Movie/film suggestions.

I think Black Mass was decent, @immatthewj but I wouldn't watch it twice. It was made after I was over Depp, but still not completely turned off. I was living there and working a menial job when Whitey disappeared along with a few more guys. It turned my boss' was connected to the mafia by association, his cousins were in the Winter Hill Gang. Little did I knew, I also lived on the edge of Winter Hill and Spring Hill. 

Obviously, when it's made by the locals, they get it right. The Town, Gone Baby Gone, Ted are fantastic movies in their own genre and they are "pitch perfect". Just like the accent, you either get it right or don't bother, keep it generic. 

As they say, @gano , one person’s art is another’s garbage.  Myself, I am generally not a huge Nicholson fan, but in The Departed I loved him. I’ve never been to Boston so I cannot comment, but it seemed to full fill what I thought Boston would be like.  Which could very well be a misconception on my part.  (Now I am killing a lot of time watching excerpts of the Karen Read trial, and I get a kick out of the accents.)  As far as the Whitey Bulger angle, when I first watched the movie I really didn’t know anything about that, but after watching Black Mass and some White Bulger documentaries, there does seem to be a take off on that happening.  At least in that there was a violent gangster in Boston who had a law enforcement agent on the inside (Bulger had the FBI agent, Connoly/and Nicholson had Damon) and was playing both sides of the game.

Anyway, I really enjoyed The Departed.  But speaking of Bulger and Boston and movies, how did you feel about Black Mass?

with all due respect @immatthewj it was a weird movie. It totally missed the Whitey Bulger and Boston aspects. Nicholson (I love him) butchered it. The way Scorsese got New Jersey right in Goodfellas, he missed the scene in the Departed. I lacked the ambience a 100%. OK, maybe 90%.

I too, rewatched recently. Really love all the supporting cast. They contribute highly to the film.

The violence in The Departed was necessary and well done, and that was another aspect that made it a great movie.  I'd say the same for Black Mass.

I too, rewatched recently. Really love all the supporting cast. They contribute highly to the film.

The Departed is on right now, and I've seen it enough that I am not going to watch it tonight (particularly with commercials), but what a great movie with a great starring cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson), and a great supporting cast (including Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin)  that did a great job.  This was also on my top seven list and was also the movie that turned me into a DiCaprio fan.

"Killer Joe"   Never seen Matthew McConaughey like this before. Never will again.

"Home Sweet Hell". Watched recently and found it to be very well done with an interesting plot.

Depp was very convincing in "Black Mass"

 Speaking of which, have you ever seen State of Grace with Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris and Robin Wright? Great cops and mob movie with the mob being of the Irish variety. Made in 1990 but still holds up. 

That was a pretty good movie, @nonoise ; family, friends, trust, betrayal and violence with a great cast . . . I couldn't ask for much more.  And I had forgotten what that cast looked like 35 years ago.

On the subject of violent movies revolving around the Irish mob, how about Black Mass 2015)?  This was one of my original top seven picks; with Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulgar and Joel Edgerton as the corrupted FBI agent who collaborated with him, it is intense and violent.  The great cast also includes Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Plemmons, Bill Camp, Juno Temple. . . .  Imo it is a must-see.

The Revenant is a great movie!

Just rewatched The Wolf Of Wall Street"

I don't think I have, @nonoise .  It certainly has a strong cast.  I just did a search and it is available for free this week on MGM+ or on Tubi, so I am going to check it out before the weekend is over.

@immatthewj Yup. Enjoyed that one too. No one's really all that clean. Always been lured to the dark side of human nature, where it crosses into light. Speaking of which, have you ever seen State of Grace with Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris and Robin Wright? Great cops and mob movie with the mob being of the Irish variety. Made in 1990 but still holds up. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise , since you are a fan of movies depicting characters and situations in the margins (and outside the margins) of society, have you seen Gone Baby Gone?

With a fairly strong cast (including Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan) it is a layered drama that explores a blurry line between right and wrong and revolves around the abduction of a toddler in a tough working-class neighborhood in Boston.  This was in my original top eight picks.

@imatthewj: I liked the story told in The Revenant, but don't have the knowledge required to evaluate it in terms of historical accuracy. One thing I didn't mention was the spectacular scenery in the film. I would love to see it in a theater.

I watched The Revenant last night (my second viewing). Leonardo DiCaprio’s role must be the most physically demanding one I’ve ever seen! I found the film’s music subtle and effective.

I enjoyed The Revenant myself, @bdp24 , and theoretically it is based on a true story and in real life Glass supposedly let bygones be bygones.  I remember a reference to Colter (who I assume was the mountain man/trapper John Colter) (I remember when I was in grade school learning that Colter had spent some time in the area now known as Yellowstone National Park which had then been jokingly referred to as "Colter's Hell" because his stories about that area were viewed by some as outlandish).  After I watched that movie I tried to follow up on the Colter aspect, and I remember reading on the internet that this was one of the inaccuracies of The Revenant as John Colter was not present at the time and event depicted in the movie.  But despite that, I found it an enjoyable watch.

@lordmelton

👑

I watched The Revenant last night (my second viewing). Leonardo DiCaprio’s role must be the most physically demanding one I’ve ever seen! I found the film’s music subtle and effective.

@slaw 

As a Clint Eastwood fan, I always liked "Bronco Billy".

Wiki calls Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016 starring Tina Fey as a correspondent in Afghanistan) a "biographical war comedy-drama."  Although it was humorous and made me laugh a few times, I was not going to go as far as calling it an outright comedy, but I did find it to be a movie worth watching.

Roadie (2011) is a movie with a musical theme that I found to be easily watchable.  Ron Eldard portrays a member of BOC's road crew who has recently received his walking papers from the band’s management.  This was part of his identity, and in the movie he has returned to his hometown (Queens, NYC) where instead of admitting that he is no longer on the road crew, he tells people he is actually running the show.  He meets up with a hometown girl (Jill Hennessy of Law & Order fame) he seems to have had (and still does) and her alpha male a-hole bf, played by Bobby Cannavale.  

Dark and grim are accurate descriptors, @nonoise .  I was not expecting a happy ending, but that was sort of  like what would happen if Stephen King and Cormac McCarthy decided to collaborate on something.  

@immatthewj I hope you like it. I found it to be dark, grim and the ending was no better. 

I can get Antlers for free, @nonoise ; it is queuing up as I type!

@immatthewj I can't tell you how many times it's been on with my intention of watching it  and I never got around to it. Its now added to my list. 

As long as these suggestions are leaning towards noir, I'd like to add a bit of horror and recommend Antlers. It's as dark as one can get and the special effects are a bit of a gut punch. It stars Keri Russell and Jessie Plemons as siblings with a dark past struggling in a dying mining town. 

While looking it up I noticed the price for the Blu Ray came down considerably so I may just buy it.

All the best,
Nonoise

I thought that I had mentioned Fatman (2020) in this thread, but I cannot find it, so just in case I’ll mention it again because Walton Goggins is supposed to be hosting SNL tonight and that made me think of it.  Anyway, it is a very dark comedy starring Goggins and Mel Gibson.  It’s hard to do justice to in  a paragraph, but it involves Santa and his elves taking on a government military contract and also a child who had received a lump of coal and then hires a hitman to bump off Santa Clause.  As I remember, it had me in stiches, and although I didn’t like the series The Shield, I generally enjoy Goggins’ performances.

@nonoise ,

I don’t know if this was already mentioned but Out of the Furnace is one unrelentingly somber take on family, drug addiction and poverty 

that makes me think of Winter’s Bone (2010), which I have previously mentioned and was about the effect of methamphetamine addiction and production on a poverty-stricken group of people in the Ozarks.  With Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes and Dale Dickey (among others) for a cast, I got a gritty and dirty and real vibe.  Given you enjoyed Blast Furnace, I think you would also find this to your liking. 

...but I'm an Altman fan....nearly all his films were a take on strange events that led to some sort of conclusion of sorts....
"Happy ever after?"

Not so much..

Watched "Monsters’ Ball" recently. I had forgotten Heith Ledger was in this film.

Kind of at a loss for words to describe my take.The last scene on the side steps, drinking a beer.....Haley realizes after putting all the pieces together, and accepting that, realizes this is now her life 

Mentioning Renee Zelwegger reminded me of the wonderful job she did in "Judy".

Fav Western....McCabe & Mrs. Miller ...

A look at what that era was likely more to have been....gritty, dark, dank, full of men mostly hanging on by knotted bootstraps with the occasional near-psychotic gunslinger with nothing and no one to stop him....

You want to go back to that time and places?
Here's the time machine....I won't expect it to return....or you.

I have always been confused by the Power Dynamic in Georgian England at the time of the American Revolution.  The King did have the power to appoint and dismiss Prime Ministers and ultimately had to sign off on most decrees.  Monarchs such as Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II basically rubber stamped the Parliamentary decrees but not George III.  He was known to have been particularly, and personally, incensed by actions such as the Boston Tea Party and was determined to make the colonies bend to his will.  He was opposed by Conservatives such as Burke but the Kings opinion had great value with Parliament at that time

The Holdovers was pretty good.

Speaking of Giomotti, he''s excellent in "The Holdovers".

Watched "Cinderella Man" recently. I was pleasantly surprised. Great cast...Russell Crowe, Renee Zelwegger, Paul Giomotti......who is really a great actor.

@immatthewj 

Thanks for the heads up. I've always liked movies that can honestly depict reality with all its warts and shortcomings. It can be done seriously and humorously (with the right people making it). 

All the best,
Nonoise

I remember watching Out Of The Furnace, @nonoise . 

If you enjoy movies with a theme of despair, check out Animals (2014).  It is not an action movie and has no big names, but if follows two heroin addicts (Jude and Bobbie) from good families who are living in a car, and what they do to obtain heroin.  I wouldn't think it would have taken much of a budget to make this movie, but I thought it was surprisingly well done.  There is a scene I remember where the female lead says to the male lead something to the effect of "why would two kids from reasonably good families end up doing this," and the male lead answers something to the effect of, "I don't know babe; why do birds keep flying into picture windows?"  (I doubt I got those quotes 100% word for word.)

^ I enjoyed it!

I don't know if this was already mentioned but Out of the Furnace is one unrelentingly somber take on family, drug addiction and poverty with Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Zoe Saldana, Woody Harrelson (as one mean villain), Willam Dafoe, Forrest Whitaker and Sam Shepard. It'll drain you.

All the best,
Nonoise

Watched "Spotlight" for the second since it was released. Really well done.

I couldn’t remember if I had seen that one or not so I did a google and yes, now I remember it.  That was a pretty good movie and having Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton was a plus.

I recently watched American Woman (2018) with Sienna Miller and Amy Madigan.  It was a well put together drama with good acting that evolved from a crime/tragedy and was set in a working class town with everyday people somewhere in Pa. (it was filmed in Brockton Pa. and I think I remember Bucks County being mentioned in the movie).  The script, characters and plot were believable/realistic and it kept me engaged from beginning to end.

Watched "Spotlight" for the second since it was released. Really well done.

Bad Education with a cast including Ray Romano, Hugh Jackman and Pam Gluckin was quite entertaining, well acted, and at times I found it to be hilarious.   Apparently it is based on actual events and relates a tale regarding "waste, fraud and abuse" in the New York public school system.

Interesting to watch "Quiz Show" again after all these years. John Turturro is great.

Totally.

Interesting to watch "Quiz Show" again after all these years. John Turturro is great.

As I've never seen that one, @bdp24 , I just did a google and it looks interesting.  As I mentioned previously in this thread, I found his small part in Body Heat memorable (when he was cautioning William Hurt about the dangers of committing arson).  

Me as well @immatthewj and @slaw. I also saw him recently in Angel Heart (with De Niro).

Watched "The Wrestler" again with Micky Rourke. I thought it was still really good.

+1.   

Watched "The Wrestler" again with Micky Rourke. I thought it was still really good.

The Sand Pebbles-- by far Steve Mcqueen's best.

Ditto for Neuman in The Verdict

The Man Who Would be King.

Michael Caine and Sean Connery

It's an epic

Watched "Child 44" yesterday. Very well done. Stars Tom Hardy.

I did a google and it looks interesting.  It appears as if I can get it on Peacock, so I'll probably give it a look.  Texas Killing Fields was a movie that I enjoyed enough to watch more than once.  Small cast but I felt that the acting was decent it came off as intense and believable.