movie

Rated Poltergeist 5/10

Added The Shawshank Redemption to Watched Movies

Added Pinocchio's Revenge to Watched Movies

Rated V for Vendetta 8/10

Rated The Invitation 6/10

What ever happened to Claire?

Added My Grandfather Charles Manson to Watched Movies

Rated Lawrence of Arabia 10/10

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 Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing to Watched Movies

Rated Underground Fragrance 6/10

Rated Britain's Greatest Codebreaker 8/10

Rewatched this as a result of having recently seen THE IMITATION GAME and deeming it severely lacking in its approach--historical and thematic--to Alan Turing's work. On technical levels this film could use some improvement in its cinematography and editing, but given that it bills itself as a made-for-tv docudrama it comes across as both insightful and competent.What I appreciated most about the film was its construction and the way it dramatized the interactions between two people--Turing (Ed Stoppard) and his therapist, Franz Greenbaum (Henry Goodman). We get a bit of backstory of both, of course, but the interaction between the two allow us to get a better sense of the inner-workings of Turing's mind before, during, and after his service at Bletchley Park.This back-and-forth is complemented by the more traditional style of sit-down interviews, which include relatives and descendants of Turing and Greenbaum. More importantly to me, though, was the way in which the film perfectly contextualizes his general thinking about the computability of life with his discoveries of and contributions to computer science, artificial intelligence, and biological mathematics.What I appreciated most about this was the way in which it positions the sciences (and universities, really) as places of interdisciplinary study. Wozniak for the most part stresses the integral nature of his contributions to computer science and machine learning, but it is left to the professors to explicate how his genius would influence later thinkers and both postulate (and shape) the theories, philosophies, and extent(s) of artificial intelligence.The film isn't solely about his mind, however, it's also about his heart. And here the film also gets it right. We learn about the loss in his youth of his childhood friend Christopher and, perhaps masterfully, the philosophical question of immortality through AI is raised while at the same time Turing's conception of a means of discerning true intelligence--his eponymous test--comes into form.At nearly the same time his love for Queen and country is tested when, following a burglary at his residence, law enforcement are called, but are more interested in his sexual proclivities than in meting out justice to the thieves. What's interesting about the recollection of this event is how it's used to color Turing. We learn from various sources about how open he was about his sexuality, even with these officers, and also that he was aware that he bore some social privileges as an academician.Charged with gross indecency and offered the choice between jail and chemical castration, the film shows us how Turing's disillusionment and anger with the world and British society began. What he didn't count on was that his mind might become just as addled and confused as his heart. The idea that the country he helped save from Nazi Germany's atrocities could visit the same upon its own citizens would eventually drove him to his death. The film captures this reality with little to no effort and it doesn't shy away from it. It can't.CODEBREAKER is a film that is as much about genius as it is about the social contexts and relationships that inform and constrain it. What this film does right is depict a man wronged by society simply because he could be wronged. It is a tale about villainy and state violence, but it's also a story about a boy who wanted to give something back to the world and vindicate the worth of an adolescent friendship. It's a glimpse into a time characterized by secrets and surveillance. Deeply human despite its flaws, it passes the test.

Rated Two Cars, One Night 6/10

Rated The Place Beyond the Pines 7/10

This is a slow, well-directed movie that aims to bring to life meditations on fatherhood and the cyclical nature of violence, but never quite does so because its narrative and thematic focus is frequently interrupted. The idea of tackling the the material through a time-spanning saga was an interesting take, but in focusing so much on the masculinities of fathers and sons this film leaves its female characters thinly drawn and wanting. Offering some of her most engaged acting, the treatment of Eva Mendes was, for me, a decisive misstep.

Rated The Mandalorian and Grogu 4/10

Rated I Don't Want to Go Back Alone 7/10

Rated I Am Not Your Negro 6/10

Rated Parenthood 8/10

Rated Bagarre 5/10

Petit film sans prétention qui aura eu le mérite de me faire marrer pas mal de fois, tant le propos est what the fuck...

Rated Raiders of the Lost Ark 9/10

Rated Insidious: Out of the Further 6/10

Rated The Transformers: The Movie 7/10

Added Coraline to Movie Watchlist

Rated Turn of the Tide: The Surreal Story of Rabo de Peixe 7/10

Rated Toy Story 5 7/10

Peut-être celui que j'ai le moins aimé de la saga. Il manque quelques gags pour en faire un bon Toy Story. Le film reste cependant agréable à regarder.