In a Year of 13 Moons was the best thing I’ve watched in I don’t know how long, years probably, could be ever. maybe I’m just shocked to have seen something about transness that I don’t hate, and that doesn’t seem overly pat, or does but in ways that generalize & not shrink. I really hope we get to some point where trans people can approach the stupidity and arbitrariness of transition with that kind of dignity & humanizing pity, or maybe that’s what it already is to live it
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5 favorite movies i’ve watched for the first time in the past 2 years (unordered):
dorsky, threnody
grandrieux, un lac
kurosawa, ran
spielberg, close encounters of the third kind
to, throw down
honorable mentions:
kaneko, gamera 2: attack of legion
lowder, poppies and sailboats
i didn’t watch a huge amount in that time but im excited to get back into it more, it’s been nice doing regular screenings on discord even though it is the worst piece of software ever devised
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the tetris movie adding some fistfights and car chases to make it more cinematic is such old fashioned hollywood carny shit they should have made it even stupider
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movies! what are those? i’ve watched some recently
i enjoyed The Nice Guys and La La Land for their places in the broader “ryan gosling plays an extremely neurodivergent guy” canon (alongside, of course, the queer masterpiece Blade Runner 2049 and the good-but-for-absolutely-no-reason-a-guy-who-owns-the-jacket-thinks Drive). his La La Land character is probably the one most like me of the lot, though i really appreciate that in The Nice Guys, instead of playing someone who is way too good at masking like usual, the character is instead entirely incapable of doing it. fascinating stuff
Kong Skull Island convinced me of something i already knew - people who direct music videos or advertisements should be kept far, far, away from movies. every shot felt like it was trying to sell me something. also it tries too hard to pastiche too many movie genres and spends a LOT of time hewing close to them, which makes its front half extremely exhausting and jingoistic feeling. it doesnt feel that way by the end, but it sure did for a bit. the indigenous people of the island sure were tropey and uncomfortable, especially when the white photographer woman took photos of them with that “this’ll get me awards” twinkle in her eye.
it had some really good monster designs tho so its impossible to say if its bad
i cannot fucking believe how good the reboot-prequel Planet of the Apes trilogy is? they’re like extremely fucking good and have good worldbuilding and visuals and are impressively subtle with their themes for big hollywood films (particularly the second two). 2 and 3 also put every post-apoc AAA video game to shame in every conceivable way (they feel really videogamey, in a good way). but like, its kinda unreal that the third of these movies has a villain that’s a “history” obsessed christo-fascist who favorably compares himself to Custer and openly is dying on the hill of some really shitty ableism that the movie silently rejects through the facts we see on-screen? (EDIT: like seriously, i could never have predicted the movies ending up here. theyre so fucking good) the fact that the rebuttals to shit the antagonists of these films say and think mostly occurs in the text of the film but not dialogue definitely means that a whole lot of people definitely took away the wrong ideas. there’s no way the next one from The Mousetm is going to be any good in the slightest
Glass Onion was pretty good, imo. i appreciate when detective stories go beyond the bounds of “and then the truth was found so the bad guy loses, huzzah!” since that shits a fantasy
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jordan vogt-roberts has not only been accused of sexual assault, he also became a cultural ambassador for/moved to Vietnam after the success of Kong where he claimed to be “arbitrarily” jumped by a bunch of men at a club (where he likes to regularly ‘rage’) because they were mad a woman was giving him attention or some BS like that.
So i think its fair to assume that ur identifying the situation there correctly.
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the scene in nice guys where ryan gosling tries to punch through a window is like one of the funniest things in a movie
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THANK you. This is cited occasionally as an example of a supposedly actually good blockbuster and it makes me feel insane. It’s horrible for all the reasons you say & more. Between this and the intense nostalgia for the B Fraser mummy movie I can only assume people just want Hollywood movies to be more racist
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The kings of the post-2008 crash working class revolt movies
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I watched this last night for the 1st time and it was bloody great. Good shout
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I haven’t seen the Kong movie, but I think The Fall is an exception to this rule. Tarsem Singh was hired to film commercials all over the world, and he reused the commercial crews and brought along the cast for his self-funded film. And although I haven’t seen it since it was new, I remember liking it and I imagine it still holds up.
At any rate, your post reminded me that this movie exists and maybe I should watch it again.
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Belly is the real exception to the rule. an absolute all timer, nothing else like it.
not seen it in years, but i’ve always been fond of Spun as far as projecting that aesthetic straight onto the cinema screen with a fun cast.
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David Fincher directed music videos
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i’ve somehow never seen belly beyond some tasty screencaps, despite the its rep
i mean fuck it i adored Under the Skin almost as much as Virtual Insanity
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i always think about how william gibson wanted chris cunningham to direct a neuromancer movie…
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I saw the movie “Inside” starring Willem Dafoe and really loved it. It got middling reviews and was unceremoniously dumped in theaters before going to vod, but I was intrigued by the premise of an art thief Willem Dafoe trapped by himself in a penthouse.
It truly is one of Dafoe’s best performances, the modernist penthouse is well realized and oppressive, and the film commits to the physical realities of being trapped for weeks in a towering yet confined space with dwindling supplies.
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willem dafoe, almost 70 and still regularly putting out all timer performances. what an inspiration
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one of the many reasons hes wisconsins finest export
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ferrara x defoe is such a good combo. i need to revisit siberia in a form that isn’t just the worst sd encode of a screener.
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A few months back Ian Hubert posted a digital scan of my friends bike, turns out he knows Ian and mentioned doing “a video” with him. I guess that video came out yesterday, and it turns out he’s the main character
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