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chmollo
Reviews
Angel Heart (1987)
Violating
There are a few movies around that make you feel violated when you make it through to the end. Se7en is one, this is on par with that I think, although I think this one edges the other one out. Maybe. From Hell is another, but somehow that one just reaches me on a revulsion level, possibly too disgusting to be emotionally affecting enough. Unfortunately in the case of this film it is compelling viewing, so it's not like you want to just get up and walk away. And by the time the truly disturbing stuff happens you're already in the middle of it, and what has been seen cannot be unseen. So in a way I wish I'd never seen this film, which is well constructed noir outing with Mickey Rourke in his most convincing role and Deniro also at his best. I note some complaints about the FX at the end and these are possibly justifiable, but this is 1987 people, the era of the Amiga.
Puss in Boots (1999)
Not the worst animation I have seen - wait, yes it probably is
My youngest child took a liking to this film which we had lying around the house for some inexplicable reason. Graphically and sonically it is appallingly bad. Most scenes are shades of red. As if that weren't enough to induce a headache, wait until you hear Judge Reinhold's singing. I give it 2 because it's so bad you can kind of enjoy it. The song "why won't you marry me?" is kind of catchy, but often the vocals and music don't seem to relate to each other. Quite an experience. Michael York's performance as the very annoying cat is also quite reasonable, in a film where the king's great dramatic line is "oh dear oh dear". You have been warned.
Hilary and Jackie (1998)
Time travel or astral projection?
I first saw this film on an aeroplane, never a good setting. I was struck by the opening scene with the girls on the beach with that amazing music that just shouted epic tragedy here. Got into the story, which dragged on a bit, then went back in time about half way through. And then that ending with the MS and the future/past self "resolution", so gut-wrenching. I like to take the time travel stuff literally here, never seen time travel so tastefully done, perhaps because so gratuitous and yet so fitting. So 10/10 for the bookends. I don't think I've seen a sister relationship so realistically portrayed either.
The Lighthouse (2019)
Strangely reminiscent of Napoleon Dynamite
When I first watched Napoleon Dynamite I thought OK, so what? I had a similar response to this film. And then snippets of dialogue came back to me, and repeating these out loud out of context became a source of amusement. And this film does the same thing. Willem Dafoe has some of the funniest lines I've ever heard - myself repeat. A great comedy in retrospect.
Tenet (2020)
Christopher Nolan's first "art' movie?
Weird visuals, apparently incomprehensible plot that may only make sense on repeated viewings. Is this a David Lynch film? No, but it did make me think of the experience of watching a David Lynch film, rather than a James Bond film. When I watch a David Lynch film, in order to appreciate it I need to temporarily disengage my analytical mind and just let the imagery enter my sub-conscious. The movie ends, I need to sit for a while to let it sink in, then I can figure out what it was I was watching (if I want to). Tenet seems to force a similar set-up for me, but the visual imagery is less internal/intriguing/ambiguous, more external/gimmicky/explicit. Do I assess its value based on that mode of viewing? When Tenet finishes, there was such an overload of imagery that the images don't seem to have sunk in, so it's hard for them to swim together back to the surface of my consciousness to make a cohesive whole. And it doesn't really compel me to make sense of it because, as others have pointed out, we've made only a small investment in the characters to have enough emotional investment to care enough about it. So, on the whole, Tenet was somewhat dissatisfying for me as a work of art; on the other hand, it was some kind of a work of art (just not sure what), and for that alone in a world of vanilla wallpaper movies it has to be valued.
Predestination (2014)
Snook steals the show
I hadn't realised this was -All You Zombies- when I started watching it because of the Fizzle Bomber sub-plot that was added that came in at the beginning. I'm not convinced that this was necessary, but then again, the original story is very pulp and hence intrinsically dated, so I can appreciate that it was reasonable to adapt the story somewhat. I quickly realised when they went to the bar scene, though. Apart from the Fizzle Bomber bit, it's a pretty faithful adaptation of the original story. But the highlight definitely has to be Sarah Snook's performance. Sometimes I could have sworn I was watching Jodie Foster, sometimes Leonardo DiCaprio. The whole sex change thing could easily have been a gimmick, and I don't know that Heinlein envisaged it being depicted realistically, but in Sarah Snook's hands it was totally convincing. Unnerving.
Kairo (2001)
J-Horror version of Rhinoceros
I'm a big fan of Gene Wilder and I think one of his greatest roles is that guy who resists turning into a Rhinoceros in the eponymous apocalyptic comedy. Strangely, that movie came to mind regularly as I watched this movie. Turn the rhinoceroses into ghosts and the crazy antics of Zero Mostel and Karen Black into morbid philosophical ramblings about death and you pretty much have this movie summed up for my money. The ghost bits were pretty well done, quite creepy, a lot scarier than the rhinoceros masks in the other film, so kudos for that. I really do wonder if the makers were referencing Rhinoceros as some of the lines/ideas seem to be taken directly from it, however far-fetched that may sound.
Wo hu cang long: Qing ming bao jian (2016)
Watch it with the Chinese language soundtrack
I had pretty much given up on this title after I first stumbled across it on Netflix. I started watching it in the default language, English, which, after all is what the actors were mouthing. Also, it's a Netflix offering, which are all a bit "light", so I was expecting they would turn it in to a formulaic happy-ending thing - more on that later. Also, how could they replace Zhang Ziyi? Well, they did, with Australian Chinese Australian actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo. They are playing different but similar characters, and they are different but similar, so all good there.
Then many months later I saw it come up again and I thought I'd try watching it with the Chinese soundtrack and it really was a different experience - the English language always sounds so hackneyed in moves - has every line of original sounding dialogue already been written? When I was watching it in Chinese, I found it to be a similar experience to the original movie, a little less subtle perhaps, right up until the end. And here was my biggest problem. She dies in the final battle, right? But then she's riding off into the sunset at the end? What happened there? So is that a spoiler or not? Anyway, a decent sequel. Not a masterpiece, but solid entertainment and better than its current 6.1 score anyway.
The Favourite (2018)
The Talented Mr Ripley in period costume
Contrary a lot of reviews here, I found this film strangely familiar. At the end, which - also contrary to a lot of reviews here I found to be perfectly satisfactory - I realised I had the same feeling I had at the end of The Talented Mr Ripley and indeed I felt like I'd just watched pretty much the same story with the same feel at the same moments, with the same kind of sour after-taste. Finally, also contrary to a lot of reviews here, did not find this film particularly "weird"; it seemed merely to set out to shock on occasion, but within its own parameters. Have none of these reviewers ever seen a movie by David Lynch or Darren Aronofsky? Kudos to the costumes and acting though, particularly Olivia Colman.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The sociology of IMDb user comments
I've looked at reviews for lots of movies on IMDb, but this one appears to take the cake as far as polarising people's opinions. It's either complete crap or complete genius. And there are 3066 user comments, so it seems to force people to say something about it! I wonder which movies have more user comments than that? Anyway, I watched this on DVD at night alone, so I guess I set it up that it would scare me. And that fact that I had to go to IMDb the day after to see what other people thought about it is testimony to the fact that it stayed with me. It helped having the filmmakers' commentary track on it to put it back into perspective, though. Clever idea. I wonder how much the actors knew about in the final scene though, 'cause the commentary says the actors didn't know they were going to the house and then the crew decks them when they get to the basement - we don't see them on film/video, so we have to assume the actors didn't either. The actors must have really trusted those guys!