Ok so spooky month is out of the way now… I have to say I’m not as fond of Halloween season as most people do. I mean I rarely watch horror movies anyway and just because it’s October doesn’t mean I was going to start watching scary movies. The only movie I saw that is somewhat spooky is Last Night in Soho. I did see quite a few new movies as well as rewatched some of my old favorites!
In any case, now on to the movie report…
NEW TO ME MOVIES
I actually didn’t get to see as many new movies this past month, not sure why… but hey, I did get to see No Time To Die at least a week earlier than most, so yay!
Attack Of The Hollywood Clichés (2021)
This was pretty ok to watch as Rob Lowe is a funny guy, but overall it’s not as clever as they want to be.
Proxima* (2019)
I watched this as I love Eva Green and Alice Winocour directed the Oscar-nominated French film Mustang in 2015. It’s a really good film that highlights a female astronaut’s journey to space while balancing her role as a mother to a young daughter.
The Last Duel (2021)
The Guilty (2021)
I had seen the Danish version (which I reviewed here) so I was curious to check out the Netflix remake. I think this Antoine Fuqua film is competently-made and Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent, but I’d say the Danish original is still superior, and frankly I’m not fond of the ending that makes it an un-subtle ‘message movie’ about police brutality.
Burnt (2015)
A friend of mine recommended this to me and I’m glad I finally watched this. I’m not sure about the poor reviews as I quite like this one and Bradley Cooper is great as the lead. I also love Daniel Brühl, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy and Matthew Rhys. What a cast!! Plus I usually enjoy movies set in London.
MASS (2021)
This is one of the most effective contained-film that relies of a fantastic script and phenomenal performances. Not sure when I’ll review this, but let’s just say I’m glad I saw it, though it’s not something I ever want to rewatch.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
DUNE (2021)
I’m Your Man* (2021)
Review upcoming – but in short, I LOVED it!
Rumor Has It (2005)
I don’t normally care for Jennifer Aniston‘s rom-com, was intrigued because of The Graduate reference. Well, I’m not sure about the pairing of Kevin Costner given the 14-year age gap, and they didn’t really have a good chemistry. The movie is meh overall, though I LOVE seeing how cute young Mark Ruffalo is in this movie!
I Am Woman* (2019)
I was searching for a female-directed movie on Netflix and found this one, directed by Unjoo Moon. I’m so glad I watched it as I’m not at all familiar with singer Helen Ready but wow, what a woman! Love all the songs here, too, I think I’ll review this one properly one day, but I highly recommend it!
Sounds Like Love* (2021)
Ok, here’s another movie directed by a woman on Netflix, but I could barely finish this one. It’s got a cute premise but most of the characters are intolerable and really hard to watch. If I were to rate this based on what I’ve watched so far, it’d be 1/5 stars, and I doubt the third act would redeem this movie. If you’re not into rom-com, AVOID this one, but if you really love this genre, maybe it’s still watchable, but I’m not sure.
Little Italy (2018)
Ok so the poster apparently went viral a few years ago, which isn’t surprising as some people could hardly believe this movie even existed!! Well, I had to watch it to believe it and wow, it’s a rom-com released in 2018 but has the sensibilities (AND all the clichés) of something in the early 90s. Interesting that the director had made another pizza-related rom-com Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts, and at one point, Julia’s niece Emma Roberts also wore a t-shirt that says A Slice in Heaven. Well, this movie is far from being heavenly, but still amusing to see Hayden Christensen as he seems to be heading into a come-back with him reprising his role as Anakin/Darth Vader in the upcoming Ahsoka Disney+ series.
A Fire Within (2021)
Movies That Made Us: ALIENS (2021)
I always enjoy the behind-the-scenes process of how a hit movie got made, and this one proved that A) James Cameron is a super intense and perfectionist director that often rubs cast/crew the wrong way (surprise, surprise!) and B) Sigourney Weaver is not just a strong heroine on screen but off-screen as well with the way she vouched and fought for the crew, you go girl!
Eternals* (2021)
Review upcoming… not a bad film per-se, but pretty disappointing.
The Song of Lunch (2010)
This is more of a poetic experimental TV Movie than an actual film but I decided to watch it as I LOVE both Emma Thompson AND Alan Rickman, who were co-stars in my all-time favorite movie Sense & Sensibility, as well as Christmas staple Love, Actually. It’s watchable simply because of those two charismatic actors.
Finch (2021)
Review upcoming – but it’s pretty good!
Belfast (2021)
Review upcoming – but for now I can say that I loved it!
I’m convinced this will get an Oscar nom for Best Picture.
Last Night in Soho (2021)
I saw this last night on Halloween and I quite enjoyed it, primarily for the visual style, 60s retro music and Thomasin McKenzie’s performance.
Movies indicated with * (asterisk) indicates those directed by women. I managed to see FIVE films directed by women in October, which means I’m on a good track to complete the 52 Films By Women challenge by the end of the year.
TV SERIES
Apple TV+ FOUNDATION (2021)
So far the only series I watched this month is FOUNDATION, and it’s been slow-going… partly because the series isn’t as engaging as I had hoped (despite THAT scene of shirtless Lee Pace, ahah). I love the premise so I still haven’t given up hope, but hopefully it gets better as A WHEEL OF TIME is arriving in mid November so I know I’ll be watching THAT!
REWATCHES
Titanic (1997) | No Time To Die (2021) | Serendipity (2001)
Some fun rewatches this month! I re-watched No Time To Die on opening weekend with my husband and I actually liked it a bit more the second time around, but I stand by what I said in my review.
Titanic is on Netflix again so of course I had to watch it again, though it took me a couple of days to finish it, such a long movie!! (and yes, I think there is room in that bloody door for TWO people, or at least Rose should help Jack find another log to rest on, I think he’d still be alive!)
Not sure why I rewatched Serendipity again but I LOVE the NYC scenery in that movie even though the plot is so preposterous.
One Night with the King (2006) | Paddington (2014) | Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I’ve been reading the Esther story and found that One Night With the King is free on Tubi. It’s actually a pretty decent film with huge names like Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif (reuniting after Lawrence of Arabia!), and Tiffany Dupont is lovely as Queen Esther. Luke Goss is such a strange casting pick as King Xerxes, it’s especially amusing to me as I used to like the music from his British duo, BROS.
Paddington and Sense & Sensibility are two of my all-time fave British movies. I LOVE the Ang Lee’s Jane Austen adaptation every single time I saw it (which I lost count at this point). Paddington is still adorable, but I much prefer Paddington 2 which is far superior to the original.
OCTOBER MOVIE(S) OF THE MONTH
It’s another tie for Movie of the Month … they couldn’t be more different in terms of story, tone and visual style but they’re both competently-made and also deeply personal for both directors.
Denis Villeneuve has dreamed of making DUNE since he was 13 years old, which was 40 years ago, while Kenneth Branagh wrote BELFAST as a love letter to his hometown that he left when he was 9 years of age (over 50 years ago) when his family uprooted to London during the Troubles period.
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
I had seen Rumor Has It and… it’s shit. I’m sorry but anything that Rob Reiner has done since North (with the exception of The American President) is just unwatchable. My favorite film of the month is Titane with Dune-Part One a close second as the latter I saw on Dolby Atmos upon realizing why I ended up spending more money than the average ticket. It was a great experience despite the fucking trailers they showed before it as there was too many and a lot of the films were shit.
The best thing I saw last month is… Ted Lasso. What a show. Come on AC Richmond!
I LOOOOVE The American President, but yeah Rumor Has It is so disappointing.
Glad you love Dune as well … glad you saw it at a Dolby Atmos theater. I probably won’t be able to see it again at the cinema so I better make sure to watch it on HBO before it leaves that platform on Nov 21.
And yes, that season finale of TED LASSO is so amazing!!!
Oh I forgot that I watched Attack Of The Hollywood Clichés! I quite enjoyed it actually. Some parts were better than others but I did laugh a lot. October was a crazy month for movies, it’s felt like the first normal month in that regard since the pandemic began.
Yeah I think Rob Lowe was a pretty fun host on that movie. I’m glad to be back at the cinema, certain movies just demand to be seen on the big screen! I know we both can’t wait for House of Gucci 😉
Can’t believe it’s already November and 2021 is almost over! My movie of the month is DUNE, most disappointing is No Time To Die. I’ll give it a watch again when it comes out on 4K disc but it’s the first Bond film that I won’t be seeing two times in theater. I’ve seen all of Craig’s Bond films at least twice in theater but I couldn’t find the urge to see No Time To Die again.
New movies to me last month, Free Guy, Dune, No Time to Die, Army of Thieves, A Walk Among the Tombstones, A Quiet Place Part 2 and SAS: Red Notice.
I know, time just flies this year for some reason. I love DUNE as well and I think No Time To Die and Eternals are quite disappointing for me (my review of Eternals is up tomorrow), though I still enjoyed the Bond movie more because I’m a big Bond fan.
Is Army of Thieves any good? I only watched the first 5 min of Army of the Dead, did not care for it, but I’m intrigued by the Netflix series. Oooh, I gotta watch A Walk Among the Tombstones soon! I just got a free Blu-ray from Universal of Liam Neeson’s The Marksman.
Army of Thieves was a lot of fun, it’s a prequel to Army of the Dead. They sort of reference events from Snyder’s film but Thieves is a totally different film. It’s more of heist and action thriller, very similar to the Ocean’s films.
Okay great, I’ll put Army of Thieves on my watch list. Glad I don’t have to watch Snyder’s movie to enjoy it.
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Great list! You have some major connections to get a lot of these girl! Since movies started back up – I feel like I almost have to fight to get into a media screening because I’m not in the ‘big time’ and they no longer fill them up. It’s draining. But I am like you, not super into horror films anymore. There was a time when I would rent like 3 scary movies & watch them along to scare myself, but most have just turned into slasher/gore pics and I’m so not into that. I like actual scary stuff.. oh well. I hope you are doing well and we still have to make time to Zoom meet!! 🙂
Hey Peggy!! Yes let’s get that Zoom meet-up in the books soon, girl. I’ll hit you up on Twitter DM, or if you wanna email me (ruth@maramis.me) then we can figure out a time.
Oh I thought you get screener links or screening invites all the time. I mean you live in LA where everything happens. I am a member of Film Independent and often get screening invites but they’re always in LA or NYC 😦
I just don’t have the nerves to handle horror, I think I was traumatized when I saw Exorcist in college and could barely sleep for days!
Btw, THANKS for letting me know about I’m Your Man VOD release, glad I finally saw it and I LOVED it… now just trying to figure out a time to review all the movies I’ve seen, LOL!
How much I have joined in with Halloween has changed over the years. Trick or treating wasn’t so much of a pastime in the UK when I was growing up so it’s not something I have ever done.
When I went to university I’d dress up every year and since then I have hosted a few house parties. This year was different again – we had my fiancé’s best friend family come to stay, including their gorgeous nearly three-year-old. We carved pumpkins, made cookies and had some autumnal walks.
To the films…
I watched Attack Of The Hollywood Clichés too. Some of them I knew already but a few others I had the “huh!” moment.
I also watched The Guilty. Like you write, Gyllenhaal deliver an excellent performance but there are a few inconsistencies that start to distract from the drama..
Little Italy – I watched that recently too. Good lord, it is awful. It’s something reminiscent of the Nineties and hard to believe it was released so recently!
Aw, I have such a soft spot for Serendipity. It’s whimsical and very watchable, IMO.
Somehow I’ve never been much into dressing up for Halloween, I only did it a few times in my entire life, ahah. I actually escaped the Trick n Treaters this year so we went to see Last Night in Soho on Halloween.
Little Italy is just bonkers and the two leads look bored the entire time, it’s as if they just did it for the paycheck, no chemistry AT ALL.
Serendipity is cute, not as good as Nora Ephron rom-com but it’s got its charm and I love the NYC scenery, esp the one in Central Park.