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Jeremy_Urquhart
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Memoir of a Snail (2024)
Kind of good, but...
Adam Elliot does it again, technically, but that's part of the problem. What felt fresh, funny, and genuinely moving in Harvie Krumpet and then Mary and Max is all kind of there in Memoir of a Snail, but nothing quite hit for me. I think it's the overwhelming, constant sadness that soon becomes numbing. You get a little comedic relief, but not as much as Elliot's other works, and what is comedic is more just mildly funny than surprisingly hilarious.
His visual style is still intact, but the way it was written was lacking. Characters come and go and fade out of focus, and yes, that's life for you, but something about it just didn't work here. It's all I've got as for explanation why this didn't really move me; that, plus the fact that it's very one-note emotionally for a feature-length film.
Sarah Snook's voice acting was also kind of bad, which is a shame because she narrates the whole thing. I get why they make her cry or express certain emotions in starkly realistic ways, but it didn't work for me with the way this looks. I liked the other voice performances though. The score was another thing I largely disliked, to be honest. It felt lazy compared to the animation.
It does still look visually striking, and it feels like there was a lot of passion gone into it on a technical front. That stops Memoir of a Snail from being bad, but I wish it had been as good as the director's prior films. If he can't top those while sticking with his schtick, I'd like to see him break out and do something different. The whole "outsider is isolated but perseveres the way they can while bad things happen and they make a few connections everything's kind of ugly" thing wore me out here, and makes me wonder if Elliot can do anything else.
This was technically good, but also disappointing considering the wait between films. I think I will forget about it quite quickly.
Lou Reed: Berlin (2007)
Decent
After getting through one hour of soul-crushing Lou Reed tracks, the concertgoers can have a little Candy Says, as a treat.
As a concert film, this is pretty ordinary. It has a few slightly artsy insert shots, but after the opening, I didn't feel like they added a ton. As a performance of a great album, it's solid.
I like seeing an older Lou Reed perform it and get some recognition for how good it is. That's the main thing this concert film has going for it. Lou Reed got to perform it live - and do a pretty solid job overall, at that - before he passed, meaning it wasn't one of those times where something wasn't fully appreciated until after someone's death.
If you like the album, this is worth checking out. Like so many documentaries and/or concert movies about specific artists, though, I can't imagine it really appealing to those outside Reed's ordinary fanbase.
Ms .45 (1981)
Empty, but that's the point or something, I don't know.
It feels a little more cinematic than The Driller Killer, but I feel like both that Abel Ferrara movie and this one feel like they're held together by duct tape. They're so blunt, weird, basic, and mystifying that I feel like it wasn't enough but I'm also missing so much at the same time.
There is a sense of things being snappier here, and there is a premise that's stuck to a bit more confidently. Driller Killer droned on, and this one feels pretty sure about wrapping itself up at a certain point without farting around.
I don't get much more than just a fairly well-made exploitation movie out of this. It's certainly less entertaining than The Driller Killer, probably by design, but I don't really know what the grimness is in service of. Lots of people seem to like the grimy NYC vibe found throughout this, and I just don't really care. It doesn't do much for me.
I can only acknowledge that this is technically better than a fair few movies from this era with comparable budgets/premises, but I'm otherwise feeling lost as to what to get from this. Watching it back to back with that other Ferrara film, I'm kind of equally mystified by both, but for very different reasons.
The Driller Killer (1979)
Broke my brain, but in a good way.
This is barely even a movie, but I don't know. I guess The Driller Killer kind of caught me at the right time, or in the right mood, because I want to give a lot of it the benefit of the doubt.
That might sound wishy-washy, and... no, it is wishy-washy. But this thing just refuses easy categorization, messes around, indulges in repetition, gets sleazy, and then goes on and on and at a point it just sort of ends (It's Always Sunny-esque) and I feel oddly respectful of that.
I don't know that all that makes The Driller Killer great, but at least it makes The Driller Killer something, and I will remember it for various qualities, like the bluntness, stupidity, title, and odd tone that makes it feel almost like a parody for most of the runtime... but a parody of what?
The mystery of the drill that kills endures.
Saturation (2017)
Long and a bit repetitive, but definitely interesting.
From memory, this documentary used to be hard to find, but became available online after the legendary boy band broke up. Or I could be thinking of the other documentary involving Brockhampton that detailed their pivotal and rather bleak 2018, when everything changed and the band slowly started to fall apart. There was still amazing music in 2018 and 2019, but in the early 2020s, the band felt checked out. By 2022, the end was officially announced.
All that preamble is to say that it's bittersweet watching this documentary now. Brockhampton had one perfect year in 2017, releasing three high-quality albums that formed the Saturation trilogy, all in the second half of the year. The looser they got, and the more fun they had, the better the music was... at least that's what the official story around the band is, and I think this documentary also illustrates that.
As for this Saturation doc, it's a fly on the wall documentary that's a more interesting historical document than it is a properly structured documentary. It probably only has worth for Brockhampton fans, but I generally enjoyed the footage here, and found it interesting. It makes me sad now, seeing the band particularly young and happy, knowing what happened after 2017, but at least they had that golden year, plus a couple more years that saw hectic roadblocks, but some amazing music nonetheless.
RIP Brockhampton, they burned bright then burned out, but were legends nonetheless.
Shanghai Express (1932)
Odd, but kind of intoxicating.
It wasn't always easy to know what was going on in Shanghai Express, but the vibes are strong and that was generally enough. It does always feel like it's going somewhere, given how much of it takes place on a train. Is the story going forward? Is it supposed to? Maybe not... characters here talk about the past a lot, after all.
That bittersweet exploration of the past and love made me wonder if this influenced Casablanca a little, which also blends genres and feels a little like an untraditional war movie. Shanghai Express feels a little bit war without being a full-on war movie, too.
It's just an engaging experience, narrative aside. Again, I found this hard to follow. But that was okay. Also, I don't think I've ever realised how great a screen presence Marlene Dietrich was until watching this. Her acting in this even comes off as not great at points, but it doesn't matter. It fits. She's playing someone kind of mysterious, and she's also so magnetic that the true strength of her performance - in a dry, objective, technical sense - doesn't really matter.
Shanghai Express is also atmospheric and never really boring. It is confusing and a bit sludgy as far as the story goes, but the style, Dietrich, blending of genres, and odd sense of momentum all work to carry the film as a whole.
Mori no densetsu (1987)
Pretty wild and continually cool.
Because it's set to classical music and features woodland animals, I guess it's easy to think of Fantasia at first, when watching Legend of the Forest. It ends up being pretty different, though, switching things up when it came to animation style throughout dramatically.
Those switch ups are so dramatic that Legend of the Forest even began with what was basically a slideshow presentation. I can't lie; I was a little worried the whole half-hour short would be like that, but thankfully it wasn't.
It's broadly got an environmental message, though it gets weird in the details. It feels like it derails at a certain point and opts to become more surreal, but I kind of dug that. It's always interesting to look at and sounds good.
Sure, it might not come together entirely, but it doesn't feel like it's trying to come together necessarily. It's a neat piece of animation and typically imaginative for the continually fascinating Osamu Tezuka.
Ali Wong: Single Lady (2024)
I'd give this a kind 6 out of 10.
I don't really know what to say broadly beyond saying that this is fine, but not as funny as the previous Ali Wong specials I remember watching. She really just sticks to the one topic the entire time, and I'm always down for the concept album equivalent of a standup special, but this one wore out its welcome at a point.
It's just about getting back into the dating scene after a divorce and going through some short-term relationships. On and on and on. I'd complain if a male comedian did the same and just talked about dates with women for an hour nonstop.
I also don't find comedians - regardless of gender - bragging about wealth very appealing because I don't like hearing anyone bragging about wealth. I don't like the idea that it should be something one's proud of, let alone people saying it and then expecting cheers or laughs. Anyway, there were some decently funny parts for sure, and it's entertaining enough, but also a bit underwhelming.
The only interesting observation I can really offer concerns wondering whether this is a standup special with product placement? She references My Octopus Teacher, The Last Airbender, and Squid Game, which are all available on Netflix, and this special is on Netflix. So it makes me wonder. I don't really want to think about Netflix being a brand while I'm watching standup, but it could also be a coincidence. There are references to non-Netflix properties, too, admittedly (like E. T and Ferris Bueller's Day Off).
Halloween Ends (2022)
no
I feel like Krusty after he saw The Worker & Parasite Show. What the hell was Halloween Ends.
This trilogy just got worse and worse as it went along. 2018's Halloween was decent enough, but now after seeing Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends, and Exorcist: Believer, I feel like it's fair to say that David Gordon Green should stay away from horror.
I don't even want to go into much detail on this. It was too annoying. There are small satisfying moments in parts of the climax (alongside frustrating things), a handful of gnarly kills, and Jamie Lee Curtis is actually in this one a little more, unlike 2021's Kills. But this is otherwise so boring and very few people involved seemed to care all that much. It's a very long 110 minutes and the premise is baffling; namely, the way it kind of sidelines Michael Myers until the very end. Bringing him back in more is cool, but then it makes you wonder why we spent so much time on all the other stuff.
I hope Halloween really does End with this one.
Halloween Kills (2021)
Kind of works as a comedy.
I didn't think Halloween Kills got off the worst of starts, but maybe it was just Jim Cummings having a cameo that was fun. I could've done without the CGI-ified resurrection of a character whose actor has passed away, though.
There's a little bit of style going on. I think Michael Myers coming out of the fire looked cool, and the shot of him dragging someone in. It's not subtle, but it is compared to when Halloween Kills presents its main message around the end of the second act. Well, it had been hammered home earlier, but it gets so on the nose that I couldn't help but laugh at the idea this is supposed to be scary (or worse, thought-provoking).
It's the second sequel to a movie called Halloween where Jamie Lee Curtis is put in a bed for almost the whole movie, but to Halloween II's credit, she did have stuff to do there in the final act. The final act of Halloween Kills is quite bad. It stops being a funny kind of bad and just ends up being baffling. It's not so much that the characters are stupid, but more just that there are instances where people react unfathomably late to loud noises or strange sounds. Someone screaming "Michael, no!" off-screen, even though he could run away, and we just see Michael lumber over - the dude had seconds, but we later find out he died. Someone cries out at the top of their lungs and another thing goes thump, but it takes a gunshot to alert someone else in the next room. And earlier, there's a hilarious scene where someone fails to shoot Michael, and I don't know what took them so long to start shooting (to say nothing of the way the movie illustrates their failure to shoot Michael).
This works as a comedy for much of the runtime. There's so much slapstick in a heavy-handed and eye-rolling sequence involving an unruly crowd in a hospital. The much-memed "Evil dies tonight" is also still funny. Some of the schlock feels intentional early on, but then my desire to be charitable dried up during the third act (I held out for a while).
What an unbelievably silly ending, too. The penultimate set piece inside a house was kind of well done, but the way it actually wraps after that... still wrapping my mind around it.
Succession: Church and State (2023)
Compelling and quietly surprising.
Rewatching this back-to-back with the finale was interesting, because lots of the conflict/drama in the finale really kicks into high gear there, but it's interesting seeing it all set up within Church and State. It is quite disconnected at first, seeing as it's all about a funeral, but it's all surprisingly vital. A little more obviously, people still treat the event almost like a networking/professional thing, but then there's a lot here with how the three main kids handle the situation that speaks volumes to what goes down in the final episode. It's a one-two punch that ends Succession as a whole in style. I miss the show a little, but I'm also happy it went out on a high.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Took me two watches to fully understand it, but I now think it's brilliant.
Letters from Iwo Jima was like a whole other movie this second time around, versus the first. My memory of seeing it before was that it was mostly very good, but I guess a bit slow on that first impression. The pacing worked so much better this time around (the first act is slow, but largely necessary), and there were various things here I didn't appreciate before.
Nuance and empathy are the two words that come to mind most prominently when reflecting on Letters from Iwo Jima. When people do terrible or alarming things during the war scenes, you generally understand why. When people of differing ranks or differing sides show mercy, you understand why. It drives home war is hell as a message, but with nuance. It is violent, but it's not about bombarding you with visceral horror (Mel Gibson should've taken notes before making Hacksaw Ridge). Carnage feels tasteful and it doesn't linger on bloodshed more than it needs to.
War is unpredictable might be more accurate, and that unpredictability is a kind of hell. It drives people both young and old to do surprising things, but the film makes those decisions make sense.
This is also a valuable portrayal of the Japanese point of view. You do understand a military force who are sometimes treated as unstoppable, terrifying hordes in other American-produced movies. It's not about letting everyone on either side off the hook, but it's about explaining why things horrific and (occasionally) heroic happened. No one's overly villainised, and war as a concept is the main antagonist, I feel, for as pretentious as that might sound.
Further, I keep thinking about the kind of comedic scene early on, with the Japanese commander getting one of his subordinates to "pretend" to be a US soldier to judge which direction a real US soldier might charge. It's such an important scene - kind of a mission statement for the whole movie. Japanese soldiers putting themselves in the shoes of American soldiers, and the film had an American director old enough to remember World War II putting himself in the shoes of the Japanese forces; at least 95 percent of the dialogue is in Japanese, and there aren't many American characters who are named or who appear in more than one scene.
The cinematography did take some time getting used to. It's not great-looking in a traditional sense, but there's a consistency to the vision. Also, when it wants to hit you with some actual colour and break away from the desaturation, it's striking and meaningful.
There are also some very moving sequences in this that could've come across as overly sentimental if mishandled, but the big emotional moments hit, and they're played perfectly. This is such an impressively well-balanced film, and undoubtedly one of Eastwood's very best as a director- like, top 5, or even higher. Maybe top 3? Fantastic stuff, and it successfully found what feels like a mostly new approach to the war genre.
Halloween (2018)
Surprisingly fine.
I missed these Halloween movies when they came out, and I was even less motivated to catch up after seeing David Gordon Green's Exorcist movie. This 2018 version of Halloween is at least better than Exorcist: Believer, I'll give it that. Maybe part of it is that I'm not as fondly attached to Halloween (1978) as I am to the original The Exorcist, which is a bad movie made into a terrible one because of how nakedly inferior it is. Halloween (2018) is probably inferior to Halloween (1978), but the gap wasn't really as drastic to me. Those who love the original might well feel different.
It's one of those "back to basics" distant sequels that was perhaps most noticeably attempted with two 2015 films: Jurassic World and Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens. This falls into some of the traps those ones do, but it's not too often outrageously bad. There was some clunky comedy and some lines so on the nose I wondered if they were supposed to be funny. But whenever Michael Myers is in a scene, things get pretty good. There are solid kills and it's never exactly boring.
The crude humor was weird at times, but it gave the movie some personality. It moves well enough, even if it's so horrendously simplistic a film. It's fantastic background noise and passable foreground entertainment. Jamie Lee Curtis delivers, even if she seemed pretty nonchalant much of the time. Maybe that approach kind of worked.
I'm not thrilled about watching the next two, especially if I continue feeling in line with the common consensus and find them to be a considerable step-down, but we'll see. Well, I'll see. They will eventually be Hallowseen.
F9 (2021)
Fast and frustrating.
I'd been hyped about this series from the end of the fourth movie until maybe the end of the first act for this one. F9 just lacked in some areas compared to all the films from the previous 10 years of the series, and is probably the first film in the franchise I've had serious reservations about since the third movie, Tokyo Drift.
After F9, Fast X underperformed at the box office, and I believe that's led to the series being announced as ending with film #11. While I think there are good things within F9, I can kind of understand why some people might've wanted to tap out at this point and not turn up in theatres to see the 10th. I'm committed to the 10th and also committed to the yet to be released 11th because of the good will built up from most of the series (I will see film 11 opening night and I will try to start a standing ovation in the cinema, regardless of quality), but this is the point where I started to question how much I could keep enjoying this further, if it were to go on indefinitely. It's a bit of a sobering feeling. Before this, Fast and Furious felt close to limitless.
Don't get me wrong, it was still fun in some key moments, and the first act was strong. The first big action scene pushed things to the optimal level for me, and I was laughing and loving every stupid moment that was just the right kind of stupid for me, but it felt like after that point, not even the rules the franchise usually abided by were in effect. I don't love falling back on using cliched terms like "jump the shark," but... this is a bit shark-jumpy.
John Cena was a soggy fart of an antagonist. He had zero screen presence here and was boring. He made me miss the likes of Hobbs and Shaw. Charlize Theron... good for her, she probably got a million bucks for scenes that could've been shot in an afternoon, but why even bring her back? She underwhelmed and had the worst haircut I've ever seen a fictional character have. I could say the same for Helen Mirren, but at least she got to drive a car very fast and that was fun.
The space sequence was just done to acknowledge a meme about the series going to space, and was actually pretty boring. Overall, the jokes were hit and miss this time as well, more so than usual, and I hated so much of the usually enjoyable melodrama revolving around two characters we'd never seen before this point. It felt too hackneyed; not my kind of hackneyed. I was mixed on the return of Tokyo Drift's characters. Kind of cool to see them, but they were also as awkward as I remembered them being. They - and other parts of F9 - point to some serious hiccups being in effect tonally. Technically, this is more in line with previous movies.
Diesel is in full cornball mode here too, and it leads to some of the film's best scenes and some of its worst. Most of the action satisfies at least, which I think makes an action movie worthy of a passing grade, but it felt like there was a really long stretch of this movie without much action. And though I've been okay with previous Fast and Furious movies exceeding two hours, this film marked the first time I really felt the length of one of these movies in a bad way.
Fast X might be more of the same, from what I've heard, but I hope they end this series on a high with the 11th film. I am invested. I love movies 5 and 7 sincerely. I dug the ridiculousness of 2, 6, and 8. Hobbs and Shaw was surprisingly entertaining and blissfully tongue-in-cheek, Tokyo Drift had its moments, the fourth film was an important bridge between what the series was and what it would become, and 1... I do have to revisit 1. I didn't like it at the time but it might be more endearing now that I've seen the series that followed.
I hold out hope that things will improve. There's still enough in F9 for me to feel as though I kind of liked it, but I am so torn on so much of it. And I've rambled a lot, so maybe that shows I care about this series more than any of the actual words I've typed can show.
Gladiator II (2024)
Heavy flaws, but in some ways, it's a solid follow-up.
Gladiator II doesn't hold a candle to the first one, but I still liked it quite a lot. It's one of those good movies that's also a bit frustrating, though, because it was close to being great. There are ideas, conflicts, and characters here that sound great on paper but don't quite have the same impact in execution. There's an attempt to tell a more morally complex story than what was told in the first movie, which I respect - again, on paper - but the execution I felt made the film itself a bit muddled.
Though I wasn't ever bored, the pacing is a little messy. It peaks early on as far as action goes, and then it peaks in emotional intensity at the end of the second act, leaving the final 45 minutes or so a bit scattershot. During that final act, certain events don't feel as dramatic as they should be. There's a race to the finish right near the end that just doesn't sit right with me, but saying any more would be wading into spoiler territory.
Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal both have characters who mirror Russell Crowe's in interesting and differing ways, but the latter was under-utilised. He was good with what he had, but I wish he had more. There's a bit of a villain problem in general here, too. No one's as viscerally hatable as Joaquin Phoenix in the first, maybe by design (again, more complex story here), but it's still a bit of a shame.
Mescal is great though. He's been great in smaller films before, but this confirms he has what it takes to carry a blockbuster. Gladiator II was also technically very impressive, and the action (especially the opening battle) satisfies. Though not bad, the score has nothing on the first, and I think they knew this, because they reuse music from the first at a few points to great effect.
At the risk of sounding corny, Gladiator is one of those goosebump-inducing films to me. I rewatched it last night and the ending was as still moving after whatever it was, the fourth or fifth time. I felt that kind of awe early on in the sequel, with Ridley Scott delivering another amazingly large battle, but the drama and action after that point never reached those heights. Nothing hits quite the same.
Overall, it's good entertainment, it's indeed spectacle, it's moderately satisfying, and it's worth seeing on the big screen. But it's not a classic, and never will be considered one in the same manner the first now (kind of) is.
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Weirdly middling for something that sounds so bizarre.
Given what we know about how Stephen King worked in the 1970s and 80s, I feel like it's safe to call Maximum Overdrive a high concept movie in more ways than one.
Checking out his sole directorial effort seemed intriguing, and the premise - which is about machinery coming alive and killing off the human race - is also enticing. It's fun in its lunacy for a little while, but once it settles into a groove, it gets kind of boring. There's a feeling of "hang on, that's it?" that sets in unfortunately early.
But still, there's a novelty to this film that makes me feel as though I can't in good conscience hate it. For how weird it is and for the handful of moments here and there that were fun, I think it's almost watchable, but I really wish it had been more consistently fun throughout. It hits the right notes as a B-grade horror/dark comedy for a while, but not long enough.
Carmen (2022)
Undercooked
I was going to call the romance at the heart of Carmen unconvincing, and hard to buy beyond the leads both being young and attractive, but then I'd have to go back and apply that criticism to West Side Story and who knows how many other movies, so no, it's not fair to say that. Also, I did buy the two leads as a couple a bit more as Carmen went along, and I think Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera did the best they could with a fairly slight screenplay.
It's also almost a musical- more songs than most movies at least, and a handful of somewhat trepidatious dance numbers throughout. During some of the better moments, it felt like it was trying to go for something bigger than the production would allow, but then at other points, it felt like it was kind of afraid to be a full-on musical. A movie not feeling sure of itself is a pretty awkward thing. (They might've been sure of what they were making, but the confidence didn't come across in my eyes).
Carmen is also on the nose at points, having an agreeable message but a kind of awkward way of getting the point across at times. It is an unfulfilling movie that at least was going for something bold (I think), some of the time, so it's hard to call it worthless, despite the flaws. There are some striking shots throughout, the music's interesting, and there are two pretty good lead performances at its centre, but I don't know if all those qualities are quite enough to make it work as a whole, or feel worth recommending.
French Connection II (1975)
Iffy
French Connection II is weirdly sleepy for a thriller, and has a second act that lost me entirely. I started wondering whether I was the target of a joke, as if this was some sort of Joker vs Joker Folie a Deux situation, in that no one wanted to make a sequel, but they did so begrudgingly because they were made to... and then, in the process, tried their best to annoy anyone who might've liked the first film for reasons that weren't 100% intended.
The first act has Hackman bumbling around and not knowing how to do anything in a foreign country, which was kind of funny. The second act sees him getting addicted to drugs by the main villains which puts him out of commission for 40 minutes of screen time. He's either hooked or going cold turkey at this time, and though Hackman's reliably good, this portion of the film is such a repetitive slog. Then in the final act, it becomes a little more reminiscent of the first movie, and actually starts to feel almost like a thriller. It's not bad, but my interest for most of it was absolutely sapped by that second act.
In some ways, this works as a continuation of the first film, but then in other ways, it feels weirdly redundant. Whether that was the point (and whether this really was a middle finger to the audience kind of sequel), I'm not sure, really.
Pembalasan Ratu Pantai Selatan (1989)
Pretty good trash
This was the kind of "bad movie" where I felt I was laughing with and at the film in equal measure, so maybe it was a good movie? Or at least almost good? I don't know. It's complicated critical territory, but then even by the standards of B-grade schlock/exploitation, I still feel Lady Terminator falters in some areas. It takes a bit too long to get going and repeats itself a bit once it does get going, and both of these things hurt the film quite a bit when the runtime is only about 80 minutes.
I also almost wish it wasn't called Lady Terminator, because genre-wise, this is pretty different. It just rips a few scenes from the original Terminator film off, sometimes for seemingly no good reason, but then so much of it's also its own thing. That makes it more interesting as far as mockbusters go. But then again, it's also funny to think about how this is probably a better Terminator movie than any of the Terminator films that weren't directed by James Cameron.
If you want trash that's moderately tasty, Lady Terminator is it. It's stupid, campy, bloody, and sleazy stuff. I wouldn't liken it to eating good fast food. It's more like eating fast food that's kind of undercooked in a way that might give you food poisoning, but is, in some ways, also somehow tastier than your average fast food. Dig in at your own peril, in either event.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Plodding but sometimes interesting.
I don't know. I think, to give this film some praise, it's interesting as a character study of someone who seems kind of awful. And they're kind of awful (or heavily, heavily flawed) in a unique way. There's some value there, and I think the editing does a lot of heavy lifting, because the way it weaves back and forth between the past and present is usually seamless and fairly cool. Jessie Buckley and Olivia Colman don't look at all alike, though. If the latter was cast first, I don't know who looks more suitable, but if Buckley was cast first, they should've had Sally Hawkins play the older version of her. Buckley is also way better than Colman who - and I think it's sacrilege to say - I've just never really understood the hype around. The younger version of the central character (Buckley) does have the more dramatic material, and then I guess Colman's character is just there to show how she's ended up after she did all the stuff she did when younger.
I have to be vague, because describing anything about the narrative here would give everything away, because there's so little to it narratively. I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, because this generally works as a character-focused thing, only sagging a bit here and there because of the two-hour runtime.
It's decently written, but it just doesn't have the flair directorially to keep things engaging. It's a flat, boring-looking movie. You can tell it's from a first-time director - Maggie Gyllenhaal, probably just helming this because she's well-known and so she can. I don't think this would've gotten as much praise if it wasn't a debut. If a well-established director had put this out, it would've raised some eyebrows. There are some occasional close-ups that move in closer than most close-ups, but otherwise, the only time this film really feels alive is because of the editing; the jumping back and forth in time.
At its core is an interesting character, played by two actresses; one of them really good, and the other just okay. There's a solid supporting cast here all doing decent work, and I appreciated the way it was written, generally speaking. It's too long and a bit too one-note to be great, but I guess in the end, The Lost Daughter is just alright. I can take the good with the meh.
(Oh, stupid ending, too. Felt pretentious. Think it wanted to leave the viewer thinking but I was just like whatever).
Succession: America Decides (2023)
Hits a raw nerve
There's a ton going into America Decides. It's an extremely funny episode for the first half (taking off with a lot more energy than the previous episode), but I think the tension really rises at a point, and it becomes grim. The whole nature of using something as purportedlty important as an election for personal gains is so morally icky, but it also feels true to the characters and perhaps even true to real life. Everything is a charade, on some level, and people who have power/money are the ones who also have considerable influence, even within a so-called democracy. I'd like to hope it's not as bad in real life, but American Decides is an episode that compellingly argues it could be.
Succession: Tailgate Party (2023)
Party with bad vibes
Another Succession episode about some kind of high-stakes event spiralling out of control, Tailgate Party is actually pretty significantly slow-burn in nature, especially considering how close to the end of the series it is. I think it's effective because it does eventually build to some really great scenes, but it does take some serious time to get there.
Anything with Matsson making an uncomfortable party exponentially worse is compelling, and then the meltdown between Tom and Shiv at the episode's end is also an obvious highlight.
And then, when Kendall seems to be back on top (at least by Kendall standards) at the very end of the episode? That's great and enticing stuff, too.
Foe (2023)
Weirdly boring
This is such an oddly dull movie. It has two talented actors in the lead roles - Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal - but they're both wasted pretty miserably. It's about two people living on a farm property in the future, and then what happens when one is told they have to go live on a space station for two years. Then there's stuff about that person being replaced with a clone. "Drama" ensues. It was a similar premise to a Black Mirror episode, and not a particularly great one, but it was still a little more interesting than Foe. Also, weirdly enough, that episode was probably more cinematic than Foe. Foe looks pretty flat and uninteresting throughout.
There's an attempt at a twist, but it feels like too little too late when it hits. This is the sort of film where I was constantly waiting for things to "start," and they never do. I'm not really motivated to think about the first 3/4s of the movie in a different context either, even with knowing where things went. While the visuals are pretty ordinary, I'd say the screenplay here is the only truly bad part, but it's underwhelming enough to drag the entire movie down considerably.
Ronan and Mescal can only do so much with the material at hand. I feel they're not bad considering what this film gave them, but they've both done so much better in pretty much anything else I've seen them in. Foe has traces of interesting ideas to explore, and acting that's as good as it can be all things considered, but nothing ever really clicks. There's nothing too thought-provoking or moving here, even if it feels like Foe wants to be both those things at different times.
What a soggy film. A soggy slog of a viewing experience, and is, overall, a film that feels much longer than its 110-minute runtime.
Mad Love (1935)
Solid for its time.
I'll be honest: I watched Mad Love because it was the shortest thing on my watchlist and I was absolutely knackered, to the point where even 68 minutes was a bit of a challenge to stay awake through. But I don't blame the movie, which was pretty good for a film of its era. Also, I don't really remember how it ended up on my watchlist, but Im thankful it did anyway.
It's a strange and fairly short 1930s horror film, still feeling like it takes its time a little more than it needs to, even with a runtime under 70 minutes. At least there's still not enough flab here to run the risk of things getting entirely boring.
The whole thing is about a painist whose hands are crushed, and they get replaced by the hands of a murderer, and then the painist finds his life being swayed by his possessed hands. It's like that Evil Dead II scene, except minus the slapstick and it's not feature-length. It's weird and sort of goofy, but it kinda works.
Peter Lorre is as good as he usually is, playing the unsettling surgeon, showing once more that the actor could do pretty much nothing wrong. He mostly elevates this. The other actors are decent enough, and I think Mad Love is put together pretty well overall, but Lorre's the best part. It's otherwise worthy of a passing grade because of how straight to the point it generally is, thanks to that runtime.
Zhong kui niang zi (1971)
Not too easy to follow, but the action is pretty good.
The Lady Hermit is pretty straightforward martial arts stuff, so I can keep the review brief. I could only find the English dub, which hurt the film a little, but I'm not marking it down for any feeling of incoherence caused by the dub. However, I do wonder whether it would've also been a bit nonsensical if I'd watched it in the original language and with subtitles.
But does that matter? The action generally delivers, with the bridge set piece near the end being particularly great (and I also wonder whether it influenced The Temple of Doom, or if Temple of Doom was merely referencing another film/serial with a big bridge collapse fight sequence).
It's also funny how whenever you watch an old martial arts movie, you're likely to find something that certainly - or potentially - influenced some scene or small moment in Kill Bill. I do love that duology, and it probably got me interested in eventually checking out more martial arts cinema when I first watched it, but it is remarkable how much Tarantino stole/borrowed from this wonderful genre when it was at its peak (the 1970s, essentially; let's face it).