hey champ, i really liked the favourite as well. one of my top films of last year, for sure. i was a bit bummed that my fav director seemed to be making a normal film, but there was enough ugliness & silliness to keep me happy.
my week:
peelers (2016) 3 a movie about a viral outbreak in a strip club ought to have been a bit more fun & had more nudity (it had some, but i wanted more!), but it's still fun, and it had plenty of attractive women. i had a good time watching it, and if that's not good enough for you, then you're probably too demanding.
mystery train (1989) 4 every early jarmusch film is the same:
as it starts, i think 'not more of this mumbling, rambling quirkiness.'
by the end: 'i want more of this mumbling, rambling quirkiness!'
side effects (2013) 4 takes twists and turns in ways i did not expect. for whatever reason, i did not think this was the kind of film it turned out to be, but i was very glad to have the experience. it goes in directions i would never have anticipated, but it never felt manipulative, and actually managed to seem naturalistic mostly, excluding one very hollywoodish performance from catherine zeta hones. i'm happy to put that aside, because i otherwise dug this quite a bit.
book of evil (2018) 3 cheap horror anthology.
bad stuff first: that first segment is far, far too long, and to no good end as far as i could tell. it's murky and incoherent and will probably bore your socks off, yet it consumes almost half of this anthology's running time. why?
but the rest of it is a lot better. fun, fairly gory, reasonably well made, and they get to the point fairly quickly. none of them are truly great or particularly tense, and some of them just seem to stop rather than have proper endings, but they're entertaining & if you like horror anthologies you'll probably find something to enjoy in them. i also really dug the looks of that gothy witch in the last segment.
anonymous 616 (2018) dinner party goes awry when army veteran goes on killing spree. undercut by some pretty amateurish acting, and it ends very poorly - that cut-rate cgi at the end in particular is atrocious - but for most of its running time this is a tough, nasty & pretty well-made low budget slasher.
they really could have done more with the last 10 minutes, but i enjoyed it enough to forgive it.
pushover (1954) 3.5 fun cop gone bad story. just a little too heavy on plot and twists and i'm going to call you and you do this while i'll do that shenanigans. absolutely worth a look, but would have been better if they'd simplified it a touch, imo.
the devil's well (2018) 3 fairly entertaining found footage paranormal horror. perhaps lacks atmosphere & truly frightening moments, but it's properly paced & generally quite well made.
cold water (1994) 4 troubled french teenage couple consider running away together.
perfectly captures moody teenage meloncholia. might leave you feeling dissatisfied in that it's incomplete, a story not fully told, but that's just like real life, isn't it?
has an absolutely great early 70s soundtrack - nico, dylan, donovan, alice cooper...
brain dead (1990) 3 the movie that i almost watched about 5 times because i thought i had found the similarly titled early peter jackson blood-fest.
this isn't pure joy on the level of jackson's film, and your enjoyment of it will likely hinge on your tolerance for 'is it real, is it in his head' style story-telling. i thought it was mostly fun - more silly than lynch surreal, mind you, and ultimately not completely satisfying, but still a solid if slight pleasure.
the avengers (2012) 4.5 irst time i've watched it in a good 5 years i bet. i was a little surprised at how long it took to bring all the elements together. they really let this breathe, move at its own pace, which contrasts nicely with infinity war. i loved iw, in fact i probably like it a good deal more than the original recipe, but it does teeter a bit at times under the weight of all the plot & people.
the lovers (2018) 3.5 melora walters! she should be in more things...
this is pretty good, if a bit fanciful & melodramatic for a movie that seems to be meant to be grounded in real adult emotion. i'd usually rather not watch 100 minutes of people talking about their feelings, but this went down very easily for me.
wiener-dog (2017) 4 i wish todd solondz was my friend.
most beautiful island (2017) undocumented immigrant puts herself in a dangerous situation out of desperation for money. this is seriously good. very effectively & efficiently sets up its character, & has a genuinely creepy, thoroughly unsettling climax that will make a lot of people squirm. great stuff.
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6 years ago
avengers endgame (2019) 5 the only underwhelming aspect was the (this is no spoiler) enormous ending battle. it's done better than any other mcu film i suppose, probably rendered as well as it could have been. yet i always feel like i'm looking at weightless pixels instead of people.
aside from that one problem, one that i have with almost all of these movies, this couldn't have been any better. genuinely exciting & surprising, funny, thrilling, & truly moving. i cried four times by my count. just about a perfect blockbuster.
captain america civil war (2016) 4 i feel the airport business is just slightly overvalued as an action scene, but the black panther car chase is one of the better action moments in their films.
brute force (1947) 3 prison drama that left me a bit cold
burn after reading (2008) 3.5 is this the coens' spiritual heir to raising arizona? feels like it might be. it's not as great, but it's almost as goofy at times & genuinely funny. brad pitt made me lmgdao a few times. weird & fun, maybe just a touch too slight to join the ranks of great coens.
naked (1993) 5
'my feet are on their last legs.'
i wish i had words like that in me.
free-form, rather rudderless, incredibly bleak, but incredibly thrilling, in that it's a film where you truly have no idea where it's going.
i loved our character in this movie, yet know if i ever met him in the world, i'd be looking for a chance to get away from him within about 2 seconds.
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