Chyp mumbles to himself

From TMDb:

Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

Nice looking piece with good turns from both actors which generates some decent atmosphere at times. Unfortunately I can't say the narrative appealed as much to me as I'd hoped though and I do wish Eggers would make a movie where I don't have to turn the bloody subs on just to understand some of the dialogue - it's a shtick that's already wearing thin as far as I'm concerned.

awwwww S'NAP!!!!

__________________
"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

Oh no! Should I call an ambewlance? Was it one of them pesky seagulls tripped you up??

From TMDb:

British reporters suspect an international cover-up of a global disaster in progress... and they're right. Hysterical panic has engulfed the world after the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices and have caused the orbit of the Earth to alter, sending it hurtling towards the sun.

Nice, generally understated apocalyptic/pre-apocalpytic British offering that builds some nice atmosphere (the pea-souper is marvellous), is generally well acted and despite a mainly retrospective narrative maintains interest throughout. There are a few weak points - some obvious use of models, the dialogue although generally nice and crisp is a little too obviously scripted here and there and the scene with the out-of-control youths is slightly off tonally with the rest of the movie. On the whole though it's a lovely little watch that's sadly underseen imo.

From TMDb:

The tables are turned as four teenagers are sucked into Jumanji's world - pitted against rhinos, black mambas and an endless variety of jungle traps and puzzles. To survive, they'll play as characters from the game.

Mixed affair that starts rather poorly and takes a while to hit any sort of stride but once it does the odd amusing verbal quip and enough moments of mindless fun just about turn it into a somewhat entertaining watch. The tale is simplistic and rather lacking in tension (especially in the early stages) whilst the messaging is both overdone and devoid of any subtlety but the cast play it all with tongue firmly in cheek which helps even Jack Black be engaging.

From TMDb:

A sound journey accros the mountains, deserts and forests of Ethiopia and its cultural universe. Roaring Abyss will take you through an inedit collection of music recordings of unvaluable importance for the transmission and preservation of the African heritage.

Reasonably interesting tour of Ethiopian song, landscape and culture, though I wish the meanings of the songs/chants were explained more or at least the lyrics given. The varied array of traditional instruments is quite fascinating and it's nice that some prominence is given to a few of them, especially as more modern generations seems to be shifting away from them. Sadly in a country with 90 million inhabitants speaking eighty-odd different languages/dialects, where music plays such a large part in their heritage, there was far too much to cover/document to afford any real depth in a mere hour and a half. Also personally could easily have lived without the recently decapitated animal head being shown.

From TMDb:

An illustrious British boarding school becomes a bloody battleground when a mysterious sinkhole appears at a nearby fracking site unleashing unspeakable horror.

Fairly disappointing effort that might have a few worthwhile moments along the way but never really manages to fulfil on any of its genres (the best fist it makes are in action and comedy). Technically it isn't that badly made (though there's nothing to see that hasn't been done elsewhere and better) but there's just no 'spark' to proceedings and whilst the final third does at least move up a gear it felt like it took about three hours to get there, despite being a movie with an hour and three-quarters total runtime.

I love the dialogue in both his films. Makes it so much more interesting and perhaps authentic.

"Yer fond of me Lobster ain't ye? "

I might too, were I able to make out the other half of what's being said without needing to resort to subs. It's not just a case of the arcane language used, the delivery of said language seems designed to further obfuscate the dialogue as much as possible, which I can only assume is intentional and that for me becomes somewhat annoying. As someone that watches many a FL film it shouldn't I know, but oddly when the spoken language is English it does.

I shall still eagerly wait to see what his third feature-length offering, The Northman, brings in that regard though, as he's a director that generally appeals to my tastes.

I quite often put subtitles on for English language films so maybe I'm used to it. Eggers was trapped in somewhere like Northern Ireland for much of lockdown filming The Northman, so I'm really hoping he unleashes al his creative angst in it. Can't wait.

From TMDb:

What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Côte d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.

Silent short (24 min) that's fairly inventive and somewhat subversive in nature. It's well shot and some of the imagery is interesting, for me that tended to generally be the shots of the lower classes.

+

From TMDb:

Squatters live on a mothballed oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. The children attend a school on board; men harvest scrap metal and old oil in the hull; women keep house and raise children and Captain Nemat runs it all with an iron hand. We follow a lad who rescues fish trapped in the hull, an old man who stares at the sun, the idealistic teacher, and Ahmad, the Captain's assistant who has fallen in love with a young woman whose father wants to marry her to someone of means. What future has this sinking city?

Mixed drama that works better in some places than others but it's generally nicely made and is a worthwhile enough watch. The 'torture' scene lingers a tad too long imo but is offset by the delightful use of spent bullet casings as casts for making chalk.

From IMDb:

A down and out stand-up comedian finds refuge at Hotel Bleu, forging an off-beat partnership with a charismatic trumpet player half her age.

Short (26 min) that isn't totally without charm but it lacks fluidity and Wayne Tucker was clearly hired for the musical side to his role rather than his 'acting'.

+

From Filmbox Archive:

A job as a seamstress tempts Juana, a young Bolivian woman, to neighbouring Argentina. Her husband and child remain behind in their homeland.

Short (40 min) that may go some way to capturing the conditions and mundanity of life within a sweatshop but sadly what drama there is mainly feels either somewhat forced or not particularly credible.

From TMDb:

A woman suffers complications after having sex. Her partner takes her to the hospital, but getting help proves to be difficult.

Nice little 15 min short that's well made and acted, just a shame such subject matter is still relevant anywhere these days.

From IMDb:

When 30-year-old Faustine comes back home to prepare for a date she finds herself face to face with a stranger who has made himself at home in her apartment. What if apps became real people and actually lived in our homes ?

Short (26 min) that has a reasonably interesting premise and is mildly amusing in places but it's really just a commentary on the invasion of social media in lives these days, which for me did begin to wear a little thin as it goes on.

+

September 2021 Index:

Hyôryû-gai - [The City Of Lost Souls]
Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu - [Gozu]
Jason And The Argonauts
Come To Daddy
Crow Hollow
El monopolio de la estupidez - [The Monopoly Of Stupidity]
The House In Marsh Road
A Man Returned
Papa, sdokhni - [Why Don't You Just Die!]
Bait
Los trapos al sol - [Dirty Linen To The Sun]
Tread Softly
Fire Maidens Of Outer Space
Den 12. mann - [The 12th Man]
The Predator
Blood Of The Vampire
The Railrodder
Buster Keaton Rides Again
A Gunman Has Escaped
Boy With A Flute

Link to Oct 2021

From TMDb:

Brazilian-Japanese gangster Mario rescues his Chinese girlfriend Kei as she's about to be deported from Japan. Desperate to escape, he hides in Tokyo's booming Japanese-Portuguese community and seeks passage from the country from a Russian mobster. To meet his price, they hold up a bigtime drug deal between the Chinese Mafia and the local Yakuza.

Not one of Miike's finer efforts. It does have a few worthwhile moments and the base story could have made for a decent enough (albeit rather unoriginal) watch but it's a little too cluttered and at times he seemingly just throws stuff at the screen to try to make it 'cool'. That some of that 'stuff' incorporates relatively poor CGI or is visually unappealing really doesn't help matters either.

From TMDb:

Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.

Somewhat bizarre offering from Miike but one that's reasonably enjoyable as far as I'm concerned, especially the first two-thirds (though the birthing scene toward the very end is quite nicely done too). The pace is a little too ponderous here and there but generally not that out of keeping with proceedings and whilst the flashes of humour certainly won't be to everybody's taste I think they fit the overall tone quite well.

From TMDb:

After receiving a cryptic letter from his estranged father, Norval travels to his dad’s oceanfront home for what he hopes will be a positive experience. If only he’d known the dark truth about his old man beforehand.

Competently enough made, well enough acted and initially quite a nicely understated affair that weaves just enough intrigue to develop interest. Sadly though once that intrigue starts to be unravelled (and imo the audience should begin that process before the screenplay does) it devolves into a far more routine affair that may provide one or two moments of amusement but never delivers any real highs, has little to offer by way of originality and gradually wanes in terms of interest.