Added Pinocchio's Revenge to Watched Movies
Edited 20d ago
movie
Added My Grandfather Charles Manson to Watched Movies
Edited 20d ago
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...
Edited 19d ago
Added John Wick: Chapter 5 to Movie Watchlist
Rated Murder on the Orient Express 6/10
Edited 19d ago
Rated The Raid 8/10
One of the finest action movies of the year. Half of the fun is literally watching the body count increase because some of the kills are incredibly innovative. The fight choreography for the hand-to-hand sequences is equally creative. When I first saw the premise I figured it'd be mostly a shoot-'em-up type movie as it centers on a SWAT team operation, but there's a considerable amount of martial arts at play (aside from the standard melee stuff) and it's nice to see that come back to cinema.The other thing I really loved about this was the sound editing/mixing. Several scenes of anticipation use sort of a rising baseline to build atmosphere instead of silence and I quite enjoyed it. There are also a few scenes of the action that incorporate the thematic elements of dubstep of all things--certainly not what I expected from an Indonesian film.Visually, the feel of the movie is gritty and small. There are no truly massive set pieces and so you have all of this action occurring in very confined spaces. The grittiness comes mainly from the textures of the environments, which all feel like they've actually been inhabited in or were once abandoned. There's also a really nice use of shadows and silhouettes in certain scenes. Not knowing anything of Indonesian culture it's hard for me to say what the acting should like like; nothing stood out, really, but nothing was disappointing. Again this was an action movie and its a damn well good one.
Rated Locke 8/10
I found myself enjoying this mainly because of its taut construction, but what was a bit of a letdown was the recycled narrative of the 'man divided by his responsibilities' bit. That being said, the writing is good enough to explain the nuances of Ivan--and Hardy's acting is top-notch--but his matter-of-fact approach to shifting life circumstances doesn't inspire enough dread or tension (often leaving viewers with a vague sense that everything will resolve itself).This makes it particularly crushing--or annoying, I'm not yet sure--that the film doesn't end with Ivan's demise. Others have talked about the symbolism of the passenger as a stand-in for Ivan's leviathan, but I've seen less commentary on what's depicted outside the BMW. Shots of speeding police cars and road crews suggest a possible car accident involving our protagonist, but this reality is never consummated or realized.Looked at as a one-way road trip to his inevitable end, it's hard not to assume that the film is largely about his descent into hell (a la Dante Alighieri) and how coming to terms with his nature is the focal point. The fact that his descent changes him in the eyes of other characters is unsurprising and I was pleased that it was at least referenced, but this film could've been so much more. It seems like writer-director Steven Knight had all the pieces, but was unsure of how to piece them together.
Edited 19d ago
Rated Detention 8/10
Easily the most ridiculous amalgamation of a film I've ever seen, Detention presents some of the funniest parodies of the oft-mythologized 90s era and does so in hyper-kinetic fashion. Part slasher, part time-travel flick it holds as its primary setting the high school experience. It's an utterly nonsensical concept that somehow manages to be insidiously clever.