Films you've seen in 2026 (7 Viewers)

Hard Truths (2024)

Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the hideously negative Pansy, a woman clearly in the throes of clinical depression, lashing out at everyone & everything around her. The first half of this film is bleakly hilarious, as Pansy goes on diatribes at everyone from the dentist to the woman queuing behind her at the supermarket. Then it turns into an insightful, poignant study into how depression & anger can infect so much, & how you can't help someone who refuses to be helped. The silences say as much as the dialogue, with everyone giving incredible performances. I'd happily watch it again & could easily pick up on loads of stuff I'd missed between the characters the first time around.

MJB wasn't just robbed of an Oscar nomination for this role, she should have won it & every other award going too. Absolutely magnificent from start to end.
 
Friday the 13th (1980)

I didn't realise how tame it would be. I guess when it really comes alive is the arrival of mommie dearest. The amount of times that girl with the medium shag hair had opportunities to off her made it impossible not to root for more ridiculous comebacks from the voice-shifting woman. Yeah I'm game for more.

I give it a B.
 
straightorbroken said:
Friday the 13th (1980)

I didn't realise how tame it would be. I guess when it really comes alive is the arrival of mommie dearest. The amount of times that girl with the medium shag hair had opportunities to off her made it impossible not to root for more ridiculous comebacks from the voice-shifting woman. Yeah I'm game for more.

I give it a B.
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Part 2 is my favourite in the franchise.
 
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Wait Until Dark (1967)

A blind Audrey Hepburn is terrorised by three gangsters trying to get their hands on a heroin stuffed doll that has ended up in her apartment. Haven’t seen it in years but still TENSE!
 
Sardonicus said:
Hard Truths (2024)

Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the hideously negative Pansy, a woman clearly in the throes of clinical depression, lashing out at everyone & everything around her. The first half of this film is bleakly hilarious, as Pansy goes on diatribes at everyone from the dentist to the woman queuing behind her at the supermarket. Then it turns into an insightful, poignant study into how depression & anger can infect so much, & how you can't help someone who refuses to be helped. The silences say as much as the dialogue, with everyone giving incredible performances. I'd happily watch it again & could easily pick up on loads of stuff I'd missed between the characters the first time around.

MJB wasn't just robbed of an Oscar nomination for this role, she should have won it & every other award going too. Absolutely magnificent from start to end.
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Incredible film. I thought MJB and Michelle Austin were utterly robbed in the Oscars race last year. That graveyard scene alone!
 
VoR said:
Incredible film. I thought MJB and Michelle Austin were utterly robbed in the Oscars race last year. That graveyard scene alone!
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Nominations for both should have been a minimum. Mr S & I were talking afterwards about
why her husband throws away her flowers. Was he being cruel? Or kindly because he thought she'd freak out later? Passive aggressive revenge? One of many bits that can be interpreted a number of different ways, & maybe an insight into how Pansy ended up how she is
 
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VoR said:
Me too! I watched Sentimental Value this week and was a touch underwhelmed comparatively, but Renate Reinsve is a truly luminous talent.
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Agreed. I watched Worst Person the day before I went to see Sentimental Value in theaters, and I was honestly a little bored with Sentimental Value. I love her though
 
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Problemista (2023)

Narrated by Isabella Rossellini and devoured by a ravenous Tilda Swinton, this is a surrealist comedy starring it's writer and director Julio Torres (SNL) who is running out of time to re-new his visa. It would be a stretch to compare Swinton's excruciating and vulnerable performance to The Comeback's Valarie Cherish, and yet her monstrous interactions with service staff in coffee shops, art galleries, etc, all the while being unable to operate the simplest forms of technology, recall the self interest at odds with everything around her that are genuinely hilarious (the red wig also helps). Couldn't get enough of her scenes - and there were plenty. Lovely ending and fun post-ending. Some of these scenes will stay frozen with me forever.

I give it a B.
 
Sardonicus said:
Hard Truths (2024)

Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the hideously negative Pansy, a woman clearly in the throes of clinical depression, lashing out at everyone & everything around her. The first half of this film is bleakly hilarious, as Pansy goes on diatribes at everyone from the dentist to the woman queuing behind her at the supermarket. Then it turns into an insightful, poignant study into how depression & anger can infect so much, & how you can't help someone who refuses to be helped. The silences say as much as the dialogue, with everyone giving incredible performances. I'd happily watch it again & could easily pick up on loads of stuff I'd missed between the characters the first time around.

MJB wasn't just robbed of an Oscar nomination for this role, she should have won it & every other award going too. Absolutely magnificent from start to end.
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I’m going to watch this later.

Will post thoughts 🧐
 
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)

Watched this through the night (I'm not sleeping great). You know what you're getting at this point, it's a formula that earns 1B at the box office per outing. I'd have loved it if Sigourney's character had said "get away from my mom you bitch". Honestly, 2 more of the exact same movie still to go - I'll be incredulous.

I give it a C.
 
Red Eye (2005)

Rachel McAdams befriends Cillian Murphy before a flight - sucks for her that he's actually a terrorist. Directed by Wes Craven, it's nothing that's not been done countless times before, but it's a brisk 75 minutes if anyone wants an easy watch.
 
Wild Reeds (1994, André Téchiné) - B
Being 17 (2016, André Téchiné) - A-
The Truth (2019, Hirokazu Kore-eda) - A

I just finished the latter and I would really recommend to our Europoean cinema lovers - it's very special. starring an utterly magnificent Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche as a LEGENDARY ICON OF FRENCH CINEMA and her daughter, returned from America to Paris for a short time. featuring LOADS of scenes in which fictional actors played by real actors wax lyrical about acting, a movie-within-the-movie that is actually quite emotional, touching dialogue, some superb dry comedy and a lot of really gorgeous cinematography. very much a navel gazing film for people who enjoy such things and it's going down as an immediate favourite of French cinema CHEZ JARK. :disco:

 
Weapons (2025)

Worthy of the hype, sure. Just not a classic for me, and bigger, better hams have been done with regards to the aunt.

I give it a decent B.
 
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Sardonicus said:
Hard Truths (2024)

Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the hideously negative Pansy, a woman clearly in the throes of clinical depression, lashing out at everyone & everything around her. The first half of this film is bleakly hilarious, as Pansy goes on diatribes at everyone from the dentist to the woman queuing behind her at the supermarket. Then it turns into an insightful, poignant study into how depression & anger can infect so much, & how you can't help someone who refuses to be helped. The silences say as much as the dialogue, with everyone giving incredible performances. I'd happily watch it again & could easily pick up on loads of stuff I'd missed between the characters the first time around.

MJB wasn't just robbed of an Oscar nomination for this role, she should have won it & every other award going too. Absolutely magnificent from start to end.
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God, Pansy was hard work and yes MJB should have received every nomination and award going.

I was also quite triggered as I saw a lot of me in her :ken:
 
jyxz said:
God, Pansy was hard work and yes MJB should have received every nomination and award going.

I was also quite triggered as I saw a lot of me in her :ken:
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Pansy is that part of me that fumes with impatience at everyone else being incompetent dicks taken to its logical extreme & actually saying it out loud. I was howling at some of the gobsmackingly rude stuff she said to complete strangers though.
 
The Hateful Eight (2015)

Quentin Tarantino does a Western set in a blizzard with copious amounts of violence & racism. This seems to have become the forgotten film in QT's BACK CATALOGUE & I can see why. It's overlong, takes an age to get going, it'd probably work better as a play edited down to the good bits. Not one I'll be revisiting.
 
I never saw The Hateful Eight despite being a big Tarantino fan. already I felt the wheels were coming off a bit with Django, which wasn't very good.

I am in the mood to see Inglorious Basterds again though.
 
I actually recently started watching Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011), but fell asleep as it was around 2am I decided to start. Was disappointed with Vivica going so soon, but loved Daryl so far. TBC on that one though.

The next Tarantino I want to watch is (I think a double parter) with Rose McGowan in it.

However, right now I've started The Eternal Daughter (2022) with Tilda Swinton in sole dual lead roles.
 
I saw The Whole Bloody Affair in theaters and it really worked that way. That and Reservoir Dogs are probably my favorites. But I haven’t seen One Upon A Time In Hollywood or the Hateful Eight. And I hardly remember Inglorious Basterds, which I watched in middle school.
 
Jark said:
Wild Reeds (1994, André Téchiné) - B
Being 17 (2016, André Téchiné) - A-
The Truth (2019, Hirokazu Kore-eda) - A

I just finished the latter and I would really recommend to our Europoean cinema lovers - it's very special. starring an utterly magnificent Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche as a LEGENDARY ICON OF FRENCH CINEMA and her daughter, returned from America to Paris for a short time. featuring LOADS of scenes in which fictional actors played by real actors wax lyrical about acting, a movie-within-the-movie that is actually quite emotional, touching dialogue, some superb dry comedy and a lot of really gorgeous cinematography. very much a navel gazing film for people who enjoy such things and it's going down as an immediate favourite of French cinema CHEZ JARK. :disco:

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I’m very interested
 
She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Tracy Camilla Johns (who has appeared in very little else) juggles the attentions of 3 very different men in Spike Lee's directorial debut. Shot almost entirely in black & white on the tiniest of budgets, this is a very slight film (although there's one rather PROBLEMATIQUE scene near the end that didn't sit well with me), but there's enough potential in the visuals/editing/dialogue to hint at greater things to come.
 
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Fun little black and white dark comedy about a disinherited Duke who decides to wipe out the rest of the family tree to get at his inheritance. The basis for the upcoming film starring the ugly Glen Powell.
 
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I was briefly trying to go through the Spike Lee catalogue. She's Gotta Have It was pretty good I thought.

School Daze (1988) was my favourite.
 
Coherence (2013)

Oh good heavens. This is a mindbending, highly low budget thriller that flickers wildly, unevenly and brilliantly into some incredibly disquieting moments. The brilliance is that it almost exclusively happens in the one room (it would make a fantastic play), which adds to the panic of it all, but it's obvious at some points that this is highly ad-libbed and when the wooden small talk is carbs and yoga the limitations are clearly the actors themselves. Still, as some characters connect things together more than others it's a really gripping bit of cinema. Totally worth it. By the time the one who looks like 90s Louise was knocking herself out I was totally out of it myself.

I give it a B.
 
Cruising (1980)

An exploitation peice that piques your interest for what it shows and not for what it reveals, which is ultimately very little. It's a curio item.

I give it a B.
 
Dredd (2012)

Yaaas Ma-Ma. The gory momentum, soundtrack sonic splendor and dazzling grit of the visuals are all enthralling, both leads play off and against each other as naturally as a merciless law enforcer and mutant have any right to, and our game of Jones (terrible pun) villain in full disgust mode with every word hissed (a massive departure for the actress). I guess a sequel and that once-promised TV show aren't going to happen.

I sentence this film to an A.
 
Room At The Top (1959)

Lawrence Harvey juggles class snobbery & an affair with unhappily married Simone Signoret in 1950s Yorkshire. One of the early kitchen sink dramas, this was obviously a hugely important genre in developing working class concerns & stories on the big screen, but what must have been groundbreaking & shocking in 1959 doesn't hold the same power now - although Signoret's speech about the way men objectify women still rings a true note. No humour to be found in this sorry tale, but plenty of EEE BY GUM LADDIE & ALL THAT SHITE.
 
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Hadn't seen this since it came out and really enjoyed it. Good old-fashioned mystery/ghost story, beautifully shot, lovely New England scenery, Pfeiffer and Ford both looking very hot.Checked the Rotten Tomatoes score - 49%. Really??? Crap like the Terrifier movies are getting rave reviews these days, just goes to show that critics really had it in for thrillers/horror back then.
 
A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut? If I had to guess
 
I haven’t seen Lolita yet, so I’m excited to watch that one, and Eyes Wide Shut is due a rewatch
 
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