4v291o

Extremely messy second entry, you feel the film yawing under the pressure of having to compress so many repetitive episodes under one bulk. The story is still strong, though, and the action often spectacular.

This is such a spiritual film and it is completely transformed post-Fabelmans, like Fabelmans is the codex to Close Encounters.

Pretty solid noir that makes up for its blandness of plot and mystery with the natural conflict that arises from the premise and a colorful ing character in Don Cheadle as the unpredictably combustible Mouse. It helps that it has perfect grasp of tone and is light on its feet but I was thirsty for some more style. I think ultimately why this wasn't a slam-dunk for me was Jennifer Beals's dull performance and unglamourous getup in a film that needed her to be resplendent.

Cat vs Satan is a really fun premise heightened by the appearance of a supernatural kitten.

Whatever

Like a Mignola comic come to life. That's the best compliment I could give it.

Not unenjoyable, deducting one star for MrBeast.

Empty nonsense.

Now we're talking. Robert Valley's animation is gorgeous accompaniment to a pulpy, muscular scifi tale.

Barely amusing nonsense.

My GOAT washed
x.com/arvofart/status/1925754135623635417

Denzel is great but there's a cleanliness to this film that really works against its premise, it needed to be scuzzier, dirtier, grimier and Elias Koteas seems to have gotten the memo in his too-short performance. Hoblit is a veteran of cop shows and flounders the horror, which is to be expected. A horror vet can do cop shows, but a cop guy can never really do horror well.

Oddly unrevelrous about the aftermath of its delectable Rube Goldberg machine death traps and everything else that's happening is, par for the course, lackluster.

Sets up a really nervy tone that falls apart under the weight of a complicated plot, while it has character moments, every setpiece has them working apart, almost always in completely different spaces. Tom is the franchise, but the team has always been its beating heart and I feel this being the ending, the team should've had some more of the spotlight, working in cohesion. It doesn't help that Gabriel and the Entity are pretty lightweight villains - yes, the Entity presents a terrific threat, in universe, but barely has any presence on screen. What saves the day are two terrific setpieces, one set in the skies and one set deep below the ocean floor, that are pitch-perfectly tense and riveting.

Been meaning to rewatch this ever since the Bollywood movie came out. The last time I watched it was a long time ago, caught this in a theater, and it's quite stark how much I've changed, how much the country has changed, how much the ubiquity of movies as a cultural force has been tarnished. This feels like such an artefact now. I being more hopeful for cinema when I last watched it, now I feel like we're in its penultimate breaths. But everyone is a filmmaker now, everyone is doing things to get the craziest shot for their tiktoks and instagrams. People like Nasir are practically a harbinger for the current world, for better or worse. I marginally work in films, and I would like to work more prominently but seeing Nasir and company putting in the work, their fire and ion, I wish they could have some of the fortune I've been blessed with, maybe they'd actually make something of it.

I know these films are right wing af but every time Ma Dong Seok lands a punch an angel gets its wings.
I watched this with a cigar in my mouth and felt my beard grow a smidge more.

Pretty sharp, engrossing thriller. Clooney has the advantage of being a mug who looks like there's some intelligence behind his eyes.

Ngl I was a bit sloshed and dozed off a few times - don't watch Haneke on rum, kids! - thought this was a chilling rendition of being careful what you lust for, a portrait of a woman under repression.

Repetitive glazing by some funny people for the funniest person in America. I enjoyed it. Needed Bill Hader.

Oh you think you're funny, huh? You think you're fucking funny? Okay, maybe you're a little funny. Just a tiny bit. And you look good and sound okay, I it it.

Yeah I'm full now. Satisfied. *burp*

Found this to be really thrilling right up until the end. Until then it gets to be a Star Trek pastiche as well as a heady, solid Black Mirror episode and thrilling all the way through. The ending, though, is a bit of a retread of the prequel and I feel like it's somewhat of a missed potential.

GOD GIAMATTI
Kinda sloppy in its writing but when you've got a perfect performance anchoring it all down it really works

This review may contain spoilers.

Third watch and it's stronger than ever. There is a shift in the sound design in the scene where Smoke visits Annie that pulls this into sheer magick realism zone which primes the rest of the film to work. So when the vampires arrive the note struck isn't discordant but of a kind with the tone and the atmosphere of the film. Of course, the music does help. But what this ensures is that the magickal elements of this film feel as genuine as the realities of Jim Crow south that our protagonists endure. The scene where past and future intermingle does not diminish, even in the third round my skin was ablaze like gooseflesh, I think it's one of the definitive scenes of this decade of cinema. The only thing that doesn't work is the messy, choppy climactic action scene which suggests there were more survivors in the Juke than we were aware of. It's the only sloppy note in a perfect song.

Gareth Evans still needs the right script for his drama to action ratio but still, Tom Hardy proves to be game for this film, gruffy when the scene demands it, animated when the action needs him to be. Forest Whitaker is completely off, surprisingly enough. Even the action, handsomely mounted, isn't particularly spectacular. This isn't Raid territory but Gangs of London, although the latter had one truly magnificent farmhouse seige. All in all, not unenjoyable.

This is out and out popular fare, warts and all, but this franchise is about the dichotomy of the angelic and monstrous, the illusion of the status quo and the clarity of choice, and that makes for a potent, poignant emotional playfield. Add to that some of the most gorgeous visuals, thrilling setpieces and an epic sense of scale. This is a tale of gods and monsters and love and friendship and feels like it.

"We are too young to fear."

Reveals itself as a richer film the second go-around. In its first half there are almost no scenes that are anything but great, with richly drawn characters that stay with you long after the final frame has flickered. I think it is still just a tad deficient as an actioner, especially when all hell breaks loose, but makes up for it as its various strands culminate in satisfying ways.

I think I like it a little less, especially Revisions to a Manifesto, which feels like the most mean spirited of Wes's works, trying and failing to grasp the urgent zeitgeist that was sweeping America at that time. However the stories that border it are delightful, with the third story a particular highlight. You can count on Wes to bring you the whimsy, you can also count on him to punch you in the gut before the evening is done.

For better and worse, this is a vampire film that only someone who has directed Black Panther, Creed, and Fruitvale Station could have made. Pulpy, propulsive, politically resonant, but also a little slapdash, a little unelegant, a little too almost-there to be a genuine cinematic artefact.
There's a lot to love here, the characters, MBJ pulling double duty as Smoke and Stack and succeeding in creating two distinct characters, ably helped by sharp costuming to differentiate them, the film is resplendent with gorgeous music, from the heroes, as well as the vamps, the vamps themselves with their seductive, hippie-cult, free love vibes that Coogler imbues them with.
Where it falters is that the edit is sometimes a little staccato, there is a disturbance in its grace when it could have taken some time to simmer. Except for one scene, a long unbroken shot, where the spirits and the music of past and future intermingle, summoned by a supernaturally talented young black man.
What elevates it, ultimately, is the mid-credits coda but I shan't spoil it here.

Was due for a rewatch and it being featured on Rewatchables was just the push I needed. A perfect film with perhaps the greatest penultimate line in movie history. I also love watching films that serve as stark reminders of how fucking lonely I am. The last time I watched this was when I was 25 and still held out hope to have a Before Sunrise, you could say the movie fed my fantasy. I'm 30 now and I've been miserable and alone for a majority of those intervening five years and I don't think I'll be able to watch Sunrise, it would be too fucking painful. I thought I'd rewatch this one while I still can, before it, too, becomes too painful to watch. I wish I had a better therapist. Perfect movie, though. Please read my other review of this.

Just bleak and unforgivable and spiteful. This is Charlie Brooker the comedian spewing satire shorn of much humor.

Capaldi's lovely scottish voice narrating most of the events of the episode was like an edging session. I want him doing Big Finish audios so badly. My Doctor. My GOAT. Episode was fine, treading upon well trod mud. Thought the filmmaking was nice, though, like a diet Fincher.

I think this works pretty well once you set your expectations straight for what it is, the voyeurism of cinema made text as we follow a family and their disparate, edge-of-mundane plots. Sodaburger's post-stabilised camerawork is nervy and elegant despite itself. I saw the twist coming but the shot that revealed it chilled me to my core.

I mean, it's well made, it's snappy, performances are fine and it moves quickly enough that you don't really think about what happened a moment before, and it reaches a certain threshold of funny, but this is so paper-thin and its mythologising of SNL is comical to me. However it's in each scene with Jim Henson, parodied here by Greg from Succession, that it truly reveals how evil it is.

This movie spins like 4-5 plots only for everyone to forget them and get busy aura farming.
I like its politics, though, the little of it that there is. I like how, in the second half, the movie just became luring BJP goons into traps and beating the everliving shit out of them.

FUCK BJP FUCK HINDUTVA FUCK RSS

Handsomely mounted and performed but I think it needed just a dash of Noel Coward.

Watched on Sunday March 23, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday March 25, 2025.

Poetry

Just realised we ended up watching this 1 day before Kurosawa's birthday.

Fernanda Torres's performance is this film's greatest weapon. Salles knows how to manipulate you, with subtlety, with nuance, like a great magician. Moments of heartbreak are dropped with surgical precision, with a strong quietness. The narrative, sadly, has renewed relevance as we sink deeper into right wing fascism, I fear we will be doomed to go through what Eunice Pavia goes through in the film sooner rather than later.

Watched on Friday March 21, 2025.

A tour de force of filmmaking and performance. Works best when it dwells with its characters but offers little insight or depth to its socially relevant themes.

Watched on Thursday March 20, 2025.

Looks gorgeous on 16mm film, Domingo puts up a great, albeit peacock-y, performance but Divine Eye, playing a younger version of himself, totally steals the show. I was struck by how Kwedar successfully managed to make the prison ecosystem feel different to how it's been usually portrayed, there is the sense of a prison but also an ease to the atmosphere, especially during the RTA scenes, that feels effortlessly transportive.

Watched on Saturday March 15, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 13, 2025.

As a fan of the the Innocents I quite dug the atmosphere and the performances; Nicole Kidman is excellent as always but the kids do a great job, too. It's quite light on the horror, reserving it to a few noises and the odd closing door. The twist, unfortunately, had been spoiled to me by a well meaning aunt but I still had chills when it appeared. That said, I think its premise is quite thin and would be better served in a shorter film.

This review may contain spoilers.

I think Shuchi Talati is a talent to watch. Quite liked this one. Really identified with the bit where the english speaking girl is chased into a room by a troop of hindi speaking laundas.

Happy women's day

1. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
2. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
3. Mission: Impossible
4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
6. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
7. Mission: Impossible III
8. Mission: Impossible II

• The Man from Earth
• Arrival
• La Jetée
• Interstellar
• Shin Ultraman
• The Fountain
• Akira
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Solaris

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. All of Us Strangers

   A gorgeous treatise on grief, loneliness and connection exulted by stellar performances all across the board. Perhaps the most underrated and overlooked film of the past few years.

2. Dune: Part Two

   Ethereal sound design and jaw-dropping visuals all fine-tuned to put you in a state of exhilarated dread. I keep watching scenes from this film now and then and can't wait to buy the bluray once they finally deign to put the IMAX cuts out.

3. Challengers

   I'm enamoured with ménage à trois films like Bertulocci's Dreamers and, ofcourse, Truffaut's Jules et Jim, Challengers sits comfortably with them, a stylish, sexy romp, where conflict plays over Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's thrilling EDMy score. It has my favourite ending of any film this year. Luca Guadagnino goes from strength to strength.

4. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

   A phantasmagorical epic, its languid rhythms and delicate world-building provide fine complement to the desolate gas guzzling universe it tells its mythic story in.

5. I Saw the TV Glow

   One of Twin Peaks S3's lovely freak offsprings, this film succinctly captures that inscrutable, overwhelming feeling that there's something wrong with the world you live in but escaping it is terrifying, however living in it destroys you.

6. Robot Dreams

   Heartwarming tale of friendship a la ligne claire with a light touch. Delightful, gently breaks your heart and pieces it back together.

7. The Wild Robot

   Its energy and exuberance and pitch perfect voice acting help smooth over the jagged edges of a comparatively clunky second half. Gorgeous with a wonderful score. I cried more times than I care to it.

8. Bramayugam

   A moody and atmospheric parable rendered in claustrophobic black and white, with a stellar performance from Mammooty who dials up the diabolical. Malayalam cinema has had a great year, and while I'm yet to watch quite a few of them, this one has been the most striking.

9. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies

   Melodrama in lower key, it's gently affecting and its emotions sneak up on you the same way it does for its protagonist.

10. Pokémon Concierge

...plus 54 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• A Trip to the Moon

1. No Bears
2. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
3. Showing Up
4. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
5. TÁR
6. Oppenheimer
7. The Beast
8. Anatomy of a Fall
9. Killers of the Flower Moon
10. The Holdovers

...plus 101 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Jaws
2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Jurassic Park
5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. Minority Report
8. West Side Story
9. Catch Me If You Can
10. War of the Worlds

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A rolling list of all the new releases of 2022

1. Jhund

   Artists have been painting portraits and landscapes for thousands of years. There are a million paintings of mountains, a million paintings of faces staring back at us. Millions of them have millions of elements in common. Some of them are great.

2. The Fabelmans

   There are two films, one is a family drama that doesn't fulfill its promise, the other is one of the greatest films of all time and the best film on filmmaking. Shame about the former.

3. Crimes of the Future

   The monstrous enlightenment of quiet revolution brought to life with Cronenbergian élan. Gorgeous film.

4. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

   Guilleremo del Toro exorcises the morality tale from his telling of this timeless fable. Gorgeously animated, using certain techniques that are considered archaic for modern times but astounding nevertheless, this antifascist, anticapitalist parable of love and anarchy is one of Del Toro's greatest films.

5. Aftersun

   Pastel-colored digital memories coalesce in anger, love and revelation. Charlotte Wells's debut feature is the opening salvo of a magnificent artist.

6. Kimi

   Rear Window and Blow Out for the smart home age, pulled off with masterful confidence and breathless artistry by the magnificent, prolific Peter Andrews.

7. Turning Red

   The best Pixar film in ages and the first to move beyond the studio's artistic stasis. Finally a Pixar film that is so much more than a tech demo.

8. Triangle of Sadness

   Misunderstood by certain quarters, a more humanist, positive and therefore ultimately tragic satire of class and privilege. Ruben Ostlund's second Palm d'Or but the first one he deserved.

9. Avatar: The Way of Water

   A whale exacts bloody revenge on whalers. Hyperreal in HFR. Four-quadrant filmmaking at its best. Can't wait to see more.

10. Love, Death & Robots: Bad Travelling

    I've been so starved for a Fincher film, last year's comical effort Mank simply didn't cut it. Great motion capture performance from video games veteran Troy Baker.

...plus 84 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Innocents
2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

   The most visceral cinematic experience of my life. Tobe Hooper has crafted a masterwork for the ages.

3. Psycho
4. Onibaba
5. The Exorcist
6. Kuroneko
7. Kwaidan
8. The Thing
9. Nosferatu
10. Tetsuo: The Iron Man

    Horror as fetish, fetish as horror, this could only be made by someone who deeply, ionately loves horror, for people who love horror.

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Unranked

• Hellboy II: The Golden Army
• Commando
• Kingdom of Heaven
• The People Under the Stairs
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch
• The Garden of Words
• Lake Mungo
• Excalibur
• My Fair Lady
• The Beyond

...plus 207 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

All the new releases I saw this shithole year

1. Petite Maman

   To borrow a video-game terminology, genius is a ive buff. It manifests invisibly, in effortless execution disguised in simplicity. Céline Sciamma is a genius and Petite Maman is a magnificent film.

2. Drive My Car

   Ryusuke Hamaguchi's adaptation is something of a response to Murakami's short story, the latter asks the questions and Hamaguchi attempts to put forth a sort of catharsis. He presents "communication" as a solution, not directly of the problem that Kafuku faces, but as a balm to his wounds. It sounds schmaltzy here but Drive My Car pulls it off with much more élan and beauty. Feels pretty cozy, too. 

3. Memoria
4. Dune

   Technically impressive on a scale few films are, transportive and trance-like, it still remains to be seen whether Villeneuve's Dune is a terrific adaption of the source novel - we'll have to wait till part 2 - but he gets so much right here, focussing on the atmosphere and the emotion that reading the novel induced while still being mostly faithful to the written text.

5. The French Dispatch

   Delightful loving tribute to The New Yorker and (to a much lesser extent, in my opinion) to French Cinema, I've been a Wes Anderson faithful for a while now, despite the brickbats and the backlash from folks who think him too twee. I love his wistfulness, and the melancholy he imbibes his characters with. The French Dispatch is, uh, more of the same, emphasis on more and I loved it.

6. The Medium

   It's been a pretty dismal year for horror but The Medium isn't responsible for any of that. This just squirrelled under my skin and made me want to take a shower after the credits rolled. Disturbing, terrifying and utterly gripping.

7. The Matrix Resurrections

   A reclamation of the director's vision from the system that has appropriated it, Matrix Ressurections is an oft poetic, magnificent but jmperfect piece of art that's pissed off and disappointed pigs in shit.

8. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

   Three impeccable tales that go from being about desire to love. Of particular note is the middle tale which had me... scaroused">View the full list on Letterboxd.

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Just listing my favourite films of 2020 because the years attached to the profiles aren't accurate.

1. Wolfwalkers
2. I May Destroy You
3. The Vast of Night
4. The Father
5. Sound of Metal
6. Lovers Rock
7. Come True
8. About Endlessness
9. The Disciple
10. Da 5 Bloods

list in progress, need to overcome my sinophobia and catch some Chinese films

• The Wailing
• A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
• The Look of Silence

  + act of killing

• Cemetery of Splendor
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
• Twin Peaks: The Return
• We Need to Talk About Kevin
• The Dance of Reality
• Inherent Vice

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.