4v291o
Watched on Wednesday June 4, 2025.
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Watched on Sunday June 1, 2025.
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I didn’t appreciate hearing all of the characters wanting to “kill Jeff,” but since my name is spelled the correct way (Geoff), and seemingly no one in my lifetime is able to pronounce it (Gopher, Goffrey, Gee-Off), I don’t take all of the recent slights against the name at me. A TV movie? Definitely. Jesse Armstrong really needed to shake off whatever obsession he’s had with the rich billionaire class out of his system with this one. Laughed once. Had it on the background, really. Okay.
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I’m on a Christian Petzold kick, I guess. Why have I ignored his films until now? I listened to an episode of the Film Comment podcast at Cannes, where one of the critics talked about the current Petzold film, and spoke so familiarly of his work that I was ittedly embarrassed I’d never seen one of his films. He seemed like such a mainstay, like one of the contemporary pillars of European/World cinema filmmakers. Why haven’t I seen anything by him?
Why do I sense that no one in the States is aware of his films? Why have I not been following his film output since he started? Why do I feel like I’ve stumbled upon an equally great filmmaker akin to his contemporaries (Petzold was born in 1960), and yet somehow absent from the conversation? He’s like the German Soderbergh, in ways, with the editing and cinematic eye of Haneke - dealing in genre but in new, unique ways with extreme precision, and here it’s a low level crime thriller. Similar with his previous film, Yella (though not as mysterious), Petzold seems to be commenting on his contemporary culture by taking inspiration from pulpy, American films and novels. Brilliant. Nina Hoss as a femme fatale? Perfect. Here, it is The Postman Always Rings Twice, the structure of which remains intact. A loner works for an immigrant boss, the boss’ wife fools around, and soon fools around with the loner. Sex, violence and deceit ensues.
There’s obviously some cultural commentary on the state of ’s poor and the relationship between the lower class and the entrepreneurial class of immigrants. That bites the ending and upends the crime of ion genre.
I’ll continue my interest in Petzold’s films, as they seem a balm to the current blight of what’s being presented in American cinemas (I’m going to try to take a break from whatever BS is out there to cleanse my cinematic viewing palate).
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This review may contain spoilers.
Wes Anderson’s first action film?
I loved it.
Benicio Del Toro’s face is mysterious, mischievous, leathery and enigmatic.
Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography brought a needed droplet of depth to this.
More human than animated.
Adventurous in Anderson’s own way, I want to return.
Maybe I have a soft spot for middle eastern-set espionage films.
The score presented an unrelenting sense of doom and barreled me through the picture.
edit: I appreciated the story of this much later: A selfish, paternally distant tycoon being relentlessly shocked by his own mortality and impending death only to give up his entire estate simply to fund his lifetime’s work, ending up owning a small restaurant as the cook, cleaner and leading a humble life with his family.
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An unnerving, dreamy film that somehow manages to straddle multiple genres and maintain a consistent vision. I kept seeing things that weren’t there, and hearing repeated phrases, sets of numbers, faces, that made me question the reality of what I was watching without disbelief. A fine, disorienting film.
I’m sure there’s more to this that another viewing would elucidate, because I can’t stop thinking about it.
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Weird to think Pee-Wee Herman has been culturally forgotten as he has, when at his peak he was everywhere. Grew up with the show, Big Adventure, mekka lekka hi, mekka hiney ho was a family catchphrase. Poor Paul, I’d imagine so much of his closeted life and the homophobes that targeted him, killed him in the end. Bastards. Didn’t comprehend his early, artistic, CalArts life before, which was cool to see. Such a short life marred by so much biased hatred. Difficult to reply to this film without shouting vitriol at the American government, again. Fuckin’ cunts.
]]>Watched on Tuesday May 27, 2025.
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Watched on Tuesday May 27, 2025.
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When this first came out in the summer of 2002, I was probably too old (17) to have an interest in it (and that was the summer of Minority Report), but it was weird and funny, and I’ve never lost interest in good, well crafted animated films — I watched this a lot back then. Now that I look back on this movie, with its beautifully drawn watercolor backgrounds and elastic, gentle animation, I’m glad it exists.
Disney at the time was really in a downward spiral, and the transition away from traditionally animated films to CGI was heartbreaking to witness in real time. CG animated movies were evolving and becoming behemoth blockbusters despite the clunky renderings, and this type of film was a rarity, it felt old. This is still an odd movie: not a musical, not from an existing story or fable, a modern movie based on someone else’s drawing styles, Elvis on the soundtrack, it’s about broken families and lost people. I’d still rather re-watch this than see whatever’s been released recently as if this wasn’t good enough.
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Cinematography in golden embers.
A murder mystery with echoes of Les Diaboliques.
A very, very moody picture, tempered, with scheming, murder, mystery, repressed sexuality and an ending that’s piercing but not over the top.
Sustained tempo that’s eerie and atmospheric, incredible.
I love Iranian cinema so much.
Watched on Saturday May 24, 2025.
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It wasn’t terrible, but I was bored. How could you do this to me, Tom Cruise? Trapped in a cinema, a man in my row translated in real time in Arabic for the woman seated next to him. A man behind me sucking on his teeth. The screen in front of me, talking sentences through multiple characters. No tension. No humor. A retcon of the entire series. Bull. The ending reminded me of Jurassic Park, where they needed to turn on the power to the park, except in this movie, they’re turning on the power to… the world.
Cyberspace, the entity, key fobs and algorithms and the fate of civilization. I’d have liked to see the rest of the world’s reactions, instead we get yellow lights blinking off and turning red on a giant screen. Oh no.
Technically impressive nonetheless, still, I can’t believe this is what Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise constitute as cinema. I liked it most when this was a silent film. Shoulda kept it that way, Cruise. Woof.
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Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.
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Watched on Wednesday May 21, 2025.
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This second time around, the funny bits were funnier, and the tragic bits hit deeper. The lengths people go to follow a dream amidst wading in the shit. It’s a simple dream of owning a car wash, but it’s a realistic, believable, practical one. Al Pacino is too innocent for the world he’s inhabiting, and Gene Hackman needed to find his sense of humor. Too late for both of them, really, but I’d like to think Hackman gets his money, and goes back to Denver. Lion is just too far gone.
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As far as high concept, futuristic, Mad Max rip-offs goes, this one IS FUN AND I LIKE IT. So sue me.
I’ve been re-watching The Pirates of Dark Water and this is giving me some inspiration. These are the kinds of wild, weird movies that should be made again… NOT JUST A CONTINUATION of this world (fucking tits). Every line read by Dennis Hopper is perfectly villainous. Jack Black is in it, punks.
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If you love Ennio Morricone’s music, this will satisfy you. Completely. From the cinematic, pop and experimental compositions. An overview of Morricone’s evolution as composer, which is difficult to accomplish considering he made 500 scores for films, with as much detail as is necessary to get the ideas across. I’m sure there could be a film made exclusively on his time with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, and the influence it had on his music, but what’s here is enough to familiarize one, and if needed, make one go and seek out those records.
If you’re unfamiliar with the breadth of Morricone’s influence on Italian pop compositions and movie scores, this will be enlightening. You’ll grow to appreciate the maestro’s influence and genius.
I loved every second of this. I’m biased because I love his music, but it’s more than a fluff piece most definitely.
Even more so because we hear this life story from maestro himself, and so many of his contemporaries. I only wish I would’ve seen one of his conducting performances while he was still alive. Luckily, we get a host of those performances here, with his own interpretations of what makes film music interesting, complicated, and worth writing for. If nothing else, it just made me want to continue to score my life to his music.
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An incredible experience. If I can’t have love in my life, at least there’s this. Pure, cinematic poetry.
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John Woo directs a Hollywood, rap-rock, espionage, action movie set in Australia with connections to Eyes Wide Shut and Notorious. A 120 mph left turn from the meticulous De Palma picture that preceded it, this is glossy, emotional, balletic Woo.
Thandiwe Newton in this movie is a goddess.
The villain (Dougray Scott) is compellingly vicious.
All of John Woo’s flourishes work throughout and adapt to this bizarre movie.
I think the series went downhill after this one, save for Fallout, this entire franchise should’ve just been one-off adventures, each directed by an auteur (like the Alien franchise). Then J.J. Abrams “re-booted” the series and I guess it all turned to mush. *sigh* It was nice while it lasted.
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I forgot that I’d ever seen this, and watching it again, I don’t think I ever had.
Christopher McQuarrie is a generic, big balls director. It’s a shame that after this the series didn’t continue with the auteur director for each film idea, and instead just played it safe with McQ. This is the beginning of another THREE movies in collaboration. Not to mention all of the movies he’s produced or written for TC, I’m beginning to think McQ is director by proxy. Or is it Tom Cruise is director by proxy? Somebody’s in charge and doing so without style.
Instead of each film being a stand alone adventure they take a cue from Marvel and try to have everything connect, every past character or disparate plot thread referenced, and I dislike that direction. Oh well, can’t change that now!
Sean Harris is not intimidating nor evil enough. He whispers everything, too. How does he get work doing that?
Dumb writing, big dumb action, some good moments of levity. I’m glad I ed on this when it first came out or I’d have been so disappointed. The next one, though, that one… it’s still generic and competent, but grander.
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I was a little too old for this when it was in theaters, and during the summer of ’97 I was completely obsessed with Men in Black rather than seeing another Disney musical. However, rewatching this brought back a lot of good memories, and the songs are catchy, and I love the color scheme of the characters and ancient Greece. I guess I did watch it frequently back then, or at least the bombardment of adverts at the time has still stuck with me, because so many lines in this I recalled.
Genuinely, I think it’s Disney’s last, great animated musical (well, actually, with Mulan, too, one year after this came out) from their renaissance era — beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989. After this, things got weird. The Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo and Stitch were probably the last, great films before they scrapped traditional animated pictures for CG ones, and, well shit I’m rambling. Hercules is just an example of Disney at their peak— maybe not in story, but in animation and execution. Really fun shit if you like escapist, animated movies.
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Watched on Monday May 12, 2025.
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Rhapsody in Blue is perfect, I teared up a bit at the end.
The interstitials are a bit annoying, if only ing the 1940 Fantasia, and how kind of solemn it all felt — like we were actually at an orchestra hall watching this presentation. What we have here is too much zing, pow, a-hyuck, wacka wacka wacka! Luckily those segments only last a short time.
Pines of Rome is awesome.
The flamingos Camille Saint-Saëns bit was cute, colorful, fun.
The CGI in some of the shorts is really dated.
I even teared up at the Donald and Daisy Duck one.
The Firebird is astounding. Stravinsky is what got me into classical music as a kid, and with the rebirth of nature theme, it’s sublime.
Movie still feels rushed, wish it were longer.
I honestly wish they’d kept up with this revival of a new Fantasia film every decade or so. Except now, I’d like to see a Fantasia-like film with more contemporary music pieces. Wouldn’t you want to see a 2-hour film with music from the likes of: Kraftwerk, Terje Rypdal, Jessye Norman, Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock, Jon Hassell, Vangelis, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders? I would. And seeing as there are so many independent animators in the world, the possibilities for something grand, avant-garde, experimental would be really exciting to see.
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Friend dynamics of Trainspotting, 12 years ahead of its time. Drunken, stoned Aussies. Ramshackle, shaggy-dogged night in the life of young people on the verge. Keeping it together any means necessary. Wild, outrageously wild. Captures the moment of music of youth, punks, glam rock in 80’s Sydney. A moody one. This movie is a scene, man. In an era of Australian cinema when there were seemingly only grindhouse pictures and stunt crazy action movies, this indie film is an outlier. Depicts contemporary life as I haven’t seen before for that time and place. A drunken, rambling, endearing, funny binge. I feel high. Five walkouts!
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I understood this despite not speaking Portuguese and without the option of subtitles. I might have to rewatch this if I want to become more familiar with the language.
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Watched on Tuesday May 6, 2025.
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It isn’t perfect, but dammit the filmmakers tried to incorporate as much culture they were unfamiliar with to get to some truth. That’s commendable considering the scale of the picture.
I this being a lot more impactful during the pandemic, but not so much now — the body swap elements still felt insulting. So much of this movie caters to being a silly, goofy kid’s animated film when the tone and themes act against that.
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Completely charming, entrancing, magical, otherworldly — love it. I feel like I’d seen it before, and maybe I had a long time ago, but this felt fresh and totally new.
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I generally dislike most films from 1983-1989 -- the real ’80’s. This is smack dab in the middle of that decade, but Walter Hill is behind this, so there’s some solid, confident filmmaking going on; elements of the Western coming in, too, as always with Hill. This used to always be on TV when I was a kid, and it was one of my dad’s favorite movies back then. So I can’t tell if this is “the blues” for white people or if it’s genuinely liked and appreciated as a cornerstone of the mythos of Robert Johnson, if this is a film black musicians love, or is it too tame.
It’s a great road movie, though, and it never veers into too much saccharine for the sake of a rating. It’s got great guitar supplied by Ry Cooder, and a genuine love of “the blues,” but like I said, not sure how much I trust a film written by a white man to tell me what the blues is all about.
I’d love it if someone made a film actually about Charley Patton or Robert Johnson rather than their effects on music, people, the delta.
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It’s that time of year again.
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Stylistically, I love everything about this movie.
It’s a sexy, pulpy crime movie with one of Jerry Goldsmith’s best scores, shot in a sleek and dynamic way by Jan de Bont.
It also puts me back in the 1990’s, where, even though I was 7 years old when this came out, the tone and atmosphere of this reminds me I lived in this time. A time where people fucked, were sexual, and that was reflected in cinema, without feeling fucking “cringe” about it or whatever.
Edit: I’d never noticed that Dorothy Malone plays a ing character in this, and for anyone who has seen Written on the Wind, this is a coup. Gives an extra layer of melodramatic reference that is perfect. Having just watched Verhoeven’s WWII epic (and this might be an easter egg) there’s a character in this also named Gus who is the MC’s BF and finds himself at an untimely end. Don’t be named Gus in a Paul Verhoeven film, it seems.
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Paul Verhoeven’s WWII epic is at times adventurous without feeling dangerous, dangerous and life threatening, tense and loose, insightful and also coarse, heroic and tragic. Details the exploits of college students from graduation through Holland’s occupation by the nazis, through the war and intrigue being in the Dutch resistance, and the eventual liberation in 1945. At 2 1/2 hours it breezes by at an exciting pace.
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An espionage film for nerds. Not a lot at fault here other than the direction, cinematography, score. A bit dull. Creative, clever, but I’ll it I genuinely have a distaste for British television directors who make feature films. There’s something un-cinematic, prim, just right, too proper, for my liking. I don’t know if that describes my interpretation accurately enough.
A novelistic film, I guess.
Also, modern cinematography is still dull and flat, boring. Should I have just read the book instead?
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Everyone’s so preoccupied with seeing the cherry blossoms in this movie, it’s a significant plot motivator.
At one point a minor character pronounces the new element “Adamantium” as if it’s a band name, “Adam Antium.”
Harrison Ford is so old I can’t handle it.
The acting in this is terrible. The writing is garbage, like, cheesy, television writing bad. Is this really how people talk? This movie makes me want to jump out of a window.
I haven’t dipped my toes into one of these new Marvel movies in some time, but by the looks of it… oof… I’m glad I don’t care enough to be disappointed. Was I ever into these movies? No. Why watch one now? Bored, tired, it helped me get to sleep.
Watched on Monday April 28, 2025.
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Watched on Monday April 28, 2025.
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See it if only for Gordon Willis’ fucking outstanding cinematography. That’s the real star here. An otherwise low key quirky crime caper, slow because it takes place in the Sud.
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Cool.
I swear, the Coen Brothers, PTA, had to have seen this for Lebowski and Vice. I like Altman’s The Long Goodbye better than this. It’s its own thing, at least better than the Matt Helm movies that came out around the same time. A mature crime picture in an immature, weird, transitional 1960’s Los Angeles. Similarly like Altman’s update of a Chandler novel from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, this was updated from the ‘40’s to the ‘60’s. A bit long and self serious. Cool, though.
Ice cold. Cool. Top tier heist films, one of the best. This, Rififi, The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, shaped my outlook for what good crime films should/could be when I was 15/16 years old. That’s beside the point. 20-something years later I can appreciate the pace of this movie even more than in the intervening years.
The moral codes are fluid, with commentaries on innocence, guilt and honor.
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Dumb. Simply dumb. Weird, too, actually. I was never a fan of Jared Hess, and… still not.
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Fuck Nosferatu, that’s how you make a modern vampire movie. A vampire movie that’s sexy, folkloric, bloody, horny, and actually has something to say.
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Multiple things: a romantic tragedy; a slave revolt picture; a brutal depiction of alcoholism; a display of empathy towards the exploited peoples of the world. Life is cruel, but especially for those indentured to the land who must toil and die for others to thrive. Surprisingly nuanced. Voted as one of the greatest Argentinian films of all time. Better than most films that were released in 1939.
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This is exactly what I imagine being in Thailand and drinking a spiked grog with LSD would be like. I don’t know how to comprehend this other than it taking full advantage of how ecstatic the reaches of cinema can grasp.
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Anti-colonialist film that depicts a realist, honest and tender perspective on how oppression effects individuals, families, the strength of a movement.
Heartbreaking, resilient.
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Birthday film, a treat.
Regé-Jean Page does too much eyebrow and forehead acting.
This is a domestic drama with the stakes of a high intensity espionage thriller. The music is cool, the clothes are boss, the cinematography is crisp and glossy, the settings are modern-- bosh.
I wish this film could play continually all year long on one screen in every cinema. Ranks among my favorite of the year so far. Simple, complex, horny, deceitful, wicked, funny, sly, sleek, minimal. Last year I saw The Beast on my birthday and flipping hated it. Better choice this year.
It’s one of those films that, for me, when I walk out of the cinema, I listen to the soundtrack and can easily remain in the film’s moods and vibes with the aid of the music. I view the world through the lens of this picture and it makes life more invigorating to live.
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Boy am I glad they got their painting back (◔_◔)
Groucho at his most annoyed by everyone around him.
Unforgettable songs, what they were titled I can’t .
Like the play it was based on, acts like a bygone era of vaudeville. I’m watching it and expecting an audience response to happen like applause or laughter or someone hollering, which is odd. Infant sound cinema also sounds so terrible.
Watched on Saturday April 12, 2025.
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Retain your physical media.
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What a way to build up the tension of lovers on the lam, and then completely eviscerate it in two minutes, slap on a happy ending, and say goodnight. I feel like I just got ripped off.
]]>Films released in the United States in 2024.
]]>- Drive My Car
- Lamb
- A Separation
- About Elly
- Pig
- Paper Moon
- Looking for Mr. Goodbar
- The Mission
- The Duellists
- Heavenly Creatures
...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
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Film Forum
- The Boy and the Heron
Angelika Film Center
- Anatomy of a Fall
Angelika Film Center
- 20 Days in Mariupol
The Egyptian Theatre, 2023 Sundance Film Festival
- The Zone of Interest
Angelika Film Center
- Barbie
AMC Southdale 16
- Killers of the Flower Moon
Brooklyn Academy of Music
- Asteroid City
Mann's Grandview Cinema
- Fremont
The Ray Theatre, 2023 Sundance Film Festival
- Fallen Leaves
Brooklyn Academy of Music
-Attempt to include only one of a director's films
-Non-hierarchical ranking
-Films that I’ve loved throughout my entire life, have had an important or memorable impact on me
- Tron
- Akira
- Barry Lyndon
- Stalker
- Mirror
- The Seventh Seal
- Atlantics
- Jackie Brown
- Phantom Thread
- Spirited Away
...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Movies, mostly science fiction, that take place in the year 1997. The future takes place in 1997.
]]>I didn't see nearly as many films as I'd have liked, nor did I stand in the cold to see the hyped-up festival favorites, but these were the standouts of this year's festival for me.
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