Rate The Last Movie You Saw

This wasn't anywhere near as bad as i expected. The whole cast was good even Biggs, he fit into the Woody Allen role well Woody himself was great and i always like Ricci. I would say this is the weakest of the fourteen Allen films i've seen but only marginally and not for the reasons i expected. Mostly i'd say it has the weakest script of all the ones i've seen it wasn't that funny (Woody was actually but some of the jokes bombed) and it felt so familiar, Amanda reminded me of Annie Hall and while i like Ricci she can't compare to Diane Keaton. Overall mediocre, definitely think its low quality is over exaggerated most likely due to the dude from American Pie playing the lead role. Saying that i'm definitely curious why Tarantino likes it so much.

Think i made a mistake watching this before Life and Nothing More. I got this and The Wind Will Carry Us mixed up thinking the latter was the last part of The Koker Trilogy. Realized early on but thought it wasn't a big deal as it's supposed to be a loosely connected thematic trilogy. This had references to Where Is My Friends Home? and featured the actors from it and it's about the production of Life Is Nothing More..., oh well it just makes me want to see that more. Loved it anyway and same as Taste of Cherry and Where Is My Friends House? it went up the more i thought about it, Kiarostami is the best. The last shot was outstanding.

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Had never heard of this before and it was very good. It's kind of a misery fest yet not in the usual way. None of the characters suffer great tragedy or anything, the great tragedy is that they have such depressing lives that they want to improve and nothing changes. I wouldn't say there's any actual hope in this film only changes the characters attempt to make thinking it could lead to something then...nah. While this is overall a bummer it's also funny and has good performances, Jeff Bridges was who i was looking forward to and i'd actually say he was the weakest out of the three main characters, both performance and character wise my favourite was Susan Tyrrell. She has such a torturous voice which was perfect as i've never seen such a perfect depiction of a human train wreck, and funnily enough in the end she is the one who comes closest to happiness; her situation is just as bad as the other two but she seems to be content with it. Good film.

Solid heist film. It was just very enjoyable with a great cast. Daniel Craig was really great if you had told me what sort of role he was playing before this i'd think there was no way he'd pull it off but he really did, Adam Driver too i loved his character. Liked everyone else except Seth Macfarlane thought he was awful. Don't love this but it was solid fun.

Secret Agent

Wasn't bad, just a boring Hitch film. Love Hitch of course but there was nothing that stood out about this. Weakest Hitch for me so far, i've seen 22 of his films now and there's a few i'm not a fan of but i can usually find something i like about them, there was nothing in this one for me.

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Also been watching Buster Keaton shorts. Definitely understand why he's Swans favourite actor he is so great to watch and his films are incredible. Was thinking at one point that i preferred Chaplin but i'm starting to think i prefer Buster. Still not seen much from either what i have i'd say Chaplin is better at emotion, they are about equally funny but Keatons are just so much more impressive from a technical standpoint, the stunts, his performance of them (as well as his facial reactions to everything) and the construction of them are unreal. I'm also a massive Looney Tunes fan and Keaton's influence on that is obvious.

The start of this is fantastic but it goes rapidly downhill, understand the blackface was a thing then so i can forgive that but it became dull anyway.

Lots of fun. There were two things that held this back from being truly great though, first while i enjoyed it the first half is just one big glue joke that i doubt would work a second time, then in the second half there was this shot that was used two seperate times of a guy shooting at Buster while he was running away that looked terrible; it was the exact same shot both times which were a few minutes apart and it took me out of it because it was impossible to accept that guy shooting was part of the same scene as Buster it just didn't fit at all, understand that this was made almost 100 years ago but still there was no need to even have it in the film it didn't add much. The second half was really fun though great physical gags from Buster.

This was his second directed short and his first with himself as an actor; the first he directed starred Fatty Arbuckle. This short is incredible, the stunts are unreal the spinning house damn. It was also very funny, my favourite moment was when they first finish the house and it looks ridiculous Buster is standing there looking at it as if 'wait is that right?', he's so great. Or maybe it was the part the guy chases him and Buster opens a door leading to the guy running outside into a fence, i dunno it was full of great moments.

Made this a different post because that was getting ridiculously long. Have completely fell in love with Agnes Varda over the past three days, watched three of her films each better than the last; she is becoming one of my favourite directors. Hope everyone checks her out. I've watched barely anything from the French New Wave, maybe 12-15 films and the only Directors i've seen more than one from are Varda (3) and Godard (5). Varda is easily my favourite so far anyway.

Man i love Agnes Varda. At first i was completely sucked into the cheerful music and perfect picture, i honestly thought this was going to be a straightforward portrayal of happiness; just spending 80 minutes watching a genuinely happy family go about their life without any hitches. From initial impressions they look like the perfect family: beautiful, well-behaved kids who dote on their parents, loving parents who seem to love each other, both with good jobs, a nice house, etc. It actually came across kinda corny at first like an absurd advert with that music and how they interacted with each other. Then here comes Emille...and apparently nothing changes in any way. An affair begins and the films cheery, ultra happy tone doesn't change in the slightest, Francois loves his wife, he loves his kids and he also loves Emillie, nothing has changed he is happy everyone is happy. I read someone refer to this film as extremely sarcastic and yeah that's what i was struggling to put my finger on, it's just got this insane sweet cheery the world is perfect tone throughout and it presents Francois as completely sincere in his belief that this situation is completely fine, it's surreal and yes it's definitely sarcastically painting this situation as fine. I loved it. The abrupt shift it takes in the last act is just incredible, it left me feeling so many conflicting things. I mean i've been humming the end music from it a bunch then when i realize what it is i dunno it's just so dark. Seriously this film is like a nightmare that last shot has haunted me since i watched it. Film was gorgeous, the use of colour kind of reminded me of Black Narcissus although not quite as striking and i loved Varda's crazy edits. The dance scene, all of the quick cutting between two objects or people, the fading scenes into each other, etc beautiful and equally haunting film.

Actually watched this before Happiness but i liked the former a bit more so posted about that first. This was like the inverse of Happiness the film focusing on despair and looming tragedy (more Cleo herself than the tone but still) before ending pretty optimistically. Corinne Marchand was great, what i liked most about this was how it looked. As much as i love Kiarostami and his car rides Varda has him beat and then some here, my favourite scene in the film may be the cab ride i'm not even sure why it just completely sucked me in. There was loads of that the whole crazy apartment scene as well. Another great film, Varda is amazing; i've seen barely any of the French New Wave but she is quite easily my favourite directed related to it so far.

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Jesus christ, Agnes Varda is becoming one of my favourite directors. The film opens with the discovery of the dead body of the main character: a hitchhiker/vagrant, we then go through her various encounters with people through their words; same as Citizen Kane basically. It's funny if that's intentional since her situation is the exact opposite of Kane's wealthy life and yet she is more content with hers, i really don't think it is just think that is funny. One of the most remarkable things about this is it wasn't that depressing, it starts off with the discovery of her body and by the look of her i was ready for something super bleak. That's not what this is though, i absolutely wouldn't want to live the way she does but she is fine with it, it's the way she has chosen to live. There's no complaining from her or great sadness, she travels from place to place picking up work and a place to live where she can before moving on, several of the characters ask why she didn't take a different path in life or how she ended up like this and as she say she wants to live like this. This didn't come about because of any great tragedy or anything like that she was on the road to becoming a secratary and she decided she didn't want to do that so she took up this life. Don't get me wrong bad things happen but she just picks up and moves on she doesn't dwell on it and she is basically happy throughout; one of my favourite scenes was towards the end when she is sitting getting drunk and having a great time with an old woman (Don't leave me here, they'll put me in an old age home. I'll go out in style! ), this is not long after something truly vile happened to her.

Another thing is the story is fragmented, parts always important parts cut out before you see what happens it reminded me of Bresson's acting philosophy. Iirc Bresson wants his actors not to act so the viewer can decide how to feel about the situation theirself without the actor telling you this is supposed to be sad or whatever, it was similar here in that you had to decide what happened and how it all came about; was very effective.The film is nowhere near as visually pleasing as Happiness or Cleo, the opposite actually. The colour palette is all browns and blacks and greys, the locations are all rundown and yet it was still beautiful in its own way, she was in the wine country and it all felt more natural than say the utopic nightmare world of Happiness.

Sandrine Bonnaire was excellent, think that goes without saying from the rest of this post. Another amazing film from Varda.

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