By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74914566
May December - (2023)
This had me fascinated from the very get-go. There's so much electricity, tension, hostility and unspoken fear in nearly every scene. Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman go head to head as the woman famous for seducing a 7th grade child and having his baby in prison, and the woman who is studying her so she can portray her in an upcoming movie. There's so much you want to know about Gracie (Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton), who she ended up marrying and is still with. Both seem to have deep-seated infantile issues, but has Joe's mental difficulties been caused by a predatory Gracie? Elizabeth's (Portman) very presence demands answers to those questions, which makes her an unwelcome, potentially poisonous threat. Seeing the actresses go head to head, and everyone in this rise up to the challenge, was thrilling. Also interesting was the effect Gracie's actions have had on her family as a whole, and how lasting these effects are.
8/10
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75131899
Leave the World Behind - (2023)
I've heard mixed things about this generally, but I found it really made the most of not letting us know exactly what's going on, which helps keep the movie alive and full of possibility right to the very end. A disaster movie for the 21st Century - that's for sure. I won't say to much about it, other than it successfully brings our imagination into the fray when it comes to building tension and posing suppositions. Happy to see Mahershala Ali keeping on, and Ethan Hawke I like in everything. The oil tanker scene is too brief, but oh so much terrifying fun.
7/10
By http://www.impawards.com/2023/ferrari_ver3.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74718904
Ferrari - (2023)
I'm not all that interested in Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver), his extramarital affair or his general story. Penélope Cruz does inject a lot of life into the film as his long-suffering wife though. The most thrilling aspect is definitely the cars themselves, and the climactic race scene is fantastic.
6/10
By cinemagia - http://www.cinemagia.ro/filme/aferim-578782/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45382890
Aferim! - (2015)
Wallachia, Romania, the early 19th Century. Policeman/bounty hunter Costandin (Teodor Corban) and his son are tasked with hunting down escaped slave Carfin (Toma Cuzin) and bringing him back to his Boyar master - whereupon he'll most likely be killed. The moral complexity of the matter is at conflict with the standards of the day in this fascinating and extremely well made film from the talented Radu Jude. Reviewed
here, in my watchlist thread.
8/10
By http://www.impawards.com/2021/novice.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69514819
The Novice - (2021)
The obsessively competitive Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman) finds herself at odds with her teammates, her own body, and the world as she pushes herself beyond the brink trying to become a successful rower on a varsity team as a novice. This is basically
Whiplash with rowing oars as opposed to drum sticks, with the blood sweat and tears a result of a pathological compulsion rather than healthy living. Great movie though. Reviewed
here, in my watchlist thread.
8/10