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I'm pretty set on new stuff thanks to TIFF, so this is a great exercise. Gonna try to keep it to 2023 plus a bonus older one I saw for the first time. 1) Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023) - A Vietnamese movie exploring deeply Catholic themes with some of the most beautiful scenery and adventurous long takes I've seen on film. A masterpiece of gorgeous, dynamic camera work, always directing your gaze and searching along with its protagonist for a narrative and a truth. Slow cinema but never still, with some of the most aching shots I have seen and a potently personal take on the deep echoes of a colonial religion. Catholic imagery refracts throughout, from temptation, Samaritans, Damascene roads and babies by riverbeds, idols everywhere, stained glass and baptism. Combined with verdant green and wild animals, what follows is an enigmatic and almost Gnostic journey through Creation that is open and resoundingly felt. 2) Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) - Following a chaotic film production assistant as she pays the bills by helping a reckless multinational furniture firm and in her spare time parodies Andrew Tate's toxicity (he did live in Romania), I liked it at first but its sheer anarchic length and repetition stayed with me and grew. A shaggy shotgun blast on the construction of narrative and the despotism of hypercapitalism with that touch of art film overlength. 3) Close Your Eyes (2023) - Victor Erice's (Spirit of the Beehive) return after 30 years is a marvelous meditation on aging, art, and humanity. I could watch the beach scenes for the rest of my life. A beautifully enveloping contemplation of life and time and the stories we tell about how it should be. 4) Kokomo City (2023) - shot in high-contrast black and white like a music video, it follows trans sex workers clear-eyed about themselves and how society wants and shuns them. Has a few kinks, but it's so full of life and has a helluva final scene. Plus it introduced me to this old bisexual blues song: Sissy Man Blues 5) Four Daughters (2023) - The second doc on my lists, and an excellent examination of women's radicalization, but also of family, generational abuse, patriarchy, Islam, all told in a formally fascinating way where the director has actors interact with the remaining family members as their lost sisters/daughters. 6) Rachel Getting Married (2008) - A perfect marriage of script and direction and performances to create a hosed up loving family. Jonathan Demme had an insane range. e: added numbers Segue fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 01:22
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 05:15 |
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