Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron:
who’d have thought that a documentary about an old man wanting to finish one last job could destroy me so easily… that hit some triggers i will have to think about for a few days, but holy moly, def recommended to watch and learn what we will face at one point if we aren’t kicking the bucket early.
for making me cry when it’s just about work and colleagues/comradship.
Finally did see The Boy and the Heron. I might think of something later to write about it.
All I could think of was “This mfer hates birds”
maximum overdrive feels like watching all the cutscenes of a very expensive 1990s fmv game and all the kills are hilarious and fun and it’s easily in the top 5 movies for the pure genuine pleasure of watching explosions on film. if i had watched this as a teenager it would have become my personality
Thinking about how the music video for “On Your Mark” was Miyazaki saying “goodbye” to one of his characters after finishing Naussica. The Boy and the Heron is meant to be a goodbye to his whole career. It isn’t subtle either. The entire fantasy world collapses when the big ass stone that the wizard makes a lifetime pact with disintegrates. Some would interpret the boy’s refusal to keep the fantasy world going as Miyazaki being disappointed in his son for not being better at making movies but I think of it as Miyazaki’s own characters wanting to leave the world of dreams behind. And it feels a bit egocentric that a goodbye letter to one’s own fantasy world gets a huge movie budget.
The movie really moves at a slow pace, and even after the protagonist enters the tower things are pretty slow and they aren’t on their way for a few more beats. I’m used to watching films that aren’t fast paced or glacial, but Boy and The Heron felt slower than it should. The surreal imagery does remind me of the dreamlike landscapes of children’s books, and I think it was my favorite part of the film.
I get the feeling a bunch of parakeets and pelicans shat on his Citroen 2CV and that’s why he made them the antagonists of the fantasy world. “I fuckin hate birds” - H Miyazaki
Cocaine causes a lot of problems but it also produces works like Maximum Overdrive and Station To Station so it’s impossible to say if it’s bad or not
The Secret Agent - Fantastic. It’s not just a great political thriller, it’s also so thoughtful about the ways history unfolds and the records left behind. The main narrative feels so lived-in, and you’re dropped right in the middle of it with infinite threads on either end. The “present-day” framing story was a really cool way to get you thinking about the ways that personal histories and sordid events degrade in memory over time and the ways the historical record is constructed.
Father Mother Sister Brother was very chill and fun. The reoccurring threads that tied the three vignettes together were fun. Also gotta love whenever Sunn gets a special thanks.
I liked Good Fortune way more than I thought I would.
Azrael - certified @shrug core. No one in the movie is able to talk. The perfect amount of dialogue.
Semi-kidding aside, it was ok. Kind of a survival horror action thing carried on Samara Weaving’s huge expressive eyes, borrowed it seems from her uncle Hugo. Explains nearly nothing and leaves you to put the pieces together, with a fun ending. I think it really is shrugcore.
the soundboard. the soundboard rattles through my brain!! yugo feevin
Every time.
My kids watched the Matrix for the first time a couple weeks ago and it was fuckin killing me man.
Watched a yojimbo, sanjuro double feature. That guy yojimbo sure is clever. We had one dude in the theatre who had side splitting 106db laughter at every gag, which set the baseline for everyone else to be pretty much laughing the entire time too. Great vibe.
I also saw Marty Supreme. Basically just bought tickets sight unseen based on how much I enjoyed Good Time and Uncut Gems. This movie rocked, I like how it’s a pretty regular sports movie until like an hour in when a plumbing incident veers it off the rails and it becomes a Safdie movie. I hadn’t really been impressed by anything Timothee Chalamet had done up until this point but gott damn was he good in this. Big fan of short-haired Tim.
Primate was a great 70s style exploitation flick. Simple and stupid, but effective. One of those movies that does nothing but ask “do you wanna get really freaked out??” and delivers.
Monky not so funny.
I saw No Other Choice last night and really enjoyed it. Makes me want to read a Westlake novel. (The friend I watched it with was telling me about some of them, and how The Ax differed from the movie.) I’ve only read the Parker comic adaptations.
But as for the film, not only was the story entertaining but it was also full of fun and unusual little filming technique flourishes.
I didn’t like the story of this movie but it did look good.
also managed to catch the last local showing of Bi Gan’s new movie Resurrection last week, driving out to the suburbs in the middle of a work day after realizing it was going out of rotation…didn’t really like that one either…
I’m going directly to the theater from my cross country flight home to catch that one tonight so we’ll see if I like it better than my ass feels
I revered Resurrection so much after watching it that I didn’t want to talk about it because I was afraid my words would profane it. It needs to be in a case, within a chamber, behind a curtain, surrounded by four walls and a high ceiling.
Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues is what convinced me that film was still an artform in 2015 and every one of his movies is better than the last, I am looking forward to seeing Resurrection so much
I think….. She Shoots Straight is like a universal recommendation. What a great film.
