24th Hall of Fame

I'm offering a free door prize for everyone who joins the 25th

I'll join, get the free door prize, and leave right afterwards.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

In that case you get the booby-trap

Well, I just finished La Dolce Vita so, technically I can say I finished, considering I've already seen the two that I'm missing (Barry Lyndon and Beasts of the Southern Wild). But I want to rewatch them cause it's been a while, so I'll probably do that during the weekend.

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5 days!!!!! Wednesday will hopefully unveil the results. I haven't added anything up yet so will even be a surprise to me.

The Whisperers (1966)


Sometimes you just get a nomination that you just don't get. This is a by the books boilerplate british melodrama about an elderly woman. The neglect from her husband and son is clear and she's likely just a little crazy.


Really I don't even know what to say about this nomination. The performances were fine but nothing special seems like all three characters had different accents so that was a mistake. Visually not really that impressive, no score another poor shortcut.


Visually the film is fine, we get a couple powerful visuals but frankly if I remember I watched this film in a year I'll be shocked.

Antwone Fisher (2002)

A pretty straight forward drama that wants to be just that.
Denzel does a good job not focusing on the cinematography too much, and allowing the actors and the script to take central stage. The film isn't about racism or violence, it's about the story of one man who managed to recover from racism and violence and in that regard and the movie shows it perfectly.
The cast is pretty good all around, but Derek Luke takes it to another level!
There's not much else to say about it, only that I really enjoyed it!




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Vampyr (1932)

I've been wanting to watch something by Carl Dreyer for ages.
This film is the opposite of Antwone Fisher in a way. It focuses tremendously on the cinematography and the symbology behind every image but the story is not engaging. As I'm a sucker for good scripts, I was left a bit disappointed.
However, what this films does well, does reaaaaaally well! The cinematography is tremendous, you can see that this was the beggining of the type of storytelling that guys like Hitchcock used. There are many scenes you could turn into a gif and it would still be a great film!

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He’s back! Now I can dig into Beast of the Southern Wild comfortably.

In a Glass Cage (1989)


When I select films for nominations I often ask myself a question of worthiness. Is this a style that isn't typically seen in other halls, is this a filmmaker other fans might discover, is this a personal fave that hasn't gotten a fair shot. Pahak seems to head down the creepy kid sex route every time. I suppose if you wish to be defined as that person it's fine. Frankly this was a mush better film than say Child Bride or the one where the audio was so messed up you couldn't even tell whats happening.


This is basically a Passolini meets Almodovar film telling the story of a young nurse who decides to torture a former Nazi in an Iron Lung. It's a gross film but it's well made, I think watching this after watching the dull Whisperers increased my enjoyment of the film. I like horror films, I think I likely saw this once before. At the end of the day I see it's value.

I’ll have my final film watched this weekend.

I've watched this mystery three times now....and while I admire the elements of the work I just didn't care for. For 90% of the film it's a procedural but then it sprinkles in some elements of the thriller yet for me at the end of the day I just can never connect to the story.

This is the story of a man during his mid-life crisis basically trying to find a second act. It's a good idea, it's likely was a major selling point for the lead. The problem is the mystery has to also be good and this just felt like a sanitary Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's also a little embarassing this film won an Oscar for best foreign film in 2009 when you had a field that included classics

The White Ribbon - Michel Hanake
Mother - Boon Jong-ho
White Material - Claire Denis
Valhalla Rising - Nicholas Winding Refn
Broken Embraces - Pedro Almodovar
Dogtooth - Yogos Lanthimos
I am Love - Luca Guadagino
Sin Nombre - Cary Fukunaga
The Girl who played with Fire/kicked the hornets nest - Daniel Alfredson

But even though it's clearly a mistake that it won the Oscar...clearly it's still a good enough film. It didn't really spark joy in me but If I see it on Cable when I'm 65 maybe I'll give the story a fourth chance to hook me.

You always impress me with the amount of movies you've watched and you've seen this three times too. How long until your 65?

It's better than those other movies you listed-if you get everything it's offering. If you don't or can't, there's not really a point of watching, especially for a 4th time.

I haven't seen everything on that list, but I would easily put both Mother and Dogtooth above Secret in Their Eyes on both technical merit and the daring of the storytelling.

I think that The Secret in Their Eyes is more of a crowd-pleaser and, while it is emotional, it provides an easier degree of closure and more comfortable themes than the others. I am not surprised it won the Oscar.

I like both of those movies but I would rate them significantly lower, especially Dogtooth. I don't see it as a crowdpleaser, but I guess it would be a good thing if I did.

Secrets in their Eyes is better then Mother for me. Really need to watch the others however.
I’ll be finishing this up today. Ballot will probably be sent tomorrow after my review.

The other two are definitely more wacky, I will give them that.

My apologies for not keeping up with this. Work during covid times is hectic, plus my terror that I call my son doesn't help.


I'm ashamed I won't be able to finish.

So no need to watch Rudderless, but I think everyone has except Neiba.

P.S. you've seen more movies this year than me. Just saying

Rudderless would have been around #5 or #6 had it stayed in. I was glad to have seen it.