Last movie you watched

[erilaz]

^ I think it's best to see The Substance knowing as little as possible in advance. Consider yourself forewarned if nudity, needles, blood, or body horror are things you'd rather not see.

[Zunu]

^ I think it's best to see The Substance knowing as little as possible in advance. Consider yourself forewarned if nudity, needles, blood, or body horror are things you'd rather not see.

I thank you then! BTW Goodrich turned out to be way better than I was expecting. The story was about an art gallery owner (Michael Keaton) whose wife abruptly checks herself into a drug rehab with no warning to him, and suddenly he finds himself having to rearrange his life around his twin 9-year-olds. He gets help from his adult daughter (Mila Kunis) who is herself pregnant. I was expecting it to be one of those "wacky" comedies about a dad who doesn't know how to make cereal or what his kids birthdays are, and it was a little bit that way, but it went deeper than that and didn't exactly follow the Jobian trajectory you expect from these stories, where everything at the end is happily ever after. I'm still kind of processing what I thought about the film, and in my book that means it succeeded at what art is meant to do.

[erilaz]

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), with Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover.

Because I needed something less disturbing than the incoming election results on the network news. GOD, I FUCKING HATE THIS MOTHERFUCKING COUNTRY!

[Zunu]

Similarly burned out from relentless political coverage, last night I was watching "Slingshot" a 2024 film with Casey Affleck as John, an astronaut on his way to Titan (the moon of Saturn), accompanied by a shipmate, Nash, played by Tomer Capone (Frenchie in "The Boys"!), and in a commanding performance, Laurence Fishburne as Captain Franks. John seems off-kilter from the start and right away we're told that he is suffering from the effects of drugs used to stimulate hibernation (the crew spends extensive time hibernating as the planned mission is well over a year.) When he's awake, he's frequently staring off in vivid daydreams about his past relationship with his ex-girlfriend Zoe, played by Emily Beecham.

This movie has two big plot twists. One of them I didn't see coming ,even though clues were dropped. The other one I saw coming from 600 million miles away, even though there weren't really any overt indications.

Unfortunately I'd put this flick firmly in the way overused Space Madness trope. It also has a pretty low-budget feeling to it, as most of it takes place on the very limited interior of the Odyssey1 space vessel, and they don't even bother to handwave the standard Earth 1-gee gravity throughout the journey. Still, whatever scenery there is gets thoroughly chewed by Fishburne, which makes up for a lot of cinema sins. At the very end there's one more twist kinda, but by that time I was beyond caring.

[erilaz]

The new 4K restoration of Tarsem Singh's The Fall (2006).

“Tarsem’s ‘The Fall’ is a mad folly, an extravagant visual orgy, a free-fall from reality into uncharted realms. Surely it is one of the wildest indulgences a director has ever granted himself… a movie that you might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it.” —Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

It's an extraordinary cinematic achievement with stunning visuals, all the more amazing if you keep in mind that it was self-financed, was shot only on location (no studio sets), and used only practical special effects (no CGI). I'd only previously seen it on DVD, 12 years ago, but this is a film that really needs to be seen on the big screen.

One of my pet peeves detracted a bit from the magic. The hospital scenes are set in an era of silent cinema, Model Ts, and horse-drawn ice-wagons. But the hospital is flying a 50-star U.S. flag, which didn't exist until 1960. I'm willing to give Tarsem a pass, though, since the setting is described on-screen as "Los Angeles... once upon a time."

[Zunu]

My date wanted to see something lighthearted and funny, so we ended up going to Red One. Don't believe the many terrible critics' reviews. This is a perfectly fine Christmas movie starring The Rock, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, and J.K. Simmons. With that cast you know what to expect, and that's what you get. At least one reviewer made the mistake of seeing this in 4DX. Don't do that, ever, and you'll be fine, perfectly fine.

Note, there's a fair amount of swearing in the movie so if you are thinking about taking little kids, be forewarned.

[Amped]

The Wild Robot (DreamWorks)

Fun movie about an intelligent robot stranded in the forest and caring for animals. It will make you emotional. Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, and Mark Hamill voice the characters.

[erilaz]

BABYMETAL LEGEND - 43 THE MOVIE (2024) — The film of the final show of BABYMETAL's 2023–24 world tour in Okinawa. It was playing for one show only at the Elmwood Theater in Berkeley as part of Anime Expo Cinema Nights. I especially needed to see the movie, since I didn't catch them in concert when they came through the Bay Area this year. The movie is kinda short (81 minutes), but I did a lot of headbanging. The sad thing, though, was that there were only seven people in the audience, myself included.

[Zunu]

The sad thing, though, was that there were only seven people in the audience, myself included.

These days I find that to be fairly often the case when I see movies. Although the day before yesterday I saw Wicked with about 7 other people and we were shocked that the theater was packed for a 6:30 show on a Tuesday night.

[erilaz]

^ I occasionally see similarly priced special screenings of music documentaries and concert films at this same theater, and they're usually much better attended. Of course, BABYMETAL is considerably more niche than Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, or David Bowie. I wonder how the anime screenings in the same Anime Expo Cinema Nights series (Cowboy Bebop, Paprika, etc.) compare in audience size.