Latest Films

Blucher said:

Drive My Car (Japan)

A film about love and grief and coming to terms with the past. A renowned stage actor and director is directing a theatre production in Hiroshima where he is chauffeured by a quiet young woman assigned to him by the festival. Very slowly a friendship develops, as they both try to confront unresolved issues and resentments from the past. 'Drive My Car' won't be everyone's cup of tea, although I found it a very tender, absorbing and intelligent film, with the 3 hour running time passing almost unnoticed.

Quo Vadis, Aida ? (Bosnia) - currently on Netflix

I missed this one at the cinema last year but caught up with it recently on Netflix. Set in 1995 Srebrenica, the film is a fact-based drama about the increasingly desperate and frantic attempts of a local teacher and United Nations translator to save her husband and sons from the invading Serbian forces, as they and thousands of other Bosnian muslims sought refuge in a United Nations camp in an ostensible UN safety zone. Driven by an outstanding lead performance (who the camera is on throughout), the film is a deeply human but shattering depiction of the calamitous 1995 UN attempt to prevent the Srebrenica massacre. Around 8,000 Bosniak muslim men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of the convicted war criminal, Ratko Mladić - chillingly, the worst episode of mass murder within Europe since World War II.

This was probably my favourite film of 2021. I was pleased to see that it won Best Film at last month's European Film Awards, having previously been shortlisted for the 2021 Best International Feature Oscar. Highly recommended.

QVA has been on our list for a bit, will definitely bump it up after this recommendation. Really loved DMC a lot, and we've since watched a couple more of his previous films which were also great. We're tackling his 5-hour-long and ironically titled 'Happy Hour' next week.

The Matrix Resurrections: It was a reminder that Lana Wachowski is not interested in making the sequel I want to see. In fact, I would go so far as to say it's the worst film I have seen at the cinema since Movie 43. An absolute cluster-fuck of a movie. The self-referential stuff wasn't clever, and sure as fuck didn't belong in a Matrix movie. There were some interesting concepts but they were entirely wasted. Not least the civil war in the machine world. Neo trying to fly and then going "nah" was a low point too. It was like a Jimmy Kimmel sketch. Such a shame. 2/10

Spider-Man: Absolutely loved it. Loved it. It pandered to Spidey fandom which is probably why. I thought they squandered Doc Ock a little bit, and would like to have seen more of a Doc v Goblin plot as Norman and Otto would have elevated it. But that's just a preference so can't be a criticism. That they managed to make TASM2 emotionally relevant is a hell of an achievement. So many high points I want to see it again quite badly. 8/9

Don't Look Up: I can see why it has split opinion on here. Totally get it. I enjoyed it. I am blown away by how much Di Caprio made me believe in him as a nerdy character (Rylance doing his OTT/ understated thing from Ready Player One thing grated). And I do love McKay's style a lot. Normally I think "It was too long" is a lazy criticism, usually what we mean is that there's a sub-plot or sequence that wasn't needed - a film should be as long as it needs to be to tell the story. But here, they could have cut any number of scenes to make it more palatable. And while it was a bit on the nose with its cultural relevance, it cannot be understated how dumb Americans can be, so kudos to them for not holding back on that.  6/10

JiMMy 85 said:

The Matrix Resurrections: It was a reminder that Lana Wachowski is not interested in making the sequel I want to see. In fact, I would go so far as to say it's the worst film I have seen at the cinema since Movie 43. An absolute cluster-fuck of a movie. The self-referential stuff wasn't clever, and sure as fuck didn't belong in a Matrix movie. There were some interesting concepts but they were entirely wasted. Not least the civil war in the machine world. Neo trying to fly and then going "nah" was a low point too. It was like a Jimmy Kimmel sketch. Such a shame. 2/10

Spider-Man: Absolutely loved it. Loved it. It pandered to Spidey fandom which is probably why. I thought they squandered Doc Ock a little bit, and would like to have seen more of a Doc v Goblin plot as Norman and Otto would have elevated it. But that's just a preference so can't be a criticism. That they managed to make TASM2 emotionally relevant is a hell of an achievement. So many high points I want to see it again quite badly. 8/9

Don't Look Up: I can see why it has split opinion on here. Totally get it. I enjoyed it. I am blown away by how much Di Caprio made me believe in him as a nerdy character (Rylance doing his OTT/ understated thing from Ready Player One thing grated). And I do love McKay's style a lot. Normally I think "It was too long" is a lazy criticism, usually what we mean is that there's a sub-plot or sequence that wasn't needed - a film should be as long as it needs to be to tell the story. But here, they could have cut any number of scenes to make it more palatable. And while it was a bit on the nose with its cultural relevance, it cannot be understated how dumb Americans can be, so kudos to them for not holding back on that.  6/10

Just got back from Matrix Resurrections. If West Side Story is going to be one of best films, if not the best, I see this year at the cinema, I'd stake a lot on Matrix 4 being the worst. I enjoyed the trilogy and at the time a lot of the visuals were cutting edge stuff. But this offered nothing new on that front  and certainly not enough to make up for the pretentious, self indulgent, confusing mess of a plot.

Avoid. 

AddicksAddict said:

Licorice Pizza - very much an American Graffiti vibe with personable leads and a great sense of style. 

Saw this today - not really sure what to make of it. Captures the atmosphere of the time and visually is spot on but I didn't feel that involved with the main characters.

Surprised how much critics are raving about it.

ken_shabby said:

Caught Don't Look Up yesterday, and to be honest, it grated from beginning to end. There wasn't a sigle character I didn't find effortlessly irritating, from DiCaprio offering pointless science when all he needed to do was explain what the comet meant, to the talk show hostess, and the just numbing imbecility of everyone who had better things to do than deal with what was coming. I enjoyed the ending, but that simply turned the rest into an overlong shaggy dog story. I really wanted to like this more but when the characters are all annoying, that ain't gonna happen.
4/10

Loved it! Great blend of comedy and serious social commentary. Best film I'd seen for ages! 9/10 from me.

KBslittlesis said:

Late to the party I know but saw The Gentleman last night on Netflix.

Its so typical Ritchie.

I loved it. Even Huge Grants rubbish Laaaaaaandan accent 😂😂
Defo going to be using Rosalind’s ‘there’s fuckery about’ quote going forward.
Perfect light entertainment (as long as you don’t mind the odd Andy Hunt thrown about).

Thought it was very funny.

Eternals - These Marvel films are getting ridiculous now. I know they need to stick to the comic back story but they don’t make it very easy to follow. Must have a spent a fortune on the cast. Not one of their best.

Yeah it wasnt a bad story as a whole - Felt the acting itself was pretty wooden all round though, am more curious to see where they'll fit into the MCU in the grand scheme of things. 

Saw Scream the other day. It's a remake and sequel. It has nothing to say that Scream (1996) hasn't already said, except to say that sequels that are remakes are bad. It's perfectly entertaining, but it is the very thing it's criticising. And the ending confirms it. It's more Scary Movie than Scream. 

The lead girl in it is fucking woeful. The returning cast are alright (David Arquette is the best thing in it). The self-referential stuff is witty, but ultimately all it has. Unlike Scream (96) it doesn't have a good plot to tie the self-referential stuff to.  2.5 out of 6

The Power of the Dog is pretty much two hours of misery. Looks good, as you'd expect from Jane Campion, but by Christ it's slow.

I'm sure it'll do well during the awards season but not one for me. 

Saw the worst film I have ever seen today.

Cry Macho 

Cloudworm said:

Bedsaddick said:

Cloudworm said:

Saw the worst film I have ever seen today.

Cry Macho 

That’s the worst film you’ve EVER seen ? 

Yes. I don't say that lightly. I thought long and hard! Have you seen it?

Yes . It’s not very good I agree but I’ve seen much , much worse .