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I don't really know what movies are supposed to be but I do know what they're not and it's 80 for Brady. I seem to be not alone.

https://slate.com/culture/2023/02/to...etirement.html







SF = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it



This was also a movie that has grown on me over time. Which is pretty good because I thought it was a very good film when I walked out of it but the more I go back and think about it, and I do, the better it gets to me. Which is how it ended up on my 25 of the Decade list.
I dunno, man; I mean, it was fine on the whole, but it still didn't distinguish itself as much as it should've, IMO. The detachment of Villeneuve's style just doesn't work for a gritty Thriller the way that it does for more cerebral Sci-Fi, the revelation of Alejandro's motivation was a bit obvious and not particularly compelling in retrospect, and the whole affair didn't stand out that much from its genre, and just kind of felt like No Country For Old Men Jr. to me in the end...

(shrug)



Victim of The Night
It's got a lot to offer across the board, so I can see why it's a favorite for some people.

One thing that did bother me, and I'm sure you can chalk it up to the pressure of the situation, was when
WARNING: spoilers below
they come out of the tunnels and Kate is like "I'm going to tell on all of you! I'm definitely telling!" I was like, DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY SURVIVAL INSTINCTS?!?!?!?!?!?! You're in the middle of nowhere, at the mercy of these alpha male sociopaths (and also you partner is at their mercy). I get that she's angry and indignant, but that just seemed so dumb and dangerous!
Yeah, I just thought that was there because of the emotion and also maybe to show that she didn't yet fully understand the depth of the water that she was in. But that may not track, I haven't seen it in about 3 years.



Victim of The Night
I dunno, man; I mean, it was fine on the whole, but it still didn't distinguish itself as much as it should've, IMO. The detachment of Villeneuve's style just doesn't work for a gritty Thriller the way that it does for more cerebral Sci-Fi, the revelation of Alejandro's motivation was a bit obvious and not particularly compelling in retrospect, and the whole affair didn't stand out that much from its genre, and just kind of felt like No Country For Old Men Jr. to me in the end...

(shrug)
YMMV. It, to me, is a pretty low-key thriller, despite everything, and that's something that I always find really compelling, like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And when I add up the script, the outstanding acting (especially Del Toro who changed the way I saw him forever with this one), the wonderful cinematography (which really made this movie feel both cinematic and very real to me in that No Country kind of way), I feel that it adds up to a lot. And I mean, I feel it, I don't think it, this movie made me feel it.



I don't really know what movies are supposed to be but I do know what they're not and it's 80 for Brady. I seem to be not alone.

https://slate.com/culture/2023/02/to...etirement.html

One part chick-flick, one part football flick, one part road movie. All of the faces your parents grew up with. If this does not get old people into theaters nothing will!





M3GAN, 2022

Gemma (Allison Williams) is an engineer/programmer at a successful toy company whose life is shaken up when her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident, leaving her with sole custody of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). Gemma decides that to help Cady (and herself), she will let Cady experiment with a new robotic companion, M3GAN (Jenna Davis). But M3GAN's companionship takes a dark turn when she interprets her mission to protect Cady in a very violent way.

Achieving the sweet spot of something that knows it's schlock and lives every moment to the schlockiest, M3GAN is a funny and fun take on the killer doll horror subgenre.

I'm generally speaking not the biggest fan of killer doll characters, but M3GAN does a delightful job of allowing its antagonist to evolve in parallel with her human counterpart. M3GAN starts out merely as a supportive presence for Cady. Drawing with her, playing. But as M3GAN starts to develop her own mental structures and understanding of the world around her, she reevaluates her role in Cady's life.

And the film does a great job of establishing some characters who seem to fully invite their eventual dispatches. Whether it's Gemma's ruthlessly inconsiderate neighbor and her aggressive dog, or the sadist adolescent who torments the other children in a playgroup, the film stays firmly in comedy territory because the characters we actually like never seem to be in real danger. If M3GAN wants to hunt a sexual sadist through the woods, who am I to judge?

There's also a decent subplot around Gemma actually building a relationship with Cady. A lot of the reason that Gemma turns to M3GAN is because she's unsure of how to connect with Cady. While I felt that the film really gave short shrift to the fact that Gemma's sister has just died---we literally get one scene in which we see her process this loss--this is a pretty good subplot. Cady's terrible therapist warns Gemma that Cady needs someone to attach to after the loss of her parents, and Gemma is allowing M3GAN to take that place.

I was also pleased to see one of my favorite YouTube creators, Brian Jordan Alvarez, pop up in a supporting role. Good for him!

I actually have very few criticisms with this one, because I happen to think that the acting, writing, everything are all perfectly aligned with the kind of movie that this film is aiming to be. I laughed out loud a lot, and I don't need to look to hard at which laughs were intentional and which weren't. (Only genuinely unintentional laugh? That terrible, jarring Sky Vodka product placement).

Very enjoyable.






Shirkers, 2018

In 1990s Singapore, a group of rebellious teenagers--Sandi, Sophie, and Jasmine--wrote and directed a road trip film called Shirkers. Helping them out was an adult man named Georges who assisted with camera work and production coordination. But on completing the film, Georges absconds with all of the film's materials and then stops any contact with the girls. Years later, the footage resurfaces. In this documentary, Sandi brings us along as she investigates who Georges really was and what really happened during the production of their movie.

"I know I'll never get all of my friends in the same place, at the same time, ever again." This film is much more than a mystery around a lost movie. It's an investigation of what it means to lose a dream, and what it means to feel that a critical piece of your youth has been taken from you.

This documentary is compelling on so many levels. At a basic level, it's inspiring and invigorating to see a portrait of such youthful people creating what looks to have been a visually striking, daring movie before they were even out of high school. Their stories of shoestring budget filmmaking would be impressive if they were adults, much less kids.

In the middle of the film, the focus shifts to understanding the behavior and motivations of Georges, uncovering different stories and dynamics that paint a damning picture of a man who got some sort of sick satisfaction out of sabotaging the passion projects of other people. Sandi learns that their musician friend wrote an entire soundtrack for the movie, only to have Georges steal it and then banned him from the set. As she investigates further, she finds a man in America who had some eerily similar interactions.

Finally, the film comes around to examining how it is that a person copes with the kind of loss that they experienced. While the women have all gone on to do neat things with their lives, there is always this early betrayal. Further, there are lingering resentments--overtly expressed by Jasmine--that they were giving warning signs about Georges that Sandi simply ignored.

This film does an amazing job of serving as a lovely elegy for the movie they lost and being its own compelling piece of cinema.




I forgot the opening line.

By The cover art can or could be obtained from http://www.impawards.com/2015/inside_out_ver13.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45669660

Inside Out - (2015)

I have a chronological list of films I want to get through, plus there's the Oscars, plus there's a Hall of Fame - but some nights you just want to go with something easy that you've been looking forward to - that was Inside Out for me. I've loved the idea of it ever since I saw that scene where you get the inside story on the voices in the daughter's head, the mother's head and the father's head. Now, I know that this isn't how the brain works strictly speaking, but every part of Inside Out feels like it's been meticulously researched, and it's a pretty good representation of the mind. They include everything in this - the subconscious, different types of memory, moods, personality and ideation. I thought it was ever so clever - and if you ask me I thought the film's best moments were when you saw inside of other people's heads as well as main character Riley. We don't get enough of that in Inside Out. I absolutely adored Bing Bong (voiced by Richard Kind.) I thought the advertising tune that kept on getting stuck in Riley's head was a brilliant recurring joke (memory workers keep sending it to HQ as a gag.) As you'd expect from Pixar, it had hilarious moments. It doesn't reach the heady heights of the Toy Story franchise, but it was an enjoyable romp.

7/10
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Tar - 2022

This was a proper film. Felt like I was finally watching a piece of art instead of a computer animated screen with actors occupying it. I have to salute Todd Field the director that man has an eye for setting a shot up or maybe it was his cinematographer. Or a combination. Whoever was responsible this film is gorgeous if nothing else. Best scene was at the beginning of the flick...you'll know it when you see it. Was running around social media a few months ago.

Also this is a hot take but Cate Blanchett to me is what people think Meryl Streep is. I think she runs laps around Streep on screens. It's effortless for Cate to me Streep can ham it up. Plus I just think Cate picks better projects, Streep just goes for the Oscar baity movies. Cate also isn't afraid to try main appeal movies like Ragnarök. Anyways Cate is a f*cking powerhouse in this flick and should run away with the Oscar. I was pulling for Michelle Yeoh and I still think she will win because she has never won and Cate has plus you know diversity rules now. I wouldn't be mad if Yeoh won she was awesome but let's be honest here.

For the film itself. It is really tough to follow at first. Maybe the first 25 or 30 minutes you just have to stick through it. It's was hard for me to even understand what they were saying but once you settle in and the story unfolds you ease into it. It's foreign world to me music/orchestra/composers. It's worth it however because I think Tar has something worth wild it's trying to explore with power dynamics/cancel culture/accountability etc. It imo did a fantastic job of straddling the middle and not telling you what to think but simply asking how you feel about the story. If there was an agenda in the story you could have fooled me. This is the biggest short coming of Hollywood today, they can't hide their agenda in their movies. This movie just presented the story and asked how you felt about it instead of telling you and to that I say bravo Mastero!

It's still a pretty dense movie that is worth peeling but I won't rush back into. I do see myself revisiting it one day but not immediately. It's a timely topic that's worth a watch.



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101 Favorite Movies (2019)



Tar - 2022

This was a proper film. Felt like I was finally watching a piece of art instead of a computer animated screen with actors occupying it.
Then stop watching animated/CGI heavy movies.

Oh, as I actually watched a film (kind of) I suppose I should mention it in this post.

Assault On Precint 13 (1976)
- It's the original movie, of course I give it the full 5/5. It's on my 100 and I love it to death. Great music, builds tension so well, a small, tight film with, basically, two locations and a handful of characters and unseen enemies. A remake of Rio Bravo, a comment on Vietnam, whatever it is for you, it's just so damn good. Tension, action, thriller, it's one of Carpenter's best and that's dealing with top tier stuff. Even if it did nothing else I'd love it for doing something films just don't do. No spoilers, if you seen it you'll probably know and if you haven't go watch it.
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Tar - 2022

This was a proper film. Felt like I was finally watching a piece of art instead of a computer animated screen with actors occupying it.
Yeah I mean there are hundreds of those types of films released every year. Tar was great, I think there's a separate thread about it which is worth a read.



Tar - 2022

This was a proper film. Felt like I was finally watching a piece of art instead of a computer animated screen with actors occupying it. I have to salute Todd Field the director that man has an eye for setting a shot up or maybe it was his cinematographer. Or a combination. Whoever was responsible this film is gorgeous if nothing else. Best scene was at the beginning of the flick...you'll know it when you see it. Was running around social media a few months ago......


I'm curious to see this but ambivalent. It's supposedly modeled after Marin Alsop, who was conductor of the Baltimore Symphony some years back. The synopsis sounds pretty darn dramatic, unlike Alsop's tenure. My recollection of her (I attended many of her concerts) was that she was "out" from the beginning, that she was a fine conductor, not high-drama, and that she was well received by the audience. At the time she maintained that her gender practices were not part of the job, kept her private life private and did her job well. Symphony conductors generally do move on after a decade or so, so she's gone now and was missed. Where do they come up with this stuff?





Sweet interesting movie based on a true story. Dozed off a couple of times, but I always like Margaret Qualley in whatever she does & Weaver is very good too in this movie.



I own the Three Colors box set, but I honestly don’t think I’ve seen Blue, which is very odd as it’s the first of the three movies. Will be curious to see if I’ve seen Red or White. Anyway, I enjoyed it. Always like Binoche.
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'Close' (2022)


Well that film broke me internally. Damn you manipulative string music!!!

I made noises I didn't know I could make. Seriously though it's a must watch. The Directing here by Lukas Dhont is absolutely formidable, he has got an absolute worldy performance from young Eden Dambrine. A very close friendship between two thirteen-year old boys Leo and Remi gets tested to the limit. It's almost unreviewable due to spoiler risks.

Cry tally : 6