Rome is really fun. The only thing that is really overhyped is the Vatican. It is obviously an important and historical place, but the lines and crowds are overwhelming. I went in the winter so I can only imagine what the summer is like.
Italian neorealism is wonderful, and i'm particularly fond of "new" neorealism of films like salo and gomorrah
I just saw Shin Godzilla and then the 2014 Godzilla. Shin Godzilla - 8/10 I really enjoyed how they focused on the different forms of Godzilla and the inner politics. It was a nice way of handling things as opposed to the typical Hollywood blockbuster type. However some things are repetitive and scenes happen very quickly, but the movie is still pretty long. Godzilla (2014) - 6/10 As far as Hollywood adaptations go, it wasn't terrible so that's a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it felt like two different movies spliced together. It was also rather anticlimatic as well. The movie was too long, so long in fact that I forgot Bryan Cranston was even in it haha. I found it strange that for a Godzilla movie, the title character is the one that gets the least amount of attention. Kind of bummer. Would have liked to see better action scenes and preferably during the day so we could see him better.
A lot of people talk about how disturbing Eraserhead is, and rightfully so, but I feel like it’s rarely mentioned just how god damn funny it is. The opening sequence with the main character waddling through town is basically a Charlie Chaplin sequence and the rest of the movie just has so many absurd moments where I legitimately find myself laughing out loud. My favorite moment has to be when the receptionist is ringing the buzzer for an extended period of time and the manager comes down gets right in his face and screams, “Okay Paul!!!!!” I feel like those outbursts of anger are a Lynchian trademark and they always make me laugh so hard.
The Strangers - 8.5/10 This was terrifying and not what I expected. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
I really really like this movie. I have high hopes for the sequel but at the same time I feel like it's going to disappoint....
Watched Game Night on the plane, it was fine. Woulda been a good MoviePass. Also watched Sideways on the way back. Meh, it was okay.
original pacific rim was meh at best imo You Were Never Really Here was pretty good. i'm down with this new focus on stylishly-shot, pared down arthouse thrillers (thinking Good Times is a fair comparison). a smidgen more story wouldn't have hurt, but i think enough of it is there to work with. great sound design too.
Watched both Kingsman movies yesterday. First one was great. Second was... not bad. It feels a little less grounded, but only because it had the first movie to do all the heavy lifting with world building. Also, if a spy movie truly is only as good as its villain, this is one of the few times (the only time?) where Julianne Moore just doesn't do it for me. And I kind of hate that they killed off Roxy and made Tilde a major character instead
Train to Busan 10/10 can't believe a zombie movie made me cry. watched it after watching The Wailing which was another 10/10 that truly peaked my thinking-box
Did we lose good Cinephiles in the weird 8 person exodus to the lesser site? I feel like a lot of threads have been dead. Anyway, I’m powering through A Brighter Summer Day in pieces and it’s as absolutely brilliant as everything I’ve read. Parts are a bit confusing but that might be due to translation issues. I still have about an hour left and really don’t want to leave this world
I was doing some international traveling recently so I was watching a lot of movies on the plane. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Goddamn I loved this. Such a great interpretation of trying to move on and repress memories, but then realizing how important those memories actually are. Some of the subplot stuff is less interesting than the main line with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet (both incredible performances), but everything has some sort of payoff in the end. The Wild One - Not my favorite Brando film. Has some interesting characters and a good enough plot. Of course, with many older films, there's a lot that doesn't age well, some of the performances come off as corny and there are definitely problematic aspects relating to masculinity and treatment of women. The Post - I've been underwhelmed with a lot of Speilberg's recent work, but I really liked this. Streep is incredible and Speilberg's direction makes everything feels tense and fast-paced. It's obviously highly relevant subject matter with today's news too. Stand By Me - I know a lot of people love this movie, but it was pretty average to me. The terrible 80's kids acting really took me out of it a lot. I honestly think that if this one were made today instead of in the 80s it would end up being much better. Still, I'm a sucker for coming of age movies and I enjoyed it overall. Some Like It Hot - Comedies don't usually age well, so I took that into account when watching it. And there's obviously a lot of problematic elements to this one, I don't think it could be made today. But at the end of the day, I still found it to be pretty charming and I found myself laughing more than I expected. Rampage - This is the definition of a plane movie. Dumb and pretty forgettable, but it was a fun watch for two hours while stuck 30,000 ft in the air.
Coincidentally, I recently watched Room. The first half was interesting enough, even if the escape was a little contrived, but the second half's concept was so much more interesting and yet fell flat and uninspired. A little disappointing, but ok enough to watch. Better than The Room I suppose, if that's something.
Oh I also watched the new Mission Impossible movie. Action movies that rely on non-stop action and a few twists to go with the cookie cutter story, in this case its the omg they might have nukes story, can get so boring if the execution of the action isn't excellent. The execution was just good, and the stunts were impressive, but its too long and too stupid. I thought in the beginning the bad guys really detonated the nukes and got excited about the rest of that story, but alas it was a stupid trick because tom cruise's character can't fail or be flawed which was another overly cheesy theme throughout the movie. Actually the best part of the movie is near the beginning when the the guy kicks the shit of tom cruise and superman in the bathroom and the woman saves them both at the last minute.
I’ve decided I’m going to try and watch one movie a day I’ve never seen before (more realistically will be every other day but whatever) and tonight I started it off with: Enemy Loved it. The acting, the score, the story, the directing, the cinematography. Just a beautiful, dense little film. I really enjoy and connect with films that are very secular and small scale and zero in on a few relationships or one person.
When I first got into film in college and did not have classes I could watch three movies in a day. I averaged probably ten a week when I wrote a blog. Now I might get to two a week, except for the end of the year when I am trying to plow through best-of lists.