movie

Rated The Scarlet Claw 9/10

Rated Gali Guleiyan 7/10

Rated A Moment in the Reeds 6/10

Rated Tongues Untied 10/10

Rated On the Seventh Day 8/10

Deportations were happening before Trump and most Americans--most USians--were okay with them. Jennicet Gutierrez was hassled out of Barack Obama's White House bringing attention to this very issue and it didn't register a blip on the radar of most "progressives". Please don't situate this film in the context of Trump's escalation of tactics endorsed by previous administrations; don't perform outage for clicks or likes or validation for the fact that it helps you finally "see" the humanity of those regularly denied it.This film is great because it exists and because it shows the entirely untenable reality that many residents of this country are forced to make choices between financial stability and community uplift and empowerment. I applaud McKay for getting so much right without the film devolving into torture porn. We've had enough of that. It's time to recognize the magnitude and the history of the harms of yesterday and today--and act.

Rated Bilal: A New Breed of Hero 4/10

This was really disappointing. There are definitely moments of brilliant direction, stunning character design, and impressive uses of the score and soundtrack, but the script needed a lot more polish. For the entire film there wasn't a single character that I felt I could latch on to and it made this viewing a slog. (I actually fell asleep during the first 40 minutes on my first viewing.) This movie is easily half an hour longer than it needs to be and I still don't have a clear understanding of why--not everything that was included needed to be and the film's plot turns feel as though they are pilfering pretty unabashedly from THE PRINCE OF EGYPT. I really like films in this genre, especially when animated, so this, while not awful, was definitely a letdown.

Rated The Cabin in the Woods 5/10

For a horror movie I have to say it's pretty astounding. I can certainly see how it ended up becoming a cult classic given its commitment to self-awareness throughout its runtime. I almost want to call it the perfect marriage between pure horror and absolute camp (a la Scary Movie and even the Scooby Doo remakes). I enjoyed it that much.There's a good deal of tension in the first half and there were quite a few times where on first viewing I literally freaked my shit out. On the sound front the music is scored, cued, and mixed particularly well and the latter half is a ridiculously entertaining romp through the crass and utterly ridiculous (one word: unicorn).With all of these jostling ideas and tones it's impressive that you actually feel for some of these characters especially given to the shortness of the film--it comes over at just over 90 minutes--so credit obviously lays with the writers. The actors themselves are equally talented, though it's really the writing that compels them to be something new, something more, to what have become conventional horror archetypes.All in all my first viewing was great and its an enjoyable ride on repeat.

Added Pinocchio's Revenge to Watched Movies

Rated Poltergeist 5/10

Rated V for Vendetta 8/10

Rated Paris Is Burning 8/10

Added The Shawshank Redemption to Watched Movies

Added Pulp Fiction to Watched Movies

Rated The Invitation 6/10

What ever happened to Claire?

Rated Saint George 6/10

SÃO JORGE should be lauded for its self-awareness of the history and social functions of race and class. In it the eponymous protagonist Jorge (Nuno Lopes), a retired boxer, struggles to financially assist the woman he loves and feed and clothe their mixed-race son (she is black and from Brazil, he is white and from Portugal). To do this he first returns to the sport, serving mostly as glorified punching bag, but the impact these fights have on son Nelson (David Semedo) leave an impression. In a touching sequence following one such bout, Nelson asks his bruised and bloodied father a simple question: why do humans eat other humans? Jorge asserts, perhaps too-confidently, that they don't.It turns out that what he will do for the remainder of the film is eat those words. The threat of Nelson's mother Susana (Mariana Nunes) leaving Portugal and leaving Jorge for the former colonial territory, itself made possible through slave labor, is deeply ironic--backwards, even--but it underscores just how drastically the economic malaise has affected those who comprise the underclass. This looming threat also serves as a kind of moral test for Jorge on his worth as a man. He and others in his predicament frequently find themselves emasculated by their economic disempowerment and in this way SÃO JORGE offers a peephole through which one can view how masculinity and power are forged through access to capital. Money talks, sure, but it frequently compels listening as well.To reclaim this masculinity, stolen from him by the financial crisis much like Susana's affections appear pilfered, Jorge reverts further to an archetypal masculine identity defined primarily by muscled biceps and taut sinews. In this new capacity he cuts a figure as a menacing debt collector with his earnings tied directly to the cash that he intimidates out of borrowers. Jorge has then willingly become an agent of the oppressive economic system that victimizes people for their lack of access to resources. Ultimately his desire to provide a home and comfort for Susana and Nelson catalyzes a more complete metamorphosis--he becomes less a person and more a hunting dog, dishing violence out at another's behest.The comparison of Jorge to a beast and a dog in particular is not accidental. In taking on the character of a servile animal Jorge is effectively enslaved (like his peers) to a certain economic order, chained to the politics and realities of resource scarcity. That he could go so far is neither surprising nor particularly compelling because what the film shows is that we are, each of us, animals, often prioritizing personal wants over social equity--we each desire our own pound of flesh as an analgesic. If the question Nelson poses is do humans eat other humans and Jorge's 'no' is truthful, then SÃO JORGE contends that none of us is human and that we are all beasts in human drag. We all are capable of great harm in ensuring that we and others we love are able to survive. In fact the one truism of the film may be that harm endures and is inescapable.SÃO JORGE tackles the soul-crushing realities of living under debt with refreshing frankness, but its slow pacing and singular focus on Jorge do get a bit stale and place hamper it in terms of complexity. (I was particularly hoping Nunes's Susana would play a larger role as she is the character most susceptible to the winds of change.) Nonetheless one strength of the film is in the texture of Marco Martins's characters, polished as they are by economic austerity and social neglect. Slipping into this world happens with relative ease, but the film is not without its fair share of bumps: stilted dialogue often makes husks of the on-screen performers, while and the long runtime might have conveyed a stronger sense of both purpose and intensity. SÃO JORGE certainly has good intentions and it is impressive that it was made at all, but it is a truly dispassionate film. This shouldn't be surprising.

Rated It Follows 6/10

I think the most frightening (and effective) thing about this film is the fact that it doesn't have a well-explained mythology and so at its core can't be considered formulaic. I still don't quite understand some of the logics of what should probably be called Sexually Transmitted Terror, but I appreciated the nods to 80s genre films. While the first fifteen or so minutes were pretty uneven, the film is intriguing enough to merit a watch and justify some analysis. Given the relationship(s) most USians have to/with sex I'd be very interested to know how this film is received in other sociocultural contexts; so much of the fright may, in fact, be the result of our own conditioned attitudes about sex and bodily autonomy.On technical levels, the film stands up pretty well. The cinematography is sure, the pacing appropriate, the narrative's progression well-thought-out, and the score phenomenal. In fact, I don't think a horror movie has been made since the 80s where I genuinely felt that the musical accompaniment was as tone-sensitive to the direction of the film, so definite props to Disasterpeace for blipping onto my radar (and hopefully staying). IT FOLLOWS is a surprisingly enjoyable film that I anticipate seeing again given how much on offer seems well-placed to probe the mind.

Added My Grandfather Charles Manson to Watched Movies

Added Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing to Watched Movies

Rated Underground Fragrance 6/10

Rated To My Beloved 6/10

Rated Lawrence of Arabia 10/10

Rated Kingsman: The Secret Service 6/10

At first the hyper-kinetic action sequences seem forced and gimmicky, but once you're used to them their excessive nature becomes more apparent and their effectiveness wanes. It's a bizarre mashup of STORMBREAKER, SHOOT 'EM UP, and THE WOLVERINE that Vaughn creates, and fans of any of the aforementioned will find themselves at home. There is gratuitous violence, sure, but nothing that's truly discomfiting or gory. (And if you're anything like me this will probably annoy you; if he is going to be mindlessly frivolous he should at least COMMIT.)Vaughn is quite right to keep the pacing brisk--it keeps audiences invested and prevents them from thinking too critically about some foibles--but it's still pretty obvious that he isn't interested in flushing the majority of these characters out. Particularly vexing is the treatment women get in this movie. Roxy and Gazelle are initially characterized as dedicated, sober women, but by the second half both are drawn in ways that allow them to be easily dismissed (or dispatched). Also infuriating is the fact that there's no set-up that peeks into their pasts despite incidental characters like Eggsy's mom receiving screen time that is well out of proportion with their relevance in the action and overall narrative.As with any movie overly reliant on its action there are significant issues with its script and the ways characters are rendered. Having not read its source material I can't make assertions about its faithfulness, but it definitely sacrifices emotional gravitas (and thought-provoking eschatologies) for something that thinks itself a parody/satire of the spy movie genre. On this score it never quite sticks its landing. It provides a spectacle that will keep audiences at rapt attention, but for all its talk--through lisps--of bespoke suits, it's riddled with holes, the final product more tatterdemalion than dinner wear.

Rated Death on the Nile 7/10

Rated Jurassic Park 8/10

Rated Murder on the Orient Express 6/10