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It’s OK but it’s a classic example of a lovely novella being totally over explained in a film 2.5

Better than the Brutalist, that’s for sure.  Everything good that film can be. I loved the way it was made and the idea behind it. I wish we could think more about how we construct our stories.

Enjoyable and obvs v topical! I think the twist is fairly obvious to spot early on and a bit perplexing.

Dogs breakfast, not really funny (like US comedy at the time), mildly diverting.

Beautifully landscape photography, and a homage to Irish rural life.  Not exactly nostalgic but respectful of country people and filled with realness and wonder 
3.5

Absolutely no idea why it was so long. Felt like a novel that had been plonked on the screen with no thought about how films work, with cul de sacs and time ellipses confusing and befuddling the audience. Felt as cold and sterile as concrete.  The central idea about belonging just all felt like it could have been said with more clarity and much more empathy. One of those films where you have to go off and listen to one hour podcast with the director to ‘get’.

3.8, an exploration of pain, existential and real. They are both recognisable in carnations of other characters these actors have played but the dialogue is funny and the loose narratives allows real meaning to emerge

I mean, if you like Dylan, you’re going to love the music. I liked the folk music history lesson and it’s very satisfying production-wise , but it’s pretty conventional and the female characters were too busy gawping wide eyed at Chalamet to have a meaningful arc.

Simple, meaningful and true. Loved it, best film I’ve seen in ages. Beautifully shot and edited and shows what can be done with a choice bit of IP…

Quite a bonkers idea and why not? It’s got a great pace to it and there’s fearless musical storytelling. Kept losing faith in it but it kept calling me back…

Pretty faithful to the Murnau, more visceral obvs, disappointed not to get a clear view of N’s penis. Bit hammy at times. Lily’s performance is great

Interesting, didn’t really work as an extended metaphor for me, could have been more focussed in narrative. Great central performance and an extra star for the voice alone

Love it, masterly turn by Caine. Could he have known that it would become this much of a classic?

Unflinching, difficult to watch and yet totally inspiring and affirming

A film with a really strange curated tone, like an a level essay. I think their videos are startling though, really original and interesting with their engagement with real people and places.

Very dated but psychological ideas and settings and ideas fab

OK but Kate Winslet not right for the main role.

Yeah pretty sexy and ionate, lots of Thelma and Louise vibes and a fascinating relationship story that eclipses concerns about a flimsy plot

3.5 really liked it, simple nature and Celtic chills

Endlessly inventive and surreal, really subtle view of working class aspirations with more than a touch of the French New Wave…

One film by Ben W I hadn’t seen. Seems very Ari Astery but also v ordinary, interesting if slightly unintegrated

So nice to watch a film and relax into a slice of life. Beautiful central performance.

4.5 best film I’ve seen in a long time, funny, romantic, melodramatic, obscure and timeless. How annoying to be so good as this, Alice

Watched on Monday April 22, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday April 9, 2024.

Unrelenting, existential, thrilling, every time. Who knew Mel had it in him. It’s really ambitious and believes in itself utterly.

Amazing film. Shows so much ambition and invention. “Dark Disney” was one description that came up when we were watching. No idea how they did the dog fighting scenes, Budapest was a fitting location, liminal, dirty and vaguely pre-war. Thanks Dan Sved.

I really enjoyed this, complex and universal. How do we live and love?

Great story, mad production process, exploitative director

I mean, I love the way he has a vision and enacts it, with his cast in the environment experienced by his characters but it’s hard to watch this knowing what I know about the human cost of production. Love/hate

Inexplicably haven’t seen this film before, despite going on for this kind of conflated, tricksy nonsense. A very agreeable couple of hours. I do have a number of Qs about the world not least about the dubious time management choicea by the big blobby thing but I KNOW I shouldn’t worry…

Strangely watchable shambolic fun

I found myself trying understand the significance of this story to Germans (like the actors) whose grandparents might well have been cogs in the Nazi machine. We gawp at this period from what we think is the safe distance of time but the film makes the point powerfully that this is not a fantasy scenario we are all capable of going along with things, we are all oblivious. Hoss and his wife are obviously mindful of what they are part of, but are we like Helga’s mother, going along with the street sale of curtains but running away from the reality she has assented to? Or are we like the Polish girl, doing something about the situation, in whatever way we can. The soundtrack is so unrelenting and upsetting, the film was all tone, which is a good thing.

Slow, depressing, bleak, hilarious, strange.

So madly inventive and entertaining, if a bit mad and gratuitous. Love the prison fight scene and the chase at the school, super.

Bonkers, but such a brilliant expression of imperialism. Shakespeare, Conrad, Cervantes are all there but in the end just about of averagely really nasty, brutish humans.

Emma Stone is pretty amazing and the costumes and sets are Oscar-bound. I so love a wonky plot and a film with diverse influences, which for me meant Wes Anderson, George Bernard Shaw, Monty Python, Lemony Snicket etc etc.

Watched on Wednesday January 3, 2024.

Loved all the Anderson colours and the schticky fun but the story is a bit thin and there weren’t enough jokes!

Always watch this at Christmas, magisterial performance from Michael Caine and the mice “no cheeses for us meeces”

Everyone should see this film, especially politicians, stunning performances from the non actors and the ordinary/beautiful locations

Christmasy schmaltz but love Ducky and Bunny and the plush rush

Enjoyed mainly for the amazing foley and stunt work

Such a beautiful and sad film about creativity, agency and music

Love a courtroom drama

So beautiful, in this film more than the other Ghibli, you can see some of Wes Anderson’s inspiration. The city scapes and love of interiors and the play of light and shadow make me feel so happy.

Watched on Monday November 27, 2023.

Some of it was fun. Grimly didactic and a little bit smug.

Loved this, great performances, and the actors were good too.

Understated, believable and without artifice or any deus ex machina, twist or flimflam. Slight but lovely