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Rated Gremlins 8/10
I didn't name my cat gremlin after this movie although everyone assumes I did, I did however go get him when the evil landlord got shot out of the window and point at the screen and say ”That’s praxis. Be that kind of gremlin, please”he just yawned but I think he got the message
Edited 30d ago
Rated The Invite 7/10
Edited 30d ago
Rated The Brutalist 7/10
Edited 30d ago
Rated Battle Royale 6/10
first time watching the extended cut and i can say that i heavily prefer the original theatrical release
Edited 21d ago
Rated Romancing the Stone 8/10
Last time I watched this was about the time I went to Colombia b/c let me tell you people in Colombia are still mad (or were still mad like, what, ten years ago) about how Michael Douglas pronounces “Cartagena” in this. Anyway let me do a little Colombia Board Of Tourism and say I got the worst sunburn of my life but only because the beaches were so nice I didn’t want to leave.
Edited 30d ago
Rated Locke 8/10
I found myself enjoying this mainly because of its taut construction, but what was a bit of a letdown was the recycled narrative of the 'man divided by his responsibilities' bit. That being said, the writing is good enough to explain the nuances of Ivan--and Hardy's acting is top-notch--but his matter-of-fact approach to shifting life circumstances doesn't inspire enough dread or tension (often leaving viewers with a vague sense that everything will resolve itself).This makes it particularly crushing--or annoying, I'm not yet sure--that the film doesn't end with Ivan's demise. Others have talked about the symbolism of the passenger as a stand-in for Ivan's leviathan, but I've seen less commentary on what's depicted outside the BMW. Shots of speeding police cars and road crews suggest a possible car accident involving our protagonist, but this reality is never consummated or realized.Looked at as a one-way road trip to his inevitable end, it's hard not to assume that the film is largely about his descent into hell (a la Dante Alighieri) and how coming to terms with his nature is the focal point. The fact that his descent changes him in the eyes of other characters is unsurprising and I was pleased that it was at least referenced, but this film could've been so much more. It seems like writer-director Steven Knight had all the pieces, but was unsure of how to piece them together.
Edited 28d ago
Rated Loev 6/10
There's something incredibly shocking about being confronted with the passing of the actor playing a character you feel you know--that you feel is you in some ways. LOEV captures with piercingly uncomfortable awareness the conditional topology of love--its ebbs and flows, crests and troughs--and shows that it is in many ways not some abstract and external thing that one can possess, have, or own, but is a thing that each of us births and shapes, something whose definition changes when how we feel about ourselves--who we believe ourselves to be and what we believe others should feel about our actions--changes.Director Sudhanshu Saria displaces us in much the same way queerness disrupts and dislocates by intentionally avoiding characterization through outright description of his cast. What his characters do to and for each other, it appears, is more important than who they appear to be. The result is a layered film that relies primarily on touch and gesture as it depicts its two leads, jet-setting businessman Jai (Shiv Pandit) and musically timid Sahil (the late Dhruv Ganesh), attempting to find meaning in a relationship engraved with uncertainties of time and feeling.What the film does right is set up its premise: a brief weekend reunion between two men that could be (and seem to want to be) lovers. The problem is that neither has yet figured out how to bridge the gap between the realities of their attractions and the fancies of their imaginations. In this the film reveals through slow, almost stately plotting in its first third that a certain kind of projection or self-deception is required for love. Jai seems to be attracted not to Sahil, per se, but to his carefree nature and flights of whimsy, Sahil to Jai's order, gravity, and discipline. Along the way there's a great deal of bumbling around as both try to exist beyond their constructed facades and embrace their vulnerabilities and each other. All is well until it isn't, until whimsy intrudes on order and gravity steals what once held boundless inertia. The fantastical decelerates; reality sets in.There is a scene in this film that is unquestionably a rape scene. This is unique not only because many films feature or position rape as a source of transformation (particularly for female or feminized subjects), but because precious few situate rape within the context of a relationship or as an example of intimate partner violence (IPV). Fewer queer films acknowledge it at all. In a film whose structure and timetable suggests a conventional drama akin to Andrew Haigh's WEEKEND, it's significant that the film dares us to empathize with both the brutal and brutalized. In doing so it asks us to confront and think about violence and its continuities. Is the violence "intimate" or domestic if neither person lives with the other? If the best either can utter is "I like you" defensively? If neither person fits neatly into the expansive vagueness of "partner"? And then, most importantly: how and why do we participate in and enact similar violences, of vagueness and noncommunication?That a film can be this personal and metaphysical with the thinnest of plot set-ups is honestly invigorating. And it mostly succeeds thanks in no small part to the chemistry of Ganesh and Pandit. Where it falters, however, is in writing that in many cases--particularly with side characters--feels like it exists as filler. One might also see problems in its narrative turns in the third act, which feel reasonable, but which are not set up properly or which result in conclusions that are not entirely earned because it isn't clear what characters value and what motivates them. This lack of definition undermines some of the film's credibility. With that being said, I found myself appreciating the film's subtler moments and even its musical ones (the song running over the credits is particularly beautiful). The film makes legible the difficulties of translating feeling (attraction) and action (violence) into something intelligible. What we get is a story of love told through violation and shattering, that survives battering and fragmentation. We get LOEV.
Edited 28d ago
Rated The Raid 8/10
One of the finest action movies of the year. Half of the fun is literally watching the body count increase because some of the kills are incredibly innovative. The fight choreography for the hand-to-hand sequences is equally creative. When I first saw the premise I figured it'd be mostly a shoot-'em-up type movie as it centers on a SWAT team operation, but there's a considerable amount of martial arts at play (aside from the standard melee stuff) and it's nice to see that come back to cinema.The other thing I really loved about this was the sound editing/mixing. Several scenes of anticipation use sort of a rising baseline to build atmosphere instead of silence and I quite enjoyed it. There are also a few scenes of the action that incorporate the thematic elements of dubstep of all things--certainly not what I expected from an Indonesian film.Visually, the feel of the movie is gritty and small. There are no truly massive set pieces and so you have all of this action occurring in very confined spaces. The grittiness comes mainly from the textures of the environments, which all feel like they've actually been inhabited in or were once abandoned. There's also a really nice use of shadows and silhouettes in certain scenes. Not knowing anything of Indonesian culture it's hard for me to say what the acting should like like; nothing stood out, really, but nothing was disappointing. Again this was an action movie and its a damn well good one.
Rated Spider-Man: Brand New Day 7/10
Edited 28d ago