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Well, that was a helluva thing.
Really, just a pretty intense jolt to the system for a straight white dude. This film, while seeming to champion the culture it presents, is at its most powerful when it makes you consider how hard it must be to be born "different". And it does that a lot.
If you were interested in this film, you may enjoy the TV series Pose, which takes place in the ball culture in New York in the 80s. Billy Porter deserves all the praise he gets for his role as the host, Pray Tell. And MJ Rodriguez is also amazing as Blanca.

I think that Paris is Burning has one of the all-time shocking documentary moments when you learn that
WARNING: spoilers below
Venus Xtravaganza was killed in a hotel room.



Victim of The Night
CRAWL
(2019, Aja)
A film with a title that starts with the letters C or D:





Director Aja has always had a talent for handling both dread and scares in an effective way. From Haute Tension to The Hills Have Eyes, he has often succeeded in making us wince and cringe and fidget as terror floods the screen. Crawl is no exception. For a film with such a simple premise set in such a limited space, Aja manages to deliver with the jumpscares and the tension, while building a solid empathy for the lead characters.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot
I'm such a weirdo I'm like the only person on Earth who thought this movie sucked. And I really, really did.



Victim of The Night
If you were interested in this film, you may enjoy the TV series Pose, which takes place in the ball culture in New York in the 80s. Billy Porter deserves all the praise he gets for his role as the host, Pray Tell. And MJ Rodriguez is also amazing as Blanca.

I think that Paris is Burning has one of the all-time shocking documentary moments when you learn that
WARNING: spoilers below
Venus Xtravaganza was killed in a hotel room.
It's funny you say that cause for like half the movie I was saying to myself
WARNING: "sperlahz" spoilers below
that girl is gonna get killed as sure as she's born.



It's funny you say that cause for like half the movie I was saying to myself
WARNING: "sperlahz" spoilers below
that girl is gonna get killed as sure as she's born.
I think that Pose does a good job of exploring why people in vulnerable groups (gay, trans) would behave in ways that could be considered "reckless".

Have you seen Stranger by the Lake? I think it also hits on some themes of an almost fatalistic/self-destructive behavior.

You might also find this coda interesting:



I'm such a weirdo I'm like the only person on Earth who thought this movie sucked. And I really, really did.


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28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds

Well, that was a helluva thing.
Really, just a pretty intense jolt to the system for a straight white dude. This film, while seeming to champion the culture it presents, is at its most powerful when it makes you consider how hard it must be to be born "different". And it does that a lot.
I just watched this the other night. Kind of depressing to learn that a good portion of those people are dead now.
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Suspect's Reviews





4th in the Dirty Harry series & the only one Clint directed.

Overly long, for sure. Sondra Locke got punched in the face numerous times, which was disturbing.
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Amateur Porn Star Killer 3 (2009)

+

More like a mean spirited smut film than a horror movie. The black and white is a good choice, and that combined with the killer being the cameraman sometimes gives it a real feel. This is supposed to be the best of the series so I'll end it here.




I'm such a weirdo I'm like the only person on Earth who thought this movie sucked. And I really, really did.
I rated it
, so I wasn't much of a fan either. I could have sworn I wrote something in here too, but the search disagrees.
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Slow West - This was a rewatch. I'm always curious to see the "American" experience filtered through the lens of people from other countries. There's been pretty good ones (Leon: The Professional from Luc Besson) and just plain odd ones (Rumble in the Bronx from Stanley Tong). This is Scottish born director John Maclean's take on the Old West and his first (and only) film and it's a good one. It wasn't actually filmed here in the states but the New Zealand scenery is so gorgeous that it's a non issue. Kodi Smit-McPhee plays Jay Cavendish, a young Scottish man who has traveled all the way to the American West in search of the woman he loves. He falls in with outlaw Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), who offers to escort Jay the rest of the way for a fee. It's an oftentimes lyrical journey the two embark on, filled with constant dangers and colorful characters. It put me in mind of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs with it's varying tones of the dreamlike with the hyper realistic. It's short too, clocking in at around 84 minutes or so. Smit-McPhee and Fassbender make for an engaging duo and Caren Pistorius also shines as Rose Ross, the object of Jay's affections. And it always good to see the brilliant Ben Mendelsohn in anything. 90/100





Ya'll knew this was coming, right? Very slow paced, fights are kept to an absolute minimum and the story is kinda meh. I'm actually amazed they made a 4th film.... which I never saw and probably never will.
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Been meaning forever to give that one a rewatch. I do remember liking it quite a bit, although I never was into the Batman thing tbh.
same here i prefer classic batman movies from the 90s then when i watched dark knight i fell in loved , loved heath ledger as joker, rip heath



Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

A cheesy creature feature that has some camp value, some gore, and some monsters mating with human females to boost their evolution. It's a silly but quite entertaining film with plenty of gratuitous nudity,



I just watched this the other night. Kind of depressing to learn that a good portion of those people are dead now.
One of the boys from the very beginning was adopted and went to college.

It's a hard life to live on the fringe with so much emotional pressure and violence from the society around you.



Trauma (2017)




I mentioned in my response to Hey Fredrick's post that I had never heard of this before, but I actually did just yesterday. I didn't give it a second thought because I figured that I had probably at least heard of any good sick films out there. This was pretty awesome if you like depraved films. A lot of it reminded me of movies I've seen prior. It's good quality which is hard to come by for a movie this disturbing.





Domestic Violence, 2001

This documentary follows several weeks in the life of The Spring, a Florida shelter for women and children victims of domestic abuse. Beginning with footage of police officers responding to various domestic abuse calls, we then see the intake process, interviews with women and children, therapy sessions, group classes for adult women, and conversations between the social workers at the shelter.

Oof. I would imagine that most people know someone (or several someones) who have been in relationships that became physically abusive. It can be an incredibly complex situation, and doubly so when there are children in the mix. This film illuminates the struggles and the unhealthy patterns that many of the victims must cope with as they attempt to break free from their situations.

Something that I appreciated early on in the film is one of the social workers who talks about the fact that 15% of the people they help are men, and that 15% of the abusers of their population are women. The ages of those impacted range from children to the very elderly. The abusers range from spouses to children to siblings to uncles. As one social worker says, this is a problem that touches every demographic. It's important information to get out there, because the nature of the shelter means that the victims on screen are exclusively women and their abusers are exclusively men.

I know that laws and police practices have evolved a bit since this film was made, but some of what appears as protocol is startling. In the midst of talking to the police, a woman remarks that the week before her boyfriend(?) fired a gun at her. Were the police called? Yes. What did they do? They took away the gun. When a woman begs the police to help her teenage son--who has threatened her and trashed her house--her only choices are to have him arrested or have him committed to a mental hospital against his will. You can sense frustration from the police and from the social workers at these limitations. One officer--the one talking to the distraught mother--even explicitly says, "I wish there were more programs out there".

The scenes in which the women speak to each other are the ones that reveal the deepest hurt. Many of the women came from homes in which they were physically and sexually abused. They not only blame themselves for the abuse that they receive--for not cleaning the house well enough, for not paying enough attention--they also blame themselves for picking their abusive partners in the first place. One woman talks about finding her husband going into their daughter's room and reveals that she attacked him to keep him from raping their daughter. Another woman with a similar story talks about what must be wrong with her to have partnered up with a man who she found out had been a convicted pedophile. And the startling visual element underscoring everything is the visible damage that has been done to many of the women: bruises, black eyes, braces on wrists. One woman describes running away from her husband after he had pulled all of her clothing off and trying in vain to flag down cars that just drove right past her. There are so many ways that their self-esteem takes hits, and those who look the other way when they do ask for help seems to be one of the worst snubs.

The scenes with the kids are also really hard to watch. In one scene, kids have drawn pictures of what happened. "That's when daddy got the scissors to cut mommy's hair while she was sleeping." And there's something really depressing when one girl talks about her parents fighting about bills and the other kids nod knowingly. In a different scene, a social worker does an intake interview with a little girl. She asks the girl, "What do you think is the saddest thing?" and the girl answers "When my daddy dies, I won't cry." When the social worker asks the girl what makes her father angry, the little girl can only come up with, "Sometimes we walk on the grass." I appreciated a scene where a social worker speaks to children, one of whom talks about spanking (legal in Florida) as abuse. And the social worker affirms this feeling, telling the child, "There are some kinds of abuse that are legal, and other types that yes are still abuse." The definition that the children are given is "hurting someone on purpose" and I SO appreciated that this was validated. There are many legal ways that adults hurt children on purpose, and I thought that this was a great, empathetic way to talk about this.

It is also interesting to see the conversations among the social workers and between the social workers and their clients. In one case, a man attempts to counsel a woman who is being stalked by her ex-husband, who is calling her at work, and paging her with the number of a funeral home. The social worker himself cannot seem to decide on the best advice. His initial reaction is that she should ignore the calls/pages. But then he seems to double back, noting that if she cuts off the attention she is giving him, he might do something more "extreme". Finally, he ends up suggesting that what she should really do is move to a different city (with her two children) and find a new job. She can only look at him incredulously. She has spent two years getting her life in order and now she is being told to change it all again.

In another heartbreaking series of conversations, the staff of the Spring must decide what to do about a mother and her two children. They have very strong reason to believe that the son (who is 12) has raped the daughter (who is 9). They want to get the children into the shelter because their father has been convicted of sexually assaulting them both, but they are also concerned for the safety of the other children if the 12 year old were to attack someone. In a nutshell it is an example of the complexity of helping victims who have also at times been perpetrators. Many of the victims of domestic violence also struggle to find ways to express their emotions and anger in a healthy way.

I think that it is easy to look at those who have been in abusive relationships and judge them for their behavior. I think that this film goes a good way toward understanding how complicated it can all be, especially to those who are living it. They develop their own frame of logic. For example, if you testify against your husband, he will be angry. And he will do a year in jail at the most. So if you recant, then you keep the peace. For other women, they are financially dependent on their partners, which adds another level of complication.

I thought that this was a solid documentary that mostly was content to sit and observe and not try to deliver any kind of message (aside from the implicit criticism of the lack of options in helping victims of domestic abuse and especially helping borderline cases where mental illness is clearly a factor). I would have liked to know more about what happened to some of the women after what we see.




La Dolce Vita (1960) -


I've talked about my relationship with Fellini in the past, but everything I've seen from him so far has left me cold. In addition to this film, I've also seen 8 1/2 and La Strada. While I don't have any issues with those films per se, I felt like they flew over my head. Given that, I wasn't so hot on rewatching this film concerning its 3 hour runtime, but to my surprise, I ended up liking it quite a lot. Though I'm not sure I loved it per se, it's definitely made me more eager to revisit 8 1/2 and La Strada.

On the surface, this film is lovely to look at. It largely consists of various parties Marcello goes to, where he's surrounded by his friends and various women he intends to start a successful relationship with. The deeper one delves into these scenes, however, Marcello's lifestyle feels less like a utopia and more like a prolonged mid-life crisis. The great tragedy of Marcello is that he desperately craves a change in scenery, yet every event he attends results in the same scenery and a similar outcome of winding up back at square one. Instead of abandoning this unfulfilling lifestyle though, he keeps on attending these parties, experiencing more and more failed relationships along the way. Though it's unclear what he wants, there seems to be something he intends to obtain from this lifestyle before he fades away from it altogether, except, one party after another, his attempts keep falling flat. On the surface, it could be said that his intention is to start a successful relationship, but I think his motives are more complex than this. He's already engaged to Emma, yet cheats on her and shows little interest in their relationship. However, if their relationship seems as if it's about to be destroyed, he attempts to prevent that from happening. This raises questions on whether he even knows what he wants. Whatever his intentions are, it's clear his desires won't be fulfilled in his current state.

The most commonly criticized aspect of this film is its length. While I'm not going to pretend the movie kept me fully engaged all throughout (I felt its length in a couple party scenes in the latter half), I think its length was part of the point. I love how Rotten Tomatoes has "...La Dolce Vita remains riveting in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- its sprawling length." in the film's Critical Consensus. Marcello seems trapped in a never ending cycle of attending parties and forming relationships, yet always ends up unfulfilled. His response to these failed attempts are to try again and again until something finally works out. In that sense, the repetition adds more layers to Marcello's characterization. I suspect that another rewatch will make this aspect more profound. As it currently stands, I struggled with the film somewhat (albeit, far less than I did when I first watched it), but the odds of me revisiting it are definitely much higher than they previously were.

Overall, I really liked this film. Brimming with bloat and repetition, it's not for everyone, but there's definitely a lot going on in the film beyond presenting a gorgeous portrait of nightlife in Rome interspersed with some drama. It's not quite a great film for me (again though, I suspect I'll like it more with another viewing), but it's grown on me to the point it's now my favorite of Fellini's films.
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Here痴 looking at you, kid.
This is the first time I知 really trying to write a review.... a good one, but it痴 taking awhile to find the right words, I知 not the best writer, but I got the introduction done so far:

The Tree of Life is an experimental, impressionistic drama that targets and compares deep philosophical ideals of creation, evolution and nature to a 1950痴 suburban family in Waco, Texas, through stunning visuals and a transcendent score. Directed and written by Terrence Malick, alongside legendary cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and elegant Composer Alexandre Desplat, the film is brought to life, to take you on a cinematic experience to enlightenment, so few films before, have been able to accomplish. Furthering the films credentials, it also boasts a stellar cast, featuring, Brad Pitt (Mr. O達rien), Sean Penn (Jack O達rien) and Jessica Chastain (Mrs. O達rien), whose knowledge and experience, not only helped in the creation of this masterpiece but also mentored and introduced, child actors Hunter McCracken (Young Jack), Laramie Eppler (R.L. O達rien) and Tye Sheridan (Steve O達rien).

The film follows Jack, a depressed, confused, lost man, trying to find his way in the world by trying to cope with his past. Jack frequently thinks about his brother, R.L., who died years ago, leading him to reflect on his past. As Jack dives down into the rabbit hole, he finds himself on an emotional roller coaster, dwelling on his relationship with his father and mother, experiencing and learning about life with his peers and brothers and past traumas that have haunted him and he has carried with him into adulthood. As we navigate through his childhood, he encounters interpersonal, emotional and moral struggles leading him to experience and question the meaning and truth of life, loss of innocence, free will, consequences, responsibility and adaptation to life and environment. To better understand all the trivial questions of life, relative to the films ideals, we are taken on a spiritual journey through a stunning cinematic experience that explores nature, universal and cosmic creation, evolution of life on earth, birth and death.

Lead by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life is one of the most stunningly gorgeous films of all time, using wide frame shots alongside natural lighting. Using a form of cinematography Terrence and Chivo invented called DOGMA, which uses aspects of Naturalism and Cubism, they were able to get beautiful shots that you only see in museums. With this method, they used natural lighting, handheld/steadicams and little to no script, using spontaneity to capture moments that feel authentic and speak truth. The film also depicts its story through memories, introspective thought, prayers, dreams and visions, which not only make it feel like a Malick original but also gives off Fellini vibes.

The film also uses special effects that relate to 2001: A Space Odyssey, to make for an angelic creation sequence. Using little to no digital effects, besides a dinosaur cut scene and a microbial universe, the special effects team is able to create stunning pictures with almost all tangible material, thanks to the special effects team and leaders, Dan Glass and legend Douglass Trumbull. Using a special effects workshop, they were able to compile hours of and hours for their creation sequence but ended up only using 20 minutes.

Next, I知 not sure how y誕ll outline your reviews, but I think I was gonna give a short plot summary and then analyze the film and conclude. Any criticism to my introduction would be helpful, thank you 🙏





Ya'll knew this was coming, right? Very slow paced, fights are kept to an absolute minimum and the story is kinda meh. I'm actually amazed they made a 4th film.... which I never saw and probably never will.
the first one is always a good movie