What was the last film you watched?

[tommie]

Thank you so very much. As I was thinking of LGBTQ films (our first movie top 10 theme after we've finished the 2010s decade) I remembered this film and how much I liked it - but, frustratingly, I couldn't remember the title (you wouldn't expect it to be as to-the-point as "Priest").
I'd have to watch it again in order to rate and rank it....let's hope Mother Internet is going to helpful.

Pfft, watch "The Gay Deceivers" and get a bit homophobic for measure:

Skank.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Yeah...I don't think so.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

our first movie top 10 theme after we've finished the 2010s decade

I feel at the moment it would be a very short list from me, but I'm sure I've watched and enjoyed more LGBT films than I realise.

Plus there are a couple that have been on my viewing bucket list for quite some time. Perhaps it's time to see if I can find them.

I remembered this film and how much I liked it - but, frustratingly, I couldn't remember the title (you wouldn't expect it to be as to-the-point as "Priest").

Oh, nice. I'm glad it helped you out with the name. Considering the only available uncut DVD is Dutch, it seems there's a good chance for you to find it available in your country. Here's hoping.

 

[Willie Oleson]

let's hope Mother Internet is going to helpful.

Somehow I had overlooked this titbit as my first instinct was to get it from amazon uk.

I mean I had to track down a DVD imported from the Netherlands since that's the only way this piece can be watched uncut

It's funny how that works. Some films (and even TV series) are only released in one particular country.
I'm looking for the Ozploitation classic WAKE IN FRIGHT but the original Australian version is out of print so the only way to get it is the French release (which, in terms of shipping, should be cheaper to get - but that's not the point).

 

[Willie Oleson]

but I'm sure I've watched and enjoyed more LGBT films than I realise.

It's amazing what you can find in your netflix/prime/ect viewing history, not to mention this very thread itself.
I don't expect anyone to post a top 10 off the top of the head, and I can easily postpone the tally up in case someone wants more time to explore (I mean films, not relationships or creative gardening).

 

[Mel O'Drama]

It's funny how that works. Some films (and even TV series) are only released in one particular country.

Yes. It's often so counterintuitive. Priest was made by the BBC, but doesn't appear on their streaming service (or any other) in this country. Nor it it available on British DVD.

On that note, other Jimmy McGovern films made for the BBC are now on rival network's streaming services. It seems the Beeb just aren't interested. But I'm digressing.

It's amazing what you can find in your netflix/prime/ect viewing history, not to mention this very thread itself.

Oh yes. This thread has helped me out with something like 40-50% of my Movie Top Tens - perhaps more. There are so many gems I would have forgotten to include (and kicked myself later) if I hadn't gone through to refresh my memory.

Besides, what's 162 pages when the perfect Top Ten is at stake.

 

[Willie Oleson]

THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016)




I know Disney gets heavily criticised for its remakes, and some of those do indeed lack the magic of the original animated versions.
THE JUNGLE BOOK is definitely not one of those failures. In fact, I think it's one of the most majestic looking CGI remakes I have ever seen, and combined with the wonderful sounds it's become an all-inclusive incredible experience.
To be fair, the original has never been one of my favourite animated films therefore I didn't feel the urge to act like the nostalgia police, but still I had not expected it to be this good.
All the characters are spot on and always funny, endearing or frightening in exactly the right moments, and it's also pleasantly devoid of cheap sentiment and corny comedy.
I braced myself when Baloo arrived on the scene but that worry proved to be unjustified.
Incidentally, this is the second film this week that stars Bill Murray so now I can no longer say "I've never seen him in anything".

This is another one for the DVD collection, and from my point of view that's the best compliment a film can get.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Hillsborough (1996)

Even as a football-averse teenager in 1989 it was impossible not to have awareness of the Hillsborough Disaster. This was a shocking and unprecedented event and some of the scenes shown on the news stayed with me and informed my dislike of crowds... especially in enclosed places.

When I watched road trip documentary Ricky, Sue and A Trip Or Two earlier this year, the pair spoke about Hillsborough with great passion. Both actors had become involved in the campaign for justice for the survivors and families of those killed and I was shocked to be reminded that the killings weren't ruled as unlawful until 2016... over a quarter of a century after the tragedy.

That context helped me to be aware going in that this film was made relatively early on in the grand scheme of things, when those affected were living with the injustice of the "accidental death" verdict.

Up to this point, the Jimmy McGovern material I've seen has been fiction - albeit with very realistic writing. It's fascinating to see his work on a piece based on real events. Evidently he was asked to do so by two women whose children had been killed at Hillsborough and he went on to interview families of victims, becoming so angry at the injustice that he feared it might skew his writing and brought in another writer to ensure this didn't happen.

The film captures that feeling of preparations for attending an event. The thrill of the tickets arriving. Travelling to the venue. The buzz upon arrival. The crowds. The noises. The gates opening. For whatever reason I was thinking the film would begin after the event and focus primarily on the inquest, skipping over the horror of what happened at the stadium. Looking back, I can see how necessary it was to show the events of that day almost piece by piece in order to understand every error of judgement made by those responsible for the safety of the spectators, as well as the disorientation and confusion of those in attendance. The crowd scenes must have been an absolute nightmare to film and as things begin to escalate they effectively created an anxiety-provoking uneasiness that was almost suffocating.

The film was quite the journey all round. As I watched things unfold, I felt horrified by the events, sad at the losses and the lack of closure and indignities which came from trying to escape, to get medical aid, then to find lost family members or identify their bodies. This turned to anger as police were shown to cover up with orders not to write anything in their notebooks and questioning relatives about how much their dead relative had been drinking. The invasive mercenary tabloid journalists photographing the shaken bereaved who had just found out the news of loved ones' deaths, and banging on the front doors of their homes as they mourned. Then came the headlines telling of anti-social behaviour and drunken pitch invasions. The film effectively showed the damage caused by the misinformation and outright untruths.

The cast was wonderful. Again, there were lots of familiar faces. Jimmy McGovern favourites Ricky Tomlinson and Christopher Eccleston are present. There are also coughs and spits from Ricky's Brookie compatriots Bill Dean (last seen in Priest) and Cliff Howells (playing a paramedic, which makes a change from a fireman). Other familiars ranged from Emperor Palpatine to Les Battersby.

Hillsborough won BAFTAs for Best Single Drama, Best Editing and Best Sound (which I'm sure pleased Jimmy Mac given his penchant for writing in background noise. This film in particular had a lot of layered dialogue, with two or more conversations going on at once and people speaking or shouting over one another). I'd guess perhaps its biggest achievement was once again raising the consciousness of the injustice to the point where the inquiry could be reopened. In fact, the Stuart-Smith scrutiny was underway within a year.

It's a beautiful, powerful piece that also serves as a historical document. The case moved forwards massively since the film was made, but the context given and the stories told here only make it feel more relevant than ever.​

 

[Seaviewer]

I didn't know this version of the film existed. I've seen the superb original 1947 version, the awful 1973 remake and the decent 1994 version so now I have to track down a copy of this film so I can complete the set, although your description of it doesn't make it sound overly promising.

While you're looking, there's also a 1955 TV version called (for some reason) THE Miracle on 34th Street. I have a DVD of that and one of the original . All the TV versions are on YouTube.

 

[Angela Channing]

While you're looking, there's also a 1955 TV version called (for some reason) THE Miracle on 34th Street. I have a DVD of that and one of the original . All the TV versions are on YouTube.

Thank you so much in going to check them out shortly.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Pride (2014)

​

funny and inspiring, a totally brilliant film and one of the few films that even made a tough guy life me shed a tear.

absolutely loved it. I laughed. I cried. I learned.

that same slightly larger-than-life, not-quite-cartoony-but-almost style that a lot of recent-ish British films (and TV series) adopt when dealing with this country's recent history. When it works it, it works very well as it does here and in Pride (film about the '80s miners strike)

this lazy, cookie-cutter piece of British cinema.

This has been on my radar since... well, probably since it was released, a decade ago now. And so many intriguing hints dropped in this thread, how could I not want to see what the fuss is about? And since it's on iPlayer...

This is my second consecutive film based on true events from the 1980s but, unlike Hillsborough, this particular story wasn't one with which I was familiar. Of course I was very aware of the Miners' strike which was huge news for anyone who lived in South Wales, but I remember nothing of this particular aspect being reported (the one incident during the strike that really registered with me at the time was the death of David Wilkie, the taxi driver who had a concrete block thrown onto his car by two miners on a road bridge).

In viewing terms, the strike most recently got many a mention in Brookside during 1984-85 episodes, particularly from union man Bobby Grant who is still doing his union thing in the late 1986 episodes I'm currently watching. Coincidentally, these episodes also feature some of the series' own working class characters discovering there are gay men in their midst, and it's been interesting to compare this actual mid-Eighties content with a 21st Century film made as a period piece. On Brookie there have been comments about "benders", "shirt-lifters", "queers" and keeping backs to the wall. All were fairly common pejoratives at the time, though the first two seem mostly forgotten... including by the writers of Pride who mostly stick to the more tried and tested (and recent) insults. Still, it all works.

It's no secret I'm quite hard to please when it comes to period films, not just with language used, but also rhythms of speech which in Britain have changed a lot in the last four decades (and even in the three between the miners' strike and Pride). I'm happy to report didn't find too much to nitpick with Pride. The march itself was called "Gay Pride", as it would have been in 1985, before the LGBTQWERTY stuff. But on that note, I think (but couldn't swear) someone in the film used the term LGB or LGBT which I'm pretty sure would have been (to be generous) extremely forward thinking in the mid-Eighties when the catch-all was "GLB", "Gay and Lesbian" or simply "Gay". As far as speech patterns, again, there's not much to complain about. The guy playing Mark Ashton was the least period-authentic in terms of delivery (lots of 21st Century pauses and random "OKs") which I put down to the actor's age until I read afterwards that he's actually American where I found myself marvelling at how good his accent was.

One more thing regarding terminology, one of the young characters sagely tells another that there's an age old tradition among gay people that if a word is used against them "You take it and you own it". There's truth to this - I've known people who've referred to themselves or their friends as "homo", "poof", "queen", "dyke" etc. - but it still made me shudder because it just made me think of how, in the longer term, people end up throwing around volatile "reclaimed" words without experiential understanding of the harm they've done. Which is where we are with "queer" today.

And the accents are pretty good in here. Of course, with Imelda Staunton or Bill Nighy, it's apparent they're "doing" Welsh because I've heard them speak in so many other parts. Objectively, though, they nailed it. Likewise, I was surprised to find out that some of the actors playing Welsh characters were English or Irish since I formed the impression many were cast locally.

The film evoked nostalgia in me on many levels, from the warmth of the Welsh people to the journey of coming out paired with the camaraderie of activism to the Eighties in general. The music, of course, is great.

It's an accessible film with a sense of fun and lightheartedness. This makes for a very accessible film despite the story's political roots. I can fully understand how this won't satisfy everyone. It could have gone much harder and delved much deeper, but it's still quite a feat to tell a number of important stories in a short space of time in a balanced way. And I found out just enough to want to hit a search engine and explore some more. Any film that can raise awareness in this way has done its job well.

This will definitely be featuring in at least one of the next couple of Top Tens.

 

[Willie Oleson]

FIRST REFORMED (2017)




In preparation for PRIEST '94 (which arrived today) I decided to watch this film from 2017 knowing absolutely nothing about it.
Since I love stories about the church and priests and nuns (unless it's one of those awful Exorcist/Omen knockoffs) I didn't expect to be disappointed, and Ethan Hawke is a famous name although I always confuse it with Ewan McGregor.

Well, disappointed, definitely not, but maybe not the best choice as a last-thing-to-watch-before-bedtime.
Written and directed by Paul Schrader from TAXI DRIVER fame, First Reformed is indeed quite similar to that 1970s classic, only much darker and downbeat.
And like my recently watched KILLER JOE, this film also ends "Sopranos" style!
I think the most interesting thing about FIRST is that it's very restraint, as one would expect from these characters, and that it also deals with larger than life dilemmas.
I'm sure some people will read "propaganda" into it but I think it's more about the fear of the topic than the topic itself.
Reverend Toller played by Ethan Hawke is a character I won't easily forget.

 

[James from London]

I love stories about the church and priests and nuns

Have you seen Black Narcissus?

 

[Julia's Gun]

This feels like a hyperreal account of my life.

Especially poor Artex, that horse....

 

[Willie Oleson]

Have you seen Black Narcissus?

Yes, it's very colourful!

Church people usually have to deal with earthly issues in a specific way, they can't say whatever they like (and they probably wouldn't want to say it).
I feel this often creates a fascinating tension, even in the most boring scenes.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

As mentioned in the Top Ten Eighties films, this is a film I've been aware of for a long time but never got round to watching.

With much of my viewing of late being made or set in mid Eighties Britain, it's not surprising there's a common running thread of Thatcher-fatigue running through them. Here we are smack in the middle of her devastatingly oppressive reign, and that oppression can be felt simply by running the camera and showing what is there. I don't believe the country ever looked as grey as it did during this decade. We've come a long way, but in a case of plus ça change... right wing thugs commit random acts of senseless violence driven by racism.

A curiosity regarding billing was the discrepancy between the two main characters and the two lead actors. It makes sense when considering that the main characters are younger and played by virtual unknowns who are respectively appearing in their first lead role and their first feature film, whereas the older characters are played by relatively well-known and respected actors who have seniority. Saeed Jaffrey and Roshan Seth are both wonderful as the two older estranged brothers, and steal each scene in which they appear.

Equally, though, the pretty younger actors playing the leading characters are revelations. Gordon Warnecke (whose very familiar face I could swear I remember well from EastEnders even though IMDb says he was only in six episodes) has great chemistry with both his screen father and uncle. There's something incredibly hopeful and optimistic about his expressive face, with a novel smile and an excited sparkle behind the eyes in any given situation. It doesn't matter if he's being passed a bucket with which to clean a car; watching his cousin strip off her top half and flirtatiously wave her boobs at him; listening to his drunken father chatter away; or enjoying the energy coming from one of the hooligans. It feels as though every challenge is new and exciting and filled with possibilities. Then there's Daniel Day-Lewis. I believe this is the first DDL film I've watched (the only other place I would have seen him was a cough and spit in an episode of Shoestring). Pleasingly, I didn't even register his name in the credits so I spent the latter part of the film wondering who this actor was and thinking I need to find out more about him. He convinces completely as the former thug trying to start over, and a testament to his performance that Johnny is both extremely likeable and vulnerable while still fitting in effortlessly with his former friends. It's no surprise that this is the film that put him on the map, and it's a courageous first role for a number of reasons.

The main context (I don't know if it would be classed as a genre) in which I've heard of this film is as a gay story but, while that element is there, it's about so much more than that. In fact, somewhere around the halfway mark, I started questioning if I was misremembering what I'd read because there was no overt mention or demonstration of homosexuality, but we'd seen Shirley Ann Field shagging the life out of Omar's uncle and the aforementioned prolonged mammary shots. It's perhaps a political message of its own - or at least a reflection of the time - that the most graphically sexual scenes here are heterosexual. Still, there is a sense of fun to the way affection is shown in the same sex relationship, and there are some charming and memorable moments that come from it, from the champagne sharing to the simple-but-hot neck public-but-covert neck-licking moment (which apparently the director came up with on the day, but didn't tell Gordon Warnecke about in order to elicit a genuine reaction).

The politics of the time add subtext. It's important, for example, that the more affluent middle class family is Pakistani. The way that race informs the relationship between Omar and Johnny is also interesting. It's barely mentioned, but then bubbles to the surface in a kind of backlash aimed at the politics at the time when Omar talks down to Johnny and says words to the effect that he's proud of himself for having a white subordinate.

The tone of the film also intrigues. I didn't care for the bubbly "washing machine music" that played over the opening credits (and recurred occasionally throughout). It was just too quirky for me. But I applaud that this can be pulled off in a film that also has outbursts of violence. There's a gritty realism to the film, but occasionally it's so real it seems almost unreal. Case in point, the flat directly next to the railway tracks which is very real, but here somehow feels whimsical and cosy (it put me in mind of Mrs Wilberforce's studio based street from 1955's The Ladykillers).

This is a film with layers. So much so that I came away feeling that I'd missed something. Not because it fell flat, but because the writing is so nuanced and the layers so rich that I feel it's a film that requires several watches to really appreciate. And it probably needs discussion or some reading up to pick up some of the subtler things that may have gone over my head on this first outing.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Usually I check if anyone else has commented on a film before posting, but I forgot to do that this time.

Now I've done this, @Angela Channing has perfectly summed up the film far more succinctly than I managed:

From the second when the titles first appear on the screen this film appears dated and low budget but don't be put off by that as it's a good story told in an engaging way that at times is funny and always is intelligent. It successfully captures the vibe of 1980s Britain, covering the racial tensions, views on homosexuality and generational and class differences that existed at the times and many ways still exist today.

 

[Julia's Gun]

I watched this film back in the 80s and was really fond of it. It was way ahead of its time and broke boundaries at a time of widespread racism and homophobia in the UK. It has a real charm too.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I know for sure that I have watched BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE but when I try to remember it all I get is images from BEAUTIFUL THING (1996).

 

[Mel O'Drama]

It was way ahead of its time and broke boundaries at a time of widespread racism and homophobia in the UK.

Yes. The context of when this film was made makes it far bolder and riskier than it can appear now. It has a lot to say about the Britain at this time.

when I try to remember it all I get is images from BEAUTIFUL THING (1996).

Another that's been on my radar for many years (I had the soundtrack and loved it). And now it's on my Top Ten Homework list.