Tag: three sentence movies

This is a film noir that I would recommend to someone looking for a film noir.* Aside from the frankly unbelievable speed at which the characters fell in love, this was a taut little thriller with some good twists and turns. I also enjoyed the importance of the Dictaphone to the plot of the movie.

Cost: free from libarary
Where watched: at home.

*I’ve probably only seen two other film noirs, but I found this to be quite engaging.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2018/double_indemnity.html

Here are the scratch-off pictures:

Sorry for the blurry first picture; I like the reveal.
This movie is so good. Totally worth the watch.

I should probably re-watch this one, due to seeing it 20+ years ago and also very late at night.

Do you want to scratch your movie poster itch? Get the scratch off poster here.

I wasn’t going to like this movie and I didn’t.* As I told my workmate: I don’t do torture and I don’t do animals in peril and this movie had a lot of both. However, in pulling apart the pieces that make the whole, I can report that the movie had excellent acting, good story and awesome set design.

Cost: $6.00
Where watched: Hollywood Theatre with S. North, who didn’t like it either. (She doesn’t do fantasy.)

*Even the previews of Guillermo del Toro movies creep me out. Pan’s Labyrinth, I’m looking at you!

[Side note: This is the third movie I’ve watched in a month where Michael Stuhlbarg has a role.  He was the dad in Call Me By Your Name; the owner of the New York Times in The Post, and he plays a scientist in this film.  In all of these roles he is very different, almost unrecognizable.  Good job Mr. Stuhlbarg.]

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2017/shape_of_water.html

I found this to be a nice, solid drama with great performances all around. After I’ve seen a film, I try not to read other people’s reviews before I’ve written mine. In this case, I’ve failed and some other Letterboxd reviewer’s words express my feelings: this was a perfectly good film, but the entire time I was watching it, I wondered why I wasn’t re-watching Call Me By Your Name or The Shape of Water. *

Cost: $8.00 (So expensive! I know!  I was invited though, and it’s a neighborhood theater)
Where watched: St. John’s Twin Cinema with Kelly.

*The Shape of Water was not my thing, but the sentiment remains the same.  A fine film, but not good enough to surpass a re-watch of a really good film.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2017/post.html

Even though this is written and directed by a man, I think this is the kind of film we would see a lot more of, if more women were in charge in Hollywood.  Here, you’ve got a good slice-of-life with Binoche and Stewart as actress/assistant during a turning point in Binoche’s career.  It’s engrossing to watch the characters talk about art and life while observing and sometimes commenting on their life choices.*

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*The landscape is also quite beautiful.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/misc/2014/clouds_of_sils_maria.html

Thanks to the excellent Mudbound, I found Dee Rees and was able to see her first film, which is an excellent portrayal of a young woman’s coming of age; one complicated when she doesn’t fit in the boxes her parents have checked off for her.  Adepero Oduye is a controlled (and frustrated) Alike and Kim Wayans brings it as her trying-to-be-oblivious-while-also-controlling mother. This movie is a good reminder that even as our culture becomes increasingly queer positive, there are still a lot of harrowing individual journeys.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2011/pariah.html

This 1937 version* is yet another 1930s movie that is fabulous to watch.** In this non-musical version, Janet Gaynor is charming as the fresh-faced aspiring actress while Fredric March charms as an actor on a downward slide.***  There’s a lot of good stuff about love****, and the trappings of alcoholism, back when it was something to be hidden.

Cost: free from library via Hoopla (for this movie, I figured out how to watch Hoopla via the app on the TV.  It’s a little bit wonky, but works great once you figure out all the steps.)
Where watched: at home.

*Regular commenter Jan watched the 1954 version and alerted me to the fact there will be four versions, once the 2018 one is released.  Four versions of the same movie? With the exact same title?  There was no way I was leaving that alone.
**Though it presents a very different lifestyle than my previous 1930’s movie: The Grapes of Wrath.
***Also very good was Andy Devine, playing Gaynor’s friend Danny.
***Both of career/movies and romantic love.

Poster from: https://alchetron.com/A-Star-Is-Born-(1937-film)

A “classic film” that is gripping to watch, rather than something to be gotten through so you can check it off your list.  Henry Fonda is good, but Jane Darwell as Ma Joad steals every scene.  Also interesting: to see how different things were 35 years before my birth.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1940/grapes_of_wrath_ver2.html

This is one of my favorite scratch-offs so far.
The first time I watched this classic was at a free movie showing on Boston Common.

I found this one rather predictable.

He’s a straight white male mostly telling stories from the limited perspective of well-off, neurotic straight white males.*  So why do I find his movies so delightful, more often than not?  You’ll watch this movie for stellar performances from Sandler** and Stiller, and if you are me, you will ignore all the parts with Grace Van Patten’s student films (which were a repeating joke that wasn’t really funny the first time.)

Cost: Netflix charge
Where watched: at home

*Most of whom I wouldn’t be that interested in spending time with in real life.
**If all of Adam Sandler’s performances were as good as this one, he would be an actor I sought out more often than one I took a pass on.

Poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2017/meyerowitz_stories.html

Margot Robbie is amazing as Tonya Harding, in this funny and hard-to-watch story based on interviews given by Harding and Jeff Gillooly, her husband at the time of the ice skating.  It’s tough to watch the abuse both from a parent (an excellent Janney) and the domestic violence* (by the also excellent Sebastian Stan). There is greatness and tragedy in a story that everyone who lived through it the first time has an opinion of plus, the wigs are really on point.

Cost: free due to gift cards
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12 with Matt

*”I have never seen so much domestic violence depicted on film before,” said with a sense of awe by Matt, the DV counselor.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2017/i_tonya.html

The writing sparkled in this 13-episode first-season comedy. While Bell and Danson brought their usual top-of-the-line performances, I also greatly enjoyed William Jackson Harper as Chidi, Jameela Jamil as Tahani, D’Arcy Carden as Janet and Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza.  In short, great cast and great acting, plus funny premise and sharp writing equals quality TV viewing.

Cost: monthly Netflix charge
Where watched: at home, with Matt.

poster from: https://www.tvseriesonline.tv/the-good-place-season-1-episode-4/