Skip to main content

March & April Movies 2018

  1. Blade Runner 2049 - Deakins' cinematography makes up for a lot. Better than the original!
  2. La Bete Humaine - Renoir's boring tale fails to make you feel for any of the characters.
  3. Killing Ground - Standard horror trail story, gets good, then completely falls apart.
  4. Wind River - Been done before, but for some reason, it clicks in all the right spots.
  5. The Villainess - Korean action film that excels due to its "gimmicks" and its amazing star.
  6. 35 Shots Of  Rum - Claire Denis' version of Ozu's Late Spring, trains and all. Solid.
  7. Darkest Hour - Brilliant acting. Oldman won Oscar, but it's James who truly shines.
  8. Perfect Blue - Confusing anime Inspired by so much and inspired even more. Must see.
  9. Skirt Day - Teacher deals with unruly students and a gun. Heartbreaking. Adjani is great.
  10. The Thing (2011) - Absolutely unwatchable. I tried three times and couldn't sit through it.
  11. Chris Rock: Tamborine - Feels like a weak reboot of Bigger and Blacker. Pretty dull.
  12. The Man Without A Past - Least favorite Kurasmaki film, but has its moments.
  13. Sicario (Re-watched) - Better the second time around. Score and cinematography is special.
  14. A Handmaid's Tale (first two episodes) - I adore Moss & Strahovski, but this start is slow.
  15. The Shape Of Water - Hawkins shines, with stellar support, in Del Toro's brilliant fairytale.
  16. Black Orpheus - Not seen since I was a kid. Even better. Marpessa Dawn just dazzles. 
  17. My Blueberry Nights - Wong Kar-Wai does English speaking film. Colors pop, as does acting.
  18. Sunrise - Rewatched the film that is, in my opinion, the greatest film ever made. 
  19. Luna De Miel (Honeymoon) - Spanish horror which concentrates on shocks. Near miss.
  20. Days Of Being Wild - Maggie Cheung is as beautiful as the film looks, but it lacks something.
  21. The Florida Project - Touching, at times painful look at poverty, through many different eyes. 
  22. Aftershock - Easily the worst first 35 minutes of any movie ever. Then something happens.
  23. The Girl Without Hands - Animated sketches tell a Brothers Grimm tale. Lovely.
  24. Selected Shorts by Sebastian Laudenbach - None have the look or resonate like TGWH
  25. The Ritual - Dreadful over-hyped horror film filled with common themes and cliches.
  26. Atonement - Is this The Notebook with a much sadder ending? It only clicks at the end.
  27. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Flawed at times, but acting elevates it 
  28. The Killers - Hemingway's writing is a noir classic. Fun throughout, but Gardner is wonderful.
  29. The Killers - Tarkovsky's school film. Only 20+ minutes long, but signs of things to come.
  30. Doctor Strange - Great cast makes this average superhero film stand out. Good fun.
  31. Veronica - Spanish horror film delivers. Great tension coupled with fine young actors.
Top Three - The Shape of Water, The Darkest Hour, Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Bottom Three - The Thing (2011), Aftershock, The Ritual
Biggest Surprise - Veronica
Biggest Disappointment - La Bete Humaine

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo
10 comments
Read more

11 Rules of Life - Bill Gates?

I read this on Facebook this morning.  A friend had posted it and said that every child should have to receive this. I of course read it and started to think.  I immediately wondered who really wrote this, as I rarely see things like this attributed to the proper person.  I immediately found it was written by Conservative Charles J. Sykes when he wrote a book about how America is dumbing down our youth.  I read it twice and started to wonder how true it was.  Below is a link to the actual picture I saw. So let's look at each of the rules and analyze them. Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it! - Life is not fair in that we are not all afforded the same opportunities based on race, creed, color, socio-economic background, but in general, those who are afforded the same opportunities to succeed are very often rewarded for their individual efforts.  Sure there may be underlying circumstances, but hard work is proven to pay more often than not and those who strive for succ
Post a Comment
Read more

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her
7 comments
Read more