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Selections from the last month or so: The Lure 5/5 In Order of Disappearance 4/5 13th 3/5 Swiss Army Man 2/5 Toni Erdmann 5/5 Ixcanul 5/5 David Brent: Life on the Road 1/5 Kilo Two Bravo 4/5 Hell or High Water 5/5 Sing Street 5/5 Silence 5/5 I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore 4/5
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Mar 6, 2017 22:38
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York_M_Chan posted:You sure are throwing around a lot of perfect scores. I'd like to hear your thoughts on them. I hand out 5's like candy to films that deserve them, cause Rite Aid is just down the street and I can always get more 5's. In Order of Disappearance When his son is killed by the local coke dealers, Stellan Skarsgård sets out to seek revenge and racks up a pretty respectable body count. The plot is nothing new, but what sets this film apart from others in its genre is its sense of humor. Everyone is an idiot somehow, and the film exploits this to full effect. The gang leader is a clumsy, high-strung vegan, his right-hand man lets the boss's son eat Fruit Loops behind his back, and Skarsgård's charater, a Swede, is held in high esteem by the locals in his Norwegian town for being "the good kind of immigrant". There's a bit of influence from the Coen Bros on display here that makes for a fun watch. 4/5 Toni Erdmann BeanpolePeckerwood knocked it out of the park with his review of this film from last page. Despite the depressing subject matter and straightforward presentation, Toni Erdmann is hilarious in so many different ways from start to finish, sometimes overtly, but mostly in a subtle, human way. I saw this on a whim after a particularly bad day, and despite its long runtime it was rejuvenating. 5/5 Ixcanul This film haunted me for days after watching it. It's a story of a teenage Mayan girl living on a coffee plantation in utter poverty and social marginalization. She dreams of a better life in the US, while her parents hope that she will be able to marry up, but both of those ambitions are put out of reach by a series of what would be minor missteps for someone living in better circumstances. It's very easy to make a film on this subject that is exploitative, condescending, lurid, or pitying, but Ixcanul takes a documentary-like approach and allows the story to unfold as though we were simply observing the characters' daily lives. The actors playing the girl and her mother give strong and memorable performances, enhanced by the beautiful natural-light cinematography and deliberate pacing. 5/5 Hell or High Water I'm writing way too late to say anything new about how this film speaks to the political and economic zeitgeist in much of the country, so I'll just say that it's a solid Western-inflected crime film that's elevated by its great cast, excellent cinematography, and an absolutely killer script. 5/5 Sing Street This would be just another kid-in-a-band movie if it weren't for the strong cast all around and absolutely confident production. I don't have a lot to say about this film except that it's an energetic, can-do, feel-good movie that gave my late-20s world weariness a much-needed punch in the face. "Drive It Like You Stole It", the main theme, has been drifting in and out of my head for the past couple weeks. 5/5 Silence "What is authentic faith, and what is its relationship to religion?" This film explores that question from half a dozen angles before presenting its answers. At times it feels like a theological thesis inside a heartbreakingly beautiful package. Andrew Garfield's performance is the best I've seen from him so far, and the rest of the cast is incredible, including several standout performances from established Japanese actors. The film looks and feels like a historical drama from the 80s or 90s, the kind of lavish, contemplatively shot and edited epic that is very rare these days. Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is always brilliant and at times breathtaking. A strong contender for my personal best film of 2016. 5/5 HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I've heard some encouraging stuff about this one. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore Alienated by the slights and indifference she faces in her daily life, a woman sets out to get back the laptop and silverware that were stolen in a break-in. She recruits her neighbor, an overgrown metalhead stuck in his late teens played by Elijah Wood, as muscle and the two of them get in way over their heads. These two people are pathetic and bumbling, but they have a legitimate gripe and run into some really nasty people that deserve what's coming to them. The film walks a line between being completely believable and over-the-top cartoonish a la Pineapple Express as it satirizes contemporary American modes of self-absorbtion. The soundtrack is pretty good too. 4/5 I'll give you my take if you'll give me yours, deal? Swiss Army Man For the first half of this film, I was intrigued. The "Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse" premise was weird enough to hold my attention long enough for the movie to do something interesting with it. But as the second half set in, I was getting bored with the magical-woodlands fantasy world. The aesthetic is so played out at this point that it needs to be subverted in a major way to justify building an entire film around it. This film comes so tantilizingly close, but loses its nerve in the very last minute. 2/5 BeanpolePeckerwood posted:Loved this, but want to read your words I'd like to read what you have to say, too. The Lure A profoundly weird and engaging Polish musical. Two sister mermaids come ashore and join an ad hoc family of nightclub entertainers, and now have to contend with the demands of human society. There's a lot of stuff in here about coming of age, family, love and sexuality, bohemianism and bourgeois respectability. All that heavy thematic stuff is supported by the dazzling 80's-inspired production, enthralling music-video cinematography, and superb dancepop soundtrack. Much of the film has a dreamlike quality, as though it's anchored in this world but actually taking place in its own fantasy dimension. It's bizarre, it's sexy, it's gory, and I loved every minute. 5/5
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Mar 7, 2017 23:06
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