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Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Thanks.

I felt like this sort of came out of nowhere. I hadn't really heard much buzz, then all of a sudden three friends in a row said they'd seen it and thought it was pretty cool.

I had already watched the first half hour before rewatching it with the group. And I enjoyed it a second time around. Lots of fun details to notice.
Same for me. Didn't hear anything, saw the ad on Netflix and both of us went: Sure, why not? And pretty d@mn happy we did. Quite curious to enjoy a second (and so forth) viewing for a bit of detail-spelunking. And just plain enjoyment.

Perfect bit of cartoon fun.
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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Malevil (Christian de Chalonge, 1981)
6/10
Criminal Court (Robert Wise, 1946)
5/10
Heroic Purgatory (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1970)
6/10
Symphony in Slang (Tex Avery, 1951)
8/10

One of the greatest.
Don't Knock the Rock (Fred F. Sears, 1956)
5.5/10
Coup d'Etat (Kiju Yoshida, 1973)
6/10
Jamboree! (Roy Lockwood, 1957)
5.5/10
Dont Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967)
7/10

What was happening in 1965.
The Whistle at Eaton Falls (Robert Siodmak, 1951)
6/10
About Endlessness (Roy Andersson, 2019)
5/10
The Names of Love (Michel Leclerc, 2010)
6/10
The Outside Story (Casimir Nozkowski, 2020)
- 6.5/10

Don't get locked out of your home.
Let me come in (Bill Morrison, 2021)
- 6.5/10
22 vs Earth (Kevin Nolting, 2021)
6/10
Annie Get Your Gun (George Sidney, 1950)
6.5/10
Percy Vs Goliath (Clark Johnson, 2020)
6/10

Don't trust the big boys.
The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane, 2020)
6/10
Nichols and May: Take Two (Phillip Schopper, 1996)
6.5/10
I Love Trouble (S. Sylvan Simon, 1948)
6/10
Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)
8/10

Exaggerated history which wasn't exaggerated.
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Black is Beltza, 2018

When a Spanish troupe is not allowed to include two large Black figures in a parade in NYC, one of the men in the troupe gets involved in radical politics. He and his companions travel the world--from Cuba to Spain to Northern Africa.

Hard to say much about this one, because honestly I felt kind of lost during it. The film seems to want to encompass all of the politics happening around the world in the 60s, but almost immediately it became too much for me. Historical names are dropped left and right---everyone from Otis Redding to Franco--with the main character meant to be the through line.

Unfortunately I just never clicked with the main character. I don't think it helps that the film presents this really romanticized image of revolutionary action. The main character is a handsome man who has lots of (unprotected!) sex with a ton of women and gets involved in little shootouts. I never felt like I connected with him or his goals, and it was hard to care about him as the film wound on.

I did think that the animation looked pretty good, and I had no issues with the voice acting. But I just felt mildly befuddled the whole way through.




Victim of The Night


Symphony in Slang (Tex Avery, 1951)
8/10


This has been one of my favorite things ever since I was a boy.



SANSHO THE BAILIFF
(1954, Mizoguchi)
A film from the 1950s • A film about mothers



"A man is not a human being without mercy. Even if you are hard on yourself, be merciful to others."

Sansho the Bailiff follows Zushiō and Anju as they fend for themselves at the hands of Sanshō (Eitarō Shindō), a ruthless slave owner. Their father banished and their mother sold into prostitution, it would be easy for them to lose hope and forget about mercy. That is what happens to Zushiō, who becomes hopeless and seems complacent in following Sanshō's steps, despite Anju's pleas to not forget their father's words.

It is interesting that the film is titled the way it is, considering that Sanshō is after all a secondary character. We meet him 30 minutes into the film and compared to other characters, he's barely in it. But what's important is what Sanshō represents. He is a presence that hangs above Zushiō all through the film. He is the opposite of his father's teachings: merciless and unforgiving, and by spending more time under his fist, Zushiō becomes more like him and less like his father.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot and the PR HOF3.
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I forgot the opening line.

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57052671

Everybody Knows - (2018) - Spain

I've never seen an Asghar Farhadi film I didn't like. The Iranian filmmaker continues his run of impressive films after the success of A Separation and The Salesman with the excellent Everybody Knows - a really engrossing film with overpowering emotional stakes for all it's characters. Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are magnificent, proving to be the crown jewels of Spanish cinema.

Laura (Cruz) has returned to her home town in Spain for the wedding of her sister - catching up with her former lover and now best friend Paco (Bardem). At the joyful event's reception, an event occurs which will tear their lives apart. Long held secrets rise to the surface, and force the characters to make impossible choices. I can't say much more than that about the plot - it's best to come in cold and watch things unfold (that's the old rhyme my mother taught me as a boy*)

Nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes along with personal favourites Burning and Cold War, the only slightly negative thing I have to say about it is about it's length - at 133 minutes it's a little overlong, but not by too much.

8/10

* Nah, that's not true. It was a total accident.




The Room (2019, Christian Volckman)

In the hands of a better director this could've been a decent movie - but as it is, it's just a waste of time. I will admit that it actually got slightly (and I mean, slightly) better in the closing third - the twist at least shook things up a bit - but the rest of the film was just mediocre - painfully superficial, full of cliches, terrible dialogue, characters behaving in stupid ways, etc.
Thumbs down.



Talk to Her (2002)




My least favorite of the 3 movies I've seen from director Almodovar and it was still pretty great. He has such a unique style with the stories to match. I can't wait to watch more.



Eagle Eye (2008)

Mindless action thriller, pretty poor.



'Blow the Man Down' (2021)


This just didn't work for me. It's like a caricature of a poor Coen brothers movie. The tone is all over the place. Moody one minute then a barbershop quartet of singing fisherman the next. The premise is interesting enough (murder cover up) but the poor dialogue and silly character choices never allow the film to flourish.

4.8/10



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'Devil's Playground' (2002)


Which MOFO recommended this about 5 years ago? I finally watched it! Very good account of how Amish people at the age of 16 are allowed to go and sample life outside their community for a couple of years and see if they want to remain Amish. Some of the youngsters let their hair down and go wild. Some hate it and return immediately. Some never come back. It's a balanced documentary very well presented




I’m a simple woman, I see John Hughes and I like



@the samoan lawyer, the Pusher Trilogy is one of my most favorite things to watch. Ever.

@cricket, Talk to Her is my very favorite of all the Almodovar movies.
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Re-watch. The topic of pro-choice is as relevant today as it was in 1950 as portrayed in the movie.



Excellent movie that I will watch again.



Re-watch of a somewhat overlooked movie. Even more relevant today than it was in 1981 since not a single thing has changed for the better at the border. In fact, the situation has gotten much worse.



Not bad. Do not understand the acclaim for this movie. Mads is a delight to watch though & he carried this movie. Danes are strange people.



Can’t remember which one of my fellow Brits recommended this movie, but glad he did.

Rather ghastly at first until one gets used to it, but I enjoyed it. The actress on the cover here was excellent in her rôle.



WRATH OF MAN

It’s sleek and well crafted, as Ritchie is apt to do. It’s also written with a tin ear that sounds as if Amir Shervan had been resurrected and tasked with combining John Wick and Heat. The result is a movie that looks good, sounds AMAZING (academy award deserving on that front) and feels awkward and goofy in surprising ways.

Overall, I enjoyed it. If it had been DTV and starred Scott Adkins, I’d likely be singing it’s praises to greater effect.




The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1992) -


This was an artsy and thought-provoking short film which really resonated with me. I find the subject of "life after death" really interesting, especially questions of whether the afterlife will turn out to be a utopia or hellish. Some people who are touched by suicide have a mindset of "If I kill myself, I'll be better off", but of course, there's no way of knowing what happens after you die until your time comes. Due to this ambiguity, another mindset one could have is that you should make the most of your time on Earth since there's no way of knowing what will happen after death. I've been touched by depression in the past and, for this reason, I found the plight of the man in this short film highly relatable. Ultimately, this short film culminated with exactly what I thought it would culminate with, but predictable outcome or not, I still enjoyed the protagonist's arc. The ideas in this short were what stuck out and lingered with me the most. I also loved the animation style. From what I read, the animation was created using practical effects by drying oil paint on sheets of glass, which makes me all the more impressed. Beyond that though, I liked all the atmospheric and moody colors in this short, especially in the surreal dream sequences in the latter half or so. In addition, I especially loved the usages of shadows in certain shots where the background was either indistinguishable or completely black such as the lamppost shot in the beginning and ending since these shots made the characters look isolated from the outside world as if there was nothing around them. Overall, while I don't think this is a great short, I do think it's a really good one and I'm glad I watched it.
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