After stressing about Macro/Micro for a week straight this is the first weekend in a while where I felt like I could relax and watch an old favorite. And it also feels a bit fitting for my last (maybe?) blog post, given that this trilogy is a pillar of my childhood. I’m pretty sure I know most of the lines by heart at this point. It’s also an opportune moment to be annoying and talk about how much I hate marvel films (no, not just because everyone else likes them). I just genuinely hate them. Spider-Man 1-3 were great, 3 more so in a lovingly ironic way. I also loved Iron Man 1, but Iron Man 2 is when it all really started to go downhill. The films literally became a soulless money making scheme with a plot seemingly crafted in a laboratory to make it the most appealing to a wide audience which is exactly the thing that sucks the soul out of it. Don’t even get me started on the stupid jokes. When Maguire did it, it was funny kind of in a sort of Michael Cera awkward humor way, but now it seemed to forced and the actors suck so much it’s barely watchable. The original trilogy is great because it just feels like an indie film series about a guy who becomes a spider, but Marvel movies are like 90% crappy cgi fights against aliens that I really struggle to care about at all and maybe 10% actual story line if you’re lucky. Anywayyyy that was my rant sorry for being annoying but oh well. The Raimi Trilogy is a cultural relic that I could and would without hesitation write a 20 page paper on. Sure, the acting is horrendous, but that’s what makes it so charming and hilarious. And meme-wise, it’s a gift that just keeps on giving. If I’m having a bad day I just pull up the Raimimemes subreddit or search ‘Bully Maguire’ on YouTube and all my problems are solved.
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So, my mom has been obsessed with this movie ever since it came out. I’ve always been skeptical of this movie because I’m skeptical of anything put out by Amazon Prime. Even after all the awards it’s won I’ve still been putting off watching it, but I finally agreed to watch it with my mom last night and was pleasantly surprised. Once I realized it starred two stand-out supporting actors from some of my favorite shows The OA and Bates Motel, I realized it was going to be alright. Obviously, the editing and sound design was phenomenal, but I still can’t get over how good the acting was. How did this guy not win Best Actor? I really like how the film focused on the emotions behind becoming deaf (that can be applied to any sudden life changing event, really) rather than the mechanics of actually being deaf. I kind of had this weird anxiety about watching this movie because due to some poor choices when I was younger, I get the ears ringing and everything goes silent thing probably about once a week. It only lasts less than 10 seconds but it still freaks me out and what happened to this guy is my worst fear. The panic he felt when he realized he couldn’t hear and then the denial was so well done and I think it translated so well to the audience. I will admit, I did get a little bored in the second and third acts. There was a lot of interesting stuff like the deaf community and the choice to remain there or ‘get his life back’ but it still seemed to drag. Once he got the implants though it somehow became even more depressing. The whole time I was like please just take them out this is unbearable and he finally did at the end which was a relief.
My takeaway from this movie is to never, ever get cochlear implants. I watched four movies this weekend: The Lighthouse, Birdman, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and Rushmore. I decided to blog about Rushmore because honestly The Lighthouse and Birdman went way over my head I have no idea what to say about those two, and Scott Pilgrim was just aggressively not my thing and I don’t want to bash it because I know a lot of people like it. I just don’t like Edgar Wright, and I don’t think I like Wes Anderson either. I definitely get the appeal though, his shots are very well thought out and he has a very specific style. I’m just not a huge fan of it and I’m not interested in the subject of his movies. Rushmore was an exception though, because upon watching I discovered it is basically a parody of Villa kids. I watched this movie with my mom and she thought Max was hilarious. I have to admit, his line delivery was perfect. I couldn’t tell if he was a sociopath or just extremely arrogant, and that’s what makes it so funny. The movie itself was a little slow though. I loved the introduction and it focused on the main teacher plot for a while then the plot kinda fell off and got a little too muddy for me. It spent a lot of time on the school plays which I’m sure was trying to convey a message through those but I guess it just went over my head and I found myself getting bored in the third act. Overall, this is a Wes Anderson movie through and through. It’s pretty, but the plot was lacking and only thing that kept me watching was Max.
I’m just going to start off by saying that I REALLY liked this movie, maybe even more than La La Land. Thematically, these two films share a couple themes such as jazz (including Chazelle’s token “jazz is dying” line) and the moral of the story for both is that greatness comes at a price, whether it’s your dignity or relationships. Whiplash just takes both of those things to a whole new level. I must say I really, really like the way his movies look from the cinematography to the set design and especially the colors. I feel like he puts a lot of thought into the color palette and I appreciate that. Anyway, this movie was way more intense than I expected. It was a lot like Black Swan but way more grounded in reality, which is why I liked it way more than Black Swan. Both movies depict artists practically going insane to achieve greatness but Whiplash, however, felt much more like a commentary on abuse in the world of music than about achieving “greatness”. I always wondered why music majors are constantly ranked as the most stressed, and now I understand. If they even have to withstand a tenth what this guy went through they have my complete respect.
Chazelle also really likes ambiguous endings. I was really mad at La La Land’s ending the first time I watched it but over time I grew to like it. And this movie ends right after the guy freaks out and then goes like god mode on the drums for 20 minutes and we don’t even get to see any reaction but maybe that’s the point. Was Fletcher sabotaging him or was this the plan all along (unlikely)? And what about Fletcher’s former student who committed suicide after achieving said “greatness” (does he even care?). It almost seems like a hint as to what’s to come for Anthony down the road. Did Anthony even achieve greatness if it came at the cost of his dignity and love for drumming? Ambiguous endings are definitely a disappointment at first but I think they ultimately make the movie more rewatch able, as you can interpret it a different way each time you watch. Anyways, wow, I really like Damien Chazelle as a director. Now it would be cool if he could think outside the box and do something not jazz related. Comparison between Black Swan and Whiplash https://youtu.be/ba-CB6wVuvQ Some people may hate me for saying this but I think this is a perfect movie. It’s a perfectly paced nostalgic slice of life / coming of age film. Maybe I only say this because I’m living Lady Bird’s life right now (or maybe I’m just blinded by my love for Saoirse Ronan). Younger teens probably don’t quite get this movie and adults (other than mothers of teenage girls) probably think it’s boring and or stupid. This is the first time I’ve watched this movie in a year and I must say as someone whose about to move away to a big city for college, the last 20 minutes of the film really hit hard for me this time. I feel like it perfectly captured the mixed emotions of her as well as the family about leaving the place she grew up in but also following her dreams. Not to say that Sacramento to NYC isn’t a way bigger jump than from here to Chicago, but seeing that moment where Lady Bird steps out of the subway with all her luggage having no idea where to go next— that will be me in just a few short months.
Yeah, Lady Bird is annoying, though it’s typical teenage girl stuff and I do see where she comes from on a lot of stuff. And weirdly enough she looks and acts eerily similar to one of my friends and I can’t unsee it. A lot of people complain that literally every other character in this film is more interesting than Lady Bird so the movie shouldn’t have focused on her but isn’t that kind of the whole point? It’s a slice of life film about a girl who desperately wants to be unique and important. The other interesting characters are there to support her and mold her into the person she ultimately becomes. I must say the mom was the star of this movie by a mile. She reminded me of my mom in a lot of ways which also made the film weirdly nostalgic. It’s clear that when we see the mom from Lady Bird’s view, she’s this imposing control freak, but when we’re allowed to step back and see the bigger picture, we can see all of her struggles and why she is the way that she is. This perfectly sums up the teenage mindset and the revelation they have around 17/18 that their parents really did just want the best for them the whole time. Perhaps the cheesiest yet my favorite moment of the whole film is when she changes her name back to “Christine”. Once she’s out in the real world, she longs for and is finally grateful for that connection back to her mother. There’s nothing particularly extraordinary about this movie, and that’s why I love it so much. It kind of reminds me of Lost in Translation in that way. Now that I think about it those two would make for an awesome double feature. Female directors directing simple yet strong female leads really makes for something special… I hope to see more of it. I like to believe I’ve seen a lot of movies, and out of all I’ve seen, I can’t think of another character who is as excruciatingly unlikeable and boring as Barry Lyndon. He’s an arrogant, pathetic, self centered conman / psychopath. Imagine the Catch Me If You Can guy without the fun, wit, and naivety that makes him so charming and likable in a sense. As far as the movie itself goes, it wasn’t all that terrible. The pace was very slow, I had to watch 30 minutes here and there over two days to stay interested. The natural lighting is a novelty that wears off after about the first twenty minutes, though every now and again there will be a beautiful painting-like shot. But let me tell you, I reallllly enjoyed that last hour of the movie featuring Barry’s colossal downfall. It felt like payback for having to withstand the previous two hours. It was a bit like Hamlet in the sense that Barry ruined everyone’s lives around him, but no one dies, they all just have to live on suffering. It leaves you with a really depressing feeling but you also don’t really care that much because honestly all of these characters were annoying and unlikeable in their own way. I usually don’t have problems with unlikeable characters, I usually like them actually, but when you make them like almost painfully boring, I lose all interest and just hate them relentlessly. Anyway… I only watched this movie because it was an obstacle on my quest to watch all Kubrick movies. I’ll never watch it again but at least I can feel more cultured because I can say I’ve actually watched this film. In all seriousness though, I think this movie would be very interesting and enjoyable to people who are into history and have a better understanding of the context of the time period.
No specific spoilers in here, really. But read at your own risk I guess.
I watched the trailer for this movie when it was released and honestly never thought of it since then and didn’t know it had been released until a few days ago. When I looked into it some more, i realized this movie was right up my alley. I do love me some film noir — never expected it to show up in the newest Batman movie though. This movie is basically just Seven but the detective just so happens to be Batman. So, I just walked out of this movie about an hour ago, and my first thought was how on earth this got a PG 13 rating. Throughout the film I was like wow, the studio must have really lobbied the rating people (is this a real thing that happens? idk) because I myself was sweating and very tense throughout. Maybe I just don’t have a good idea of what gets a PG 13 rating these days, because as you may have noticed, i don’t watch them very much. My idea of a PG 13 film is like Spider-Man or Harry Potter. But this movie goes so far beyond that it’s not even close. Out of curiosity I looked up what it takes to get an R rating and apparently you need nudity and/or strong language. Maybe I’m crazy but in my opinion that stuff doesn’t compare to some of the stuff in this movie. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it feels like an ‘adult’ movie through and through that specifically left out certain elements to get the rating. A lot of it is just straight up terrorism, both as an underlying theme and front in center in a pretty realistic setting. Also an abundance of machine gun fire, bombing, and a very lengthy and involved car chase— all of which contributed to the sensory overload I was feeling during a lot of this movie, but hey, that’s what happens when you watch in Dolby cinema I guess. Without going into detail, this movie was a lot. It was just one thing after another, I felt like there was no breathing room. Also, there were too many villain side stories. The film would have been way stronger with a bigger focus on The Riddler. And the third act that people keep complaining about had a few very cool elements, but was way over the top in my opinion. It goes completely off the walls and ruins the semi realistic tone that the movie was keeping up pretty well to this point. So, that was a lot of negative stuff… but I actually really liked this film. Emo Batman was great. I always thought Christian Bale made Batman way cooler than he ever should have been, but that’s Christian Bale for you. I like Batman way more as a recluse loner than the cool guy. I mean, what kind of cool guy dresses in a Batsuit to fight crime, realistically speaking. This Batsuit is also a big improvement from Bale’s, which I always thought looked a bit silly. The Riddler was quite scary in a very… modern way. He really stole the show. There was no need for the mob villain(s) storyline (I know, I know, mob villains are a Batman staple). It dragged the story down and the runtime out by thirty minutes longer than it needed to be. Also wasn’t a huge fan of the strong political messaging, but it by no means ruined the movie for me as it seems it did for some Rotten Tomatoes reviewers. I know it’s a thing that Batman villains hate the rich, but it’s going stale at this point they kinda went overboard with that on this one. I wish the villains had some stronger, more personal agendas. I know it will never happen but I would like Joaquins joker to meet Pattinson’s Batman. I see them as the two true loners of all the villains I’ve seen. I’m not saying anyone should sympathize with the joker, but this particular Bruce Wayne would be a much more empathetic matchup than Joaquin and Bale, for example. Anyways, this was a very well made film that tested the limits in almost every way. I’m excited to see what’s to come in the next movies. I avoided this movie for a really long time, but I finally gave in because I feel like I can’t call myself a true Kubrick fan without seeing this one. I avoided it because I was always under the strong impression that this was just a pure war movie, but I could not have been more wrong. It’s actually not about the war at all, though the last 30 minutes did start feeling a little war-ish, the focus was still on the sociology of it all of course— it is a Kubrick film after all and what does he love more than sociology. I really wasn’t expecting the first half of this movie to be a military satire, but I’m not complaining I thought it was brilliant. It thoroughly depicted the stripping of individuality starting from the first scene with the buzz cuts because ones hair is possibly their most defining feature. Then it moved into the dehumanization of the soldiers— some took it better than others (rip Leonard). Then it suddenly took a much darker turn and never really recovered from that. It started to focus on Joker’s journey from being a smug journalist to the killer he promised not to be. I guess I can’t complain because the central theme is the duality of man, the main character says it himself and is wearing the not so subtle peace symbol / “born to kill” combination. Also, am I supposed to like Joker? I guess I empathized with him at some moments but he seemed like a creep most of the time. His most interesting scene was from the picture above, where he contemplates the killing of the woman sniper not long after questioning why any solider would kill a woman or child. The following scene then shows that he has been fully indoctrinated into the marine mindset, happily singing the Mickey Mouse song with a backdrop of a burning village. Overall, this movie was very different from what I expected which is why I enjoyed it so much, but I didn’t quite enjoy it enough to ever see myself watching it again.
This is one of those movies you put on when you’re looking for some pure entertainment. If I’m looking for a a nice, relaxing evening, I’ll put on a Harry Potter of course, but if I’ve had a boring day and am still feeling pretty energetic, this movie is one of my go to’s. Now, I think possibly the biggest criticism this movie gets is it’s run time. I don’t blame people who are hesitant to commit three hours of their life watching this trashy over the top film with an average of 3.16 f-bombs per minute. But I personally have no issue wasting my time (is time ever wasted if you’re enjoying yourself?), the bigger problem is finding three hours to give my undivided attention to this movie due to homework, tennis, and my excessive napping problem.
Anyways, this movie is a lot less cool when you learn that probably about 25% of it is accurate. Which is disappointing because I believe it was marketed as a mostly true story, and it’s based of an autobiography. If you are asking yourself ‘did this really happen?’ during a scene in this film, chances are it did not. The only accurate stuff is the financial crimes, oh, and he was also a drug addict of course. But no, they didn’t hire dwarfs for their office party, he didn’t see a helicopter explode in the sky, and he wasn’t arrested while filming an infomercial. I guess it’s a Scorsese thing to make movies about semi interesting criminals and over exaggerate everything about their life to the point where it’s almost comical. You can see this in Goodfellas especially. Henry Hill was actually a very low level mobster and not nearly as cool as he is made out to be. And Jordan Belford was never actually called The Wolf of Wall Street. He made that name up for himself for the autobiography. This similarity isn’t surprising because Wolf of Wall Street is basically just a white collar Goodfellas on crack. I would say this movie is in my top 20 list. It’s very well made and enjoyable despite the fact that’s it’s mostly fiction. Also I could not think of a more perfect role for Leo DiCaprio to play. Same goes for Jonah Hill. original post 11/26/21- wasn’t graded
Well, it’s officially Christmas season so it’s time to rewatch my favorite Christmas movie. I went back and forth debating if I should even write this review since this movie has somewhat of a stigma surrounding it. But considering this is one of Kubrick’s greatest masterpieces and probably my favorite film in terms of visuals, I think it’s important to discuss. I think we all know Kubrick is a creep and that is apparent in many of his films, but once you get around that, they’re simply magnificent. A Clockwork Orange and The Shining are some of my favorite films and I’m really looking forward to watching 2001 for the first time hopefully sometime over Christmas break. The main message in this film is what insecurity within a relationship can do in the most extreme circumstances. But there’s another much more interesting theme that lingers throughout the film is money/status as a means of power and control. It’s most prominently displayed with the whole cult storyline that the main character gets involved with, but I think it’s most powerful usage that likely goes unnoticed by many is that literally every time the main character wants something, he gets it by bribing with money or using his status as a doctor. There’s also a subtle but constant looming threat of death and dread throughout the film. I watched a YouTube video that talked about how Kubrick associates death with the color green. There’s a lot of green in this film. It also touches on consumerism culture. If you think about it, everything and everyone is up for sale in this movie. And the fact that it takes place during Christmas time, with Christmas trees and lights in almost every scene, only makes it more gross and creepy. Also, there’s a scene where Alice is helping their daughter with a math problem and it’s basically about figuring out which boy has more money. This is a not so subtle hint that she’s grooming the kid to be a trophy wife just like her. Now, I’m not a huge fan of the story. He finally goes “where the rainbow ends” after trying and failing like three different times and then predictably regrets it. What I really love about this film is it’s production design. The multi color Christmas lights as practical lighting in nearly every scene are *chef’s kiss*. I love movies that feel like a dream, and this movie feels even dreamier than a dream. First of all, it’s like a weird but awesome mix of New York and London in the middle of the night. Fun fact: this is only because the movie is set in New York but Kubrick lived in London and was afraid to fly, so all exterior shots were filmed in London or were sets. For some of the walking scenes they had Tom Cruise walk on a treadmill in front of a screen of New York City streets. Another small thing that makes the movie feel like a dream is that it’s the middle of the night and the streets are almost completely empty, yet all the restaurants he walks into are packed. I know New York is the city that never sleeps, but it’s still very unrealistic even for midtown Manhattan. It’s not logical at all but completely works for this film and adds to the eeriness. Speaking of eeriness, the creepy piano music that plays throughout the film is spot on. That’s all I have to say about that. |
May Featured Movie QuoteBarry B. Benson: Yellow-black, yellow-black, yellow-black, yellow-black... Oh, black and yellow. Yeah, let's shake it up a little.
Yeah, I have letterboxd now
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