Movie Tab II

Okay,I'm on new movies marathon:

Detachment (2011) - decent movie about teachers,children their parents and caring for each other.The idea was awesome and the acting was good but I didn't like commentaries and some surrealistic(?) scenes.I prefer movies movies which go straight from A to B.It might have been great if it was told in Scorsese's storytelling style.

The Lone Ranger (2013) - absolutely mediocre.Watched,enjoyed,forgot the next day.

This Is the End (2013) - maybe my taste in humor is weird but I found this comedy absolutely unfunny and all the characters were extremely boring.

Yi dai zong shi/The Grandmaster (2013) - Although it is supposed to be a movie about Ip Man I felt that it's about his "friend" Gong Er.The story really focuses about that girl more than about Ip Man himself.Another thing which I disliked is the action sequences which I am personally just not a fan of.Overall movie felt not like something I would like to see again.

Mud (2012) - didn't expect it like it but it was enjoyable and entertaining. Matthew McConaughey can act.But I don't think I understood what it tried to tell,guess I don't have enough experience with love.

Ill Manors (2012) - It's something like a modern Pink Floyd:The Wall because a band called Plan B created songs for this movie and both the album and the movie are named the same.That was good because the music really fitted and the movie,although deals with bored to death "hood,drugs and prostitutes" theme,still managed to be interesting to watch.

Jagten (2012) - this was a good movie. It's about a teacher who is suddenly accused of sexual assault against kids.Whoever did the cinematography,manages to create warm and then totally cold atmosphere when the protagonist is hated by everyone.Don't want to spoil it but the last scene is clever. ) The movie is intact,well-acted,understandable,entertaining,well shot and it managed to prove its point about the impact of accusations,especially false ones.I didn't knew what it was about so at the beginning I was pretty bored as I thought nothing will happen.I was wrong.

The Iceman (2012) - Decent gangster movie,I liked Liotta in this as he was playing a tough guy again. ^^

The Heat (2013) - watched,enjoyed,forgot.

Only God Forgives (2013) - I love stylish movies but this one purely fails story-wise.I liked the mother(character) so that's the only reason why I wasn't really mad at this film.Anyway,film is still a visual art,have to give some praise for the great Asian atmosphere.But seriously,when there's all style and no emotions,it just fails.

Pacific Rim (2013) - I'm one of those people who absolutely don't care for the special effects and special effect movies. It's a good experience, especially in the cinema, but it's never something that buys me.It was a typical special effects movie with very cliche characters but I liked the alien idea.If you like CGI,you'll like it.Otherwise,you won't see something that will take your breath away.

Disconnect (2012) - now this might be one of the better 2012/2013 movies I've seen.It covers some 21st century things - illegal webcam pornography,cyber bullying and identity theft.4 different stories in one movie usually bothers me and it did (would have been much better without the bullying stuff which was very predictable) but I still enjoyed how new the movie is and that it is actually quite decent,so I forgave everything and just let myself enjoy it.The actors are quite unknown but they did a good job.

Du zhan/Drug War (2012) - watched,enjoyed and forgot.It's a movie about cops going undercover.But it has one decent shootout scene so

Got fed up with the boring new movies

Taxi Driver (1976) - I still find it very uncomfortable to watch.But only watching for the third time I noticed how relevant and accurate it is.I really love Scorsese's ability to tell a story so fluently.The final shootout is completely haunting,the acting is exceptional and the cinematographer is a genius.Actually,now when I watch dramas,I compare how close they are to Taxi Driver. But it's not a very enjoyable movie for me,I read somewhere that men understand this movie better,not sure if that's true.

Back to 2010s

Trust (2010) - a movie about a girl which becomes the victim of Internet sexual predator.It's quite good if you're interested in the topic as it is very accurate and characters are well presented and analyzed.But the cinematography is mediocre and the very end makes me feel that the story could have been approached very differently.

Broken (2012) - my first thought of the movie was that it is just.. pointless.I felt like watching Mystery Train again. ))

Shame (2011) - I find this movie somewhat similar to Taxi Driver(both deal with loneliness in New York) but I think that it doesn't have a powerful ending and overall,watching again,it felt a bit monotonous.But it sure is one of the better dramas of the recent years.Fassbender was very good,how come he wasn't even nominated?It was a poor year for lead actors.

Pain & Gain (2013) - very enjoyable! ) some scenes were way over the top but I actually spend time very well.

Iron Man 3 (2013) - I watch Iron Man only for Downey Jr. because he owns his role and he's funny but overall I am not a big fan of the franchise.

The Conjuring (2013) - I didn't watch most of it's creepy scenes as I was afraid. :[ No,seriously,I don't like watching new horror movies,wanted to see it only because it's so acclaimed.But I didn't like it,it wasn't even that interesting but I'm not a fan of horror overall.


Thank you,see you soon

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"Anything less than immortality is a complete waste of time."

Youth (Tom Shoval, 2013)



I have spent the past weekend in London as part of a film society trip to see a film from the BFI London Film Festival. We could choose a film from three choices, all in the first feature section and my choice was Youth, an Israel-Germany joint production by Israeli director Tom Shoval that takes a look at two brothers who attempt to aid their struggling family through criminal ways: kidnapping a young girl.

The film is quite uncomfortable at times, but even in its most violent moments it is difficult to feel a real hatred towards the two main characters, largely down to their development as real human beings in a real struggling family. The actors are actually both identical twins in real life, and both give fantastic performances in the film. The for most the time incompetent when it comes to kidnapping, and do not have a clue what to do to help their family, they feel like they are being kept away from the dark reality of the world by their parents and simply want to help.

It is a very powerful film, and like I said, it feels very real. Eitan and David Cunio are the stars, but the other actors involved are also very good, such as the kidnapped young girl played by Gita Amely. The film poses many moral questions and takes a true look at relationships between brothers and family as a whole, and some Israeli people watching it also commented on its accuracy in portraying the country's situation.

What was even better was the fact that the director was at the screening and after it had finished he talked about the film and took questions from the audience. This was really interesting an made the viewing a whole lot better, it explained a lot of things and made it feel more personal and put certain scenes into better perspective.

He had a lot of interesting things to say, one of the things he said was he auditioned loads of random sets of brothers for the main roles and when he eventually decided on these two he wanted to test them out more as the had never acted before, so he asked them to steal something from a supermarket together (which all other parties in on the test) and he was surprised when they were stopped that they never revealed they had been told to do it, not your usual audition for a role.

Another interesting point he mentioned was in regards to one scene where the two brothers take the kidnapped girl on board a bus, one of the brothers is fully dressed in military uniform with a gun on his lap pointing towards the girl, and the girl has bandages covering her eyes with sunglasses on top. He explained how although to us viewers it might seem unrealistic he actually did the scene without filming as a test on a real bus to see how people would react, and nobody did anything, in fact people felt a lot safer with military people on board. Part of the film is about how the characters themselves feel like, or try to be superheroes, with lots of direct references to some modern American action films with t-shirts worn by the characters. There are quite a lot of funny scenes in the film too, some intentional, some maybe not, but in many of even the most uncomfortable scenes we are able to laugh at some of the actions of the brothers.

I got to ask him a question myself and asked about the influences in terms of films and directors on himself and this film. The one film he sighted as a big influence was the French film Naked Childhood (aka L'enfance nue) and he said that British director Alan Clarke's (Scum) films (known for their social realism) also influenced the film.

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The Dunwich Horror (1970) - suave warlock offers free mustache rides to virginal coeds in exchange for unspeakable services. also unspeakable: the cheapo hippy-trippy colour (sic) hallucination scenes.
the ending - like lovecraft's prose - drags on and on and on but has none of the bizarre commitment. i dare you to see it, you'll understand why The Brain That Wouldn't Die is an underrated classic. -
The Hole (Joe Dante, 2009) - decent low budget horror, story gets predictable at about the same time it grows a sense of humor but the style powers through to the end. would really like to rate it higher but any closer to my Gremlins rating just isn't allowed. gets my recommendation for the seasonal marathons. +
Gravity probably overrating this slightly; blame IMAX. reminds me of the space bits of Mission to Mars - which I don't mean as an insult.
Safety Not Guaranteed - +

re-watches:

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright) - +
The Blade (Tsui Hark, 1995) -
Popeye (Robert Altman, 1980) -

Could you expand on Safety Not Guarunteed?

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I know that is a good, strong rating from you, but I still think it's a little low. There again, I have it on my 100.

Yes, I'd think if you have a sense of humour than this probably wouldn't satisfy.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I had originally written something but it was too harsh for how I actually feel. I respect the super low budget (it cost less than Sharknado!), but that's not an excuse for a script that is so bland it just shows how played out all its devices are. I recently saw Silver Linings Playbook, which is no less of a formulaic romance with poignant misfits, but is so witty and well acted it's impossible to care about what it isn't.

Like I said, I'm being too harsh; I didn't mind it, I just didn't like it much either. I also originally gave Safety Not Guaranteed but had to recalibrate it against The Hole (which as I said I was calibrating against Gremlins). Now you know my inner workings.

I think Safety Not Guaranteed is probably above-average movie 95% of the way through, and transforms into a very good one with its ending. Though I'll be the first to admit that I have trouble putting my finger on why I particularly liked it before that. Difficult to put into words. Still need to write more about the symbolism, though.

Wow, really? I thought the ending was actually one of the weaker parts of the movie, but I never for a second believed it would end in any other way (which kind of undermined the promising investigative journalism/"lets-discover-a-quirky-story" set-up). And I'm not sure what you're talking about with the symbolism. Do you mean how the quest for time travel was really about fixing their regrets and losses? And then it sort of became about them sharing "the journey of life"? That felt sophomoric to me, though I guess that could just be how symbolism is, it loses it's magic if you look at it too closely. Anyway, I'm sure I could like a movie with this movie's basic premise. Just not this one.

Sorry if I came across as overly combative in that last post. I misunderstood your last sentence, Yoda. Thought you meant that I needed to write more about the symbolism.

No worries! I have a couple of quick thoughts in reply. The first is spoilery:


As for the symbolism, I think it's basically about marriage. That still fits with "the journey of life" of course, but I think that's what it's getting at: that to take that leap with someone means believing in them and with them, even when it seems crazy to the rest of the world, and even when you're the only two people who "get it." And the reward is that, for the two of you, it's made real. That kind of thing.

Thanks for the nudge, though, because I've wanted to write more about this and this'll probably get me to finally do so.

I actually do agree looking back that the ending wasn't the greatest, it's not what sticks with me from the movie at all. I don't really recall how I felt at the time of watching. But I believe before the ending the film has a really nice mood to it. It might not be the most realistic characters, and their reactions to events probably aren't the most normal, but it still feels genuine. Also I like Plaza and Duplass

*rewatch

Singin' in the Rain* (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)
Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1954)
Frida (Julie Taymor, 2002)
The Ipcress File (Sidney J. Furie, 1965)
Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa, 1962)
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

What rating is Gene Kelly?

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Oops. Thanks Mark. Edited my post.

Ouch, some of these ratings are desperately low. I understand why you would give The Tree of Life and Eraserhead such cruel ratings, even though I love one and appreciate the other. And I share about the same rating for Vampyr. But can you expand on Cul-de-Sac? It seems like a film that you would like.

Cul-de-sac is Polanski in freewheeling mode, but here I think he goes too far. It starts out interesting but then begins spinning those wheels. The characters are unusual but they aren't utilized well, although they have their moments, and the location and photography keep things watchable for the most part. Polanski early in his career often preferred experimentalism and absurdity to classical storytelling, so some of his earlier films are often intentionally uncomfortable in style as well as content. Maybe he did influence David Lynch more than I thought.

Wild Strawberries (1957) -

+
The Mirror (1975) -

Persona (1966) -

Moneyball (2011) -

-
Let the Right One In (2008) -

+
Winter's Bone (2010) -

Unbreakable (2000) -

+
The Elephant Man (1980) -

Garden State (2004) -

The Black Panther - This is, what today would probably be best described as a docu-drama. However, as it's made in the 70's, it's far more subtle and low key than it would be if made today. Being a British film probably plays into that, too. Donald Sumpter's portrayal of Donald Neilson dominates the film as Neilson dominates his family. Neilson's shown as a small man, a bully who dominates and terrorises his family and, while he plans his crimes with precision, not leaving anything to chance, he's unable to carry them out with the same abillity. The film works just as well as a psychological study of a man who'll always fails because, despite all his preparation, he's unable to adapt to any change in that plan and loses it the moment anything goes wrong.

Can you explain why this is so low?