Some movies I've seen recently:

Eli - 7.5/10, solid
Silence of the Lambs - 7/10 classic that I never got around to watching, still could've been better, not a great ending
The Wrong Missy - 5.5/10 stupid & dragged but still funny enough at times to be semi-decent
2012 - (rewatch) - 7.5/10 a bit better than I remembered

Disturbia was an easy 8+!!!

Two other movies I can remember watching since the pandemic started:

The Invisible Man - 6.5/10 aiiiight
The Platform - 7/10 maybe a 7.5, I really liked the concept of this one but the execution could've been a bit better; also needed to watch with English voice-overs as it's originally in a different language

Training Day - 7.5/10

Pretty cool

Just watched Booksmart it was cute and funny and I loved it 10/10

Hereditary

It's a film to watch purely for Toni Collette's performance, which is sensational.

As a horror film, I thought it was only good but very far from great. The plot starts off as very intriguing and atypical but it devolves into something all too typical too quickly and the interesting mental health aspects of the story give way to something we've all watched plenty of times before. Technically it's a well shot film with some interesting perspective shots based around dollhouses but even then, it's difficult to recommend this film if you aren't interested in Toni Collette (which should be a crime, tbh).

For a film that was so acclaimed, I expected more. As a performance piece, it's great, as a film, it's perfectly watchable and nothing more.

I'd just about give it a 7/10 for Toni's performance and the intriguing first half.

Bad Education, true story about embezzlement, how they got away with it for so long is...:umm2:

10/10

I have finally watched Joker and have to conceded that, whilst I don't think it's a good Joker origin story, it is nonetheless an excellent standalone character movie. Just exceptionally well shot and acted. The time evaporated and I don't think either of us (me and my wife) took our eyes off the screen once. Review contains spoilers :hee:

I'll happily go with the head-Canon that Arthur isn't the Batman villain "The Joker", but that the villain was inspired by the name and aesthetic. He's just too well explained to be The Joker... You can actually totally understand why he's so angry, and also that he's genuinely mentally ill due to head trauma, and he has SOME sort of morals in picking his targets. The "true" Batman-Joker dynamic relies on Joker being an agent of pure chaos. The element of sheer randomness and unpredictability is precisely why he's the biggest Batman villain (as Batman, the "great detective", works on logic and a strict code... He can never predict The Joker and thus finds him very hard to stop).

But again yes I'll conceded, as a standalone "inspired by" movie, it is excellent.

Easy 9/10

The reason it loses that mark;

It spoon-fed the reveal that his relationship with the neighbour was imagined,which was unnecessary and clumsy, to the extent that I found it disappointing. I'd have preferred they left it at her shock at seeing him in her apartment, even leaving that entire element semi-ambiguous. They didn't need to do the "comparison flashbacks" showing that she wasn't there... The implication was enough. A stand-out flaw in an otherwise almost perfect movie.

Best way I can describe it is that they went

*nudge nudge*... *whisper*... that was all in his head...

"Ahh yes we suspected as much :worry: wow"

*... tap tap tap...* she was never really there guys...

"Yes, we got that..."

*shouts* OMG GUYS LOOK HE IMAGINED IT ALL!!!

See you say it was spoonfed and yet people are still debating. :hehe:

Although, I let them off for leaving it to you to decide whether or not he killed them.

Nightcrawler (2014)

Holy crap what a film this was! A jam packed thriller with so much suspense. I can't even begin to express just how amazing Jake Gyllenhaal was as Lou Bloom. What a terrifying psychopath he was. I can't believe he wasn't nominated for an Oscar.

10/10.

On whether or not his relationship with her was real or imagined?

Doesn't make sense that he would have killed her, through the whole thing he specifically only attacked people who he saw as "part of the problem" e.g. letting one of his coworkers walk out like there was no problem after killing the other guy. Even helped him with the lock lolz.

She was nice/concerned even when he was sat there in her apartment... At that point doesn't make sense that he would have killed her.

I guess I can see where there would be debate over aspects of their relationship. At that point his mental breakdown is "peaking" and l, I suppose, you could argue that it was THAT scene in her apartment he imagined, his mind tearing away any positive aspects of his life and erasing them from his past... Hence the flashbacks where she vanishes. Is he remembering the truth, or is he over-writing genuine positive memories with sad, lonely ones that support his crumbling world? Is it a mix of the two?

An interesting take I guess. Hmmmm.

The cinematographer & Director answered that question already and said that he didn't kill them

Yeah, exactly, such a great film. :flutter:

Pfft. :hmph:

Yes. :joker: There's all kinds of wacky theories about the movie.

Really? ffs, like TS said they couldn't have made it clearer he imagined it all :laugh:

Trash!

YOU'RE bloody trash! Get out me sight!

Joaquin phoenix performance is nothing short of extraordinary. Very much Oscar owerhy.

If there was a "best scene" oscar, the "Talk Show" scene is perfect from start to finish.

Someone showed me a clip from SNL or something where a woman said all the movie was about is "white male rage" ... it's a bit ironic really, a trash entertainment show being out of touch and boiling the issues of mental health and poverty down to that :laugh:

I watched the hijacking film 7500 on Amazon Prime.

It's quite interesting, done in a realistic style. Not a film of twists and turns, and there is only two sets. I actually thought about it a bit after it was finished. 7/10.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B08BF6181P/

Yeah, Arthur's origin is pretty much incompatible with the "real" Joker.

Joker's white skin, green hair, and red lips were caused by him falling into a vat of chemicals. In the current continuity he had been a gang leader up to that point, "Red Hood One", whose true identity was unknown. But in the previous continuity he was a family man who had been blackmailed into joining the Red Hood Gang, and was driven made by his own reflection after he fell into the chemicals.

He's Out There - 2/10 Please do not watch this movie

The Autopsy of Jane Doe - 7.5/10 First half suspense & buildup was way better than the second half delivery/execution & ending but overall solid movie