i watched this
I paid A24 to watch Minari last night. I kind of wish I had just waited for it to come out on whatever streaming service.
I was really excited to watch this movie and was almost certain I was going to like it, but it fell flat. Maybe the makkeoli I was drinking made me more critical than I should have been, but I donāt really feel like spending another $20 to find out.
I guess my biggest gripe is that it felt really sterile and a little too sentimental? Iām still thinking through what irked me about it, but- okay, so thereās this scene (not a spoiler) where this pair of white women are talking to the Korean mom (Monica) and kind of fawning all over her and calling her cute and I feel like thatās what the movie does to the little boy and grandmaās relationship. It was a little too saccharine, even though itās rooted in real stuff. My husband said it reminded him of a Pixar plot, so thereās that too.
I donāt know, maybe itās just Not For Me. Youn Yuh-Jung played grandma perfectly, Steven Yeun has aged well, Will Patton killed it, and Noel Cho reminded me exactly of my cousin that would annoyingly babysit us and be the mom when ours werenāt around. The pastoral landscape was also real nice to look at. I guess Iāll try watching it again in a couple years or something.
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I watched Fire Walk With Me. It is the most horrific movie I have ever seen. Talking about it is akin to talking about oneās dreams. What is significant to me might be trivial to you.
Lately, Iāve been considering the differing values of melodrama and naturalism in cinema. Iāve been thinking about what feels more relatable. Lynch works within the parameters of melodrama, but uses the genre to tap deeper into the back of peopleās minds. Life can often be surreal and patterns can be perceived everywhere. Where do we draw the line between epiphany and apopheny? The abstraction in this film focuses those sensations in a way that feels true.
The inevitability of tragedy will always hurt me.
I feel a deep connection to Kiefer Sutherlandās character.
8 Likes
disclaimer i donāt watch movies and i havenāt seen this movie either
the inevitability of tragedy can be taken another way. if tragedy is inevitable, you should not wait until the critical moment to acknowledge it.
you should cry upon meeting a newborn kitten over that beingās inevitable death and passing. you should weep at the earthās annihilation, hopefully beyond your lifetime. the extinguishing of each star. time is meaningless and tragedy is infinite. take it one drop, one iota at a time. spread it out so you donāt end up daggered with infinite sorrow as the credits drip
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This is good advice. I should add that I think itās good to feel sadness because of the pain that exists in the world. Acknowledging and accepting the pain and the sadness is healthy.
This film re-contextualizes a series about the death of a high school girl by showing her last days from her perspective. In the series, the main protagonist is a detective and many of the other characters felt deeply linked to this girl. But ultimately, theyāre only observers and they couldnāt access who she was or what pain she had inside of her. As a viewer, youāre like one of these characters, curious at first, then protective. The film lets you see more of her interior life and you feel closer. Yet you know that if you were a person in that world and you could talk to her, you wouldnāt be able to save her. I think thatās what hurts.
Itās a fictional movie and these people arenāt real, but real people go through similar things. Itās difficult to think about sometimes.
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I watched Orlando. Itās a beautiful movie:
I havenāt read the book and I donāt know much about its history, but now I really want to. Tilda Swinton is one of my favorite people to see on the screen and she owns this movie. I was particularly drawn by the 1610 sequence where the Thames has frozen over and many scenes have the characters maneuvering on ice skates. Itās such an unusual, decadent setting and Sally Potter successfully draws out all the symbolism from it that she can.
I got halfway through the movie but I had to take a break. When I started cooking dinner, my mom saw it while browsing what to watch. Ever attracted to period pieces, she started it. When I was talking about Kiarostami, I thought about how my mom wouldāve reacted if she saw the same movies that I did and now I know. She spent most of the movie playing Line: Disney Tsum Tsum and when it was all over she said, āI dunno, that was weird.ā The last shot is weird so thatās a totally valid reaction but I could do without the dismissive tone. Iāll let you all know her opinions the next time I watch a period film. TTFN!
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My wife, during Redline: āSo is every anime oversexualized?ā
Me: āYes.ā
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Rewatched Space is the Place which feels substantial beyond its shoestring budget, like a DIY docu-gospel unfolding in real time, unnoticed by all but a select few on the fringes. It has an unpredictable kind of rhythm, appropriately moving to the beat of its own drum. Who knows how much of that is down to amateur filmmaking but thereās a potent (and moving) sense of purpose throughout. Itās great how NASA is portrayed as pretty much indistinguishable from any other evil government organisation (CIA, FBI) because to Sun Ra and his message, they are. When watching with others, thereās always a palpable sense of discomfort during the scene where the NASA agents beat a pair of women though it is justified I think, not only to make us hate them, but to illustrate the impotence of their body/mind/spirit/entire power structure (the underlying ājokeā being that they are rocket men who canāt āget it upā and lash out violently at what they canāt control). A real treasure.
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i finally watched ROAR
so fuck the way drafthouse marketed this movie (70 injuries, a snuff family robinson) it is an animal rights explotation movie by very well meaning but idiotic people
the best part was the metal gear solid part where everyone was hiding in lockers abd then lions were like HAHA WEāRE SMARTER THAN KOJIMA PATROLS and theyd just knock whatever people were hiding in over in a way that the hiding person cant get out of
the way they built the house so big cats can come in and traverse it at any angle was fascinating to watch. ALSO TIPPI HENDREN FROM THE BIRDS REALLY LEVELLED UP HER ANIMAL ATTACKS FOR THIS MOVIE
if youāve ever worked at a dog daycare youll get huge nostalgia from this movie, all the injuries people get are dumb bullshit from big animals playing too hard except for the directors handwound he got breaking up a fight. they almost named a hospital ward after him for visiting so much! he got gangrene from 11 puncture wounds!!!
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They plan to build the White House on the moon soon
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free fire (2016) - really wish every single character would shut the fuck up tbh
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La Vie de bohĆØme is the first movie from Aki KaurismƤki I have seen. It hits a very particular tone that is deadpan, funny, charming, and sullen all at once. I laughed a lot. I might have cried if that was something I did through watching movies.
Despite coming from a Finnish director with Finnish actors, it is in French and the whole aesthetic seems to evoke a particular vision of postwar Paris scrapbooked from various films by Bresson, Becker, and Melville. I thought about Jim Jarmusch and Wes Anderson while I was watching it, but I think the film avoids being too precious. I chalk that up to the casting as each character is well past forty and they speak in gravelly, droll voices. I have never wanted to grow a mustache more than after seeing Matti PellonpƤƤ pull one off. Itās an incredibly debonair look.
I loved the dialogue in the film. The characters luxuriate in language without getting winded. Thereās a rhythm to the conversational sparring that is attuned just right.
Iām really excited to watch more from him.
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this movie was the most compelling thing i may have ever seen
i like how the local dudes make no secret of how little they think of these stupid lion people
yeah the one dude who obviously wanted nothing to do with the animals was the only one not to be hurt
also im soft now i cried at that cheesey folk Save The Earth song at the end
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i cant get over the dude who was IN TEH BARREL and you saw his face and then ALL YOU SEE IS ELEPHANT TUSK IN FRONT OF HIS FACE BECAUSE IT COMPLETELY PUNCTURED THE BARREL IF HE WAS LEANING FORWARD AT ALL HE WOULD HAVE DIED
also tippi is so sweet when she fell off the elephant she was like 'that was my fault! the elephant was trying to help me!"
The scene shortly afterwards where sheās unconscious (possible) and having honey licked off her face was too much noā¦it was all too much
theres a part in amish mafia where they punish rowdy horny amish people by tying them up and having goats lick honey off their bare thighs so i was prepared for that Insex Moment
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Santa Sangre - stopped watching halfway through as wasnāt really feeling it, plus strict policy of being anti-saintly allegorical deaf-mute girls representing purity in a sinful world etc. i donāt know. the music was great and interestingly deployed. there was one very funny bit when the first murder is happening and suddenly the ost changes from mostly diegetic folk songs to a very Friday The 13th electronic disco track. there is one shot that weirdly anticipates the iconography of blue lives matter.
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders - personally i feel like i would have picked up that this was a dream version of emerging sexuality without the shots of a real teenagerās chest BUT aside from that i did like this, a very mysterious atmosphere and good balance of knowing vs not knowing whatās going on. most of the characters have both benign and terrifying aspects, usually associated with abrupt changes of makeup and costume and sometimes treated as entirely separate individuals, and the transition from one aspect to another is kind of presented as a side effect of some more complex symbolic mechanism rather than just an unpredictable duality-of-man thing. i liked that whenever valerie used the earrings they made an extremely ostentatious TING sound effect like an adventure game inventory item. also that the main vampire had a little dog tucked into his cassock at all times - later, a different character becomes a vampire and she gets the dog.
6 Likes