Part 1
Face/Off (1997) [John Woo]
★★★★★
Some might call me crazy but in 1997, John Woo created an action masterpiece in Hollywood when he released Face/Off. Frenetic, phenomenal camera work and the best of all: One of the best stunts I've ever seen in an American movie. The film does not waste time on the dramas, it is more concerned about the action. The film has absurd moments, totally absurd moments and other moments even more
absurd. That's the proposition! Read the synopsis, the idea itself is already crazy. Not so crazy nowadays, since we already have registered cases of face transplant. I do not mind the exaggerations, in fact that's what I want to see when I go to see a fanciful action movie. Face/Off knows what he is from the first minute. Adrenaline from start to finish, an exaggeration! Nic Crazy vs Vincent Vega (he finally gives a foot massage). "
Five stars? Absurd!"
A Most Violent Year (2014) [J.C. Chandor]
★★½
Lots of anticipation around this movie. It took me a long time to finally watch it. The bitter taste of disappointment was strong in this one. Oscar Isaac was really good, by far the best aspect of this film. Jessica Chastain... I don't know what happened to her. She was really bad! The errors of continuity (goofs) are something that I always emphasize in productions of low budget. But in this case it was difficult, since many sequences lost all impact or logic, thanks to terrible jump cuts! For example: Man 1 stops the car in front of a truck, forcing him (the truck driver) to stop the truck, soon after, the man 1 points a gun to the truck driver, man 1 assumes the direction of the truck and drives in the same direction where the car he'd used to make the truck stop, except that... where's the ****ing car? He does not exist anymore. it's things like that that annoys me, there were too many. But okay, I would have relieved all this if the drama of the characters were plausible.
It is in the moments that they try to create tension that the movie fails miserably, the decisions are so stupid that it reminds me of the slashers of the 80s, with dumb characters. "They are under a lot of pressure!" Yes, in times of tension, people tend to make hasty/stupid decisions, but in this movie, decisions are ALWAYS stupid, and resolutions are even more moronic. The death of a certain character in the end could mean something if he had not previously done all he could to be a stupid character. Without empathy his death is a relief. Oscar went really well in his role as gangster businessman, and as I said, Jessica, in my point of view, was very bad as the hysterical wife who turns out to be a strong character. In the midst of all this, there are still elements that save A Most Violent Year from being a total atrocity, with at least interesting dialogues and some minor characters that looks decent for a movie like this.
Baraka (1992) [Ron Fricke]
★★★★½
An experimental documentary directed by Ron Fricke, cinematographer of Koyaanisqatsi, the first of the trilogy Qatsi, by Godfrey Reggio. Often compared to Koyaanisqatsi, the main subject of Baraka is in fact similar, including footage from various landscapes, churches, ruins, religious ceremonies and cities, mixing with life, in a quest for each painting to capture the great pulsation of humanity in the daily activities. Wonderful, scary and very sad. A remarkable experience!
------Films------
Antiporno (2016) ‘アンチポルノ’ [Sion Sono] ★★★½
Chasing the Dragon (2017) ‘追龍’ [Wong Jing, Jason Kwan] ★★
Wild Strawberries (1957) [Ingmar Bergman] ★★★★★
Loving Vincent (2017) [Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman] ★★★★
Breathless (1960) ‘À bout de souffle’ [Jean-Luc Godard] ★★★★
The Famous Sword Bijomaru (AKA The Sword)(1945) ‘Meitô bijomaru’ [Kenji Mizoguchi] ★★★½
RoboCop Director's Cut (1987) [Paul Verhoeven] ★★★
Requiem for a Dream (2000) [Darren Aronofsky] ★★★★
Julieta (2016) [Pedro Almodóvar] ★★★½
Elle (2016) [Paul Verhoeven] ★★
The Outsider ★★★★
Annihilation ★★
The Piano (1993) [Jane Campion] ★½
28 Days Later (2002) [Danny Boyle] ★
In Our Time (1982) ‘光陰的故事’ [Chang Yi Ko I-Chen Jim Tao Edward Yang] ★★★★
Melancholia (2011) [Lars von Trier] ★★★½
In the Realm of the Senses (1976) ‘愛のコリーダ’ [Nagisa Ōshima] ★½
The Hidden Fortress (1958) ‘隠し砦の三悪人’ [Akira Kurosawa] ★★★★½
Blade Runner 2049 [Denis Villeneuve] ★★★★½
Old Stone (2016) [Johnny Ma] ★★★★★
------Animation------
Hellsing Ultimate I (2006) ‘ヘルシング I’ [Tomokazu Tokoro] ★★★★
Hellsing Ultimate II (2006) ‘ヘルシング II’ [Tomokazu Tokoro] ★★★★½
A.D. Police Files (1990) [Nishimori Akira, Hidehito Ueda] ★★★½
Murder Princess: Birth (2007) [Tomoyuki Kurokawa] ★★★★
Murder Princess: Coronation (2007) [Tomoyuki Kurokawa, Shinya Kawamo] ★★★½
Murder Princess: Return (2007) [Tomoyuki Kurokawa, Tomoaki Ohta] ★★★
M.D. Geist (1986) ‘装鬼兵MDガイスト’ [Hayato Ikeda, Koichi Ohata] ★★★
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin I - Blue-Eyed Casval (2015) ‘機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN I 青い瞳のキャスバル’ [Yoshikazu Yasuhiko] ★★★★
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin II – Artesia’s Sorrow (2015) ‘機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN II 哀しみのアルテイシア’ ★★★
Dragon Ball Z: Bardock, the father of Goku ★★★★
Devilman: The Birth (1987) [Umanosuke Iida] ★★★
------Concerts------
Paradise Lost: Live Death (1989) ★★★½
Morbid Angel: Live Madness (1989 ★★★½
Katatonia - Live Consternation (2007) ★★★★
Katatonia - The Black Sessions Live (2005) ★★★★★
Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Night (2013) ★★★★½
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972) [Adrian Maben] ★★★★★
------Shorts------
Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 (2017) ‘ブレードランナー ブラックアウト 2022’ [Shinichiro Watanabe] ★★★★
2036: Nexus Dawn (2017) [Luke Scott] ★★½
2048: Nowhere to Run (2017) [Luke Scott] ★★★
Dear Basketball (2017) [Glen Keane] ★★★
------Documentaries------
Face to Face: Visconti vs Fellini ★★★★
Faces Places (2017) ‘Visages, villages’ [Agnès Varda, JR] ★★½
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016) [Steve James] ★★★★
78/52 (2017) [Alexandre O. Philippe] ★★★
------TV------
Dragon Ball Super - Season 5: The Tournament of Power ★★
Samurai Jack - Season 5: The Last Season ★★★★
The Sinner (2017) ½