Weekly thread - What movies have you watched this week? 30/07/2025
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I watched 'In the Heat of the Night' (1967). Good film, but I was a little surprised to see that it was nominated for 7 Oscars and won 5, including Best Picture. It relies very heavily on the dynamics between the main characters and its major themes; the mystery plot is secondary/background to everything else and feels quite underdeveloped. I guess it is a product of its time in many ways and the major messages, whilst still relevant, don't have the same impact nearly 60 years later.
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The Big Heat (1953)
4/5Fritz can sure direct a movie. A rarity where I’m glued to the screen the entire time. Glenn Ford is definitely not your typical lead but it’s certainly a powerful performance.
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
4.5/5Smiled the whole time. I want to live in this incredibly colorful world.
Paris, Texas (1984)
5/5Finished the last 45 minutes or so after being unable to finish it a couple months back. What a beautiful film. Some truly emotional, very long cuts at the end are quite remarkable. Stanton puts on one hell of a performance.
Blue Collar (1978)
4.5/5All three of our protagonists really nail it. The whole movie is raw, from the fact that it’s Shrader’s first go at it, to the soundtrack, to the gritty, dangerous work of building cars in the 70s. Prior somehow manages to standout even with Keitel and Kotto putting in strong performances.
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972)
4.5/5I just watched it today and it took over half an hour for my brain to start forming a string of thoughts again. I was utterly captivated. The dub is terrible. Shot-to-shot congruity is nonexistent. The environment is steadily more alien. The hubris and brutality of man is on full display. It’s a boon that’s there’s very little spoken word and even less actual dialogue. I am in utter awe of the sheer audacity of even attempting to tell a story in such a remote location in the 70s. I felt like Kinski was gonna reach through the screen and throttle me at any moment.
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Ghost of War (2020) - Decent WW2 Nazi occult horror that turned out to be somewhat unique. It's not a great movie, but I think fans of horror/thrillers will enjoy it.
Les Visiteurs (1993) - French comedy from my childhood with Christian Claver and Jean Reno. A fun middle ages to the 90s time travel comedy. A little stupid at times, but funny and wholesome.
Orion's Key (1996) - A dumb scifi-action b-movie about an alien artifact found in Africa. I enjoyed it, but I would only recommend it if you like sci-fi and 90s b-movies.
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City Hunter 4/5: This shit was so fucking goofy, but honestly it leaned into it just the right amount. Funny, horny, and also kind of exactly the same plot as season 1 of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World 3/5: This is a great dad movie. Just a lot of really well done ship drama, and well acted. Not mind blowing but not atrocious either
I Know What You did Last Summer (2025) 2.5/5: I liked it better than the original. It had to spend some time doing references to the old one which made it spend less time on the nonsense plot, which is to its benefit. Also I'm younger and the young people jokes landed better than the old one did
Eddington 2/5: Ignoring the insane incident that happened to me at the theater, this is basically Don't Look Up but for 2020 instead of climate change. It's less tone deaf and condescending but still kinda sucks at delivering its less than paper thin message
The Core 3/5: I know this movie is frequently regarded as one of the least scientifically accurate movies ever made, but that's kinda what I like about it. I said a similar thing about Looper recently but when a movie basically stares down the barrel of the camera and says "stop thinking too hard about it nerd" I have some respect. The early 2000s disaster movie needs to come back
Superman (2025) 3/5: There's several things I genuinely appreciate about this movie: it's goofy as hell, they use DC characters we haven't seen a million times, Superman isn't complicated, he genuinely wants to be as good as possible. However it gets really slow in parts and a lot of the camera work was so weird it actively brought me out of the movie to ask, who the fuck chose to do this?
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I watched 'In the Heat of the Night' (1967). Good film, but I was a little surprised to see that it was nominated for 7 Oscars and won 5, including Best Picture. It relies very heavily on the dynamics between the main characters and its major themes; the mystery plot is secondary/background to everything else and feels quite underdeveloped. I guess it is a product of its time in many ways and the major messages, whilst still relevant, don't have the same impact nearly 60 years later.
See: I rewatched this a while ago after not seeing it for more than a decade and I came away thinking, "This holds up so well. Everything in it is still relevant." We still have the same sorts of racism, in-group dynamics, cross-cultural issues and on and on. Mostly, though, I can't take my eyes off Sidney Poitier.
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Waking Life (2001)
An oneiric odyssey where rotoscoped reality liquefies into liminal instances. Dialogues cascade like Schrödinger’s thought bubbles, questions unanswered and compounding in synaptic fireworks. To experience this symposium of the soul is to drift between Wittgenstein and wonder. Less a film to watch, than a cinematic defibrillator for lifelong dormant minds.The Man from Earth (2007)
A peripatetic thought experiment emerges when an extraordinary claim ignites intellectual spelunking within one cabin room. The claustrophobic setting both vanishes the budget constraints and intensifies the hypnotic existential sparring, alas the professors parries with pedestrian questions as if undergrads. Still, the verbal wildfire proves gripping until the ending indurates ambiguity into tragic literalism. Proof that ideas, not effects, ignites cinema's campfire.Better Man (2024)
"They say your life freezes at the age you become famous. So I am fifteen. I'm stunted. I'm unevolved."
This confession elevates docudrama blueprints into tragic self-portraiture. Fame's arrested development isn't just explored; it's autopsied with candour, exposing addiction and atrophied maturity with startling vulnerability avoiding redemption porn. Songs reverb organically from narrative score, harmonizing with every scene in perfect rhythm. Piece by Piece’s CGI gimmick crumbles as a futile distraction; here, it's the thesis.The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Atomic-age chic and family-first ethos inject momentary vitality into Marvel’s creative decay. A vibrant, flawed retro-comic panel where the margins outshine the central splash page as it stumbles from trite comic-villain sins^1^ and subplots disintegrate like unstable molecules. Marvel's first family remain hopeful with wobbly first steps.
1
::: spoiler spoiler
All the more egregious as it's Galactus and Silver Surfer.
:::Prince of Darkness (1987)
Quantum babble meets apocalyptic theology. Cinema's longest opening credits putting Spaceballs' to shame sets the tone of things to come: "competent" grad students sprint headlong into horror stupidity, science transmogrifies to séance, and eldritch horror reduced to ectoplasm. Carpenter's surprising synth-drenched atmosphere salvages our ears. No Thing, but its campy bastard sibling. -
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- Becoming Led Zeppelin (2025): Documentary. I don't know if it would appeal to anyone outside the fanbase, but I enjoyed it.
- On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024): I'm on a little bit of an African binge, and this film worked for me. We watch Shula interact with her extended family after finding her uncle laying dead by the road. Those unfamiliar with her culture (like myself) learn certain customs and mores while learning about the dead uncle and his family with most the voices coming from the women.
- Beau Is Afraid (2023): Surrealist story of a man riddled with anxiety. fear, and neuroses. At almost 3 hours long, I kept thinking Pink Floyd's Mother was a more succinct exploration of the same character in less than six minutes -- but that's not really fair because it is part of the double album The Wall (1h 21m), which has its own surrealist movie (1h 35m).
- Sisters (1973): Early Brian De Palma thriller. Well, 'early' in the feature film sense. I'm not saying it is fantastic, but he does a good job with a limited budget.
- Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021): Why did I bother? I should know by now that SNL people generally make stupid movies. It was certainly the lightest and happiest movie of the week.
- Street Scene (1931): Pre-code story about people at an apartment building in NYC. I really liked this call back to a bygone era.
- Gentleman's Agreement (1947): Gregory Peck plays a writer who pretends to be Jewish to feel what it is like to face American antisemitism. It felt appropriate to watch given the ongoing horrors in Israel, but as a movie it is only so-so.
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Waking Life (2001)
An oneiric odyssey where rotoscoped reality liquefies into liminal instances. Dialogues cascade like Schrödinger’s thought bubbles, questions unanswered and compounding in synaptic fireworks. To experience this symposium of the soul is to drift between Wittgenstein and wonder. Less a film to watch, than a cinematic defibrillator for lifelong dormant minds.The Man from Earth (2007)
A peripatetic thought experiment emerges when an extraordinary claim ignites intellectual spelunking within one cabin room. The claustrophobic setting both vanishes the budget constraints and intensifies the hypnotic existential sparring, alas the professors parries with pedestrian questions as if undergrads. Still, the verbal wildfire proves gripping until the ending indurates ambiguity into tragic literalism. Proof that ideas, not effects, ignites cinema's campfire.Better Man (2024)
"They say your life freezes at the age you become famous. So I am fifteen. I'm stunted. I'm unevolved."
This confession elevates docudrama blueprints into tragic self-portraiture. Fame's arrested development isn't just explored; it's autopsied with candour, exposing addiction and atrophied maturity with startling vulnerability avoiding redemption porn. Songs reverb organically from narrative score, harmonizing with every scene in perfect rhythm. Piece by Piece’s CGI gimmick crumbles as a futile distraction; here, it's the thesis.The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Atomic-age chic and family-first ethos inject momentary vitality into Marvel’s creative decay. A vibrant, flawed retro-comic panel where the margins outshine the central splash page as it stumbles from trite comic-villain sins^1^ and subplots disintegrate like unstable molecules. Marvel's first family remain hopeful with wobbly first steps.
1
::: spoiler spoiler
All the more egregious as it's Galactus and Silver Surfer.
:::Prince of Darkness (1987)
Quantum babble meets apocalyptic theology. Cinema's longest opening credits putting Spaceballs' to shame sets the tone of things to come: "competent" grad students sprint headlong into horror stupidity, science transmogrifies to séance, and eldritch horror reduced to ectoplasm. Carpenter's surprising synth-drenched atmosphere salvages our ears. No Thing, but its campy bastard sibling.Re: The Man from Earth -- there's a sequel . It isn't as good but I had to try it after seeing the first one.
My personal feeling on Waking Life is: it wants to be smarter than it is.
I know I watched Prince of Darkness in the theaters way back when, but I guess I ought to re-watch it because every detail has evaporated from memory... though perhaps that's an indicator that it wouldn't be worth a re-watch. Instead, I'm remembering Angel Heart from the same year. I'm not saying Angel Heart is great, but I remember a lot of that one and none of the other.
Based on your description of Better Man, I'm still not sure if I'll watch it. I missed his Take That years, but I've seen Robbie Williams sing on Graham Norton and some British specials, particularly when he hosted a New Year's show. On that one, there was a point where he shook hands with a fan and then made a face. He got called out for it and explained (on Graham, maybe?) that the hand was WET. Do I need to know more about this guy?
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See: I rewatched this a while ago after not seeing it for more than a decade and I came away thinking, "This holds up so well. Everything in it is still relevant." We still have the same sorts of racism, in-group dynamics, cross-cultural issues and on and on. Mostly, though, I can't take my eyes off Sidney Poitier.
Yes, he had so much presence. Commands every scene he's in!
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Re: The Man from Earth -- there's a sequel . It isn't as good but I had to try it after seeing the first one.
My personal feeling on Waking Life is: it wants to be smarter than it is.
I know I watched Prince of Darkness in the theaters way back when, but I guess I ought to re-watch it because every detail has evaporated from memory... though perhaps that's an indicator that it wouldn't be worth a re-watch. Instead, I'm remembering Angel Heart from the same year. I'm not saying Angel Heart is great, but I remember a lot of that one and none of the other.
Based on your description of Better Man, I'm still not sure if I'll watch it. I missed his Take That years, but I've seen Robbie Williams sing on Graham Norton and some British specials, particularly when he hosted a New Year's show. On that one, there was a point where he shook hands with a fan and then made a face. He got called out for it and explained (on Graham, maybe?) that the hand was WET. Do I need to know more about this guy?
I read that the sequel to TMFE is to be missed and as I was deeply dismayed by the end revelation, it would require a commendation from you or others to place it onto the watchlist.
That's perfectly reasonable as it was similar to my initial reaction as well. Upon further contemplation, the fever dream that is 'Waking Life' isn't only about asking the questions - of which I readily admit some struck me as prosaic - but works as an excellent introduction to the majority of people who go through life like one of Heraclitus' sleepers. In addition, it faithfully renders the disjointed experiences of a psychedelic experience.
Perhaps your rewatch will be enjoyed more than mine due insight into the time or nostalgia.
Hey! Quit naming movies already on my watchlist so I'm tempted to push it up the queue.I'll be honest, Take That's latter albums are much more my era (to which I also prefer), as a result, I came into this mostly blind. If you do watch it and leave a review, feel welcome to tag me so that I am apprised!
