Howe Elbows 9
Registered User
There aren't as many shots of characters staring out of a window as you might think. The foster parents are farmers, however, so there are several outdoors scenes.
Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | {Insert Appropriate Seasonal Greeting Here}
- Thread starter ProstheticConscience
- Start date
There aren't as many shots of characters staring out of a window as you might think. The foster parents are farmers, however, so there are several outdoors scenes.
Neil Racki
Registered User
I like your reviews. I knew my comment might come off as snide .. but ive watched a good bit of european kinda indie movies past few months and so many "starring out of windows" scenes.
For minutes at a time ... camera behind actors head looking out rustic kitchen window out over depressed farm .. with the sound of wind.
Good reviews, looking forward to this one.
ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,745
- 2,389
The Guns of Navarone (1961) - 7/10
This is one of the most poorly lit films I've ever seen because they decided to make a bunch of scenes night scenes while filming them day time and playing around cameras to achieve an awful effect. Gary Cooper I mean George Peck's acting is wooden like usual and when he does show emotional outbursts, it's super-forced. The rest of the film is a bit meandering and not as sharp as the Where Eagles Dare but not as silly with the over the top nazi-killing either. When the characters are going around killing nazi's and moving the plot, it's good stuff.
Mallrats (1995) - 6/10
I'd like to think even in the 90s most people thought this was dumb, really intentionally dumb. But also somewhat funny and entertaining as a result. Still it has this generic look rather than what made Clerks look and feel interesting and the relationship stuff is really forced but like I said, some entertaining scenes including the final third act.
Steel Magnolias (1989) - 7/10
Stronger in the second half as the first is filled with that endless screaming from the suburbs with too many characters. Unfortunately it uses a character death to do it but it shows some real rawness and strength in its portrayal of grief and friendship. Shirley Maclaine as a grumpy old woman is hilarious. The women in general are the strength here compared to the muted male cast.
Through the Olive Trees (1994) - 7.5/10
The first half is possibly the best part of the Kokher trilogy however it loses things a bit when it descends into a more traditional story which borders itself on being one-sided in support of a guy with some stalker-ish tendencies. Don't have much to say other than the way some of the conversations are captured in this trilogy often with amateur actors is something that is hard to come by naturally in cinema.
Heroes for Sale (1933) - 7/10
Had it been made in the 50s or 90s, this would have been a 3 hour film, but 30s films packed a tonne of story in 75 minutes as this does. Watching one character suffer over and over is poor cinema at times but exploitation of that aside, the efficiency it does that with and how much ground it covers in his life is truly impressive for the runtime without any bloat.
This is a pretty good non-pretentious film with a simple straightforward story. Doesn't suffer from the same issues as a lot of foreign European cinema lately (the last one I watched, The Eight Mountains, I'm pretty sure did have shots of people staring out lol).
This is one of the most poorly lit films I've ever seen because they decided to make a bunch of scenes night scenes while filming them day time and playing around cameras to achieve an awful effect. Gary Cooper I mean George Peck's acting is wooden like usual and when he does show emotional outbursts, it's super-forced. The rest of the film is a bit meandering and not as sharp as the Where Eagles Dare but not as silly with the over the top nazi-killing either. When the characters are going around killing nazi's and moving the plot, it's good stuff.
Mallrats (1995) - 6/10
I'd like to think even in the 90s most people thought this was dumb, really intentionally dumb. But also somewhat funny and entertaining as a result. Still it has this generic look rather than what made Clerks look and feel interesting and the relationship stuff is really forced but like I said, some entertaining scenes including the final third act.
Steel Magnolias (1989) - 7/10
Stronger in the second half as the first is filled with that endless screaming from the suburbs with too many characters. Unfortunately it uses a character death to do it but it shows some real rawness and strength in its portrayal of grief and friendship. Shirley Maclaine as a grumpy old woman is hilarious. The women in general are the strength here compared to the muted male cast.
Through the Olive Trees (1994) - 7.5/10
The first half is possibly the best part of the Kokher trilogy however it loses things a bit when it descends into a more traditional story which borders itself on being one-sided in support of a guy with some stalker-ish tendencies. Don't have much to say other than the way some of the conversations are captured in this trilogy often with amateur actors is something that is hard to come by naturally in cinema.
Heroes for Sale (1933) - 7/10
Had it been made in the 50s or 90s, this would have been a 3 hour film, but 30s films packed a tonne of story in 75 minutes as this does. Watching one character suffer over and over is poor cinema at times but exploitation of that aside, the efficiency it does that with and how much ground it covers in his life is truly impressive for the runtime without any bloat.
This is a pretty good non-pretentious film with a simple straightforward story. Doesn't suffer from the same issues as a lot of foreign European cinema lately (the last one I watched, The Eight Mountains, I'm pretty sure did have shots of people staring out lol).
The last movie I watched is The Expend4bles. It wasn't as good as the first two, but I still enjoyed it. Jason Statham was awesome, with good action sequences especially with Tony Jaa, still some good explosions, and Megan Fox is still smokin' hot 
. The movie had everything, yet something seems lacking, I just can't say exactly what it is.
. The movie had everything, yet something seems lacking, I just can't say exactly what it is.
The Crime Is Mine (2023) Directed by Francois Ozon 7A
In a real change of pace for him, director Francois Ozon directs a frothy comic mystery set in the '30s and in the style of Agatha Christie, that is, if Agatha had been a feminist. However, the pro "me, too" movement stance is playfully undercut by having the movie's three protagonists, all women, achieve their ends by lying their heads' off. Madeline, an aspiring actress, is invited by a movie producer to his home. There he tries to have his way with her, but she escapes. Later that afternoon, he ends up dead and Madeline is the prime suspect. Thanks to a bumbling sexist (but funny) judge (his skeptical clerk is a hoot, too), she goes on trial for her life. With the help of her lawyer roommate, Rebecca, the two concoct a story to tell the jury. This involves Madeline actually admitting to a murder which she didn't commit. All goes perfectly until a deliberately way over-thje-top Isabelle Huppert swishes in as Odette Chaumette, a former but now fading silent screen actress, who actually committed the crime and now wants to take credit for it herself. Rather than oppose one another, the three women join forces and concoct another completely tall tale to ensure that justice is eventually semi-served, and everything ends up hunky dory for everybody.
All this is played perfectly in a style that is more theatrical than cinematic. Indeed, all of the actors seem to be playing to the second balcony. While The Crime is Mine is anything but restricted to one set, the general feel is that of a '30's stage play of a screwball comedy. All of this fizz--the crime, the pro-feminism, the undercutting prevarication, the broader performance approach, the wonderful supporting actor performances, the droll twists and turns. the pitch-perfect tone--is difficult as hell to pull off successfully, but Ozon handles it all like the master director that he is. All that prevents this from being a great comic mystery rather than a very good one is about five to ten minutes of flab in the middle. But even this minor pacing problem in not enough to compromise this charming little bon bon.
subtitles
Best of '23 so far
1) Riceboy Sleeps, Shim, Canada
2) Barbie, Gerwig, US
3) Oppenheimer, Nolan, US
4) El Conde, Larrain, Chile
5) Close Your Eyes, Erice, Spain
6) The Crime Is Mine, Ozon, France
7) Talk to Me, Philippou brothers, Australia
8) De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Castaing-Taylor and Paravel
9) Limbo, Sen, Australia
10) The Night of the 12th, Moll, France
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Unholy Diver
Registered User
Lavalantula - 5/10 - Fire breathing / lava spewing spiders burst from the ground and run amok in LA after a volcanic eruption, a silly action disaster tv movie in the vein of Sharknado, featuring a mini Police Academy reunion as Steve Guttenberg stars alongside former castmates Leslie Easterbrook, Michael Winslow, and Marion Ramsey.
Moana - 8.5/10 Young Moana must leave her polynesian island home, cross the ocean, and convince the Demigod Maui to fix a mistake he made many years ago that has brought on the world's impending doom. Dwayne Johnson was great as Maui and actually wasn't half bad doing his singing parts either
Moana - 8.5/10 Young Moana must leave her polynesian island home, cross the ocean, and convince the Demigod Maui to fix a mistake he made many years ago that has brought on the world's impending doom. Dwayne Johnson was great as Maui and actually wasn't half bad doing his singing parts either
Ben Grimm
What if everyone tended to their affairs?
My son and I saw A Haunting in Venice opening weekend. It was good but we were the only people in the theater. It made > $100M but less than the first 2 films.
flyersnorth
Registered User
- Oct 7, 2019
- 4,690
- 7,158
Emily The Criminal.
Enjoyed this one quite a bit. Nice pacing, indie feel, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
8/10
Enjoyed this one quite a bit. Nice pacing, indie feel, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
8/10
ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,745
- 2,389
Can't be worse than Death On The Nile. Brannagh had Poirot shooting guns in that one lol.
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
My wife was sobbing in the theater at that one. A beautiful little flick and one of those films that that show that even the most conventional thing can be reach great heights.
ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,745
- 2,389
The Crime Is Mine/Mon crime (2023) - 6/10
Styled similarly to 2022's mediocre See How They Run but without the Hollywood level of acting or the charm of a Saoirse Ronan (though Isabelle Hupert provides some much needed presence later in the film). Also without the actual suspense in these sorts of comedy-whodunnits. There is an intriguing witness/suspect interrogation scene but it's followed by a heavy-handed trial. I'm always up for a light-hearted version of a crime film but this just isn't very funny or amusing nor is there an investigation with twists and turns. The climax of this film is closer to that of a classic screwball comedy than comedy-murder-mysteries however it doesn't have the wit of screwballs and it feels really imitational.
The Life of Oharu (1952) - 7/10
Police Story (1985) - 7.5/10
Really fun Jackie Chan film with just the right amount of violence and impressive stuntwork. And I say it's impressive because it's the sort of stuntwork which makes you go that must have hurt or how did they pull that off. It does wear a bit thin when it overdoes towards the end but there's an actually decent story here too rather than just people getting punched and a tonne of glass getting shattered.
Ronin (1998) - 6.5/10
What if Heat was directed by someone not as good and with more car chase sequences? You get this film where DeNiro does his role well and the chase sequences are decent but the villains are hazy and a bit weak in the end. Also I'm fairly sure the director set up Sean Bean's character to have some sort of role later in the film after his character dropped out in the early stages and then the director just sort of forgot about him lol.
Styled similarly to 2022's mediocre See How They Run but without the Hollywood level of acting or the charm of a Saoirse Ronan (though Isabelle Hupert provides some much needed presence later in the film). Also without the actual suspense in these sorts of comedy-whodunnits. There is an intriguing witness/suspect interrogation scene but it's followed by a heavy-handed trial. I'm always up for a light-hearted version of a crime film but this just isn't very funny or amusing nor is there an investigation with twists and turns. The climax of this film is closer to that of a classic screwball comedy than comedy-murder-mysteries however it doesn't have the wit of screwballs and it feels really imitational.
The Life of Oharu (1952) - 7/10
Police Story (1985) - 7.5/10
Really fun Jackie Chan film with just the right amount of violence and impressive stuntwork. And I say it's impressive because it's the sort of stuntwork which makes you go that must have hurt or how did they pull that off. It does wear a bit thin when it overdoes towards the end but there's an actually decent story here too rather than just people getting punched and a tonne of glass getting shattered.
Ronin (1998) - 6.5/10
What if Heat was directed by someone not as good and with more car chase sequences? You get this film where DeNiro does his role well and the chase sequences are decent but the villains are hazy and a bit weak in the end. Also I'm fairly sure the director set up Sean Bean's character to have some sort of role later in the film after his character dropped out in the early stages and then the director just sort of forgot about him lol.
Other People's Children (2023) Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski 6A
Rachel (Virginie Efira), a music teacher in Paris, has a happily middle-class life which she thoroughly enjoys, However, she is quickly approaching middle-age and her biological clock is running out of ticks. She wants a child but has had no luck getting pregnant. Then she meets Ali (Rouschdy Zem) and falls in love. He happens to have a 4-year-old girl who Rebecca slowly comes to cherish,. However, he is separated, not divorced, from his wife, and that becomes complicated for everybody.
Other People's Children is tasteful and stylish and well acted by both leads. After playing about a hundred middle Eastern bad guys, Zem must have been doing cartwheels to get a romantic lead. Trouble is, he's not really a romantic lead type. But I digress. Other People's Children is one of those French movies that wallows in its Frenchness. The film begins with a night shot of a tastefully lit Eiffel Tower, and I immediately wondered how many French movie goers see that shot and go "Oh, for heaven's sake, not again." As, I swear, I predicted to myself near the end of the movie, the film closes with a freeze frame. In between, director Rebecca Zlotowski uses a fuzzy, mishaped iris lens to occasionally transition from one scene to the next. Why fuzzy and mishaped?--because it's an homage to Truffaut but she wants to be a little coy about it. All of this sort of works; Other People's Children may be the best "6" film that I have seen all year. But to quote Vadim Rizov of Filmmaker Magazine, "...the film increasingly generates the feeling of an extended, unmediated whine about oblivious men delivered to an overly-sympathetic friend." In the end, I was a little impressed here and there, but not won over.
subtitles
Anatomy of a Fall (2023) Directed by Justine Triet 8B
Sandra's husband Samuel is found dead in the snow, having fallen to his death from the balcony of their Swiss chalet. The circumstances regarding his fall are unclear, and an investigation is launched. As a result Sandra goes on trial for murder, though she steadfastly and convincingly claims that she did not kill her husband. Still, the chalet is very isolated and no one else is around except the couple's 11-year-old who was on a walk with his border collie and is visioned impaired anyway. Did the husband commit suicide? It seems unlikely. The trial starts and director Justine Triet finds ways of subtly but not definitively undermining Sandra's memory of events. Eventually the son and his dog will play a big role in shaping the verdict of the court.
Of course, almost all courtroom dramas depend on ambiguity to keep the audience guessing. But that's not what Triet is up to. This is not a Hercule Poirot mystery with several candidates for murder but we can't figure out which one did it until Poirot starts connecting obscure clues like pulling rabbits out of a hat. The ambiguity here goes much deeper than that, is inevitably much more existential in nature. Anatomy of a Fall is getting at how we know what we know, how we make decisions, and how our decisions are shaped by feelings and fictions as much as facts. Life itself becomes a study in ambiguity, but eventually you have to pick a side. The direction is absolutely first rate. The audience is the real jury--we are given lots of information and we have our likes and dislikes. But ultimately we must decide how to read this information and what conclusion we shall come to about it. It is that process of coming to a decision that is at the core of Triet's movie. This is a masterful, complex piece of direction as embedded in all this uncertainty is a portrait of a marriage that may have its own tragic story to tell. All that being said, the movie could not be successful if it wasn't for a mammoth performance by German actress Sandra Huller in the lead role. She gives a performance that is beautifully natural and convincing, relying on nuance rather than histrionics. In the end, I was left with many feelings toward her character that I didn't quite know what to do with. Somehow, that is very satisfying.
half subtitles, half English
Best of '23 so far
1) Riceboy Sleeps, Shim, Canada
2) Anatomy of a Fall, Triet, France
3) Barbie, Gerwig, US
4) Oppenheimer, Nolan, US
5) El Conde, Larrain, Chile
6) Close Your Eyes, Erice, Spain
7) Talk to Me, Philippou brothers, Australia
8) The Crime Is Mine, Ozon, France
9) 8) De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Castaing-Taylor and Paravel
10) Limbo, Sen, Australia
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Ben Grimm
What if everyone tended to their affairs?
Anatomy of a fall sounds horrible. You can't be put on trial w/o evidence.
Killers of the Flower Moon link
www.nytimes.com
The Pigeon Tunnel (2023) Directed by Errol Morris 10
Scorsese's new film Killers of the Flower Moon sounds great but while you're on Apple please check out one of the best films I've ever seen, The Pigeon Tunnel. It's a documentary about former English spy and writer John LeCarre'. His father was a con man/fraud, and it deals with many complex issues such as the effects of childhood, ethics, identity, and morality.
Killers of the Flower Moon link
‘The Pigeon Tunnel’ Review: Thinker, Player, Searcher, Spy (Published 2023)
Two master performers, the filmmaker Errol Morris and the writer John le Carré, circle the truth in this mesmerizing biographical documentary.
The Pigeon Tunnel (2023) Directed by Errol Morris 10
Scorsese's new film Killers of the Flower Moon sounds great but while you're on Apple please check out one of the best films I've ever seen, The Pigeon Tunnel. It's a documentary about former English spy and writer John LeCarre'. His father was a con man/fraud, and it deals with many complex issues such as the effects of childhood, ethics, identity, and morality.
Oh, there's evidence. But it is circumstantial evidence, and the truth doesn't necessarily emerge from it. A lot has to do with the story you think such evidence tells, but that may be a different narrative for different people and their personal feelings might colour how that story goes. Keep in mind, too, that this is a French court and the rules of the game are quite different. I actually found how the trial works in a French system fascinating to watch as it is so different than the Canadian court procedure.
Ceremony
How I choose to feel is how I am
- Jun 8, 2012
- 114,299
- 17,384
Superbad (2007) I was 15 when this released. A film about 17 year olds trying to get drunk and get laid is made for 15 year olds. This is the first I've seen it, and it was even more annoying than I thought it could have been. It was longer too, and I'm not sure it warranted its length. Is it possible for a film like this to be entertaining or relatable when something like The Inbetweeners exists? I don't think so. I started off really hating it when the younger, fatter Seth Rogen was just talking about porn but by the end I was just bored.
Halloween (1978) How does horror exist as a genre when its most famous and influential films are things like this - bad man has knife. Bad man stabby stabby. Bad man stabby stabby because man bad. Good soundtrack. Some good camerawork too, but ultimately I just sit bored by the fact that nobody acts like an actual human would.
Halloween (2018) The thought of the intervening nine Halloween films is more terrifying than opening a wardrobe and finding a heavy breather in a Captain Kirk mask inside. I liked this better than the first one. Marginally. It would have done better for me if it hadn't fallen into the same traps as the original (and from what I gather, its sequels) and made Michael Myers indestructible while making everyone else unable to just empty a submachine gun into his head when they get the chance. I did enjoy the podcasters getting brutally slaughtered though.
Halloween (1978) How does horror exist as a genre when its most famous and influential films are things like this - bad man has knife. Bad man stabby stabby. Bad man stabby stabby because man bad. Good soundtrack. Some good camerawork too, but ultimately I just sit bored by the fact that nobody acts like an actual human would.
Halloween (2018) The thought of the intervening nine Halloween films is more terrifying than opening a wardrobe and finding a heavy breather in a Captain Kirk mask inside. I liked this better than the first one. Marginally. It would have done better for me if it hadn't fallen into the same traps as the original (and from what I gather, its sequels) and made Michael Myers indestructible while making everyone else unable to just empty a submachine gun into his head when they get the chance. I did enjoy the podcasters getting brutally slaughtered though.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) Directed by Martin Scorsese 5B
It is praiseworthy that Martin Scorsese has chosen to make a movie about an abomination that has been virtually whitewashed (right verb) from American history. At the turn of the century in Oklahoma, the Osage tribe found themselves millionaires over night when the land that they had been forced to settle on erupted with oil. It wasn't long, though, before unscrupulous white men found unconventional ways to take over the money. This included marrying into Native American families and if that didn't work quickly enough, murdering the aboriginal men and mostly women who stood in the way of the perpetrators' inheritance. Oklahoma law simply looked the other way. Killers of the Flower Moon focuses on Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCapriio) who comes home after the war in Europe and is immediately offered a job by his uncle William Hale (Robert Di Nero). Hale, who claims to be a great friend of the Osage, is actually the brains behind the operation of stealing their money. He has no scruples whatsoever, and Ernest is just the sort of useful moron that he needs to carry out his orders. . While Hale wants Ernest to target Molly (Lily Gladstone), Ernest genuinely falls in love with her and they eventually marry. But that doesn't mean he won't remain deeply complicit in his uncle's schemes, which include setting up murders and stupidly assisting in the harm that may be done to his wife. So this is an important story and one that needs to be told. In its favour, Killers of the Flower Moon contains some great performance and scenes of real power.
However, the film possesses some structural weaknesses that are hard to overlook. This three-hour, 26 minute movie only really becomes gripping in its last hour or so, about the time Jesse Plemons' FBI agent arrives in town. Until that point we get more story than we need to make the point about how cruel and hateful the attempted cash grab is. It's not just a problem of excessive length, though. Scorsese is noted for his expertly edited and perfectly paced movies (Mean Streets; Taxi Driver: Goodfellas; Raging Bull, et al)--Killers of the Flower Moon is anything but well paced. Indeed the editing seems haphazard, almost arbitrary some of the time, lacking the tight rhythm that would supercharge this story about racist greed. And, unfortunately, the more exciting the movie eventually becomes, the more it drifts away from the plight of the Osage and focuses instead on our two loathsome scumbag protagonists, both white guys, one a heartless snake and the other a moronic weasel. I kept thinking, why am I watching these two schmucks? It is Molly, not Hale or Ernest, who the audience cares about, and Gladstone gives a magnificent performance that outshines everyone else in the film. If Scorsese had made her the centrepiece of the story, Killers of the Flower Moon would have been much more powerful and much more revealing about what took place in Oklahoma. Instead, he made another gangster movie.
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If you like soccer and/or David Beckham, the Beckham four-part series on Netflix is well worth watching, easily among the better extended sports biographies that I've seen..
sdf
Registered User
We have our native russians in Russia as well. They btw related to north American ones genetically
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
Based on the interactions and dynamic between two unscrupulous white guys in a Western oil-greed setting, how reminiscent is it of something like There Will Be Blood?
Maybe they had an opportunity here to make it more different by focusing on the victims instead of perpetrators.
KallioWeHardlyKnewYe
Hey! We won!
- May 30, 2003
- 15,772
- 3,808
The Pigeon Tunnel. A portrait of famed writer John LeCarre that is truly worthy of his fiction. How much of an artist is in their art? If you're familiar with LeCarre, this would argue a lot. While his novel A Perfect Spy has clear autobiographical origins, which are discussed here, listening to LeCarre talk and recount episodes from his life there's a lot of philosophical and spiritual parallels through all of his work. But even saying that there's dodges and obfuscations. Do we know the man when he's done? Or do we just know what he wants us to know? I think it's a bit of both. Just like one of his novels. And while that may feel unsatisfying or even like a stunt to some, it felt very true to me.
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I can see why you would ask that question, but I don't think one pair is all that reminiscent of the other beyond the fact that they are all bad guys. Daniel Plainview is one of the most original and memorable bad guys in movie history, and I think one could argue that he is a genuine tragic figure.. I wasn't a fan of the movie, but I thought Day Lewis' performance was phenomenal; I think it was a perfect mating of character, actor and director. About the Dano character, all I remember is the usual collection of annoying quirks that Dano brings to most roles--though, of course, he had to do something, I grant, or he would have been completely blown off the screen by the sheer prodigious size of Day Lewis' performance. A better comparison for Plainview might be Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter where Mitchum also gives an outsized performance without ever lapsing into caricature.
One of the problems with Killers of the Flower Moon is De Niro and DiCaprio seem too much cut from the same cloth as Scorsese's other gangsters, especially De Niro. De Niro has been down this road so many times before that it is almost impossible for him to differentiate his bad guys anymore--they are at best slight variations on an established theme. There is nothing distinctive, really, about William Hale. He doesn't have the particularity or fascination of a Travis Bickle or a Johnny Boy. DiCaprio is more memorable only because of how pitiful his character is, how weak and malleable. Ernest Burkhart is so beneath contempt that I think people will not even consider him when they think of great villains. In a way, that is a huge complement to DiCaprio who leaves vanity aside when constructing some of his finest performances.
A engrossing documentary of a fascinating man whose portrait of himself seems shaped in a hall of mirrors.. So articulate, so reasonable, so precise, and yet I wondered by the end just how reliable is this narrator? Maybe nothing at the centre is indeed what makes a perfect spy.
Chili
Time passes when you're not looking
- Jun 10, 2004
- 8,788
- 4,924
Read The Pigeon Tunnel when it came out and still have yet to read one of his novels. He was a story teller though who had a fascinating life. And he probably could have filled a book on his father Ronnie alone. Recommend the book.
ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,745
- 2,389
Sabotage (1936) - 7/10
Solid early Hitchcock about a man who becomes a saboteur for the money. It's maybe a bit more humanistic than his later work and really doesn't focus much on the suspense at all. More low-key direction would've suited him in some of his later films but this is a good short watch.
Masculin, Feminin (1966) - 6/10
Antoine Doinel is the greatest villain in film history. Of course he's not in this movie but it's basically the actor playing the same neurotic character even if it's a Godard film instead of Truffaut. Truffaut had more respect for film as a media instead of trying to re-invent it with every cut to the point of distraction like Godard does but you do get some gems in between the schizophrenic scenes.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
I'll watch a musical if I can skip past the musical bits but 10 minutes in, I realized this was not just a musical, they sang EVERY friggin line. Nah, I can't do that, left it at that but it looked like it had some nice scenery for anyone who can sit through it.
Mystic River (2003) - 6.5/10
Impactful is the word I'd use even if Eastwood tries to force it to be emotionally impactful with a baseball bat at times. Quite melodramatic with Sean Penn over-acting and everyone basically on edge for the entire film which sets up for a good opening third and an exhausting overall viewing experience. Oh and African-American actor Laurence Fishbourne, plays a character named "Whitey Powers".
20th Century Girl (2022) - 7/10
Korean Netflix film created in that style they do trying to be cute and bubbly but they do it well. It's thin on substance and relies on some emotional manipulation for its ending but does a good job of making you care for the characters and being better than if a Hollywood film tried doing this as it would end up being Hallmarkesque.
Solid early Hitchcock about a man who becomes a saboteur for the money. It's maybe a bit more humanistic than his later work and really doesn't focus much on the suspense at all. More low-key direction would've suited him in some of his later films but this is a good short watch.
Masculin, Feminin (1966) - 6/10
Antoine Doinel is the greatest villain in film history. Of course he's not in this movie but it's basically the actor playing the same neurotic character even if it's a Godard film instead of Truffaut. Truffaut had more respect for film as a media instead of trying to re-invent it with every cut to the point of distraction like Godard does but you do get some gems in between the schizophrenic scenes.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
I'll watch a musical if I can skip past the musical bits but 10 minutes in, I realized this was not just a musical, they sang EVERY friggin line. Nah, I can't do that, left it at that but it looked like it had some nice scenery for anyone who can sit through it.
Mystic River (2003) - 6.5/10
Impactful is the word I'd use even if Eastwood tries to force it to be emotionally impactful with a baseball bat at times. Quite melodramatic with Sean Penn over-acting and everyone basically on edge for the entire film which sets up for a good opening third and an exhausting overall viewing experience. Oh and African-American actor Laurence Fishbourne, plays a character named "Whitey Powers".
20th Century Girl (2022) - 7/10
Korean Netflix film created in that style they do trying to be cute and bubbly but they do it well. It's thin on substance and relies on some emotional manipulation for its ending but does a good job of making you care for the characters and being better than if a Hollywood film tried doing this as it would end up being Hallmarkesque.
