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Out of curiosity, have you guys seen A Moment of Innocence? It's similar to Close-Up in the sense it combines narrative and documentary filmmaking, but I liked it much more. It's not only my favorite Iranian film of all time, but also one of my favorite films of all time in general. It might be a bit hard to track it down, but if you're able to do so, I highly recommend watching it.
I have not. The only Makhmalbaf I've seen are Kandahar and part of Gabbeh. I've also seen his daughter's film The Day I Became A Woman, which was Fellini-esque and wonderful.

I'll check it out if Criterion Channel ever gets it.



Some top tier Pattinson performances:

The Lighthouse
Good Time
The Batman
Cosmopolis
Maps to the Stars
Tenet
The Rover





Not really my cuppa tea, but I enjoyed it. Rebecca Hall carried the movie.



Was sure I had seen this 1999 movie before so thought it was a re-watch. Turns out I’ve never seen it. Dark, bleak & grim. Amazing scene of a completely naked female teen taking a bath with a 12 year old naked boy. Full frontal for her. Could this scene be filmed now? It rings all kinds of alarm bells.



Excellent movie. I can see why JC won an Oscar for this - she had me hooked from the start. Andrew Garfield was overlooked in the praise for this movie. I guess because JC was so very good, but he was really excellent too. Both of them put a ton of work into this movie. Cherry Jones also good as her mother.
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I have not. The only Makhmalbaf I've seen are Kandahar and part of Gabbeh. I've also seen his daughter's film The Day I Became A Woman, which was Fellini-esque and wonderful.

I'll check it out if Criterion Channel ever gets it.
Aye, gotcha.

Also, if you'd like a link to it, let me know.
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Excellent movie. I can see why JC won an Oscar for this - she had me hooked from the start. Andrew Garfield was overlooked in the praise for this movie. I guess because JC was so very good, but he was really excellent too. Both of them put a ton of work into this movie. Cherry Jones also good as her mother.



Totally agree with you, including the fact that Garfield was just as good as Chastain.







1st Re-watch...Despite Andra Day's spectacular performance in the starring role, this film still doesn't come together due to a very confusing screenplay and lethargic direction.




28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Everything Everywhere All At Once




Without a doubt, the most original film you will see this year. This was a breath of fresh air in an era of spandex flying super heroes. Everything Everywhere feels like several different films all at once and manages to carve its own unique style in the absurdity. The humour from the 'Daniels" previous film feels very similar here, so if you couldn't get on board with a farting corpse in Swiss Army Man, you'll probably find the humour here extremely juvenile. I loved it, I loved the absurdity to it and the dedication to detail that calls back to previous scenes.

The film feels like a mix of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Matrix if blended in a vat of comedy. The jumping from "universe to universe" was done with a Gondry flair that kept me on my toes as to what was being thrown at me on the screen. I was never confused as to what universe I was in, which is a big accomplishment because this film gets weird and expects you to play catch-up with it.

The cast was superb, Michelle Yeoh leads here with kick ass martial arts, surprisingly good comedy chops and emotional beats that tug at the heart strings. The film is a balancing act of all these things and does it wonderfully. I could see how some people might be put off by how jarring some of it could be, but if you hop on this ride early, you'll enjoy the hell out of it.

Stephanie Hsu plays her daughter, she has trouble connecting with her mother on multiple levels which puts a serious strain on their relationship. Ke Huy Quan from The Goonies and Temple of Doom returns to the screen. I was seriously impressed with his performance, he garnered the perfect amount of sympathy. Jamie Lee Curtis has a small role and with the subtle raise of an eyebrow can take over a scene. She was also great and not afraid to fully embrace the visuals of her character. James Hong shows up too, showing everyone at the age of 93 that he can still pull off awesome characters.

The fight scenes are pretty cool and engaging, there are only a few of them, so they do standout when the film showcases those sequences. At 2hrs and 19mins, the film might feel long to some. I did feel the length towards the end of the film, but it did not bother me that much. Much like the 3hr runtime of The Batman, I know this is a long movie but I'm fine staying in this world a bit longer.
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Suspect's Reviews



I have not seen anything recent so I may have to remedy that.
As others have mentioned, he's got some great stuff. Definitely add The Lighthouse and The Rover to films I think are strong and interesting and also have good performances in them.

I think The Rover deserves a mention as well.
Absolutely. This would be an interesting one to nominate for one of the HoFs. I can never totally get a handle on whether a lot of people have seen it or not.





The Shape of Water, 2017

Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute woman who works as a cleaner alongside her good friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer) in a government facility during the Cold War. When a new "asset" is brought to the facility, a humanoid fish-creature (Doug Jones), Elisa bonds with him and becomes determined to save him from the cruel and uncompromising Strickland (Michael Shannon), who is determined to torture the creature into submission.

"It just seemed like the fish wasn't that into it."

This is what an acquaintance of mine said about this film after watching it the year it came out, and this phrase (which never fails to make me laugh) has been what I've always thought of when The Shape of Water was mentioned.

It just seemed like the fish wasn't that into it is, of course, referring mainly to the romantic/sexual dynamic between Elisa and the creature, but the spirit of the phrase kind of sums up how I felt about the film, which was that in almost every regard it was a bit underwhelming.

The film has a lot going for it, it must be said. The look of the film reminded me a bit of the quirky staging of Amelie, with elements like a radioactive-green key lime pie, or the look of the uniforms worn by the cleaning staff. There are some memorable images, both beautiful and horrifying.

The cast also gives the film a real boost, with each actor being basically a perfect fit for the character. Hawkins brings a perfect mix of vulnerability and determination to Elisa. Richard Jenkins brings a fussy warmth as Elisa's friend and neighbor, Giles. Spencer is endlessly charming as the outspoken Zelda. Shannon is menacing as Strickland. Michael Stuhlbarg is good as a sympathetic scientist. Doug Jones . . . is a fish man.

But something that bothered me more and more as the film went on was the sense that the characters were not all that much more developed beyond what the actors brought to them. Yes, Hawkins really sells Elisa's impassioned plea to Giles to help the creature. Shannon gives an extra edge to Strickland's sociopathy, especially in a sequence where he forcibly silences his wife during sex. Yet when you step back from the characters, the depth and growth feels very minimal and ultimately pretty unsatisfying.

I had the sense watching this movie that there were specific sequences del Toro had in mind, and then the rest was just sort of filled in. And some of that filler is really clumsy, like the two ham-handed references to the racism of the time. A subplot about Giles trying to get his job back at his old ad agency just sort of goes nowhere. Multiple mentions of Zelda's husband lead up to a big nothing.

Fine, but I had hoped for more.




I was so disappointed with Shape of Water


Not like I've really been a huge fan of Del Toro, but he's got a unique voice, he's in the game for the right reasons, but...ugh. It's like the worst thing I've seen by him.





Slumdog Millionaire, 2008

Jamal (Dev Patel) is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. When he goes on a seemingly improbable run of correct answers, he is brutally interrogated by a police captain (Irrfan Khan) on suspicion that he is somehow cheating. Jamal explains how he knew each answer, recounting the life of hardship and tragedy he faced while trying to survive in the slums with his older brother, Salim (Madhur Mittal), and attempting to save his first love, Latika (Freida Pinto) from a life of servitude and debasement.

Another Oscar winner that left me cold.

There's a young adult book called A View from Saturday where four children compete on a quiz show, and after each question you get a flashback to how they knew the answer. While I found this structure charming as a fifth grader, in this film I found it grating and it totally strained my suspension of disbelief. Like, really, EVERY significant moment in this kid's life involved learning a fact that later became a piece of trivia on a TV show?

Apart from glimpses of humor here or there that worked for me, or pleasant surprises like the participation of Irrfan Khan, I never managed to sink into this film. The artificiality of the structure, and the heightened style of it all kept me at arm's length from beginning to end. It is unbearably choppy, and never takes a moment to breathe.

One definite highlight is Dev Patel, who manages to exude a kind of warmth and depth that holds your attention in all of his scenes. I would actually say that all of the actors were okay, even the little kids, but this is not a structure that lets characters develop in a meaningful way.

There's a kind of cloying sentimentality here that often bothers me (I feel this way about Shawshank Redemption, another crowd favorite), and I just have to grit my teeth when I see its 8/10 IMDb rating. To me, this is the cinematic equivalent of empty calories. I generally enjoy Boyle's films, and I really like several of the cast members, but this one let me down big time.




I was so disappointed with Shape of Water


Not like I've really been a huge fan of Del Toro, but he's got a unique voice, he's in the game for the right reasons, but...ugh. It's like the worst thing I've seen by him.
I absolutely LOVE Devil's Backbone. And I like Pan's Labyrinth even if I find that it feels overlong to me. I also like everything else I've seen from him, which apparently is everything except Nightmare Alley.

Shape of Water fell into the same category as a lot of his film for me, which is to say: neat premise, handful of great visuals, thin story. I think that the cast of Shape of Water does a good job of bringing something extra to their characters, but it isn't enough.



I enjoyed this movie a lot as well. I wrote something about it in a sci-fi/fantasy thread Wooley and I made last year that you can read here if you like.
Seems like we have many of the same opinions about it!

I wish I had known about this movie three years ago because they did a 40th anniversary screening at the Atlanta Film Festival, which Paige Conner attended. Speaking of, she currently runs a beauty supply company...that happens to be within driving distance! Now, would it be wrong for me to pop in and ask her, "have you seen Jerzy?"
I'm sure there's nothing an adult, former child-actor likes more than strangers coming to their workplace and referencing that weird movie they were in in the 1970s. I mean, do it, but you also have to buy like $500 worth of beauty supplies to balance your karma.



I'm sure there's nothing an adult, former child-actor likes more than strangers coming to their workplace and referencing that weird movie they were in in the 1970s. I mean, do it, but you also have to buy like $500 worth of beauty supplies to balance your karma.
Point taken. I am ashamed to admit that buying a gift card to make up for the intrusion did cross my mind. Alas, there's likely a "No Visitor Questions" sign on the front door akin to the "No Stairway to Heaven" sign in the Wayne's World guitar store.



Point taken. I am ashamed to admit that buying a gift card to make up for the intrusion did cross my mind. Alas, there's likely a "No Visitor Questions" sign on the front door akin to the "No Stairway to Heaven" sign in the Wayne's World guitar store.
Just go for it, bro. Howard Keal co-owned a spy shop near me and I always thought about going and never did.

And now he's DEAD!!!

*Dramatically slaps Torgo*





Dheepan, 2015

A Sri Lankan soldier (Jesuthasan Antonythasan) assumes the identity of a dead man named Dheepan, and manages to immigrate to France by posing as the husband of a woman named Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and the father of an orphaned girl named Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby). But on arriving in their new home, they discover that their apartment block is home to a territorial gang of drug dealers. While Yalini manages to somewhat endear herself to one of the gang's leaders, Brahim (Vincent Rottiers), a confrontation is clearly coming down the line.

How long can someone endure a life on a knife's edge? And how long can someone go on trying to act normal when every day brings a new reminder of a violent past?

The questions evoked by Dheepan are many and they are revealed an explored with an empathy for its central characters. The central trio at the heart of the film are not some idealized, polished version of scrappy-with-a-heart-of-gold immigrants, nor are they perpetual victims. They are deeply human people trying to make the best of a precarious, loaded situation.

Antonythasan and Srinivasan are both electric as people with different goals forced into intimacy and roles (husband, mother) that do not gel with their past lives. Every moment for them is weighted with both the tragedy of the past and the potential for the future. For a short stretch in the middle of the film, Yalini seems to be attracted to Brahim. But while he is charming, his comfort with violence puts an edge into every scene between the two of them.

The visuals of the film support the theme of the intrusion of the past into the present. Men patrolling the apartment building immediately raise alarms for Dheepan. Loud bangs, smoke, revving engines. The past can never stay past for the main characters because it lives inside of them and is unrelentingly mirrored in their present setting.

I am still mulling over how I feel about the direction the film takes in the last 15 or so minutes, which feels a little jarring after the intimate realism of the rest of the film.

Setting aside still thinking over the ending, I really loved this movie. I thought that it was a powerful look inside an experience that most people will never know or understand.




Victim of The Night
I have not seen anything recent so I may have to remedy that.
You really should. He may be the best young actor to come along in a while.