Oct 27, 2015

Inside Out, Kurt Cobain montage of heck

 

Oct 27, 2015

Queen of Earth
Inside Out
Los Ausentes
From What Is Before
Magic Mike XXL
Cobain: Montage of Heck
Gangnam Blues
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Far from the Madding Crowd
Lost River

 

Oct 27, 2015

you can def skip QoE

 

Oct 27, 2015

don't attack me vahn pls

 

Oct 27, 2015

idiot

 

Oct 27, 2015

how dare you

 

Oct 29, 2015

Building my lists now...

in the mean time

• 
  Three Stories of Love 2015
  ★★★½ Watched 02 Oct, 2015
  
  [REVIEW] Three Stories of Love (Ryosuke Hashiguchi, Japan) - 77/100
  
  Three Stories of Love shares three dense, heartfelt stories not on love acquired but on love absent, stripped, or pined for. It is simultaneously full of hope while being radically nihilistic.
  
  Read full review:
  nextprojection.com/2015/10/07/viff-three-stories-love-full-hope-radically-nihilistic/
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Kaili Blues 2015
  ★★★½ Watched 30 Sep, 2015
  
  [Review] 79/100 - Kaili Blues (Gan Bi, China)
  
  The film’s tender spirit is to capture and convey the tiny moments found in the everyday.
  
  Read full review:
  nextprojection.com/2015/10/05/viff-kaili-blues-conveys-tiny-moments-found-everyday/
  
  No likes
  
  
• What Happened in the Year of the Dragon (2014)
  What Happened in the Year of the Dragon 2014
  ★½ Watched 30 Sep, 2015
  
  Rather dull and uninteresting, with nonsensical subtitles.
  
  40/100
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Love and… 2015
  ★★★½ Watched 29 Sep, 2015
  
  [REVIEW] 78/100 - LOVE AND... (Zhang Lu, South Korea)
  
  A striking cinematic experiment, Zhang Lu’s divisive Love and… is both an homage to and a deconstruction of cinema, with its four episodic chapters subtly working towards a profound, accumulative end.
  
  Read full review:
  nextprojection.com/2015/10/04/viff-love-striking-cinematic-experiment/
  
  No likes
  
  
• Night Without Distance (2015)
  Night Without Distance 2015
  ★★ Watched 28 Sep, 2015
  
  A fairly banal exercise in form. Visually, the film is interesting, but its sense of the indistinguishable rejects the audience from immersing into its structure. The naturalistic soundscape is worthwhile.
  
  50/100 - Mediocre.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  I Saw the Light 2016
  ★ Watched 09 Oct, 2015
  
  [REVIEW] 38/100 (Marc Abraham, USA)
  
  Though Tom Hiddleston is superb in the role of Hank Williams, Marc Abraham’s fictional biopic I Saw the Light follows a sluggish script replete with banal romantic ventures and non-intimate portraiture. It does a rather poor job at conveying Hank Williams’ complex personality, instead dramatizing his vices for shock value.
  
  Read More:
  nextprojection.com/2015/10/27/viff-saw-light-shows-little-besides-surface-issues/#comments
  
  No likes
  
  
• Charlotte's Song
  Charlotte’s Song
  ★★ Watched 09 Oct, 2015
  
  [REVIEW] 50/100 - Charlotte's Song (Nicholas Humphries, Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin, Canada)
  
  Vancouver made Charlotte’s Song is an exceedingly provocative film that titillates the viewer with a haunting atmosphere, lavish dress, and beautiful music while completely nullifying all this through its convoluted script, crime TV-like special effects, and lack of direction. Charlotte’s Song easily qualifies for the adage “it’s so bad it’s good”. But if a bad film is memorable, does this really make it good?
  
  Read More:
  nextprojection.com/2015/10/27/viff-charlottes-song/
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Anomalisa 2015
  ★★★ Watched 09 Oct, 2015 1
  
  [REVIEW] 71/100 - Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson, USA)
  
  The film doesn’t really need ninety minutes to tell its story, as the concept could have worked well in a short quirky film rather than a feature.
  
  Read More:
  nextprojection.com/2015/10/27/viff-anomalisa-highly-existential-film/
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Martian 2015
  ★★★ Watched 27 Oct, 2015
  
  aestheticsofthemind.com/2015/10/29/the-martian-scott-2015/
  
  Everything is too quick, too safe, too easy. There is little a sense of urgency or chaos given the subject. Any given conflict finds quick a solution, with Scott often jumping over any sign of dead time to present only action. The film's rhythm significantly lacks psychological expression of the talked about feelings of ennui, fear, hope. Has a spectacular ending, with great "floating in space" choreography, but Gravity had this for its entire duration.
  
  73/100 - Good.
  

 

Oct 29, 2015

CHOO-CHOO HOP ON THE SOKUROV EXPRESS

 

Oct 29, 2015

Yea, now that I'm done with all VIFF reviews, and only have one more film needed to watch, sokurov is up for grabs.

Rated all my VIFF Advance screenings now.
My watchlist is complete: http://letterboxd.com/kamahmed/list/viff-2015/

Next comes a ranked list followed by 2015 ranked.

Not on letterboxd.

We Did it on a Song (David André, France) Seen September 10, 2015. VIFF - 46/100

Ari: My Life With a King (Carlo Encisco Catu, Philippines) Seen September 11, 2015. VIFF - 60/100

• 
  My Friend Victoria 2014
  ★★★ Watched 15 Sep, 2015
  
  Strong acting and characters are severely marred by an overtly literary design. Gentle but obvious and uncinematic.
  
  71/100 - Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Paco de Lucía: La búsqueda 2014
  ★★★½ Watched 15 Sep, 2015
  
  A final montage of Paco's music with old photographs and home video is its greatest sequence, culminating his journey through music. The music, of course, is the film's greatest feature, especially given all the historical concert footage. Highly rhythmic editing transitions superbly match the music. Interview footage compromises the film's poetic rhythm.
  
  77/100 - Very Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Monty Python: The Meaning Of Live 2014
  ★★★ Watched 11 Sep, 2015
  
  Funny though conventional documentary combining cinema verite with archival footage.
  
  70/100 - Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Ville-Marie 2015
  ★★★★½ Watched 11 Sep, 2015
  
  An exceptionally well structured, scripted, and directed three-part story of tragedy and interconnection with a humanist focus.
  
  86/100 - Excellent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  A Tale of Three Cities 2015
  ★★★★ Watched 10 Sep, 2015
  
  Great cinematography renders an enchanting and provocative film of romance and tragedy.
  
  82/100 - Great.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Frank and the Wondercat 2015
  ★★★ Watched 10 Sep, 2015
  
  A nostalgic film of remembrance using home video to cull a poignant and empathetic experience.
  
  70/100 - Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  From Scotland with Love 2014
  ★★★ Watched 09 Sep, 2015
  
  Resourceful poetic documentary with archival video underserved by dynamic, contemporary music and poor editing.
  
  68/100 - Decent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  In Transit 2015
  ★★★½ Watched 09 Sep, 2015
  
  Deeply interested in personal experience. Highly authentic and nuanced.
  
  75/100 - Very Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  100 Yen Love 2014
  ★★★ Watched 09 Sep, 2015
  
  Rather banal, with mediocre direction. Not nearly as moving as it purports to be.
  
  66/100 - Decent.
  

 

Oct 29, 2015

A ranking of all feature films seen during the 2015 Vancouver Film Festival. Shorts not included. Reviews linked when available.

http://letterboxd.com/kamahmed/list/viff-2015-features-ranked-64-films/

 

Oct 29, 2015

My official ranking of films of 2015. 93 films seen. Includes festival films.

http://letterboxd.com/kamahmed/list/films-of-2015-ranked/

Some oversights I will catch up on: Queen of Earth, Los Ausentes, From What is Before, Montage of Heck, Gangnam Blues, The Walk, The Visit, Straight outta Compton, End of the Tour, Southpaw, Slow West, The Look of Silence, Me Earl and the Dying Girl, Spy.

And some VIFF oversights: Aferim!, Victoria, Thoughts That Once We Had, Arabian Nights.

Now @Vahn can leave me alone. and @Charlie Strangelove best get to watching.

 

Oct 29, 2015

Your 2014 is probably more helpful in regards to what I can watch now, but I'll check it out anyway. Patiently waiting for Baby Bump since reading your review.

 

Oct 29, 2015

@FilmAndWhisky Disappointed to hear about Anomalisa, especially since you were a much bigger fan of Synecdoche, New York than I was.

Saw Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog tonight, which I found to be a moving and playful, stream-of-conscious essay on love and death among other matters (all in 75 minutes!). Definitely recommended for everyone, though I think FilmAndWhisky would especially dig it.

 

Oct 30, 2015

Joao Cesar Monteiro a master

 

Nov 2, 2015

Movies on my radar for November:

November 4-6- Spectre (Sam Mendes), Spotlight (Tom McCarthy), Brooklyn (John Crowley), In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
November 13- By the Sea (Angelina Jolie), Entertainment (Rick Alverson), Mia Madre (Nanni Moretti),
November 20- Carol (Todd Haynes), Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)
November 25-27- The Good Dinosaur (Peter Sohn), The Night Before (Jonathan Levine), The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper)

 

Nov 3, 2015

Salam alaykoum

 

Nov 3, 2015

@Charlie Strangelove try on the Robin Scherbatsky double feature: Unexpected and Results

 

Nov 3, 2015

Unexpected looks bad, but Results with Bujalski & Corrigan looks good.

 

Nov 3, 2015

Yeah, it wasn't great, a sort of flat footed Half Nelson. It was directed by joe swanberg's wife who had been a cps teacher... so an interesting failure in that regard

results is definitely v accessible bujalski -- its kind of a modern screwball comedy. great to see corrigan in a lead role, channeling Herman Blume more or less

 

Nov 3, 2015

Not a fan of Half Nelson, so I'll probably skip that one. Also, don't make me Google How I Met Your Mother characters lol.

I've been a Corrigan fan since Grounded for Life. Love when he pops up in stuff.