Casablanca; rewatching it always brings up new treasures. The horror of the invasion of Paris. The lies they both tell eachother verbally, barely hiding the truth they physically share with eachother. The pure love Sam and Rick have for one another.
Its strikes me, as I get older, the power of the character created by Bogart, on the surface, cynical tough resourceful flip cool. It has been copied at that level since then, but few manage the depth of jealousy and anger and hurt underneath that surface.
Extraordinary film.
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The Swimmers; one of the most underrated films of 2022.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
I had a few options for today but it’s Nicolas Cage’s birthday so this one won out. I had a great time. It manages to be a love letter to Cage without becoming an ego trip, which is a very fine line to navigate. If you like Nicolas Cage then this is peak Nicolas Cage.
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Uncharted
I have noticed a pattern; when I think “this is a really good score” whilst watching a film for the first time, the film is probably s***
Ramin Djawadi’s score for this film is really good.
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When I watched GLASS (M. Night Shyamalan) a few years ago I was not that thrilled, probably because I was not in the mood and influenced by bad reviews.
I even thought the film was not well made, sloppy and cheap.
Apparently, I should not watch any movie when I am in a totally different headspace.
Here’s a fascinating look at the incredibly nuanced narrative web Shyamalan wove to make Glass a highly interesting finale of his comic book trilogy:
The Menu, starring M himself Ralph Fiennes.
This is a cookery themed horror/ thriller that also serves as a metaphor the working in a creative field. Fiennes has the showy role as the head Chef and there’s plenty of gorgeous shots of food and a streak of dark humour. I had a lot of fun with this one
It’s crazy how many good horror films there are on Disney +. I also watched Barbarian recently and Ready or Not is on there too.
I found that. Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are doing a lot of the acting work for the audience, Fiennes is in the enjoying himself role.
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Deliverance (1972). Still a thrilling scary ride. Ned Beatty doesn’t get enough credit for his role.
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I got the feeling that the finale, while intellectually right, was what the chef actually was accused of.
Still, very exquisitely acted and shot.
Fiennes is a master.
Also he looked unnervingly like Leonard Rossiter all the way through.
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Halloween ends
Astonishingly magnificent, just not what slasher fans wanted. Very well written, shot and edited.
The whole trilogy was a satisfying take on this story.
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The Empire Strikes Back, the best film Irvin Kirshner ever directed. I wonder what it would be like if he directed a Bond film…
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Well, some people actually think that Never Say Never Again is a Bond film.
Others don’t. 
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It doesn’t deserve to be…
Everything everywhere all at once
May this be one of the most overhyped movies this award season?
I can’t connect. Sure, it is well made. But to me it’s just… silly fluff, overblown and in the end just a banal tale. Am I so wrong (again)?
No. If you did not connect with it, then it is just fluff. Much like a person not being able to connect with DAF (hard as it is to imagine such a person existing).
I do like the film (though I think it goes flat in the last third/quarter), but it is for a particular aesthetic. I also benefited from seeing the film in a theatre whose audience was 90% Asian. The energy and response was amazing.
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You point to an interesting idea: does the immediate response by an audience say something worthwhile about the quality of a film?
When I saw „Eyes wide shut“ with a lethargic and even hostile audience for the first time, even my own built-in Kubrick apologeticism could not keep me from being disappointed.
Rewatching it over the years at home I considered and still consider it a masterpiece.
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ELVIS (Baz Luhrmann)
My feelings for Baz Luhrmann´s films can be expressed in a downward curve, so far: I was blown away, intrigued, exhausted.
So the idea of him doing a biopic on Elvis Presley was not that enticing to me. I thought I would get pummelled with a thousand bits/beats per minute.
Instead, thankfully, he does rush through many parts with his typical visual ADD-style - but… I liked that approach for a biopic. This way he could speed up when he wanted to get to the more important parts, and those had the right length and the right measured tempo.
I don´t see the cricticism against Hanks´ portrayal as Colonel Parker having any justification, nor the make-up and prostheses - both are absolutely credible and effective.
Austin Butler as Elvis Presley delivers a fantastic performance, and the music is used perfectly.
A great biopic, definitely earning its Best Picture nomination.
And the next Luhrmann film will see me excited again.
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I think that can happen. The film was connecting with my fellow Asian viewers, so clearly there was something “there” for them, even if I did not get it. I had a similar experience decades ago when I used to go see Hong Kong films in Chinatown.
I went to see CHINESE GHOST STORY III in Chinatown, and the audience was full of Chinese viewers, with their snacks and soups, and they were totally into the movie. I realized that they were not just seeing a movie, but a representation of their culture–the one they had left to live in NYC.
Also, I realized that the film was on one level an allegory for the impending takeover of Hong Kong by China. It was an amazing experience. I felt that I now knew what it must have felt like in movie palaces in the 1930s to sit among Depression Era audiences watching Warner Bros. movies (the studio that most embraced the reality of the times).
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