Apr 17, 2016

Yea, he was searching for a meaning in life.. but when I saw this, I was searching for a reason why I was watching this garbage in the first place

 

Apr 17, 2016

Sometimes one word is all it takes

 

Apr 18, 2016

I respect your opinion, but you're the worst lol. BOOO charlie...

 

Apr 18, 2016

Raz lit me up on Letterboxd. I still stand by my opinion. That said, it wasn't bad or anything. That scene in the tunnel that I got the screenshot from was stunning.

 

Apr 18, 2016

Yea I saw that, Raz whatsapped me to complain about you lol. I understand not feeling Carol, I know a lot of cinephiles both who have loved and who have been unmoved. but I'm surprised you disliked it so much. I thought at the least the little gestures and visual storytelling, or the mise-en-scene, or something would show its a great film, whether liked or not.

 

Apr 18, 2016

actually I see you gave it a 3 now, I guess you didn't dislike it quite as much as your words made it seem.

 

Apr 18, 2016

Yeah, I usually focus on my dislikes when it comes to films that were overwhelming well received (if I feel differently of course). I have super positive 3 star reviews as well.

I remember praise over the cinematography and the parts that stood out to me didn't feel very constructive to the narrative. Beautiful production design of course, but the sidewalk stuff for instance felt like garnish. Again, that sequence through the tunnel was amazing. Very romantic and impressionist. That rack focus where the lipstick sticks out is perfection. Overall though, I really don't understand the reception it received. At all. Reading about Todd Haynes' other work makes it sound way more interesting.

 

Apr 18, 2016

Dirty grandpa surprisingly way funnier than I thought it would be. Didn't come off trying too hard at all I wouldn't be surprised if this movie is strongly disliked because people are sensitive as f--- but I enjoyed it a lot. It actually felt like a comedy most comedy's don't anymore and play it safe.

 

Apr 18, 2016

Recently read the book, so I decided to go and revisit this movie. I still enjoy it a lot.

 

Apr 20, 2016

I watched The Jungle Book on Monday. I'm actually a huge fan of the 1967 animated version, so I was excited. Let me tell you, d--- the movie was so good. I need to watch it again but I seriously think it's better than the animated version. This is the best live action remake Disney has ever done. They truly recaptured their magic with this film. The film is deserving of all the praise. The voice acting was brilliant, the CGI was groundbreaking, the best CGI since Jurassic Park. Neel Sethi did a great job considering he was an unknown child actor and was acting against a green screen while filming.

You become completely engrossed in the world that Favreau created and it's a huge accomplishment considering 90% of the film is CGI. Idris Elba did a great job as Shere Khan. I can't state enough how good the voice acting was. Shere Khan was ruthless from the very beginning. This movie placed him in the pantheon of great Disney villains. The story was much more cohesive and told very well. This is just great modern film making. Disney won with this one. I FINALLY got the Bagheera vs. Shere Khan fight I've been wanting since I was a child. The Shere Khan and Baloo fight was better than the Batman v. Superman fight.

 

Apr 27, 2016

• 
  No No Sleep 2015
  ★★★★½ Watched 26 Apr, 2016
  
  High exposure and high contrast lighting serve Liang's presentation of the dualities of tradition/modernity, body/soul, awake/asleep or its allegorical equivalent: ignorant/enlightened. He presents the realized distinction of gross human body and subtle buddha body by drawing asymmetrically.
  
  85/100 - Excellent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Seven Deadly Sins 1962
  ★★★★ Watched 26 Apr, 2016
  
  Since Demy's Luxure (Lust) is not on here independently, I will post this review here, and will update with a new review once I see the film in its entirety.
  
  
  Lust:
  Uniquely Demy. Displays all the formalist detail and whimsical fantasy come to characterize his ouevre.
  
  82/100 - Great.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Ars 1959
  ★★★★ Rewatched 26 Apr, 2016
  
  Exquisite camerawork in yet another exceptionally ascetic short by a young Demy, recalling most closely Bresson's Diary..
  
  83/100 - Great.
  
  Note: Upgrade from 3 to 4 stars.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Le sabotier du Val de Loire 1956
  ★★★★½ Rewatched 26 Apr, 2016
  
  Demy channels Bresson and Franju in his most minimalist films. Movements are rhythmic, almost musical.
  
  85/100 - Excellent
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Les horizons morts 1951
  ★★★½ Watched 26 Apr, 2016
  
  A tactile and somewhat hypnotic short on young unrequited love's desire to enter the void of death. Strong debut.
  
  77/100 - Very Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  A Song of Love 1950
  ★★★ Watched 25 Apr, 2016
  
  Or, how many h----erotic blo-jo- metaphors can we fit into a 50s French black&white short silent art film. Bold, but rather sexually crass and highly lurid. I watched it after Gaspar Noe's LOVE and found this to be the more pornographic. Compositions and dream like fantasy with the flowers (cue Todd Haynes' Poison) are exquisite, however.
  
  65/100 - Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Love 2015
  ★★★ Watched 24 Apr, 2016
  
  Blatant and ostentatious but Noe's point of sexualizing movie romance is an appreciable one. Well edited too.
  
  74/100 - Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Mommy 2014
  ★★★★★ Rewatched 22 Apr, 2016
  
  One of my favourite films...
  
  
  VIFF 2013 review:
  nextprojection.com/2014/10/01/viff-maps-stars-cathedrals-culture-mommy-human-capital-reviews/
  
  
  "A revelation in modern filmmaking, Mommy displays innovation, courage, and audacity. The fifth feature film by the Quebecois wunderkind Xavier Dolan is easily his best feature to date. At merely 25 years old, Dolan has created his first masterpiece."
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Magnolia 1999
  ★★★★ Watched 22 Apr, 2016
  
  With rapid editing, montage, multiple climaxes, inter-cutting, etc. there's much to pay attention to and so much more to easily gloss over. Nearly the entire film plays out like its in this perpetual climax where each character is about to explode in relentless emotional expression. Even the music is constantly reaching cathartic heights that mirror climactic shifts, and the quicker the cuts the more extreme the circumstance seems to become, even when the events are all rather innocuous. What such a technique does extremely well is get the audience into the mind set of each of these suffering characters, their frustrations and turmoil, so that we can feel the connection they have with one another not only by their potential proximity to each other/relationship etc. but by their sheer humanism, their will, their isolated stories of struggle.
  
  81/100 - Great.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Most Dangerous Game 1932
  ★★½ Watched 19 Apr, 2016
  
  Light and enjoyable, but the narrative and mise-en-scene are compromised by its overly theatrical nature.
  
  64/100 - Decent
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Ghosts Before Breakfast 1928
  ★★★★ Watched 19 Apr, 2016
  
  A preternatural dance of aesthetic form, highlighting the advent of cinematography & its potential to manipulate.
  
  80/100 - Great.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Battle Royale 2000
  ★★★★½ Watched 17 Apr, 2016
  
  Somewhat campy but its flaws are endearing. Visually immersive, aptly paced, & a great soundtrack. Strongly thematic, focused on the characters and their feelings of trust and young love.
  
  85/100 - Excellent.
  
  2 likes
  

Land of My Dreams 2012
★★★★ Watched 15 Apr, 2016

[REVIEW] 83/100 - LAND OF MY DREAMS (Gonzalez, 2012)

An inspired visual realization of the strange, hypnotic, seductive music serving as title/theme/soundtrack. Libidinous ennui. Never felt anything quite like it through cinema. Mesmerizing and transformative. Focused on two female (carnival-esque) stripper-performers, but more profoundly an observation of the male gaze, voyeurism, the absurdity of sexuality and desire.

 

Apr 30, 2016

Can anyone give me a list of the most relevant films in 2015/2016? around 10 would be ok, i know there must be more. I need to catch up

 

Apr 30, 2016

Based on US release dates, the ones I've enjoyed so far...

Everybody Wants Some
The Witch
The Measure of a Man
Cemetery of Splendour
Green Room
Hail, Caesar
Midnight Special

Also was a big fan of Right Now, Wrong Then and The Lobster which I saw at NYFF last year.

 

May 1, 2016

A nightmare on elm street 3, good movie and a lot better than the 2nd one. I had seen it before but didn't remember it other than a couple parts.

Freddy had some good kills, gonna watch 4 and 5 in the near future too.

 

May 1, 2016

Zodiac

this is a movie that is highly dialogue driven. not much action, which isn't a negative at all--just worth mentioning. solid acting all-around, with no particular stand out performances.

i enjoyed it. does a good job of building suspense throughout the film and the ending isn't predictable--which is always a good thing. i've gotta watch it again, but i enjoyed---just not as much as most ppl seem to

 

May 1, 2016

The jungle book. Really d--- good movie.. It looked amazing, even more so when you realize most of what is on screen is cg. The animals looked so realistic and the animation was top notch. The fight between baloo and kahn was friggi n nuts. I honestly couldn't find anything wrong with it. I was entertained the whole way. Idris was really great as kahn, Bill murray's best performance in a while. Definitely would see it again..

 

May 4, 2016

• 
  Pompeii 2014
  ★★★★★ Watched 03 May, 2016
  
  Review Posted at Aesthetics of the Mind
  
  Abstract:
  
  Paul W.S. Anderson rejects history and unapologetically creates a fictional story which constantly makes reference to its own artificiality. Affective images (emotionally affecting stills), saturated colours, and the hyperbolization of reality are features of its imaginative aesthetic, of a unique and auteur-driven vision of a fictional world: an artificial play which generates much genuine human emotion. Love is its content, from the love of Milo and Cassia to the brotherhood of Milo… more
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  On the Waterfront 1954
  ★★★★½ Watched 03 May, 2016
  
  [Review] 88/100 - ON THE WATERFRONT (Kazan, 1954)
  
  On The Waterfront is a strong character film, with much film-historical relevance and classicism, which explains its current reputation and social reverence...Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint give career best performances, and their chemistry is palpable in each and every scene...It’s a film style we’ve seen a 100 times before; the difference here is that On The Waterfront serves as prototypical rather than stereotypical.
  
  88/100 – Excellent. (4.5)
  
  More:
  bit.ly/1TnfbLX
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Blue Ruin 2013
  ★★★½ Watched 02 May, 2016
  
  Meticulous cinematography and aesthetic subtlety transform the problematic script into a visually impressive fare.
  
  79/100 - Very Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Zootopia 2016
  ★★★½ Watched 30 Apr, 2016
  
  Articulates a thoughtful social allegory while remaining fun, imaginative, and comedic.
  
  75/100 - Very Good.
  
  1 like
  
  
• 
  Eye in the Sky 2015
  ★★★ Watched 29 Apr, 2016
  
  Beyond bits of propaganda, a tense and thrilling action film with a nuanced socio-political commentary.
  
  71/100 - Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Johnny Guitar 1954
  ★★★★★ Watched 28 Apr, 2016
  
  An evenly paced, character driven, and gorgeously realized western with features from film-noir to art-house and back.
  
  92/100 - Amazing.
  
  1 like
  
  
• 
  Coherence 2013
  ★★★★ Watched 27 Apr, 2016
  
  Contrived ending aside, this is a thoughtful, well presented, and intriguing sci-fi film which exceeded my expectations. Guised as the 'supernatural', Coherence sharply offers an allegory of a long strange (psychedelic) trip. The confusion, disassociation, feelings of unreality, and panic accurately represent the psychological strains encountered in a bad trip. The experience is more acutely realized here than in your average science fiction mind-f--- film.
  
  83/100 - Great.
  
  2 likes
  
  
• 
  Taken 2 2012
  ★★ Watched 26 Apr, 2016
  
  Laughable character development. No trauma or psychological consequence from first. slightly better action cinematography.
  
  52/100 - Mediocre.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Taken 2008
  ★★ Watched 26 Apr, 2016
  
  Cringe worthy dialogue, zero character development, and the most unrealistic of child abduction. Some decent action.
  
  57/100 - Mediocre.
  

 

May 5, 2016

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) ★★★✩✩


The Cellar excels beyond a simple mystery as a hair pulling, stomach jarring horror picture. The resourceful lead operates logically as the audience goer turns back seat driver helping to navigate her way out of captivity. John Goodman looms over every move, all seeing and all knowing as a vindictive God or Jolly Old Saint Nick himself. There are certain backstories and skillsets that feel a little forced or convenient, but for most part it's a well written thriller with nauseating anxiety baked into the crust.

That, of course, is a review of The Cellar. Here are my thoughts on 10 Cloverfield Lane.

The marketing spoils the premise and renders the beginning of the film impotent. J.J. Abrams, dissatisfied with sinking his own career, now seeks out other people's work to capsize. In the 1970s, the peak of Big Hollywood as an artistic catalyst, this picture ends 10 minutes earlier, wraps $10 million cheaper, and lives on as a cult classic. In 2016, we just found a new young adult franchise with its revenue stream sure to be inversely related to its critical reception.

Here's to hoping for a director's cut.

http://boxd.it/9Cq59

 

May 6, 2016

Captain America: Civil War. I loved it. Can't wait to buy the blu ray. 9/10.