Last Movie Watched Thread

Just out from under American Hustle. I think, on balance, I've heard more bad than good about this, so I was pleasantly surprised. I was mainly watching it for the performances after a certain point, but as the performances were nothing short of fantastic, it was no chore. Could've been shorter, though.

So I just got around to watching Coherence, which was excellent. It was such a fantastically trippy little film, managing to do so much with so little. I didn't know exactly how the story was going to play out, or even exactly what was going to happen. It rings a lot of tension out of a simple scenario, mostly through dialogue and clever editing. There's a realism to it as well; the characters are intelligent and react appropriately, and the whole thing is set in one location. It's great and tense throughout, but I think my favourite bit was the beginning, before too much crazy shit happens and its incredibly grounded, just a group of friends together during a black out. A couple have went to check on something weird, everyone else back in the house is huddled around a set of candles. Some of them are on edge, every little noise makes them jump. It's a really relatable sort of fear, and while the more metaphysical twists in the back half are just as great in their own right, I really enjoyed the simplicity of the build up. I kind of wish I hadn't watched it alone, it definitely seems like a good group film.

Visited my family in Boston all last week. On Friday, finally got my mother to watch (my fave movie of all time) Brazil with me, on the grounds that it's a Christmas movie. Sadly, it was not her cup of tea.

Followed that up by watching Chronicles of Riddick with my brother. Meh. Every other scene has Riddick taking off his goggles to reveal his weird alien eyeballs, then putting the goggles on again, then taking them off... Dude needs bifocals.

I've been watching 90s trash. Started with Dead Man on Campus, which sucked, which lead to PCU, which is still awesome.

Up next is Night at the Roxbury!

Wreck-It Ralph is tons of fun. I love that movie.

The other night I watched Death Wish. I was inspired by the interview with Run the Jewels where they compare Steven Seagal to Charles Bronson. The movie kind of flirts with approaching the idea of vigilantism seriously, but quickly devolves into pro-conservatism gun worship power fantasy or something like that. It's still really silly at the same time though, you just can't exactly take it serious. Pretty pure exploitation in that sense, not in a nudity or extreme violence kind of way, but in a shady morals, appealing to the LCD kind of deal. Which of course means I totally enjoyed it. It's got a decent bit of style to it as well. I loved when Bronson changes up his apartment because killing dudes has turned him into a new man or something and he paints it all in this bright yellow. It doesn't have much of a story arc and Bronson is a total dick, but it's an admittedly good concept.

Finally got around to watching The Babadook, which was excellent. Great performances, legitimately scare, and a unique concept. I watched it with my brother and he's sort of picky about horror films, but even he agreed it was great.

I watched White House Down last night to finish out this Channing Tatum marathon I've been on and also because it's akin to Die Hard. I've seen enough of his movies to decide he is super okay at what he does. He can be very funny but there's something kind of blank about his presence, which is saying something for that movie that was over 2 hours and there were periods where I forgot he was in it despite having the John McClane role. White House Down itself, was okay and too long but pretty fun. Not my favorite Joey King role either.

Watched the Babadook last night and it was excellent. It was especially heart-wrenching for me as a mother - especially as a mother who isn't perfect and is sometimes worn-out and irrational. There's this idea of motherhood - sweet, giving, compassionate, caring - and we all strive to be that I think. But the truth is that we are people, with our own shortcomings and flaws. And it is fucking terrifying to feel like you're letting down the most innocent and dependent and important person of all, your child. Holy smokes this movie hit me hard and it was great.

Ghost of Goodnight Lane.  This movie has it all, and by has it all I mean it has BILLY ZANE!!!  It is not a genuinely scary movie by a long shot, but it is a good tongue in check horror show with the occasional jump scare.  I give it four out of five BILLY ZANES!

I watched Donnie Darko (Director's Cut) last night for the first time in years. Still holds up. Maybe that's nostalgia talking - the first time I saw it, I was in 8th grade, and it was the first movie that made me go sit down for 20 minutes and think. But I still love it. Also I am well aware of Richard Kelly's supposed "aliens did it" intention, but it's not hard to ignore that bullshit explanation.

I sought out new movies I hadn't seen yet so this year for Christmas I watched:

Black Christmas (74)
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Happy Christmas
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Guest

I enjoy all of them for different reasons. Happy Christmas was probably the weakest because it just kind of stops, but that's life, things happen and then we move on from them. I think out of the bigger mumblecore films Joe Swanberg has made, Drinking Buddies is a lot better (and one of my favorite movies from 2013), but I think I just find myself relating so much to the movies at this point in my life.

And coming off of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang my thoughts were 1). Emma Stone and Shane Black NEED to make a movie together and 2). How has Michelle Monaghan not become a huge movie star? How is it that she's only played like the girlfriend/wife role in every movie I've seen her in? Hollywood you are so wasteful of your talented actresses.

I'm also so happy I knew nothing about The Guest other than the basic setup because I was trying so hard to figure out where it was all going. It's a great throwback film.

I think Black Christmas has a lot of respect among genre fans. It often comes up in conversations of early slasher film since it predates Halloween by a few years. It's a genuinely creepy movie, and the final shot is incredibly bothersome.

There's always time to watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade again. At the end when the ancient knight is waving with the cave collapsing, I expect he's thinking, "Hey, thanks for taking the sacred object I've guarded for 700 years and throwing it down a damn bottomless pit without so much as an apology. I coulda done that, assholes. And thanks for leaving me to starve to death."