Last movie you saw?

Midsommar.

No matter whether you see it as a meditation about trauma, abusive relationships and how to overcome those or as a more straight "rural cult" horror movie like the original Wicker Man, this is an amazing film.

The story is as straight as it gets: After her sister killed herself and her parents, anxiety-prone traumatised college student Dani joins her illoyal, emotional abusive PhD candidate boyfriend and his stoner buddies on a road trip to Sweden, where one of them wants to research the Midsummer festivities in an exchange student's home town for his PhD thesis. Arriving at the ass-end of nowhere where the sun never sets, the group is welcome by a slightly-too-friendly technology-free paganist community, who also really love psychoactive drugs and hand them some 'shrooms as a welcome present. Starting on the nine-day Midsummer festival that's only being held every 90 years, the group struggles with internal conflicts while slowly realizing they might be a more important part of the festivities than they signed up for...

The set design is really weird, implanting you in a cult setting that is surreal yet believable. Multiple layers of unreliable narration are added (as all protagonists are on mind-altering substances), making you wonder which amount of the events shown really took place and how. Very disturbing things happen (there is some sudden graphic violence and some highly unsettling sex). The film manages to be a traditional horror movie and break most horror movie rules at the same time, fulfilling and defying expectations simultaneously.

With a 147 run time after cuts to ensure a release-friendly rating it's a long movie but it does not feel long. I can't wait for the even longer festival cut coming out on Blu-Ray to add even more weirdness and a deeper dive into the cult's belief system.
 
Last edited:
Le Mans '66 aka Ford vs Ferrari

Solid 9/10 and a must see for all FG members.
 
We have a work outing planned this week to see it. Looking forward to it.
 
Ford v. Ferrari.

Certainly a good racing film, and a great men's film. And most importantly, as @_Jules_ put it, "a racing movie that's not about chavs".

So let's start with the good:
  • Brilliantly shot racing scenes, brilliant styling. I would gladly wear something from Carrol Shelby's wardrobe to work every day, and would love to have Henry Ford II's mid-century design wet dream of an office.
  • From all accounts I've read, Enzo Ferrari's portrait is spot-on.
  • The acting is superb from Damon (who indeed looks more like Leo DiCaprio the older he gets - or does DiCaprio look more like Damon?) and especially Bale, who gives a stellar performance as socially challenged Brit Ken Miles, even when he crosses the line into chewing scenery. It really helps the movie that the leading pair has a great chemistry with each other - you get a real feeling that they've spent the last ten years together working, winning, losing, fighting and making up.
  • Reducing the team sport of endurance racing to one driver and his relationship to Carrol Shelby feels off in some moments, as for the uninformed moviegoer it might look like Ken Miles would be behind the wheel non-stop for 24 hours, but especially since Miles was not only a driver, but also a key figure in designing all of Shelby's cars, it makes sense dramatically.
  • I love how the American "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'" approach to racing is employed by Shelby, not only always being half a step ahead of the stewards and their rulebook, but also not being beyond playing some pranks that throw spanners into the well-oiled pit machinery of his rival teams.
  • I enjoyed how on-track action is consequently reduced to the point of view of Shelby and Miles - what they can't see, we can't, no matter whether it's some irrelevant crash in the opening stage of Le Mans that to them is only smoke rising on the horizon or a more significant crash towards the end of the film.
  • It is important to the tonality of the movie and how it feels "real" that Miles' death is not shown as a tragedy, but as him dying doing the one thing in his life he really enjoys - not only racing cars, but working hard to make the cars he races go even faster.
But there's also the bad:
  • Lee Iaccoca, one of the legends of the American automotive industry, who gave us not only the GT40, but also the Mustang and the Pinto, is hardly used as a character.
  • By focusing a lot on a "down-to-earth racers vs. Ford corporate suits" dynamic, the "v. Ferrari" part of the title, as well as the bigger "USA v. Europe" picture, sometimes gets lost.
  • This gets even more annoying when you realize how many changes from real-world history have been introduced to make this about suits vs. racers, for example that Ken Miles of course was not banned from racing Le Mans in 1965 and that he got screwed out of the victory in '66 not by meddling management, but by French race officials hell-bent on punishing the arrogant American for their "photo finish" idea.
  • The obvious attempt to outdo Dominic Torettos "10 seconds or less" monologue with the "7000 rpm" monologue that bookends the film falls flat on it's face, partly, but not only, due to the insignificance of an rpm number for speed. This is especially sad since the monologue clearly is also supposed to explain to us why these men risk their lives in the high-risk world of racing cars, a question that with the monologue being shit stays unanswered, leaving an emotional void.
  • What's the matter with Miles' kid being around all the time? Doesn't he have to attend school? Was home-schooling already invented back in the sixties? It's very stupid and unnecessary.
Final verdict from my end is something like 7/10 - good movie, certainly not great movie. It's not as bad as the "Days of Thunder, but Sixties" comparisons floating around makes you believe, but it does not deliver the same emotional connection to the drivers and their motivations "Rush" did (see spoiler above).
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MWF
I'd say it is on a par with Rush. The problem I had with that film was the glaring errors in the movie, particularly with the vehicles, which since it was aimed at least in part to petrol heads you would think they would have got right.

1. Renault 5 and MkII Transit in a scene set in 1972.
2. UK registered MkII Cortina in a scene supposedly at Watkins Glenn.
3. Hunt talking on the phone about a drive during the closed season, when it's clear mid summer outside the window.

There are others, those are just what I remember since it's been a while since I last watched.

The period detail in Le Mans 66 is a great deal better, and I personally didn't spot any cars that were out of the time period.
 
The period detail in Le Mans 66 is a great deal better, and I personally didn't spot any cars that were out of the time period.
Period detail, yes - factual detail, on the other hand...
Ken Miles died behind the wheel of the radical "J-Car" prototype, which looks like this:
DLEDMV-2K19-Ford-GT40-J-Car-004.jpg


While the dialogue references the "honeycomb" material used (incorrectly credits it to Miles, though) the car he is is shown driving clearly is a bog standard GT40.

I can understand the production side decision not to build a replica of a prototype only nerds know about for 20 seconds of screen time, but if we are nitpicking, this is much more significant than some wrong model year background cars...
 
Last edited:
Well you just vindicated the decision with what you said. :p

Also Bales accent for the character of Miles was not only incorrect, it managed to travel from London's East End to the Yorkshire Dales via Birmingham, Staffordshire and Lancashire!!

In reality he was actually quite "posh", well spoken mid 1950s British as this video shows


I appreciate they made him sound more working class to fit in with the character being portrayed, but an actor of Bale's calibre should be able to pick one accent and stick to it.
 
The Irishman. First saw it in the cinema a couple weeks ago when it came out. Just watched it again. Easily the best movie in 2019 for me. The fact that they were able to lure Joe Pesci into it really makes it for me. I recommend "The Irishman: In Conversation" on Netflix too if you want to hear from the cast.
 
Le Mans 1955

Animated short film (15 min)


✩ Eligible to compete to the 2020 Oscars in the category "Best Animated Short Film" by winning best animation at St. Louis Festival ✩
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1955. 300,000 spectators are watching from the sidelines. It is 6:00 PM when Pierre Levegh’s car ploughs into the spectator stands, scattering the crowd with his car engine’s hot debris. It is a tragedy that will cost more than 80 lives. And yet, the race goes on. At Mercedes, a friend and co-pilot of Pierre Levegh’s is ready to take the relay. His name is John Fitch.

9/10. Likely the best short film I've seen. Love the style they used and the unusual perspective to the disaster.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Hok
The Lighthouse.

A Millenial starts a new job in a junior position, acts all entitled and wants to have all the highest-responsibilty tasks from day one. As he gets put down and made to do menial jobs by his older superior, he first grows mad with rage, then mad.

Cheap cynicism aside, what an amazing movie. Two lighthouse keepers somewhere on a rock off the New England coast grow mad with each other as isolation takes its toll and a storm traps them for unforeseeable time. There may be a dark force at play, or maybe it's just their constant drinking.
I am still not entirely sure what happens apart from that, as the film is heavily on unreliable narration (see above - I really like this stylistic device if employed skillfully). Lamp oil being drunk in large quantities as the couple runs out of liquor does not help with anyone's sanity, as do visions or mermaids and greek gods. In terms of horror movie, it works perfectly since you are ever-unclear on what is going on, while never being deliberately misled.

Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattison prove that both of them are acting powerhouses, I think the Academy Award for best actor has to go to one of them. Also, coming from refusing to take him seriously due to his involvement with Twillight, it is time to acknowledge that Pattison is a damn fine actor, one of the greats of his generation.

Finally, the technicalities - the film is shot is stark black and white and an almost square aspect ratio, deliberately awaking the look and feel of silent movies. I have not seen a movie that beautiful in a long time. Also, they managed to make the Foghorn the key instrument of the film's score.

 
  • Like
Reactions: MWF
Parasite
It's one of those movies that, the less you know about it, the better.
Just go watch it.
 
The Irishman. First saw it in the cinema a couple weeks ago when it came out. Just watched it again. Easily the best movie in 2019 for me. The fact that they were able to lure Joe Pesci into it really makes it for me. I recommend "The Irishman: In Conversation" on Netflix too if you want to hear from the cast.
Watched it a few days ago.
What a masterpiece. It's slow, but it HAS to be.
Just wish I had seen it in a movie theater, not at home.
 
Watched it a few days ago.
What a masterpiece. It's slow, but it HAS to be.
Just wish I had seen it in a movie theater, not at home.
I have to disagree here. @_Jules_ and I turned it off after two thirds or so because we felt it's not worth hanging on for the finale. It's Scorsese's sixth mob film (if you count Gangs of New York and the Boardwalk Empire pilot), and while I did not run the numbers for DeNiro and Pacino, they should have a dozen or so mob movies between them as well - and it shows. This film is skillfully crafted, well directed, looks amazing, yet has a "paint by numbers" feel to it, since it adds nothing new to the mob movie formula. It's the best people in the business for the job doing what they do best very well, but nothing more. A hollow exercise in craftsmanship.

Also, somehow the de-aging had a lot of "uncally valley" to it for me. Additionally, coupled with the very erratic casting of The Irishman's daughter in different ages, keeping track of the passage of time was very hard, I had to refer to Wikipedia'ing the real-world events more than once to place some scenes.
 
Okay, I'm no film critic or anything like that, nor have I watched too many movies, but recently I have crossed two movies from my to-watch list. I won't try to imitate a movie critic by giving my opinions of the movies, instead, I'll give my insight about how they made me feel and what are the particular things I liked/disliked.

Some two weeks ago, Baby Driver (2017). I enjoyed it. A bit too much seemingly random B-movie style killing took place, but I enjoyed the rest, especially the witty (IMHO) humour and the car chases.

Today, on the date of liberation of Auschwitz, the national TV station played Life is Beautiful (1997), so I took the chance to finally see the film. I was actually surprised by how they managed to take such a serious topic and add well thought-out humour into it. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and it was definitely a roller-coaster of emotions, but without being too dramatic about it.
 
Don’t freak out but, I just saw The Matrix for the first time. Good, would watch again.
 
Top