Zotis' Film Watching Diary

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I had never heard of Big Eyes until recently, but I generally like Tim Burton, and this appears to be a more personal project, something more akin to Ed Wood and Big Fish than Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I'm intrigued.

My interest in The Imitation Game would be non-existent if not for all the award nominations. I'm sure it's well made, but it looks like something I'll watch once, appreciate on a technical level, but have no interest in ever re-visiting.

Foxcatcher was one of my most anticipated movies of last year even before all the critical acclaim. I haven't seen it yet, but I have very high expectations. I'm especially curious to see Steve Carrell's performance.

Never heard of Mean Guns, but it sounds like a lot of fun, so I've added it to my Netflix queue.
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My interest in The Imitation Game would be non-existent if not for all the award nominations. I'm sure it's well made, but it looks like something I'll watch once, appreciate on a technical level, but have no interest in ever re-visiting.
I'm guessing that's how it'd play out.
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5-time MoFo Award winner.



I think The Imitation Game is a good nomination for Best Actor, but I don't know if it deserves to win over Foxcatcher. Cumberbatch's performance is the only thing that stood out in the movie to me in a technical aspect. I felt the movie was very entertaining though.



January 13th


Semper Fi: Marines in the Pacific: WWII (2013) Documentary

There's no record of this on IMDB, but it consists of 2 parts, Counter Strike and Beginning of the End. It's over 3 hours and covers the entire course of the war in the Pacific. It was interesting to learn that an American crashed into the last gun on a Japanese battleship and inspired the Japanese as a kamikaze. I'm not sure if that was implying that he was the first kamikaze in the war and that was the motivation for the Japanese to start doing it (it was at Wake Island, so very early in the war), but they didn't go into a lot of detail on anything specific. It was more like a crash course on the marines' side of the pacific war. At the end they said the Japanese suffered something like 13 casualties to each marine casualty. I enjoyed it a lot. The narrator spoke in a way that was very easy on the ears. I do wish there was more substance in terms of information, but I think this is more of a visual experience than anything else. I felt like I learned a lot, but at the same time nothing that I could confidently tell anyone else and back up with facts without doing my own further research.


Very Good



Rewatch
The Quiet (2005) Drama
Directed by Jamie Babbit
Starring Camilla Belle and Elisha Cuthbert
With notable supporting roles by Edie Falco, Martin Donovan, and Shawn Ashmore

Apparently David Gallagher was in this too, but I've seen it like 15 times and I have never noticed him. Anyway, this is one of my favorite movies and has been since I first saw it years ago. I can't remember if it spawned my Camilla Bell crush, or if it was a result, but either way this movie made me obsess over her. In the period of one week I watched this film at least seven times. I think I watched it four days in a row, twice I watched it twice in the same day back to back, and I think I took a break for a day or two and then watched it one or two more times. It was so many years ago that I can't remember exactly. Camilla is the focal point of the film. She is focused on as much by the cameras as by the plot. You can gather pretty early on, and it's even hinted at on the back of the cover, that her character isn't really deaf. It's not a twist for the viewer, just for the other characters. Camilla really does an excellent job acting, and everyone else does very well too. She isn't really an actress that has a large range, but she does the whole emo thing very well. The cinematography and lighting are also very well done, and I can tell that Jamie Babbit pays a lot of attention to detail, but this movie still isn't really a masterpiece. A very large amount of my personal enjoyment of this film comes from it's content. When I watch this movie I feel like moving to a new city, starting from scratch, and pretending to be deaf. Except I know I could never pull it off. It may not seem believable that Camilla's character could pull it off either, until you learn that she's been pretending to be deaf since she was 7 years old.


Personal Favorite



January 23rd


Rewatch
Winter's Bone (2010) Drama
Directed by Debra Granik
Starring Jennifer Lawrence
With notable supporting roles by John Hawkes, and Dale Dickey

This is a favorite of mine. I was bored the other day and my internet wasn't working so I just picked something from my small collection at home. I first saw this back in 2011 and had never heard of Jennifer Lawrence before. I was instantly a fan. I'm still a fan of hers, but her newer movies have not been impressing me as much as The Poker House, The Burning Plain, and Winter's Bone.

Winter's Bone was nominated for 4 academy awards and a golden globe. It didn't win, but it did win AFI Movie of the Year, the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, 72 other awards, and 91 other nominations according to IMDB. Jennifer Lawrence and Debra Granik won most of the awards, but John Hawkes and Dale Dickey won awards for their supporting roles, and I also noticed the cinematography and screenwriting getting some wins in.

The movie itself rests very strongly on Jennifer's acting. John Hawkes gets a decent amount of screen time during the second half of the movie, but none whatsoever for the first third or so, and Dale Dickey makes several appearances. I can see why they won awards for best supporting actor/actress. Both of them deliver potent emotions on at least three instances each. I didn't even realise how much they frame Jennifer and complete the movie until reflecting on it now. Hawkes' character, Teardrop, plays the tough uncle to Jennifer's character, Ree. There's such an interesting assortment of exchanges between their two characters. At first Ree is frightened by Teardrop, but later they bond until she is even comforted by him. I think my favorite part for Hawkes' acting as well as his character is when he rescues Ree. The way he says that he's going to take her on out of there to home is touching in a way that brings a smile to your face. Dickey's character has some gentle moments and some spiteful moments too. In one scene where they're in a boat Dickey's voice goes high and cracks slightly as she urges Ree, and in another scene she warns and threaten's Ree with menace, even violence. I still enjoy Jennifer's acting the most. She has a lot of powerful scenes, and even watching her do something as simple as chop wood is still enjoyable somehow. She's charming, but I also think that she just has a lot of character.

The plot revolves around Ree, living normal life until she gets saddled with the burden of tracking down her dad. The movie feels true to it's song of hardship in it's story and atmosphere. You can see how strong Ree is, and how her circumstances have caused her to live very intentionally. The filmmakers, namely Debra Granik, were also very good at portraying intelligence and bringing it out in their actors. Ree doesn't just figure things out because it's in the script. You can see her deep in thought, making wise decisions, and carefully analyzing information with discernment. It's all very well directed, realistic, and detailed. The two children playing Ree's younger siblings are actually local kid's and siblings in real life. A lot of the extras were really just locals. Granik is a little known director who really hasn't done much sadly. Originally when Jennifer applied for the part they said she was too attractive for the role and they wondered about her ability to act, but Jennifer said that she "just showed them that it didn't matter." I admire her passion for acting, and I hope that in the future she can produce something to rival Winter's Bone.


Personal Favorite



In the past few days I also...

...rewatched Harakiri (1962), a classic black and white samurai movie which in my opinion rivals Akira Kurasawa and is one of the greatest samurai movies ever made.


...rewatched Dragon Princess (1976), a karate B-movie that has surprisingly decent acting from it's young lead, Etsuko Shihomi.


...watched Moneyball (2011), directed by Bennett Miller who also directed Foxcatcher and Capote. I didn't care much for Capote, but it's a well made film. My admiration of Foxcatcher is what lead me to check out Moneyball. Brad Pitt did a decent job, and fortunately the film focused more on things behind the scenes than the actual playing of baseball. It was really interesting to see things from the perspective of the team scouts, and I really enjoyed Jonah Hill in this. It's probably the first time I have actually thought of Jonah Hill as a respectable actor.


...watched Fritz Lang's Metropolis. I was actually a bit disappointed with it. It was good, but my expectations were pretty high. I liked Siegfried a lot more. I did enjoy the melodrama of it all. The way the characters would throw their arms around was interesting.


Movies watched in 2015: 19



I remember Winter's Bone coming out (if you'll pardon the pun) and the amount of praise both she and the film got were enormous. I'd like to see it, preferabley at a time when I'd have a chance of enjoying it.



I payed $2 for my copy of Harakiri. Gotta love Chinatown.

Oh, and like $10 for Winter's Bone at a convenience store with a little rental section in the back.



I liked Winter's Bone plenty, but it was missing that extra oomph I needed for me to really love it.

Agree with you on Harakari and Moneyball.



January 26th


John Dies at the End (2012)

Some chuckles and a few solid laughs, a good performance from Paul Giamatti, and a ridiculous plot that makes no attempt to make any sense. That's about all there is to say about this movie. Chase Williamson was the lead, and his acting was pretty poor.


Average



January 31st


Audition (1999) Horror/Drama
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Ryo Ishibashi, and Eihi Shiima
With a notable supporting role by Jun Kunimura

The last time I watched this was probably 2010. At the time I didn't notice any flaws, but this time around I did notice that some of the acting wasn't quite up to par, especially in the first half of the film. The weakest scene was probably the very first scene in the hospital. I think the strongest acting came from Eihi Shiima. Jun Kunimura did well also, and I've always liked him as an actor. But honestly if Takashi Miike was better at paying attention to detail this actually could have been a true masterpiece of a film. In Visitor Q I saw the mic pop into the shot in 3 different scenes. There wasn't anything like that in Audition, but Miike also did six other projects (movies, video, TV) in the same year.

Audition is an interesting horror film. It's not scary per-say, but it's certainly gruesome. The first 70 minutes feel like a proper drama with a good story albeit slightly boring content, but for the first watch at least it shouldn't feel boring. There just isn't enough impressive acting or subtlety to keep delving much deeper into the film after it's been watched two or three times. My first experience was also compounded at the time by my lack of familiarity with this style of film. So it was a very new experience for me back then. It expanded my perception of what kind of movies were out there in the world that I wasn't previously aware of, especially in the horror genre, and also in terms of realistic movies. Today, some years later, I am a little more aware, and as a result, less impressed. It's still a very solid film overall, but it's certainly not Miike's best.

The most interesting facets of Audition's story and plot come into full bloom around the 70 minute mark. At that point the backstory for Shiima's character, Asami Yamazaki, develops into the worst case scenario and then some. The movie's climax is the perfect delayed gratification for fans of the genre. At several points in the film there are interesting ambiguous scenes like dreams and flashes of insight. They serve to fill in some gaps at crucial moments and I think it works perfectly. The timing takes you out of what's happening, increasing the tension, and then brings you back for the clincher you were waiting for. It's like when your life flashes before you during a near death experience. You're taken out of it, time seems to slow, you gain insights, and then you get hurled back into it right before you're head hits the pavement so to speak. It's by far the strongest point in the plot structure of the film.

During the actual auditions, before the half-way point of the film, Kunimura's character asks the woman he's interviewing who her favorite actor is and what her favorite Tarkovsky film is. She replies with the name of some lame TV actor and both Kunimura and Ishibashi burst out laughing. I really loved that bit.




I watched Life Is Beautiful. I laughed, I cried, I loved it.


I'd have given it more if it wasn't such an obvious Fellini rip off.

Movies watched in 2015: 22



My browser crashed while I was writing this, so here's the even faster version:

The Bicycle Thief

Chinatown

Mulan (live-action)

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (rewatch)

The Dark Myth

The International (rewatch)

Fort Bliss

Army of One

Demon City Shinjuku (rewatch)

Patlabor 1 (rewatch)

The East (rewatch)

Watchmen (rewatch)

Jupiter Ascending
/
(So bad it was good)
Overlord

The Hound of the Baskervilles




In a Ring of Mountains (1962) Drama
Directed by Ikehiro Kazuo
Starring Ichikawa Raizo and Nakamura Tamao

A charming tale of romance, tragedy, and heroism set in feudal Japan. Masakichi, played by Ichikawa Raizo, works in a lumber yard and enjoys gambling and drinking in his spare time. Tragedy strikes when a conspiracy broils between a corrupt deputy with a strong disliking for Masakichi and Masakichi's boss who lusts for the gambler's woman, Oshima, played by Nakamura Tamao. Taking to the road Masakichi encounters a woman in trouble who resembles Oshima identically.

I had never heard of this movie before, and it seems pretty obscure on the net. It even says on the back of the case that it's "a rare gem." I could tell just by looking at it that it had a lot of potential, so I bought it. It was only $5. I must say it turned out to be quite an extraordinary film. The story and characters are delightfully charming. I quickly fell in love with them. It had great acting with plenty of emotion and subtleties. All of the characters hard strong personalities. There was no filler content, everything was very intentional, and I take that as a sign of good directing. The cinematography was surprisingly good. The ending was a great climax. When I picked this film up I had high hopes, and it actually surpassed them.




Avalon (2001) Sci-fi, Action, Drama
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Starring Malgorzata Foremniak

My general impression of the film was very good. This was my second time watching it, and I found my appreciation for the film to have grown. It’s cool, stylish, and artistic with meaningful content besides action and an attractive female lead. My first impression was that the special effects looked low budget. I still get that impression a bit, but if they are then I think Oshii did very well with what he had to work with. Once I gave the movie a real chance I quickly learned to appreciate it, and after my second watch I liked it even more.


One of Avalon‘s strongest points was it’s visuals. “…state-of-the-art visual effects in the stunning style of The Matrix,” and “with awe-inspiring visuals,” claimed the back of the case. I didn’t agree with “state-of-the-art,” but the visuals were quite good in other ways. Most of the film was shot in this sort of desaturated state of yellow and brown. It almost seemed black and white, but I could still see the redness in a piece of raw meat, orange in an explosion, flesh tone in skin, and other colors. Combined with the pace and atmosphere, the coloring gave an almost film-noir kind of feel like an old detective movie. When characters died in the game they turned 2D and sliced apart, shattered, or dissolved in rings. It was interesting, but far from “state-of-the-art.”

I’m not sure how I feelt about the cinematography. I didn’t pay particular attention to it while watching, but I did recall some shots standing out to me. I particularly liked the shot of her in the chair the first time she logged out of the game. At the same time though, that scene was way too obviously borrowed from Ghost in the Shell and The Matrix. I kind of forgive that because Oshii did direct the Ghost in the Shell movie, and Ghost in the Shell was one of the more prominent influences for The Matrix, but I’m not sure how much to forgive since Ghost in the Shell wasn’t his original work to begin with, but an adaptation of the manga. The point is that Avalon was a bit lacking in originality, but that shot of her in the chair was still an excellent shot. I just didn’t get the impression throughout the film of the cinematography being exceptional. Beyond certain shots I think the cinematography was adequate, but not special. I would have to watch it again and look at the cinematography more intentionally to get a more reliable understanding.

The last set of visual aspects I want to focus on are the costumes, props, and sets. The costumes were great. Ash, the Bishop, the cyphers, and some other characters had really cool aesthetics. I loved Ash’s mask, goggles, and cape when she was in the game. If she wasn’t the greatest player to ever play the game, she was certainly the most stylish. Outside of the game I thought the way they contrasted her look with a trench coat and glasses was a really good choice. I didn’t get a strong impression from all of the costumes though. Pretty much the same principle could apply to the props and sets. As far as the props were concerned they just didn’t seem consistent in their setting. Only certain things were futuristic like the computer screens, datacards, goggles, and equipment used for logging into the game. Other props were just straight from modern time like the furniture, or old-fashioned like the street cars from the 50’s. I don’t know how much of it was intentional, but I got the impression it was partly out of necessity due to budget constraints. The sets in-game were mostly ruins and battle scarred terrain, and outside of the game it was like East Berlin when the wall was up, or something equally depressing. I never really understood the poverty that plagued the world. It seemed to me like just a little bit more needed to be said about it. I barely felt any futuristic vibes from the sets. The closest were the rooms for logging in. The city infrastructure wasn’t even the slightest bit futuristic.

The plot was one of the stronger elements. It moved at a measured pace, as often by what was not said as by what was said. Ash, played by Foremniak, was the complete focal point and driving force. The story revolved around a mysterious higher level within the game that at first existed only in rumor. Eventually even the nature of reality came into question. I was really captivated by the story, and it helped me overlook the minor setbacks I already mentioned.

The acting was good, but not reaching for any awards. The thief character was considerably weaker than the rest of the cast. In terms of directing I did notice some minor details that made me arc a brow. In one scene Ash has bare feet, and then in the next scene with no explanation she suddenly has shoes on. There is a significant cut, but I still would have liked some explanation. She didn’t exactly have enough room in her tiny purse for the pair of shoes. Attention to those kind of details are one thing I look for from a director.

A little more consistent acting and attention to detail are really in the director’s hands, and if they had been done this truly could have been a great film. As it stands it’s still a very good film with an excellent story and a considerable amount of charm and visual appeal. This review was quite critical, but I actually loved the movie. Ash was a fascinating character, and the pace and atmosphere were enthralling. I would recommend this movie to anyone. I think just about everybody would actually enjoy it no matter what their taste. Avalon will probably make my top 100 favorite films.


Acting

Directing

Cinematography

Story and Plot

Character Design and Development

Visuals

Special Effects

Style and Charm

Dialogue

Sci-fi Elements


Overall


I originally wrote this on my blog idioticmechanicalpidgeon.wordpress.com.





The Time Bandits


A fun film about dwarfs travelling through time seeking wealth through thievery, it certainly had it's charm and humor. Evil, portrayed satirically, was the most appealing character to me.




La Chinoise


This was my first Godard film, and I loved it. It had so much depth that I felt like I didn't grasp it at all. Visually it was stimulating. The use of color and the cinematography particularly stood out to me. There were a lot of interesting shots that were just beautiful. The technical proficiency combined with the poetic philosophy in the dialogue was something to behold.




Tokyo Story (1953)
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu

My first exposure to Ozu. I heard about him when I was looking at a recent hall of fame thread. The way he was talked about really peaked my interest. I loved Tokyo Story and I intend to watch much more of Ozu now. I've never seen a movie like it. At first I was almost bored. It just seemed like nothing interesting was going to happen. I was still captivated by the cinematography and little subtle things did interest me, but gradually the subtleties got more and more interesting as the movie went on. Noriko, played by Setsuko Hara, was by far my favorite character. Two of her scenes nearly made me cry, and one scene at the end made me shed a few tears. I found that the movie had a lot of charm, was expertly well made, and had a wonderful story. It was amazing how such simple things could be so interesting. Things that normally wouldn't appear in a movie because they're considered boring, like packing a suitcase, were practically mesmerising. I suspect Ozu will quickly become one of my new favorite directors.