks today. What an unholy mess of a film, typical yank superhero movie, bombastic action set-piece after set-piece, got bored of watching villains crashing through various kinds of materialis. Ironically all this after a rather slow wordy start. Shame as Corenswet makes a decent fist of playing our seminal superhero. My kids enjoyed it but they'll watch any old sh*te.
 
Bigga said:
Well, when you get around to watching it, tell me what you think.
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Just finished watching it so you're getting quick responses which is maybe doing the film a disservice as I think there are multiple things going on. Ironically considering the content of the movie I couldn't find it in an UK streaming service and you couldn't even buy it on YouTube. For full irony it should have only been available on BET but the world isn't that funny.

1) I'm missing some jazz subtext I think. I'm assuming Issa Rae's character is a play on Sinatra and maybe there is some connection between him and Monk that may play into the story

2) I enjoyed how it explored and subverted stereotypes whilst also reinforcing some . There are layers here. For example Monk wants to live in a world where his race doesn't define him yet the film shows him suffering from several micro aggressions particular at the beginning. There is a promiscuous drug taking black man but he's gay. There is a black maid but she's also kind of family but then she rejects the apron that Monks dad picked out for her. There are no dad's in any of the families but it's Cliffs kids that have rejected him.

3) Sometimes the points are subtle but sometimes they are obvious. The film is making fun of virtue signalling white people and their attempts to champion real black voices (despite ignoring the black voices) but the depictions are so on the nose that I really wonder if it's also making fun of white people like me who consider themselves above that. Is the final shot with Lakieth Stansfield making fun of me for also not really being sure if it is Lakieth Stansfield?

4) I wonder how much of Monks character is informed and inspired by someone like Harry Pace.

5) I'd really like to hear a writer and directors commentary to explore some of these layers as it's taking shots at lots of people I think including people like Monk. He hasn't read Sintara's book but assumed it's all a fiction like his yet she talks about her research which gives it some reality that Monk hasn't considered. He's pompous and elitist which are stereotypically white attitudes.

6) I was reminded of how I felt when I watched the Luke Cage series. I felt a little like I was watching people performing blackness for a white audience. I reached out to a woman I kind of knew who lived in New York to ask how exaggerated it was but she told me it wasn't that outlandish. There is still a discomfort I have watching that which I think was explored a little in the discussion between Monk and Sintara and their books.

7) In some ways it's a stereotypical white story about a middle class family which would affirm Monks desire to live in a race blind society BUT blackness is still central to it. The film may be making fun of me writing that sentence as a white guy trying to appear educated. Layers :)

8) with some of these big themes being explored I did enjoy some of the smaller moments. Cliff dancing with his mum but then leaving in the morning with "this family will break your heart" was quite moving and the little bits revealed about Monks dad I think are quite important. He's a black dad that's not around but still very present.

9) the three endings were quite savage in different ways and I think central to how the film should be understood but I'd need to watch it again and see how they impact the movie. I think it's possibly saying race is simultaneously important and unimportant but not in the ways we imagine.
 
Watching Miami Vice loved the series cool cops smart suits and no socks thousands have followed this trait, and the film is a great watch.
 
mrbelfry said:
Just finished watching it so you're getting quick responses which is maybe doing the film a disservice as I think there are multiple things going on. Ironically considering the content of the movie I couldn't find it in an UK streaming service and you couldn't even buy it on YouTube. For full irony it should have only been available on BET but the world isn't that funny.

1) I'm missing some jazz subtext I think. I'm assuming Issa Rae's character is a play on Sinatra and maybe there is some connection between him and Monk that may play into the story

2) I enjoyed how it explored and subverted stereotypes whilst also reinforcing some . There are layers here. For example Monk wants to live in a world where his race doesn't define him yet the film shows him suffering from several micro aggressions particular at the beginning. There is a promiscuous drug taking black man but he's gay. There is a black maid but she's also kind of family but then she rejects the apron that Monks dad picked out for her. There are no dad's in any of the families but it's Cliffs kids that have rejected him.

3) Sometimes the points are subtle but sometimes they are obvious. The film is making fun of virtue signalling white people and their attempts to champion real black voices (despite ignoring the black voices) but the depictions are so on the nose that I really wonder if it's also making fun of white people like me who consider themselves above that. Is the final shot with Lakieth Stansfield making fun of me for also not really being sure if it is Lakieth Stansfield?

4) I wonder how much of Monks character is informed and inspired by someone like Harry Pace.

5) I'd really like to hear a writer and directors commentary to explore some of these layers as it's taking shots at lots of people I think including people like Monk. He hasn't read Sintara's book but assumed it's all a fiction like his yet she talks about her research which gives it some reality that Monk hasn't considered. He's pompous and elitist which are stereotypically white attitudes.

6) I was reminded of how I felt when I watched the Luke Cage series. I felt a little like I was watching people performing blackness for a white audience. I reached out to a woman I kind of knew who lived in New York to ask how exaggerated it was but she told me it wasn't that outlandish. There is still a discomfort I have watching that which I think was explored a little in the discussion between Monk and Sintara and their books.

7) In some ways it's a stereotypical white story about a middle class family which would affirm Monks desire to live in a race blind society BUT blackness is still central to it. The film may be making fun of me writing that sentence as a white guy trying to appear educated. Layers :)

8) with some of these big themes being explored I did enjoy some of the smaller moments. Cliff dancing with his mum but then leaving in the morning with "this family will break your heart" was quite moving and the little bits revealed about Monks dad I think are quite important. He's a black dad that's not around but still very present.

9) the three endings were quite savage in different ways and I think central to how the film should be understood but I'd need to watch it again and see how they impact the movie. I think it's possibly saying race is simultaneously important and unimportant but not in the ways we imagine.
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If I could give this 9 likes, I would! Very good take. Funnily enough, I was immersed in the world cos I've seen the tropes depicted all my life, and yet I identified more with 'Thelonious' more than anyone.

*1) Good pick up on the 'jazz' element where both exist in the same world, but one much more sophisticated than the celebrated simplicity of the other; a great micro allegory for the film and really easy to miss.

*2) My take on this is that I was immediately struck by the chaotic nature of the household, again as you say 'full of stereotype'; success and failure and the inclusion of a maid usually reserved for well off families and yet they are middle class with a maid. I couldn't help thinking of "Gone With the Wind" at this point, perhaps unfairly because I know she's treated as family and it's a source of employment.

*3) To me echoes the attempt at tanking the book with outlandish suggestions with the tropes of Rap; the more vulgar the action in the songs or by the 'artists', the more popular they become with White society.

*5) I think even if 'Monk' hasn't read the book, he reacting on what he hears in the reading from a clearly educated woman and it jars with him why she would debase herself.

*8) I agree about the moment between 'Cliff' and mum's moment of unity only for her to break that moment. It caught me off guard. I didn't really focus on the fatherhood aspect, quite honestly, as I was busy analysing everything else! But, I will come back and watch it again tonight (something I rarely do with films).

And I don't think it's Lakeith Stansfield at the end (although it IS something he would do!).

Yes, I enjoyed that read and concur with much of what you wrote!
 
Bigga said:
If I could give this 9 likes, I would! Very good take. Funnily enough, I was immersed in the world cos I've seen the tropes depicted all my life, and yet I identified more with 'Thelonious' more than anyone.

*1) Good pick up on the 'jazz' element where both exist in the same world, but one much more sophisticated than the celebrated simplicity of the other; a great micro allegory for the film and really easy to miss.

*2) My take on this is that I was immediately struck by the chaotic nature of the household, again as you say 'full of stereotype'; success and failure and the inclusion of a maid usually reserved for well off families and yet they are middle class with a maid. I couldn't help thinking of "Gone With the Wind" at this point, perhaps unfairly because I know she's treated as family and it's a source of employment.

*3) To me echoes the attempt at tanking the book with outlandish suggestions with the tropes of Rap; the more vulgar the action in the songs or by the 'artists', the more popular they become with White society.

*5) I think even if 'Monk' hasn't read the book, he reacting on what he hears in the reading from a clearly educated woman and it jars with him why she would debase herself.

*8) I agree about the moment between 'Cliff' and mum's moment of unity only for her to break that moment. It caught me off guard. I didn't really focus on the fatherhood aspect, quite honestly, as I was busy analysing everything else! But, I will come back and watch it again tonight (something I rarely do with films).

And I don't think it's Lakeith Stansfield at the end (although it IS something he would do!).

Yes, I enjoyed that read and concur with much of what you wrote!
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Maybe I'm giving the movie too much credit as I think it is too smart to be peddling a "white people stupid tho" message. The Kermode review kind of illustrates what I mean. Kermode considers himself to be better than the white people portrayed in the movie but is disappointed when it focuses on the small family drama stuff as opposed to the satire and racism. Which is possibly why they keep making fun of Tyler Perry - they aren't making a black film about the black experience BUT making a film about a family that happens to be black. The Stansfield shot at the end is meant to provoke people like me who go "oh that's the guy from Get Out" (who assumes because i watched Get Out and have a black friend that i now understand the black experience) and make it about race when the point is Monk says right at the beginning he doesn't believe in race and he is trying to keep his race as a secondary characteristic even though people keep putting it front and centre. of course there is also the possibility that the film is making a point that despite Monks idealism he can't escape being viewed through a black lens
 
mrbelfry said:


Maybe I'm giving the movie too much credit as I think it is too smart to be peddling a "white people stupid tho" message. The Kermode review kind of illustrates what I mean. Kermode considers himself to be better than the white people portrayed in the movie but is disappointed when it focuses on the small family drama stuff as opposed to the satire and racism. Which is possibly why they keep making fun of Tyler Perry - they aren't making a black film about the black experience BUT making a film about a family that happens to be black. The Stansfield shot at the end is meant to provoke people like me who go "oh that's the guy from Get Out" (who assumes because i watched Get Out and have a black friend that i now understand the black experience) and make it about race when the point is Monk says right at the beginning he doesn't believe in race and he is trying to keep his race as a secondary characteristic even though people keep putting it front and centre. of course there is also the possibility that the film is making a point that despite Monks idealism he can't escape being viewed through a black lens
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I'll look at Kermode's view in a short while, but what you said at the very end about the inability of 'Monk' to escape the traps of racism is correct and thus the inevitable 'acceptance' in today's times. Almost, in spite of his best efforts, 'if you can't beat them...'.

Prior to that, I don't think it's a 'White people stupid' message, but more about the conditioning set in society and hierarchy. Remember even the Black fans of the prose fell into the conditioning trap.

Perry is multi-purpose factor; that he's made billions perpetuating the stereotypical position of Black society, you know, the 'Big Shirley' type of characters. He can only make billions if somebody's buying his shit and it isn't all Black people! And films about the 'Black experience' has been done to death and 'happening to be Black' was the right approach because the 'Black experience' in this film is a byproduct anyway and 'Monk' can't escape that.

In my opinion, of course.

Just finished work and I need to pop out, so will defo look at Kermode when I get back.
 
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