Topic: The Movie Thread

@Ravix Please, I can only handle so much truth at once!

Liked Nosferatu a lot. Eggers definitely gets the original. I do have a soft spot for the original though, it creeps the f*ck out of me.

@Ravix @Jimmer-jammer I'm getting more and more convinced that Sir Scott should have retired a long time ago.

@nessisonett The original is fantastic and I liked that Eggers stuck to Murnau's characters, rather than mixing them up with Bram Stoker's equivalents, like Herzog did. I was a tiny bit disappointed with Herzog's version, particularly because I felt that Kinski's count was a bit too understated. I felt that Eggers and Skarsgård went a bit too far in the other direction, though, and that portrayal did not work for me at all. In my mind, Murnau's version is the best, Herzog has the best ending and Eggers version is.. uhm... the newest.

I finally got around to watching The Place Beyond the Pines. It came out around that time that Gosling released a million films at once and it passed me by.

I'm still processing it to a degree. It was quite a jarring film in some ways, given the chronological leaps it makes, yet I found it quite affecting. Bradley Cooper isn't my favourite actor in the world but I thought he was good here, cutting a constantly frustrated and haunted figure.

@Gremio108 great film. one of my favs along with Blue Valentine, another great Gosling performance imo.

@zupertramp Yeah it's an excellent showing from Gosling. The film pivots on a few big moments and lesser movies would suffer from it.

Not seen Blue Valentine, that's another one I need to catch up on

Better Man is probably the most surprised I’ve been in a long time by a movie. I thought it sounded stupid, then the reviews made me give it a shot. Without a doubt one of the best movies I’ve seen this entire past year. I know Americans inexplicably don’t know Robbie Williams much but I was born post-Take That and he’s still a cultural icon just with his solo stuff, I was actually amazed how many songs he had given the amount woven into the movie. The whole monkey situation bizarrely works really well and gets around the impersonation issue that a lot of these biopics struggle with. Genuinely brilliant movie.

@nessisonett A novel concept, for sure, but aside from liking some of his music, I can't say that I'm all that curious about his life. I'm generally not all that interested in biopics, either, but I might give this a go when it hits streaming, on the strength of the reviews alone.

Nooooo not David Lynch! Absolutely gutted.

David Lynch...

Some celebrity deaths hit harder than others... this one hit me like a million tons I know he more or less had retired, but the certainty that there will never, ever be anything new coming from him ever again just tears open a huge void.

@FuriousMachine Precisely this mate, a true original. I’m proper gutted 😢

EDIT: Was reading some thoughts from other directors on the Guardian and this is spot on, from Alice Lowe

Many remember the first time they encountered Lynch’s indelible images, heard his sound and music for the first time. To me, he’s just always been there. And that’s when a cultural loss feels hard: when you’ve not met someone, but their work feels personal to you, part of your psyche.

But what’s strange is how many feel that way. The strangeness and intimacy of his work is counterintuitive to its popularity, its sheer power to force its way into culture collectively. His work spoke its own language, but a language that was strangely universal. In a time when the very nature of film as an individual’s perspective and the human auteurship of art is in question, it feels seismic to have lost him.

@PeaceSalad Agreed, she hit the nail square on the head there

Just got back from seeing Leigh Whannel's Wolf Man on the big screen, and I enjoyed it quite bit. Not really scary, but very well acted with good characters it's easy to root for. When the Wolf Man design leaked earlier, I was a bit put out by it, but it worked really well in the context of the movie, I think, and the make-up and effects are very good, as is the sound design and lighting. Very atmospheric at times.
Think this one will go on the shelf when it drops

Just finished watching Alien: Romulus on Disney+ as it was added just a couple of days ago on the service. My subscription runs out on Monday and I was so glad when I saw that this movie was going to be added this week as I love the Alien movies.

This one did not disappoint at all, it's definitely one of my favourite entries in the series. The new characters were likeable and I like the protagonist a lot. It was refreshing having young characters in an Alien movie instead of adults as they're even more vulnerable. The atmosphere was great and there were a lot of tense scenes. I feel like the movie really captured the vibes of the first movie in terms of the setting, the technology, the characters and so on. It felt like the movie could've been made in the 80s. Really cool that the film makers retained the original movie's vision in this one.

So all in all, Alien: Romulus was absolutely fantastic and I highly enjoyed it. I hope they make a direct sequel to it.

@LtSarge I almost feel obligated to let you know how wrong you are, on behalf of a forum member who recently left, but I won't, as I too somewhat enjoyed "Romulus" (in fact, I suspect they left the forums because there were so many here who didn't loathe the movie as the worst cinematic abomination ever inflicted upon humanity and that was company they couldn't keep I jest, of course)

I found "A:R" to be enjoyable on the whole, but I had several issues with it, chiefly the CGI resurrection of Ian Holm and the incredibly clunky callbacks to the other movies, but, like you, I felt the new characters were compelling and, along with some great tense moments, helped elevate the movie quite a bit.

They are indeed working on a direct sequel to this

@FuriousMachine @LtSarge yeah rewatched with a family member recently who hadn't seen it and, idk, it really does seem fine to me. I f'ing hate the ian holm resurrection and reiterate how much I hate that stupid callback line but really that's it. That's the complete list of my complaints. Look forward to a sequel... kinda. We'll see.