I’ve avoided watching this movie for a long time because I was scared I wasn’t going to like it, and I don’t want to be that person who says they didn’t like Goodfellas. I say I hate gangster movies because I've seen The Godfather and The Irishman and hated both so much I didn’t even finish them. Mob characters are just kind of uninteresting to me and the stories feel unoriginal and over complicated. But I actually did find Henry to be an interesting character and the voiceover helped me keep up with the plot but I still got lost toward the end. I usually write about movies I've seen more than once on here because I find it very difficult to analyze a movie after seeing it just once. But I feel obligated to go out on a limb once in a while for this blog and try something new. So, I don’t have a lot to say about this movie right now. Again, I liked the focus on the character of Henry rather than the mob stuff, but there was plenty of that too. I’ve been watching The Wolf of Wall Street over the past week to refresh my memory for my midterm project, and I realized that Jordan and Henry are basically the same character placed in a different setting. Both saw a rapid rise to riches at a young age (due to illegal activity), like to steal millions from the government, have older mentors in the business, are unfaithful to their wives, and develop drug addictions that arguably lead to their downfall. The only big difference is white collar vs blue collar crime. Scorsese definately has his character types that he likes to recycle, but I’m not complaining. This movie had an abundance of those beloved Scorsese trademarks such as the character types and voiceover as previously discussed, as well as an excellent soundtrack, lots of slow-mo shots, and long tracking shots. The highlight of the film for me was the four minute tracking shot in the copa. I can’t imagine the logistics of shooting that. Another thing that stood out to me was the color red (as seen in the above photo) in this film. We all know Scorsese likes to manipulate color in his films, whether it’s the scaled back color palette of Taxi Driver to elicit a dream like state or Raging Bull’s complete lack of color to take the viewer back to the 1940s. Throughout the film I kept trying to figure out what red means beyond obviously blood, violence, anger. Given Scorsese’s tendency to include religious themes in his films, my best guess now is that it relates to sin and judgement as red is prevalent in the violent and courtroom scenes. Overall, I didn’t hate this movie. I’m going to have to watch it at least one more time before I can determine if I actually like it.
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I don’t feel qualified to analyze this movie. I’ve probably seen it at least five times and still feel like there’s so many undertones I’m still missing. I could probably watch it 100 times and realize something new every time. There’s so many different things you could deeply analyze about this movie that I can’t even begin to really get into here such as cinematography, symbols, motifs, character development, and well, pretty much anything that makes for a great film. It’s too bad this is rated R because I think it would be a great one to study in film class. Anyways, I was in the mood to watch it so I guess I’ll try to review it now and hopefully don’t embarrass myself.
I have to give credit to Joker for introducing this movie to me. I remember seeing Joker on opening night October 4, 2019. Yes, it’s quite strange I remember the date off the top of my head, but that’s only because I was literally counting the days until it came out. I’ll just say I was more than impressed by the movie. I think I saw it in theaters three times after that. When I found out that Joker was largely inspired by Taxi Driver, I just had to watch it… and I loved it even more. Joker became irrelevant. Arthur Fleck felt like a caricature of Travis Bickle. Joker’s New York felt exceedingly artificial compared to Taxi Driver’s brutal realism. But what I love first and foremost about Taxi Driver is it’s aesthetic. The colors and music are so subdued that the viewer is immersed in a dreamlike state, as Travis is throughout much of the film. The gross New York City streets at night are somehow beautiful (don’t know if this was intentional or not). The other thing I love about this movie and what I believe makes it a classic is it’s moral ambiguity. Some say he’s a hero, some say he’s a villain. Taxi Driver tries soooo hard to get us on Travis’ side from the beginning, and I fell for it the first couple times. His narration (journal entries) in the first half of the film are rather nihilistic but sensible; the kinda stuff most people think but don’t admit to. He suffers from crippling loneliness and clearly some form of mental illness that affects his social interaction. Many people resonate strongly with his struggles. The audience is so blinded by sympathy that they fail to recognize or care when he turns from creepy outcast to psychotic killer right before their eyes. People who don’t get past this will ultimately see him as the hero. In the second half of the film, his journal entries become less and less sensible and more so childlike and pathetic to represent his deteriorating sanity. The film’s ending doesn’t help this misconception of hero status, given Travis is now seen as a hero by all of New York, and his violence has seemingly solved his issues and he is visibly content. I think viewers fail to realize that this is movie doesn’t portray New York as we know it. It’s sort of dystopian in a sense. Yes, New York was corrupt and gross in the ‘70s, but it’s unlikely he would get away with murdering two people, let alone be commended for it. I see Travis as a villain. We must remember that his ultimate goal was to conduct an assassination. It wasn’t until that failed that he did the ‘right’ thing (in the eyes of everyone else) by “freeing” Iris. This clearly lays out the fact that Travis’ main goal wasn’t to do good (again, ‘good’ meaning in the eyes of the moral and sane). He was just seeking out a way to murder someone. When one plan didn’t work, he just moved to the next one which happened to somehow be culturally acceptable and earned him the hero title. If it had gone the other way, you know he’d be in jail for life if not executed. What is interesting about both of his attempted targets is that their murder had to be justified in Travis’ mind. These targets were the sources of many New York’s problems, as he believed at least. This is where the mental illness aspect comes in and confuses things. No sane person believes any murder is justified, unless for self defense. But in Travis’ mind, he was saving New York. Do intentions free one from legal or moral obligations? I think some people tend to forget about this when they watch this film because it’s convenient and they want Travis to succeed. Taxi Driver is cinema at its finest, in my opinion at least. Travis Bickle is the ultimate sympathetic villain. I believe this story will be replicated and tweaked to be the inspiration for many future villain origin stories given Joker’s massive success. It’s Halloween weekend, and I debated watching a scary movie as I try to every Halloween. But I thought about it all week and I just couldn’t find a movie that interested me. I used to LOVE scary movies so I’ve already seen a lot of them, from most the Saw movies to Ju-On: The Grudge, but honestly they all feel kind of cheap me regardless of budget. So I decided to watch a movie about a topic that is truly terrifying: self destruction. As you may have noticed, Raging Bull is featured on my website banner. I first watched this movie last spring after seeing it on many, many best films ever lists. I feel like it’s weird for me to say I like this movie, so I’m just going to say I find it extremely important and interesting, not to mention it’s beauty. I was hesitant to watch it at first because it was black and white, and visuals are one of the most if not the one most important thing in a film for me. But I found this to be one of the most beautifully shot, edited, and scored movies I’ve ever seen. No color needed. Boxing is thought of as an ugly sport but Scorsese turns it into a beautiful sport by way of the classical music during the brutal fight scenes and a camera that seems to dance along with the fighters. I’ve heard people say this is a bad boxing movie and I completely agree. That is, because it’s simply not a boxing movie. The boxing scenes are beautiful as I’ve said (apparently boxing came naturally to De Niro, and he won three actual matches in Brooklyn while prepping for the movie), but it’s not about the boxing. The boxing is merely there to reflect Jake’s (aka the Raging Bull) personal issues and how it affects his profession/passion. Raging Bull is a classic example of a character study (my favorite genre) done in an unorthodox way. We see Jake La Motta as a terrible person right out of the gate. Less than 20 minutes into the film he has already verbally and physically abused his wife, threatened to eat his neighbor’s dog, and sought out a 15 year old girl (yuck). Somehow he still has everything (family, friends, career) but as the film continues and his behavior fails to improve, those things slowly fade away. We see his world crumble around him while he fails to change his ways. Given his pride and stubbornness he doesn’t realize he’s lost everything until it’s much too late. This progression subverts most character studies where the world is static and we see the protagonist turn good/bad/whatever. If you haven’t seen the movie, you may be asking yourself why the Raging Bull’s life crumbles around him and it all comes down to his… rage. As displayed throughout the film, he is incapable of keeping the rage (a combination of built up anger, insecurity, guilt, and envy) within the confines of the boxing ropes. He consistently uses his own brother and wife as punching bags both mentally and physically. He becomes utterly obsessed with the idea that said wife is cheating on him with other men and eventually with his own brother which ends in a brutal, delusion-fueled attack on the both of them. Scorsese amplifies this envy and delusion through lingering, awkward closeups of all her interactions with other men as seen through the eyes of Jake, fixated on her every move. It is this insecurity that ultimately destroys his relationship with her and his brother and inevitably translates to insecurity in the boxing ring and eventually the downfall of his career. La Motta doesn’t seem to experience guilt for the majority of the film, however there are religious symbols in almost every scene to remind La Motta of his sins and contrast his terrible actions. These symbols are particularly present in scenes that include manipulation or violence against his wife. They foreshadow that La Motta will ultimately pay for what he’s done later in life. In La Motta’s final fight against Sugar Ray Robinson, he resigns himself to being brutally beaten, and hangs on the ropes in a way that resembles the crucifix. I’m not going to get into the last 20 minutes of the film which showcases his life after ‘retirement’, but I’ll just say his life definitely didn’t get any better. And it’s not until the last 2 minutes of the film that he finally shows remorse for his actions, and it is purposefully done in an extremely anticlimactic, uninteresting, and insincere way. This most recent re-watch has changed my opinion. I used to say Taxi Driver was the best character study I’d ever seen, but I actually think it may be Raging Bull. I only say this because La Motta as a character basically is the story. However, Taxi Driver feels less a story about Travis and more about mental illness and loneliness itself. Travis is just used as a vessel, or a narrator, to tell a very impersonal story. Raging Bull is a masterpiece of cinema and storytelling, and has climbed its way up to one of my favorite movies of all time.
I’ve seen every Harry Potter movie at least 20 times. But if someone asked me to list my top 20 films, Harry Potter wouldn’t be on there. You may be asking why I’ve seen these movies so many times if they’re not my favorite. The simple answer is: comfort. A Harry Potter movie is like being under a warm blanket on a cold rainy night. It’s kind of similar to The Office for me in the sense that you know the characters and story so well that just watching it over and over again is superrrr comforting. (Side note I used to watch The Office literally every day without fail after school until they took it off Netflix :(. Honestly I’ve probably seen every episode at least five times). Add in the beauty of Hogwarts and the professors and I would say Harry Potter is even more comforting than The Office. Anyway I always get the strongest urge to watch Harry Potter like every day October through December. I don’t know what it is about these months but they’re just my Harry Potter months. So, last night was the aforementioned cold rainy October night and the end of a long week so I just had to watch a Harry Potter movie, and I chose GoF. Though it’s not my favorite of the films (Prisoner of Azkaban is the best… by far) I think the Triwizard Tournament and Yule Ball add a really special dynamic to this film that separate it from the others. Also it has a lot of the filler every day life stuff which are the parts I find comforting. I think we’ve discussed this filler before in film class and I think it definitely comes down to each viewers particular taste (are they looking for action, drama, or just want to experience life at Hogwarts.) What I love about the first four films is their complete diversity in style due to their different directos. I know a lot of people disliked this inconsistency but I thought it kept the series interesting. Once David Yates took over all the movies blended together and got too dark (literally… it’s hard to see the movie unless you’re in a pitch black room). Anyway, this turned out to be more of a series review than a movie review, but I feel like it’s hard to talk about the each movie individually because though each is unique they’re all quite intertwined.
I saw an article that said this movie came out exactly two years ago, so I decided it would be a good time to review it. Breaking Bad is my favorite show ever. Nothing else comes close, not even Better Call Saul. I doubted this movie when it was announced because I felt like Breaking Bad had the perfect ending. It tied up almost every loose end, that is except for the fate of Jesse. I personally liked how they left that story up to the imagination of the viewer. I gave this movie a chance because I fully trust Vince Gillian. Just because no one was asking for this movie doesn’t mean he’s going to make a bad movie. Overall, the movie just met expectations. First, I didn’t like the focus on Todd. He’s a very boring character to me and the actor annoys me. Whenever I see him in other good movies and shows like The Master or Black Mirror, I’m just like ugh not Todd again. I would have liked to see more of Badger and Skinny Pete instead. Also, I knew they were going to try to resurrect Walt somehow which I thought would ruin the movie for me. However they did it in an acceptable way I guess, in the form of a flashback. I also hate when characters have a chance to kill someone but don’t do it just because… they’re scared? or guilty? If someone is keeping you prisoner and torturing you I think most people would kill or at least injure them and escape at any chance they get. It’s just so unrealistic and ruins the mood of the movie for me. My last issue with this movie is that many of the actors barely looked like they did at the end of Breaking Bad. I know this is something out of the control of anyone, but it was definitely in the back of my mind throughout the movie. Overall this movie was telling a story that didn’t need to be told, and it did an okay job.
*I posted this a couple weeks ago but I don’t think it was graded*
This is post probably going to end up being longer because I have a lot to say about this movie. Believe it or not I actually lived in Japan for a summer while my dad was working there with Toyota. I avoided watching this movie for a while because, though I love Japan and always want to see more of it, seeing anything about Japan makes me a little depressed since I miss it so much. But I felt like this is one of those must watch films so I finally caved and watched it. This is only my second time seeing this movie. I think the first time was earlier this spring. The first time I watched it, I liked seeing Tokyo (especially seeing what it looked like in 2003, the year I was born) but I wasn’t overly impressed with the movie itself. I was almost completely indifferent to it and didn’t anticipate I would ever be watching it again. But earlier this week, I just got this strong urge out of nowhere to watch it again. I thought this would be an interesting blog post because I feel I can give some insight into the Japanese culture and how it effects the course of the film. I think it’s common knowledge at this point that the Japanese as a society are very focused on hospitality. However, what you may not notice until you actually experience living (not just being a tourist) there, is though the Japanese are very kind and welcoming, you’re very much an outcast. You constantly feel it, they know it, and it does get very depressing and lonely. I didn’t live in Tokyo, just visited from time to time. We lived in a smaller town where Toyota is based and there’s way less foreigners than in Tokyo, so we really felt and looked out of place. But the thing about Tokyo is that there are so many foreigners and outcasts that it’s also hard to ‘fit in’ or find your crowd there. I was there with my family so I did feel the outcast part, but I rarely felt lonely. But these two characters, one alone and one mentally but not physically alone, really start to feel that loneliness. It’s not just the foreigners that face this loneliness though. The loneliness epidemic and high suicide rate of Japan make American headlines from time to time, but it’s an every day thought when you live there. America is extremely social and ‘lazy’ compared to the majority of Japanese. Men go to work for maybe twelve hours a day and women stay home and take care of the kids and that’s the reality of many, many families. This part isn’t quite as apparent in the film as Tokyo is a different beast, but that’s just my experience from living in a smaller city, about the size of Cincinnati. I’ve talked a little bit about loneliness in Japan which is the sole focus of the first half hour of the film. Now I’m going to fast forward to when our main characters meet. I feel a strong connection to the character of Charlotte. I’m not struggling with a marriage or depressed and alone in Tokyo, but her personality is similar to mine. The scene where her husband is having a conversation with this really outgoing actress and she’s just standing there observing the conversation; I’ve lived that so many times. It’s such a weird feeling. You don’t know if you should talk and even if you wanted to talk you don’t have anything to say. Her personality combined with Bill Murray’s hilarious character makes for an excellent dynamic. They were two lost, unhappy people even before they showed up in Japan, which is a recipe for a mental and emotional disaster. Alone, in a foreign environment such as this, those close connections back home are so essential. I would not call their relationship romantic at its core, more so just a deep connection and understanding which is what makes it so interesting. How could these two people who have virtually nothing in common besides hating their life and living in the same hotel halfway around the world develop such a deep connection. I’m not going to lay this out since I’d just be basically describing the rest of the movie, but I just think it’s really interesting to see. This movie isn’t perfect. I can see how a lot of people who didn’t have a personal connection to the story wouldn’t like it. I barely liked it the first time I saw it. The story takes quite a while to pick up and the performances are so subtle that they may be difficult for some to grasp and appreciate. I’d call this film a study of loneliness, kind of like Taxi Driver, which is both super depressing and super interesting to me. On a side note, I was never a fan of Scarlett Johansson. I wasn’t impressed with Marriage Story at all and thought she was overrated. Also, when an actor joins the Marvel franchise it kind of ruins them for me. I don’t know exactly what it is but I just can’t enjoy them in any other film (or even enjoy them in their Marvel films because I really dislike most of the newer stuff). But this movie changed my mind about her because it was such a strong and heartfelt performance. I had zero expectations going into this film. I don’t know why I even watched this movie. I wouldn’t call myself an Eminem fan. I wouldn’t listen to his music on my own time but I wouldn’t turn it off if it came on the radio. I was kind of curious about what the title 8 Mile was referring to and how it relates to Eminem. The movie explains that 8 Mile is an 8-mile road in Detroit that separates the rich and poor areas. Pretty much every person in the film lives on the wrong side of 8 Mile. Eminem has it worse than most, living in his drunk, unemployed mom’s trailer with her abusive boyfriend while taking care of his little sister. It’s an interesting choice for a title because the road is barely mentioned except for when he’s told to ‘go back across 8 Mile’ in rap battles presumably because he’s white. I also went into this movie thinking it was a biopic considering it is Eminem himself playing a poor rapper from Detroit and was really confused when people kept calling him ‘Bunny’. I later found out that it’s not technically a biopic, just a pretty accurate representation of the events of Eminem’s life but a few things were added for the sake of an interesting plot and everyone has different names (with Eminem’s name being Jimmy and his rap name Bunny). I actually like this move to get the film labeled as a drama instead of a biopic. It’s not really about the music more so as it is about Eminem’s personal struggles and the Detroit underground culture of rap battles and gangs and how the two interact. The only times in the film we hear Eminem rap are in two or three of these rap battles. His performance in the battles is parallel with his internal and external conflicts at the time, and until he learns to overcome these issues, he’s insecure and chokes on stage. The first actual Eminem song (Lose Yourself) we hear plays during the end credit sequence. It was made for the film and, if you listen to the lyrics, is a summary of the film. Also, I was not expecting Eminem to be able to act at all but he was actually really, really good. I cannot stress that enough. I think portraying yourself in a film is easier said than done. His performance pulled this whole movie together and made it memorable. The production design and cinematography were also impressive. The sets, costumes, and lighting were all very dark but very beautiful and fitting of the narrative. There was a ton of shaky cam and point of view to demonstrate nerves before a performance and when on stage and during fights and conflicts (which there was no shortage of). Usually I start to get annoyed when there’s to much shaky cam but you don’t notice it too much in this film because it fits so well.
Overall, this film did not disappoint. It was well made and Eminem demonstrated he’s much more than just a rap prodigy. I would recommend this movie to anyone regardless of if they’re into rap or not. It’s a gritty origin story that exemplifies and promotes hard work and perseverance in all aspects of life. I can’t believe it’s almost October and I haven’t reviewed Scorsese yet. My blog feels a little empty so now I’m going to attempt to fill that void with a quality review.
The first time I watched this movie it was so boring that I only watched half of it because I quite literally had no idea what was happening. Now that I’m thinking about it hating a movie at first and then giving it another chance seems to be an ongoing trend for me. What actually brought me back to this film was the song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.” It plays during the title and recurs throughout the film. Now, if I heard this song out of the context of the film, I would’ve hated it because it’s not my style (it’s basically a weird mix of traditional Irish instruments with heavy… rock(?). But Scorsese, the master of editing, just placed it so perfectly in this film and it made both the song and film ten times cooler. Now I occasionally unironically listen to it in my free time. One film opinion of mine that has never changed is that I generally have zero (0) interest in gangster/mob movies. I hated, like realllllly hated, The Godfather. I thought I couldn’t hate a movie more until I grudgingly watched The Irishman just because it was a Scorsese movie and it turns out it’s actually possible for me to despise a movie. I’ve yet to watch Goodfellas but I likely will have to for my midterm so that should be interesting. Now you may be asking why I watched this film. When I saw that it starred Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leo DiCaprio, and Vera Farminga (who I adore from Bates Motel) I thought there was no way this movie could be bad. It ultimately turned out that I was right; it’s not a bad movie. However, one of my issues with this film actually turned out to be its A list cast. I was struggling to actually believe Nicholson was a Boston mob guy and DiCaprio was a scruffy police academy dropout. I believe a more unknown cast would have served the film better. Arguably the most famous actor ever and Hollywood’s golden boy just weren’t fitting in this movie. What I liked about this movie was the change in venue for Scorsese. The New York setting was getting a bit redundant and I feel he recognized that. I’ve always enjoyed Irish/Irish-American culture and wanted to visit Boston, so it was cool to see it here (though the actors were noticeably struggling with the Boston accent to the point where it gets legitimately cringe worthy at some points). We also get classic Scorsese cinematography, editing, and carefully curated soundtrack. If I had to change something in this movie, I’d go for a little less action and a little more character building, as the two main characters were relatively static; something unusual for Scorsese. But overall, this is a Scorsese classic and is comfortably in my top 20 films list. And for fun and because I’m bored, I’m going to list my favorite to least favorite Scorsese films: Like: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, Hugo Dislike: Shutter Island, The Irishman Havent Seen: Mean Streets, Casino, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator I went into this film dreading it, thinking it would be as boring as The Birth of a Nation. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually pretty interesting. I’ve heard about the steampunk genre many times but still don’t know much about it, but when I picture it I imagine something just like this movie.
The plot was kind of hard to follow and I kept getting confused but I don’t think it matters because the film was obviously more focused on its aesthetics than its plot. The aesthetics were great. I loved the costumes that were a clash of 1920s fashion and what they thought would be fashion of the future. Also, they did a good job making the sets actually look futuristic. The overpopulated buildings and flying vehicles reminded me of Back to the Future II and Star Wars. The dramatic orchestral music set the tone of the film and also kept reminding me of Star Wars. Also, all of the symbolism with the clocks reminded me of that one famous Charlie Chaplin movie where he’s hanging from the clock. I like how this film explored the idea of social class disparities and the issues they can cause. It depicted the workers as replaceable machines and the only one who cared to try to change things was the mayor’s (?) son. I’ve always been interested in this topic and it was cool to see it played out in such a stylistic manner. This is a film that I wouldn’t watch on my own time, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting and is entertaining enough to keep your attention unlike some other silent films I’ve seen. This is post probably going to end up being longer because I have a lot to say about this movie. Believe it or not I actually lived in Japan for a summer while my dad was working there with Toyota. I avoided watching this movie for a while because, though I love Japan and always want to see more of it, seeing anything about Japan makes me a little depressed since I miss it so much. But I felt like this is one of those must watch films so I finally caved and watched it. This is only my second time seeing this movie. I think the first time was earlier this spring. The first time I watched it, I liked seeing Tokyo (especially seeing what it looked like in 2003, the year I was born) but I wasn’t overly impressed with the movie itself. I was almost completely indifferent to it and didn’t anticipate I would ever be watching it again. But earlier this week, I just got this strong urge out of nowhere to watch it again. I thought this would be an interesting blog post because I feel I can give some insight into the Japanese culture and how it effects the course of the film.
I think it’s common knowledge at this point that the Japanese as a society are very focused on hospitality. However, what you may not notice until you actually experience living (not just being a tourist) there, is though the Japanese are very kind and welcoming, you’re very much an outcast. You constantly feel it, they know it, and it does get very depressing and lonely. I didn’t live in Tokyo, just visited from time to time. We lived in a smaller town where Toyota is based and there’s way less foreigners than in Tokyo, so we really felt and looked out of place. But the thing about Tokyo is that there are so many foreigners and outcasts that it’s also hard to ‘fit in’ or find your crowd there. I was there with my family so I did feel the outcast part, but I rarely felt lonely. But these two characters, one alone and one mentally but not physically alone, really start to feel that loneliness. It’s not just the foreigners that face this loneliness though. The loneliness epidemic and high suicide rate of Japan make American headlines from time to time, but it’s an every day thought when you live there. America is extremely social and ‘lazy’ compared to the majority of Japanese. Men go to work for maybe twelve hours a day and women stay home and take care of the kids and that’s the reality of many, many families. This part isn’t quite as apparent in the film as Tokyo is a different beast, but that’s just my experience from living in a smaller city, about the size of Cincinnati. I’ve talked a little bit about loneliness in Japan which is the sole focus of the first half hour of the film. Now I’m going to fast forward to when our main characters meet. I feel a strong connection to the character of Charlotte. I’m not struggling with a marriage or depressed and alone in Tokyo, but her personality is similar to mine. The scene where her husband is having a conversation with this really outgoing actress and she’s just standing there observing the conversation; I’ve lived that so many times. It’s such a weird feeling. You don’t know if you should talk and even if you wanted to talk you don’t have anything to say. Her personality combined with Bill Murray’s hilarious character makes for an excellent dynamic. They were two lost, unhappy people even before they showed up in Japan, which is a recipe for a mental and emotional disaster. Alone, in a foreign environment such as this, those close connections back home are so essential. I would not call their relationship romantic at its core, more so just a deep connection and understanding which is what makes it so interesting. How could these two people who have virtually nothing in common besides hating their life and living in the same hotel halfway around the world develop such a deep connection. I’m not going to lay this out since I’d just be basically describing the rest of the movie, but I just think it’s really interesting to see. This movie isn’t perfect. I can see how a lot of people who didn’t have a personal connection to the story wouldn’t like it. I barely liked it the first time I saw it. The story takes quite a while to pick up and the performances are so subtle that they may be difficult for some to grasp and appreciate. I’d call this film a study of loneliness, kind of like Taxi Driver, which is both super depressing and super interesting to me. On a side note, I was never a fan of Scarlett Johansson. I wasn’t impressed with Marriage Story at all and thought she was overrated. Also, when an actor joins the Marvel franchise it kind of ruins them for me. I don’t know exactly what it is but I just can’t enjoy them in any other film (or even enjoy them in their Marvel films because I really dislike most of the newer stuff). But this movie changed my mind about her because it was such a strong and heartfelt performance. |
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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