# List the films you have seen at the cinema :2015



## marty21 (Jan 1, 2015)

No one else has started this yet as far as I can see - and I started the thread in 2006 so maybe it is my turn again.

(1) Big Eyes

enjoyed it - didn't know much about the story - about art fraud basically - a man claimed he had painted the pictures actually painted by his wife and forced her to continue painting them in secret once he had managed to make them super successful.


----------



## Sue (Jan 4, 2015)

Birdman. Washed up actor puts on a show to try and revive his career. Very funny meditation on acting, fame and disappointment.


----------



## metalguru (Jan 4, 2015)

Yeah I saw Birdman as well. I didn't know anything about it beforehand except that it had received excellent reviews.

I was a bit puzzled by it at first, but I did get into it. A lot to admire including the performances (especially Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis and Emma Stone), the cinematography and seeing behind the scenes at a theatre. But I did feel that overall it was about 30 minutes too long and that the last part struggled to find a satisfying resolution.


----------



## Sue (Jan 4, 2015)

metalguru said:


> Yeah I saw Birdman as well. I didn't know anything about it beforehand except that it had received excellent reviews.
> 
> I was a bit puzzled by it at first, but I did get into it. A lot to admire including the performances (especially Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis and Emma Stone), the cinematography and seeing behind the scenes at a theatre. But I did feel that overall it was about 30 minutes too long and that the last part struggled to find a satisfying resolution.


 
Thought it felt fine length-wise and I think most films are too long these days.


----------



## lolo (Jan 5, 2015)

i loved birdman, and coming from an acting background there were some painfully true standouts for me - miming props being one of them


----------



## Gone Girl (Jan 5, 2015)

Annie, great musical feel good movie 

Big Hero 6, great cgi fun film

Out of the two I preferred Annie


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 5, 2015)

Night at the Museum III and The Theory of Everything.  I had the choice between The Hobbit and The Theory of Everything.  I think I made the right choice.


----------



## blossie33 (Jan 5, 2015)

I saw the Theory of Everything at the weekend, thought it was very good. Must have been very difficult physically to play Stephen Hawking but he did it brilliantly.
Although it's sad to see someone disabled that way, it was quite an upbeat film with some good humour.


----------



## Maltin (Jan 7, 2015)

marty21 said:


> Big Eyes
> 
> enjoyed it - didn't know much about the story - about art fraud basically - a man claimed he had painted the pictures actually painted by his wife and forced her to continue painting them in secret once he had managed to make them super successful.


I saw this tonight too and it was much better than I was expecting and was so funny towards the end.


----------



## redsquirrel (Jan 7, 2015)

_St. Vincent_ - Bill Murray is very good in the lead role and there a some laugh out loud moments, but it's a pretty bog standard 'grouchy old man re-connects to people through a young kid' plot and Naomi Watts as the Russian prostitute is pretty crap.

_The Imitation Game_ - A very Weinstein production of Alan Turing and Bletchley Park, everybody has 'awfully nice' accents because they are from the 40s. It passes the time well enough but it's not got a lot more.


----------



## mwgdrwg (Jan 7, 2015)

Big Hero 6

Good, with fantastic cgi (as expected from Pixar). Though I much preferred Paddington, which I saw a week earlier.


----------



## belboid (Jan 12, 2015)

Mockingjay pt 1- enjoyable tosh. Clearly suffered from being split into two films tho. PSH will be missed


----------



## hipipol (Jan 12, 2015)

Sue said:


> Birdman. Washed up actor puts on a show to try and revive his career. Very funny meditation on acting, fame and disappointment.


me too, loved it!!!


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 12, 2015)

Saw Big Eyes this weekend.  Not Tim Burton's best work.


----------



## marty21 (Jan 17, 2015)

(1) Big Eyes
(2) Birdman

Loved it , held my attention throughout, excellent performances from all.


----------



## belboid (Jan 17, 2015)

Saw Foxcatcher last night, and having pondered it, I'm still not as impressed as apparently i should have been.

It is good, and worth seeing, and the first hour works really well. But then it goes on for another hour, and the end, well i just wasn't sure exactly how it really fitted with what had gone before.  Carrell is good, but not really brilliant, possibly cos his face didn't move enough underneath all the prosthetics.

My viewing was partially ruined by a Guardian review which said 'dont google anything about this film, or the facts it was based on beforehand, or you'll spoil it' - underneath a picture, with a caption telling you precisely the thing you were meant not to know


----------



## Dr. Furface (Jan 18, 2015)

Birdman. Meh.

Whiplash. Fucking brilliant. Not much of a story but the two central performances of the young aspiring jazz drummer and his bastard of a tutor are phenomenal.


----------



## Maltin (Jan 18, 2015)

belboid said:


> Saw Foxcatcher last night, and having pondered it, I'm still not as impressed as apparently i should have been.


i didn't like it much at all and I'm quite baffled by the praise it has received. In my opinion, Birdman is a much better and interesting film. 

I also watched Whiplash last week and thought that was excellent too and despite playing a thoroughly unpleasant human being, JK Simmons' performance is outstanding.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Jan 18, 2015)

Exodus. 

It's a Sword and Sorcery. Kind of like The Hobbit.


----------



## Sue (Jan 18, 2015)

Detective, JL Godard, 1985. Shenanigans in a Parisian hotel. Bit of a confused mix of detective film/farce/thiller and the most interesting bit was probably seeing lot of French actors looking very young -- Nathalie Baye, Emmanuelle Seignier, Julie Delpy -- as well as a pre-plastic surgery Johnny Hallyday. And good to see my local indie cinema -- the Rio in Dalston -- was packed as they're always struggling financially.


----------



## redsquirrel (Jan 19, 2015)

_Birdman_ - I'm with Sue and the love it crowd, found it both very funny and interesting. I don't think there was any real problem with the length, though when I just came out I wasn't sure about the "coda", but thinking about it since I think it probably was the right decision to include it. 

_Maps to the Stars - _Cronenburg's psychological Hollywood "horror" film, I don't think it's among his best but there's some good stuff in there. Moore, Cusak and Oliva Willams (an underrated actress IMO) are all good. But for me the highlight was Mia Wasikowska, I can't think of a film I haven't enjoyed her performance in, even in stuff that isn't great she brings something to the film.   

_A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night_ - An Iranian-American vampire flick, the film is set in a, fictional, Iran and dialogue is Persian but it was shot in the US. It's definitely a case of style over substance, but the style is just about good enough that they get away with it. Sheila Vand plays the title character and the camera loves her (at least in this). 

_Paddington_ - Not entirely convinced by the CGI Paddington, but overall the film is enjoyable. It's not anything mind blowing but all the cast are good (even if the roles are pretty light), particularly, Peter Capaldi as the nasty neighbour.	

Also a couple of films form the 60s showing at the ACMI as part of the Australian Perspectives. 

_Age of Consent_ - Michael Powell film set in Australia starring James Mason, as a painter looking for inspiration, and a very young Helen Mirren as his muse. It's by no means one of Powell's best, or even 2nd best really, but there are some good scenes, Mason is as watchable as always, and was at least interesting. It's very much of it's time but worth checking out.

_Sunstruck - _This on the other hand is one to avoid, dreadful crap. Plot is Harry Secombe is a teacher in Wales looking for a change who decides to move to Aus and ends to teaching at a school in the middle of the bush. Usual duck out of water story with choral singing being the mechanism that ultimately endears him to the local community. Unlike _Age of Consent_ this isn't even interesting, just a load of cobblers.


----------



## lolo (Jan 19, 2015)

whiplash, so so so so so so so so so good, i walked out on such a high that even the terrible fart someone dropped in my tube carriage on the way home  (so bad a woman started retching) couldn't bring me down


----------



## blossie33 (Jan 19, 2015)

I've seen  the trailer for Whiplash but it looks too upsetting for me to watch.


----------



## TheHoodedClaw (Jan 19, 2015)

lolo said:


> whiplash, so so so so so so so so so good, i walked out on such a high that even the terrible fart someone dropped in my tube carriage on the way home  (so bad a woman started retching) couldn't bring me down



They should put that on the poster


----------



## Dr. Furface (Jan 24, 2015)

A Most Violent Year. This tells the tale of an oil transporter entrepreneur trying to build his business in NYC 1981 - apparently the most violent year in the city's history - in the face of crime and intimidation from his competitors. I wouldn't say it's a terrible film but it could have been much better in the right hands - it's lack of characterisation, action, subplots etc make for a very long 125mins indeed. The actors aren't given much to work with in terms of their scripts and I can't remember one moment of any humour - even the most gritty dramas need a bit of levity


----------



## metalguru (Jan 25, 2015)

Theory of Everything: no denying the performances are excellent, and it's very watchable - but it's ultimately a bit saccharine and unsatisfying as an account of what Hawking's first marriage was really like.

Whiplash: excellent...really good acting and tension...goes into slightly ludicrous literal car-crash territory at one point - but carries it off

Ex Machina: enjoyed it...but the was something unsatisfying about it visually...not the AI robot, but the whole look of the film - flat and too grey


----------



## Sue (Jan 25, 2015)

Whiplash. Story isn't very original -- ambitious/talented youth meets teacher/Svengali -- but built the tension very well and the acting was excellent. (JK Simmons being particularly good.)

Billy Wilder double bill -- Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity.


----------



## quimcunx (Jan 25, 2015)

Foxcatcher - an ordeal.  Spent the first half waiting for the pace to pick up, then wondering if it would pick up at all.  The last 10 minutes was ok.  Steve Carrell and Channing Tatum put in creditable performances with what they had, I suppose.


----------



## youngian (Jan 25, 2015)

Sue said:


> Whiplash. Story isn't very original -- ambitious/talented youth meets teacher/Svengali -- but built the tension very well and the acting was excellent. (JK Simmons being particularly good.)
> 
> Billy Wilder double bill -- Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity.


I was reminded of the Red Shoes. I've enjoyed JK Simmons since seeing him in Oz and he thoroughly deserves to carry a picture. Terrific performance.


----------



## redsquirrel (Jan 26, 2015)

Sue said:


> Billy Wilder double bill -- Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity.


Ohh, jealous.


----------



## phildwyer (Jan 26, 2015)

_Where The Wild Things Are.  _Didn't really get it--are the weird things in his unconscious or what?  My 5 year-old loved it though.


----------



## DrRingDing (Jan 26, 2015)

Watched a test showing of a new Kurt Cobain documentary at a cinema t'other day.

It was produced by his daughter with expected results.

It must be heavily edited before final release.


----------



## magneze (Jan 26, 2015)

Ex Machina
Superb Alex Garland film. He wrote and directed it. Just go see it. Wonderful.


----------



## belboid (Jan 31, 2015)

Into The Woods.

The Disney film of the Sondheim musical. The first two thirds of which are really pretty good, James Corden is actually rather decent, and Emily Blunt quite brilliant, some decent songs, gorgeous sets, amusingly done. Johnny Depp is positively paedophilic as the big bad wolf. But then there's a final third where they try and get clever and subvert the classical endings, and it all gets rather boring, and all _wtf_? _Why did that happen_?


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 31, 2015)

ex_machina


----------



## Pickman's model (Jan 31, 2015)

magneze said:


> Ex Machina
> Superb Alex Garland film. He wrote and directed it. Just go see it. Wonderful.


yeh despite the alex garland involvement i thought it was pretty good


----------



## lambro (Jan 31, 2015)

magneze said:


> Ex Machina
> Superb Alex Garland film. He wrote and directed it. Just go see it. Wonderful.



Watched that last week and really enjoyed it and found it quite mesmerizing.



Spoiler: Spoiler Alert, don't read if you plan on watching this film



Interesting how the AI girl outwitted the humans to make her exit


----------



## wtfftw (Jan 31, 2015)

What We Do in the Shadows.


I laughed a lot. It was at the Prince Charles Cinema tho so maybe too old for this thread.


----------



## belboid (Jan 31, 2015)

wtfftw said:


> It was at the Prince Charles Cinema tho so maybe too old for this thread.


if you saw it at a cinema.....

Some of the stuff in last years was well older than that


----------



## moonsi til (Feb 1, 2015)

Exodus: was just way too long.

Taken 3: was ok..just.

Theory of Everthing: was very sweet and I so liked the first dance they went to.

Ex-machina: enjoyable..didn't think it merited being a cert 15.

Birdman: quirky/sad/funny

Big Hero 6: I loved this and laughed a lot.


----------



## N_igma (Feb 1, 2015)

Birdman - I can't help but be reminded of the Michael Keaton film from the late 80's where he plays a wilted spinach stewing in a pot of curry. Anyway it gets my vote for film of the year.


----------



## marty21 (Feb 1, 2015)

(1) Big Eyes
(2) Birdman
(3) A Most Violent Year 

Was a little plodding at first but got going in the 2nd half. Basically about the Teamsters, the Mafia and New York City trying to control the two in early 80s NY. Saved my strong performances from the leads .


----------



## belboid (Feb 1, 2015)

Birdman - absolutely great, until the end, which was just a bit too obvious for me.

Inherent Vice - or, The Big Sleep as written by Gilbert Shelton, starring Josh Brolin as Sterling Hayden.  Very funny, very complex, very confused - but intendedly so.  Probably. Great performances all round, and the look of it was spot on. I barely recognised Michelle Sinclair.


----------



## redsquirrel (Feb 2, 2015)

_Foxcatcher_ - like belboid I didn't think it deserved quite the amount of praise that it has been getting. That's not to say it's bad it's a very solid piece of work, but not in the class some people have said. Carrell and Tautum are good but Ruffalo easily acts them off the screen, his performance is far less acting with a capital A than theirs. 

_The Salvation_ - A Danish western starring Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green. He's a former Danish soldier who's trying to start a new life out west an ends up looking for revenge after his wife and son are killed. It's enjoyable and carries you along but it's pretty much riffing off cliches.


----------



## Lea (Feb 3, 2015)

Watched Inherent Vice at the weekend. Very confusing plot and lots of loose ends but very good. As belboid says the look was spot on with Joaquin Phoneix's longish scruffy hair and sideburns, Josh Brolin's all American clean cut look to the ladies long hair hippie 70s look. Came out of the cinema thinking "well that was different". I did have difficulty understanding some of the dialogue due to mumbling by the actors and also because of the 70s talk.


----------



## redsquirrel (Feb 4, 2015)

belboid said:


> Inherent Vice - or, The Big Sleep as written by Gilbert Shelton, starring Josh Brolin as Sterling Hayden.  Very funny, very complex, very confused - but intendedly so.  Probably. Great performances all round, and the look of it was spot on. I barely recognised Michelle Sinclair.


Really looking forward to this. How much of a role does Joanna Newsom have?


----------



## belboid (Feb 4, 2015)

redsquirrel said:


> Really looking forward to this. How much of a role does Joanna Newsom have?


she might be in one scene (it's kind of debatable, oddly), but otherwise we never see her, only hear her.  Quite a lot as she's the narrator.  That casting definitely works well, adds to the eerie, did it really happen, qualities.


----------



## metalguru (Feb 8, 2015)

Birdman
Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Ex Machina

Inherent Vice:  
Quite an oddity in that I enjoyed it overall, but I wouldn't feel confident in recommending it to other people...I enjoyed it for the general mood, the acting, the sunny photography and colours, and a general feeling of it being a pleasant and welcome 2 hour holiday in a grey February.

The plot is virtually incomprehensible, and the stoner humour and slapstick elements are actually a bit awkward and not as funny as they should be.


----------



## belboid (Feb 8, 2015)

Selma

Oyelowo is outstanding as MLK, pretty much note perfect, and he is accompanied by some other damned fine actors in a quite powerful and moving film. There's no arguing with the films heart, but it's politics...let's be generous and leave it at they're a bit simplistic.  Altho if Malcolm X were still alive I'm sure he'd be sueing the fuck out of someone.  

Destined to be shown to high school classes whenever they study civil rights.


----------



## DJWrongspeed (Feb 9, 2015)

redsquirrel said:


> Really looking forward to this. How much of a role does Joanna Newsom have?


She doesn't have a big role but i prefer her as an actor rather than a singer 
Saw this last night. It's one of those films that exists in it's own world. It has a kind of stoned glow throughout, hard to follow but well worth the trip. I think the humour is supposed to be quite slight but there are some scenes worth a giggle.


----------



## rubbershoes (Feb 9, 2015)

Shaun the Sheep movie

OK but not as good as I had hoped

It's odd that they have known actors voicing the characters, even though they make sounds rather than words


----------



## redsquirrel (Feb 11, 2015)

_Selma_ - I was impressed by this, I felt it could be another overproduced "based on real events'  film, of which there seem to be a lot of at the minute, but while it's probably a touch overworked IMO it's a better film than either _The Imitation Game _or _Foxcatcher_. As belboid said David Oyelowo is outstanding, and much of the rest of the cast are excellent too, though I do think it's a shame that Tim Roth's performance as George Wallace is limited to just being racist. While it's politics are very much on the liberal non-violent end, it could have easily been much more of a hagiography of King than it is. His affairs with other women are talked about, although not shown, as well as his ruthlessness in being willing to use the attacks on demonstrators for the wider cause.
On a related note has anyone seen the Frakenheimer biopic of George Wallace? If so is it any good? You'd think that's there's a enough promising material to make a really good film about Wallace.

_La Dolce Vita_ - First film in the Roma! season at the ACMI. First time I've seen it (indeed first time I've seen any Fellini film) I think I'm still digesting it, finding it more of an interesting piece of work than falling in love with it. I can see it's influence on any number of other films and there are some lovely scenes but I wasn't amazed by it, perhaps because in a way I have seen it before through it's influence on other films.


----------



## youngian (Feb 13, 2015)

Kingsman is a delightfully daft British action pic, a kick ass makeover of a Lou Grade 60s crime fighting outfit.


----------



## metalguru (Feb 14, 2015)

Jupiter Ascending - I ignored the terrible reviews..and, as it turns out, it's not bad at all. The design and look of the film are excellent. Some of the chase sequences are overlong, and the script could have been a bit tighte in places, but it's actually quite diverting and entertaining.


----------



## hash tag (Feb 15, 2015)

Bit behind the times, but the only film ive seen at cinema this year was Paddington. To get the full experience, we went to an early afternoon showing. It does what it says on the tin!


----------



## HAL9000 (Feb 15, 2015)

Kingsman is silly but fun

I like intelligent sci-fi.   I though Ex Machina slow and the.....



Spoiler: Ending



transformation at the end was was unconvincing, needed a flesh making machine



Better AI film is the 1970's westworld

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909/


----------



## lolo (Feb 16, 2015)

kingsman - not half bad, switch brain off, colin firth is good, unnecessary sexist crass stuff though, pity
inherent vice - excellent in all ways


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Feb 16, 2015)

Seventh Son.  Not quite as bad as Hansel and Gretel, but damn close.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Feb 17, 2015)

Love Is Strange. Have to say that I was slightly disappointed with this to be honest. Good performances from Alfred Molina and John Lithgow but I thought the scripting and plotting were a bit simplistic and lacking in depth and it kind of meandered to a finish that didn't really move me at all. 6/10 if I'm being generous.


----------



## sheothebudworths (Feb 18, 2015)

Me and my boy totally enjoyed Kingsman today (once we'd proved he was 15 - SAGA!)...what do you mean lolo ....the woman who proved to be spare, in the end? Her needing encouragement to jump (from various places)? I've answered my own question, I think


----------



## OneStrike (Feb 18, 2015)

Ended up watching Birdman in the May Fair Hotel cinema t'other day, bit random for me tbh.  It's well worth seeing, one of those occasions where I expected to hate it (a movie about actors ffs) but got a pleasant surprise.  7.5/10.


----------



## DJWrongspeed (Feb 21, 2015)

Films seen at cinema this year so far:
Inherent Vice, sprawling epic, 8/10.

Imitation Game, 5/10 doesn't really delve into Turing himself and is historically false.

Duke of Burgundy with Director & Cast Q&A afterwards



If you want something gorgeous to look at for 100mins then this is for you. Plus it has Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) in it. Given her high profile she wasn't mentioned much in the pre-publicity. Forget 50 Shades, this is way better.


----------



## youngian (Feb 22, 2015)

DJWrongspeed said:


> If you want something gorgeous to look at for 100mins then this is for you. Plus it has Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) in it. Given her high profile she wasn't mentioned much in the pre-publicity. Forget 50 Shades, this is way better.


 Beautiful to look at and the central relationship was involving. Went with a friend who's a pro-domme who gave her professional seal of approval.


----------



## metalguru (Feb 22, 2015)

Yeah, I saw Duke of Burgundy today.

It is very beautiful to look at and good use of sound as well.

It's very much a psychological film, and reminiscent of a number of other films such as the little-known 'Symptoms' with Angela Pleasance.


----------



## Gramsci (Feb 22, 2015)

The Ritzy has writer and director Peter Strickland’s latest film "The Duke of Burgundy" on this week. I am a fan of this directors work. His previous films I have seen are "Katalin Varga" and "Berberian Sound Studio".

Like Tarantino his films are partly homage to older cinematic traditions. In this case the arty euro-smut of 70s. In the 70s there was a overlap between soft porn and the "art" cinema. Or depending on your view dressing up soft porn as high brow entertainment. 

As cinema audiences numbers were threatened by increasing TV use one way to get keep cinemas going was relying on the dirty mac brigade who would go to see arty foreign films for a bit of smut. 

Nothing wrong with that. 

Back to Strickland. Here he mentions some of his influences. 

This homage to euro smut is based around a sado masochistic lesbian relationship involving a lot of expensive lingerie and knee high stiletto boots. All beautifully shot in long slow camerawork. Included are some trippy psychedelic sequences. 

The film, surprisingly, holds together and works. Why I am not quite sure. 

Why does it work? Like cinema it takes one into a closed world that is not realistic. In this closed world there are no men. Everyone appears to live in old country houses with large slightly decaying gardens but only met at the library. The library being about moths.

After a while I got drawn into this world. A bit like the moths attracted to light. The film works as it has an hypnotic quality to it. The repetitions of the sex are not boring as each time they are done there are slight differences. 

The study of moths is as much an obsession as the ritualized sex. The library has lectures where the women give talks on moths. How to distinguish between almost identical moths. Like the study of moths the sex is studied and enacted down to the last detail. 

The film also works as its a psychological study of two people in this unreal world they inhabit. They both strive to a perfection that is unrealizable but which they will continue. 

Why do they do it? I would say like many of the films in 70s that this film pays homage to its putting off fear of ageing and death. At one point one of the women complains of ageing. A dream sequence features a skeleton.


----------



## Gramsci (Feb 22, 2015)

I saw "Selma"  at Ritzy. Have not been to Ritzy (London) for a while since they put there prices up.

Its about one part of Martin Luther Kings equal rights campaign. It starts when he get the Nobel prize and his further campaigning to get the right to vote for African Americans. In law they had the right to vote but in Southern States its was made difficult to register to vote. In practise only whites got to vote.

It is a great performance by David Oyelowo as King. The film builds up and holds one attention. This is apparently the first film with King as main character. This surprised me as he is such a famous person in recent American history.

I am not always keen on biographical films of famous heroes. The film almost goes into Hollywood worthiness at times. The music indicating when you should get emotional. Perhaps as its not my history ( Its the US) is why it grates a bit. Unlike with "Pride" which I saw a recently.

I think I wish it could have drawn parallels with now. The equal rights campaign of 60s was successful but as recent events in US show there is still a long way to go for African Americans. Its interesting as a part of American history but its not a controversial subject now.

Maybe having a woman directing the film made a difference. Women in the film are shown to have important role in the civil rights movement. Kings wife is represented as an important character in her own right.

What the film does show is how dangerous it was then to campaign in deep South. People did get beaten up and killed.

What I also liked about the film is that its got top notch performances from all the actors. This is an actors movie. Its got a great script and is quite talky. A lot of political maneuverings and backroom dealing. Which in fact are riveting viewing. Reminded me a bit of Spielbergs "Lincoln". The President is a great character in this film. 

The script is exceptional as they could not use Kings original speeches in this film. It appears that Dreamworks have the rights to them. Which is somewhat bizarre.


----------



## belboid (Feb 23, 2015)

Gramsci said:


> The script is exceptional as they could not use Kings original speeches in this film. It appears that Dreamworks have the rights to them. Which is somewhat bizarre.


Spielberg has them as he is/was planning a biopic, it's not entirely  clear how long they'll retain them for thereafter.  _Selma_ will undoubtedly be a better film than any such biopic


----------



## Maltin (Feb 23, 2015)

belboid said:


> Spielberg has them as he is/was planning a biopic, it's not entirely  clear how long they'll retain them for thereafter.  _Selma_ will undoubtedly be a better film than any such biopic


Why do you think this? I thought that Lincoln was a much better film than Selma so wouldn't be surprised if Spielberg were to make a MLK biopic that it would be a better film than Selma as well. I imagine the main difficulty might be finding someone as good as Oyelowo was.


----------



## lolo (Feb 23, 2015)

inherent vice is great, joaquin phoenix was superb 
duke of burgandy - crazy and lush, i loved it so much, wigs!


----------



## Lea (Mar 1, 2015)

Ok I admit to seeing 50 Shades of Grey yesterday. It was fun and funny! A film to see with the girls. Although we did see one older man sitting by himself in the cinema. It's basically a formulaic romance story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl etc...I suppose it has a bit of bdsm thrown in but it wasn't hardcore. The dialogue was pretty awful but I assume that the book must have been a whole lot worse. Otherwise a fun night out with the girls to have a little giggle at the bad dialogue and situations. Little fantasy of average girl gets rich guy. However I think I would have run a mile after seeing Mr Grey's playroom and freaky controlling nature!


----------



## friedaweed (Mar 1, 2015)

Lea said:


> Ok I admit to seeing 50 Shades of Grey yesterday. It was fun and funny! A film to see with the girls. *Although we did see one older man sitting by himself in the cinema.* It's basically a formulaic romance story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl etc...I suppose it has a bit of bdsm thrown in but it wasn't hardcore. The dialogue was pretty awful but I assume that the book must have been a whole lot worse. Otherwise a fun night out with the girls to have a little giggle at the bad dialogue and situations. Little fantasy of average girl gets rich guy. However I think I would have run a mile after seeing Mr Grey's playroom and freaky controlling nature!


He must of been either a film critic or a pervert then


----------



## Dr. Furface (Mar 2, 2015)

- Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. Utterly trite film about a Japanese girl who believes the Coen Bros film Fargo is real and goes off to America to find the hidden suitcase with the money in it. The main character was so irritating that when she's in the woods at the end I wanted a bear to appear and kill her. Sadly this didn't happen, but it would've been far better than the real ending (which I won't reveal, but I'd suggest you don't bother finding out anyway).

- White God. Hungarian film about a girl and her dog who get separated, and then some unhappy events that ensue for both of them - particularly for the mutt. The girl and dog both perform well, esp the dog. Apparently some 274 dogs were used in its making - without cgi - and the pack scenes are visually impressive, but after a promising start I found the film got progressively sillier and tiresome. Totally overrated IMO.


----------



## metalguru (Mar 2, 2015)

'It Follows' - rave reviews in the papers as an intelligent 'must see' horror film, so I had to check it out...It's ok - not as scary as advertised, but reasonably effective. The overall look of the film is very colourless and flat, but somehow this works with the overall theme - as if you're stuck in a psychotic frame of mind where everything looks flat, dull and lifeless.

Reasonably diverting - but doesn't stick in the mind afterwards - and it's nothing like as clever as some of the reviews would have you think.


----------



## captainmission (Mar 7, 2015)

White god- its awful. I was excited for it after seeing the trailer - the scenes of dogs running about an empty city are fun. But its confused what it's trying to be. An allogory about intolerence? a family drama? Coming of age story? revenge movie with dog? a gritty reboot of the incredible journey?

The dog acting is quite bad a lot of the time- dogs don't wag their tails when cowering in fear, being aggressive or howling out of loneliness. They also speed up the film so the dogs look like they're running about in a Benny Hill sketch.


----------



## Sparkle Motion (Mar 8, 2015)

Annie. Only good because earlier versions were so awful (especially the first). Terrible reviews, but interesting to watch your child singing and smiling as they leave the cinema. Not one for the general public, but great for parents of girls of a certain age.


----------



## Lea (Mar 10, 2015)

Watched Focus starring Will Smith. Really enjoyed it. Fun film to watch and fast pace. Will and Margot Robbie sizzled! She's really gorgeous!


----------



## Ranbay (Mar 11, 2015)

Chappie - Fucking ace!


----------



## metalguru (Mar 15, 2015)

Chappie - worst of the eleven films I've seen this year. Diabolical script, wooden acting - a few points for the photography in places.


----------



## eoin_k (Mar 17, 2015)

The kids are asleep and on her way to bed the missus suggested I go to the cinema (rather than sitting up at home waiting to settle the youngest, if he wakes up). I just found this thread by searching for 'Chappie', as I like the director and it is on locally. Read together, the last two posts aren't helping me decide whether or not to go. On the one hand it could be 'Fucking ace!', but arguably the script is diabolical, the acting wooden and it may actually be the worst film of the year.


----------



## metalguru (Mar 17, 2015)

You should go see it, and let us know what you think.

The consensus of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes was that: "Chappie boasts more of the big ideas and visual panache that director Neill Blomkamp has become known for -- and, sadly, more of the narrative shortcomings."


----------



## eoin_k (Mar 17, 2015)

metalguru said:


> You should go see it, and let us know what you think..."



I don't go to the cinema often enough to enjoy seeing films that aren't very good any more. I'll take the "meh' reviews on board and watch it at home when it is available.


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Mar 19, 2015)

Has anyone seen "It Follows" ?


----------



## Maltin (Mar 20, 2015)

eoin_k said:


> I just found this thread by searching for 'Chappie', as I like the director and it is on locally. Read together, the last two posts aren't helping me decide whether or not to go. On the one hand it could be 'Fucking ace!', but arguably the script is diabolical, the acting wooden and it may actually be the worst film of the year.


in my opinion, it is neither. Whilst there were parts of Chappie I liked, overall it was pretty ludicrous but Focus was worse.


----------



## Maltin (Mar 20, 2015)

Mrs Miggins said:


> Has anyone seen "It Follows" ?


Yes, I enjoyed it but it doesn't live up to some of the hype that I have seen.


----------



## metalguru (Mar 20, 2015)

I was a bit wary of 'It Follows' because I'm not a horror film fan.

But I quite enjoyed it, especially the use of the locations which are quite eerie...It wasn't actually that scary..and I didn't find it quite as 'clever' as some of the reviews said (i may have missed some hidden depths I guess)


----------



## belboid (Mar 25, 2015)

_The Tales of Hoffmann
_
Powell & Pressburgers last (?) classic, a sorta straight rendition of Offenbach's uncompleted opera, in a newly restored print, and introduced by Thelma Schoonmaker. Twas great to see it in a really full, appreciative, cinema (tho it'd probably have been better gong the next night when George Romero was introducing) and it does look really wonderful, so much more vibrant then in my copy. Some of the early scenes in particular are brilliantly imaginative as well, the way Powell introduces the chorus (and then removes them) is inspired.  And the film inspired many others, from BladeRunner to the entirety of Romero, as well as being dancer Michael Clark's favourite film, despite him hating it the first seven times he saw it.  A cracker.


----------



## youngian (Mar 26, 2015)

Sean Penn in a cat and mouse chase thriller the Gunman. A bit better than the bullshit Liam Neeson makes and a strong Brit cast. Most bizarrely man-of-the-moment Mark Rylance who is not known for his love of the tedium of film making.
Apparently old pal Sean has been badgering him for a long while to put his talents up on the big screen (and give this shoot em up affair a bit of cred) but I don't think he was giving Sean 'serious actor' Penn's film his all.
Penn and Rylance were mercenaries in the Congo but a decade later someone tries to kill Penn in his new life as a doo-gooding well digger.
He visits Rylance who is now a multinational arms dealers in a scary corporate London office. I won't reveal who is behind the evil deed but Rylance's Tex Avery eye rolling and twitching is a big clue. Hilarous


----------



## Dr. Furface (Mar 29, 2015)

*Wild Tales*. Six short films in one movie from Argentina revolving around the theme of revenge and retribution. Each film ultimately pushes the limits of believability but they're based on credible scenarios and there are some brilliant and hilarious scenes throughout. The most far-fetched of the 6 is the first one which only lasts 5 mins, and yet it has an astonishing resonance with the sad events that happened earlier this week in the French Alps. I'll say no more except you should all try to see this.

Incidentally, we saw this at the newly opened Curzon Bloomsbury (the old Renoir) and I gots to say they've made a fine job of it. The screen, the sound and the seats are all top notch and the temperature was just right too. However this all comes at a price... even with a members' discount our 2 tickets cost £31 - and if we'd had to pay full price it would have set us back £38, yes £19 each!  But I guess you get what you pay for and I've never been in a better cinema, and I hope I'll visit it many more times to come (though I'll try to go as often as possible on weekday afternoons when the price is a more affordable £10!).


----------



## Pickman's model (Mar 29, 2015)

today i saw 'the philadelphia story', starring young actors cary grant, james stewart and katherine hepburn, and 'the african queen', a story set in the first world war in which plucky katherine hepburn and humphery bogart give the boche a black eye in  central africa.


----------



## metalguru (Mar 29, 2015)

Saw 'Love is Strange' a bit after it was released (thanks to the Odeon Panton St). Enjoyed it and glad I saw it on the big screen, but not convinced I'd be able to sit through it on dvd/streaming on small screen at home.

Good acting, especially from Alfred Molina and John Lithgow, but ultimately not that emotionally engaging (unless it's just me)..


----------



## moonsi til (Mar 29, 2015)

Watched Spongebob in 3D today whIch was quite a giggle fest.


----------



## metalguru (Mar 29, 2015)

Interim assessment for the first quarter:

Paddington				  7/10 (very good for what it is - a childrens' film)
Birdman					  7/10 (not as good as it hoped it was)
Theory of Everything   7/10 (good performances - but a bit bland)
Whiplash					 8/10 (good performances, good narrative tension despite slightly ludicrous script)
Ex Machine				  7/10 (interesting idea, but the photography was horrible and without any flair)
Inherent Vice			   8/10 (a pleasant couple of sunny stoned hours in the californian sunshine)
Jupiter  Ascending		8/10 (was I the only person who liked this?)
Duke of Burgundy		  8/10 (interesting, good performances and original)
It Follows					  7/10 (nothing special, some good use of Detroit location)
Still Alice					  7/10 (it's all about the Julianne Moore performance, but is a bit hollywood overall)
Chappie						2/10 (JFC - this was poor. Some good photography I guess)
Love is Strange			  6/10 (a bit bland overall, some nice performances and photography of New York)


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Mar 30, 2015)

Went to see *Wild Tales* lat night and thought it was absolutely brilliant.
I had no idea where each of the 6 stories was going to go and they were all superbly executed and really unusual little tales.


----------



## paulhackett (Mar 30, 2015)

Dr. Furface said:


> *Wild Tales*. Six short films in one movie from Argentina revolving around the theme of revenge and retribution. Each film ultimately pushes the limits of believability but they're based on credible scenarios and there are some brilliant and hilarious scenes throughout. The most far-fetched of the 6 is the first one which only lasts 5 mins, and yet it has an astonishing resonance with the sad events that happened earlier this week in the French Alps. I'll say no more except you should all try to see this.
> 
> Incidentally, we saw this at the newly opened Curzon Bloomsbury (the old Renoir) and I gots to say they've made a fine job of it. The screen, the sound and the seats are all top notch and the temperature was just right too. However this all comes at a price... even with a members' discount our 2 tickets cost £31 - and if we'd had to pay full price it would have set us back £38, yes £19 each!  But I guess you get what you pay for and I've never been in a better cinema, and I hope I'll visit it many more times to come (though I'll try to go as often as possible on weekday afternoons when the price is a more affordable £10!).



Saw this a few days ago and thought it was wonderful, perhaps it tapers off a bit towards the end after the opening tale. Not sure. Will definitely want to see again. Any film with Ricardo Darin is usually a banker. That the film is memorable outside his performance is quite something.

Also caught up with Paddington, Boyhood and Danny Collins, the new Pacino film, which despite some obvious flaws I found a breeze to watch. Pacino plays an aging successful rock star who sold out before being  shown a letter to him from John Lennon written 40 years before.. so it has a Lennon soundtrack. And Pacino. And Christopher Plummer. And a smiley if my xx xx worked..


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Mar 30, 2015)

paulhackett said:


> Saw this a few days ago and thought it was wonderful, perhaps it tapers off a bit towards the end after the opening tale. Not sure. Will definitely want to see again.


 
I'd partially agree with that as I thought the parking violations one and the hit and run one were slightly weaker but the wedding at the end was an absolute cracker IMO!


----------



## Dr. Furface (Mar 31, 2015)

Mrs Miggins said:


> I'd partially agree with that as I thought the parking violations one and the hit and run one were slightly weaker but the wedding at the end was an absolute cracker IMO!


I really liked the parking fines one - maybe you don't drive?!  - but agree that the hit and run one was the weakest.


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Mar 31, 2015)

Dr. Furface said:


> I really liked the parking fines one - maybe you don't drive?!  - but agree that the hit and run one was the weakest.


I do drive! I agree it was good but I just felt the whole thing dipped a little on those 2 stories.


----------



## metalguru (Apr 7, 2015)

Appropriate Behaviour - Desiree Akhavan's debut set in Brooklyn about the trails and tribulations of a bisexual daughter of Iranian immigrants. Very good - funny and sharp. Shame it did;t get wider showings in London. I think it may only be on at the Panton St Odeon in London now, having just finished its run at the ICA.


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 7, 2015)

blade runner


----------



## N_igma (Apr 12, 2015)

Fast & Furious 7 - this is the sort of film where you have to willingly suspend your disbelief at every step but crediting Vid Diesel as an actor is a step too far in my eyes. 

It's actually a good action movie thin plot line but enough filler to keep you entertained.


----------



## Red Cat (Apr 12, 2015)

Dr. Furface said:


> *Wild Tales*. Six short films in one movie from Argentina revolving around the theme of revenge and retribution. Each film ultimately pushes the limits of believability but they're based on credible scenarios and there are some brilliant and hilarious scenes throughout. The most far-fetched of the 6 is the first one which only lasts 5 mins, and yet it has an astonishing resonance with the sad events that happened earlier this week in the French Alps. I'll say no more except you should all try to see this.
> 
> Incidentally, we saw this at the newly opened Curzon Bloomsbury (the old Renoir) and I gots to say they've made a fine job of it. The screen, the sound and the seats are all top notch and the temperature was just right too. However this all comes at a price... even with a members' discount our 2 tickets cost £31 - and if we'd had to pay full price it would have set us back £38, yes £19 each!  But I guess you get what you pay for and I've never been in a better cinema, and I hope I'll visit it many more times to come (though I'll try to go as often as possible on weekday afternoons when the price is a more affordable £10!).



Fuck that's expensive! I noticed last time I was in London and looking through the Guardian guide that it was no longer the Renoir. I remember going there a fair bit before they redeveloped that estate.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Apr 12, 2015)

Red Cat said:


> Fuck that's expensive! I noticed last time I was in London and looking through the Guardian guide that it was no longer the Renoir. I remember going there a fair bit before they redeveloped that estate.


Admittedly it's expensive for a cinema, although as I said it's a very fine one. However if you compare it to going to, say, a Premier League football match - which at least in terms of the time spent inside the venue is a fair comparison - where tickets can cost up to £60, it's pretty reasonable, no?


----------



## Red Cat (Apr 12, 2015)

Dr. Furface said:


> Admittedly it's expensive for a cinema, although as I said it's a very fine one. However if you compare it to going to, say, a Premier League football match - which at least in terms of the time spent inside the venue is a fair comparison - where tickets can cost up to £60, it's pretty reasonable, no?



I no longer live in London, so it would be unthinkable to pay so much for the cinema - I pay £7.50. I'd have been very embarrassed if I'd turned up at the Renoir (which was what I was thinking of doing) and been asked to pay £19!


----------



## metalguru (Apr 12, 2015)

I also really liked *Wild Tales*. Was it the Guardian that described it as 6 Tales of the Unexpected in the style of Quentin Tarantino? Really well done. I really liked the parking fines one, but didn't rate the wedding one as highly.


----------



## redsquirrel (Apr 17, 2015)

metalguru said:


> Appropriate Behaviour - Desiree Akhavan's debut set in Brooklyn about the trails and tribulations of a bisexual daughter of Iranian immigrants. Very good - funny and sharp. Shame it did;t get wider showings in London. I think it may only be on at the Panton St Odeon in London now, having just finished its run at the ICA.


I thought it was pretty second rate. Stories been done before (better) and the hipsterness of most of the main characters makes you just want.

_A Most Violent Year_ - very impressed by this, Oscar Isaacs is excellent yet again. Dr Furface complained about the lack of action but I disagree with that, there was action but of a slow underplayed sort and IMO that undercurrent of menace really worked. 

_Inherent Vice_ - a bit disappointed in this, it's good but didn't live up to my hopes, I couldn't help feeling that something was missing from it. I did like the Joanna Newsom narration though.

_'71_ - Very impressed, I guess the premise is anything particularly new (soldier trapped behind enemy lines) but it's done very well directed and the choice of setting is pulled off. 

_Leviathan_ - not a barrel of laughs but very good. The story of Job transposed to present day country Russia. Very well directed and acted. I know it's the plot has been viewed as an criticism of the current regime in Russia, and on one level it is but I think there's a far more universal theme running through the film which makes it the quality that it is. (seventh bullet don't know if you've seen it but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it?)

Also the Melbourne Cinematheque has had a Jean-Pierre Melville season on. One of my favourite directors unfortunately I missed the first week as I was away but I managed to catch

_Bob le Flambeur - _I know it's not in his very top rank of films but it's still my personal favourite. Just glorious.

_Deux Hommes dans Manhattan_ - I hadn't seen this one before so it was nice to watch it on a large screen. Melville is actually pretty good as an actor in it. It doesn't quite have that complete/polished feel that his very best does but still good fun.

_Le Samouraï - _Great film, one of his masterpieces, Delon great (the racist prick). Every scene masterful


----------



## Red Cat (Apr 17, 2015)

redsquirrel said:


> _Le Samouraï - _Great film, one of his masterpieces, Delon great (the racist prick). Every scene masterful



I thought this was really good when I saw this years ago, it's a long time ago now, will have to watch again.

I saw _Sixteen_, first feature very low budget British film about a child soldier from the Congo living in a council estate in London with his adopted mum and his struggle with his own violence.  I thought this was beautifully done, natural performances, complex characters, relationships portrayed showing both tenderness and anger. I really, really liked this, it was very moving.


----------



## Sue (Apr 19, 2015)

Haven't really done this for a while but saw a couple of interesting films this afternoon.

Force of Evil, a 1948 noir whose leading man and director (John Garfield and Abraham Polonsky) were both blacklisted in a double bill with Red Hollywood, a film about the films of blacklisted writers/directors. Lots of film clips showing how different issues were portrayed in the 1930s-1950s and interviews with some of them. Quite a lot of interesting films I haven't seen and now want to check out.


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 19, 2015)

force majeure


----------



## redsquirrel (Apr 21, 2015)

Sue said:


> Haven't really done this for a while but saw a couple of interesting films this afternoon.
> 
> Force of Evil, a 1948 noir whose leading man and director (John Garfield and Abraham Polonsky) were both blacklisted in a double bill with Red Hollywood, a film about the films of blacklisted writers/directors. Lots of film clips showing how different issues were portrayed in the 1930s-1950s and interviews with some of them. Quite a lot of interesting films I haven't seen and now want to check out.


Both of those sound interesting, have to keep an eye out.


_Testament of Youth _- Adaptation of the Vera Brittan book about her and her brother/brothers friends experience of the first world war. OK but pretty much a WWI period drama by the numbers. It's very competent but doesn't really do anything beyond that.


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Apr 21, 2015)

Pickman's model said:


> force majeure


Any good? I liked the look of it from the trailer.

I'm wondering whether to catch Child 44 on the way home from work. No idea whether it will be any good but it's on at the right time.


----------



## Pickman's model (Apr 21, 2015)

Mrs Miggins said:


> Any good? I liked the look of it from the trailer.
> 
> I'm wondering whether to catch Child 44 on the way home from work. No idea whether it will be any good but it's on at the right time.


it had its moments, and while i found it reasonably amusing my oh really enjoyed it. there are some really funny bits in it, and overall worth seeing tho not my film of the year. 6.5/10


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Apr 21, 2015)

Ta!


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Apr 21, 2015)

Paddington
Night at the Museum 3
Inherent Vice
Theory of Everything
Big Eyes*
plus others I can't recall now


Last week I saw:
Child 44*
Erasherhead
Shaun the Sheep movie

*faves


----------



## belboid (Apr 22, 2015)

*The Emperor’s New Clothes* – the Russell Brand, Michael Winterbottom thing.


‘Twas significantly better than I expected it to be. Although as it is a Michael Winterbttom film, that shouldn’t really be surprising. Just the facts in it would be enough to send any viewer into a righteous fury at the corruption and blatant unfairness in a system where if you’re rich enough to steal, you’ll be given a bonus for doing so, but if you’re poor…..  It has some really strong sections, a few Mark Thomas type stunts, and not too much Brand in full on Jesus mode. At the end there are even a few minutes on what we should do to put the system right (even without establishing fully functional anarcho-syndicalist communes, horizontally organised, blah blah blah).


Of course, what’s missing is how we get from here to there, beyond vague talk of activism, the streets, and not giving up.  But it’s a decent hour and a half’s viewing, even tho it will most likely be restricted to people who already know and agree with what is already in it.


----------



## blossie33 (Apr 22, 2015)

Anyone else seen the Kurt Cobain Montage of Heck film?
I'm not actually a Nirvana fan but I do like music type docs.

Not exactly a feel good film but it was interesting and quite sad. I liked the way they used animations of his drawings and some scenes of his life.


----------



## Sue (Apr 26, 2015)

Rohmer double bill -- My Night at Maud's and The Green Ray. Hadn't seen The Green Ray before but thought it was a lovely film.


----------



## belboid (Apr 26, 2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Ace stuff, good looking, fast moving, witty, daftness.  What more could you want?  Oh yes, James Spader's sexy voice without the podgy body - perfect!


----------



## Sue (May 3, 2015)

The Falling, fainting epidemic in a 1960's girls' school and Carol Morley's follow-up to Dreams of a Life.

It's had excellent reviews but thought it was pretty awful -- none of it rang true and it was trying far too hard to be all deep and symbolic. Instead it ended up just being a right mish mash and boring to boot. Can't remember tbe last time I was so desperate for a film to end.


----------



## belboid (May 5, 2015)

Far From the Madding Crowd

Okay, it was never going to match the brilliance of the Schlesinger version, but there is still plenty of room to make a cracking film of it.  Unfortunately, they didn't bother. It adds almost exactly nothing to the sixties version, Sgt Troy is allowed a tear early on, which serves as justification for him being a total bastard later, I think that's the sole main difference.  

It looks good, and almost everyone is fine (Gabriel's accent is a bit funny, and there are times when Michael Sheen looks just too like Michael Sheen), but at the end of the day...meh.  Give me Julie Christie and Alan Bates any day.


----------



## magneze (May 5, 2015)

Gattaca
Pretty good SciFi. One of those films I meant to watch at the time but never got around to. Well, now I have.

We Are The Best!
Danish film about three girls who set up a punk band. Really rather brilliant and funny.


----------



## Sue (May 5, 2015)

Swedish film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting On Existence. Series of tableaux-like sketches. Some vaguely amusing bits but slight probably describes it.


----------



## Dr. Furface (May 6, 2015)

Sue said:


> Swedish film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting On Existence. Series of tableaux-like sketches. Some vaguely amusing bits but slight probably describes it.


I thought it was brilliant, I loved it's absurdity and found it extremely funny. I hadn't seen anything quite like it before, but then I hadn't seen the director's (Roy Anderson) previous 2 films which apparently are quite similar (it's a trilogy I think). It was certainly miles better than...

Unfriended, which I thought was pretty disappointing. That said, for a film that only cost $1 million to make it's not a bad effort, but I don't think it's worth some of the plaudits it's been getting, and as for being a horror film, it just didn't work for me. In fact it made me laugh out loud sometimes (intentionally or not, I can't decide) so at least I enjoyed it for that. It owes a bit to The Blair Witch Project - in fact one of the characters is called Blair, which I suspect is a nod to it - but it doesn't have any of that film's tension or fear factor. In fact it was all a bit silly, and I just wanted everyone in it to die. Slight definitely describes this one.


----------



## Mrs Miggins (May 13, 2015)

I went to see a German film "Phoenix" last night. Absolutly brilliant. Utterly heartbreaking but brilliantly done. I won't give anything away as it would spoil it for others but I'd put it up there with one of the best films I've ever seen


----------



## redsquirrel (May 13, 2015)

_Mommy_ - Xavier Dolan's latest, not quite sure how I feel about this. There are some very good things in there but I can't help feeling that there's something a little artificial about it - the decision to shoot in the 1:1 aspect ratio for most of the film only to expand into widescreen at certain parts for instance. Overall there's enough there for it to be worth going to see even if it isn't totally successful.


----------



## belboid (May 14, 2015)

has anyone seen _The Tribe_ yet?  (is it even out yet?)

Looks intriguing, but I'm not convinced I'll understand a word of it - as  it is 'told entirely through the sign-language exchanged on screen, without subtitles'


----------



## Sue (May 15, 2015)

redsquirrel said:


> _Mommy_ - Xavier Dolan's latest, not quite sure how I feel about this. There are some very good things in there but I can't help feeling that there's something a little artificial about it - the decision to shoot in the 1:1 aspect ratio for most of the film only to expand into widescreen at certain parts for instance. Overall there's enough there for it to be worth going to see even if it isn't totally successful.



Agree about the slightly artificial thing but I liked it. Thought it handled the feeling of impending doom and disaster very well.


----------



## Sue (May 15, 2015)

belboid said:


> has anyone seen _The Tribe_ yet?  (is it even out yet?)
> 
> Looks intriguing, but I'm not convinced I'll understand a word of it - as  it is 'told entirely through the sign-language exchanged on screen, without subtitles'



Think it's out today. Saw a trailer and it does look interesting. Haven't read any reviews but Peter Bradshaw gave it four stars and the headline was something like 'the most disturbing film of the year' so depends whether you're up for disturbing I guess.


----------



## adidaswoody (May 15, 2015)

I saw avengers, i wanted it to be the first film i watched this year in the cinema... 
And I'm glad it was


----------



## belboid (May 18, 2015)

Unfriended.

If anyone saw Chanel 4's _Cyberbully, _then they have, essentially, seen this film.  It follows the same basic principles, but with added nastiness, and, maybe, a ghost.  It does it all very well - almost every shot is simply a laptop screen with the various Skype (or whatever) windows open.  That gets a bit annoying at times, tho maybe less so if you are under thirty.


----------



## Ming (Jun 1, 2015)

Anyone seen Heaven Adores You? Documentary about Elliott Smith. I've got a ticket to see it tomorrow. Apparently it's got loads of previously unreleased music in it.


----------



## Sue (Jun 7, 2015)

Timbuktu. Jihadists arrive in town and impose their ways on the locals. Looks great, funny in bits but (unsurprisingly) pretty depressing.Well worth seeing.

Girlhood. Follows a group of French teenage girls from the Parisian banlieue. Very good, if again, depressing.


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Jun 11, 2015)

Just been to see The Connection - an excellent French cop drama set in the 1970s around the "French Connection" drugs trade out of Marseille. Great stuff!!


----------



## belboid (Jun 21, 2015)

*Jurassic World* - 10/10 for the dinosaurs, the Godzilla versus Megagodzilla scrap is ace.

6/10 for the male characters. Little originality, all predictably scripted, but decent enough.

1/10 for the female characters. hardly any and paper thin, they get the point for keeping their clothes on.


*A Midsummer Night's Dream* - now that's more like it. The filmed version of Julie Taymor's new broadway production, and it's a belter. A lithe and leering Puck takes us a wild tour through Athenian woods, with David Harewood as an outsandingly beefy Oberon, and a bunch of yankee stage actors as everyone else. The expressionist way the sets are made for the stage work really well on screen, lending the whole thing a disconcerting air that makes for great cinema too. The fairies are all dark and spooky, not the twee little things we are so used to. Helena, as usual, seems the much more interesting lass than Hermia. Great pillow fight.  I suspect it is only showing today, which is a shame.  If you can, see it.


----------



## Steel Icarus (Jun 21, 2015)

Saw 3D Jurassic Park at an IMAX last night, it was a bit fucking loud and hectic tbh. Had my eyes closed for a total of about 3 minutes. Too many tense/jump moments for a man with ongoing anxiety "quirks" 

but probably 8 out of 10 cos MOSASAURUS and ANKYLOSAURS etc etc etc


----------



## Gingerman (Jun 21, 2015)

Saw The Long Good Friday at the BFI today,oldie but goody....


----------



## Sue (Jun 22, 2015)

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Iranian vampire flick. Black and white, striking images, very cool. Can't imagine it went down very well in Iran (believe it was made in the US) given its depiction of heroin abuse/prostitution.

The New Girlfriend, Francois Ozon's latest. Woman discovers a new side to her recently-deceased best friend's husband. Find Ozon's films very variable -- this is a bit OTT, not terrible but not one of his better efforts either.

Listen Up, Philip. Utterly obnoxious hipster writer becomes protege of older obnoxious writer. Reminded me of Frances Ha though it's not as good. Jason Schwarztman does odious very well but it's too long and ultimately feels like it lacks soul or heart or something. Funny but empty.


----------



## Maltin (Jun 22, 2015)

S☼I said:


> Saw 3D Jurassic Park at an IMAX last night, it was a bit fucking loud and hectic tbh. Had my eyes closed for a total of about 3 minutes. Too many tense/jump moments for a man with ongoing anxiety "quirks"
> 
> but probably 8 out of 10 cos MOSASAURUS and ANKYLOSAURS etc etc etc


Park or World?


----------



## Plumdaff (Jun 22, 2015)

Moomins on the Riviera. A family outing. Engaged very small person throughout. I had some misgivings about the young female character being obsessed with clothes and celebrity (yawn) but otherwise a charming often slyly funny film. Beautifully gentle animation too.


----------



## Steel Icarus (Jun 22, 2015)

Maltin said:


> Park or World?



Sorry, Jurassic WORLD, yeah. Still befuddled by it, that's my excuse


----------



## moonsi til (Jun 23, 2015)

Saw 'Entourage' today which I know little off but gather it's also a TV prog. I thought it was really funny with some proper chortle bits.


----------



## DexterTCN (Jul 25, 2015)

Inside Out.  The new pixar film.

One of the cleverest things I've ever seen.   I thought it was excellent.  I'll 100% watch it again.  It's probably a pixar masterpiece.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Jul 26, 2015)

The Legend of barney Thompson at the Ritzy

enjoybable dark hokum- not universally liked by the critics, but I can deal with that

*posted on the 2013 thread by mitsake


----------



## DaveCinzano (Jul 26, 2015)




----------



## not-bono-ever (Jul 26, 2015)

for fucks sake.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Jul 30, 2015)

*Dear White People* - very disappointing satire on race and privilege set in a fictional US university, neither funny (I'd expected a comedy of sorts) nor all that perceptive or original. Wish I hadn't bothered.

But I was really pleased I bothered going to see *Eden*, Mia Hansen-Love's new film set in the Paris club scene from the early 90's onwards. Charting the progress of two aspiring garage and house DJ's - one of which emerges as the main character - if anything this exceeded my expectations, from the excellent soundtrack to the performances to the plot arc, it's a very enjoyable and believable tale, and as good a 'youth' movie as I've seen in long time. Probably my fave film so far this year.


----------



## blossie33 (Jul 30, 2015)

That's good to know, am hoping to see Eden in the next few days.


----------



## Plumdaff (Aug 1, 2015)

Song of the Sea. Oscar nominated Irish animation. It uses Irish mythology to tell a deceptively simple tale of the impossibility of joy without sorrow, love without loss. As imaginative as a Ghibli film,  it is stunningly drawn ; it really conjured up the dark beauty of the West of Ireland. It's a film we went to as a family but I'd recommend to adults.


----------



## Dandred (Aug 2, 2015)

Mission Impossible 5, was okay. I fucking hate tom Cruise though.


----------



## DaveCinzano (Aug 3, 2015)

_Jurassic World_ - basically_ Jurassic Park_ but more so, with bits from _2_ & _3 _thrown in the mix, along with nibbles of _Alien_, _Aliens_ and _Alien 3_ plus a mashup of _Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead_ and _One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing._ Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt are both quite watchable, but the attempted screwball romance between them is non-existent. Impressive commitment to highheel wearing, though.


----------



## Reno (Aug 3, 2015)

DaveCinzano said:


> Impressive commitment to highheel wearing, though.


----------



## belboid (Aug 5, 2015)

Inside Out

Good, but not a classic. The first few minutes annoyed me, twee and unamusing, but then it got into its groove. Some very funny lines, none of which I can now remember, which pretty much sums it up.


----------



## miss direct (Aug 5, 2015)

Jurassic World - had low expectations, but loved it. I was 10 when the original Jurassic Park came out and that gave me nightmares, really enjoyed this update. 

Inside Out - enjoyed this too. A bit different.


----------



## Dandred (Aug 8, 2015)

Terminator Genesis. I was expecting it to be really really shite. 

Fucking great film.


----------



## belboid (Aug 10, 2015)

*The Diary of a Teenage Girl*

A film of the year contender already. A brilliantly produced, in every way, film following a (sometimes) very adult fifteen year old at her sexual awakening. It evokes the look and feel of mid-seventies San Francisco superbly, and is all too realistic and plausible. Bel Powley is superb as Minnie, the bored teen who livens up her days by having an affair with her mothers boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgård, also great). She can flip between being a young adult and a child in the bat of an eye - and she does like to roll her eyes in a most excellent fashion. Some of the previews I've seen have made it look/sound a bit like Juno, but it really isn't, it's a far far superior piece with real insight into the complexities and contradictions of teenhood - there's a scene where Minnie tells another teenage boy how to 'do it' - his displeasure at being outperformed by a girl is marvellous.  Based on a comic book, it does like to suddenly have flowers and butterflies floating off the screen as Minnie daydreams (she wants to be a cartoonist), and i thought that this could become really annoying, but it actually works really well.  Oh, and its not _all _butterflies and flowers, there are quite a few penises in there too.

It has, apparently, been argued that the film should get a 15, so that girls (and boys) of Minnies age can go see it.  There is not a chance in hell that would ever happen.


----------



## DJWrongspeed (Aug 10, 2015)

_*Man with a movie camera*_ by Dziga Vertov. Atonishing experimental documentary from 1929. Just been restored from a print he left in Holland with a new score by the Alloy Orchestra. Way ahead of it's time and beautiful watch.


----------



## Sue (Aug 10, 2015)

Howard Hawks/Cary Grant double bill -- I Was A Male War Bride/Only Angels Have Wings. They really don't make 'em like they used to.


----------



## belboid (Aug 17, 2015)

Mistress America

The latest Noah Baumbach/Greta Gerwig number, and it is pretty similar to their previous efforts, so if you liked them....

Tracy is an awkward college freshman, who knows she is very clever but can't quite convince the world of this fact. After being rejected by a snotty college society, she meets up with her stepsister to be, Brooke, who is a rather wild and free Manhattan socialite. They spark off each other (mainly by giving each other an audience for their rantings, although neither character really listens to the other particularly), and for a while it seems Tracy's life will start taking off, but then....Brooke is actually _thirty, _and her life starts to fall apart, requiring a road trip to an ex-boyfriend in the hope of raising some money for an obviously ill-feted venture.

There are a fair few great lines, and some real laugh out loud moments, but not really enough for what is meant to be a screwball comedy. While Brooke is better drawn than Frances Ha was, they are both still very similar, as well as having distinct similarities to Holly Golightly and half of Woody Allen's female characters. Indeed, there is nothing really here we haven't seen already in many Woody film - altho at least the age gaps here are quite appropriate.Not as funny as it should have been, but Gerwig and Lola Kirke in the two lead roles are both excellent and make the film worth watching.


----------



## DJWrongspeed (Aug 17, 2015)

belboid said:


> Mistress America
> 
> The latest Noah Baumbach/Greta Gerwig number, and it is pretty similar to their previous efforts, so if you liked them....



It's very funny but it ends up feeling like Alan Ayckbourn in Williamsburg or something...Woody Allen obviously? I'd recommend it but I prefer the lighter touch of Frances Ha which felt quirkier and freer.


----------



## The Octagon (Aug 21, 2015)

*Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation*

Felt a bit overlong, but very entertaining and great action set pieces.

Cruise actually does a bit of proper acting at times and Rebecca Ferguson steals the film totally, best female role I've seen in an action film for ages 

Simon Pegg is annoying throughout. A lot.


----------



## Sue (Aug 29, 2015)

DJWrongspeed said:


> It's very funny but it ends up feeling like Alan Ayckbourn in Williamsburg or something...Woody Allen obviously? I'd recommend it but I prefer the lighter touch of Frances Ha which felt quirkier and freer.


I really liked Frances Ha but this felt like it was trying way too hard. Didn't care about any of the characters either which is always a bad sign.


----------



## belboid (Aug 30, 2015)

L'Eclisse (The Eclipse/The Dissolve)

The re-release of another Antonioni masterpiece, about a woman's relationship with a bold brash stockbroker in 1961. It is, as you'd expect from Antonioni, absolutely gorgeous to look at, despite the fact that the people at it's heart are all rather vacuous, over-privileged arseholes. The scenes in the stockmarket (which were actually filmed in the stockmarket) are just crazy, frenzied and absurd, they are no doubt symbolic of the madness and chaos of post-war Italy.  Monica Vitti never looked more gorgeous, well, except in one scene, which will leave your jaw hovering inches above the floor.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Aug 31, 2015)

The Wolfpack. I'm still not sure whether this is the documentary it's supposed to be, or if it's a spoof, but either way I enjoyed it. It's the one about a family of brothers (and one sister, hardly mentioned or seen) brought up in an apartment block in NYC and hardly ever let out by order of their father who didn't want them to be corrupted by the outside world. They're a pretty decent bunch of guys on the evidence of this, although the real star is their mom who educated them at home. I found some of it a little hard to believe, but nontheless it's a heartwarming tale of a family doing it for themselves and, by the evidence shown at least, being all the stronger for it.


----------



## wtfftw (Aug 31, 2015)

I did an Arnie all nighter.


----------



## blossie33 (Sep 1, 2015)

Wow, that must have been something!
I couldn't actually sit for anything that long - my legs would be so stiff I wouldn't be able to get up from the seat


----------



## Impossible Girl (Sep 1, 2015)

*We are your friends 


*
I saw it to escape the pouring rain and spend 2 hours in a dry and warm place before going to work. I didn't know what to expect, it was the film aired when I popped in. To be honest, Zac Efron starring in the film, I was a bit "meh" about it... And I'm not a huge fan of parties, clubbing and electro myself. Not my jam at all. Double "meh".

But... I'm a massive music fan and it's a film about music, passion and talent. I loved every bit of it ! L.A., how the guy mixes sounds and music, his theory about how sounds impact your body, everything ! And I'm a picky audience for electro, remember 

Also it reminded me of someone very dear to me, I could almost see this person DJing and bloody hell, I just wanted to go clubbing afterwards  (FYI, I've never been to a club playing electro before. Go figure).

I'm so glad this film changed my vision of electro music, now I feel ready to listen more of it.


----------



## blossie33 (Sep 1, 2015)

Thanks, that's interesting Impossible Girl 
I have seen the trailer for it and quite fancied seeing it as I am a big music fan, will try and get to see it.


----------



## DJWrongspeed (Sep 2, 2015)

45 Years with Charlotte Rampling & Tom Courtenay.

Bit of an oldies film this   The ending is a real cliff hanger though.


----------



## 8115 (Sep 6, 2015)

The Wolfpack - excellent and thought provoking.
The Harder they come - I'm glad I've seen it, bit cheesy though.


----------



## Orang Utan (Sep 6, 2015)

Impossible Girl said:


> *We are your friends
> 
> 
> *
> ...



I'm a big music fan so I don't want to see it.

Electro? How very dare they?


----------



## 5t3IIa (Sep 23, 2015)

I saw Everest in 3D yesterday. The Nepal and mountains stuff looked jawdropping in 3D but I've seen much better documentaries in regards to plotting and script. The lead guy (who was the shite John Connor in T5) was very good but there's too many people in it.

In fact, I saw a doc on telly not a month ago that was better but I can't find it now...it's all on the tip of my tongue.


----------



## belboid (Sep 23, 2015)

Red Cat said:


> I no longer live in London, so it would be unthinkable to pay so much for the cinema - I pay £7.50. I'd have been very embarrassed if I'd turned up at the Renoir (which was what I was thinking of doing) and been asked to pay £19!


You can now pay just £7.50 to go to the Curzon - or at least you can to my local one.  In the day time. £8.50 in the evening, but thats still cheaper than the other arthouse, and only a tiny bit more than Cineworld.,  I'll have to finally get round to going


----------



## wtfftw (Sep 23, 2015)

blossie33 said:


> Wow, that must have been something!
> I couldn't actually sit for anything that long - my legs would be so stiff I wouldn't be able to get up from the seat


Forgot I posted that. Oops.

There were like, 10 minute gaps between each one. I always got up and had stretch. Also took painkillers and fidgeted.


----------



## marty21 (Sep 26, 2015)

1) Big Eyes
(2) Birdman
(3) A Most Violent Year
(4) A Walk in the Woods

Been a while since I've been  . Enjoyed this , Robert Red ford and Nick Note walking and talking shit , based on the Bill Bryson book.


----------



## marty21 (Oct 11, 2015)

1) Big Eyes
(2) Birdman
(3) A Most Violent Year
(4) A Walk in the Woods
(5) Viaje 

Costa Rican film shown at the London Film Festival , enjoyed it , girl meets boy , goes off to the Costa Rican forest.


----------



## Sue (Oct 15, 2015)

Macbeth. Quite good but not sensational.The friends I was with struggled with the Shakespeare in Scottish accent thing and, to be fair, they were a bit variable and mumbly in places. Fassbender and  Cotillard were very good I thought and the scenery looked great. 

The Martian. Hmm, okayish, bit dull and a bit too long and a few too many cheesy moments. Also felt like the supporting cast were a bit wasted. And Gravity did the space stuff better.


----------



## catinthehat (Oct 16, 2015)

Rams.  An Icelandic film about two brothers who have not spoken for decades but who farm sheep in the same farm which has been split into two.  Slow and sparse but wonderful.  Great characters - and I include the sheep in that.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Oct 16, 2015)

Sue said:


> The Martian. Hmm, okayish, bit dull and a bit too long and a few too many cheesy moments. Also felt like the supporting cast were a bit wasted. And Gravity did the space stuff better.


Yes it does drag out the thinnest of storylines a bit too long. That said I enjoyed it for what it was, and compared to Gravity (unavoidable) I found it far less cheesy, more believable (even though it's equally a load of old hokum) and I thought the 3d was superb - and really that's what it's all about. Unless you're 12 yrs old and want to be an astronaut. Or Matt Damon. 

Coming right back down to earth, *Sicario* by comparison makes a lonely life on Mars seem like a far more desirable option. Where Martian is based on the idealised notion that human beings are fundamentally wonderful and can achieve the most amazing feats throught the power of imagination and collaboration (and lurve), Sicario depicts the human condition at its most base, where life matters less than a k of coke. Of the two, Sicario is easily the superior film - it's taut, tense, gritty, believable, socially and politically relevant - and in just about every way is far more satisfying. But in terms of its depiction of humankind, it's fucking depressing. So if you still hold any vestige of hope for humanity and want to boost your optimism, get your (rose tinted) 3d glasses out and head for Mars.


----------



## 8115 (Oct 18, 2015)

Inside Out, loved this, I though it was pretty accurate from what I know about the brain and I loved "getting" a lot of cognitive science in jokes.


----------



## 8115 (Oct 18, 2015)

The Lobster - great trailer, terrible film.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Oct 18, 2015)

8115 said:


> The Lobster - great trailer, terrible film.


I was going to see this today but it was sold out, but I'm planning on seeing it later in the week. Why is it so bad? Is it all Colin Farrell's fault? (it usually is for me!)


----------



## 8115 (Oct 18, 2015)

Dr. Furface said:


> I was going to see this today but it was sold out, but I'm planning on seeing it later in the week. Why is it so bad? Is it all Colin Farrell's fault? (it usually is for me!)


I won't tell you because it needs spoilers, but basically it badly loses its way around 1/4 of the way in and never finds it again.


----------



## 8115 (Oct 18, 2015)

And yeah, Colin Farrell is annoying.


----------



## DJWrongspeed (Oct 20, 2015)

8115 said:


> I won't tell you because it needs spoilers, but basically it badly loses its way around 1/4 of the way in and never finds it again.



I'd say about 1/2 way in. It's all setup for an intriguing dystopia but yes it all goes off to the forest and loses the thread. I don't mind that but I wouldn't recommend it to folk uninitiated in Lanthimos' ways. What a star cast though and they seem to have been instructed to ditch the acting quite a bit.


----------



## belboid (Oct 24, 2015)

Macbeth

Finally got round to it, and very well worth doing it was. It looked magnificent, the tones and visual style were probably the standout features, along with a very impressive and almost claustrophobic soundtrack.  Performances were great, albeit some dodgy accents, and the actual Scots often not having the best grasp of iambic pentameter.  I wasn't sure about a few bits (the 'out damned spot' scene, for one), but at its peak,  it's mindbogglingly good.

Also last week - and on in Loughborough tonight - was the brilliant, annual, _Cheap Thrills - Zero Budget Film Festival. _Now bigger than ever, but keeping it's feel of a combo of films made by local kids having a laugh, and international students showing off what they can do, it's a great three hours of laughs and giggles


----------



## scifisam (Nov 1, 2015)

Suffragette. Absolutely brilliant. Mulligan was great. Bonham Carter was amazing as usual, and I loved that the main character was PFWC. All the characters were believable and woah, they didn't pull any punches showing how difficult life was for some of the suffragettes.


----------



## brogdale (Nov 1, 2015)

Went to see Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" tonight at the David Lean in the Clocktower courtesy of the South Norwood Arts Festival/BFI "Love" season. Greeted with 'free' wine & cheese (served by SNAF volunteers dressed as angels!) and then an evening in 1987 Berlin with Nick Cave thrown in for good measure. A beautiful film in every respect; possibly my most enjoyable cinematic experience ever.


----------



## belboid (Nov 2, 2015)

I did a part of their Loves season as well last night - _A Matter of Life and Death_ shown at Norton Aerodrome (local staff dressed as airmen or angels, giving out free, uhhh, love hearts), as a drive-in. Probably the biggest audience I've seen for the film at its various Sheffield showings.

The drive-in aspect was fun - for a while. No speakers hung on your window, the sound now comews through your car radio, which makes sense. Unfortunately, our car turns the radio off after twenty minutes if the engine isn't running, and wont let you just turn it back on again. Our battery was insufficiently charged, so when we did restart the car, rev it a couple of times, and restart the radio, we got an extra five minutes at a time. There were clearly several other cars in the same boat, and you could see people desperately googling 'how to turn off Economy Mode.'  There was external sound too, so it wasn't the end of the world, but it would have been deeply frustrating if I didn't already know the film backwards.


----------



## Sue (Nov 8, 2015)

8115 said:


> The Lobster - great trailer, terrible film.


Saw this earlier. Laughed like a drain. One of the best things I've seen this year.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Nov 9, 2015)

spectre...

theres alot of it. my arse was numb by the end.


----------



## RubyToogood (Nov 10, 2015)

scifisam said:


> Suffragette. Absolutely brilliant. Mulligan was great. Bonham Carter was amazing as usual, and I loved that the main character was PFWC. All the characters were believable and woah, they didn't pull any punches showing how difficult life was for some of the suffragettes.


I saw this today with gaijingirl. It was enjoyable, but I felt it lacked rage. Also, although I too liked the working classness of the main character, it did leave a historical problem that the film didn't mention at all, which was that her husband probably wouldn't have had the vote either, as there was still a property qualification in 1912.

Plus I couldn't help feeling that what she'd really benefit from was a trade union more than having the vote.


----------



## toblerone3 (Nov 14, 2015)

Saw Lobster last night in the Hackney Picture House. It was the best film I've seen for quite a while.  Hilarious for the first half, relentlessly dark, engrossing and beautifully shot throughout.


----------



## Cheesypoof (Nov 14, 2015)

Saw Brooklyn the other night - beautiful movie that tells a simple story, captures Ireland and the Irish experience in New York very well. Saoirse Ronan was amazing, whole movie makes me very proud to be Irish. I predict an Oscar for her.


----------



## brogdale (Nov 14, 2015)

Just seen Edgar Reitz' 'Heimat' prequel "*Home From Home: Chronicle of a Vision*" at the David Lean.
What an utter joy. The 231 mins flew past in an absorbing, moving and entertaining trip to 1840's Rhineland. Just magnificent, and the perfect escapism on a very bleak day.


----------



## hash tag (Nov 14, 2015)

Sufragette was an ok film with great acting, but thought it was a little weak/too glossy. It wasn't gritty enough. Looking forward to seeing Bennett's lady.


----------



## scifisam (Nov 15, 2015)

RubyToogood said:


> I saw this today with gaijingirl. It was enjoyable, but I felt it lacked rage. Also, although I too liked the working classness of the main character, it did leave a historical problem that the film didn't mention at all, which was that her husband probably wouldn't have had the vote either, as there was still a property qualification in 1912.
> 
> Plus I couldn't help feeling that what she'd really benefit from was a trade union more than having the vote.


I think he would have had the vote - I might be reading it wrong, but this site: Electoral Registers: who could vote and when - Off the Record seems to say he would. Some men were still excluded but probably not him. 

A trade union would definitely have helped but they were even harder for women to get involved in in a mixed workplace like that.  I think the suffragettes at the time believed (correctly, as it turned out) that the right to vote would be a catalyst for other changes too. 

I'm actually a bit sad more people didn't like this film. It seems to be being judged against higher standards than most films are, with many people (not you) expecting perfection, which is impossible - and not something demanded of most dramas. This means that the (female) film makers are being criticised more than I think filmmakers usually are. Hope that makes sense.


----------



## RubyToogood (Nov 15, 2015)

scifisam said:


> I think he would have had the vote - I might be reading it wrong, but this site: Electoral Registers: who could vote and when - Off the Record seems to say he would. Some men were still excluded but probably not him.


This is the relevant bit:


> Borough voters: franchise extended to all householders subject to one year residential qualification and the payment of rates, as well as lodgers of property worth more than £10 per year after 12 months residency



And 





> Even after the passing of the Third Reform Act in 1884, only 60%[1] of male householders over the age of 21 had the vote.


Representation of the People Act 1918 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's hard to say basically, but not certain whether he would or not.


----------



## scifisam (Nov 15, 2015)

RubyToogood said:


> This is the relevant bit:
> 
> 
> And Representation of the People Act 1918 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> ...


I thought he would probably be a lodger of a property worth £10 per year, therefore eligible. The price meant that a lot more Londoners were eligible than in other parts of the country because rent there has always been so much higher. I could be wrong though. 

Where they lived, Arnold Circus, was portrayed in the film as almost slum like, but in 1913 that's not how it would have been seen. The estate was built to *replace* a slum; all the existing slum tenants were moved out and the people given tenancies were the "nice" working class people with regular jobs, no criminal record etc (Maud being sent to prison would have endangered their tenancy). The estate was lauded and widely copied and not that cheap to live in. Still might have been less than 10 quid a year, I guess. 

It is definitely interesting that even adult men weren't fully enfranchised then. If they'd brought it up in the film, though, some would have accused them of focusing too much on men!


----------



## RubyToogood (Nov 15, 2015)

scifisam said:


> I thought he would probably be a lodger of a property worth £10 per year, therefore eligible. The price meant that a lot more Londoners were eligible than in other parts of the country because rent there has always been so much higher. I could be wrong though.
> 
> Where they lived, Arnold Circus, was portrayed in the film as almost slum like, but in 1913 that's not how it would have been seen. The estate was built to *replace* a slum; all the existing slum tenants were moved out and the people given tenancies were the "nice" working class people with regular jobs, no criminal record etc (Maud being sent to prison would have endangered their tenancy). The estate was lauded and widely copied and not that cheap to live in. Still might have been less than 10 quid a year, I guess.
> 
> It is definitely interesting that even adult men weren't fully enfranchised then. If they'd brought it up in the film, though, some would have accused them of focusing too much on men!


Well he might have come under the householders who pay rates heading too, except that a lot of men were disenfranchised because their rates were paid by the landlord and covered by the rent initially. That got abolished though.


----------



## chandlerp (Nov 18, 2015)

I went to the cinema last night for the Laurel & Hardy Roadshow.

First up was the Oscar winning The Music Box which was just fantastic on the big screen.

Next up was Blockheads which has some good moments but I think should have been on first as The Music Box is much much better.

Still, it was a packed house and there were lots of youngsters screaming laughing and everyone had a great time.

It really is time Laurel & Hardy were back on telly for a new generation.


----------



## hash tag (Nov 18, 2015)

Sounds brilliant. Yes, I to enjoy Stan and Ollie and have a large collection of their films. In addition to showing their stuff on TV what about the likes of Chaplin, Keaton, Keystone Cops (whatever survived). 
Sadly, I dont think the current generation will appreciate it what with full colour, 3D and the like.

BTW. given the time of year, Laughing Gravy would be good, for a few tears


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Nov 19, 2015)

I saw Suffragette last night.  It was a decent film for the first 2/3, then it really fell apart in the ending.  It could have benefitted from a good rewrite.  Acting was great.  Brendan Gleeson is great in everything he does and played the baddie perfectly.  Streep was a little annoying, but she was in it for less than 5 minutes.  Overall it was a good experience.  I had no idea they'd gotten rowdy enough to blow shit up.


----------



## Yuwipi Woman (Nov 19, 2015)

scifisam said:


> I'm actually a bit sad more people didn't like this film. It seems to be being judged against higher standards than most films are, with many people (not you) expecting perfection, which is impossible - and not something demanded of most dramas. This means that the (female) film makers are being criticised more than I think filmmakers usually are. Hope that makes sense.



I am too.  I was hoping the box office draw would be high enough to allow more films like this to be made.  I think their US gross is $2 million, not much in the world of film.  The movie has its flaws, but it deserves better than a measly $2 million draw.


----------



## belboid (Nov 23, 2015)

_The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2_

A disappointing end to the series,  it had its moments, but not enough, and too many were telegraphed.  It dragged out early, non-essential (and non-logical) sections, and then rushed through key moments which were meant to be shocking, but which ended up making precious little sense. The Capitol had, apparently, absolutely no military strategists left, nothing they did was logical.

And the final act, which is apparently really shocking in the book, was so bloody obviously coming that I almost shouted out for them to get the fuck on with it.

And they didn't really do a very good job of covering up Philip Seymour Hoffman's absence


----------



## weltweit (Nov 23, 2015)

First film I saw in 2015 (I am leaving it late I know) : _The Lady in the Van_
The Lady in the Van - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lady in the Van (2015) - IMDb

I enjoyed it, a little sad when you realise it is based on a real story, but also amusing.


----------



## hash tag (Nov 23, 2015)

If it's as good as the play all those years ago, it'll be good. Isn't there or wasn't there an academic sleeping rough in Hammersmith area under the flyover in similar circumstances?


----------



## kalidarkone (Nov 25, 2015)

scifisam said:


> Suffragette. Absolutely brilliant. Mulligan was great. Bonham Carter was amazing as usual, and I loved that the main character was PFWC. All the characters were believable and woah, they didn't pull any punches showing how difficult life was for some of the suffragettes.


Just seen Suffragette and was weirdly unmoved, by scenes I'd normally find upsetting. Can't work out why, but it's not a good thing.


----------



## felixthecat (Nov 27, 2015)

hash tag said:


> Sufragette was an ok film with great acting, but thought it was a little weak/too glossy. It wasn't gritty enough.


THis ^.  I wanted so much to be able to rave about it but something wasn't there. Anger maybe? Excellent acting performances all round though - I love HB-C in pretty much anything though.

Also felt kinda the same about Black Mass - excellent performances from Messrs. Depp and Edgerton but I found the story disjointed, like every so often bits had been cut that should have been left in.


----------



## belboid (Dec 6, 2015)

Carol 

Todd Haynes, Cate Blanchett, Patricia Highsmith, it's just got to be brilliant, hasn't it?

Almost every component is pretty perfect, it looks wonderful, gorgeous cinematography, almost impressionist in places, note perfect performances, Cate reminding us yet again why she is the greatest actor of our generation, magnificent support from Mara, Paulson, Chandler and Lacy, and a spot on soundtrack, but...it just left the five of us underwhelmed. It's one of the favourite books of one of our party,and she bought it for two of the others, and, as a book, it blew them all away. Maybe it was the time(s), but there was just nothing (or almost nothing) unexpected that took place. Which would be okay if we really got to know the characters well enough, but they're all too superficial. The performances hint at a lot more going on under the surface, but it's all left unshown. I mean, it's a lesbian drama in 1950's USA, I think everyone can guess pretty how much how it goes. Did it add anything to what most of us who are likely to go and see this film already knows? I doubt it. 

There are a couple of surprising moments, but we weren't sure one really made sense, the other was good tho. It is well worth a watch, but isn't the work of genius the reviews seem to say it is. 

Also, it features 'strong sex' - wtf is 'strong' sex, as opposed to plain 'sex'? It doesn't mean 'lots of', because there wasn't, how do we differentiate between strong, average, and weak?


----------



## belboid (Dec 8, 2015)

Btw - I hope posters have noted Fez909's thread in the festive forum - http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/film-of-the-year.340475/


----------



## Dr. Furface (Dec 8, 2015)

belboid said:


> _The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2_
> 
> A disappointing end to the series,  it had its moments, but not enough, and too many were telegraphed.  It dragged out early, non-essential (and non-logical) sections, and then rushed through key moments which were meant to be shocking, but which ended up making precious little sense. The Capitol had, apparently, absolutely no military strategists left, nothing they did was logical.
> 
> ...


Verily, it's drear


----------



## Sue (Dec 8, 2015)

belboid said:


> Btw - I hope posters have noted Fez909's thread in the festive forum - http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/film-of-the-year.340475/


What about the traditional top films thread in here, eh?


----------



## belboid (Dec 8, 2015)

Sue said:


> What about the traditional top films thread in here, eh?


which is where, precisely?


----------



## Reno (Dec 8, 2015)

belboid said:


> Btw - I hope posters have noted Fez909's thread in the festive forum - http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/film-of-the-year.340475/


I haven't because I don't do Christmas.


----------



## Sue (Dec 8, 2015)

belboid said:


> which is where, precisely?


Think we generally wait till a bit nearer to the end of the year, no..?


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 28, 2015)

Anyone seen The Heart of the Sea yet? I've read the Philbrick book, and three paragraphs of Moby Dick so v excited for it


----------



## Kesher (Dec 28, 2015)

Two of us saw it yesterday and both agree 3  stars out of 5:  a bit like Jaws; but not as good.

Daddy's Home is good: lots of laughs


----------



## 5t3IIa (Dec 28, 2015)

Kesher said:


> Two of us saw it yesterday and both agree 3  stars out of 5:  a bit like Jaws; but not as good.
> 
> Daddy's Home is good: lots of laughs


There's no cannibalism in Jaws so this must be almost as good?


----------



## metalguru (Jan 2, 2016)

The final tally for 2015... I was doing quite well in terms of regular attendance up until June, and then had an asthma attack come on during  'While We Were Young' which put me off for a while.

Best films:

Appropriate Behaviour
Wild Tales


Worst films:

Chappie
While We Were Young
Steve Jobs



2015:

Paddington
Birdman
Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Ex Machina
Inherent Vice
Jupiter Ascending
Duke of Burgundy
It Follows
Still Alice
Chappie
Love is Strange
Appropriate Behaviour
Wild Tales
When We Were Young
Jurassic World
Irrational Man
The Martian
Steve Jobs
Carol
Spectre


----------



## Maltin (Jan 9, 2016)

belboid said:


> Btw - I hope posters have noted Fez909's thread in the festive forum - Film of the year


Unfortunately, the film of the year thread Fez909 posted is now locked as it was posted in the Christmas forum  so will post mine here for what it is worth and seeing as we are approaching the main awards season.

My vote for film of 2015 is Spotlight. An interesting (and very sad/anger inducing) story with great performances. 

Others that I thought ranked highly were:

Ex Machina - again, an interesting story well told
Mad Max - Fury Road - great thrill ride
The Martian - very good fun
'71 - another good chase movie
Sicario - very tense


----------



## Throbbing Angel (Mar 16, 2016)

catinthehat said:


> Rams.  An Icelandic film about two brothers who have not spoken for decades but who farm sheep in the same farm which has been split into two.  Slow and sparse but wonderful.  Great characters - and I include the sheep in that.




This is on locally on Friday morning - is it worth a knock?  I've heard mixed reviews.


----------

