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“I was cured, all right!”
The Body 2012 ‘El cuerpo’ Directed by Oriol Paulo ★★★

Samsara 2001 Directed by Pan Nalin ★★★

To the Wonder 2012 Directed by Terrence Malick ★★★★

Knight of Cups 2015 Directed by Terrence Malick ★★★★★

A Walk in the Clouds 1995 Directed by Alfonso Aráu ★★★★

Girl, Interrupted 1999 Directed by James Mangold ★★

The Woman of Rumor 1954 ‘噂の女’ Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi ★★★★★

Graduation 2016 ‘Bacalaureat’ Directed by Cristian Mungiu ★★★★

The Eyes of My Mother 2016 Directed by Nicolas Pesce ★★

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island 1998 Directed by Hiroshi Aoyama [and others] ★★★

Cosmopolis 2012 Directed by David Cronenberg ★★★★★

The Hairdresser’s Husband 1990 ‘Le mari de la coiffeuse’ Directed by Patrice Leconte
★★★

Phoenix 2014 Directed by Christian Petzold ★★★

Pan’s Labyrinth 2006 ‘El laberinto del fauno’ Directed by Guillermo del Toro ★★★

The Terminator 1984 Directed by James Cameron ★★★★★
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 Directed by James Cameron ★★★★

The Hourglass Sanatorium 1973 ‘Sanatorium pod klepsydrą’ Directed by Wojciech Has ★★★★

The Wolf of Wall Street 2013 Directed by Martin Scorsese ★★

Carrie 1976 Directed by Brian De Palma ★★★★

Good Time 2017 Directed by Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie ★★★★★

Asura: The City of Madness 2016 ‘아수라’ Directed by Kim Sung-su ★★★★

The Virgin Spring 1960 ‘Jungfrukällan’ Directed by Ingmar Bergman ★★★★★

On the Beach at Night Alone 2017 ‘밤의 해변에서 혼자’ Directed by Hong Sang-soo ★★★★

Taipei Story 1985 ‘青梅竹馬’ Directed by Edward Yang ★★★★★
That Day, on the Beach 1983 ‘海灘的一天’ Directed by Edward Yang
★★★★★

First Blood 1982 Directed by Ted Kotcheff ★★★★
Rambo: First Blood Part II 1985 Directed by George P. Cosmatos ★★★
Rambo III 1988 Directed by Peter MacDonald ★★★
Rambo 2008 Directed by Sylvester Stallone ★★★

Total 2018 viewings: 255 (rewatches not included)


◘ Atrocity
★ Very Bad
★★ Bad (Sometimes interesting)
★★★ Good
★★★★ Very Good
★★★★★ Great
★★★★★ Masterpiece



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
The 47 Ronin (1941) -




Subpar Mizoguchi! A great disappointment. The movie is pretty bland, prolix and simply tedious. Mise en scene and camerawork are fantastic as always but Mizoguchi's overreliance on uninteresting theatrical conversations is going too far. Impossible to contemplate due to lots of talking as well. This is a propaganda film ordered by Japanese military, so totally omiting action scenes might be read as a subversive move from the director but the final outcome is a mediocre film anyway.

Heremias: Book One – The Legend of the Lizard Princess (2006) -




Clocking in at 9 hours this is yet another behemoth of a film by Lav Diaz. If Tsai Ming-liang and Sarunas Bartas make slow cinema, then Lav Diaz makes ultra slow cinema. This film contains a one hour long (!) POV mastershot of the protagonist observing a bunch of hooligans having a party with noise music playing in the backgorund (!). One of the best scenes I've seen lately! The funny thing is the movie contains minimalist plot that could be condensed into 60 minutes but Lav Diaz does not make his films so long because he has to but because he wants to.

Autohystoria (2007) -




I started watching this slow cinema from Philippines right after I'd finished Heremias, so it was harder to watch than it would normally be. Again an ultra-slow political film criticizing the government etc. A pretty subersive one, showing that the contemporary political situation doesn't really differ much from one back when the country was fighting for its independence and was under Spain's iron fist rule.

The White Meadows (2009) -




Poetic cinema from Iran. The director and editor of this film were sentenced to jail for anti-government message of the film. This fact only strengthens the message. The film contains one of the most beautiful portraits of government censoring and limiting an artist I've seen in cinema. It's portrayed as a tragically brutal assault on artist's right to freedom of expression. This freedom of expression is being taken away from many artists in Iran. The White Meadows is a touching reminder of this.

The Milky Way (1969) -




I've grown to love Bunuel. I've learnt to delight in his works, his sense of humour, his surrealistic traits. This is yet another film on the topic he was obsessed with - Catholic Church.

Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) -




A pretty lousy lewd giallo. I expected much more fun from the director of Burial Ground but Fenech in short hair is still passable and that fat guy has the funniest dubbing.

Sins of Sister Lucia (1978) -




I'm starting an Ohara binge! Best pinku eiga I've seen in a long time. Unadulterated and unashamed nunsploitation! Nuns and a priest enjoy each others' company and humililate a new-comer Lucia but when two Yakuza prison escapees arrive at the convent, Lucia decides to retaliate, and rapefest begins!

Wet & Rope (1979) -


KINKY

A much worse offering from the same director! Nunsploitation again! And some BDSM for a change! But... the overall outcome is only good, not great. That sheep costume, though. 10/10!

A Light in the Fog (2008) -




Iranian slow cinema. A very short film and generally not much to chew on here but the atmosphere is as thick as the ever-present fog, and some of the shots are breathtakingly beautiful.

Lady Caligula in Tokyo (1981) -




I'm on Ohara binge! An okayish pinku eiga, this one. A prude wife that can't enjoy sex and fulfill her huband's desires sets out on a not-so-consensual adventure down the BDSM line - from a black man, to a hobo, to a domina all the way down to an orgy.

Sexual Parasite (2004) -




Superbad and super low-budget best worst movie ever made! The second part of the title is Killer Pussy, so that should give you enough ideas. And the girls are fiiinneeee.

Flame of My Love (1949) -




Men are sexist pigs! Liberate women! Women have the right to equality! So many heart-wrenching scenes. Welcome back, Mizoguchi.

Cairo Station (1958) -




Fatal effects of NoFap... The movie is surprisingly erotic given the country and time it was made.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



“I was cured, all right!”
The 47 Ronin (1941) -




Subpar Mizoguchi! A great disappointment. The movie is pretty bland, prolix and simply tedious. Mise en scene and camerawork are fantastic as always but Mizoguchi's overreliance on uninteresting theatrical conversations is going too far. Impossible to contemplate due to lots of talking as well. This is a propaganda film ordered by Japanese military, so totally omiting action scenes might be read as a subversive move from the director but the final outcome is a mediocre film anyway.
This is one of my favorite Mizoguchi film!



Welcome to the human race...
Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982) -


Fassbinder does a Sunset Blvd.-esque tale of a fading movie actress and the journalist who gets drawn into her decaying orbit. An appropriately downbeat (yet strangely opulent in its own starkly monochromatic way) mix of his disdain for authority figures and pained sympathy for human tragedies.

The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979) -


Fassbinder does a post-WWII melodrama about the eponymous bride and her attempts to make a better life for herself by any means necessary. A little overwrought at times, but still a generally worthwhile piece that - as with all the best Fassbinders - provides a noteworthy variation on his usual preoccupations while also being elevated by Hanna Schygulla in what may be her best of many strong collaborations with the man.

The Night Porter (Luciana Cavani, 1974) -


Not a Fassbinder, but a twisted erotic drama about the sadomasochistic relationship between an ex-Nazi and a Holocaust survivor seems like it'd be a good set-up for one of his films. That being said, I question if he really could have done much better with it than Cavani's largely sluggish and monotonous exercise in toxicity.

Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018) -


A24's forays into the horror genre can be quite hit-and-miss - I do wonder if this will prove a grower like The VVitch did, but my first impression is that it squanders a few promising elements (Collette's all-out performance being the main one), doesn't ramp up so much as peter out, and leans so hard on its recognisable influences that it makes me wish I'd watched or re-watched one of those films instead.

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961) -


Oh, man, I just could not get into this one. Even if you left aside the cringe-worthy Mr. Yunioshi stuff (which would undermine many otherwise good movies on its own), it's such a slog with two protagonists that aren't particularly likeable and don't really earn the changes they go through by the time "The End" flashes on-screen. Guess this is as good a time as any to revisit Charade.

Payback (Brian Helgeland, 1999) -


What if you took Point Blank and stripped out most (if not all) of the things that made it good (or at least interesting)? Maybe the director's cut improves things a little, but as it is this is an aggressively pedestrian revenge movie.

Travel Songs (Jonas Mekas, 1981) -


Mekas doing a short avant-garde collage of home movies definitely serves as a welcome antidote to the last few movies I watched. Between this and As I Moved Ahead... I'm thinking that I need to seek out more of these kinds of movies.

Mamma Mia! (Phyllidia Lloyd, 2008) -


Yeah, yeah, I know. I do have to wonder if it's almost too easy to criticise this unapologetically campy and frivolous jukebox musical that knows its core demographic and plays to it with gusto. At least ABBA is far from the worst band you could base an entire musical around.

Diner (Barry Levinson, 1982) -


Still a solid coming-of-age piece where the characters are obnoxious and immature but never in a way that threatens to ruin the film as it builds an ensemble dramedy that definitely earns its emotional honesty.

Wolf Creek (Greg MacLean, 2005) -


The concept of an outback serial killer is scary enough in its own right to make me think twice about ever travelling out there, but can that really compensate for this film's otherwise lacklustre execution? After multiple viewings, I'm still inclined to say no and judge this as a dull, irritating, and vacuous exercise in sadistic horror.
__________________
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



Weird is relative.
Cairo Station (1958) -




Fatal effects of NoFap... The movie is surprisingly erotic given the country and time it was made.
Wow, I had just heard about this title the other day when I was researching Egyptian films. It's funny to see that you had watched it recently.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Wow, I had just heard about this title the other day when I was researching Egyptian films. It's funny to see that you had watched it recently.
This is not a coincidence. I was spying on you.



A system of cells interlinked
Out of the Past (Tourneur, 1947)
- An old Favorite. That's one nasty dame!

North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
- Another classic and another old favorite.

Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
- Yet another old favorite of mine.

Dark Passage (Daves, 1947)
- They don't make em like they used to, pal.

Notorious (with commentary) (Hitchcock, 1946)
- Flawless film. Really interesting commentary, as well.

Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock, 1951)
- Not my favorite Hitch, but still damned good.

A Quiet Place (Krasinski, 2018)
- Not the instant classic some are claiming, but I liked it pretty well.

The Revenant (Iñárritu, 2015)
- I have seen this several times, and am pretty much over the moon for it. El Chivo at his best on camera.

Babel (Iñárritu, 2006)
- Iñárritu again, but this time sans El Chivo. Decent, but not great. Pitt annoyed me a bit in this one.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
The Whispering Star (2015) -




Sion Sono just proved to me he is amongst the all-time greats. A man who can direct films like Love Exposure, Antiporno and The Whispering Star and make all of them masterpieces is a genius. Period. I feel like this is the best film I've seen in years. Monotonous and slow-paced, trance-inducing moments on a spaceship are juxtaposed to outburts of emotions accompanying all out-of-the-ship scenes. Every single step out of the ship means yet another encounter with a human. Yet another speck of cognition. Protagonist's incomprehension of human nature starts to fade away. Human's impracticality seems to get more and more justifiable. Giant heaps of human sadness hit as strong as waves against the shoreline, but sadness does not wash away. It stays. And it leads to understanding. Every encounter leaves a memento. Every encounter is important. A belated parcel, delivered to a villa with ever-present glowing lights containing all the sadness of Veronika Voss. A brief walk, a bike excursion through a dead city, a window onto the old world, a heartbreaking reminder of mortality, a crushed can attached to a shoe. And the culmination - an elegy of shadows - shadows of humanity, shadows of the past. Even a little detail like protagonist's sporadic sneeze is touching in all infinity of cosmos. This is a film that really portrays what it is to be human. It's not only bigger than life but also bigger than death. The film had ended but I was still crying. Even if Sono ceases to exist, this film never will. It will stay here for eternity.

The River Fuefuki (1960) -




Kino****a's life-spanning treatise on the life of Japanese peasants in 16th century. Peaceful and bucolic yet hard life is made even harder when war starts. Peasants become warriors, people kill each other's kin and hold grudges. All of this leads to a devastating finale! Kino****a loved to incorporate original visual techniques and this film is no different with splashes of color slapped onto black and white pictures and occasional tinting of entire screens!

Crime Wave (1954) -




A solid cheap film-noir. Not much to say about it. It's just quite good.

Himizu (2011) -




The guns of Chekhov, the stones of Keiko. Sono in his element. Over-the-top absurdist exaltation and quirky approach to serious topics. I need a Keiko in my life.

Konets Veka (2001) -




Lopushansky's last I hadn't seen (if we don't count his brand-new 2018 film). Generally a weaker film compared to his masterpieces but the hypnosis scenes are good ole Lopushansky. Depressing ending.

Love Letter (1953) -




Tanaka's debut as a director, and even though I liked two of her other films I saw more, this is still a film with a lot in it to love. Very melodramatic (written by Kino****a!), and Mori's character was a rampallian of sorts during the first meeting after years scene, and he got (rightfully) rebuked for this by a friend later in the movie. I thought the depiction of prostitutes was too negative. We are supposed to believe that girl was the only inherently good one that had to do it to survive (or maybe did this out of genuine love). The other girls are first portrayed as deceitful (letters), and then as mean (the metting at the park). I think introducing another character like the protagonist would make the film work better.

The Exterminating Angel (1962) -
- REWATCH



Saw this in 2012 and hated it. Bunuel has grown on me since then, and now I think this is a really great film and also one of his best. I'm not suprised I didn't like it years ago. I watched it back when I was discovering the greatest masters of cinema who made movies that were entirely along my way (Tarr, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Angelopoulos) and dismissed anything that didn't elicit the same kind of feeling.

The Red Thread (1993) -




A part of trilogy. This is some vintage-porn-made-abstract film. The kinky parts are most often indistinguishable and hidden under layers of abstract hues of colors that attack the viewer. The soundtrack is Diamanda Galás' satanic shrieks and soliloquys!

Pervert Ward: S&M Clinic (1989) -




Nothing like watching Sato at 2AM. This one doesn't belong to his best, and the story is of minor importance even for Sato's standards. A lot of very explicit and graphical BDSM sex scenes (Sato makes some of the kinkiest/most depraved pinku eiga) but the way it's shot combined with music and the overall dark mood won me over.

The Misfits (1961) -




Still not sure if it was Monroe herself or the way her character was written that was irritating. The first half was amazing but the second one (with obnoxious horse hunting third act) disappointed me. Wonderful cinematography. Not enough Thelma Ritter! She was a blast!

A Snake of June (2002) -




Despite my rating the film did feel lackluster. I felt it wasn't lewd, sexy, obscene enough. The pluvial, blue-tinted setting was perfect, though, and Tsukamoto's more style-defining moments really heightened it.

Female Leopard (1985) -











Obviously, the minimalist story is ridiculous, but oh man, what aesthetics! What a feast of colors! Those slow-motion shots with cheesy 80s music were to die for. One of Ohara's best!

Wow, looks like the censorship on this forum doesn't like Keisuke Kinosheeta(ee=i) and censors his name!



Welcome to the human race...
Dheepan (Jacques Audiard, 2015) -


Pretty decent Palme d'Or winner about Sri Lankan refugees pretending to be a family in order to hold onto a home in a gangster-populated apartment block. May or may not go down a bit, but I generally appreciated it.

Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands (Christian Braad Thomsen, 2015) -


While this covers much of the same ground as Fassbinder did, it manages to be somewhat distinct thanks to the director having been a long-time friend of the man himself.

Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981) -


Fassbinder does another film about post-war Germany, this time a tale of small-town corruption that centres around the eponymous nightclub singer and the hard-working official who is torn between his duties and his passions. Probably the weakest of his BRD trilogy but still a colourful and engaging piece (and there's something about that ending that I just find quietly brilliant).

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) -


50th anniversary 70mm restoration theatrical viewing, baby!

Krull (Peter Yates, 1983) -


An aggressively generic slice of 1980s rescue-princess-from-dark-lord high fantasy that's enjoyable to a certain degree with its colourful aesthetics and fanciful tale but it's definitely enough to make me think twice about seeking out any more films of its ilk.

Limelight (Charles Chaplin, 1952) -


I think I prefer this to most of Chaplin's more beloved classics because it leans a little harder into the melancholy that tends to bubble under the surface and it's okay to not find it all that funny when Chaplin's old-clown protagonist is played more for tragedy than straight comedy.

Mission to Mars (Brian DePalma, 2000) -


One of the more curious additions to DePalma's already eclectic filmography in that it sees him take the rather out-of-character subject of interplanetary sci-fi (often in ways that unapologetically riff on 2001) and deliver something that has mixed results but at least in a way that's strangely engaging.

Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018) -


The familiar B-movie premise - man left paralysed after attack receives computerised implant that allows him to take revenge on his attackers - at least features a decent spin on the material that results in a lean and mean execution that I enjoyed more often than not.

Ant-Man (Peyton Reed, 2015) -


Original review found here. Second impression is about the same as the first - it's lightweight in a number of good and bad ways and its various novelties are undermined by how fundamentally stock it tends to be, but it's still moderately fun to watch.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1997) -


Original review found here. I daresay my opinion of this has improved significantly.



Gangster Rap is Shakespeare for the Future
Been working a ton but managed to watch these in the past 2 weeks:

Western (2017) by Valeska Grisebach



Follows the mold of a lot of recent European art films in tone and style. It's always confused me because these movies which pay homage to old Hollywood myths seem to totally forget the rhythm and tone that these movies used. At the same time, this is a decent bit of modern mythmaking.



Ready Player One (2018) by Steven Spielberg



Gets credit for actually making an honest effort at trying to understand why people like playing competitive games and hanging out on the internet without being dismissal of the idea. At the same time, the slog of the narrative wore on me quite a bit over time.



Sudden Impact (1983) by Clint Eastwood



What starts as a standard crime movie about a vigilante cop turns into a twisted mirror story not concerned with the morality of Harry Callahan's actions, but questioning the roots of his character and entire onscreen personality.



Marnie (1964) by Alfred Hitchcock



A film that feels both totally resolved and unresolved at the same time. The typical condensing someone's entire psychology to one moment in their childhood is ever present and ever annoying here. At the same time, that collapsing of all of the films issues within a few minutes and a passing conversation only draws my attention to sean connery's character's total blandness in a way that may be more interesting than I originally found the film.



The Castle of Cagliostro (1970) by Hayao Miyazaki



This film took itself just the right amount of serious, leading it to total mania at many points no knowing what the next zany and ludicrous thing would happen. A nice way to spend a few hours.



Bronco Billy (1980) by Clint Eastwood



The holy grail of Eastwood so far. A complete deconstruction of his onscreen persona, it's like a Limelight remake with Chaplin levels of self critique and an odd, euphoric ending.

__________________
Mubi



Seen in July Pt.1


[RE-WATCH]
-
A blast. Definitely Edgar Wight’s best film. I forgot how funny this film and Nick Frost in the role was. There’s so many bloody details about the film that I only noticed on a second viewing (Ex. The man behind Shaun when he goes to the shop is the one-armed zombie that enters his house), it just shows how much Wright cares about the art of filmmaking.



One of the stupidest films I’ve ever seen and I kinda liked it because of that. The effects are totally bogus. Doesn’t hold a candle to the original. The bits in the afterlife start to slog a bit.



Quite liked the friendship between our main characters. I loved the solitary confinement scene of the film, it really shows how dreadful it is. Too bad the film starts to drag after their first escape. Also the blood looks like ketchup lol.


+
I think now I’m starting to realise that silent comedy just isn’t my thing. What makes me laugh is hearing and seeing peoples reactions to getting violently hurt (Demonstrated wonderfully by Laurel and Hardy) which the silent films just can’t show. I still prefer Keaton miles over Chaplin, since his films have a lot of badass stunts, effects and action. This film has a lot of that. The motorcycle chase was awesome and very funny.



Look, I know my friend's dad’s friend made this but I’m sorry, it is SO BORING! The film has this routine where it will show them arriving at a new town, show a few clips of them talking with the locals or talking about their trip, then show them leaving the town. Doesn’t sound bad right? Well they repeat this formula about 15 TIMES! I guess a plus was seeing Glen Hansard from The Commitments and Once in it, swearing his way through.



Very good. I liked the characters of the girls and seeing what they got up to. The way in which the blonde girl constantly manipulates the other into doing things she doesn't want to do makes me think this film is an allegory for abusive relationships. It was pretty cool how they didn't show the growp-up's faces. I loved that blunt as hell ending and its ambiguity: Was she REALLY a witch or was she pretending? I only have a few criticisms: I don't really see why it's labelled a horror when the only threatening scenes are the dream sequences. The section where they're simply just getting the recipe items was a little tiring. Something about the audio through most of the film seemed very badly dubbed, or maybe just bad quality sound.



That animation is awesome, it’s very creative, childlike and expressive. It highly reminds me of the animated segments on Monty Python. It’s also very funny, with the Beatle’s cheeky banter. Got to see it on the big screen as an anniversary screening so that was a major plus.


[RE-WATCH]
+
People who don't like this film are going to face my wrath.


-
Damn, this movie is heavy as hell. It had me shooketh. It’s a very strange example of ‘misery porn’. Usually films of that type are miserable due to the bad guys destroying the lives of the good guys, yet this film plays it the complete opposite way round and you still feel devastated. From the same director as 'The Hunt'. It’s nowhere near as good as it, but it’s difficult to compete with my Top 10 Favourites! As this is my first Dogme 95 film, I can say that it’s a really good idea. It forces films to rely on brilliant performances and script rather than something cheap. The handheld camera with the on-set lighting gives the film an appearance of those old VHS tapes you have of old family get-togethers, which makes the film all the more disturbing. As stated above, the script and performances are outstanding. I will say that I didn’t enjoy it as much when it got to the nighttime segment, but that only a little burn on a wonderful chocolate cake of a film.


-
The script and pacing are pretty much perfect, it’s impossible to get bored. It’s very weird seeing Vincent Price in a non-horror role. The romance bit at the end really pissed me off, YOU’VE ONLY KNOWN HIM FOR 24 HOURS WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!



I'm not old, you're just 12.
Incredibles 2 - This surprised me with how dark it was. The bits with the main villain, Screenslaver, were pretty terrifying for a Disney film. The parts with Jack Jack and Dash played incredibly well (yes, I know) with my 7 year old nephew, but the rest of the film was excellent as well. Funny, action packed, and thrilling. Marvel might wanna hire Brad Bird to make one of their flicks...maybe Fantastic Four? I think that'd be great.


Ant Man and The Wasp - After Infinity war and it's major, heavy storyline, this breezy, hilarious superhero rom com is very welcome. Paul Rudd is very funny and charming as Scott lang, ex-Con, single dad, and somewhat competent superhero, and Evangeline Lilly is great as Hope Van Dyne, the daughter of the original Wasp and all around ass kicker. Much needed levity.
__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Zoom Up: Rape Site (1979) -


KINKY

One of the best known pinkus I still hadn't seen and yet quite a disappointment. Nice tribute to gialli at the beginning but the rest was quite unimpressive. Hopefully a sort-of-a-sequel directed by another director Zoom Up: Rape Apartments will be better! Oh, and my Ohara binge ends here. A fine pink film director!

La France (2007) -




Quite a weird film that sometimes denies, for lack of a better word, common sense. It's pretty solid and the musical numbers are an astonishingly feel good addition.

Routine Holiday (2008) -




One of the slowest films I've seen. Masterfully directed in a way that prevents contemplation. With clock ticking in the background to emphasize the passage of time. BY SITTING AT HOME YOU'RE GRADUALLY KILLING YOURSELF!!! A top notch satire.

Les Enfants Terribles (1950) -




Melville's follow-up to his wonderful debut, shot on a shoestring budget, with an outstanding finale. Cocteau's influence is tangible - he wrote the screenplay and also narrates the film.

The Longest Nite (1998) -




One of To's best! Might not be as poetic as Exiled or Running Out of Time and a little bit rough around the edges at times, but its brief 80 minutes running time has been used wonderfully with perfect pacing and wonderfully-fitting thumping music in the background. The final duel was amazing, and the very ending hard-hitting!



Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Peter Weller goes mad hunting a super rat. Stupid, but not that boring. There’s even a training montage of him prepping for the showdown. Made all the more silly because you know it’s bound to end with him bloodied and heaving with clothes torn and melee weapon in hand.




Baskin (2015)

Simple, twisted, colorful, violent, annoying, excessive. All elements magnified by 10.

A Quiet Place (2018)

A family tries to protect itself from supersensory monsters. Feels quite a bit like The Last of Us. The setting is mostly a turn off, and the monsters are... eh, but the suspense is almost perpetual. All admirably squeezed out of a very minimal and secluded story.

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

Largely just a rehash of Drac with more amusement. Acceptable if you’re a fan.
__________________




Welcome to the human race...
Assault on Precinct 13 (Jean-François Richet, 2005) -


The original Assault, for all its strengths, unapologetically copied siege movies like Rio Bravo and Night of the Living Dead. This straight-up remake dilutes the matter even further where some potentially interesting touches (e.g. snowy Detroit replacing sun-baked California) get lost in the shuffle of a largely pedestrian excuse for an action thriller.

Jurassic Park III (Joe Johnston, 2001) -


Original review found here. Unlike The Lost World, a second viewing does not significantly improve my opinion of it as it still ends up being a largely unimpressive piece that may embrace the B-movie elements of the franchise's premise the most but also shows the true limits of that approach.

Tony Manero (Pablo Larraín, 2008) -


A sporadically interesting portrait of a middle-aged Saturday Night Fever fan whose increasingly violent obsession plays out against the backdrop of Pinochet-era Chile. Has its moments of dark brilliance but they are few and far between.

Rang De Basanti (Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, 2006) -


A mixed bag of a Bollywood movie where an Englishwoman's attempt to dramatise turn-of-the-century Indian rebels inspires the students she casts in the roles to become more engaging in their own political actions. It's a little on the long side and a bit of a mess, but it's got enough heart to make up for its flaws.

Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (Madeline Parry and Jon Olb, 2018) -


What starts off as a seemingly conventional stand-up special soon veers into deliberately uncomfortable realness that sets a new standard for stand-up as raw emotional catharsis. Relatively low rating aside, I'd be willing to consider this essential viewing.

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (Frank Capra, 1936) -


Having already seen the Adam Sandler version of this story, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the original holds up well enough as a warm and amusing comedy that also manages to make some incisive (and still relevant) sociopolitical commentary while it's at it.

Bao (Domee Shi, 2018) -


Perhaps the platonic ideal for the Pixar short in telling yet another tale about an anthropomorphised object (this time about the eponymous foodstuff and the woman that creates it) that manages to take you all over the emotional spectrum in less than 10 minutes. Definitely solid.

Incredibles 2 (Brad Bird, 2018) -


Eh, it's okay, I guess.

John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski, 2017) -


Getting more than a little subjective with this rating, but whatever, this is my kind of movie.

Intouchables (Olivier Nakache/Éric Toledano, 2011) -


This almost feels Pixar-like in its extremely conventional odd-couple narrative that's bolstered a bit by having decent chemistry between its leads and popping in a few decent scenes, but it hasn't left much of an impression.



“I was cured, all right!”
The Longest Nite (1998) -




One of To's best! Might not be as poetic as Exiled or Running Out of Time and a little bit rough around the edges at times, but its brief 80 minutes running time has been used wonderfully with perfect pacing and wonderfully-fitting thumping music in the background. The final duel was amazing, and the very ending hard-hitting!



I love this movie.



Reservoir Dogs



A group of bank robbers tries to identify the rat in their team after a botched robbery where they were surprised by cops.

This is the first mainstream Quentin Tarantino movie. The unique voice in the DNA of this movie comes from the vulgarity in the dialogue and at the same time the freshness of dialogues.The vulgarity is in the topics and the point of view of characters. One of the key aspects of Tarantino is that he walks the talk. All the controversies before his movies are met with commercial and critical success.Controversy makes a movie memorable in the history of Hollywood , but only after its a successful movie. A controversial bomb is bound to be forgotten. Similar to James Cameron. When you are spending 500 million $ on avatar , you better deliver and he does time and again. Same with Tarantino.He is cocky but he backs it up with goods.

So the story-line comprises of present and flashbacks which introduces the relationship between characters. The flashbacks are not to introduce each and every character. They are there to introduce key relationships that are essential for the story. Harvey Keitel's white is the "good" guy among the bunch. His relationship with Tim Roth is the crux of the movie. This movie also highlights Tarantino's love for gore. Here is the thing with gore and blood. It has to be earned. The movie has to be awesome without them and these elements should enhance its awesomeness. Most amateur directors kind of use violence and gore as selling point of the movie and that is not good.

For example, a movie like Hostiles starts off with violence. So the director is using violence to get the attention of audience. Which is a cheap technique. From then on, the movie is very episodic. The risk in that movie is the fact that it has zero commercial appeal. But there is no brilliance in terms of story telling. Reservoir dogs is a talky movie with guns. Its never a blockbuster material.But the fact that the dialogues have so much uniqueness is what's appealing. Eureka moments should not come out of blue. You make a point and then there has to be an undertone of that point through out the story. So, in a murder investigation plot the reveal can't be in such a way that a guy who has been there all along is the culprit out of the blue. We need to be in on the reveal but the way the events unfold has to be unique. Shock and suspense is not the answer. However, since it is the first film of Tarantino, the story points are still not gelling together. You can see the inner workings of the writer through the movie.

Audience are introduced to Tarantino violence. It is The kind of violence which makes audience enjoy the violence because both parties deserve the violence. From a criminal perspective, the cop deserves to be hurt and from the cop's perspective he was gonna do the same with criminal. Speaking of the heart of the movie, the way Tim Roth gets himself involved in the gang is by telling a story. Its a very good resume. He, step by step convincingly tells how he got out of a tough spot. Surprise in a normal movie feels like a gimmick. But if your whole movie is on a heightened plane, then the surprise adds to the momentum of the movie. So that's where the brilliance of Tarantino shines bright. Now , the movie might feel dated. But then, the movie was revolutionary in terms of dialogues.

The ending did not land that strong for me. The betrayal of Harvey Keitel's trust by Tim Roth landed 95% but not full 100% in terms of intended effect. But the tough spot Tim Roth is in is very interesting. He is an under cover cop that gets shots on job and the decision by Harvey Keitel not to take him to a doctor is very understandable as he may rat. The choice to make the son of the guy who set up the robbery a character in the movie is a very interesting concept. It is because of him a three way Mexican stand off happens in the movie.All in all, the movie is very indicative of the way Tarantino makes movies to come. He melds the story the way he wants. Consequences are often ignored. Criminals have codes and rules. Loose canons are more often treated as real human loose canons as opposed to someone who is unhinged from the get go. One of the looser ends of the movie is the decision by Tim Roth to shoot Michael Madsen when he is torturing the cop. He gains nothing by doing that other than doing it out of kinship for his fellow cop. Luckily Tarantino doesn't dwell on the mystery of why he shot him because his cover is blown immediately. That reminds us again what the focus of the movie is and that is the bond between Keitel and Tim Roth. From the get go Keitel was vouching for Tim Roth and saving his life and that gives ownership over Tim Roth's life to Keitel. He can choose whatever he wants to do with his life. So, in the end when Tim Roth really does have a chance to survive the whole ordeal it is taken away by Keitel after learning of his betrayal.

The thing about this movie is that it makes you care for fictional characters for no other reason except their circumstances.Even these guy are robbers.So that gives us a little insight into the kind of movies Tarantino wants to make. For him its all about actions. The consequences are taken care by him. He soften's the blow of the consequences by exaggerating it and making it feel inconsequential. So audience will only remember the actions from the movie. The whole consequence of robbing a jewel store is dealt with such an entertaining manner that no one watching the movie feels the horrible situation these guys are in. Hope is kept alive till the last frame. Its a great debut.



Welcome to the human race...
IM TRIGGERRRRRR....
Oh, okay. Sure, yeah. I see.
Did you really think the guy with the Escape From L.A. avatar would talk sh*t about the original?