I was all set to catch the final showing of High-Rise tonight but at the last moment I decided to stay in and do work. I've managed to miss that, The Witch and Anomalisa in the last couple of weeks. Oh well, I guess.
Batman V Superman. It's not as bad as some people claim, but it's nothing amazing. I'd give it a 7/10.
Basically they are wanting to only sticky important threads and not have like 100 threads stickied and what not. They are still working on trying to figure out what works best.
I wish the person who took my username would do something fun with it (write longform. So far they have been idle since their initial post.
Saw Knight of Cups last night. Definitely think it lent itself well to the in-theater experience. Not sure if I would have enjoyed it as much at home. Visually stunning and I really liked the commentary on reflecting on your younger life. The scenes with Portman and then with Bald in the desert were fantastic. Wish we could have gotten more development on the relationship between the brothers and the father.
The Hateful Eight. Eh, it was alright. Fun, but the usual problems I have with recent Tarantino. Also had zero reason to be in 70mm besides the desire to be nostalgic. 95% of the movie is indoors and the resolution added feels like it was a waste.
Yeah, we're out of town, and just kinda found an arthouse cinema kinda randomly by where we're staying that had it.
I definitely felt the runtime of A Brighter Summer Day, probably not helped by the fact that my friend and I put it on at 11PM so we were done around 3AM. I was still engaged, though, and ended up with a lot to unpack. The second half I really felt emotionally and I feel like it's one of the most important films about being a teenager I've ever seen. Xiao Si'r's arc is such a profound tragedy, and the film doesn't let the audience off the hook, we're made complicit. Some aspects of the film, specifically dealing with the foreign politics, I probably wasn't able to fully appreciate and I'll have to read up on to better understand. I did like how I felt the Westernization of the global youth all over the film, of course in the Elvis references and the music, but also in film, in the way the kids play. There's so much to think about that I'll probably continue doing so for awhile. Seeing this and Margaret in consecutive days is certainly an emotional experience. I love that the film's four hour runtime allows everything to happen. It all leads somewhere and builds slowly, and given the violence in the middle of the film and how things, for lack of a better phrase, go back to normal afterwards, the violence in the finale is really a visceral shock. Of course that's what the whole film was leading to, and it climaxes tragically and brilliantly.
I wish there was a legal way to see this. I've never torrented anything in my life, but without it, this (and a few others) will be a massive hurdle for me to finish the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list.
Criterion released it last week. So if you wanna shell out like $30, it can be yours. Or it may end up on Hulu in the next year, but not all of their releases make it on there.
Yeah, it was huge when they finally announced it because it's been rumored for ages. Picked it up and planning to watch it tomorrow. It would be great if they put out some Hou, especially City of Sadness. I went through most of his work last year, like 13 films, and they're all pretty incredible.
I have a bootlegged City of Sadness a friend already had and gave to me after watching. I really need A Time to Live and a Time to Die. Also if they wanted to do a "classics of Belgian cinema" box so I could finally see The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short, I would love them forever.
Is that the only Hou you've seen? Three Times and The Puppetmaster are my next favorites. Also got to see The Assassin on the big screen, which was beautiful.
This month was the first time I bought anything (Paris Belongs to Us and A Brighter Summer Day) since they released Two Days, One Night. Their upcoming slate looks great. Still need to pick up Inside Llewyn Davis too.
I still haven't seen it. Waiting for the time. I've only seen The Puppetmaster so far. The thing that kills me is I can do occasional mindless grading/record-keeping with an English-language film, especially older studio ones that aren't as visually driven. But subtitles are a huge no-go, so I suck at getting them during the school year.