Does anyone on OTF still go to the cinema?

[Levin]

I saw Perfect Days at the weekend. I liked it but I'm not sure it was very good. I'm not sure if there isn't a hint of exoticism? I know it doesn't show the usual sights of Tokyo but it does like to look at things that seem specifically Japanese.

But there was an action that made me cry which is some achievement given the very gentle lines that have previously been draw regarding the situation.

[colchestersid]

Robot Dreams at the Curzon, Colchester this afternoon with my 10yo son

First half was funny, clever and sweet - Second half dragged and the ending was disappointing (although probably true to life)

In a slightly odd way it had echoes of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (highlight reasoning below *SPOILERS*)

- No spoken dialogue
- An unlikely couple get together
- Enforced and lengthy separation
- Both find new partners (but you feel they are settling)
- They reunite briefly before going separate ways

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Finally saw Copa 71 at our local multi-screen last night. Really excellent film, great work by the film-makers. Wonderful that the story is now being told after having practically disappeared from history for decades. Massive crowds at all matches, but the final in particular, with an attendance of 110,000, remains the most attended women's sporting fixture to this day. Just extraordinary that it had been so lost to public memory until now.

One thing that came out of the filmed Q&A at (I think) the premiere, which was shown after the film itself, was the utter vindictiveness of the FA establishment, who gave Harry Batt a lifetime ban from football for his role in managing the unofficial England side. The FA officials who imposed that penalty should rot in hell. Apart from the excellent interviews with the players 50 years on, and great footage, there were some pithy contributions from a social historian, who noted how the response of FIFA and its constituent national organisations to the success of the tournament (basically, vicious oppressive retribution) was all about maintaining control and monopolising money for their exclusively male establishment. Absolute cunts, every last one of them.

[Ray de Galles]

Spoilers there, colchestersid ?

[colchestersid]

Spoilers there, colchestersid ?

Sorry Ray, you're right =- post updated to hide spoilers..

[RobW]

Not been to the flicks in about 3 weeks, but seeing Late Night With The Devil tonight. Barely know anything about it, but did watch the trailer earlier.

It is a good 90 minute romp. Like Ghostwatch meets Larry Sanders.

[Ray de Galles]

Seen three new films this weekend, two in the cinema and one on streaming.

The latter was The End We Start From which my wife and I had planned to see when it was out in theatres. However, its run seemed to come and go in less than a week and seemingly not due to the common reason that it was made by a streamer with a deliberately limited release. It's stars Jodie Comer as a young woman who gives birth in London just as catastrophic flooding hits the city and much of the rest of Britain. The film convincingly depicts the aftermath of such a disaster on both the personal level and more widely across society.

The mood of the film is quite low-key and relies on a fantastic performance from Comer and the rest of the very impressive cast to grip the viewer and convey its message (not that its overtly preachy and climate change is never directly referred to despite being implicit throughout). It has the slight feel of a British 'The Last Of Us' in the way the existential threat is a device ised to highlight the relationships between the characters rather than the end in itself of the film.

I went to see Late Night With The Devil at a suitably advanced hour on Saturday night. I'm not really a horror fan but what I'd seen and heard from clips and reviews convinced me there was enough satirical humour in it to warrant a viewing. That decision was largely borne out and I found it very enjoyable while only really indulging in shock & gore near the end. I've always enjoyed David Dastmalchian's performances before but never seen him carry a film before and he was excellent. The production design is fantastic, perfectly evoking seventies talk shows in every way. The film's small budget is slightly too evident in the finale which feels a bit rushed and poorly executed (as well as lacking in sound clarity) leading to some slight confusion but overall it's rollicking 'Alan Partridge meets The Exorcist' fun.

My wife and I decided to give Mothers' Instinct a cinema visit last night in the absence of anything new out that piqued our interest. It's an American remake of a 2018 thriller which itself was an adaption of a domestic novel. The film is a vehicle for Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway who play suburban sixties next door neighbours and best friends whose sons are inseparable until tragedy strikes one of them. From there it goes off in to a Hitchcockian thriller with touches of more modern comment on the limits imposed on women of the era. The film looks fantastic and both leads give it their all, though to be honest I think Chastain is a luminescent movie star and could happily just watch her face for ninety minutes. It's an OK film, certainly diverting enough and pretty gripping at times but it achieves that through the most cynical & obvious of tropes at times. There is a change of gears near the end that the film just hadn't worked hard enough to carry off effectively so it ended on an unsatisfying note for me.

[Janik]

Finally saw Copa 71 at our local multi-screen last night. Really excellent film, great work by the film-makers. Wonderful that the story is now being told after having practically disappeared from history for decades. Massive crowds at all matches, but the final in particular, with an attendance of 110,000, remains the most attended women's sporting fixture to this day. Just extraordinary that it had been so lost to public memory until now.

I find the ‘so lost’ narrative that has been used to sell this film interesting. Why? Because the marketing schtick has been totally bought despite, like most marketing schticks, it being totally disingenuous.

I’ve known about this World Cup and it’s fall out for years. I don’t remember how I first heard about it, but these two articles, one a deep dive effort, on the BBC website from 2018 and 2019. Evariste Euler Gauss - I would be intrigued by your take on the 2019 one, given the apparent significant differences with the film re: Harry Batt. According to that article it wasn’t the FA that blackballed him, but the female run breakaway organisation the WFA (i.e. the people who restarted women‘s Football in the 1960s). Their objection appears to have been about a man attempting to take over their sport and trying to run it as his own personal fiefdom. If the film is conflating the WFA of the 1970s with the FA, then ‘disingenuous’ is nowhere near strong enough to describe the level of spin being applied.

[jameswba]

I finally saw The Zone of Interest last night. I'd say it's still sinking in. It makes for an interesting comparison with Son of Saul, the last great Holocaust movie I saw. It was the director of that who criticised Glazer's Oscar speech. I tried to read as little about all that stuff as I could till I'd seen the actual film.

[RobW]

Watched Dev Patel's Monkey Man tonight. Very much in the style of The Raid and John Wick (i.e bloody as hell, ultraviolence). Well choreographed fight scenes and Patel is as ever very good. I think i've had enough of these bone-snapping, stabby revenge flicks now though.

[Felicity, I guess so]

I got enough from the trailer

[Ray de Galles]

I saw 'Civil War' this afternoon.

It's arresting & enjoyable and I was very impressed by the worldbuilding even if I didn't ever quite buy the main characters and how their relationships & paths develop. I have lots of issues with the finale too but won't go in to them now given the risk of spoilers.

Jesse Plemons' cameo absolutely steals the film and his scene is the gut punch highlight of the film.

[Nurse Duckett]

Anyone come across this in the cinema yet?

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS

[Hot Pepsi]

I’m not sure I’d get more out of seeing the actual film, but I will try.

[Ray de Galles]

I saw 'Monkey Man' last night, Dev Patel's India-set Heroic Bloodshed affair which he stars in, co-wrote, directed and co-produced.

It's OK but I can't help feeling while Patel is a real talent he should have drafted in more help with some of the elements. It ambitiously mixes Indian mythology and critiques of the caste system, transphobia & Modiesque Hindu ultra-nationalism with more traditional action fare but ends up too sprawling and poorly-paced to deliver a coherent narrative on all the themes.

The violence lacks the style & wit of the John Wick movies that are a clear influence and ends up being a bit wearing & gratuitous. Worth seeing but perhaps it betrays its origins and budget as a Netflix project (they apparently baulked at the politics of it) rather than a genuine theatrical release.

[diggedy derek]

This is maybe as good a place as any for this, a long read on the Tv+film shtshow

https://harpers.org/archive/2024/05/...?src=longreads

[Felicity, I guess so]

Saw Modern Times with a live orchestra this afternoon, absoltely wonderful

[Hot Pepsi]

This is maybe as good a place as any for this, a long read on the Tv+film shtshow

https://harpers.org/archive/2024/05/...?src=longreads

They talked about that on The Watch. It is very grim. It's the trajectory of the whole economy, but it's especially bad in media.
Neither side of our made-up culture wars want it to be like this, but the people in charge do, which is why they distract us with made-up culture wars.

I think we'll still get good stuff somehow. As that piece explains, the rise and fall of Marvel shows that the audience is not quite as dumb as the producers would like us to be. The big hits last year were, to some extent, big risks. Barbie is IP, but it's not like the Barbie brand was red-hot going into 2023 and they let them do something risky with it
Oppenheimer feels inevitable now, but it's not hard to imagine a long story about nuclear scientists being a huge bomb (no pun intended).

I think this could also create more of an opening for other states and countries to invest in their own TV/film industries.

[Sam]

It's the Buenos Aires International Film Festival (BAFICI) at the moment, so on Thursday my girlfriend and I took advantage of our freelance lifestyles to sit in a mostly empty cinema and watch Sultana's Dream, which is a beautiful animated film based on a 1905 utopian feminist story by Bengali political activist Begum Rokeya. Trailer here:

[Ginger Yellow]

have lots of issues with the finale too

Well it is an Alex Garland film so...

[RobW]

I saw 'Civil War' this afternoon.

It's arresting & enjoyable and I was very impressed by the worldbuilding even if I didn't ever quite buy the main characters and how their relationships & paths develop. I have lots of issues with the finale too but won't go in to them now given the risk of spoilers.

Jesse Plemons' cameo absolutely steals the film and his scene is the gut punch highlight of the film.

Pretty much this. Looks very nice, but I found the dialogue (and often lack of it) really frustrating. Actually would have liked more Nick Offerman and Plemons.