Rate The Last Movie You Saw

This is low-key one of my favorite ways to determine how beautiful I found a film.

Aftersun (2022)

Having seen this appear on several 'best of the year' lists, I was keen to see this. I wonder if my expectations hampered my connection to the film at first, because for the first 40 minutes or so there didn't seem anything special about it, just the simple story of a father and daughter on holiday in the 90s, doing ordinary holiday things, taking videos, having conversations.

But it builds and grows so quietly and subtly that by the final third I was completely gripped, hit by a wave of sadness. It's not about what does or doesn't happen (and I'm sure there are people who will watch this and complain that nothing happens), it's about the feeling it evokes. By the end it felt so real that I didn't want the holiday to end either.



It doesn't always look pretty, but the shots are well framed, often from Sophie's child's perspective, with her father in shadow or reflection. The 90s details feel accurate without being obvious and the soundtrack works well, especially when well known songs are distorted. I never went on a holiday like this but there was enough about it that felt familiar to make it very evocative and real.

The acting is very good as well.

SF = Zz



[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

The Legend of Suram Fortress, 1985

On a rural mountainside, a tsar builds a fortress that is plagued by misfortune. No matter how many times the fortress is rebuilt, the walls end up crumbling. There are hopes that a fortune teller (Veriko Anjaparidze) might be able to say what must be done to keep the fort standing. But when she finally delivers the answer, will it be what they want to hear?

This film is painterly from the first frame, and my immediate thought was that it looked a lot like The Color of Pomegranates. And . . . that makes a lot of sense because it was made by the same man who directed that film.

In a way, knowing that really helped, because I was immediately able to get into the mindset that understanding the narrative particulars would not be the main objective. And that isn't at all to say that the movie doesn't have a story or that it's too hard to tell what's happening. There are a few different plots and character arcs through the film, and all of them are clear enough that you can get the emotional gist of them if not every nuance of the relationships and outcomes.

Really, though, it's the visuals and the way that they sing. In one sequence, a man is taken by his master to a field where he must throw pomegranates into the air for two wealthy men to cut with their swords. The man and his mother are later sold to another master who forces them to be put in a yolk and pace back and forth over wheat. The mother's heart gives out, and the man leaves with her body on a small sled. The staging of the wealthy men on a crest of land over the suffering servant and his mother. The slashed pomegranates falling to the ground. The man pulling a rope that leads behind a wall, only then for the mother's wrapped body to emerge.

The conclusion to the saga of the crumbling fortress is pretty spectacular, and I think it's a real shame that most plot summaries on the internet just straight up spoil how the tsar tries to solve the problem in the end based on the fortune teller's advice. If you decide to watch this film (I watched it on YouTube), I'd encourage you to avoid even the most basic plot summaries.




Really beautiful, and with a final act that really packs a punch, visually and emotionally.

Finally someone saw it. Sight & Sound named it the best film of the year, as did several other organizations, so I've been really interested.

Five in the past few days:

Come and See: A-
The Birds: B+
Man Hunt: C+
The Fortune Cookie: A
L'Eclise: A+

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Thai horror with a sure fire recipe; woman runs restaurant and serves up human meat. I was surprised at the amount of backstory and character development for a film like this. There's a real attempt to make a good film, but unfortunately it lacks humor and personality. It does not disappoint in the gore department.

I should check that one out. Huge fan of the director.

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Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015

The Avengers are back, this time dealing with a sentient artificial intelligence called Ultron (James Spader) who is accidentally unleashed by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). They must also reckon with a pair of twins, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who have powers granted them by human experimentation and bear a grudge against the Avengers.

My feelings on the Marvel films are pretty well established at this point. I like some things about them, while overall finding the whole "universe" thing overwhelming and the runtimes chronically about 30-45 minutes too long. Despite having some mixed feelings about certain elements of it, I actually enjoyed this one overall.

I'm not sure what the general consensus is on this one, but it definitely had a lot of the elements that I most enjoy in a film of this type and scope. Generally speaking the action scenes were to the point and easy to follow. The opening and closing battles were too long for my taste, but all of the action in between was fine. I particularly liked how many sequences were staged in smaller spaces, like the showdown at Stark's house. It kept the action from feeling too sprawling.

I also liked the character arcs at play. While I thought he could have been better developed, I liked the idea of Ultron and his twisted views on how to bring about peace. While I also thought that the twins were a tad underdeveloped, they brought an interesting dynamic to the film as their relationship with Ultron evolved through the story. I also liked the way that we see some of the fractures in the Avengers in terms of their philosophies on what it means to do their work. Using Wanda's powers to illuminate their fears was a nice way to give each character a small personal crisis to deal with.

At this point, all of the actors are very comfortable in their roles, and they are all fine. I enjoyed the addition of Wanda and Pietro, as well as the character of Vision (Paul Bettany). The supporting cast is also their usual reliable selves, like Cobie Smulders and Linda Cardellini.

But like so many of the Marvel films, this one goes on and on. I didn't feel the length as badly as in some of the other films, but still was very aware of it. I knew that the final showdown would feel bloated. Again, not as bad as some of the others, but I really start to glaze over once things have been being smashed for like 10 minutes. I will say, however, that I thought this final battle had some of the best actual stakes in terms of real consequences and character dynamics.

I also had mixed feelings about the writing. Every time the movie would get me on its side, it would do something. Oh, this banter between the group is kind of fun! Oop! Tony Stark just made a joke about being able to legally rape women. Awesome. Hey, this fight scene is kind of fun. Oop! The Hulk just face-planted into Black Widow's cleavage. Hilarious. (Sidenote: this film was so cleavage obsessed. Just looking right down shirts the whole time.)

While my feelings on the film are generally positive, I can't score it much higher than most of the other Marvel films I've seen, despite it feeling like a notch above them. I would say, though, that this is one of the only ones I could actually imagine rewatching.

Northman
7.5/10.
An epic fairy tale that collides myth with stark reality and moral ambiguity.

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Boldly going.

Red Rocket (2021-2022)

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Black Box (Boîte noire) (2021)

Hustle (2022)

Do Revenge (2022)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Interesting. I think of this as being one of the weakest of the pre-fall MCU films (I guess up to the end of Endgame) and yet it's not because it was cleavage-obsessed, which I as a mostly heterosexual male, still somehow missed. I liked the love-story between Natasha and Bruce, evolving out of their previous interaction where he was the only thing in the World she was truly afraid of and of course, that's his pain in a nutshell. I thought Marvel dropped the ball by not following up on the promise of that thread. I liked Spader but thought he was woefully underutilized because they wanted more action. I liked seeing Hawkeye's other life and, as always, Linda Cardellini has that unique quality that makes some people special even when they aren't on-screen very long. There must have been some other things. Oh I liked the first scene with the hammer.
But this movie got ruined by the head of Marvel at that time who famously told Joss Whedon that either Thor's entire plot-thread or Hawkeye's home had to be excised from the movie in favor of more action, and he could choose. And you can just tell that this movie has so much more crammed in til its busting at the seems and so much less of the interpersonal that made old MCU work. It has no time to breathe and it's really hard to even follow the plot, particularly vis a vis, The Vision, even when you already know the whole story from the comics.
As far as cleavage. Maybe it's cause I live in the South, but I see more cleavage just walking around work or at the bar last night than I did in this movie.

I actually thought that this one had a plot that was easy to follow and that it was relatively streamlined. And I liked the balance between the interpersonal conflicts and the external conflicts.

I guess. I think it's because the film uses the same angle over and over, and it happens to be with a character filmed from above, leaning toward the camera. And the only two main female characters have costumes that are either deeply cut or loose fitting. So not so much the presence of cleavage, but the sense of the camera looking down their shirts.

I thought the Vision storyline was a little hard to follow and Thor showing up literally out of nowhere (since his entire journey was cut from the film and he just disappears for the entire second act) and being like, "no, the synthezoid that we just met 5 seconds ago, that was created by the villain, is a good-guy and our best weapon, and I'll fight any of my friends that say otherwise"... even knowing the whole backstory I was like, "What just happened?"
As for cleavage, I'm not gonna fall back on the "yeah, many women wear clothes that show a little décolletage, what's the big deal" thing here even thought Marvel has let the camera absolutely drool over shirtless Chrisses in multiple films, including Haley Atwell's wonderful, real-life-that-got-filmed reaction to Evans half-naked body in The First Avenger, because I know you'd just smack me down for it, but, I just really didn't think it was egregious here and was a huge tone-down from the usual over-sexualized female SH costumes.

A Short Film About Love, 1988

Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko) is a young man living in an apartment with his godmother. He is obsessed with his neighbor across the way, an older woman named Magda (Grazyna Szapolowska). Tomek spies on her and increasingly does things to sabotage her relationships or bring her into contact with him. When Magda realizes what's happening, she finds herself both intrigued and repulsed by Tomek's interest.

I have liked or loved every film I've seen from Kieslowski (and The Double Life of Veronique has a special place in my heart). He has earned a lot of trust from me as a viewer. While I really struggled with certain aspects of this film and where its sympathies seemed to lie, I appreciate that it was strong in its performances and how it was filmed. I'm still sorting through what I think about its message and where it leaves its characters.

The big hitch here, for me, is that we have a guy who is stalking, harassing, and violating the privacy of a woman he supposedly likes. It goes way beyond just him watching her through a telescope (which on its own is upsetting and yucky). He messes with the delivery of her milk. When she starts to have sex with a man, he calls in a fake complaint about a gas leak in her apartment. He sends her fake notices about money being sent to her so that she'll show up at his workplace, something that humiliates her and threatens to get her in legal trouble. He calls her telephone at night, breathing into the receiver. I don't know if anyone here has ever experienced this kind of behavior, but it's really scary and unnerving.

To the film's credit, though, this isn't a case of these behaviors happening where we are supposed to believe that Tomek is a "nice guy". He actually is pretty clearly dealing with some mental health struggles. At one point, after watching Magda crying in her apartment, he asks his godmother, "Why do people cry?". Let that soak in for a moment. This actually manifests in other ways, as Tomek is at times overly earnest and compliant. When a boyfriend of Magda's yells for Tomek to come out and face him, Tomek does. Clearly outmatched, Tomek obediently puts up his fists only to get punched in the face. While part of me certainly felt bad for Tomek--who is socially isolated, sexually inexperienced, and very awkward--I felt that his actions were so manipulative and cruel that it was hard for me to handle the development of a relationship between him and Magda.

Magda herself is also a complicated character, though I found it a lot easier to sympathize with her. She is, despite herself, intrigued by Tomek and his bluntness. (To me that bluntness is more a sign of mental illness than honesty). As she spends time with him, she clearly oscillates between feeling a sort of flattery at his interest and a desire for revenge for the anxiety and fear he's caused her. She alternates kindness with cruelty in a way that is a bit hard to watch, even though her feelings are very understandable. Szapolowska really embodies a weariness in Magda, a woman who seems to have given up on love and looks at Tomek and thinks, hey, why not? (Of course, the fact that Tomek has been actively sabotaging her relationships for a year could have something to do with it, right?).

Adding to the disturbing dynamic is the character of the godmother, played by Stefania Iwinska. The godmother, it becomes increasingly clear, is aware of Tomek's behavior. And not only has she failed to discourage it, she seems to be mostly angry at Magda because Tomek has fallen for the wrong woman. It's kind of dizzying, and one of the reasons I found it hard to suss out my feelings here is that it's hard to tell in the last act--where certain things happen that cast Magda as the guilty party--how much the film agrees with the guilt that Magda feels and the aspersions cast on her by the godmother. I honestly couldn't tell at the end if we were supposed to think that Magda was being gaslit, or if she was coming to an honest emotional/personal revelation.

The performances are all very solid. Lubaszenko is maybe a bit too handsome to quite fit the character. I think, honestly, that casting someone that good looking subtly works to get you on his side. He looks like the lead in a romantic film. Or maybe the intent is to critique that dynamic of typical romances? I don't know.

After watching Downpour, it was interesting to watch another film where the idea of watching someone and perception was such a central theme. Whatever my mixed feelings about the story, this theme is closed out in a really beautiful and powerful way in the last act and especially in the last moments of the film.

I actually kind of liked that they just went BOOM, here he is. Then Vision is like "Yeah, I'm not this or that, I'm my own thing. I'm on the side of life. Let's do this."

I mean, yes, everyone moseys around with their toned bodies in tight leather outfits.

I'll admit that I was working on grading quite a bit while watching this movie, and three different times that I looked up, it was right as the camera was looking down someone's shirt (Black Widow twice, then Wanda in the scene on the train). By that third time I was like, "Again?!" It's the extra perviness of looking down the shirt that was getting me.

I'm surprised! I liked both Guardians movies a lot, but the first shaded the second with a much more focused ending. Was it one thing about the first one that disappointed you or the whole movie overall?

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By http://www.impawards.com/2017/thor_ragnarok_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53738935

Thor : Ragnarok - (2017)

This was a pretty radical and wild departure from the tone of previous Thor films and also previous MCU films - I initially thought this would be a pretty big departure for Taika Waititi from his usual style, but it looks like the Marvel films are bending to his approach instead. This is the first Marvel film I'd classify as an all-out comedy, with jokes and humour really at a constant, and not all jokes really land - but enough of them do to not completely alienate me from this. In fact, I'm onboard, since something new was going to be needed to keep the series fresh. It's also (as the advertising suggests) a sparklingly colourful film, with a visual form that's wonderful to take in - there's great flair and a lot of polish to the effects and optics. The story is better than previous Thor films as well, with a lot more at stake and nobody and nothing comes through it unscathed. Mind you, the serious tone of the story doesn't quite mix with the cartoonish and absurd comedy - but considering how good the film is in an overall sense, that's a small quibble. I don't know if the series can sustain this tone for long though.

7/10


By http://www.impawards.com/2017/spider...ming_ver4.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53586522

Spider Man : Homecoming - (2017)

This was more or less your usual superhero and Spiderman film - the most interesting element of which is the way it ties in to Marvel's universe with alien technology being stolen by arms dealers - starting with the alien tech left on Earth after the invasion in the first Avengers film. A new Spiderman, still coming to terms with a suit that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has made him, along with a lack of maturity that leads to him taking on more than he should alone, is what we have here. I thought it was fine, but nothing that's going to be memorably special, except for using Michael Keaton as a "Birdman" type villain, which was inspired casting. Oh - and also Donald Glover. I really like Donald Glover.

6/10

The Abyss (Theatrical Cut): 9/10

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