MUBI

stockshares · 12-10-2020 11:48am

I got an email saying the Deer Hunter is now showing.

fisgon · 13-10-2020 10:29pm

The New Girlfriend – Ozon – 2014
There is a lot of stuff going on here with Claire and David - lesbian fantasies, cross dressing, gay fantasies, sexual confusion. It’s an intriguing story that runs out of steam in the final part. The ending is corny and beyond stupid –

the guy wakes up out of a coma and immediately leaves the hospital?

Claire, as a protagonist, is annoying and flaky, and lets the whole thing down.
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The ground beneath my feet – Kreutzer – 2019
The lonely world of the business consultant.
This kind of wanders to a conclusion, after a promising set up. There is one big climax, but even that is not a surprise and doesn’t change much. Intriguing for a time but doesn't follow through.
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Le Harve – Kaurismaki - 2010
Very Kaurismaki, but with a French twist. Lots of expressionless faces that are actually incredibly full of personality – the central actor Andre Wilms has a face that was made for Kaurismaki’s films.
A humane story, a story of community and compassion, with a feeling of the 1950s about it, though it is set in the 2000s.
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Buddy - Bressan - 1985
A campaigning film, which is a bit dated now as it focuses on the AIDS crisis in New York in the eighties. A bit lectur-ey at times, and the acting doesn’t always convince – this all feels like a long time ago. More like a play than a film; we only ever see the faces of the two main characters. Nice ending.
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fisgon · 22-10-2020 8:28pm

Cure - Kurosawa - 1997
Creepy, disturbing, reminiscent of Se7en at times. Hypnosis, gruesome murder, amnesia, the film has secrets that it doesn’t really reveal. Curious but a little unsatisfying, though the very end does suggest a whole other story….
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Broken embraces (abrazos rotos) – Almodovar – 2003
Another Almodovar film about filmmaking – a common theme on MUBI. All a bit meta – Penelope Cruz plays an actress who falls in love with her director, with dangerous consequences. Not as enchanting as other Almodovar films – it has its compelling, stunning moments but is a little predictable and unfinished, and doesn’t quite come together. Even so, a mediocre Almodovar is still worth watching.
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Amateur – Hartley – 1994
So much in this; accountants gone rogue, Elina Lowensohn’s lips, a very young Parker Posey, PJ Harvey and Pavement on the soundtrack, baggy suits, bobs, murder, some light torture, amnesia, a cop who can’t control her compassion, an ex-nun nymphomaniac who has never had sex, Christopher from The Sopranos. Very hard to describe or categorise, but never less than entertaining.
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The Deer Hunter – Cimino – 1978
It takes the film an hour to get to ‘Nam, and up to then it is based in this Russian Orthodox community in a steel town in Pennsylvania. The group of friends there – in their thirties – act like drunken teenagers. The transition to Vietnam is abrupt and violent, and after the return to Pennsylvania all is changed. The famous Deer Hunter theme is really insipid and doesn’t fit with the material, but the film itself is compelling, superb, powerful and masterly.
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padjocollins · 27-10-2020 7:42am

Alois nebel , chech 2011 . A little bit dark but i would recommend watching
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1374985/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Smegging hell · 01-11-2020 3:34am

I really enjoyed Cure, I look forward to watching more of Kiyoshi 'not the Seven Samurai one' Kurosawa's films.

padjocollins · 01-11-2020 10:02am

mubi are offerning a years subscription for 50 euro , offer ending tonight
https://mubi.com/ourbestdeal?lt=11ef1hk1b62u500f9qqv8lir9o9ul6q8z4wvvwz1605428244

fisgon · 01-11-2020 10:18pm

The Aviator’s wife - Rohmer - 1981
It picks up a bit when Lucie enters the story in the middle, but the two central characters; Anne and Francois, are awful – he a clingy doormat, she a self-involved nightmare. Their relationship, such as it is, makes no sense. The final, inane conversation between the couple is just annoying. Mostly bad.
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The skin I live in – Almodovar – 2013
Seems like the film jumps the shark a bit at the beginning, where all manner of craziness happens in the first thirty minutes, but it settles down and gets more intriguing and creepy. Again, Almodóvar’s obsession with the body, with surgery and hospitals, doppelgangers, physical changes. Truly disturbing at times, the central idea is a real head fcuk.
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Two/one – Cabral – 2019
Style over substance. It looks great, but the central idea is underdeveloped – these two men are somehow linked, and a lot of parallels happen in their lives, but it is hard to see the point that is being made. And the sleeping thing makes no sense,

if one can only be awake when the other is asleep, they each have to sleep 12 hours a day! Also, how did the pregnancy happen?

It had promise, but did not fully deliver.
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L’Avenir / Things to come – Hansen Love – 2016
Like so many French films, this one just drifts to a conclusion. On the way it looks at themes of desire, aging, how to live a good life. It is gentle and slow and has its charms, but they are limited.
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The other lamb – Szumowska - 2019
Fascinating and atmospheric. Elements of The Handmaid’s Tale, Big Love. The visions and hallucinations begin to get annoying as the film goes on, but they do add to a sense of foreboding and dread. Shepherd is an obvious tyrant and villain, so there is no real suspense in the plot, but he could be seen as a representative of the patriarchy. Still, this is more creepy and powerful than a feminist parable. Hypnotic.
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safetyboy · 02-11-2020 4:31am

cant find the app on my xbox, or amazon firestick

strawdog · 02-11-2020 12:07pm

padjocollins wrote: »

mubi are offerning a years subscription for 50 euro , offer ending tonight
https://mubi.com/ourbestdeal?lt=11ef1hk1b62u500f9qqv8lir9o9ul6q8z4wvvwz1605428244

Cheers for posting that. Deal still seems active today. Had already been considering joining for a while given the awful standard of movie available on other platforms but this has tipped the balance for me.

padjocollins · 02-11-2020 4:34pm

mubi offer ends midnight tonight

Fuascailteoir · 02-11-2020 4:38pm

padjocollins wrote: »

mubi offer ends midnight tonight

I previous years the black friday sale event had a year long subscription at around 35 euro. No guarantee it will happen again of course

padjocollins · 02-11-2020 8:19pm

Fuascailteoir wrote: »

I previous years the black friday sale event had a year long subscription at around 35 euro. No guarantee it will happen again of course

I used to have that subscription and then it slowly went up over the years until it was 95 euros. that's a bit stiff when you compare it to 35 . would be great if a black friday deal for 35 euros came out . thing is they probably will try and jump the price the next year of subscription. if you cancel the subscription they will likely offer you the price you paid the first year

camz09 · 02-11-2020 8:40pm

I got one year subscription after availing the add-on from my Scribd free trial ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

fisgon · 11-11-2020 11:37pm

The Falling – 2014 – Morley
Mass hysteria, fainting fits, incest, teenage pregnancy; the film is charming and enthralling at first and slowly loses its way, just as Lydia (Masie Williams) loses control. There is some commentary here about how women were treated by psychiatrists, but even this gets lost. Wasted potential.
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Beautiful New Bay Area Project – Kurosawa –
Hard to see the point of this; a lot of random stuff for half an hour, gratuitous fight scenes near the end, a young boss of a company who is a complete tool, hints at secrets and other mysteries but nothing developed, just a bunch of stuff that happens, pointlessly. Two and a half stars – one and a half for the kick-ass Takako who takes out four or five guys just to get back something she wants.
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Ghost strata – Rivers – 2019
Just random stuff. Some of it semi-interesting, most of it flat and self-indulgent. Geology, The Rake’s Progress, Ancient Greece, old teeth, a bit of this, a bit of that. Something you might watch five minutes of in a modern art gallery before moving on. There is a claim of some kind of theme – about the passage of time – but this is largely empty; the film is just some random images looking for a structure. Mostly mind-murderingly tedious.
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Pauline at the beach - Rohmer - 1982
A film full of summer – Normandy in July. Six or seven characters, in their teens, twenties, thirties, in bathing suits, on the beach, hooking up, splitting up, growing up. Not a very likable bunch – Pierre is whiny and jealous, and blond Marion is weirdly intent on pimping out her fifteen year old cousin Pauline to her thirty year old ex. And there is manipulative, creepy Henri. Lots of tedious, intense talk about L’Amour.
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What we do in the shadows – Waititi/Clement - 2014
“We’re werewolves, not swearwolves.”
A Kiwi vampire mockumentary, what’s not to like? Mostly wryly amusing, though there are some hilarious moments too. Written by NZ comedy royalty Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement, and Murray from Flight of the Conchords shows up as a werewolf. Impossible not to like.
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Rjd2 · 20-11-2020 7:25pm

No Fisgon reviews this week:(

Anyway watched So Long My Son the other night.

It spans three decades so plenty of commentary on China's one child policy, economics etc...We are introduced to two couples who each have a child who are born on the same day as other. One child drowns in a swimming incident and then over next few decades we follow both as they deal with the fall out.

It sounds grim and the three hour running length may put people off , but its very moving, accessible and much more uplifting than the premise suggests.

The five star reviews all round very deserved.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/so_long_my_son

fisgon · 21-11-2020 3:50pm

Rjd2 wrote: »

No Fisgon reviews this week:(

Anyway watched So Long My Son the other night.

It spans three decades so plenty of commentary on China's one child policy, economics etc...We are introduced to two couples who each have a child who are born on the same day as other. One child drowns in a swimming incident and then over next few decades we follow both as they deal with the fall out.

It sounds grim and the three hour running length may put people off , but its very moving, accessible and much more uplifting than the premise suggests.

The five star reviews all round very deserved.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/so_long_my_son

Thanks. Started watching this a while ago, it seemed heavy, a tough watch, realized that it was three hours long and decided to give it a miss. There is just too much else to watch....

Maybe I'll check it out again.

fisgon · 21-11-2020 3:54pm

Rjd2 wrote: »

No Fisgon reviews this week:(

Oh yes there is.....

I’m so excited (Amores pasajeros) – Almodovar – 2014
Bit of a mess with some absurd elements that are just silly, but being a film by Almodóvar it is never anything less than entertaining. A lot of the plot makes no sense, but that is irrelevant – Pedro is just having some fun. Bawdy and hilarious. (The Spanish title is actually much cleverer than the translation - it is a play on words, meaning both "Love among the passengers" and "Fleeting loves").
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Meeks Cutoff – Reich – 2014
A lot of shots of tiny people and wagons in an immense landscape – it is the 1800s and the settlers, going west into virgin territory, are at the mercy of the environment. The atmosphere is oppressive, at times, which makes this sometimes difficult to watch. It doesn’t so much end as just stop, unsatisfactorily.
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You, the living - Andersson - 2007
Lots of grey people in drab settings in badly fitting clothes – or maybe that’s just the 2000s &#55357;&#56841; The film starts off promisingly enough, but the weight of these endless scenes where almost nothing happens drags it down. Randomness mixed with surrealism, with no real structure or direction. Mostly an irritating waste of time.
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Queen of Hearts – El Touky – 2019
A harrowing, upsetting story that is difficult to rate. Unusual to have a central character who is also the villain – Anne is borderline sociopathic, going through her mid-life crisis and doing something unforgiveable in the process. The key to her character is the two opposing sides – she is a campaigner for justice while also being a perpetrator. Powerful and disturbing, and very interesting to have a woman as the villain.
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The Kindergarten Teacher - Colangelo - 2018
Maggie Gyllenhaal in the title role is creepy as fcuk, in fact her creepiness, delusion and inappropriateness is so extreme that it is hard to take the character seriously. And this makes this film difficult to take seriously too; it is not possible to identify with someone so deranged. The whole poetry thing is impossible to believe too, especially from a 5 year old. Stretches credulity. Irritating. Wanted to like it. Could not.
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Rjd2 · 22-11-2020 7:19am

fisgon wrote: »

Thanks. Started watching this a while ago, it seemed heavy, a tough watch, realized that it was three hours long and decided to give it a miss. There is just too much else to watch....

Maybe I'll check it out again.

On paper its not the most appealing.

3 hours and opens with a child dying in a swimming incident.:eek:

Its actually uplifting in places and much more accessible than many "critical darling" online.

22-11-2020 12:01pm

Watched Images last week which is a surreal watch. Filmed in Wicklow and by Altman, reminded me of some of DePalma's 70s stuff but more lacking in plot. It was a pretty great watch and you can see the influence of European Cinema, if you're a fan of Bergman's Persona you'll love it as it's heavily influenced by it. I don't think it was at that level of thought provoking and served to be an innovative horror more so than being at Bergman's level. Would recommend though as it's a great watch.

fisgon · 28-11-2020 12:41am

Deleted User wrote: »

Watched Images last week which is a surreal watch. Filmed in Wicklow and by Altman, reminded me of some of DePalma's 70s stuff but more lacking in plot. It was a pretty great watch and you can see the influence of European Cinema, if you're a fan of Bergman's Persona you'll love it as it's heavily influenced by it. I don't think it was at that level of thought provoking and served to be an innovative horror more so than being at Bergman's level. Would recommend though as it's a great watch.

Didn't know it was filmed in Wicklow, though just having watched it, that makes sense. Wonder why the cars are all left hand drive, as if it is supposed to be America.

It had its moments, but for me it didn't really work. Her descent into insanity felt a little random....

fisgon · 28-11-2020 10:50pm

Nova Lituania - Kaupinis - 2019
Melancholy, impassive people, lots of smoking, a sense of fatalism and impending doom for a small country surrounded by much bigger ones. Add to this the fact that it is in black and white, and it makes it a dour watch. There are hints of humour but mostly it is a trudge through a fateful period of Lithuanian history at an important time – might be useful to visit Wikipedia before watching. There should be drama here but there is little.
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To the ends of the Earth – Kurosawa – 2019
Probably the only film ever made about a Japanese TV crew in Uzbekistan. The idea has some potential but it never really goes anywhere – Yoko, the central character, just stumbles from mishap to mishap, while putting up with all kinds of indignities in her job as TV travel presenter. A strange mix, mostly tedious, some drama near the end that saves it a little. No idea why it turns into a musical at times.
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Party - Nihilani - 1984
So much here – loads of characters, lots of themes explored: pretentiousness of the Bombay cultural class; double standards for women in Indian society; tradition v modernity; class and caste issues; the purpose of art. All of this is under the shadow of absent Amrit, a revolutionary poet working with underprivileged rural people. Lots of talking, exploration of ideas. Basically like being at a Bombay party full of intellectuals.
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White Material – Denis – 2014
The vision of Africa here is one of danger, chaos and brutality, which really just feeds into the cliched view of the continent and adds nothing to our perspective. Hard to be very sympathetic to any of the main characters, so the story doesn’t engage. There is no enlightenment here, only harshness, stubbornness and mindless violence. Very nihilistic.
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Images – Altman – 1972
Lynchian weirdness and identity swapping that doesn’t really lead to or mean anything – it just feels like a slow disintegration in Catherine’s sanity, and that’s not very interesting. What the film seems to be saying is that this is all hysteria brought on by not being able to have a baby.
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padjocollins · 29-11-2020 8:25am

was going to ask you to put in your recommendations Figson instead of making me read throught each film. Just before i started writing, i looked at the boxes which my brain had as paragragh dividers. some have 2 boxes one has 4 .... aha

fisgon · 29-11-2020 10:38am

padjocollins wrote: »

was going to ask you to put in your recommendations Figson instead of making me read throught each film. Just before i started writing, i looked at the boxes which my brain had as paragragh dividers. some have 2 boxes one has 4 .... aha

Yeah, I tried to put stars in. I import the reviews from a Word doc where you can do that, but Boards doesn't recognize the symbol so it just comes out as these anonymous boxes......

fisgon · 29-11-2020 10:42am

padjocollins wrote: »

was going to ask you to put in your recommendations Figson instead of making me read throught each film. Just before i started writing, i looked at the boxes which my brain had as paragragh dividers. some have 2 boxes one has 4 .... aha

Anyway, I wouldn't take my ratings as gospel - there are a lot of films on MUBI that other reviewers seem to like or love (you can leave reviews on the site itself) that leave me cold.

Fellini's 8 1/2 is an example of that: I hated it, and a lot of reviewers were talking about it being the greatest film ever made..

padjocollins · 02-12-2020 9:21pm

https://mubi.com/films/zero-motivation , decent enough film if it's available in Ireland

fisgon · 05-12-2020 10:56pm

padjocollins wrote: »

https://mubi.com/films/zero-motivation , decent enough film if it's available in Ireland

Don't think it is....

fisgon · 05-12-2020 10:57pm

Two days, one night – Dardenne Brothers – 2014
Great idea, though with some flaws. The format leads to this steady, building drama, where Sandra visits her co-workers one by one to try convince them to vote for her. There is some repetition in this, and her husband’s insistence on pushing and pushing her gets annoying, but the ending is satisfying, in its own way. A very human film, exploring the conflict between solidarity and self-interest.
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A short film about love – Kieslowski – 1988
We finally learn near the end that one of the main characters in this film is called Maria Magdalena – an unsubtle bible reference that shows who she is supposed to represent. Her motivation isn’t really clear, as she seems to fall for her hapless stalker, and this part doesn’t convince at all. In fact, the film gets less convincing as it goes on.
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EXT Night - Abdalla - 2018
Two sides to life in Cairo; westernised, liberated, English speaking young people, drinking, selling sex and taking drugs, and you feel like you are in a European city, and then there is a slap in a restaurant, and a police station and hints of a police state and a woman being arrested for carrying a condom. Add to that the difference in social classes and there is a huge amount going on here. Rich, human and full of Cairo, full of life.
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A short film about killing – Kieslowski – 1988
You would think that eighties Communist Poland was dark and gloomy enough without having to add a darkening filter to the camera, but that’s what Kieslowski does here, in what seems like overkill. There doesn’t really seem to be any electric light and there is almost no colour but black, grey and white. The effect is eerie, intense, oppressive, for a film that is already powerful and dark. Would have been nice to know more about Jacek’s motivation.
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fisgon · 16-12-2020 10:30pm

La fille inconnue (the unknown girl) – Dardenne brothers – 2016
Dr Gavin does some sleuthing. This is pretty grim stuff; realism in an anonymous European suburb – the story centres around the death of a young woman and all the people caught up in this. The doctor (Adele Haenel) smiles, sometime around the middle, and you realize that that was pretty much the only smile you see in the whole film. Touches on important issues, but is a little too heavy and the social commentary is not very subtle.
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The Dance of reality – Jodorowsky – 2013
Wild, crazy stuff. The scenes with the amputees are totally off the wall, there is a bizarre tickling test, a very special type of golden shower, lots of death and thoughts of death, real and imagined tyrants, torture, hilarity, clowns. It drags at times, but then bursts into life again with something outrageous or bizarre. Unique.
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Evolution – Hadzihalilovic – 2015
A deeply strange film. A place where there is only mothers and sons, the sons fed on gruel, the mothers involved in some kind of cult of the sea. Eerie, and just gets stranger as it goes on, yet the film never bothers to explain anything. It just throws this bizarreness at the viewer without making any effort to clarify. A weirdly malevolent view of femininity from a female director.
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The wind that shakes the barley – Loach – 2008
As an Irish person watching this, it is devastating – and that is a testament to the realism and power of the film. The film is over simplistic at times; the British are pure villains, and the rebels are portrayed as heroes. The view of socialism is also unsubtle and preachy, despite some attempts at balance. Despite this, the film retains an impact that is hard to forget.
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padjocollins · 22-12-2020 10:17am

your criticisms of the wind that shakes the barely is what took the enjoyment out of the film for me. Had the potential to be a very good film but yes, preachy and oversimplistic. I just couldn't get past that. Must look at your other film recommendations , thanks. I'm jumping around between netflix and prime as well. Life in the first world is hard

fisgon · 23-12-2020 1:03am

A family tour - Xing - 2018
A lot here about Taiwan, Hong Kong and China and the repression of free speech in the ‘mainland’. There area echoes of the Cultural Revolution and people writing confessions of wrongdoing, just for not following the party line. That in itself is interesting, but this film doesn’t really exploit the theme well, is at times far, far too slow and static and maybe a lot of the meaning gets lost in translation.
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Tale of Cinema – Sang-Soo – 2005
Another story about filmmaking on MUBI; seems to be a bit of a preoccupation. This one has the germ of an intriguing idea, with the overlap between fiction and fact. That’s the most interesting thing about the film, as it doesn’t really exploit the possibilities well, and kind of wanders down some blind alleys. A good idea, not very well executed.
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Festen - Vinterberg - 1998
Worst family ever, but a great film. A very intense view of a family celebration that takes an unexpected turn. Black humour, horrible people, quiet heroism, all based on Dogme principals filmed with handheld cameras and apparently no artificial lighting. Hard to watch at times, incredibly sad, impactful. Extraordinary.
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padjocollins · 25-12-2020 7:30am

https://mubi.com/films/overseas-2019 . A tough, often sad but very good documentary on domestic workers from the philippines

Rjd2 · 26-12-2020 6:54pm

A family tour was tedious and I did not finish sadly.

I watched Beanpole (5/5) and Bacurau (3/5) this week.

To lazy to write a meaty review.:p

Somewhat annoying that the American version of Mubi is so much better than the Irish version, the American version has the excellent Once Upon A Time In Anatolia which Irish doesn't. :mad:

fisgon · 27-12-2020 4:18pm

Rjd2 wrote: »

A family tour was tedious and I did not finish sadly.

I watched Beanpole (5/5) and Bacurau (3/5) this week.

To lazy to write a meaty review.:p

Somewhat annoying that the American version of Mubi is so much better than the Irish version, the American version has the excellent Once Upon A Time In Anatolia which Irish doesn't. :mad:

Agree, A Family Tour was slow and a struggle.

I saw Bacurau a few months back on Irish MUBI: that is one wild, crazy, fcuked up, brilliant film.

I would find it difficult to say that one MUBI is better or worse than another - the films are all so different that it is hard to assess the overall quality of a selection. Just recently I have seen some really excellent movies on Irish MUBI - Festen, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Rocco and his brothers, The Wind that shakes the Barley, The Dance of Reality - the best for a long time.

And then you get a week where there is nothing but mediocrity....

fisgon · 27-12-2020 4:20pm

Kind hearts and Coronets - Hamer - 1949
Cutting, a lot of very black humour, a kind of stiff upper lip Britishness that is so intense you can almost touch it. Brutally satirises snobbishness and the aristocracy while giving us some priceless characters – Louis is cold and complex – he is a murderer yet is reluctant to shoot birds or use physical violence – and his relationship with Cibella has layer after layer. Joan Greenwood as Cibella matches him in callousness. Great, dark fun.
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The Wayward girl – Carlmar – 1959
“I’ve never met a girl with so much yes in her”. Liv Ullman as the femme fatale Gerd, a wild young woman with daddy issues. Issues like teenage sex and single mothers are treated in a very modern, Scandinavian way – impossible to imagine in American movies of the nineteen fifties. There is an energy to the story that carries it, though it doesn’t always work.
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Farewell Amor - Msangi - 2020
The religious theme is laid on a bit thick, but the story itself is powerful – the classic American immigrant story, a conflict between the old life and the new. There is a bit of a Footloose vibe here, though in New York and with black people. A little predictable, sentimental and cliched at times. Also no idea why two Angolans are speaking English with each other. Starts out well, runs out of steam.
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Rocco and his brothers - Visconti - 1960
What starts out as an energetic, entertaining film slowly descends into very dark territory. The whole Rocco – Nadia – Simone triangle is hugely fcuked up. Simone is in the tradition of brutish characters in Italian films like Zampano from La Strada. Hard to find a sympathetic character – Rocco himself has this martyr complex that is difficult to take. Only Ciro emerges with some credit. A dark, powerful family epic.
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fisgon · 03-01-2021 12:01pm

The woman who ran – Hong Sang-Soo - 2020
Random people keep showing up, we never really learn who they are, they have random conversations and then we move on to the next set of randomness. The film seems to go out of its way not to explain anything, or to have any kind of direction, which just makes it tedious. Full of random, sudden close ups. The title is cryptic and not obviously related to the film. Almost completely pointless.
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Fantastic Planet - Laloux - 1973
Obvious influences range from Monty Python to Dali. The massive aliens are called Draags and they meditate a lot – a 1970s’ reference to hippies maybe? The visuals, the pace, the imagination are all superb, a fast moving zip through the story of the tiny human Oms and their Draag masters who just want to eradicate them. The ending is a bit rushed, but it is still a crazily entertaining, sometimes brutal gem.
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The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie – Buñuel – 1972
A very strange mixture of farce, thriller, ghost story, satire and weird randomness involving the military that doesn´t really seem to fit in the general story of six members of the bourgeoisie engaged in drug running, adultery and other misdemeanours. The digressions become annoying and distracting. There is a bishop who is also a gardener and other surrealism. Too many dream sequences, weak satire.
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The Straight Story – David Lynch – 1999
“What’s the number for 911?”
David Lynch’s love letter to the American mid-west, and to human decency. A straight story in more ways than one; the central character is Alvin Straight, who chooses a unique way to travel to see his brother. And for David Lynch, this is about as straight a story as it gets – no dream sequences, no surrealism, no identity swapping. Strange to think that a lot of those decent people in this film would now be Trump voters.
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Irish Aris · 03-01-2021 3:50pm

Fantastic Planet is a great film, I can't remember if I have seen it previously in Mubi or somewhere else.

And The Straight Story - the least Lynch-esque film that Lynch has made, still a very good film.

johnny_ultimate · 03-01-2021 4:28pm

Loved The Woman Who Ran - I'm a bit of a Hong Sang-soo fanboy to put it mildly, and love how his films are deceptively simple but contain all these strange, fascinating layers that you can pick away at. I mean I think they operate well as just brilliantly acted conversation pieces too, but there's always to me something more going on. In this one it's a meditation on where different paths in life can take people - women reckoning with the choices they've made. And what these short encounters tell us about their lives more generally - hints, big and small, about what's happening beyond these short, casual conversations. Also great to see Hong further shifting the perspectives of his films - it centres the characters who'd often be on the sidelines in some of his earlier work. I get why many (maybe even most) viewers wouldn't warm to his work, but for me almost all his films are warm, comforting, fascinating and thought-provoking. Mubi getting his work out there has been a delight over the past few years, after years of just scattered festival screenings and expensive DVD imports!

Some other good films added recently. About Endlessness isn't the best Roy Andersson film, but it is nonetheless as strange, funny and oddly moving as you'd expect from the most idiosyncratic and particular of the modern auteurs. And The Long Goodbye is a masterpiece of smart, cynical 70s cinema - one of Altman's best too (although my heart will always belong to Nashville first and foremost!)

fisgon · 03-01-2021 8:21pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Loved The Woman Who Ran - I'm a bit of a Hong Sang-soo fanboy to put it mildly, and love how his films are deceptively simple but contain all these strange, fascinating layers that you can pick away at. I mean I think they operate well as just brilliantly acted conversation pieces too, but there's always to me something more going on. In this one it's a meditation on where different paths in life can take people - women reckoning with the choices they've made. And what these short encounters tell us about their lives more generally - hints, big and small, about what's happening beyond these short, casual conversations. Also great to see Hong further shifting the perspectives of his films - it centres the characters who'd often be on the sidelines in some of his earlier work. I get why many (maybe even most) viewers wouldn't warm to his work, but for me almost all his films are warm, comforting, fascinating and thought-provoking. Mubi getting his work out there has been a delight over the past few years, after years of just scattered festival screenings and expensive DVD imports!

Some other good films added recently. About Endlessness isn't the best Roy Andersson film, but it is nonetheless as strange, funny and oddly moving as you'd expect from the most idiosyncratic and particular of the modern auteurs. And The Long Goodbye is a masterpiece of smart, cynical 70s cinema - one of Altman's best too (although my heart will always belong to Nashville first and foremost!)

Second film of Hong Sang-soo that I have seen, and he is not doing it for me at all. Feels like his work divides opinions.

Haven't seen either of the other two yet, but am looking forward to the Altman film; the Raymond Chandler book is great.

fisgon · 13-01-2021 9:55pm

The big feast - Ferreri - 1973
A celebration of food and sex, though they are both ultimately associated with death. The characters eat so much that it is easy, just watching, to begin to feel a little nauseous. The film goes on a little too long for such a slight story, and gets repetitive. Fun, at times, and then bizarre. There may be a point here about our desire to consume until it kills us, but the satire is not very strong.
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Gone girl – Fincher – 2014
The power of story. A compelling narrative, well told. Ben Affleck is a bit wooden but the rest of the cast make up for it in this pulp fiction style mystery that lets you have the real story in dribs and drabs. After the #Metoo movement, not sure that

this movie about a woman faking sexual assault

could be made now, but the two hours and forty minutes go by fast as you are drawn into its crazy, twisted world.
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All the Vermeers in New York – Jost – 1990
Very 80s story about actresses, trust fund kids and brokers in NY. The longueurs at times are irritating, the two minute tracking shots with jazz in the background kind of grate, but it is often charming and subtle too. A bit like a student project, acting not always convincing. Gently amusing but slight.
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It’s only the end of the world – Dolan – 2016
Antoine is the problem here; he is hateful and deranged – tellemente désagréable – and we have to listen to him a lot. And why exactly did Louis avoid his family for 12 years? We are never really told – maybe because of his brother? All of this conflict is stressful to watch, and tedious. The ending is hysterical and there is no catharsis, no revelation. An unpleasant, frustrating experience.
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fisgon · 19-01-2021 10:42pm

The Long Goodbye – Altman – 1973
Philip Marlowe, one of the great smart-asses of modern popular culture. The whole film reeks of the 1970s; special brownies, big afros, wide lapels, sideburns like bushes - though the original novel was set in the fifties. Elliot Gould is a perfect Marlowe, never without a cigarette in his mouth; put upon, smart but a bit lazy, world-weary. Beats the **** out of Bogart. Weird, brief cameo from Swartzenegger. Wonderful from start to finish.
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Metropolitan – Stillman – 1990
The characters here are utterly absurd, young, 20 year old New Yorkers who act, speak and dress like middle aged people from the 1850s. They are priggish, snobbish, conceited, clueless, massively pretentious, and targets of some gentle satire. That said, this is also a lot of fun. Long live the UHB!
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August 32 on Earth – Villeneuve – 1998
The Utah adventure is almost completely stupid and pointless, why do they end up there? It feels like they are making the story up as they go along. There is a slight hint at sci-fi, but even that is not committed to. Some nice shots of the desert, but in general an aimless, meandering story that largely fails.
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All is forgiven – Hansen Love - 2007
More questions than answers at the end, which is a pity as the film has its charms. A story of loss and redemption, the complexity of relationships, the shadow of the past.
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mikhail · 19-01-2021 11:36pm

fisgon wrote: »

The Long Goodbye – Altman – 1973
Philip Marlowe, one of the great smart-asses of modern popular culture. The whole film reeks of the 1970s; special brownies, big afros, wide lapels, sideburns like bushes - though the original novel was set in the fifties. Elliot Gould is a perfect Marlowe, never without a cigarette in his mouth; put upon, smart but a bit lazy, world-weary. Beats the **** out of Bogart. Weird, brief cameo from Swartzenegger. Wonderful from start to finish.

I love that movie. The tone is perfect. Gould is perfect. I've only seen a handful of Altman (including MASH, which Gould is also great in), but TLG is my favourite. It's almost as close to The Big Lebowski as to the old Bogie noirs, though witty rather than overtly comedic.

It was made years before Schwarzenegger really got into acting, so cameo is the right word. I don't think he has any dialogue.

WicklaBlaa · 20-01-2021 6:26pm

May have been discussed here previously, what do people think of the change of format? I sort of preferred the simplicity of the 30 films with a time limit so you are motivated to watch a film asap.

Watched Hunger for the first time. A tough, tough watch.

fisgon · 20-01-2021 10:17pm

WicklaBlaa wrote: »

May have been discussed here previously, what do people think of the change of format? I sort of preferred the simplicity of the 30 films with a time limit so you are motivated to watch a film asap.

Watched Hunger for the first time. A tough, tough watch.

Is there not still a time limit?

Maybe I am being stupid here; i just thought they changed the layout of the home screen, but that the system is still the same....

Irish Aris · 20-01-2021 11:05pm

fisgon wrote: »

Is there not still a time limit?

Maybe I am being stupid here; i just thought they changed the layout of the home screen, but that the system is still the same....

I think the poster might be referring to the library? I haven't checked lately, but couple of months ago I was able to see a film that I missed in the 30 day period and it was still available in the library.

WicklaBlaa · 20-01-2021 11:51pm

Irish Aris wrote: »

I think the poster might be referring to the library? I haven't checked lately, but couple of months ago I was able to see a film that I missed in the 30 day period and it was still available in the library.

Yes the library seems to include most of the back catalogue of films. There are way more films available to watch so harder to choose.

I think I preferred when it was just 30 films.

Irish Aris · 21-01-2021 12:55am

WicklaBlaa wrote: »

Yes the library seems to include most of the back catalogue of films. There are way more films available to watch so harder to choose.

I think I preferred when it was just 30 films.

Yes, that's a good point. Personally, I have used the library only once, as I don't have enough time to explore more than the main catalogue. I would usually go through the 30 films, and there are enough films for me to watch.

johnny_ultimate · 21-01-2021 1:12am

I mean, they still have the 30 day system. They’re just giving more bang for your buck with the bigger collection (and I’ve been watching Mubi long enough to remember when they did have more than just a 30 day cycle!). There’s some great and rare films in the library so would only consider it a good thing

padjocollins · 21-01-2021 8:09am

i've been doggy trained on the 30 day system so i've yet to stray into the library. i'm sure it's something that makes a lot of sense to offer to users while also promoting films for 30 days.

WicklaBlaa · 21-01-2021 3:55pm

Yeah it probably is a positive development.

When I go onto MUBI now the 30-day cycle is just not so obvious. They seem to be promoting the library as much.

I'm sure I will get used to it!

Rjd2 · 29-01-2021 7:43pm

I've had a few series to watch so slowed down on Mubi but enjoyed Harmonium a lot. Essentially the Japanese version Of The Gift.:o

Anyone watch Beginning?

Also slightly annoyed that the Irish version very lacking compared to the American/Canadian version .

MUBI

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