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I watched The Man from Earth and it was just some people talking in a cabin the whole movie but they somehow made it work and enjoyable.
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Sep 3, 2022 19:34
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Nope - Felt like two hours building up to nothing. At least I wasn't bored while watching it.
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Sep 5, 2022 02:56
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The Blob An amazing film, it managed to make Steve Mcqueen look like a dork and end on the most perfect plan I've seen in films. Just drop it in the Arctic, what could go wrong?
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Sep 5, 2022 03:03
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Weekend watches: Hero - The 1997 film not the Jet Li one. Found the collector's blu ray randomly at a store and blind bought it. The little booklet essay that came with it kind of poo poo talks the film, which I've never seen before with one of these. This is a remake of The Boxer from Shantung, the classic heroic bloodshed by Chang Cheh but done in that 90s style of amped up wirefu seen in films such as Iron Monkey and Once Upon a Time in China. This isn't as good as it's contemporaries or the original, but hey the climax is pretty entertaining and the axe gang is in it. I give it a perfectly average 5/10 for a perfectly average kung fu flick. The Holy Mountain - I've previously watched several other Jodorowsky movies when I was a young movie nerd and while I always found his visuals striking I didn't really "get it" back then and was worried going into what is said to be a very esoteric movie. Either an advantage of maturity or just this being his best movie but I found this both supremely entertaining in a way art films usually aren't and got enough meaning out of the symbolism to have been mentally and emotionally engaged most of the time. Favorite sequences include the frogs reenacting the fall of the Aztecs, the whole sequence introducing the planets, and the ending, which essentially tells the audience to "touch grass". Looking forward to a rewatch. 10/10 Crumbs - This came with my copy of Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway, which I loved so much as to buy the special edition blu ray. This was director Miguel Llansó's first film and features the same lead actor. So the setup here is that it's post apocalyptic Ethiopia, people treat 20th century trinkets like TMNT toys as magic relics and pray to a photo of Michael Jordan, and the big mothership in the sky has finally wakened up. Also Santa Claus communicates with people through a bowling ball chute or something. All that sounds amazing, sure, but it's a film that sounds better than it is and feels like it struggles to reach it's already short running time. Lots of scenes of people walking around films and old rusty ruins, that sort of low budget thing. As a first film, it's great, but mostly I recommend the much superior Jesus Saves... to see what this director can do and only going back to check this one out if you're curious. 6/10
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Sep 5, 2022 07:09
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Columbus is just amazing. I can't really put into words how much I love the stationary camera that only moves twice (that I caught) when it's important to the two main characters. It means something and I love it. It helps that the movie is so goddamn gorgeous. Like it's stunning, my partner called some of the shots as perfect postcards and she's not wrong. The performances are also amazing, I mean the glory of the shooting could easily be overtaken by a neglect of the characters or how they're portrayed. Haley Lu Richardson is luminous. She's strong and fragile and emotive. You get such a wonderful sense of her loving Columbus, but also wanting so much to experience the rest of the world that her classmates seem to be. She loves this place but wants to outgrow it, but can't yet. Her sense of responsibility for her mother is both understandable and yet so frustrating. It's very much like Lady Birdy, where I don't think the movie realizes how codependent their mother/daughter relationship actually is. The only negative thing I would say is that she comes across like she doesn't actually smoke. It's a small thing, but the cigarette placement and approach just came across false. John Cho is also just amazing here. I love his weary affect, and how much you can tell he doesn't want to be there. I don't know how I feel about the ending where he moves into his father's hospital room. It feels very much set up like the similar Korean set up he's avoiding, where he succumbs to outside pressure and mourns the way society wants him to, rather than how he actually feels. I'm a bit back and forth if we're meant to feel the movie celebrating that as a right decision, or if it's a mirror to say Cassandra is making the right choice, leaving Jin trapped in her place, almost the sacrifice that lets her leave. Just overall a stunning movie, and one that is so humanistic. I love how it's shot and how it takes buildings and builds into that the story.
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Sep 5, 2022 08:15
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Watched Spiderhead on Netflix. Sort of felt like a low budget The Island but with even less to say about much of anything. The motivation behind the villain could be unraveled by a 7th grade book report on mortality. Like super basic poo poo and it’s incredible this was made into a movie as is. Absolute horse poo poo. Chris hemsworth sure is pretty, though.
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Sep 5, 2022 19:52
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Barry Lyndon - As much the masterpiece as everyone always says it is, and a lot wittier than a lot of the contemporary reviews would have you believe. Barry's transformation from a pathetic wretch to an aristocratic prick is one of the better arcs in a Kubrick movie and his comeuppance coming, in part, by two of the only good deeds he does (spoiling his son and discharging his pistol into the ground during the final duel adds to the cynicism of the whole thing. I think this will go up there with 2001, Eyes Wide Shut and Dr. Strangelove on my list of Kubrick films. 10/10
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Sep 6, 2022 06:27
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Suzanne's Career man if you want a movie about men being totally and unnecessarily cruel to a you woman then have I got a movie for you. As is common with Rohmer he manages to nail the ending and in doing so recontextualizes the entire film.
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Sep 7, 2022 01:29
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Saint Maud was a well made, eerie film about someone being consumed by their faith and loneliness and then the last 0.25 seconds rockets it into the upper echelon of movies I've seen this year.
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Sep 8, 2022 05:36
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Free Guy was pretty fun, but overly long. There’s a cleaner 90 minute version if some jokes and streamers were dropped. Also theres some weird old jokes for a film that embraces an online world and the rise of influencers. For example there’s a joke about a 22 year old still living with their parents, or how gamers are angry virgins. Those felt a bi dated.
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Sep 8, 2022 07:11
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Crimes of the Future - Good but felt like a SparkNotes Cronenberg. Like, "watch this, and if you like it, then you're gonna love these..." edit: Mantis42 posted:Barry Lyndon unlimited shrimp fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Sep 11, 2022 |
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Sep 11, 2022 05:52
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Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. was awful. Just a bunch of scenes tied together with minimal narrative relation that failed to have an ending or a point. There was possibly an interesting movie in there somewhere but the directors sure didn't find it.
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Sep 12, 2022 14:58
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Akira - wow so they make cartoons in japan now? kinda derivative of a lot of cyberpunk media made in the last 30 years but at least the animation is pretty. hope to see what they make next 8/10 Last Year Marienbad - I loved Hiroshima Mon Amour and Night and Fog but not sure about this. It's about the archetype of the lovers, the clandestine affair, the exotic place they meet, the suspicious spouse, at least that's how I saw it. And if so, that makes this basically a parody of all of French cinema, since they're all about that kind of thing. It's basically a more surreal version of In The Mood For Love, yet where I felt a strong emotional connection to that film and to Resnais' earlier films this one mostly made feel not much at all. It feels like it was just an intellectual thing for the writer and director. 6/10
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Sep 13, 2022 00:44
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Yi Yi - My 2nd Edward Yang film. Spectacular. A powerful argument for the ability of art to transcend the individual lacuna and understand ourselves and others better. Every character felt like a fully realized human being. 10/10
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Sep 13, 2022 06:46
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Exposing Muybridge - Documentary Perfunctory, a little shabby, felt like it had as much information as the Wikipedia page. I would imagine there are TV shows about the history of film that were more concise in their first episode also interesting to note after seeing Nope, they had a white-as-snow jockey for the horse, which honestly is something anyone would have picked up on, considering how much they show the images of the horse and jockey
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Sep 13, 2022 18:42
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The Card Counter I didn’t know this was an Iraq war/abu ghraib film along with all the gambling, so that was an interesting surprise. The gambling aspect is there of course, along with the card lessons, but the revenge/atonement plot was naturally stronger. It was all kind of cold, but it kept my attention.
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Sep 14, 2022 01:52
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Petite Maman. This was short and very cute. It’s a reflection on grief, but the little girls give it such humanity and brightness that it never gets too heavy. Love all the little moments of just eating snacks, playing games, cooking pancakes, etc.
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Sep 14, 2022 02:00
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Mantis42 posted:Last Year Marienbad - I loved Hiroshima Mon Amour and Night and Fog but not sure about this. It's about the archetype of the lovers, the clandestine affair, the exotic place they meet, the suspicious spouse, at least that's how I saw it. And if so, that makes this basically a parody of all of French cinema, since they're all about that kind of thing. It's basically a more surreal version of In The Mood For Love, yet where I felt a strong emotional connection to that film and to Resnais' earlier films this one mostly made feel not much at all. It feels like it was just an intellectual thing for the writer and director. 6/10 Personally I saw it as they did have an affair years ago, but the husband discovered it and shot her, the scream in the bedroom, and he died from the railing collapsing when he fled to the patio. Since then they've both been trapped in a repeating purgatory where time and space are distorted. The man's constant loses over nim are him trying to win the soul of the woman but it's only when he convinces her are they allowed to leave, seemingly.
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Sep 14, 2022 02:02
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It's hard to make concrete statements because it's like Schrodinger's affair, everything that could be said to have happened is also shown to not have happened. E: I think they're ghosts in a hauntological sense, sure. There's some details I missed, like the patio thing, because of how unengaged I was by the halfway mark. Mantis42 fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Sep 14, 2022 |
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Sep 14, 2022 06:16
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See How They Run was a B- movie that's Just Fine. Kind of reminded me of a cross between Wes Anderson and Knives Out, if both were watered down dramatically. However, I went to see it because I love Saoirse Ronan, and it contained a lot of Saoirse Ronan, so that boosted it a full letter grade from what I would've given it otherwise.
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Sep 16, 2022 01:23
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See How They Run should be a little tighter, and a little less cute. But it's a fun mystery that isn't totally predictable and the Wes Anderson influence is fun. Blows the new Poirot movies out the loving water. It shouldn't try and comment on the genre the way it sometimes does tho, if you can't do it well then don't. I love you, again Myrna Loy, Willam Powell, and Van Dyck reunite for a non Thin Man film. Powell gets to show some real range, his character at the start is drat near the opposite of Nick Charles. A stick up his rear end non drinker who pinches every penny, he gets zonked on the head and goes back to his previous self a scumbag scam artist. Complicating matters is him finding his wife who he falls in love with for the first time, but she's trying to get a divorce. Its fun to watch the man try and balance winning back his wife and trying to scam the town while keeping up his appearance. But the film isn't quite as fun as the Thin Man. That film was always best at its most Urbane, this is a little more small town and it limits the most important part of the film, the razor sharp dialogue. Roundup of some short films I saw Le Chant du Styrene not as compelling as his documentary on the National Library, but still absolutely fascinating and beautifully shot. Resnai is drat good at this Les 3 Boutons From La Pointe Courte to La Pointless film short, do better Varda The Islands of Fire One of the most beautifully shot films I've seen. Gaius Marius fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Sep 17, 2022 |
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Sep 16, 2022 04:01
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Moonfall this is like a bad Independence Day. Follows a similar idea and has the a and B plots also, but none of the charming actors or memorable lines/speeches. Script is much worse and all of the family survival stuff is just boring.
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Sep 17, 2022 08:13
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Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) I could watch those two talk all day which is good because that’s about all this film is. Still, it’s George Miller so you’ve got some wonderful cinematography
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Sep 18, 2022 07:09
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Thor: Love and Thunder - Was a bit buzzed watching this, so I wasn't super attentive. From that standpoint it was okay, some neat visuals. I wish we could do pulp-y adventure without it being a self parody. 5/10
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Sep 18, 2022 07:14
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ELVIS is everything I had ever wished for from Baz Luhrman doing a biopic. Just utterly bonkers, mixing truth and fiction, reality and hearsay - throwing every visual trick and tool at the wall and it mostly sticks. Really shocked it was as good as it was.
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Sep 18, 2022 20:07
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The 400 Blows - The closest thing to The Catcher In The Rye on the big screen (which might be the best case scenario as I can't stand that book and really dug this). The ultimate Cannes revenge movie. Singles - Great soundtrack to an extremely mid movie. Heat - MICHAEL. loving. MANN.
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Sep 19, 2022 02:48
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There are a bit of diminishing returns but if you liked 400 blows I'd strongly recommend watching at least Antoine and Colette and Stolen Kisses. Also Cather in the Rye owns
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Sep 19, 2022 02:54
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Fall (2022) If watching Russian parkour teens on Youtube gives you severe anxiety, you will hate this movie. 7.5/10 Never watching again
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Sep 19, 2022 06:01
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Emily the Criminal - Aubrey Plaza steals the show (and practically everything else) in a millennial crime drama that's totes relatable. A real good time
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Sep 20, 2022 06:37
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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters there’s a lot to think about here, and more background I need I think as I am not familiar with Mishima’s works. So reading up the books for the chapters at least. My initial thought is how the Mishimas obsession with masculinity and conservative values and then an actual private group playing at army before finally attempting coup all parallels the proudboys/oath keepers in u.s. and Jan 6th. Oh and this movie looks ridiculously good with all the colors and beautiful shots. And the score is majestic too. Great movie though and easily my favorite Schrader so far.
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Sep 21, 2022 08:30
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Gambit I spent the first twenty minutes wondering what MacLaine's deal was. She didn't say a word and managed the heist perfectly, I started spinning crazy conspiracies that she was the man's dead wife and was using the thief to help infiltrate the compound herself for some reason. The actual reveal was perfect, plus it gave her and Caine the opportunity to show their range. Playing actual good thieves and conmen, and playing what they really are people totally out their depth in this whole business.
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Sep 22, 2022 16:18
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We Are All Going to the World's Fair : A very modern mood piece about the power of the internet to simultaneously soothe and distract and terrify. A mashup of found footage and documentary styles, perspective shifts and just outright weird things happening keep you wondering from scene to scene just what's coming next. I liked it very much
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Sep 22, 2022 22:40
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Mantis42 posted:
It played to me like a ghost story, people trapped in repetitions of their past while losing any sense of context, but whether they're literal ghosts or it's a metaphor is one of those things it never budges on. It worked for me on that level, that sorta eerie, languid, beautiful atmosphere, even if it's hard to sustain over 90 minutes. Also I feel like the director was just interested in the fact that with a movie you can record the passage of time and what if you had people frozen in time, repeating it, going over it, etc.
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Sep 23, 2022 05:02
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Victoria and Abdul. What a charming romantic story, such a shame that British rule of India had to end, according to the makers of this movie. This kind of poo poo makes me want to vomit. gently caress the monarchy and gently caress everyone who romanticizes it. Eddie Izzard was fantastic channeling his inner Oliver Reed, though. I'm going to go devour a king-sized snickers bar out spite, both for the pathetic symbolism and also because it's a snickers bar.
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Sep 24, 2022 02:08
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Breathless My first Goddard, and second or third French new wave. This was fairly interesting, though Michel, the main male, was pretty annoying. But his first line is admitting he’s an rear end in a top hat. So at least it’s honest. The women were all gorgeous and it was neat to see an older Paris like that. Stylistically, the use of long takes worked really well to draw you in. There were so many continuous shots like this with maybe my favorite being at the end where the girl walks in circles contemplating love and guilt. The other aspect was all the jumpy cuts which didn’t really care about continuity which made for a stark contrast with the long takes. As for French new wave films, I still like Hiroshima Mon Amour better.
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Sep 29, 2022 20:28
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Inheritance (2020) - Simon Pegg was amazing. Totally unrecognizable except in the physical sense. I did not expect him to have this kind of range. Bravo. This movie had a lot of the elements to make a really good thriller, or horror, or sci-fi, or any number of things. And at least it avoided being a bottle movie, ugh. Unfortunately it suffers from a common problem: it's hard to care about a story in which all the characters are horrible people. Oh No! The obscenely wealthy and politically connected family of selfish and corrupt assholes might suffer a few of the consequences of their awful life choices! The ending doesn't quite work, what with at least one murder that no one bothered to clean up, likely two including the pilot. And the fire is more likely to draw attention than just locking the door and burying it. Also I always wonder with this sort of movie whether it is the result of somebody's barely disguised fetish.
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Sep 30, 2022 01:59
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Maxwell Lord posted:It played to me like a ghost story, people trapped in repetitions of their past while losing any sense of context, but whether they're literal ghosts or it's a metaphor is one of those things it never budges on. It worked for me on that level, that sorta eerie, languid, beautiful atmosphere, even if it's hard to sustain over 90 minutes. Also I feel like the director was just interested in the fact that with a movie you can record the passage of time and what if you had people frozen in time, repeating it, going over it, etc. It's definitely more interesting to talk about than to watch. Resnais style is powerful I just preferred it when he was talking about subjects with more immediate emotional resonance.
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Sep 30, 2022 02:09
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Dr. Yinz Ljubljana posted:Emily the Criminal - Aubrey Plaza steals the show (and practically everything else) in a millennial crime drama that's totes relatable. A real good time Emily the Criminal - April Ludgate's life takes an unexpected turn. A fun movie that doesn't overstay its welcome. My main complaint is that it can't quite decide if it wants to be gritty and realistic or just stay on the surface level and suffers a bit for its indecisiveness.
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Sep 30, 2022 05:15
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So I just watched Hiroshima Mon Amour and like wtf. My partner came in and asked what I thought after it ended and I blurted out it might be the best movie I've ever seen? And I think that's not true . . . but it feels true right now, 30 minutes after it's finished? Like wtf, that's amazing, and just stunning. I have seen so many movies imitate what this does, and fail. It's turned me over to see this work, and really call into question just everything. IDK, I'm not really sure yet how to put this into words. It leaves you feeling empty and full at the same time, both despairing and joyous, and fully prickly. I have seen so many things like it, but nothing ever like it. Just wow.
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Oct 1, 2022 07:04
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Blonde - A pretentious slog. Listen, I love watching people suffer for three hours, but at least have a story and not just a bunch of scenes barely threaded together by daddy issues. Felt like a low-brow attempt at being high-brow due to how frequently aspect-ratios and shots change (I kid you not, I counted a 10 minute sequence towards the end where it goes from 2.40:1 cinemascope, to 4:3 technicolor, to a digital-as-gently caress lens-flare blown out 16:9 slow-mo tracking shot going in and out of focus like a generic student film, to a CGI fetus, to INFRARED, to 4:3 black & white). Amadeus is still the biopic gold-standard.
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Oct 1, 2022 09:38
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