movie

Rated Gali Guleiyan 7/10

Rated The Hound of the Baskervilles 10/10

Rated Have a Nice Day 5/10

Rated Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat 6/10

Rated Tongues Untied 10/10

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.

Rated A Quiet Place Part II 5/10

It's enjoyable but mostly forgettable. We do learn some new things about the creatures and I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing of the world-building especially where other people are concerned, but this needed to do more and with quicker pacing. It's great that it has something to say about young people and maturation but it doesn't do nearly enough to carry on the character development that was EXACTINGLY earned in the first film. A movie where Emily Blunt goes on to find her daughter and leaves the strange man to take care of her son and baby would've been a lot more interesting to me, but I also understand how that presents the potential for discontinuity. It is passable and holds things together, which is more than most sequels can so, so I really hope Part III builds on and expands the stakes. Give us more direct conflicts with and between humans, PLEASE.

Rated V for Vendetta 8/10

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 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 Latter Days 6/10

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

Added Is God Is to Movie Watchlist

Rated Supergirl 7/10

My dog loved it so much I just ordered him a Krypto toy. I thought it was a good introduction and vet to know Supergirl movie. Learning about her struggle and what she’s been through. The heel had absolutely no depth and I never really cared about and the plot was simple. But I did enjoy Kara and thought it did a good job building her character even if everything around it in the movie was more on the stake side.

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

Rated Project Hail Mary 10/10

Rated Stick It 9/10

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Rated Almost Famous 8/10

Rated Cha Cha Real Smooth 8/10

Added Putting on the Dish to Movie Watchlist

Added Mickey 17 to Movie Watchlist

Rated Obsession 9/10

Rated Insidious: Out of the Further 6/10

Rated The Transformers: The Movie 7/10