4v291o
What a wild one. I definitely thought this was some kind of a psychodrama police procedural but it's a whole lot more in the sci-fi, spooky ooky space. Maybe more than I bargained for?
It crams in an incredible amount of wriggling from where the movie starts—which I kind of really loved and wished there was more of that—so by the time it ends, it's like discovering wreckage a mile away from the crash.
If god ever tells you to do something... don't listen!
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Sucks!
Reprehensibly dumb. Pure, sickening, 90s slop. When the little guy is taunting the professional ballplayers and saying things like "pitcher's got a big butt" I wanted to pierce my eyes and ears with weaponry. Every time he yelped and his voice squeaked I wanted to do crime.
Not a good movie, a bad movie. A bad movie that makes me angry. I am angry now.
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Oh boy. Not for me!
I am cringing as I have to use this phrase but... I am not the slightest bit into a movie that is creepypasta adjacent.
Simply online in a way I'll never be.
Alex G soundtrack is great, but not as good as any of his albums, so if you need a fix, just, uh, listen to those.
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Man, I love this movie.
Pound for pound, maybe my favorite coming of age story. I was never a skateboarder, but I do believe in the life-saving ability of having a community and a thing to pour yourself into. Especially as a kid, but in truth, as an adult, too.
The kids in this movie are all incredible. They are so real in their depiction of a group of teenagers. Props to Jonah Hill for pulling the best out of them. One of the instances were you can feel how well a movie is directed.
I think I will always be moved by the the act of someone attempting to find their way. It is a brave and courageous act we must all do. And so rarely is it ever easy. I want to hug every person in this movie.
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Michael B. Jordan? Michael be boxing.
I have never watched a Rocky. Just feel the need to come clean on that.
This was pretty alright, I think it feels very much like a Movie, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it hits the predictable beats and notes. It's like a pop song. I like bobbing my head to a pop song, especially when I can tell when the chorus is coming, when the bridge is coming. It's fun. It gives you what you want. But it doesn't really surprise or delight you. Again, not necessarily a bad thing. I had a good time watching.
The question now becomes if I will watch more Creeds or any Rockys. Time will tell. But let me say this: a franchise is a man's prize.
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It's like The Death Of Stalin if that had less plot, less jokes, no stand out performances, a scope smaller and less significant, and was subtitled. Mostly, though, it commits the sin of not being funny.
Stashed this on the watchlist a year or so ago after Emily Stone put it in her Letterboxd Top 4, but after this, yeesh, she's going into Celebrity Movie Recommender Jail.
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I thought this did a good job of effectively capturing both the time of life and the time of history, and the difficulties that came with both. There are universal emotions and experiences that we all must through on our way through childhood into adulthood.
Chris’ mom is the character I loved most and I loved how it transformed into their story more than simply his being a doofus teenager.
Digital historians of the early aughts back me up, but my biggest gripe here was that, even though this got it right more than most of its contemporaries do when attempting to bottle this time period up…there was still some fuzziness in accuracy. AIM, MySpace, and Facebook were not all equal arms at the same time and certainly not in 2008. And it’s important to capture 2008 not as 2004 as we begin a period where 4 years is quite a monumental distance in digital experiences. It felt like a wide net being cast to pull in things we all , which winds up with a big haul that feels a bit unsorted. Uninspected. The effectiveness of the very good Dark Knight gag is offset by the questionable AIM UI. I think you have to be razor sharp with this in order for it to be great. With PEN15 as the gold standard, it doesn’t quite reach as high in its specificity of the time, but the story absorbs so much it never topples.
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Kind of rocks? Kind of sucks?
Feels a bit tormented by itself—a tug of war of good and bad that winds up not really pulling the flag over the line in either direction. For all the cool stuff there’s nearly an exact counterpart of something from Goober Academy.
The music takes home all the chips though, it’s perfect.
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Pretty unique in its storytelling and vision. It felt unburdened to tell us how bad war is, and in the many quiet and creeping moments it lingers on, it says a whole lot. Obviously the long shots and cinematography is very good, obviously the run is great. Nice to see it lives up to the hype that's been built around it as a technical marvel.
Once our two lads head off at the start of their journey into treacherous territory it reminded me much of Paths Of Glory. They wind up tonally different, but I think they share a core.
It's a striking journey that pretty much drags you through the muck against your will—as true to life as I imagine a depiction of war can be.
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Is there a more bankable actress than Laura Linney? When she gets stern and uses that voice she uses, it's cinema.
Matt Broderick is a doofus, but every once in a while he shows up and I am pleased to see him and he works and I thought this was one of those times. Ruffalo, though, irked me from start to finish. Wondering if I am actually not a fan?
It never reached an emotional depth of substance for me, it just kinda waded around in the kiddy pool the whole time. Which is alright, there's fun to be had there, but I would have liked for this to really get its hair wet. It felt maybe a bit unsure of its own identity to make too quick of a movement. In the end, I'm not totally sure what it's about.
And let's give it up for the Culkins, a factory of cute child actors.
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Paranoia will always get you.
Another great entry from KR, yet again dodging the typical pillars of specific genres to make something that feels hers alone. It's a thriller only in the vague shape of a plot summary, instead, focusing on character and feeling to stir up the uneasiness and dread. Jesse Eisenberg is a good fit for this role—his eyes doing some extra heavy lifting—and Dakotes and Pete Sarsgaard play well around him.
Realizing all of her movies that I've seen have at least one scene that is so dark you can barely make out the characters and can barely hear what they are saying. It's a funny thing to emerge as a calling card, but it feels deeply part of her films. In absence of anything to grab onto, something about it really helps you feel like you're there. You're straining for any detail like you would in real life.
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When you subvert the Western, you risk robbing yourself of the reason watching a Western is enjoyable. Typically, painful slowness is guaranteed to explode, and so as you wander, you fear the inevitable. Here, we’re not exactly robbed, but there’s definitely substitutions where you expect one thing and get a contemplative other thing. It’s a good movie even if it’s not a particularly enjoyable one. Usually when I say that it’s because it’s so brutal and feel bad you can’t really *like* it. This more just toys with our expectations of the genre and quietly walks around them. The explosion is not in our scope even if we know it’s still coming. They always do. It’s purely Reichardtly in its approach.
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Kelly Reichardt is doing more in 80 minutes than most can do in 2 hours. Take that to the bank. And within that, Michelle Williams is doing more than most can do with twice as many lines. A kind security guard is making me wanna cry. A dog is acting. It's great stuff.
Something so pure and heartbreakingly real about the quietness of this and Old Joy that, in their refusal to force anything, makes everything happen easily.
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REVIEWED ENTIRELY ON 35MM FILM
I had a fun little time with this, plenty to enjoy, plenty to behold. Format draws you in, performances hold you down, the plot and action keep you glued.
Much chatter about going in blind…yes, like all movies, I went in blind. I did the very normal thing of not doing research before watching. If you are somehow someone who reads the wikipedia article of a movie before watching it, don’t do that, and also you’re a maniac. For the average movie enjoyer, you will enjoy.
In the final scene of the movie my wife asked of the main role “Is that the singer… Halsey?” to which i didn’t have an answer because I realized I don’t even know what she looks like. Not a bad assumption and I could see her doing it now that I know what she looks like. (I do my research AFTER a movie 😤)
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In this spiritual world, angels can have long overcoats and ponytails.
This is what happens when you go all gas no breaks on all poetry no prose. Poetry, especially within movies, is strong when there is something to hold it against, but when it becomes the overwhelmingly dominant vehicle, it starts to lose its power. When everything is poetry is nothing?
The concept is not uninteresting, but I think the choices that were made in how this was actually crafted and then told made it really hard to connect with.
Didn't much care about the love story, which is kind of, I guess, supposed to be the main story here? I found the bit about Ponytail Angel drinking coffee and seeing colors and tasting blood and hanging with Peter Falk to feel the most compelling. It comes wayyy too late though. I'd rather see the first hour and half given a half hour and vice versa.
Nick Cave has forever been an artist I think I should be into but am not. I listen, I try, I come back, I try again. Nothing. Reporting live, this too, has not won me over. Yet.
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An okay story but not a very good movie. The unfortunate instance where a movie just charts downwards from a strong start and is never able to point its nose up again.
I didn't love the performances, which seem to be the thing that people are championing the hardest. Something about them lacked a humanity and realness, almost across the board, that the way this was told really needed to be effective.
Yeah, I the girls:
Starts
Unassumingly,
Pushes
Plots
Over
Real
Thought.
The
Hazy
Emotional
Grounding
Is
Really
Lacking
Shape.
🎶Psycho Biddy
Qu'est-ce que c'est🎶
First and foremost, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are both electric in this. There are so many scenes were we just get to look at their faces and that's basically all I want and need. It feels quite disturbing for so much just in part to their performances.
I found it it to feel a bit bloated in a way that kept it from reaching great heights, it definitely feels stretched out more than it needs to be, but when you look at the key moments in isolation, its filled with lots of macabre and grotesque imagery that feels unnerving.
One day, someone is gonna make a soundtrack that matches the feeling they are conjuring with the imagery and its gonna change the game!
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Absolutely astonishing.
An incredible showing of what this medium is capable of. The cinematography is of the best I've ever seen. The writing is sharp and profound. The performances are genuine and moving—at first you spend some time being impressed with how good they are, but by the end you forget you are watching people act and it feels like you are somehow watching real people. The music and the sound are instantly classic. I do not have a single complaint for the entire three and a half hours. It is a stunningly complete film.
Truly, I was seconds in to this when I felt it speaking to my soul. It begins with such gripping fervor and I don't think it ever exactly lets go. As the epic travels through time and place, I can't think of another movie that has such range in scale since There Will Be Blood, another deeply American tale.
This is a monumental achievement.
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I cannot help but love movies where the hero only does what is right in the face of all adversity. A strong sense of goodness is always enjoyable to me. Harry Potter, Ethan Hunt, Paddington.
Paddington himself will always be the star, but boy oh boy was Hugh Bonneville born to play Mr. Brown. He just keeps getting funnier in this role. I don’t even see Lord Grantham any more. And you know what? I bellyached about Sally Hawkins not being in this, but Emily Mortimer was great, I barely gave a care.
Olivia Colman, the best as always, and Tony Banderas holding it down. Give me at least 3 more of these.
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You know, for being kind of a dope fest for a lot of it, this cranks up to a pretty bleak ending. Rated G for Guns, I assume.
Franchise wise, you simply must pause to reflect how these first 3 are so all over the place. They are really playing with the concept and I guess power to them for it. But with that, this feels the least Planet Of The Apesy and more just Apes In The 70s. Which is pretty fun but also pretty tonally strange in comparison to the others.
Imagine if apes were real.
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Not to be a sicko, but I feel like this would have benefitted from it going a bit harder. This guy was clearly a psycho but it feels like we only get small glimpses and they never let the whole hog loose. Except for...that hog. All in all, it's relatively tame given its subject matter.
Bana is a unit in this. It feels like Ang Lee saw it and said "Make him Hulk," and he wasn't a fool for it. Never saw Hulk but I think people don't like it, but just sayin', if you saw this and you were making a Hulk movie, you'd probably cast him as Hulk too.
(Edit: I just read the wikipedia article for HULK and Ang Lee *did* see this and then approach Bana—so, yes, I am a bit of a ~*~cinematic genius~*~)
I must feel obliged to call out that this falls in my most loathed film-making time period and it has the dreaded coloring of Minority Report. Hmm. Maybe Spielberg saw this too...
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For the sake of this review, comedies fall into one of the four quadrants of a graph with the axises of SILLY and FUNNY. A movie can be: 1. SILLY AND FUNNY, 2. SILLY BUT NOT FUNNY, 3. NOT SILLY BUT FUNNY, or 4. NOT SILLY AND NOT FUNNY.
Unfortunately for Spaceballs it is firmly planted in the quadrant of SILLY BUT NOT FUNNY. Silliness can be funny (think something like Dumb And Dumber or Step Brothers) but Silliness in the absence of Funniness is a bitter pill. In many ways, it's the hardest to pull off. Ideally when something is as dumb as this is you want it to go like "This is so dumb, it's hilarious" but this is "This is so dumb, and the sight of John Candy as that thing is making me ill."
I like Mel Brooks but this is a dopey whiff. Something about it...all the humor feels cheap. Almost like a first draft that was rushed into production.
For reference here is some contextual charting to define this Comedy Axis Theory further:
SILLY AND FUNNY
Ridiculous, often over the top, unafraid to go all the way for it. Typically a strong commitment to a bit, very playful, intentionally a bit dumb.
Dumb And Dumber
Step Brothers
Napoleon Dynamite
Hundreds Of Beavers
SILLY BUT NOT FUNNY
Full of gags, lots of wacky characters, requires a suspension of belief to make it work. Absolutely the hardest needle thread, so this category falls into two subcategories of Purposeful and Accidental.
PURPOSEFUL
—
The Grand Budapest Hotel
PlayTime
ACCIDENTAL
—
Dr. Strangelove
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Spaceballs
NOT SILLY BUT FUNNY
Dry, sharp, typically witty or smart. Usually some truthful realism to these that can hurt as much as it makes you laugh.
Licorice Pizza
Fargo
The King Of Comedy
The Squid And The Whale
NOT SILLY AND NOT FUNNY
I'm thinking of these as the kinds of movies that are baaaaaarely comedies. Probably at least some amount of bleakness or existentialism is required to make these whir. I think there is probably some movies that miss on being silly and funny simply because they stink, but this is more interesting for the ones that pull it off and still somehow feel like a comedy.
Punch Drunk Love
A Serious Man
Sean Baker's movies
Yorgos' movies
Now, please, no one complain that a movie you like is in a category that you don't agree with, or that you thought it was funny, or that you laughed. Go make your own Comedy Axis Theory and spend too long formatting a review with html tags to organize it nicely.
Thank you for reading and please be safe out there.
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Mayssion: Impossible 8/8
What a way to cap it. And in IMAX? The seats were rumbling and I was smiling.
There is a lot of very good stuff in this, but there’s one 20ish minute segment that I think is of the best from the whole series. Hitting the high note with gusto.
As my journey has come to an end, and all the fun is done, I am now publishing this secret document from the IMF: Mission: Impossible: Ranked
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Mayssion: Impossible 7/8
I like this, I had a good time with this, but this is a big, fat, beefy set up for the Final Reckoning and so I think it can only do so much.
Following in the grand tradition of having a wild final half hour, this gives us what we all want. The most thrilling train sequence since Paddington 2.
I am now ready, willing, and able to see the new, and many are saying final installment in this storied franchise. My first and many are saying last I’ll see in a theater. Hard to imagine how that doesn’t make these like at least twice as fun. Stand by and stand back, its happening, folks.
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Mayssion: Impossible 6/8
This is one long delivery of scenes, sets, and sequences after another, and it builds so high that the last 30 mins are the most towering stuff of the whole franchise. Total greatness.
What Ethan can do with a helicopter rope… I’m in awe. I’ll probably always associate the copter stuff with this movie most, but a special shout out to the bathroom fight scene which is probably my favorite fight scene of any of them too.
Appreciated that Ethan gets back to his MI:2 ion of rock climbing, way to tie that back in.
Another special shout out to Henry Cavill, who next to Tom looks like a mountain. He might be my fav baddie simply on his size alone.
Sheesh, so much working for this one.
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It looks good, it sounds good, it feels good. But I never quite made it over the hump to connect with it emotionally.
I think the future aesthetic was done perfectly. I am often griping about how something set in the future feels so profoundly inaccurate, there was great believably in a future that might look like this. Lamps and sofas still felt like our lamps and sofas. People still hung art on their walls and drank tea with an understanding of its ancient roots. So many movies bobble this and this one hit the bullseye. Same for the clothes. Give me the slouchy robe-like shirts. Let me live in the fashion of the future.
I think a piece I struggled with was the not knowing exactly what the commentary was on AI and non-human integration into our lives. I don’t think that was the actual point, but I lacked a certainty of whether I was supposed to feel empathy for Yang that felt uneasy. I am not anti AI, but I am weary of inviting these things into our lives and supplementing them in human ways and places. The mourning of Yang, as family, could be quite resonant. But the mourning of Yang, as a robot, is weird. Maybe dangerous. As these AI being stories become more and more a topic we see in movies, I find myself increasingly disinterested in contending with them. Not because it’s complicated but more because it’s boring. I think we’ll eventually move beyond the humanization of it, and this will feel less relevant, but for now, I’m not necessarily trying to hear more stories about it.
Lastly, I think the lessons Yang was able to teach his family were apt and beautiful and a good reminder for everyone to slow down, be present, and try to hold tight to your memories.
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Mayssion: Impossible 5/8
My speed run is catching up to me and these are becoming a slight blur. The 5th director in 5 movies, and while Chris Mac is evidently the prince that was promised as he's been the steady hand since, truthfully, I wouldn't necessarily have given him the keys after this. It fell in the middle of the franchise so far, for me. I found Ghost Protocol to be more worthy and unique. I don't know the history, why didn't Big Bird get the throne?
Reebs is good. Now, I'm not much of a Dune head, but I think she fits this kinda thing really well—more than that.
I found this to be the most confusing since the first one—the simpler the better, for me, a simple man. There was a touch too much talking in rooms for my interest at this point. Sadly, I have not seen a return on investment in beefing up plots in any of the movies so far. I'm really okay if they don't try so hard.
I've got big hopes for the next three, so, I am adorning a realistic mask, putting a high tech in one eye, and watching calmly in a chair that I am handcuffed to. The Mission: Impossible Way™.
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Mayssion: Impossible 4/8
The burners are on now, folks. This was a leap from all the others, placing the franchise in a new territory. An incredible amount of fun, and apart from the original, the most *movie-like.*
Appreciated that this one acted like other Mission: Impossibles existed, honestly strange that it was the first to do it. We almost made it through the whole movie without someone doing "the drop," but they couldn't help themselves. The first one to not do that, I swear I'm gonna throw a party.
Ethan, you're still corny. (But I love you anyway.)
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Mayssion: Impossible 3/8
Right after he lays atop the Vatican City wall and says "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" he drops down on a wire and does the thing and I screamed "THEY CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS."
A pretty even split of fun and good stuff—general improvements—and corny nonsense, but a definite upgrade and recalibration from 2. Michelle Monaghan and Phil Hoffman were great additions. Simon Pegg...to be determined.
Wild that with the pairing of Abrams and Giacchino there is a certain Lostness to this, especially in the last half hour. Some of the music feels straight lifted from the hatch.
Onward, let's keep the good times rolling.
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The first time I watched this it was after I had watched the first season of the TV show, and while I thought it was good, it felt truncated in comparison to how they were able to draw out a story over a season of television. I wound up liking it, but I was definitely in a cloud.
So, yeah, this is obviously really great. Ironically, its quick pace is a lot of what makes it so enjoyable. Bill Macy is such a pathetic little worm. You can't stand him and yet you can't get enough of him. Steve Bu is so underrated, man. He's one of the best. And s, the queen. Cast? Cast in Gold, papa.
Thinking back to the show which now I have 5 seasons of to compare against, I love how they continue to pick little bits of inspiration and reference and sprinkle them in. Amazing how these not even 100 minutes of movie birthed so much imaginative world building.
Long live the Fargo Cinematic Universe.
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Paranoia will always get you. Gene’s portrayal of Harry is fantastic, he really nails this guy who straddles exploiting others’ privacy and, probably for it, values his own. I love the troubling place this puts him in and the way it creates a more and more suffocating environment.
Was enjoying this from the get go, but once the pieces start clicking into place it took it to the next level. Great stuff.
The music: Severancey.
The ending: Better Caul Saulish.
Harry’s hobbies: Saxual
The first 15-20 minutes of this had me thinking it was going to be some grass fed Irish cheddar, but it takes enough spins and shakes off the Teen™️ of it all, that by the end I really liked it. Surprisingly and delightfully emotionally rich.
A lot of focus goes to Chad, and yeah, that’s fair, but I felt an equal pang for any stuff with her and her mom. Unafraid to be sweet.
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Even in this rough shape of what can be, they still manage to produce something that was and is so culturally unique and resonant. In the fibers of the gross, humiliating, and tortuous, is a commitment to comedy and themselves that is as strong as any. I find these movies as equally touching and beautiful as I do hilarious and gross.
Had to look away for the paper cuts and the yellow snow cone. Couldn't look away for much else.
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Following the classic sequel approach of "if you liked the first one..you're gonna like this one a bit less."
Can't believe they bagged both Charlton Heston and We Have Charlton Heston At Home. Magnificent. Deranged.
Didn't much give a hoot about the telepaths. Strange to be watching this in the midst of my Mayssion Impossible run, where everyone is constantly peeling a face off, and yet again bear witness to faces being peeled off. Movies love it, that's Hollywood.
Even though this comes short to where POTA lands, and far short of where anything in the modern reboots stand, I am an Ape Enjoyer through and through and even the low points of this franchise are still lovely and enjoyable.
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Mayssion: Impossible 2/8
Plays like an hour-long CBS drama. Unlike the first, this has more bad than good. A lotta dumb stuff that just won’t quit—even Tom’s not at his best—it’s so flat it could slide under the door. I also can’t believe they did the dropping from the ceiling on a rope bit again.
The last half hour is pretty sick, but also pretty bad. After the motorcycle chase (great) and the sand fight (silly) it ends with a scene and shot that is so bad I wanna use the virus shooter to pandemic myself.
Also, like…way too much ripping off of hyper realistic masks. Like 6 times did someone get their version of “I don’t even wanna be around anymore.” Too much!
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Mayssion: Impossible 1/8
In spite of the constant pull to slightly over-complicate every bit of plot, and in spite of the general 90s-ness that I personally find a bit curdling, there is way more good than bad. It has effectively drawn me into the world and I am excited to take this journey.
Obviously, nothing goes here without Tom. He's the guy just as he always was, is, and will be. His ability to bring severity to every second of screen time makes all his roles and movies feel crucial.
One time in middle school I did a two person juggling act to the theme song in a talent show. Brought out the balls in a briefcase. I think that's what they wanted to happen when they made this movie.
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A bit too Teen Lounge At The Local Library for my blood. Appreciated the story and the way it’s told for the most part and I think the art made some interesting choices, but the sap of it didn't do it for me. More melodrama than I could handle. I never really bought into the emotionality of the relationship, which makes for all the beats they're going through at the end feel bombastic.
Also...too much breast grabbing if you ask me.
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When you hear that an old movie is funny...sometimes it's like...okay, I'm sure that WAS funny, but the humor is from a bygone era. But this is still, actually, very funny! It was so prickly sharp that every line was kind of ally-ooping another, whether directly right after it or to be referenced later on. Smart, but not afraid to be a little silly.
I laughed every time they said "Concentration Camp Ehrhardt" and the more they said it, the harder I laughed.
Jack Benny is so funny and so good—feels like he must have ben an influence for Gene Wilder. The kind of guy who can play a character who takes himself to seriously, every micro expression becomes the funniest thing you can imagine.
They way in which this was spun up, layered, and orchestrated, the whole thing is a pay-off in motion.
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Maybe my fav Timothy Burton? That being said, I just have to wonder what could have become of Johnny Depp if he never linked with Tim. Like, I really liked how he handled Ed, but it feels like when I look at all the characters they've concocted together, it's all more or less the same weird little guy over and over. As if it permanently cemented his rolls in all movies to be announced: "Johnny Depp IS: Weird." Turns out, weird was the least of his concerns, but nevertheless.
I think the black and white aesthetic helped temper some of the tendencies Burton falls victim too, it sort of neutralizing extremes while still feeling odd.
Landau as Lugosi is hilarious—an anchor to this whole ride.
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I found this to rely too heavily on transplanting Robin Williams into a new, novel location than it should have. The actual story and the accompanying script were not great. I kept waiting and hoping for it to become something it never did. Disappointingly soft.
Robin is doing his thing. But, I dunno, this didn’t really feel like the right fit for it. I kept feeling like no one from the 60s would talk like that. 90s goofball sticks out like a sore thumb in 60s Vietnam. Had a few bits I thought were funny, but really just a few. Tough when this was so much more comedy than I assumed it was.
Ultimately, not totally sure the intended takeaway. It seemed afraid to commit to anything too specific. A lot of dashes of this and that, but not a strong vision of the big idea.
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An examination of grief and childhood and the relationships between parents and children that took my breath away from the first minute and held it for the entirety of the run time.
In its shortness, there is a no lack of poignancy. The small scale dials this in so finely that practically every movement, utterance, or glance is deafening. And what a pair of performances from these girls!
I think there is something inherent to parent child dynamics that will always grab me by the collar, but this one is done in a way so tender, the grab is much more of hug. The deep love that parents and children have for each other, a love that is greater than any other, is still limited by the perspectives we're afforded. This skews that by making an impossible vantage point possible. Lord, have mercy.
"I'm already thinking about you." PUNCH ME IN THE HEAD, this is maybe my favorite line in any movie ever.
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This caught my attention for the mashup of Lumet and Brando—a clash of the titans—and it delivers two big scoops of each. Did Brando invent method acting? Did he invent mumblecore?? It’s so easy to see this and not realize how significant it is that he’s approaching a character with a realness and humanity that just simply wasn’t seen. He’s not using that Hollywood affectation everyone else is. He’s casting a stone into the pond.
This is my second time seeing Anna Magnani (first was Rome, Open City) and she impressed me again. Her eyes. Whew. She’s acting just by looking. Her and Brando together had some amazing scenes.
A Southern gothic with violence as the boiling pot, it’s no major surprise this ends how it does. Kind of a proto-Easy Rider in that regard.
Fighting for my life resisting the urge to find a jacket so iconic that it becomes part of my personality and people call me simply by its material.
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Fun! The waves of twists make it an engaging ride, but the overall vibe is also good. Tense, dark, but also leaving some space for some actually loling. Poor Jack Quaid, there's something about him that's just so easy to hate. Sorry, pal.
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Starts and ends with two bangs so big they created universes. But in the middle stretches a plot I couldn't seem to give a hoot about and some spans that omitted altogether the reason I'm here: Jackie Chan doing stunts. It was a proverbial cake in the face, and 3 times, a literal one.
The kabooms were glass shattering—everyone gets a chance to dive through a few panes—and it is worth it for the bookends if nothing else. Chan is da man, how could you dislike him or anything he does?
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For the ways in which this is not so great, there as just as many that make it fun, cool, and a good time. Obviously, Brucey boy is the reason to watch this, and it's a real good reason. The choreographed bits of the movie stand out, but there's quite a few bit of cinematic choices that I'm not sure if they've just aged with charm, but I love. The whip zooms, the supremely wonderful music, the dubs...it's classic kung fu stuff because of movies like this.
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An ode to food, but also to love, care, effort, and the vulnerability of attempting something. It’s mesmerizing. Very hard to pin down what kind of movie this actually is, which, by the end, is a lot of what made me enjoy it so much. It took theme and put that at the front and trusted the rest would make sense if they followed their north star, and it does.
So many beautiful parts of this, the many relationships that get a bit of time, and they’re all compelling. The little vignettes felt like they could launch into a movie of their own each time. As if Tampopo is just one vignette of the many, and it happens to be ours.
The way light is used at the end is magnificent. Everything opens up finally and you didn’t realize quite the effect it was having until it does. It’s so obvious, but it still feels like an amazing relief. Feels like there was probably a hundred choices like this that make this the great thing it is.
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This kind of rocks? Seb Stan is da man and DEJ was at her best here, they elevate an already interesting plot just through their chemistry.
30 minutes in before the title cards and credits is some wacko mode filmmaking that I think this actually has a surprising amount of. It’s sort of masquerading as a normal guy movie, which all seems intentional now.
My wife spoke to the characters almost the entire movie, telling them what to do and getting angry at them. But not me, I just calmly watched and relaxed.
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I may not have seen this since the theaters, and I had a hankering for it. So I strapped in for 3 hours of Leonardo DeBauchery. Still really great, still really fun, excellent performances. I feel it's a bit fatty at parts, compared to other later-Marty long boys. But, that's hardly a complaint. It's very well done and I'd watch Leo for any amount of time.
I had forgotten how the movie actually ends, which, I don't think demonizes Belfort as much as it does our obsession with Belforts. The whole movie plays like a cautionary tale but one that is also showing you how cool it would be if you could live like him. A serpent dangling from a tree, tempting you to adore him, become him. When he does the I'm Not Leavin' speech, how can you feel anything other than excitement, iration, joy, blood-pumping-exhilaration? It would be so much easier to say Money Guy Bad, but to spend the whole movie inflating him to the size of a god and then quickly inverting it at the end in a gotcha kind of way, it's good, it's effective. It's not dissimilar from the ending of Killers of the Flower Moon. Marty's always waiting there with a mirror.
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A bleak look at drugs and addiction. Painful, harrowing, dark. All the while, prominently displaying the most perfect face in the history of cinema, 70s Al Pacino. This is his first leading role and it’s so obvious he is a star. He had everything right away. King.
Another fantastic entry in disgusting 70s NYC movies that I will never tire of.
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A boy witnesses a murder and no one believes him because he's always cryin' wolf and makin' things up. Then the bad guys come after him. Home Alonian hijinks occur. It's a kind of dopey sounding plot, but I actually found it to be relatively a thrill. The boy was impressive. I learned after he was the voice and model for the animated Peter Pan and yeah—check out his expressive eyebrows for the confirmation.
Really hard to imagine a time when a parent might say, yes, son, you may sleep on the fire escape, thanks for asking. Or, no son, you may not leave your room, and I will nail the windows shut and lock your in from the outside. The 40s were wild, man.
]]>I RANK WES FROM BES TO WORS
]]>- Challengers
- The Brutalist
- Sing Sing
- A Different Man
- Anora
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Janet Planet
- Rap World
- Perfect Days
- A Complete Unknown
...plus 45 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Cataloguing every time I see a movie use a wipe.
]]>- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- There Will Be Blood
- Paddington 2
- Sound of Metal
- Parasite
- Toy Story 3
- Good Time
- Uncut Gems
- First Reformed
...plus 34 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>🙈🙉🙊
]]>1987 (Matt’s Version)
A yearlong journey through my birth year. One movie per month. Going in order, I guess?
- Moonstruck
- Wall Street
- Matewan
- Good Morning, Vietnam
- Wings of Desire
- Raising Arizona
- Predator
- Angel Heart
- Where Is the Friend's House?
- Roxanne
...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Obviously haven’t seen everything
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