Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Sweet Square said:
Yeah the crowd kind of missed that bit as they were too excited about Carpenter. I still need to see Mickey 17 but it’s great to know there’s a horror movie in the works.
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mickey 17 was great. but it’s also nothing different or surprising from what you’d expect after seeing the trailer. it’s a fun movie with a lot of similar themes to his previous work.
 
I watched two Sean Baker films on recent flights for work trips, Red Rocket and The Florida Project. Both were very good.

Red Rocket follows Mikey, a washed up male pornstar, who returns to Texas to shack up with his ex-wife and try to get his life back on track by slinging dope. He becomes enamoured with a 17 year old at the local donut shop, and has grand plans to reignite his career in the adult film industry. It's morally ambiguous and the exploitative part of the film leaves you slightly uneasy, especially because Simon Rex's portrayal of Mikey is so good, so fresh, so full of energy and candour, that you find yourself sympathising with this shit pimp-like character. He's a lowlife living and profitting of others, but he's so sympathetic you at times find yourself siding with him. However, where I found that in Anora this aspect was often mishandled and became too uncomfortable to make an interesting point, this skirts the line in a really clever way. Beyond the main storyline of the film, it has loads of little insights into that section of the US, with great performances from non professional actors. Suzanna Son, in her debut role, radiates as Strawberry, and brings just enough naivety and wide-eyed amazement and hope to the part to make her very believable. Definitely worth a watch.

The Florida Project is excellent. It follows the daily life of Moonee, a 6 year old kid living in a motel with her mother in a cheap shitty motel in Florida close to Disneyland. Filmed from the POV of Moonee, it's casts an empathetic eye on this disenfranchised part of America with tiny bits of their daily lives. It's also quite heartbreaking (I'm unlikely to watch it again), and feel like a modern-day Dickens kind of story. Willem Dafoe is excellent in it, playing the hotel manager handling the day to day shit of the motel, towing the line between stern and kind, and he delivers one of his finest performances. The kid playing Moonee is also great, incredibly natural in her difficult role. She's annoying at times, is a byproduct of her environment that nurtures dishonesty and vulgarity, but also has that childlike innocence and amazement that makes it so engaging to follow her life for a couple of hours. The ending of the film is particularly inspired.

I feel like starting my Baker journey with Anora was to the detriment of my appreciation for him, because both these films were (for me) vastly superior to his Oscar and Palme d'Or winner.
 
They both are better films, The Florida Project especially is, IMHO, one of the best films in recent years. His two films before these, Tangerine (shot with an iPhone) and Starlet were also pretty good.
 
TheRedDevil'sAdvocate said:
They both are better films, The Florida Project especially is, IMHO, one of the best films in recent years. His two films before these, Tangerine (shot with an iPhone) and Starlet were also pretty good.
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Quite comfortably, and agree with your take on Florida Project. Amazing film with all round great performances, and Willem Dafoe in top form. Last few performances I've seen him in were The Lighthouse, Poor Things, Nosferatu, playing the crazy, unhinged parts (which in fairness he does better than anyone else), but it was nice seeing him in a more measured, subtle performance. He's great.

Will also check out Tangerine and Starlet when I can.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
Quite comfortably, and agree with your take on Florida Project. Amazing film with all round great performances, and Willem Dafoe in top form. Last few performances I've seen him in were The Lighthouse, Poor Things, Nosferatu, playing the crazy, unhinged parts (which in fairness he does better than anyone else), but it was nice seeing him in a more measured, subtle performance. He's great.

Will also check out Tangerine and Starlet when I can.
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Defoe is the last great actor that just hasn’t had his victory lap/award season he deserves. He’s been amazing for 40 years. He’s been nominated for an Oscar 4 times: Platoon, Shadow of the Vampire, The Florida Project, At Eternity’s Gate. And he looks great at 69 years old.
 
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Finally had a chance to watch Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga over the weekend. Have to admit it didn't initially have my interest but then when I saw it was on Netflix I thought why not. Have to say it was a lot better than it had a right to be. Some entertaining characters (some familiar from the other recent Mad Max flick), and the action is pretty great. Don't expect a lot of depth here of course, but it felt like a proper Mad Max movie which is about all you can ask for really. Chris Hemsworth with the nose prosthetic and altered voice kind of steals the scenes he's in. Yes it's cheesy in a way but it also made me realize he's perhaps a tad more versatile of an actor than I thought he was.

7/10
 
entropy said:
mickey 17 was great. but it’s also nothing different or surprising from what you’d expect after seeing the trailer. it’s a fun movie with a lot of similar themes to his previous work.
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Thanks for details. I’m looking forward to seeing Mr Pattinson silly voice!

Wing Attack Plan R said:
Defoe is the last great actor that just hasn’t had his victory lap/award season he deserves. He’s been amazing for 40 years. He’s been nominated for an Oscar 4 times: Platoon, Shadow of the Vampire, The Florida Project, At Eternity’s Gate. And he looks great at 69 years old.
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Brilliant film that. Recently watched Paul Schrader Light Sleeper with Defoe playing a drug dealer who can’t sleep.

It’s a nothing incredible(Almost like a tv movie) but Defoe really carries it as the lead. Just a very enjoyable actor to watch in any role.
 
Badunk said:
The Invisible Guest

A young Spanish businessman wakes up in a hotel room with the police banging on the door, and the woman he's been having an affair with lying dead in the bathroom surrounded by loads of money. He gets out on bail and hires a prestigious lawyer to defend him. They go over his defence, retracing the events that led up to the night in question.

I don't want to say any more. Go into it blind. One of the best films I've seen in a long time.

10/10
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You are on the hook for this, buddy.
Sweet Square said:
Thanks for details. I’m looking forward to seeing Mr Pattinson silly voice!


Brilliant film that. Recently watched Paul Schrader Light Sleeper with Defoe playing a drug dealer who can’t sleep.

It’s a nothing incredible(Almost like a tv movie) but Defoe really carries it as the lead. Just a very enjoyable actor to watch in any role.
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iu
 
Rooney in Paris said:
Went to see I'm still here (Ainda estou aqui) a couple of days ago, and loved it. Over the past year or so I've come to view (and enjoy) a lot of films through a more meta perspective, or being particularly conscious of the director's intentions or whatever. There's nothing of that here - it's just a simple, true story told in a very simple way by Walter Salles.

It's the story of Rubens Paiva, a Brazilian engineer who was a deputy before the coup that installed a military dictature, and his family living their lives in Rio in 1970. Arbitrarily, Rubens gets taken by the military police for questionning, and the rest of the film explores what happens after that, focusing on his wife's fight and tenacity.

It's a superb film. I'm often critical of biopics when they're about famous people's rise to glory as I find them very formulaic and devoid of cinematic interest. This isn't the case here; I thought Walter Salles' approach to the story was great - the first half hour are scenes of the Paiva's daily lives, bathed in the sun and beauty of Ipanema (opening the film on a shot of the Dois Irmaos, in my current state of Brazilian saudade, was a gut punch tbh). Fernanda Torres is majestic in the role of Eunice, Rubens' wife, conveying her suffering, love for her family and resilience in a beautifully balanced performance - but she is extremely well supported by an ensemble cast that are all excellent. The guy playing Rubens, all the kids, they're all perfect and the relationships feel so organic and real. It's the real strength of the film, creating a strong connection to the Paiva family and going through their anguish and pain with them as events unfold. Walter Salles' camera is virtuoso, fly on the wall kind of stuff capturing small, beautiful moments of poetry - a father dancing with his daughter, a father affectionately giving into his son's desire to play foosball after bedtime, a husband lovingly getting his wife a sorbet and equating it to her beauty... The chemistry is absolutely perfect all around and is extremely pleasing.

I loved the film. I believe it would be enjoyable even for anyone that has no particular connection to Brazil, it's an interesting reminder of how recent that dictatorship was there and how much the country is still healing in certain ways. And Fernanda Torres absolutely should have won the oscar - towering performance, full of nuance and intelligence. Incredible actress.
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Have to agree with all of this. A truly excellent film that resisted the urge to portray the violence of the regime in graphic detail (it was all vocal, rather than visual), and focused on the quiet determination of Eunice to get to the truth of what happened to her husband. It was your review that made me put it on my wishlist, so thank you.
 
Badunk said:
Have to agree with all of this. A truly excellent film that resisted the urge to portray the violence of the regime in graphic detail (it was all vocal, rather than visual), and focused on the quiet determination of Eunice to get to the truth of what happened to her husband. It was your review that made me put it on my wishlist, so thank you.
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You're welcome mate, and glad you enjoyed it. Makes me remember I didn't thank you @Sweet Square for recommending The Florida Project because I'm not sure I would have watched it without you mentioning it positively in our exchanges about Anora!
 
Rooney in Paris said:
Makes me remember I didn't thank you @Sweet Square for recommending The Florida Project because I'm not sure I would have watched it without you mentioning it positively in our exchanges about Anora!
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Cheers. Glad you liked it. It’s a really great piece of working class cinema and imo Baker best work.

Doesn’t fall into the usual traps of only showing how depressing life can be for the poor(A lot of directors seem to think misery = meaning). While also at the same showing the complexity of their lives.

While I did enjoy Anora as a fun comedy it is very different to the rest of Baker work. Funny that’s the film which won him the Oscar.
 
entropy said:
infuriating how much the media chooses to normalize this type of violence.
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What is 'the media' here? US and/or UK? I'm asking since this has gotten plenty of attention in my Dutch newspaper and CBC and Radio-Canada have covered it also.

Anyway, I suppose this is rather for the Israel-Palestine thread.
 
Sweet Square said:
Cheers. Glad you liked it. It’s a really great piece of working class cinema and imo Baker best work.

Doesn’t fall into the usual traps of only showing how depressing life can be for the poor(A lot of directors seem to think misery = meaning). While also at the same showing the complexity of their lives.

While I did enjoy Anora as a fun comedy it is very different to the rest of Baker work. Funny that’s the film which won him the Oscar.
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I agree wholeheartedly with the bolded, and I appreciated the balance of things in Florida Project. Overall it's quite sad and has a bit of a fatalistic feel to it, sort of underlined by Dafoe's resigned yet unjudging demeanour throughout (kind of "what will be, will be"), but there are true moments of poetry and beauty in it. That's what I meant by the "casts an empathetic eye" in my initial post on it, it's not misery porn and Baker seems to genuinely care about the subject matter.
 
Cherry

I’m going to assume the caf cineastes hate this because of the Russo brothers CV’s. But I watched it with zero expectations and thought it was… quite good.

It’s broken up into chapters where the protagonist (played by Tom Holland) falls in love, has his heart broken, joins the army, goes through boot camp, endures some seriously gnarly war stuff, returns home with a severe case of PTSD, develops a hardcore opiate addiction and robs banks to keep the wolf from the door.

Each chapter is stylistically very different but always slightly surreal. It veers from gloomy introspection to bordering on slapstick comedy but the tonal shifts never jar. Tom Holland and his love interest (played by Ciara Bravo) are both excellent and the supporting cast (including great cameo by Ireland’s own Jack Reynor) are all very good. Plus it has a cracking score. Could probably have done with being 30 minutes shorter. Otherwise not much about it I didn’t like.

7/10

Very curious to hear what anyone else made of it.

EDIT: Just had a gander at reviews and fair to say it splits opinion!
 
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Trying to watch The Gorge right now. Paused it at 18 minutes. This whole set up should have been done in about 5 minutes. Movies made for streaming TV can never seem to get the pacing right. Have to remind myself this is supposed to have some cool monster, go back in…

19:56 until the guy says “the gorge is the door to hell and we’re standing guard at the gate.” 20 minutes in!

Update: finished the movie. Some very good things in it. The best being the
look of the gorge-world when they first get down there.
The monsters had an interesting look, Anya Taylor-Joy was good, some good suspense and action scenes. The set up was better than the pay off. A couple difficult scenes with Exposition 101 were handled as well as could be expected.
Like when they find a film reel and a working film projector that happens to explain everything that happened in the gorge. They had a film lab down there?
Location, set design, VFX all top shelf. Weirdly missed an emotive score. Movie was very quiet in the beginning and paced too slowly. There were some strange tonal shifts. They go from depressed stoicism to a rom-com to action horror. It felt like AT-J’s character was massaged quite a bit. She rescues MT several times, kicks and punches and can handle all the heavy weaponry as well as MT.

I think they caused themselves problems with the convoluted backstory, and it probably doesn’t bear thinking too hard on the plot.
They should have just stuck to the idea that this was a Doom-like portal to hell. How are these treemen cnuts alive so long? Why was one of the west tower watchers in the gorge as a tree man? Why did the hollow men remember how to ride horses and use sabers but then forgot how to use a jeep? Why did the hollow men occasionally try to escape the gorge? They’ve been chilling in there for 80 years, why now? Why did some scientists take cyanide instead of just lighting up the nuke? How do both of these snipers also happen to be super soldiers who can skydive, set up ziplines, fire RPGs, rock climb, dismantle bombs, shoot 50mm cannons with accuracy, and remain top hand to hand combat experts 4 years after leaving the Marines? Why do some actors get all carried away with the idea of big budget VFX and they don’t seem to worry too much about the story holding up?Did this movie make more sense before they upgraded AJ-T from damsel in distress?
You have to just ignore some story difficulties.

The bad:
I didn’t care for Miles Teller. It’s probably me, but I didn’t sense any chemistry between the two leads. There’s a kiss that was the equivalent of holding one’s nose and taking their medicine. I’ve heard Teller is a fecking dick so maybe AT-J found that out the hard way. Sigourney Weaver was basically a by the numbers corporate goon. “He’s my mistake, I’ll kill him myself if I have to!” she says. With what, bad acting? Can one die from that? The Brit soldier Teller relieves didn’t have a single hollow man freak out in his entire year? What actually happened after MT fell in the river after the bomb went off? AJ-T said she knows a place in France where the alligators dance, but did she even tell him where it is, or tell him how he’s supposed to get there now that he’s the most wanted fugitive in the USA? Someone really brought a Ramones and a Yeah Yeah Yeahs LP? Just realized that Ramones album was released closer to WWII (1976, 31 years after) than 1976 is to now (49 years)!

This was a Tom Cruise type of sci-fi action film, and Teller is no Cruise. Please don’t be trying to ram Miles Teller into all the Tom Cruise projects that were developed and never made. Not sure who would have been a better fit but at least it wasn’t Timothee Chalamet! Tom Hardy, maybe? Matt Damon probably too old. They could have done worse and put boring lumps like Chris Pratt or John Krasinski in it.

Now I can cancel my AppleTV subscription!

7/10
 
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Wing Attack Plan R said:
Trying to watch The Gorge right now. Paused it at 18 minutes. This whole set up should have been done in about 5 minutes. Movies made for streaming TV can never seem to get the pacing right. Have to remind myself this is supposed to have some cool monster, go back in…

19:56 until the guy says “the gorge is the door to hell and we’re standing guard at the gate.” 20 minutes in!

Update: finished the movie. Some very good things in it. The best being the
look of the gorge-world when they first get down there.
The monsters had an interesting look, Anya Taylor-Joy was good, some good suspense and action scenes. The set up was better than the pay off. A couple difficult scenes with Exposition 101 were handled as well as could be expected.
Like when they find a film reel and a working film projector that happens to explain everything that happened in the gorge. They had a film lab down there?
Location, set design, VFX all top shelf. Weirdly missed an emotive score. Movie was very quiet in the beginning and paced too slowly. There were some strange tonal shifts. They go from depressed stoicism to a rom-com to action horror. It felt like AT-J’s character was massaged quite a bit. She rescues MT several times, kicks and punches and can handle all the heavy weaponry as well as MT.

I think they caused themselves problems with the convoluted backstory, and it probably doesn’t bear thinking too hard on the plot.
They should have just stuck to the idea that this was a Doom-like portal to hell. How are these treemen cnuts alive so long? Why was one of the west tower watchers in the gorge as a tree man? Why did the hollow men remember how to ride horses and use sabers but then forgot how to use a jeep? Why did the hollow men occasionally try to escape the gorge? They’ve been chilling in there for 80 years, why now? Why did some scientists take cyanide instead of just lighting up the nuke? How do both of these snipers also happen to be super soldiers who can skydive, set up ziplines, fire RPGs, rock climb, dismantle bombs, shoot 50mm cannons with accuracy, and remain top hand to hand combat experts 4 years after leaving the Marines? Why do some actors get all carried away with the idea of big budget VFX and they don’t seem to worry too much about the story holding up?Did this movie make more sense before they upgraded AJ-T from damsel in distress?
You have to just ignore some story difficulties.

The bad:
I didn’t care for Miles Teller. It’s probably me, but I didn’t sense any chemistry between the two leads. There’s a kiss that was the equivalent of holding one’s nose and taking their medicine. I’ve heard Teller is a fecking dick so maybe AT-J found that out the hard way. Sigourney Weaver was basically a by the numbers corporate goon. “He’s my mistake, I’ll kill him myself if I have to!” she says. With what, bad acting? Can one die from that? The Brit soldier Teller relieves didn’t have a single hollow man freak out in his entire year? What actually happened after MT fell in the river after the bomb went off? AJ-T said she knows a place in France where the alligators dance, but did she even tell him where it is, or tell him how he’s supposed to get there now that he’s the most wanted fugitive in the USA? Someone really brought a Ramones and a Yeah Yeah Yeahs LP? Just realized that Ramones album was released closer to WWII (1976, 31 years after) than 1976 is to now (49 years)!

This was a Tom Cruise type of sci-fi action film, and Teller is no Cruise. Please don’t be trying to ram Miles Teller into all the Tom Cruise projects that were developed and never made. Not sure who would have been a better fit but at least it wasn’t Timothee Chalamet! Tom Hardy, maybe? Matt Damon probably too old. They could have done worse and put boring lumps like Chris Pratt or John Krasinski in it.

Now I can cancel my AppleTV subscription!

7/10
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7/10?!?

I thought it was shite. 5/10 if I’m being extremely generous. Weak script, predictable plot, paper thin characterisation. The effects weren’t even very good. A bit of your review I definitely agree with is how Miles Teller is a poor leading man. ATJ was ok but that accent… The whole thing feels like what movies would look like if we let an AI make them.

Apparently Trent Reznor wrote the score so was expecting at least that element to be good/memorable but it completely passed me by.

Keep your subscription for another week and watch Cherry! That way you get to watch a real 7/10 movie for your money ;)
 
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Pogue Mahone said:
7/10?!?

I thought it was shite. 5/10 if I’m being extremely generous. Weak script, predictable plot, paper thin characterisation. The effects weren’t even very good. A bit of your review I definitely agree with is how Miles Teller is a poor leading man. ATJ was ok but that accent… The whole thing feels like what movies would look like if we let an AI make them.

Apparently Trent Reznor wrote the score so was expecting at least that element to be good/memorable but it completely passed me by.

Keep your subscription for another week and watch Cherry! That way you get to watch a real 7/10 movie for your money ;)
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I will watch Cherry because I fecking forgot to cancel my subscription last night! It took me so long to get through The Gorge that I finished it about 1 in the morning, and my subscription renewed for another month.

Yeah, the score on The Gorge is because it's a genre film. I should say for a sci-fi action monster movie, it was a 7/10, or a "C". Average. AJT's accent was stupid. I also hated the writing messages to each other like it's Love, Actually. But, I did think the Gorge world looked very creepy and the hollow men were very cool at first. The action was action-y, and the monsters were monster-y, Teller was lame, AJT looked great. I think the script is what ultimately made it a lesser film.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
I will watch Cherry because I fecking forgot to cancel my subscription last night! It took me so long to get through The Gorge that I finished it about 1 in the morning, and my subscription renewed for another month.

Yeah, the score on The Gorge is because it's a genre film. I should say for a sci-fi action monster movie, it was a 7/10, or a "C". Average. AJT's accent was stupid. I also hated the writing messages to each other like it's Love, Actually. But, I did think the Gorge world looked very creepy and the hollow men were very cool at first. The action was action-y, and the monsters were monster-y, Teller was lame, AJT looked great. I think the script is what ultimately made it a lesser film.
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Agree about “at first”. The first scene when we saw them, when they were climbing up from the gorge, was pretty cool. Like most movie monsters though, the more you saw of them the less cool they were. The whole segment when they were down in the gorge didn’t work for me at all.

Let me know what you think of Cherry anyway. I liked it but watched it on strong painkillers. So might well have misjudged it!
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Agree about “at first”. The first scene when we saw them, when they were climbing up from the gorge, was pretty cool. Like most movie monsters though, the more you saw of them the less cool they were. The whole segment when they were down in the gorge didn’t work for me at all.

Let me know what you think of Cherry anyway. I liked it but watched it on strong painkillers. So might well have misjudged it!
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I can send you my mailing address so you can send me some painkillers, just to make sure we're on an even footing.
 
Conclave

I have seen reviews saying it was slow and boring, I can see why they say that, agree with the slow , it was in parts, but I did not find it boring, far from it, found it fascinating the working of selecting a new pope, not all is true obviously.
I thought the acting on the whole was top notch.
Has for the ending, did not see that coming, but it did not spoil it for me.
Yeah really enjoyed it, one of the better films I have seen recently.

7/10
 
The Watched

A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
It was OK , nothing not seen before, with a predictable twist at the end.

5/10
 
Little Siberia
I was kind of excited for this being the first Finnish Netflix produced movie, but unsurprisingly it was completely shite as Finnish comedys always are. Laughably bad.

1/5
 
Longlegs.
Probably need to dig up people’s takes on this movie. Decided I should watch this after watching the second episode of The Studio — then realized I had watched it — then realized I just never finished it. So I finished it tonight.

I liked the main character, Maika Monroe.

I love Nic Cage’s commitment to the bit, but he really needs to pull it back: every word has the wacky dial set at 11.

The story is whatever.

I think they came up with an interesting look for the movie, kinda plays like Amityville Horror in look. It’s low budget but they made it look pretty good on a tech level.

Probably should have just cut my losses and not watched the last 25 minutes. I don’t know how to rate it. It wasn’t good it wasn’t bad but mostly I just didn’t care.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Longlegs.
Probably need to dig up people’s takes on this movie. Decided I should watch this after watching the second episode of The Studio — then realized I had watched it — then realized I just never finished it. So I finished it tonight.

I liked the main character, Maika Monroe.

I love Nic Cage’s commitment to the bit, but he really needs to pull it back: every word has the wacky dial set at 11.

The story is whatever.

I think they came up with an interesting look for the movie, kinda plays like Amityville Horror in look. It’s low budget but they made it look pretty good on a tech level.

Probably should have just cut my losses and not watched the last 25 minutes. I don’t know how to rate it. It wasn’t good it wasn’t bad but mostly I just didn’t care.
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I thought it was a fun watch. but I do agree about the ending. they did a good job of creating an eerie atmosphere, an interesting storyline, nic cage, and just keeping the story moving. I guess, it is tough to deliver on everything when making a low-budget horror. definitely one of the good horror flicks from last year.
 
entropy said:
I thought it was a fun watch. but I do agree about the ending. they did a good job of creating an eerie atmosphere, an interesting storyline, nic cage, and just keeping the story moving. I guess, it is tough to deliver on everything when making a low-budget horror. definitely one of the good horror flicks from last year.
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I wouldn't say "fun" (you sicko!) but it held my interest. I think the story would sound great if someone just laid it out for you, such as:
A satanic devotee makes evil dolls that he gives to unsuspecting families. Over time the dolls possess the families which leads to everyone being murdered. A young FBI agent hunts this serial killer - but it turns out she's intimately connected with the killer and his plans.
And then I had some questions:
I'm not really sure how he put a piece of himself in each doll (?) with the metal orbs (?) Why didn't she just shoot her partner when he took his wife into the kitchen to murder her? She shot him a minute later anyway.
. I agree it did have a haunting tone. Definitely a horror film made for fans instead of trying to rope in teens.
 
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