What was the last film you watched?

[Willie Oleson]

Previously, on page 152...

The Driver's Seat, which is absolutely mental

I must know what that means

And now I know, but I had not expected it to be such an absolute gem of a film.
As it happens so often in 20th century Euro-cinema, THE DRIVER'S SEAT combines the grotesque with the ethereal, the utterly mundane with the unexpected shocks, the spellbinding quality with the feeling of "why am I watching this?".

I don't know if Elizabeth Taylor knew what she was doing or that something got lost in translation, but it works either way. Dressed in an outfit so atrocious that even the most fanatic drag queen wouldn't touch it with a bargepole, movie star Liz Taylor has never looked more beautiful and poignant - perhaps I could describe it as her "greatest hits" film.
The European actors also give (mostly) interesting performances, and there are several scenes in it that reminded me of Peter Strickland's IN FABRIC (2018).

I found it on a compilation DVD issued by Mill Creek Entertainment.

As you can see, this is a prime example of a bargain bin/drugstore DVD because it's got anything but famous Liz Taylor films. Nevertheless, some interesting and obscure stuff can be found on these rubbish releases, as long as you know what you're looking for.
Unfortunately the picture quality of THE DRIVER'S SEAT is awful, in fact the only difference with the youtube upload is that the DVD has the correct aspect ratio.


A 4k restoration was released last year by BFI (I assume James watched that version on his BFI player) and this may be the first blu-ray I'm going to buy. No idea how I'm going to watch it but maybe I could connect an external blu ray player to my computer (but when it looks as simple as that, it probably isn't - not for me, anyway).
For the time being I'll keep the DVD, and as a bonus the other disc has X, Y & ZEE (1972) in great quality which will replace the "manufactured on demand" disc I had bought from Amazon.

 

[James from London]

A 4k restoration was released last year by BFI (I assume James watched that version on his BFI player) and this may be the first blu-ray I'm going to buy. No idea how I'm going to watch it but maybe I could connect an external blu ray player to my computer (but when it looks as simple as that, it probably isn't - not for me, anyway).

I wish! No, I watched the rubbish YouTube version (which was still great). If you ever manage to pull off this insane external-blu-ray-to-computer scheme, I would like to request an in-depth moment-by-moment tutorial so that I can then do the same.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Tellytalk Labs, where the future is being made today.

 

[DallasFanForever]

The Fall Guy (2024)

Ordinarily this isn’t something I’d go see in the cinema, and from the previews I honestly didn’t expect much. It ended up far exceeding my expectations. It wasn’t a great movie by any stretch but I found it highly entertaining. There are quite a few laughs and also some well placed tributes to 80s TV shows.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The Fall Guy (2024)

Ordinarily this isn’t something I’d go see in the cinema, and from the previews I honestly didn’t expect much. It ended up far exceeding my expectations. It wasn’t a great movie by any stretch but I found it highly entertaining. There are quite a few laughs and also some well placed tributes to 80s TV shows.

Gosling works for me (even if Mr. Sulu disagrees). Although the opening weekend box office apparently wasn't good.

 

[Seaviewer]

also some well placed tributes to 80s TV shows.

Ah. I saw it advertised the other day and I couldn't tell if it was a reboot of the show or not.

 

[Seaviewer]

This Is the Night (1932)
Continuing my Thelma Todd festival.
This one is quite hard to describe. Plotwise, it's nothing special. A man (Roland Young) having a an affair with a married woman (Todd) hire an actress to pose as his wife to throw his paramour's husband off the scent. (The husband, by the way, is Cary Grant in his first film. He and Young would later appear together in Topper* (1937). By then, Cary Grant is billed before Young; here he is after Todd.)
Stylistically, the film is quite unusual. If I call it a musical, you would get the wrong impression. There are sequences in which the action is set to a musical rhythm, is the best way I can put it. Not quite like anything else I've seen.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Gosling works for me (even if Mr. Sulu disagrees). Although the opening weekend box office apparently wasn't good.

He’s entertaining. He’s witty, charismatic and he knows how to pick the right roles. I wouldn’t call him the best actor out there right now but he can be fun to watch. I guess I’m not surprised it didn’t make huge money though.

Ah. I saw it advertised the other day and I couldn't tell if it was a reboot of the show or not.

I barely watched much of the show back then so I wasn’t really sure either. From what I understand it’s based on the show but don’t hold me to that one.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Interestingly, Ryan's nemesis actor Jake Gyllenhaal stars in another 80s remake, ROAD HOUSE.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

He’s entertaining. He’s witty, charismatic and he knows how to pick the right roles. I wouldn’t call him the best actor out there right now but he can be fun to watch. I guess I’m not surprised it didn’t make huge money though.

Press stories say THE FALL GUY is being marketed "old style" (I'm not sure what that means). Does anybody know if Lee Majors makes a cameo?

 

[TaranofPrydain]

I rewatched Random Harvest yesterday. That's one of my all-time favorites.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Press stories say THE FALL GUY is being marketed "old style" (I'm not sure what that means). Does anybody know if Lee Majors makes a cameo?

I think what they mean by “old style” is the fact that there are a quite a few winks and nods to 80s TV in the movie. Not just The Fall Guy itself but many other shows as well. Lee did not have a cameo to my surprise.

 

[Willie Oleson]

RADIO DAYS (1987)



A Woody Allen comedy drama that could be seen as a follow-up to the cinema nostalgia of THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985) - and Jeff Daniels, in a small supporting role, plays another character named "Baxter".
CAIRO is better but RADIO has, perhaps not surprisingly, the better soundtrack. And both films star Mia Farrow so it's all good.


Young Seth Green is a very charismatic child actor and this film also made me realise that I need to see much more of Dianne Wiest. I already knew she was good but somehow she's never been on my radar.
One of the sets is the epic Radio City Music Hall and Seth Green's character (with Woody Allen's voice) describes it as "it felt like entering heaven".
It's not difficult to see why, especially when you're a small person.

Going to the cinema was an extraordinary event when I was a child, this special place where they showed very special films, to be surrounded by all that enormous sight and sound (even though you could probably fit that particular building in the entrance of RCMH).
Every time we passed the building during our out-of-village shopping days I ran up the steps to get a closer look at the pretty images of films "showing this week" and then my mother dragged me away because we "didn't have time for that!".

However, this story is all about radio and its radio stars, and the place it had in the lives of many people. Contests, radio soaps, live broadcasts of peculiar events.
The humour in the film is warm rather than witty and most of it comes from the actors. The result was a feel-good and sound-good experience.

 

[James from London]

I need to see much more of Dianne Wiest.

She stars in Hannah and Her Sisters, which might be my favourite Woody Allen film of all (and what a soundtrack!), and of course Bullets Over Broadway, which everybody loves.

 

[Willie Oleson]

That would be a good way to start if they were available on youtube or amazon prime (algorithm, do your sneaky work and tell your evil employers that somebody is interested).
I can watch SEPTEMBER (1988)....I kinda like the synopsis (in less than 25 words, that probably means it doesn't have a lot to describe).

Last night I watched THE AGE OF ADALINE (2015) because I was in the mood for a lightweight mystery slash semi-romance. I'm familiar with Ellen Burstyn in various supporting roles but Harrison Ford's appearance looks very special guest-starry. Not in a bad way, it's just that I had to check if it was really him. Then I had to check again if it was really him who played Indiana Jones 2023 and not, for example, Kevin Costner.

 

[Willie Oleson]

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991)



The artistic style makes it a very interesting film, but the flowery speech doesn't always work for me (unless it is supposed to be a warped interpretation from River Phoenix's character's point of view, but I'm not sure about that).
It's possible that a character like Bob Pigeon couldn't exist without the arty-farty approach, to make him look as "legendary" as he was supposed to be.
Nevertheless, I find the deadpan weirdness of characters like Hans and Budd much more entertaining to watch.

Whatever it is that the film (for better or worse) tries to convey, it doesn't seem to affect River Phoenix at all. I don't know how he managed to make sense of it but he completely disappears in his role, and perhaps it is that very performance that makes the film's flaws a little bit more noticeable.
It's a pity that so much of his on-screen presence is in a state of unconsciousness, especially when Keanu Reeves has to fill those running time gaps.
That being said, Keanu is perfectly cast as the exotic object of desire, and his somewhat inept attempts to keep up with River Phoenix' acting kind of accidentally makes Scott Favor's out-of-reachness more physical, as if he embodies the artificial still images of the erotic scenes.
But it's always his scenes without River that drags the film down a little bit (imho, of course).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO is a flawed but fascinatingly little avant-guard, occasionally cinéma vérité, mess of a movie (they use real street boys in the cast) and is the perfect film to capture the cusp-of-the-'80s-and-'90s zeitgeist (whatever that is). Perpetually on the edge of a nap, River Phoenix is terrific; Keanu is Keanu, and tries to master the Shakespeare; the cinematography is breath-taking. And it almost works.

And it has those numerous prescient moments contained in so many River Phoenix movies (like his collapsing onto sidewalks, roads, etc.) we've come to expect. Like Natalie Wood in peril near the water.

Curiously, Gore Vidal turned down the role of the pederastic mentor of a band of hustler kids (ultimately played by William Richert) a real-life portrait of the guy cast to give River a B.J. in the near-opening scene. Although Vidal liked the movie -- well, he wrote Myra Breckenridge -- he didn't want to play it (some have suggested it was too typecasting for his tastes).

But the picture ends on the same song that opens BONNIE AND CLYDE, and it confuses me.

 

[kenneth]

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

I just saw Night of the Hunter(1955). I enjoyed it, but I needed to do some research after to find out why it is considered such a scary thriller. I did not find it scary, but nore if a character study of different religious personalities. I understand it much better after I read about what the director, Charles Laughton, was doing in terms of lighting, camera angles, and the influence of German expressionism on him. I don't fully understand German expressionism,but now I want to learn more.
Anyway, I was expecting a scary thriller, which I didn't get. However, what I did get was fascinating and unusual movie.

 

[Willie Oleson]

FIRESTARTER (2022)



I was in the mood for an easy popcorn watch, something that wouldn't challenge me too much.
Apart from being a remake it also got a terrible rating on IMDB, but I'm happy to report that there's no need to avoid this film.

I've watched the original In the 1980s and thought it was a poor imitation of CARRIE, and at that time I kinda hated Drew Barrymore with her snotty little Hollywood face.
I figured this bad memory would give me an advantage on watching the remake, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how emotional it was. It doesn't feel as if the various fire spectacles take centre stage, it's more about a superhero coming to terms with her powers. It's easy to lash out but it's more rewarding to be kind, that sort of thing.
Perhaps, in a way, it can be viewed as an X-Men prequel rather than a Stephen King story, although I probably wouldn't have bothered if it had been an X-men prequel.
But let's not speculate about things that didn't happen.

The pacing and the dramatic tension isn't always perfect, but the only thing that really annoyed me was the drab, beige colour scheme. For reasons unknown to me there are still many filmmakers who think that it's going to look more natural when they suck the colours out of it. Most of the original streaming content have that strange blue-ish filter and it just doesn't look good at all.
For a film made in 2022 I thought the picture quality was really bad sometimes, like watching a VHS rental from the 1990s, but I'm going to assume this was the result of a bad streaming encoding or my computer's inability to show it in 4K or whatever.