Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1978)
"What is America to me?" sings Paul Robeson as Burnett shows to us the everyday life of a community of African-Americans. The film is not your usual narrative experience but rather a poetic reflection of the world in which we live in, moments of poverty, struggle, and a mundane tasks are juxtaposed with occasional images and sounds of beauty. Like his short "When It Rains", it's a film that feels alive, filled with human warmth and beauty in a cold world.
Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
I see that this film is largely praised for its harsh depiction of the "realities of drugs", and whilst yes, it is deeply disturbing, I don't think that alone makes it a particularly good film. I did not care for any of the characters, probably because I felt a lack of care or empathy from Aronofsky towards them. There's no room for subjectivity in any scenes which are put together like some cool music video, and there's no hope or warmth offered to them. The whole film is just one vile, hopeless scene after another. It was more a horror than anything else. Overall, incredibly thin, it did not affect me emotionally one bit. I agree that the performances were good, that's about it.
The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013) [Rewatch]
A rewatch as this one was on TV the other night. Very good. It might be my favourite of the trilogy, although I haven't seen the other two in a while. I think what I like about this is the dry British humour, when someone calls his mates "c*nts" and doesn't realise how deluded and self-obsessed they are, it almost always gets a laugh from me. I think the writing for the film is really strong, and Pegg shows good emotional depth as his character who is stuck in the past. His non-conformity to society's normal expectations, and wanting to enjoy himself is in an odd way somewhat relatable. A good mix of laugh-out-loud humour and really written written humanism. I think I mentioned this in my original review, but Edgar Wright also gets a thumbs up from me for his fantastically directed fight sequences. The first toilet scene is how to direct a fight scene, very well choreographed and photographed in a coherent and exciting way that completely makes sense.
"What is America to me?" sings Paul Robeson as Burnett shows to us the everyday life of a community of African-Americans. The film is not your usual narrative experience but rather a poetic reflection of the world in which we live in, moments of poverty, struggle, and a mundane tasks are juxtaposed with occasional images and sounds of beauty. Like his short "When It Rains", it's a film that feels alive, filled with human warmth and beauty in a cold world.
Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
I see that this film is largely praised for its harsh depiction of the "realities of drugs", and whilst yes, it is deeply disturbing, I don't think that alone makes it a particularly good film. I did not care for any of the characters, probably because I felt a lack of care or empathy from Aronofsky towards them. There's no room for subjectivity in any scenes which are put together like some cool music video, and there's no hope or warmth offered to them. The whole film is just one vile, hopeless scene after another. It was more a horror than anything else. Overall, incredibly thin, it did not affect me emotionally one bit. I agree that the performances were good, that's about it.
The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013) [Rewatch]
A rewatch as this one was on TV the other night. Very good. It might be my favourite of the trilogy, although I haven't seen the other two in a while. I think what I like about this is the dry British humour, when someone calls his mates "c*nts" and doesn't realise how deluded and self-obsessed they are, it almost always gets a laugh from me. I think the writing for the film is really strong, and Pegg shows good emotional depth as his character who is stuck in the past. His non-conformity to society's normal expectations, and wanting to enjoy himself is in an odd way somewhat relatable. A good mix of laugh-out-loud humour and really written written humanism. I think I mentioned this in my original review, but Edgar Wright also gets a thumbs up from me for his fantastically directed fight sequences. The first toilet scene is how to direct a fight scene, very well choreographed and photographed in a coherent and exciting way that completely makes sense.