Last movie you saw?

[lordxizor]

So when the whole Covid thing looked to be an on-going thing, a group of our friends proposed a movie club - like a book club - and we'd meet via Zoom every 2 weeks to discuss.  5 couples, each person got to choose 3 movies and then we let Random Number Generator choose the winner.  The only hitch was that movies had to be available on platforms like Netflix or Amazon which we all had access to.

The movie this last week was Manchester By the Sea.  Ugh.  The most depressing movie after one of the most depressing weeks of news EVER.  I don't recommend it.  Unless you want to see a family in complete turmoil who have no ability to cope or come together during the winter in a small town in Mass.   .  Yeah, I guess Casey Affleck did a fine job of being morose. 

Any way - next up is Ferris Bueller's Day Off which I've seen about 20 times.  Talk about a change up!  At least it's going to be good to laugh.

That was indeed a depressing movie. Some good performances though, but not something I'll ever find myself wanting to go back to.

[Stadler]

That latter movie might be a perfect movie.   DeNiro really walking the line between the excessive control of Rothstein while making his "blindspot" for Ginger believable.   Stone was FANTASTIC in that movie.  Pesci did his usual schtick without it coming off as schtick, which is an achievement in itself.

Watched this for the first time in ages a few weeks ago. Really, it only suffers for not being Goodfellas. It's very good, but Goodfellas is a perfect movie. And to be honest, while I thought DeNiro did a fantastic job, I really didn't like Ace very much. He was inflexible to a fault, and he was a dipshit for putting his trust in Ginger. One thing I did find interesting about it was that Pesci played essentially the same character in both movies. At first I thought it was kind of cheap. Then I read about Antony Spillatro, and it turned out that Pesci was perfect for him. Tommy Devito was just Pesci paying a gangster. Nicky Sontoro was a perfect representation of a real life person who just happened to be a lot like Tommy Devito.

I read somewhere that for one of the scenes filmed in a real casino (they could film around the tables, but not in the counting rooms and whatnot), when Pesci walked in in full makeup/costume, some security guards that knew Spillatro - who is banned from casinos - had to be reminded what was going on.   That's how much he looked the part.  It's probably worth googling the real Ace Rothstein (Frank Rosenthal) and Ginger McKenna (Geri McGee) to see what they looked like; there's one photo of the real Ginger and Nicky (Geri and Anthony) and it's interesting; Pesci and Stone do look the part; moreso than DeNiro.

There was a little less... cartoon to Santoro than Tommy DeVito.   (By the way, the REAL Tommy DeVito - he of "Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons fame - appears in Casino.  That's another fascinating story.) 

[Stadler]

Brokeback Mountain.   Good film.  It's always interesting to watch films like that with a degree of water under the bridge, to remove some of the "hype" and sociological impacts of the subject matter and/or the actors.   At the time, there was a groundswell of support for both Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger, a swell that was amplified by Heath's passing. 

In the lens of hindsight, it was a very good movie, with some flaws.  There was a lot unsaid, and that worked magically at some points, and was frustrating at others.  It worked in the context of not going crazy to "define" either main character in terms of their sexual preferences, and at certain plot points (I'm no Anne Hathaway fan, but that scene of her and Ennis on the phone was breathtaking.  Watching her dawning realization was a beautiful bit of acting.)  It was frustrating in other circumstances; I found the sequence in the kitchen at Jack's house to be frustrating.   It was both in the context of Jack's... outcome: what actually happened?   Also, what did Ennis "swear" to at the end? 

One thing I really liked was how deftly Lee made Jack and Ennis two very different characters in terms of their approach to their relationship, in their libido, in terms of their handling of the "rest" of their lives... it was really well done. Sometimes when films jump from time frame to time frame, it's messy, and it's too easy to force continuity in order to reduce that messiness.  Lee did a great job of keeping each character true through the various time arcs. 

(Side note; I watched the movie with my wife and daughter, and the scene at the end was moving for me; I don't have an "Jack" - male or female - in my life, but certainly I'm not at all interested in running down my sexual CV with her.  It was interesting to think how many secrets we - collective, not just me - must have on the regular.  I don't think of my parents in any way like that; my dad has been handicapped since I was a young boy (to my knowledge that doesn't preclude sex, just makes it more difficult, I guess) so it's just been assumed that he and my mom had a vanilla experience, but who really knows?)

[Stadler]

Drive with Ryan Gossling and Casey Mulligan, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.   

I actually don't know what to make of this film.  Made in 2011, it REEKS of '80's (we kept asking if it wanted to be "Fast and Furious"), and one of the better soundtracks I've heard in a while (Katt would LOVE it).   The problem is, it's actually two, maybe three movies in one.  The first 30, 40 minutes or so there's like 20 words spoken.   Most of the interaction is between Gosling and Mulligan and they say almost nothing to each other.   But then, it turns Tarantino-ish, without the dry humor, then into a mob flick, then into... I'm not sure what.    I'll try not to give the ending, if people want to watch it, but while I absolutely do not go in for the typical Hollywood ending, that was really the only ending that made any sense.  It's kind of bewildering how this went down. 

GREAT actors in this though:  Gosling, Mulligan, Albert Brooks (playing against type), Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman (playing to type), Christina Hendricks (for all of about 6 minutes)...

EDIT:  Mike makes mention of this film (and the director) in part 2 of his survey of his record collection.  He has another Refn soundtrack in his vinyl collection.

[KevShmev]

Brokeback Mountain.   Good film.  It's always interesting to watch films like that with a degree of water under the bridge, to remove some of the "hype" and sociological impacts of the subject matter and/or the actors.   At the time, there was a groundswell of support for both Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger, a swell that was amplified by Heath's passing. 

In the lens of hindsight, it was a very good movie, with some flaws.  There was a lot unsaid, and that worked magically at some points, and was frustrating at others.  It worked in the context of not going crazy to "define" either main character in terms of their sexual preferences, and at certain plot points (I'm no Anne Hathaway fan, but that scene of her and Ennis on the phone was breathtaking.  Watching her dawning realization was a beautiful bit of acting.  It was frustrating in other circumstances; I found the sequence in the kitchen at Jack's house to be frustrating.   It was both in the context of Jack's... outcome: what actually happened?   Also, what did Ennis "swear" to at the end? 

One thing I really liked was how deftly Lee made Jack and Ennis two very different characters in terms of their approach to their relationship, in their libido, in terms of their handling of the "rest" of their lives... it was really well done. Sometimes when films jump from time frame to time frame, it's messy, and it's too easy to force continuity in order to reduce that messiness.  Lee did a great job of keeping each character true through the various time arcs. 

(Side note; I watched the movie with my wife and daughter, and the scene at the end was moving for me; I don't have an "Jack" - male or female - in my life, but certainly I'm not at all interested in running down my sexual CV with her.  It was interesting to think how many secrets we - collective, not just me - must have on the regular.  I don't think of my parents in any way like that; my dad has been handicapped since I was a young boy (to my knowledge that doesn't preclude sex, just makes it more difficult, I guess) so it's just been assumed that he and my mom had a vanilla experience, but who really knows?)

I saw this again recently as well and it has held up well. Tremendous acting across the board, and the cinematography is top notch.

The “Jack, I swear...” at the end was perfect as it can be taken in several different ways.

[Stadler]

What did you take?   "I swear...."
- I'll never forget you?
- I'll never take another?
- I'll be truer to myself?
- I'll be a better father than we had for us?

All of those? 

[KevShmev]

What did you take?   "I swear...."
- I'll never forget you?
- I'll never take another?
- I'll be truer to myself?
- I'll be a better father than we had for us?

All of those?

I took as if he was both irritated and touched by Jack’s gesture of saving the shirts and hanging them together the way he did. Irritated cause Ennis always seemed to want to keep their relationship and gestures superficially at arm’s length, although there were moments where he couldn’t hold back, like when he aggressively embraced Jack years later (when Alma accidentally saw them). The duality of Ennis’ attitude towards their entire relationship was summed up perfectly in that one final line, IMO.

[axeman90210]

Oh man, Casino is one of my all-time favorites (and I'd say I prefer it to Goodfellas). So many nights where I was flipping channels for something to watch for a few minutes before bed only to find Casino just starting and immediately resigned myself to being up for another couple hours.

I went to a screening of it last fall with Nicholas Pileggi (writer of the nonfiction books Goodfellas and Casino are both based on, and co-writer of the movie scripts with Scorsese), and he dropped what is now my favorite piece of movie trivia: The real-life version of Frank Vincent's character, Frank Marino (Pesci's right-hand man) was a guy named Frank Cullotta. He became a state witness at the end of the events Casino was based on, receiving immunity for his crimes (including multiple murders) in the process. He became one of the most helpful sources Pileggi had in writing his book, because of his immunity he had no hesitation in talking about everything that went down. That led to him getting hired as a technical advisor on set for the filming of the movie. Now fast forward and they're filming that brief scene of someone getting killed in the backyard of a vila in Central or South America during the montage of people getting whacked, and Cullotta is there and as they're getting footage he's telling Scorsese that it's not quite right. Turns out this was one of the hits he did and subsequently got immunity for. So now he's on set basically re-enacting this murder that he had committed. They go back to filming and the actor playing the hitman just isn't getting some of the movements and subtleties of it right. So they said fuck it and just had Cullotta film it. The guy got a cameo in Casino recreating a murder he had committed in real life

[Stadler]

That's a great story!   I remember watching that scene and saying to my wife "there's nothing quite like an old Italian man in a track suit".   Little did I know!   

[Adami]

I'll also add my love for Casino. I also love Goodfellas, but if you ask me which one Id rather watch on a random day? I'm picking Casino.

[Kotowboy]

I re-watched The Martian on Netflix.

Still holds up.

I love how Ridley recycled some scenes from Prometheus. It's like he thought I can do better

Plus it just goes to show what he's capable of when he has a decent script.

Not "Damon Lindelof's Chekovs Gun : The Movie"...

[El Barto]

I guess I'm in the minority. I greatly preferred Goodfellas. Casino was very good, but not quite what I wanted. Goodfellas had plenty of dark humor spread throughout the film that was lacking in Casino. Not a chuckle to be found, and that made the tone of the whole thing a lot darker. I also liked the principle characters in GF. I +-didn't like anybody in Casino. Ace was an idiot. Ginger was a basket-case. Nicky was actually the most likeable of the lot, and he was an out and out psychopath. While the folks in GF certainly had their flaws, you were still rooting for them. There's another point I appreciated which most people didn't pick up on, which is that Henry was right about everything. There really were helicopters following him. His girlfriend really did need to clean up after herself. His babysitter really shouldn't use an inside line. He knew how to play the game, but didn't bother making sure his people followed the rules, which was of course his downfall. Ace didn't get a damn thing right.

[KevShmev]

Oh, I am with you, Barto.  I love Casino, but Goodfellas is a top 5 all-time film for me.  Speaking of the babysitter, I always chuckle during the montage where she first comes back with a baby and some of Henry's drugs, because she is wearing that damn hat.

[Adami]

You're definitely not in the minority Bart. I'm actually surprised a few other people like Casino. As far as I knew, Goodfellas was gold tier and Casino was maybe 4 levels below.

[faizoff]

Same here, Casino is amazing but Goodfellas is God tier and in my top 5 movies of all time. I never tire of it.

[Chino]

Goodfellas slays it.

[Cool Chris]

I've never seen Casino. But I do enjoy this Casino/Sesame Street mash-up.

When I think about Goodfellas, it is always "eh, it was a pretty good movie, not worth all the praise it gets." Whenever I channel surf the TV and see it is on, I think "OH HELL YES GOODFELLAS IS ON!!"

Edit... that made me think of this clip of Joe Pesci talking about a Goodfellas scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K41aQFatDA

[Stadler]

I guess I'm in the minority. I greatly preferred Goodfellas. Casino was very good, but not quite what I wanted. Goodfellas had plenty of dark humor spread throughout the film that was lacking in Casino. Not a chuckle to be found, and that made the tone of the whole thing a lot darker. I also liked the principle characters in GF. I +-didn't like anybody in Casino. Ace was an idiot. Ginger was a basket-case. Nicky was actually the most likeable of the lot, and he was an out and out psychopath. While the folks in GF certainly had their flaws, you were still rooting for them. There's another point I appreciated which most people didn't pick up on, which is that Henry was right about everything. There really were helicopters following him. His girlfriend really did need to clean up after herself. His babysitter really shouldn't use an inside line. He knew how to play the game, but didn't bother making sure his people followed the rules, which was of course his downfall. Ace didn't get a damn thing right.

It's a weird thing for me; they get compared so often - Scorcese, Pileggi, Pesci, Italians, mob - but for me that's misleading.  It's not like comparing... Star Wars to Star Trek, or When Harry Met Sally with whatever Rob Reiner/Nora Ephron romcom you want to use.   I think Goodfellas is about the mob, and Casino is about Vegas, and that's a key difference.   In New York, you have these "idiots" running around in their playground and it's darkly humorous and interesting.  This is their life and their home.   In Vegas, these idiots - not in quotes now - were not on their home turf and never quite got that.  Even Rothstein was ultimately knocked back down, and he was the closest to understanding what it took.   I think one of the subtexts is that it WASN'T home, it wasn't funny, and it was a story about how what worked in New York didn't work in Vegas.   There were threads of this in The Godfather, too, though it was more tangential. 

I don't disagree with your analysis, and I too probably prefer Goodfellas for the reasons you state; it's more "fun" to watch Goodfellas and quote the lines and laugh at Pesci (though am I the only one that doesn't think the "what do you mean I'm funny" is all that great?).   

[El Barto]

I guess I'm in the minority. I greatly preferred Goodfellas. Casino was very good, but not quite what I wanted. Goodfellas had plenty of dark humor spread throughout the film that was lacking in Casino. Not a chuckle to be found, and that made the tone of the whole thing a lot darker. I also liked the principle characters in GF. I +-didn't like anybody in Casino. Ace was an idiot. Ginger was a basket-case. Nicky was actually the most likeable of the lot, and he was an out and out psychopath. While the folks in GF certainly had their flaws, you were still rooting for them. There's another point I appreciated which most people didn't pick up on, which is that Henry was right about everything. There really were helicopters following him. His girlfriend really did need to clean up after herself. His babysitter really shouldn't use an inside line. He knew how to play the game, but didn't bother making sure his people followed the rules, which was of course his downfall. Ace didn't get a damn thing right.

It's a weird thing for me; they get compared so often - Scorcese, Pileggi, Pesci, Italians, mob - but for me that's misleading.  It's not like comparing... Star Wars to Star Trek, or When Harry Met Sally with whatever Rob Reiner/Nora Ephron romcom you want to use.   I think Goodfellas is about the mob, and Casino is about Vegas, and that's a key difference.   In New York, you have these "idiots" running around in their playground and it's darkly humorous and interesting.  This is their life and their home.   In Vegas, these idiots - not in quotes now - were not on their home turf and never quite got that.  Even Rothstein was ultimately knocked back down, and he was the closest to understanding what it took.   I think one of the subtexts is that it WASN'T home, it wasn't funny, and it was a story about how what worked in New York didn't work in Vegas.   There were threads of this in The Godfather, too, though it was more tangential. 

I don't disagree with your analysis, and I too probably prefer Goodfellas for the reasons you state; it's more "fun" to watch Goodfellas and quote the lines and laugh at Pesci (though am I the only one that doesn't think the "what do you mean I'm funny" is all that great?).

You make a good point about the theme being different, but at the same time they kind of are the same movie. You've got voiceover narration from the principle characters from beginning to end. The killer soundtracks playing over set pieces. Monkey Man with the coke distribution or Can't You Hear me Knockin with Nicky's crime spree. A pseudo-biography showing the successes and failures of a close-knit group of people. The morals might be different, but the movie is the same.

[SoundscapeMN]

I noticed this posted on another forum and thought it would be worth sharing.

I count 33 of these I've seen. Some of them are favorites like Eternal Sunshine and Synecdoche, NY.

And among the ones I have not seen, some I know and don't care to see, but some others I have no clue about and am curious about.

[ChuckSteak]

I saw 83 out of these and some are really not that mindfuck.

Midsommar is a horrible movie.

[KevShmev]

How is Rocky IV not on the list?  Minds everywhere were f'd when the Russian crowd starting cheering for Rocky.

[faizoff]

Yeah seen 58 of those. Several on my watchlist already. Own about 30 of them.

[jingle.boy]

ooof... Only seen 13.

[lordxizor]

29 for me that I can remember off the top of my head. There are a few more than I can't recall having seen.

[NoseofNicko]

About 80. I might have forgotten some.

[Adami]

I’ve seen around 103 of those. I’m obviously awesome.

[jjrock88]

I haven’t watched Clockwork Orange for a long time but I remember thinking that movie was pretty screwy.

[axeman90210]

33 total for me

[gmillerdrake]

27 for me.

[El Barto]

Only 17, and disliked most of them. Just don't like mindfucks for the sake of mind fucking.

[King Postwhore]

Only 19 for me.

[faizoff]

I wouldn't really label some of those movies on the list as mindfuck. I mean Groundhog day is a comedy with some deep meaning and philosophy thrown in but I woulw hardly categorize it as messing with your mind as much.

[Cool Chris]

24 at quick glance. Some of those movies, like that pile of crap Magnolia, not only f*cked my mind but my wallet out of my hard earned money to waste 2 hours of my life.

How is Rocky IV not on the list? 

This is at least the second time you've referenced that movie in the past week!

[Kotowboy]

Last night I watched  AVATAR again. Still love it

Tonight I watched GEOSTORM cause I fancied something entertaining but s--t  . It's directed by one of the writers of Independence Day and it was basically 2012 again.

Although whereas 2012 was complete and utter cack - I thought GEOSTORM was 'so bad it's good'. Actually not as flat out dreadful and po-faced as 2012.

Kind of like The Core - where it's almost taking the piss out of itself and knows exactly what it is.