I still haven't seen the movies past Fellowship, waiting for my proper sound system to be set back up before I watch them all
Godzilla: Minus One - 9/10 This is a truly incredible movie. A weighty, intimate story where Godzilla exists as manifestation of collective PTSD, particularly for the veterans who are tasked with going to war once again. Godzilla is absolutely terrifying in this movie; the way he's introduced echos the reveal of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. Then later on the film goes full-on Jaws. The sound design and score gave me a visceral thrill whenever he showed up. I feel like the American Godzilla movies have such thin human characters, they all fall into "when are they going to get to the fireworks factoryyy" territory. I'd rather just watch the fight scenes on Youtube. Here the characters are so much more fleshed out, even if they sometimes vocalize their motivations too directly. A sad toddler will always reduce me to a blubbering mess. I never lost patience waiting for the action to ramp back up. Go see it on the biggest screen you can.
YEP SAME did you get to see it in imax or similar? it didn't have the imax aspect ratio but it SOUNDED incredible especially in the 3rd act
Same. At first I was disappointed that I didn't do my homework on the aspect ratio and was worried I overspent on a ticket, but the sound more than made up for it. The booming brass arrangement had me like this.
Quiz Lady - A pretty fun time! It was cool to see Awkwafina and Sandra Oh play the opposite rolls you would expect in a movie like this, with Awkwafina's performance being pretty refreshing. It's not a movie that'll change your life, but I'd recommend for a date night. Fair Play - Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor both put in incredible performances. But I am a little mix on it overall. Most of the film feels too tense for the actual stakes at hand. The score felt out of place. But with the way it ends, that tension feels less out of place. I need a little more time with this one, I can't quite settle on where I land.
Sick of Myself - 7.5/10 One of the most uncomfortable movies I've ever seen, and that's saying something. Occasionally on the nose, but I'm really glad the focus wasn't social media. Really funny! It's a Wonderful Knife - 4.5/10 Justin Long"s fake teeth Texconsin accent are doing the most here. I wanted to like this so bad -- the first act has some great kills -- but each act legitimately feels like a different movie. It wades into sappy territory, which is fine, but the last 30 minutes are some of the strangest and most incoherent I've seen since Black Christmas (2019). I didn't hate it, I just desperately wish it was more tonally consistent, because the straight-up slasher stuff here worked. Bizarre movie. The Temp - 6.5/10 A not-so-erotic thriller that makes baffling decisions at every turn and is somehow still immensely watchable. Patently insane and not a good film, but great in some ways? How many thrillers do you know that take place in the corporate wing of a cookie manufacturer? The ending is a choice. Could have been legitimately good without studio interference. Masking Threshold - 5.5/10 Interesting premise and execution, but unfortunately, it takes way too long to devolve into insanity (kind of an opposite Shining problem). Some really strange choices w/r/t evoking a mass shooting and violence against animals.
Saltburn - 8.5/10 Some beautiful shots, some very disturbing moments, lots of fun and a few laughs even.
Blue Eye Samurai - 9/10 Loved almost every minute of this show. Gorgeous animation, engaging and delightfully paced. Love the voice acting. Definitely worth a watch.
The Exorcist - 9/10 Some all-time great scares here. It's undeniably dry in the best possible way; the drama preceding and in-between Regan's outbursts is so successfully human and warm. The Exorcist still works 50 years later because it is a strong film first, and a horror film second. But man, is it a fucked up one. The Exorcist: Believer - 4.5/10 Man. The emotional arc here is shockingly solid. Like, the first 30 minutes and the last 10 could be pieces of a genuinely good movie. But everything in-between feels so joyless in its references and recreation of scares from the original. I really can't say enough how not scary this is; some of the CG and ADR is awful. I don't think David Gordon Green is a terrible filmmaker, either. At best, he is ambitious to a fault (Halloween Ends) and at worst, he seems to be a mostly competent director that fundamentally misunderstands what made these horror classics work. The marketing worked overtime against this one. Cut Burstyn and any references to the original, just title the film Believer, and horror audiences likely would have been way more receptive. Then again, The Exorcist IP puts butts in seats (this cleaned house and they will certainly move forward with the sequels, with or without Green), so what do I know. The entertainment industry sucks. I'm just saying Green might have actually found time to actually direct an engaging story if he wasn't so obsessed with creating his own fanfic sequel to a film that likely should have never been touched.
Hamlet (1990) - Watched this because I'm reading Ulysses and everyones talking about it. My previous experience with Shakespeare, In year 8 I had sat through a 4 hour play of Julius Caesar, did not understand a single word, Baz Lurmans’ Romeo & Juliet was wheeled in for us in year 9, I made a decision to skip the next lessons. I owe Shakespeare an apology. This was good, to be or not to be went hard in the crypt. It's not his fault plays don't have subtitles and Baz sucks. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) - uh oh eating the rich isn't fun when its like this. America's Lord of Rings in where money accidentally separated from power crawls its way back. Scorese is the master at long run times. Watched it in 2 parts - 3 hours straight when I got a call that my boy had sourced door spots for Enter Shikari. Came home at 1am still enthralled, finished the last 30mins before bed. Give that girl the Oscars right now, performance of the decade.
The Andy Baker Tape - 6/10 Fun! It's absolutely by-the-numbers found footage, so you get both the good and the bad, and it likely could have gone in a more interesting direction. But for an hour long? Pretty solid stuff! The Killer - 8/10 Only Fincher could make me like a movie with more egregious product placement than this year's Haunted Mansion. Only Fincher could make me like a movie where the protagonist complains about living amongst the "normies." Only Fincher could...well, you get it. Lean, mean, and incredibly engaging. Top five for him.
The Boy And The Heron - 8/10 I never fully understand what is going on in a Miyazaki film and often spend too much energy trying to figure it all out while I'm watching. I resisted that urge last night watching this. Underneath all the fantastical elements that sometimes trip me up was a very easy to follow emotional journey. The boy experiences so much sorrow in this film, and to see these raw emotions met with hostility from his peers or minimized by his all-too-ready-to-move-on father was painful to watch. Choosing to continue living in a world that will inevitably bring you pain and disappointment takes incredible bravery, particularly when presented with an alternative like the one given in the film.
What a shame it would be to have you as a teacher that shows movies and then the movie is a Baz Lurman. Your write up of 100 greatest films with Au Hasard Balthazar was my gate way to the world of cinema.