hlov Posted July 16, 2023 Posted July 16, 2023 On 14/7/2023 at 7:08 PM, westendboy47 said: It’s Friday at the movies with Daniel… just 4 this week I will say something about. Originally, I wanted to write a right proper review of Mission: Impossible but I can’t find the time so a quick stream-of-consciousness punch-out will suffice… When the trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One dropped a few months ago, it put me in a frenzy. Suddenly I wanted time to move faster just so I can watch the movie and see Tom Cruise run. Yes, he does, more than once here and it is a good reminder to myself that I need to keep in shape and be like him when I hit 61. Let that number sink in. Cruise doesn’t let CGI de-age him; he doesn’t rely on stunt-men to do the death-defying stunts for him. So that’s him flying off a cliff, tumbling in a careening car and going mano a mano against a villain on top of a speeding train. Cruise is practically a brand name when it comes to action thrillers and he ushers in blockbuster season. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a superb entry into the franchise. It might not be the best but it’s in the top tier for sure. There is meticulousness in how this story is crafted in that it is against a prescient force. I don’t know about you but whenever I hear about what A.I. is capable of now, it sends a shiver down my spine. Haven’t the world heard of Skynet? The villain, Gabriel, is not only a proxy of The Entity but also a figure from Ethan Hunt’s past, which is showcased in a black and white flashback that bings Casino Royale (2006) vibes. The script is serious but also witty and the gang is all back for one last hurrah, but not all will survive. It isn’t an origin story but it does have shades of it when Hunt talks about making the choice in the past. There is also a nice trick in linking this instalment to Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible (1996) by having Kittridge back. If this nod to the first movie is not strong enough, Dead Reckoning Part One even redeploys some of the off-kilter camera angles to great effect. The attention to details by linking back to the first is a brilliant move. I have a feeling this is the beginning of the end and everything will come full circle. There are new characters added in Gabriel’s henchman Paris who suffers from the typical silent Asian syndrome and Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a master pickpocket among other skillsets. Grace is a character that I grew to like but I didn’t at first because she is an enigma initially and feels like a plot-mover. If the woman had believed in Hunt from the start, we wouldn’t be graced with two or three amazing action set-pieces, so I should be grateful she is a cipher. However near the end I really got behind her character and their chemistry is fiery. I don’t remember much of the dialogue except one: Grace asks Hunt if he will save her and Hunt looks deep her eyes and replies “I can’t promise you that but I can promise you that your life is worth more than mine”. Oh man… I had goosebumps all over and Hunt would prove that statement in a resounding manner. The stakes feel real here, more than all the superhero movies combined. When Hunt gets hurt, I felt blue-blacks on my skin. My wifey did have a problem with the clunky dialogue, but not me. It’s yet again a MacGuffin story and bad guys announce all their badass plan in painstaking details to Hunt (and us), but I took it all in as part of the fun. Notice I made no mention of the action set-pieces? They are breathtaking. I am sure as action junkies you have seen a motorcycle jumping from a cliff, manic car chases and a get-out-from-a-falling-train (I recently saw Wanted (2008) and it has the same scene) sequence, but the skill of a good filmmaker is to show the scenes in a refreshing manner till the point you think you have never seen them before. Get ready to have your breath taken from you while you sit in stunned silence in a theatre, preferable an IMAX cinema. I felt nothing of the 2h 43min and I sat there wide-eyed hoping that a year passes as quickly as possible. (4/5) Cocaine Bear (2023) is literally about a bear who did cocaine and goes on a rampage. If entertainment is a dial that goes from one to ten, this one goes to eleven. It is dumb as much as it is fun. I laughed so hard when I saw humans get mauled with their guts are hanging out. The CGI bear looks cheap which actually adds to the charm. Forget about any life or moral lessons here, if there’s one it’s don’t do drugs and this warning also goes to animals. I have a strong feeling this will be acquired by Netflix soon enough. It fits their mantra – nothing too cerebral, maximum fun and goes well with a six-pack. (3.5/5) The whole of last week, most Singaporeans would no doubt be on one singular topic – Taylor Swift. How our lives’ purpose and moods hinge on whether we get tickets to probably the biggest gig next year is both admirable and also laughable. Prime’s Swarm (2023) taps into this manic fan craze for an idol. Our tour guide to this surreal state of crazed behaviour is Dre (fabulously played by Dominique Fishback) who idolises pop star Ni’Jah. Substitute Ni’Jah with Beyoncé you get what the narrative is gunning for. It’s horror, comedy, a menagerie of murderous behaviour and a bombardment of themes like cancel culture and mental well-being. Across 7 half-hour episodes, the show does time jumps on a wimp making the audience do a lot of homework. I didn’t find it frustrating and find myself willingly fall under its spell, allowing the narrative to take me on a wild trip. I can’t say enough of Fishback’s stupendous performance which reflects everything about a crazed fan. This is a calling card performance and she embodies the role with her entire being. There’s also something unpredictable about the story and it dares to take risks. Watch out for the centrepiece episode that features Billie Eilish who does a memorable job as a sort of cult leader and also an unusual standalone episode about a detective. But I must say Choo hated the ending and cried BS. I didn’t have the same feeling but I do feel there’s more story to be told and the ending isn’t conclusive. To me, this isn’t the type of show that is defined by its enigmatic ending. More than anything the surreal ending made me think about Dre, her plight and how I am at times like a fraction of her. If there’s a warning to be had here is that next time when someone asks you who your favourite singer is, perhaps asks the question back and don’t say anything disparaging about his or her music taste. I think just say Taylor Swift. I don’t think you can go wrong with that, unless the other person is a rabid Beyoncé fan. (4/5) Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) follows the life of beloved actor and advocate Michael J. Fox, exploring his personal and professional triumphs and travails, and what happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease. I was into the movies and shows when Michael J. Fox became a household name and this documentary fills in the gaps when he went off the radar for me. It is honest, heartfelt and funny in the way Fox talks about his life journey and struggle in such candid way, warts and all. The documentary cleverly uses clips from his appearances in movies and shows to emphasise what he is saying and the clips come across as strangely celebratory. There are scenes that can pull at the heartstrings but the storyteller always pulls the reins back because that isn’t what the documentary is aiming for. In fact, Fox at one point says point blank how he hates it when people feel sorry for him. The documentary comes across as very life-affirming and celebratory of the indelible human spirit. It brought to mind the line from The Shawshank Redemption (1994): “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really, get busy living or get busy dying.” It’s on AppleTV+ and in my book it is a beautiful watch. (4/5) MI was great, I have rated 10/5
westendboy47 Posted July 21, 2023 Posted July 21, 2023 If you have plans to see Oppenheimer, I would suggest skipping what I wrote for it. Oppenheimer (2023) is Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus but I am wary of recommending to the everyday person. In my book, there is not an ounce of entertainment to be had (for that, you should see Barbie). It is certainly not something you can munch on popcorn while watching. This is a brilliant and singular character study of man’s hubristic nature and an examination of Satan’s favourite sin, vanity, according to the one in The Devil’s Advocate (1997). It’s a full-on assault on the senses by a filmmaker who at this stage of his career doesn’t pander to the audience anymore and is ever mindful of the cinematic experience. This needs to be experienced on the biggest screen possible. It’s a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atom bomb, but Nolan has rewritten the genre of biopic here on so many levels. Going into the theatre I would hate it if it’s the typical “America is the world’s big brother” type of narrative and thankfully the focus is very different. Our tour guide into the fractured and tortured soul is one J. Robert Oppenheimer, superbly brought to life by Cillian Murphy. We get to listen him talk, listen to how he reacts and we get to see his thoughts. Yes, there is a lot of talking here. In fact, other than the centre-piece of the atom bomb explosion I don’t remember a prolonged period of silence. If talking is personified here, it would be holding a bouquet of flowers during the intimate scenes, a lightbulb during the eureka moments, a party balloon when the bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and knives every other time especially the third act. The relentless dialogue is always purposeful, holds no sentimentality and drives the plot. There is a free-wheeling jump to different times in Oppenheimer’s life and the editing is a different class, creating a rhythm and cadence to the scenes. This is also a who’s who extravaganza with so many actors who are on screen for a short time. If I am a well-known actor in Hollywood I would seriously be asking my agent why am I not in the movie. With so much talking, exposition can become dry, but Nolan’s prioritising over timing coupled with a pulsating music score always drives the plot. It almost feels like a new way of storytelling. After the successful detonations of the atom bombs over Japan, the movie goes on a different gear with its foot still on the accelerator. For me, this was my favourite act of the film and after a week of the dirtiest politics in Singapore this sensational last act really sent the character assassination, the discrediting and the blaming on a home run for me. For a man known for creating the atom bomb just so America can end the war, how do you survey the moral compass. It’s killing thousands of innocent justified in this case? Is Oppenheimer a hero? Heck… at one point I can sense he was disappointed he couldn’t drop the bomb on Hitler’s Germany who had already surrendered. I don’t know how to answer the questions but I do know that if it didn’t happen I might be writing this blog in Japanese. That said, 3 hours is a huge ask and I have a feeling Nolan doesn’t want to let go of his film. It can get bloated at times and for this film lover I am ashamed to say I dozed off a few times. My wife would say many times and she said I even miss a sex scene. I asked her why didn’t she wake me up for that. Yes, I admit I am a little shallow and as punishment for not waking me up at the crucial scene, she must watch it with me again when I get a hold of the 4K UHD disc. Her reply was “nooooooooo……” (4/5) Moving the action out of the woods and into the city, Evil Dead Rise (2023) tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable. Clearly, Lee Cronin who wrote and directed this movie, is a huge fan of the Sam Raimi cult classics. He does an impressive job of paying homage to the classics and also giving the audiences something new but yet familiar. I watched this alone because Choo said NO after I said I wanted to see Evil Dead and I didn’t even have time to utter Rise. What a shame! Because she did see the 3 cult classics by Sam Raimi. She missed a gem of a bloodbath with many memorable deadites scenes. Never once does it forget the essence of the Sam Raimi films in that it is a simple story with crazy inventive scares. This one does clever updates like how the Book of the Dead has sharp teeth and others. I will leave you to catch all the brilliant nods. I only thought the main actress, you know that final person left standing after the ultimate battle, doesn’t have an ounce of gravitas that Bruce Campbell brought to that iconic role. (3.5/5) Bird Box: Barcelona (2023) is an uninspiring and sorry excuse for a film that has tarnished the allure and legacy of a far better film in Bird Box (2018). Sure the Atmos effects are nice but that alone can’t save a film that screams Dead on Arrival within a few minutes. To me the main reason is because the monster isn’t interesting and it is practically invisible here. Seeing leaves and debris float in the air do not constitute a definitive monster presence. The hollow story doesn’t help. Yes, a few of the gnarly deaths will energise you to hold out another ten minutes but when you hit the end after 1h 52mim you will realise it is 112 minutes you can’t get back. What’s next? Bird Box: Paris? Count me out. (2/5) We are just 2 episodes from finishing Tehran S1. This AppleTV+ show tells the story of Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), a Mossad computer hacker-agent undertaking her very first mission in the heart of a hostile and menacing city, which also happens to be the place of her birth. Tasked with disabling an Iranian nuclear reactor, her mission has implications not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world order. When the Mossad mission fails, Tamar goes rogue in Tehran as she rediscovers her Iranian roots and becomes romantically entwined with a pro-democracy activist. Tamar’s soul-searching leads her to become even more conflicted about her mission, while the tension mounts as Iranian authorities led by Faraz Kamala (Shaun Toub) tighten the net in their desperate search to locate her and her Mossad colleagues. I am enjoying this for many reasons. Firstly, the concrete jungle is refreshing. I read somewhere that they shot this in Athens which doubles up as a superb representation of Tehran. Too many espionage shows used Europe and the US as settings, so it is a refreshing change to see a different culture. Thirdly, the acting is superb. Niv Sultan comes across as very believable not as a James Bond type but someone who knows how to melt into the background and get the job done. Her vulnerability is also an asset and she constantly weaponises it to great effect. Fourthly, and this is probably the most important reason I have not given up on the show – both the protagonist and antagonist are portrayed as intelligent people. So many times I have seen shows where only one party is the smart one and everybody else just runs in circles around that lone person. Not here, both parties are smart which makes the cat and mouse games such edge-of-the-seat stuff. No one is invincible here and no matter how hard they have planned everything can still go awry. The air of unpredictability is thick and I can’t wait to see how Glenn Close would fit into this. (4/5) 1
westendboy47 Posted August 4, 2023 Posted August 4, 2023 Just 4 this week… Barbie (2023) is about Barbie suffering an existential crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. When I saw the trailer and the humongous marketing campaign, I could more or less figure out the plot. So I was totally knocked off my rockers with where the story went. How a toy goes into the real world and has her world view altered is an idea that has been explored many times, but Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach took the plastic world of Barbie and frankly made it look bombastic and fantastic at the same time. Using a world symbolic of a doll’s reality, Gerwig went to town by engaging in themes like gender inequality, patriarchy, sexism and more. The premise is ripe for an exploration of deep-set ideas ingrained in young minds like how the Barbie dolls symbolise a body shape that is not easily attainable and a world that is all pink cotton candy fluff. How it delves on the heavy themes and yet keeps everything buoyant in hilarity is a deft masterful act. Margot Robbie is phenomenal in the role and it is hard to see another actress play it. Her doubt is evident, her gradual awareness of her world is palpable and how she wants to be the best version of herself hits my pink spot. Playing opposite her is Ryan Gosling as the scene-stealing Ken. I laughed the hardest at his hilarious antics and his search for his purpose in life is spot-on. Gosling is so good that if there’s a Ken spin-off I will bet my last dollar it will be a box-office hit. I thought the movie over-reaches with its approach when Barbie and Ken step into the real world with the narrative diving into the human angle, corporate angle and even the creator angle. The story starts to become very busy and I had a lingering notion it was biting more than it could chew, but thankfully the last act addresses the themes fittingly and the closures to all the arcs are emotional and well-earned. This is quite an original and ingenious piece of storytelling feat. See what happens if an IP gives storytellers the freedom to manoeuvre? Barbie is imagination in over-drive continually surprises at every turn and it is also a helluva magic trick that frankly I didn’t want to see how it’s done, preferring to surrender to the illusion. Barbiesucceeds both as sheer inventive escapism and also as a cinema of female (and to a lesser degree, male) empowerment. I saw this on the third week since opening and judging from last night’s audience it is still raking in the money. After the movie I visited Toys ‘R Us just to look at the dolls and apparently many people had the same idea. Everyone was just holding the dolls and laughing away. Don’t wait to stream this. This is the type of movie you should see in a theatre full of patrons. Nothing beats that experience and sometimes that is “kenough” to make all your troubles go away for two hours. (4.5/5) The Deepest Breath (2023): Descending to remarkable depths below the sea on one single breath, Alessia Zecchini enters what she describes as the last quiet place on Earth. The Italian champion is determined to set a new world record in freediving, a dangerous extreme sport in which competitors attempt to reach the greatest depth without the use of scuba gear. Freedivers are often subject to blackouts upon ascent, necessitating the help of safety divers like Stephen Keenan, a free-spirited Irish adventurer who fell in love with the sport in Dahab, Egypt. Having formed a special bond on the freediving circuit, Alessia and Stephen train together so she can make an attempt on Dahab’s legendary Blue Hole and its challenging 85-foot-long tunnel 184 feet below the Red Sea. Their fates are inextricably bound together by a tragic event that ensues. This documentary was recommended by a friend whom I always take his recommendations seriously. It is a mesmerising look at humans willing to push themselves to the edge of the physical boundary and at times beyond. It doesn’t quite get inside the headspace to explain why they are willing to do something so dangerous but I can tell you money and fame are not in their vocabulary. What it does remarkably well is with the mechanics of the deadly sport. The numerous talking heads and video clips offer a good look at the two individuals and how their lives will eventually intersect. The interviews always refer to the two of them in the third person and I think it’s a narrative ploy and a foreshadow that they will die doing something they loved. Everything feels a bit twisty so I was surprised at the end which I won’t reveal here. This is a rewarding watch. I can never do what they do but I love watching humans push their physical beings to beyond. I live that excitement vicariously through their extraordinary feats. Stream this on Netflix. (3.5/5) Notes on a Scandal (2006): A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her fifteen-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new “friend” also go well beyond a platonic friendship. Being a teacher, I am always on the lookout for cautionary tales for teachers and this is one of them. Buoyed by two powerhouse performances by Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, it is easy to be held rapt by the story of morally wrong relationships and deadly friendship. I usually detest voice-over narration as a ploy, but count me in if it is well-written and delivered venomously by Judi Dench. The English is so uppity crusty and it is also a window into Dench’s character. The movie is so wickedly funny and morally corrupt and it is a delicious joy to watch everything unfold. The third act is a little too convenient for my taste and it does take away a little of the lustre, but to watch Dench and Blanchett go head to head is a thing of beauty. (3.5/5) One Hour Photo (2002): Seymour ‘Sy’ Parrish has been doing photo development for 20 years. He has a vast knowledge of modern photography and develops photos at a local department store for a living. But Sy lives a sad and lonely life and begins spying on the Yorkin family, his biggest customers who seem to have everything in the world. Sy begins to feel that he wants to be in the Yorkin’s life, but when he discovers that the Yorkins are not as perfect as they seem, he becomes a man on a mission to expose the imperfections of the Yorkin family that could tear them apart. I was scouring around Disney+ and discovered this gem of a film. Robin Williams is cast against type but such is his acting craft that I never saw one instance of the comedian peeping out. Williams surrendered into his silently psychotic role. His vulnerability was palpable and his downward spiralling utterly believable. The movie made me understand we can never truly know that person we meet every day at the neighbourhood. Though always smiling, he or she may be suffering emotionally. This is a deeply uncomfortable watch but a necessary watch. It is also an actor’s showcase and Williams was in incredible form. It is also a story that blurs the line between good and evil. (3.5/5) 2
John0001 Posted August 11, 2023 Posted August 11, 2023 (edited) Dune (2021) Inception Donnie Darko The Game Intersteller Zodiac The Silence Of The Lambs Spotlight Lost Highway Se7en Bourne Trilogy (1-3) Edited August 11, 2023 by John0001
BLAH BLAH Posted August 11, 2023 Posted August 11, 2023 10 hours ago, John0001 said: Dune (2021) Inception Donnie Darko The Game Intersteller Zodiac The Silence Of The Lambs Spotlight Lost Highway Se7en Bourne Trilogy (1-3) No Groundhog Day?!?
BLAH BLAH Posted August 11, 2023 Posted August 11, 2023 10 hours ago, John0001 said: Dune (2021) Inception Donnie Darko The Game Intersteller Zodiac The Silence Of The Lambs Spotlight Lost Highway Se7en Bourne Trilogy (1-3) No Groundhog Day?!? 1
westendboy47 Posted August 11, 2023 Posted August 11, 2023 11 hours ago, John0001 said: Dune (2021) Inception Donnie Darko The Game Intersteller Zodiac The Silence Of The Lambs Spotlight Lost Highway Se7en Bourne Trilogy (1-3) Nice list but no foreign movies?
John0001 Posted August 11, 2023 Posted August 11, 2023 If I was going to add a foreign movie I'd probably go Run Lola Run. And comedy... probably Death At A Funeral. 1
Pebbles Posted August 12, 2023 Posted August 12, 2023 Not in order nor exhaustive but The Great Beauty would always be close to the top. A brilliant and ravishingly beautiful film about timeless themes set in the Bunga Bunga era in Rome. The Great Beauty The Leopard (1963 classic) Witness Apocalypse Now (editors cut) When Harry met Sally 4 Weddings and a funeral American Utopia (not strictly a movie, more of a filmed musical but extraordinary) American Beauty 1
westendboy47 Posted August 18, 2023 Posted August 18, 2023 Could do six this week but not all here are worth your time… Sisu (2022): During the last desperate days of WWII, a solitary prospector (Jorma Tommila) crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover that they have just tangled with no ordinary miner. While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word “sisu”, this legendary ex-commando will embody what sisu means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And no matter what the Nazis throw at him, the one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold back – even if it means killing every last Nazi in his path. Oh boy… I love this! This movie comes in a long line of one-man-against-an-entire-army movies. It’s implausible but I didn’t care because the madness and carnage are inventive and depraved. This is carnage on a grandiose scale and seeing Nazis get skewered, exploded, shot, knifed and God knows what else is a wholotta fun. This is like John Wick takes a time machine and goes back to Northern Finland, 1944 to escape the High Table after John Wick: Chapter 4 and once there he realises he still gets to use his special set of skills to dispatch one of history’s worst enemies ever. Crack a six pack and open a bag of chips for this superb mayhem of a movie. (3.5/5) The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023): A Brooklyn plumber named Mario travels through the Mushroom Kingdom with a princess named Peach and an anthropomorphic mushroom named Toad to find Mario’s brother, Luigi, and to save the world from a ruthless fire-breathing Koopa named Bowser. I was never into the game when I was a kid but I was a Donkey Kong fan. So I can’t say I am the intended audience but I still lapped this up like it’s cookie and cream ice cream. The story is simplistic and I doubt adults accompanying their children will learn any great life lessons. This is a movie made for kids or the kid in you. The visuals are eye-popping, the voice acting is great (I thought Jack Black as Bowser was a hoot) and the story worlds are fascinating. The humour is serviceable and at the point of writing I can’t remember any jokes but what does put a smile on my face are the character designs. (3/5) Yôkame no semi (Rebirth) (2011): After the collapse of their relationship, Kiwako abducts the 6-month old child of a man she was having an affair with. Raising the child as her own, it is four years before the authorities catch up with her and the young child. With a storyline like this I wouldn’t blame you if you think it’s a soap opera. Director Izuru Narushima never goes down the road of maudlin and manipulativeness. His keen eye surveys the central problem from mostly the child’s point of view some years down the road when she is a young woman. A friend of mine saw the movie and told me he cried and it has been a long time that has happened. That immediately sent my radar up. Alas both Choo and I didn’t cry but that’s not a slight against the movie. While watching I knew exactly the moment my friend tear up and I wasn’t wrong. I, on the other hand, wasn’t moved to tears but I was deeply appreciative of the journey the story took me and the ending packs an emotional wallop. By that time the young woman realises she is in the same boat as her mother, bearing a child from illicit relationship. In the end she realises the blame should never fall on the child and it comes to a matter of choice – do I love the child like it’s my own or do I not. It is an ending that is liberating and poignant. One lingering notion did invade my mind throughout the movie in that all men are terrible. If you don’t want to watch a movie where men are cataclysmic creatures of problems, you might want to stay away from this, but if you are open to great storytelling I highly recommend this. (4/5) Someday or One Day (2023). Well, I would suggest no day. The story is initially told from a young woman’s point of view of how an accident in the past has sent her on a time loop. This is just a terrible movie that took 1h 47min of my life. It is based on a very popular TV series named Better Days which I have not seen and I have a strong feeling the TV series does a much better job of distilling the complex plot and the mechanics of the time loop. At a mere 107min the scenes couldn’t breathe and the characters don’t feel materialised. Their motivations remained vague and wishy washy. The first 30min was easy and I could keep all the narrative elements in my head and then I couldn’t keep up anymore. Loopholes abound like potholes in a road of a third world country. Two versions of the same person can exist together (yes, this doesn’t obey the rules of Back to the Future) and one aims to kill the other for whatever reason. I reached a point I didn’t care anymore. Stay away from this one unless you want to proof me wrong. Choo was very wise – about half an hour into it she called BS on the whole thing. (1/5) Return to Seoul (2022): After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions. This is an Emperor’s New Clothes type of movie in that the critics loved it, but I had to scratch my head thinking what is the fuss about. In a nutshell this is a story about searching for identity but the storyteller’s choice of narrative is an unpredictable one. The pace is glacier-melting slow and some scenes can be about nothing. There is one which is weirdly entertaining – seeing her dance for 5min. I really don’t get why this movie is so celebrated. Perhaps I am not shallow… nah. (2/5) Knock at the Cabin (2024): Armed with elaborate brutal weapons, four menacing strangers break into a remote Pennsylvania cabin in the woods and take hostage a family of three. The mysterious, soft-spoken intruders demand a nearly impossible choice from the paralysed homeowners: decide who will willingly die in the name of a noble cause. Instead, as the insufferable burden of choice ratchets up the tension and the prisoners’ desperate pleas for mercy fall through, an agonising question arises. Why should they trust the four psychotic fanatics? For some reason I never miss a M. Night Shyamalan movie and when the house lights go down I am praying it’s going to be the new Unbreakable or The Sixth Sense, and I always come away disappointed. This new one doesn’t suck big time but it is a waste of an interesting premise. Dave Bautista turned in a superb performance as a giant with a heart of gold. Tried as he might I couldn’t feel for any of the characters because their backstories are not fleshed out and for a Shyamalan movie this one surprisingly moves like a straight arrow with no twists and turns. Everything feels so predictable and I was not sold on the ending. Choo was less forgiving, within 20min she screamed BS. (3/5)
westendboy47 Posted September 8, 2023 Posted September 8, 2023 City of Sadness (1989): The story of a family embroiled in the “White Terror” that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s. I can finally chalk this off from my must-see list. Being a Hou Hsiao-Hsien film, I know I will be greatly challenged because Hou doesn’t make easy films. It’s like you are given an airfix model but not the blueprint on how to make it. Though frustrating I couldn’t tear my eyes away because watching congenial familial scenes turn topsy-turvy is compelling. The narrative can at times feel disjointed but I still come away with a strong feeling that history and time steamrolls through everything and everyone without mercy. I gathered this is a story about four brothers – the eldest, the big set one, is continually mixed up with shady characters, the second one has returned from the war mentally unsound, the third has not returned from military service and is presumed dead and the youngest is set quite apart from the others by virtue of his gentle nature and his deaf-mute status. This role is acted by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who couldn’t speak Hokkien and Mandarin, so Hou made his character a deaf-mute. But don’t let that fool you into thinking his is a throwaway character; he is our surrogate and tour guide into the world of pain. His love story with the young nurse is a thing of quiet beauty and tenderness and their communication is based solely on written notes. The scene of them taking a family photo is seared into my mind. Hou doesn’t make it easy but pain should never be easy to watch and this is a very rewarding film to watch, a film I definitely will see again down the road. (4.5/5) Last Hurrah For Chivalry (1979) is a helluva blast. It’s an early John Woo martial arts flick before he heralded the beginning of the heroic bloodshed films with A Better Tomorrow(1986). I have not seen his even earlier films but with this one you can practically see the genesis of his favourite theme of brotherhood and sacrifice. The movie begins with a red wedding and soon goes into revenge spine, but the dude knows he isn’t a match against the baddie who wiped out his family so he devilishly recruits two swordsmen to do his bidding. This is no dime in a dozen type of wuxia flick in that there is flair in storytelling with a great twist at the end. The action is spectacular and I loved the swordplay. There are many memorable fight scenes especially a prolonged one just before the climax. This fight feels like video game in that the two heroes have to fight in different room settings with bad guys that has different kungfu moves and all through the ordeal our two heroes will wisecrack like jokers. They will eventually face off with the ultimate scumbag in a superb fight sequence which culminates in a jaw-dropping moment. I have seen many old wuxia flicks but this is one of the bloodiest. I was surprised to learn this was a box office dud during that time but I feel time has a way of evening that out and I came away with the feeling that Woo would crystallise his action storytelling sensibilities in his heroic bloodshed era and it all started from here. (4/5) The Uncanny Counter S2 is a huge disappointment, especially after a stellar first season. S2 follows the typical blueprint of many Hollywood sequels: whatever worked, let’s double-down on that. The meticulous world-building and the main characters’ backstories in S1 are all thrown out the window. The fights become 10 times more bombastic. It’s practically watching X-men fight. The villain is not one but three or four depending on your predilection. They are bad guys because they kill indiscriminately and they dress and behave funny. Good guys are good because they fight bad guys. Oh my gosh… if S1 had evidence of great writing and character development, S2 has zilch. Everyone is so one note and the introduction of a new counter is the worst. The dude takes the prize for the most annoying character ever with the worst hairstyle. I gathered he is comic relief but I couldn’t even sniffle at this whiny character. One of the reasons why S1 worked is because of So Mun’s origin story. He becomes our surrogate as we journey into the world of good vs evil. In S2 he becomes so powerful that the entire team revolves around him and so many times his stubbornness leads to many problems. It just wasn’t interesting anymore. Seeing him flounder, understand his purpose and eventually accepting his purpose was compelling in S1. Don’t expect to see that in S2. This is all noise and no heart. (2.5/5) Mask Girl (2023) on Netflix is about an office worker who is insecure about her looks. Then she becomes a masked internet personality by night until a chain of ill-fated events overtakes her life. This was a huge surprise and was a recommendation by a friend. Since we got so tired of The Uncanny Counter, we checked this out and it basically took over our lives. There is much to like about this short 7-episode mini-series. Thematically, it is very strong, delving on themes like we are judged by our looks and how we are obsessed to be popular. The vibe is very Black Mirror and the tone is comedically dark. This is a show that is not afraid to push your buttons and it is all the more better for it. I particularly enjoyed how every episode is named after a character and the episode will be about his/her story. The moral dilemma and conundrum is likened to a lake of black water and I for one loved swimming in it. The twists and turns are glorious and in the end it has something worthwhile to say about our society. (4/5) Shortcomings (2023) is about Ben, a struggling filmmaker, who lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blonde women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices, and begins to explore what he thinks he might want. This is based on Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel and I am a big fan of his work. The screenplay is also written by Tomine and the translation to the big screen is pitch-perfect. All the whip-smart and succinct dialogue, all the verbal sparring and words flying across the room like sharp daggers are translated beautifully. This is a story of an A1 A-hole and what makes him A1 is his supreme sense of entitlement and cynical air of superiority. He has lost his sense of direction in life and rather than challenging himself he is resigned to finding faults with everything around him. In the comic, Ben is unlikable but Justin H. Min plays the character so affably that I find him likeable in a rascally kind of way and all the more sympathetic to his eventual plight. The last act fills in the gaps left in the comic and hits the spot for me. Over a short runtime of 90 minutes, it surveys around themes like self-hatred, race discrimination and the obsession with the white woman. Where I come from, this is called the “angmo dua ki” syndrome . Overall, this is a very entertaining movie to watch and I chortled heartily many times, and it left me wondering how Ben is doing now. (3.5/5) These days I am so tired of superhero stuff and just wait for them to appear on Disney+ and HBO. I have already read the mixed reviews of The Flash (2023) so I went into this without any feelings of grandiosity. In a nutshell, the plot concerns Barry Allen using his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future. The main reason I am exhausted with superhero movies is that they tend to follow an algorithm. Occasionally, you will see one that packages it in such a refreshing manner that you would refuse to see all the gears and pulleys behind the screen and just go with the flow. The Flash isn’t that movie. It is perfectly serviceable but it is a time travel plot that resembles Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) which is a much superior movie in the way it uses all the Spider-Man from different eras. Here, the Batman-s are just dropped in for fan service, all except for Michael Keaton’s version who has more to do. All the riff-raff about the half done CGI are correct in my book. Perhaps it is the aesthetic choice of the director to keep a lot of DCU characters looking flat like paper, but it didn’t intrude into the storytelling for me. It isn’t a waste of time, neither is it an adrenaline shot into the tired DCU franchise. It’s a little too middle-of-the-road for me. It’s just there to remind us that there is this other massive superhero camp. (3/5)
westendboy47 Posted September 22, 2023 Posted September 22, 2023 A Haunting in Venice (2023) is the third film in the Agatha Christie franchise and it marks the first film that is not a remake. Based on Christie’s Hallowe’en Party (1969), it finds Poirot retired in post-World War II Venice. He is now living in his own exile and reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer. This is a very fresh approach towards telling an Agatha Christie detective mystery with supernatural leanings. When I saw this on opening night, it was the last day of the Chinese Ghost Festival. Everywhere I went I saw joss sticks and offerings on many of the grass patches, so that definitely added to the sinister atmosphere of the movie which is suffused with candle-lit hallways, gothic decorations and dimly-lit figures. When the first death happens, Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) goes into full-on investigative mode with his counterpart, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey). Here is where the movie failed me: it feels too static and flat. Each interview doesn’t quite reveal a strong motive behind the murder in the past and the one in the present. Part of the reason is the setting which is one locale and one long night. I started drifting out of the long interviews that failed to paint a reliable picture of the characters. I had a hard time staying awake and after Choo nudged me I was wide awake. The pace feels too orchestrated and the proceedings not engaging. There are scenes that add a measure of tension but I had a strong feeling they are inserted to stop audience like me from nodding off. When it hits the big revelation where Poirot lays it all out, Choo turned towards me and whispered: “Of course, it’s the **** who did it” and she was spot-on. I didn’t see that coming but it also did not give me a wow factor. If Choo could guess the who, how good could it be? It was a logical explanation and then comes more necessary information that reveal the catalyst of all the sad proceedings. I half-believed Poirot saw that just based on some inconspicuous behaviour. I want to love this but I can’t; the story isn’t as cinematic as the first two movies. (3/5) We have seen many other movies at home but there is none I would like to muse about. So I will take this opportunity to give a heads-up on 3 shows we are currently following. No, it isn’t Moving (2023) but that’s on my watch-list because 3 friends have recommended it to me. We will watch it as soon as the bad taste in my mouth left there by The Uncanny Counter S2 has disappeared. One X-Men type superhero show is enough at any one time. From one mystery thriller, we went on to Only Murders in the Building S3 and we have hit ep7 (just 3 more to go). After 2 seasons the writers found a superb way to jumpstart the show, essentially with a murder not in the building (this was the ending of S2) but isn’t that a slap in the face because of the title of the show. Lo and behold, ep1 ends superbly with a yet again a murder in the building. I love how the setting of this season is the theatre and it is the perfect setting for the theatrics of the two male actors who get to flex their acting and directing muscles. Mabel’s arc is also interesting and the story pushes her character to new frontiers. Two guest stars, Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep, add a wholotta entertainment value to the narrative. Each episode is well-written and peels layers off of characters. At first, we would cry “murderer!” but the rug will be pulled from under our feet. We have 3 more episodes to go to the final reveal and we are still not sure who is the one. In fact, the possible motives drawn for all the characters are so credible and the comedy continues to be great in the dire subject of murder. I am sure it will nail the ending. (3.5/5) Welcome to Wrexham S2 is a docuseries chronicling the purchase and stewardship of Wrexham AFC, one of professional football’s oldest clubs, by two Hollywood actors, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Choo isn’t a big fan of this so I watch it over lunch on non-busy days and I must say it is a gem of a documentary. First of all, I love the sport, football. From way back in the 70s you should see how Singaporeans’ psyche are attuned to the fortunes of the game. Those days when our team played in the Malaysia Cup, every game felt like a final because every team wanted to beat us. Growing up, I didn’t have a TV at first so during match nights my wonderful neighbour would open his window and door to everyone living on the 15th storey of Block 116 in Toa Payoh. When Singapore scored a goal you could hear not just cheers from us, you hear a thunderous chant reverberating throughout the estate. Forget about National Day, every week on match nights, every heart would beat as one. Words can never describe the euphoric feeling. Even if we lost, it was still an amazing feeling to be sad with so many like-minded souls. These days times have changed and all these great nights have become distant memories, that is until I saw Welcome to Wrexham. Ryan “Deadpool” Reynolds and Rob McElhenney not only brought Hollywood dollars and star wattage to the club, but following their fish out of water exploits is also compelling. I am sure along the way they wanted to tear their hair out. The docuseries is strongest not when it is focused on the football fortunes of the club, but on all the lives of normal folks whose moods are tied to the fortunes of the club. I find their passion infectious and moving. They can be down on their luck and lives, but yet if the club wins they will still feel on top of the world. Every episode has a unique focus – sometimes it is on the common folks and other times it will be on the footballers. We get to see the players’ struggles on and off the pitch. A recent episode made me tear up – all through the season you get to see star-striker Paul Mullin score vital goals but this S2E2 lets you see Mullin’s autistic son and how he is adamant in loving his son in the best possible way and suddenly his exploits on the field take on a different meaning. This episode also features another autistic fan and what she does go to show even though she is autistic she is still very much an emotional person and she is such a caring person. I teared up like a crybaby. Was the episode about football? Nope, football was just in the background. S2 is all about Wrexham <spoiler alert> winning the league and other than following my beloved Liverpool, I am also following Wrexham football club’s exploits. (4/5) Someday or One Day (想见你) (2019-2020) is a 13-episode Taiwanese series with staggering scores – 9.2 on Douban and 8.6 on IMDb. How to not check it out? But I made the mistake of watching the movie adaptation first which was utter crap. Though terrible I felt the ideas are intriguing and felt that a TV series would let the narrative breathe and as chance would have it, I saw series on Disney+. This is the hook: Yu-Hsuan lost her boyfriend Chuan-Sheng in a plane accident. She then discovered Chuan-Sheng and a girl who looks like her in a photo taken in 1998. Who is she and why does she look almost like her? With the help of a Walkman, she accidentally goes back to 1998 and meets a boy who looked like Chuan-Sheng. The time travel and time loop mechanics take its time to gel and the story goes full on the nostalgia. It is more a story of first loves and second chances than time travel mystery. It is also a story of a pair of star-crossed lovers whose love will transcend time, space and even death. But one needs to be patient with this because it doesn’t rush out of the blocks to wow you. Instead, it lulls you in with a brilliant premise and a vivid showcase of growing pains and a story of first love. We hit ep8 last night and I was starting to get lost in the how, who and what, but Choo intelligently hypothesised all the answers to my question marks and she made perfect sense. Now we are all in to find out if her hypotheses are correct with the final run of 5 episodes. As with all shows which feature time travel, the great ones know how to use the narrative device creatively to the point you are not looking at the nuts, bolts and gears, but revelling in the storytelling of which this show has it in spades. How else can one explain why there is a Korean remake (A Time Called You) now. My rule of the thumb is to always watch the original. I am not very sure about the serial killer element though but the characters cannot be falling in love all the time and this murder story is taking shape in the final arc. We are supposed to watch the Hindi remake of Suspect X this evening but as I mused on this show I feel an acute need to find out the fates of all the characters. (4/5) I will append my final thoughts to all 3 shows here after I have seen all the endings. Here’s to hoping all of them nail their ending in spectacular ways, but I do know for sure that Welcome to Wrexham has a fairytale ending.
westendboy47 Posted September 25, 2023 Posted September 25, 2023 We were done with Someday or One Day on Saturday evening, but I couldn’t jolly well write some throwaway “we are done” waterfall of words. Why? Because this deserves so much more. What was accomplished here is quite staggering and I am convinced that one can’t talk about the best TV shows about time travel without mentioning this Taiwanese show and I am putting my head on the block and proclaim that Someday or One Day should be mentioned in the same breath as other time travel behemoths like Dark and Signal. The best shows that use time travel as a plot device know this element serves the bigger story and the mechanics of time travel has to be clever and the story so compelling that you won’t bother to look for loopholes and I am sure there are, just that I choose to be oblivious to them. A friend said Dark is way above this show in the Top 10 of time travel shows, perhaps so but I told him the difference here is that Someday or One Day is absolutely relatable unlike Dark. Who hasn’t felt the growing pains of our teenage years, fallen in love when we were wet behind the ears and roam the wilderness of our youth not knowing where to go? I might have many good friends now, but those friends I made during my teenage years still hold a special place in my heart. This show has a bit of everything and does everything it dabbles on convincingly. I loved how even in the last 2 episodes the show continued to do some heavy-lifting, not content in just driving towards the finishing line - it delves into depression and how suicide is not the answer even if death is; I loved how sometimes you get to live another life and loved it so much you don’t want to give it up; I loved how even when you are a teenager you can still love deeply and love goes beyond the appearances and I loved that your love for someone doesn’t end if the other person is no longer around. There is so much to love in this show and the time travel element never overwhelms the narrative. The songs and music used are so apt (I am going to pick up the soundtrack after this) and the acting by the cast is pitch-perfect, especially Ko Chia-Yen who simply uses her hairstyles, mannerisms and facial expressions to convey who she is. For a complex show about time travel, I never felt it was dumb-down in order for audience to get it. I am so glad I discovered this and if I had seen this in 2019 it would have landed up in my Top 10. I always feel part of what I do is to point people to the good stuff on TV and at the cinema, and hopefully someone will check it out; this isn’t good stuff, this is great stuff. I know there is a Korean remake on Netflix now but my rule is to always watch the original. This is where it all began.
westendboy47 Posted September 29, 2023 Posted September 29, 2023 The Creator (2023): Amid a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war-and mankind itself. This doesn’t reinvent the wheel and the story is a hopscotch of ideas gleaned from many illustrious predecessors, but that’s perfectly alright. Frankly, there are hardly many original ideas anymore. It’s about packaging and Gareth Edwards knows how to do this with a limited budget. The visuals and vistas are arresting and time-stopped-for-a-moment great even if the story feels familiar. The war scenes feel like they are plugged out of Apocalypse Now (1979) and the scenes of genocide on the androids feel aptly metaphorical. We are living in a time when A.I. is knocking on the door, threatening to take over our lives and livelihood. The scenario here suggests that perhaps there is a way humans and A.I. can co-exist with safeguards in place. The Creator brims with cinematic chic, confidence and chutzpah even if it ultimately feels unoriginal. (4/5) The Imp (1981) is an oldie but classic. Recently chanced upon this movie on a remastered blu-ray and I had to pick it up. The plot: Ah Kan (Chan Chen) encounters sinister turns of fate where he works (a fellow security guard dies by choking on a bone, another is strangled by a wet newspaper), and he becomes frightened enough to consult with a Taoist priest. The priest informs him that his workplace had been the site of kidnappings and murders, his house is another source of unnatural influence, and he was born on a day that makes him vulnerable to wandering ghosts. These dark forces also threaten his pregnant wife and unborn child, leading Ah Kan on a harrowing journey into the unknown in order to protect himself and his family. I saw this when I was a kid and I have no idea how come my parents brought me to see this and it left a very strong impression on me. Scenes of absolute craziness were seared into my young brain, especially the scene of Ak Kan taking a lift all the way to hell. It was a scene that was so inventive. Being a Chinese I was well-schooled in the idea of the Chinese’s hell that has 18 levels. When the lift just goes down and down I know he is going to get window seats to the 18th chamber of hell. Watching this is also a chance to see a begotten Hong Kong that has changed so much over the years. I wouldn’t say it survive through the ages because the scares don’t work anymore, but dammit… the creepy atmosphere still packs a wallop. When I was a primary school kid there was a time I wanted to be a security guard in a mall. Just think of all the fun I can have at night, but after watching this the dream dissolved into wisps of smoke. I also appreciate that the movie offers some Chinese cultural practices and traditions which have probably disappeared like the link between pregnancy and cooking stoves. Sound and light effects are used very well and character development is satisfying. It hits a frenzy with the climax and a downbeat ending that probably sent people walking out of the cinema in a fevered daze. This was an important genre film and like the usual Hong Kong practice – it ushered in a whole slew of copy-cats which in a way is the best accolade one can shower upon The Imp. (4/5) Eo (2022) follows a donkey who encounters on his journeys good and bad people, experiences joy and pain, exploring a vision of modern Europe through his eyes. This is an interesting exercise by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski who wants to show the state of the human condition through the melancholic and doleful eyes of a donkey. This was an interesting experience for the first half hour and then it became a dour hour. It felt episodic because no satisfying reason is provided to say how he moves from one human party to another, so the movie lacks coherence. I know this was nominated for Best Foreign Film in last year’s Oscars but the movie failed to charm me. If you want to watch a great animal film that speaks about the human condition, watch White God (2014). (3/5) No One Will Save You (2023) is about an exiled anxiety-ridden homebody who must battle an alien who’s found its way into her home. I teach kids about writing showing sentences as opposed to telling ones and essentially this alien home invasion movie is all about showing. With no dialogue, writer-director Brian Duffield requires Kaitlyn Dever’s Brynn to do all the heavy lifting and Dever is equal to the task. So much is communicated through wordless scenes proofing that dialogue is just part of an equation of what makes a movie work. In this sense, this is a wonderful excercise in a genre film and I can’t say enough about Kaitlyn Denver’s acting. That said, it felt repetitive after a while, especially you start to fill in the blanks with why the namesake of the film title is earned. In the last act, Duffield provides an upbeat ending for Brynn that I am still debating in my mind if it actually worked. Nonetheless, there is another great reason to see this: this will give your home theatre a great work-out. (3.5/5)
Pebbles Posted September 29, 2023 Posted September 29, 2023 EO is not about the human condition. It’s about how we treat most animals. And that’s badly. A very good and original movie in my opinion. Not easy viewing but it certainly affected me.
westendboy47 Posted September 29, 2023 Posted September 29, 2023 1 hour ago, Pebbles said: EO is not about the human condition. It’s about how we treat most animals. And that’s badly. A very good and original movie in my opinion. Not easy viewing but it certainly affected me. you are right. Thanks for correcting me. I also saw Robert Besson’s Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) which inspired Eo, also not an easy film to watch. 1
westendboy47 Posted October 13, 2023 Posted October 13, 2023 Time for 6 quick ones… We have finally jumped on the Moving (2023) bandwagon. When one person recommended it I put it at the back of my watch-list (depending on who recommends it); when the second person recommended it, it jumped to the front of the queue; when the third person recommended it, I stopped whatever I was watching and dived straight in. Moving was recommended to me by four friends. The story is about how the quiet lives of three high school students with genetic superhuman abilities are turn upside down when a mysterious organization starts to hunt them down one by one, including their parents. The plot is reminiscent of Heroes (2006-2010) with each of the earlier episodes expounding on the back story of one of the characters. So in that respect it isn’t fresh, but credit has to be given to how they made the characters so relatable. It is one third of coming-of-age, one third family drama and one third superhero mano a mano fights. Some friends warned me ahead of time that the pace is slow, but what they termed as slow is, to me, character development. For me, the fights and conflicts will only have stakes if the characters have been fleshed out. It was in ep5 that I got really hooked and that episode is devoted to Hi-soo’s poignant back story and how sometimes a particular colour can be a trigger for a traumatic memory. I fed on the wholesome but unlikely love story between Bong-seok and Hi-soo. Both possessing super powers that they look on as curses and stumbling blocks, but they somehow complete each other by showing kindness to each other. The innocence on Bong-seok’s and the vulnerability on Hi-solo’s mien are so palatable and authentic. A superhero story calls for a villain and we are graced with a dead ringer for the landlord in Kung Fu Hustle (2001), who goes on a murder spree of killing the adults who have super powers. The fights are loud, bombastic and inventive. The villain is also given a back story which makes him a more sympathetic character. Extended flashbacks are the modus operandi here and the story in the present gives way to episode-long back stories for every adult character. I particularly enjoy seeing the romantic arc of Mi-hyeon and Do-shik which has so many soul-shattering moments. If I have an issue with Moving it is that many a time the extended flashback stories become another show altogether. The link from these stories in the past to the present is not strongly drawn. This isn’t Lost which flits effortlessly between the past and present with the former informing the latter. But just as I was getting exhausted by these long excursions, along comes ep12 which jolted me out of my lethargy. It was very cleverly written, essentially playing on the timeline of Joo-won’s arc. Suddenly, everything fits. The production values are high and the big fights look like they had the budget of MCU movies. But I don’t know… after ep12 I still have many nagging questions clawing at the back of my head like are these super powers genetic or manufactured? Why are all these superpowers living conveniently in the same town? Why is the CIA so generically portrayed like some nefarious one-dimensional organisation? What’s the deal with the Korean organisation with all these superpower beings? I would think the show will start to answer some questions rather than keep developing characters endlessly. It takes a long time for the story to go back to the present and by that I mean ep15! And then there is one more extended flashback but this one is so well-told, which is basically a Teacher of the Year story and I love it. Not many filmmaker will even take a detour so late in the game. The final battle is very unlike MCU or DCEU stuff which are Defcon One level devastation; practically all of the final denouement happens in the school. There is a freshness to the proceedings and the climatic fights are inventive. Though loud and bombastic, it can somehow find an emotional heart somewhere. Then comes the setup for S2 which disappointed me. I really wanted a closure but alas no. Moving doesn’t reinvent the superhero genre wheel but it does enough to prevent it from being derivative. No regrets watching this but I wouldn’t say it’s “the best show this year” like some of my friends did. (3.5/5) Lost in the Stars (2023), I nearly caught at the cinema a few months ago because of the good word-of-mouth and it was also a massive box-office hit in China, but somehow I missed it. Then recently it popped up in Netflix. The story has an intriguing premise: He Fei’s wife, Li Muzi, disappears during their anniversary trip. When she reappears, he insists that she is not his wife. As Chen Mai, a top lawyer gets involved in this bizarre case, more mysteries start to emerge. Based on a play by Robert Thomas, “Trap for a Lonely Man”, that has been adapted for television and film at least ten times in nearly as many languages, I was surprised I have never seen a single iteration of the story which makes Lost in the Stars an engaging watch. The cinematography is sleek, the pacing is electric and the twists and turns made my mouth open wider and wider. I am glad I didn’t see this at the cinema because watching it with Choo in the comfort of our home theatre was a very fun activity. Our minds were working over-time throwing out hypotheses left, right and centre. As it turned out, we guessed the ending half an hour before it dropped and we were spot-on even with the falling action. However, I must say the denouement stretches belief and logic, and it was mired in the usual soft music and sad ballad to cement the climatic and manipulative ending. If you don’t put on 100% of your thinking cap and keenest observation of human behaviour, this is quite an entertaining movie. (3/5) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) is one of four shorts directed by Wes Anderson for Netflix. I have fond memories of this particular Roald Dahl’s short story which depicts a wealthy man who finds new meaning in his life. Anderson practically translated the short story in form and in words to a little 1.33:1 aspect ratio resembling a book. All of Anderson’s choices of stylistic are on full display: the perfect symmetry of the set, the precise placement of the actors, the soft colour palette and the faux fourth wall breaking. It was very fun and entertaining for a while, but it wore on my nerves. Thankfully, it is a 40-minute short because it felt gimmicky and grated on my nerves after the halfway mark. I saw Poison which is shorter but the ending totally missed the mark for me. I am not sure I want to see the other two. (3.5/5) Renfield (2023): In this modern monster tale of Dracula’s loyal servant, Renfield, the tortured aide to history’s most narcissistic boss is forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency. This was a helluva fun to watch with enough smarts for stop the movie from being too campy. The ultra-violence is a hoot to watch and chemistry between Cage and Hoult is sizzling. Nicholas Cage looks like he was having so much fun being Dracula. We had a blast watching this. (3/5) Ice Kachang Puppy Love (2010): A reserved, quiet young lad (Botak) bears a secret admiration towards Fighting-Fish, who rents a stall in the same coffee shop. He was never bold enough to confess his love towards her and only conveyed it through drawing portraits of her. This was a joy to watch because it brims over with nostalgia with sights of Malaysia one can hardly see anymore. Botak is acted by Ah Niu who also wrote and directed the film. It isn’t a polished film, but warts and all, Ah Niu wears his heart on his sleeve and made a very personal film. It feels over-loaded with sub-plots but I have a feeling he was trying to translate all his cherished childhood memories onto film. This is a delightful film but it won’t be for everyone, especially if you even know the word “kampong”. (3.5/5) The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (2022): Kaoru Tono is on his way home from school when he wanders into a tunnel one day. Rumor has it this tunnel can grant you any wish, but if you spend too much time there, you will lose many years of life. What he finds there is not quite what he expected-particularly as he’s exiting, and he finds, waiting for him, the troublesome new transfer student Anzu Hanashiro. This has an intriguing premise and if you see it with another person, you will no doubt discuss whether you would give up a few years of your life for this wish. This looks like the perfect conundrum for a fascinating story but the director doesn’t double-down on the life-changing choice, focusing instead on the parameters of how one can get the cake and still eat it. A lot of missed opportunities here, but the animation is gorgeous and the focus on teenage angst and first love is spot-on, but I still feel in the hands of a stronger storyteller this will be a fascinating story in the vein of Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name (2016). (3/5) 1
westendboy47 Posted November 2, 2023 Posted November 2, 2023 I was feeling under the weather and didn’t get to muse on movies and shows for a while. Normal transmission will now resume… Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) is an engrossing movie for sure, all 206 minutes of it. It brings to light a dark time in early 1920s Oklahoma when oil was discovered in Osage Nation land, making the tribe of Osage natives some of the richest in the world. This attracted the attention of unscrupulous businessmen who engaged in some nefarious evil plot to systematically kill them off after marrying into their families. Murders got swept under the carpet as the white businessmen strived until the FBI stepped in to unravel the mystery. It has been two weeks since Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus opened and the glowing discourses on the film have gone round the world and back a few times over. I mostly concur with them – the tone, the acting, the cinematography and bleak look of the film, and the go-against-the-grain epilogue which cleverly comments on how humankind loves to view violent historical times as entertainment, but while I was watching the movie I kept thinking wouldn’t shaving away some of the hollow dialogue and empty emotions sharpen the focus of the narrative. This is one of those films you know the ending from a mile away and the characters need to make the journey to the destination worthwhile, and I can’t say the journey was totally enthralling. Ultimately, what worked for me is the flawed love relationship between Lily Gladstone’s Mollie and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest. To me, this is the heartbeat of the story and my mind struggled with why Ernest has no moral compass when it comes to eliminating Mollie’s family like they are insects but stops short of doing the same to Mollie, while Mollie can time and again excuse Ernest’s cruelty until the final straw. Is Killers of the Flower Moon a great film? Yes, it is but for me there are two types of great films – those I can watch again and again with no decrease in entertainment value like The Godfather (1972) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and those I can only see once like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Gone With the Wind (1939) (I know it’s sacrilegious) . Killers of the Flower Moon is in the latter category for me. (4/5) Interview With the Vampire (2022 – ), the TV show, a re-iteration of Neil Jordan’s movie in 1994. The story should be familiar to many and I read the first 3 novels when I was a young man. The movie was a misfire rendering of Anne Rice’s iconic novel, but why touch it and redevelop it as a series? If one does it, one needs to bring something new to the plate and by golly the TV series is a scrumptious bloodfest. These days casting an African American in a main role is probably a contractual clause, but Jacob Anderson’s Louis de Pointe du Lac, the role played by Brad Pitt, is a brilliant role. He plays an African American Creole and his role allows the story to examine the racial themes of New Orleans in the early 20th century. The casting is perfect, evident in the chemistry between Sam Reid as Lester de Lioncourt and Anderson is very palpable as with Bailey Bass who plays Claudia. The tone, the writing, the action, the set design, all exquisite. It’s a dysfunctional family story, a coming of age story and even a love story, and I actually thought the best lines belong to Eric Bogosian who plays the interviewer. They say the best form of flattery is imitation, then this goes beyond that. This is a clever reinvention of Rice’s literary universe and I can’t wait to see S2. Oh… we binged S1 in one day and it has been a long time I could do that with a TV show. (4/5) The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) is a clever homage to Edgar Allan Poe. I think one can derive a lot more joy from this mini-series if one is a Poe fan. Poe’s short story in the namesake is used as the narrative frame and each episode is devoted to another short story by Poe. Some of my favourite stories are featured like The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum, and I get such a frenzied rush when I see how the deaths are going to drop. It also uses major characters in Poe’s literary oeuvre like C. Auguste Dupin and Arthur Pym not just in creative ways but retaining their literary core. Mike Flanagan even comments sharply on the unscrupulous pharmaceutical industry which profited obscenely from the unsuspecting public’s opioid addiction. However, the proceedings can feel forced and it’s too verbose for its own good. I find the Usher characters in various degrees on the scumbag spectrum so in that sense their demise doesn’t carry any emotional heft and with that goes any tension. Ultimately, this is an ambitious undertaking of Poe’s literary output, modernising Poe’s gothic stories for a modern audience and the pluses overshadow the minuses. (3.5/5) Fair Play (2023) has a typically designed poster that screams sleazy movie of the week but it turned out to be a thoroughly gripping movie from a bloody opening sex scene to the final cut to black that felt like a slap to my face and I mean it in the nicest possible way. The story and plot is about how an unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund pushes a young couple’s relationship to the brink, threatening to unravel far more than their recent engagement. This is about how insecurities and bitterness can destroy any relationship. This is one of those movies that I can see how the ending will turn out but yet I was engrossed all the way because of the sharp writing and a pair of committed performances by Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich that don’t depend on extreme histrionics. I love how the movie gradually escalates till it hit breaking point and both of them show how ugly they can be. One of the great surprises for me this year. (4/5) The Burial (2023): Inspired by true events, when a handshake deal goes sour, funeral home owner Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) enlists charismatic, smooth-talking attorney Willie E. Gary (Jamie Foxx) to save his family business. Tempers flare and laughter ensues as the unlikely pair bond while exposing corporate corruption and racial injustice in this inspirational, triumphant story. This is a very efficient and rousing movie and I always have a soft spot for David vs Goliath stories. The movie does conveniently gloss over some aspects like Jeremiah says he has many children but not one of them feature in the story, but that is probably a creative choice by Maggie Betts to keep the tight focus on Jeremiah and Willie. Acting-wise this is stupendous and I won’t be surprised if Jamie Foxx earns a nomination for a rambunctiously showy but entertaining performance. The energy is infectious and even before it hits the trial you already how it will end but when the verdict is delivered it still made me punch the air in victory for the small people. I also love the air of optimism in the air so what if it’s a piped dream. I want to believe that the justice prevails and no amount of money and heartache can destroy hope. (4/5) I will end with a TV series we are currently watching and we are up to the final episode of S1. Hidden in Amazon Prime and without much fanfare is Made in Heaven (2019 – ) and S2 just dropped a few weeks ago. Heck, I didn’t know about it till S2 dropped. The series follows the lives of two wedding planners, Tara (Shobhita Dhulipala) and Karan (Arjun Mathur), who are running a wedding planning agency named Made in Heaven. The format is reminiscent of Six Feet Under with each episode devoted to a wedding and wild shenanigans that happen during the wedding and to the core cast. I love Zoya Akhtar’s work but it took me a while to get into this. I know exactly the moment it grabbed my heart – midway through ep3, a story about an old couple who found love and how the woman wishes for the blessings from her children from a father who has passed away years ago. I am not ashamed to confess I teared up not from the histrionics but from how dated the minds of the children are. I didn’t even have to turn my head to know Choo is quietly crying at the exact the same moment as me. The episode ended soaringly well and it made me realise we are placed here to love someone and be loved and that we need love no matter how old we are. From this moment onwards, I was all in, hook, line and sinker. Though featuring a big fat Indian wedding for each episode, the story never feels repetitive and it is eye-opening to see the hypocrisy in each wedding that goes beyond the union of two souls in love. I love seeing the juxtaposition in each episode – the wedding on the big front is a glitzy and happy affair, but behind the scenes Tara and Karan have to make snap decisions, meet tight deadlines and deal with unreasonable expectations. Though masters of the art of planning a wedding, both of their personal lives are in shambles – Karan is a gay man in an Indian society that see it as an abomination, while Tara’s marriage is about to crumble. I particularly love the scenes with the videographer who will film and interview the wedding couple and close relatives. There is something disarming about the camera and it allows the principals to be truthful and candid. The commentary at the end of every episode which are keenly observed. It can be a skewering of crippling traditions but there is also hope for the future. This is an excellent series that addresses so many pertinent issues that affect the Indian society, but how it does this without being preachy is a class act. I can’t wait to go straight into S2. (4/5) 1
westendboy47 Posted November 30, 2023 Posted November 30, 2023 Got a bit lazy so I am forcing myself to punch out 6 movies I want to say something about… Napoleon (2023) is a Ridley Scott biopic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). The battles are staged brilliantly and no two battles feel the same sometimes just through clever lighting. The sets and costumes are opulent and resplendent respectively. However, I find myself not fully vested in Napoleon’s journey because I can’t feel much from Phoenix’s dry portrayal of a brilliant general. There is a silent pool in Napoleon, a stirring that does not invite foolishness, a quiet that covered a tempest, but the tempest is never revealed even in the end. Napoleon remains a dark hole with a light turned off. I know he is a great tactician but I get a feeling he is more lucky than anything. I know he loves Josephine but he is more possessive than anything. I know he has to possess charisma to lead armies of thousands but I don’t see that at all. The other thing that bothered me is the numerous story gaps. It feels like there is a much longer version out there and this truncated one is for the theatres. Some examples are how characters are introduced and they disappeared right after that like Josephine’s children from previous relationships; and what ever happened to the Napoleon’s offspring? All in all, this is still a scrumptious watch but I have a nagging feeling Scott is going to eventually give us a director’s cut, as he usually does, and that will be a much better movie. (3/5) From one Joaquin Phoenix movie to another… Beau Is Afraid (2023) chronicles Beau’s existential journey following the sudden death of his mother. Beau, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man, confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home. I adore Ari Aster’s horror oeuvre and I told myself I will watch anything he makes but After Beau Is Afraid I will not be going in blind anymore. This is a 3-hour head trip. I had no idea about the runtime until Choo asked me how long more at the hour mark and I had a rude shock. It starts off strong like a loud crunching of a fist rambling through HDB estates before it says hello to you. It started at Toa Payoh, went up to Bishan, stopped for coffee at Ang Mo Kio, picked up steam coming out of Yio Chu Kang and hits you in Sengkang with a punch… from a rabbit. So Beau has mummy issues, why do I need to endure 3 hours for that? That said, I never found this to be a waste of time and I found it darkly funny at times and the themes of familial grief and inherited burden palpable. (3/5) Anything by David Fincher is always greeted with excitement and anticipation by me, but I am not impressed with his latest… The Killer (2023). It’s a shame really because I am a huge fan of the French graphic novel the movie is based on. The slap across my face was that Fincher only borrowed the vibe and character, but none of the story. It’s a story about an assassin who battles his employers and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal all because he failed his mission and doesn’t appreciate that his employer tries to get rid of him. So essentially it’s a non-story about assassins who failed their jobs. Michael Fassbender plays the killer without any moral scruple or compass. All he has is a set of deadly skills and a mantra that he keeps doggedly repeating to himself. He is quite interesting to behold but I never got under his skin and understand what makes him tick. He feels more hollow than the same character in the graphic novel. I don’t know man… Fincher said he loved the comics but to go ahead and make a different movie from the source other than the first hit and some character aspects feels like a misnomer and approaches disrespect. It’s likewise with Napoleon when Scott deviates from history to tell his version of events. This is a one time watch and immediately when it ends you will not remember much. This isn’t top tier Fincher. This is many rungs below that. (3/5) And talking about creative deviations from source materials, Zhang Yimou’s Full River Red (满江红) (2023) is another good example. The plot: During the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, four years after Hero Yue Fei’s death, Qin Hui led his troops to negotiate with the Kingdom of Jin. On the eve of the meeting, the envoy of the Kingdom of Jin died at the prime minister’s residence, and the secret letter he was carrying disappeared. By chance, a small soldier and the deputy commander of the personal battalion were involved in this huge conspiracy. Prime Minister Qin Hui ordered the two to find the murderer within an hour, but things were far from that simple… With the in-depth investigation full of dangers, the truth behind the case seems to be a bigger conspiracy hidden. Zhang at this stage of his career is at his most experimental. At 2h 40min, it’s too long and indulgent for its own good and moves too slow and repetitiously in the first act. I find the modern rap songs done to traditional Chinese music very jarring and I doubt Zhang even cares. He is in total experimental mode here. The plot is complex and meandering, and only becomes clear in the last act which is quite rousing. The namesake of the mandarin title will appear in Yue Fei’s last poem and it is quite stirring (it’s one of those times I wish I had pay more attention during Chinese lessons), but then again a friend of mine found it quite cringeworthy and he can recite the poem word for word from memory. (3.5/5) No Hard Feelings (2023): On the brink of losing her home, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) finds an intriguing job listing: helicopter parents looking for someone to bring their introverted 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) out of his shell before college. She has one summer to make him a man or die trying. Gotta love the pun in the movie title, but the movie never quite succeeds as a raunchy comedy like The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005). The story feels too paper thin and the characters feels flat. That said, Jennifer Lawrence’s comedy bone is on full-on display here and she is game to try anything (Yes, that’s her in full naked glory). Her comedy timing is perfect and she is the best reason to catch this. The chemistry between the two leads is great, but the story and plot don’t take the characters to interesting places so much so that when the third act descends into emotional drama it miss the spot for me. (3/5) Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023) is easily one of this year’s best films. I laughed, I cried and I hugged my wifey and asked her if the first time she got her period was an eventful one like Margaret. She said no I had no idea this is a movie adaptation of a seminal novel published in 1970 and has become a much beloved book for generations of girls. I doubt there will be many complaints about the adaptation because it captures an elusive time and place so remarkably well. The story focuses on Margaret Simon (an incredible Abby Ryder Fortson) is just 11 going on 12 when her family moves from New York City to Fartbrook, New Jersey. Margaret’s mother is Christian and her father is Jewish. Margaret has been raised without an affiliation to either faith, and does not practice an organized religion, although she frequently prays to God in her own words, beginning by saying, “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.” She is beginning to feel uncomfortable with her lack of a religious affiliation. For a school assignment, she chooses to study people’s religious beliefs, hoping to resolve the question of her own religion in the process. Part of her study involves attending different places of worship to better understand religious practice and also to see if one of them might be right for her. She enjoys spending time with her Jewish paternal grandmother, Sylvia Simon, who loves her as she is, and hopes Margaret will embrace Judaism after taking her to her synagogue for Rosh Hashanah services. Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s second film has hit another home run just like her excellent debut The Edge of Seventeen (2016). Her understanding of the internal turmoils going on in a girl studying in elementary school is spot-on and how she captures all the details in such sweet tenderness is a gift. There are numerous movies from a guy’s perspective, but it is so refreshing to see something from a gal’s perspective. The movie succeeds in making me walk with Margaret as she struggles to find meaning, purpose and religion. It’s wistful and sincere without a tinge of manipulativeness and twee. It made me think back to my adolescent years, obsessing with the opposite sex and making a critical decision to believe in God. The movie presses all the red hot buttons but never becomes cloying or force any idea down your throat. Abby Ryder Fortson is perfectly cast and even all the peripheral and secondary characters have moments to shine, especially Rachel McAdams’ Barbara. There are so many takeaways from this gentle coming-of-age movie and I can’t recommend this enough. “I must, I must increase my bust!” I laughed myself silly when I heard that. (4/5) 1
ZEN MISTER Posted November 30, 2023 Posted November 30, 2023 @westendboy47, really enjoy your thoughts on your viewing. Beats an album cover or movie poster with no thoughts about why the poster felt moved to post it . Billy 1
westendboy47 Posted November 30, 2023 Posted November 30, 2023 2 hours ago, ZEN MISTER said: @westendboy47, really enjoy your thoughts on your viewing. Beats an album cover or movie poster with no thoughts about why the poster felt moved to post it . Billy Thanks for reading and taking the time to let me know what you felt. Just about to step inside the theatre to watch Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. I hope it’s good 1
westendboy47 Posted December 8, 2023 Posted December 8, 2023 Time for another six and I start off with a couple of stinkers… Where the Wind Blows (风再起时) (2023) boasts two super stars in Tony Leung and Aaron Kwok, but it is a total snooze fest at 2h 24min. The story is about a few good men in a sea of dirty cops and politicians. The storytelling is so choppy that after a while you will feel like puking out all the rubbish history lessons forced down your throat. It is well-acted no doubt but the story is not even coherent. It’s like in any scene there is a beginning, a middle and an ending, but the director will just show you one out of the three and wants you to connect the dots. Such an utter waste of good actors. The moral lesson is that you should be the baddest bad guy because you can retire to Canada or Thailand and nothing will happen to you. Avoid this like it’s the newest variant of COVID-19. (1.5/5) The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell (扫毒3) (2023) is the third part in a trifecta – three movies of decreasing mediocrity in a row. I love the first part which was an invigorating reminder of the once trailblazing heroic bloodshed genre, but director Benny Chan of the first movie has passed on and the baton went to Herman Yau who typically doles out 2 to 3 movies in a year (there was a year he managed 4!) like its sushi on a conveyer belt. He does entertaining movies but I doubt anyone remembers much of the plot the moment the movie ends. He even wrote this installment and the story is yet again an undercover in a drug ring. The plot is so rote that you see ideas copied from numerous similar movies. Sean Lau hams it up to cringe worthy levels. Louis Koo used to be HK cinema’s busiest actor, but I think Aaron Kwok has taken over the reins. With each movie Herman Yau seems to have an aim: to make sure the bullet and explosion counts rival that of Hollywood movies. He might have bested Expendables 1 and 2 combined. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, I don’t care anymore. Spoiler alert: get ready for part 4 because Sean Lau’s character doesn’t die and he proclaims he will be back. I am not sure I will back though. (1.5/5) Just when I thought it’s game over for HK cinema, a saviour appeared… A Guilty Conscience (毒舌大状))) (2023) restores my faith the HK is not just about big-budget crime dramas. This one serves up bravura entertainment by the truckloads and does not forget about wearing its big heart on its sleeve. The story is about a scumbag lawyer who breaks good after his negligence causes an innocent woman to go to jail. He then works with another lawyer and his colleague to clear her name. I am not kidding about the scumbag part. Dayo Wong, who is a stand-up comedian, really owns the obnoxious part. How he looks out for himself more than the client makes me pissed. Then like all great character redemption arcs, I know the second act is about him becoming good and embracing the faint goodness within. The ending is a foregone conclusion but the journey to the destination is totally worth the trip. As much as it is about how justice prevails, it is also a double middle finger up yours against the rich, the powerful and the morally callused who think the road is paved only for them. It does go overboard with Dayo Wong’s closing statement, but by then I was all in and my fists punched the air in triumph. Every year you can get one or two really good ones from HK, this is one of them. (4/5) Full Time (2021) is about a single mom who wakes up before dawn to go to the city for work. She is a head chambermaid in a high class hotel. Just when Julie finally gets an interview for a job that will let her raise her children better, she runs into a national transit strike. Holy molly! The moment the movie started I think I stopped breathing for 30min. This is realism cinema at its best. Hardly any sentimentalism, histrionics and contrivance, it puts you next to her as she does the long commute and makes snap life changing decisions all day long. The pace is relentless and Laure Calamy is riveting to behold. The movie rests on her shoulders and she reacts marvelously to every dire situation. The story is intensely relatable and I am sure it will remind of trying times you have gone through to make ends meet unless you live a cloistered life. The movie grabbed me from the start and at strategic points I was praying she will see light at the end of the tunnel. I checked out the special features to find out more about writer-director Eric Gravel. Turns out his idea for the movie came from his long commute to the city in the early hours many times a week for work and he noticed the people tended to be the same every day. He wanted to tell a story about these people but he knew he needed a frame to bring the story to focus and he decided to use a single mom. This is a great movie and it will make you believe that good stories can be found anywhere and the story can be told without CGI, and to put the audience in the throes of suspense you don’t need a James Bond, Jason Bourne or Ethan Hunt, you just need a single mom with a singular purpose. (4/5) Now for two recent movies I saw at the theatres… Thanksgiving (2023) by Eli Roth is based on the fake trailer screened during the Grindhouse(2007) doublebill. I just checked out the trailer again and it is way more bloodier than the new movie. I am not sure if Roth actually has a story in mind when he made the trailer, but he does in the recent movie and recreated all the scenes shown in the trailer. It is probably a conscious choice to tone down some of the scenes, especially with the human turkey scene. I love how he sets up the movie commenting on the greedy consumerism but it doesn’t gain much traction after the opening act. The characters are functionally written and my mind was just working to decide who will die first and in what order – definitely the obnoxious and highly sexed-up young couple, not the African American, he will be hurt but probably won’t die and most definitely not the sweet virginal looking girl. But seriously, slasher movies’ mainstay is the kills and they are grisly, gross and gnarly, quite inventive too, especially with that trampoline scene. The logic and motivation work too. Lots of red herrings. In the third act I turned to my friend to say who is the killer. Let’s just say I was nearly right. All in all, this is a pretty bloody fun movie and I am not surprised a sequel has been green-lit. (3.5/5) The Boy and the Heron (2023) is by Hayao Miyazaki. Review is over. You have to see it. His name is enough for you to see it. But you know me… I have more to say and I am afraid I might get crucified for saying them. First of all, I had a rude shock when I was purchasing tickets. It’s S$18 per ticket! No credit card discount, no stored value tickets could be used. I handed over the money with no grudge. It’s Miyazaki, coming out of retirement to gift the world one more movie. I was just hoping I would see the sheer enchantment of My Neighbour Totoro, the gorgeous world-building of Spirited Away and the rich environmental themes of Princess Mononoke. Well, The Boy and the Heronhas all of that, but for me all of Miyazaki’s usual stylistics failed to coalesce into one potent whole. It felt more like a collage of his greatest hits. The narrative feels forced and some plot threads never hit anywhere purposeful. I also find some characters’ actions illogical like why would the boy’s step-mother go to the strange mansion to give birth? For a movie called The Boy and the Heron, what’s the deal with the heron? What is his purpose and link to the boy? For all it is worth, the animation is gorgeous and the fantasy world is superbly rendered, but as a sum total this is not anywhere near Miyazaki’s revered classics. Okay, you can crucify me now. (3.5/5) 1
Steff Posted December 10, 2023 Posted December 10, 2023 On 08/12/2023 at 2:13 PM, westendboy47 said: The Boy and the Heron (2023) is by Hayao Miyazaki. Review is over. You have to see it. No spoilers but loved the rich visual language. Only caught the dubbed version, looking forward to the Japanese voice track + subtitles in due course.
hlov Posted December 10, 2023 Posted December 10, 2023 On 30/11/2023 at 7:06 PM, westendboy47 said: Got a bit lazy so I am forcing myself to punch out 6 movies I want to say something about… Napoleon (2023) is a Ridley Scott biopic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). The battles are staged brilliantly and no two battles feel the same sometimes just through clever lighting. The sets and costumes are opulent and resplendent respectively. However, I find myself not fully vested in Napoleon’s journey because I can’t feel much from Phoenix’s dry portrayal of a brilliant general. There is a silent pool in Napoleon, a stirring that does not invite foolishness, a quiet that covered a tempest, but the tempest is never revealed even in the end. Napoleon remains a dark hole with a light turned off. I know he is a great tactician but I get a feeling he is more lucky than anything. I know he loves Josephine but he is more possessive than anything. I know he has to possess charisma to lead armies of thousands but I don’t see that at all. The other thing that bothered me is the numerous story gaps. It feels like there is a much longer version out there and this truncated one is for the theatres. Some examples are how characters are introduced and they disappeared right after that like Josephine’s children from previous relationships; and what ever happened to the Napoleon’s offspring? All in all, this is still a scrumptious watch but I have a nagging feeling Scott is going to eventually give us a director’s cut, as he usually does, and that will be a much better movie. (3/5) From one Joaquin Phoenix movie to another… Beau Is Afraid (2023) chronicles Beau’s existential journey following the sudden death of his mother. Beau, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man, confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home. I adore Ari Aster’s horror oeuvre and I told myself I will watch anything he makes but After Beau Is Afraid I will not be going in blind anymore. This is a 3-hour head trip. I had no idea about the runtime until Choo asked me how long more at the hour mark and I had a rude shock. It starts off strong like a loud crunching of a fist rambling through HDB estates before it says hello to you. It started at Toa Payoh, went up to Bishan, stopped for coffee at Ang Mo Kio, picked up steam coming out of Yio Chu Kang and hits you in Sengkang with a punch… from a rabbit. So Beau has mummy issues, why do I need to endure 3 hours for that? That said, I never found this to be a waste of time and I found it darkly funny at times and the themes of familial grief and inherited burden palpable. (3/5) Anything by David Fincher is always greeted with excitement and anticipation by me, but I am not impressed with his latest… The Killer (2023). It’s a shame really because I am a huge fan of the French graphic novel the movie is based on. The slap across my face was that Fincher only borrowed the vibe and character, but none of the story. It’s a story about an assassin who battles his employers and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal all because he failed his mission and doesn’t appreciate that his employer tries to get rid of him. So essentially it’s a non-story about assassins who failed their jobs. Michael Fassbender plays the killer without any moral scruple or compass. All he has is a set of deadly skills and a mantra that he keeps doggedly repeating to himself. He is quite interesting to behold but I never got under his skin and understand what makes him tick. He feels more hollow than the same character in the graphic novel. I don’t know man… Fincher said he loved the comics but to go ahead and make a different movie from the source other than the first hit and some character aspects feels like a misnomer and approaches disrespect. It’s likewise with Napoleon when Scott deviates from history to tell his version of events. This is a one time watch and immediately when it ends you will not remember much. This isn’t top tier Fincher. This is many rungs below that. (3/5) And talking about creative deviations from source materials, Zhang Yimou’s Full River Red (满江红) (2023) is another good example. The plot: During the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, four years after Hero Yue Fei’s death, Qin Hui led his troops to negotiate with the Kingdom of Jin. On the eve of the meeting, the envoy of the Kingdom of Jin died at the prime minister’s residence, and the secret letter he was carrying disappeared. By chance, a small soldier and the deputy commander of the personal battalion were involved in this huge conspiracy. Prime Minister Qin Hui ordered the two to find the murderer within an hour, but things were far from that simple… With the in-depth investigation full of dangers, the truth behind the case seems to be a bigger conspiracy hidden. Zhang at this stage of his career is at his most experimental. At 2h 40min, it’s too long and indulgent for its own good and moves too slow and repetitiously in the first act. I find the modern rap songs done to traditional Chinese music very jarring and I doubt Zhang even cares. He is in total experimental mode here. The plot is complex and meandering, and only becomes clear in the last act which is quite rousing. The namesake of the mandarin title will appear in Yue Fei’s last poem and it is quite stirring (it’s one of those times I wish I had pay more attention during Chinese lessons), but then again a friend of mine found it quite cringeworthy and he can recite the poem word for word from memory. (3.5/5) No Hard Feelings (2023): On the brink of losing her home, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) finds an intriguing job listing: helicopter parents looking for someone to bring their introverted 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) out of his shell before college. She has one summer to make him a man or die trying. Gotta love the pun in the movie title, but the movie never quite succeeds as a raunchy comedy like The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005). The story feels too paper thin and the characters feels flat. That said, Jennifer Lawrence’s comedy bone is on full-on display here and she is game to try anything (Yes, that’s her in full naked glory). Her comedy timing is perfect and she is the best reason to catch this. The chemistry between the two leads is great, but the story and plot don’t take the characters to interesting places so much so that when the third act descends into emotional drama it miss the spot for me. (3/5) Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023) is easily one of this year’s best films. I laughed, I cried and I hugged my wifey and asked her if the first time she got her period was an eventful one like Margaret. She said no I had no idea this is a movie adaptation of a seminal novel published in 1970 and has become a much beloved book for generations of girls. I doubt there will be many complaints about the adaptation because it captures an elusive time and place so remarkably well. The story focuses on Margaret Simon (an incredible Abby Ryder Fortson) is just 11 going on 12 when her family moves from New York City to Fartbrook, New Jersey. Margaret’s mother is Christian and her father is Jewish. Margaret has been raised without an affiliation to either faith, and does not practice an organized religion, although she frequently prays to God in her own words, beginning by saying, “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.” She is beginning to feel uncomfortable with her lack of a religious affiliation. For a school assignment, she chooses to study people’s religious beliefs, hoping to resolve the question of her own religion in the process. Part of her study involves attending different places of worship to better understand religious practice and also to see if one of them might be right for her. She enjoys spending time with her Jewish paternal grandmother, Sylvia Simon, who loves her as she is, and hopes Margaret will embrace Judaism after taking her to her synagogue for Rosh Hashanah services. Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s second film has hit another home run just like her excellent debut The Edge of Seventeen (2016). Her understanding of the internal turmoils going on in a girl studying in elementary school is spot-on and how she captures all the details in such sweet tenderness is a gift. There are numerous movies from a guy’s perspective, but it is so refreshing to see something from a gal’s perspective. The movie succeeds in making me walk with Margaret as she struggles to find meaning, purpose and religion. It’s wistful and sincere without a tinge of manipulativeness and twee. It made me think back to my adolescent years, obsessing with the opposite sex and making a critical decision to believe in God. The movie presses all the red hot buttons but never becomes cloying or force any idea down your throat. Abby Ryder Fortson is perfectly cast and even all the peripheral and secondary characters have moments to shine, especially Rachel McAdams’ Barbara. There are so many takeaways from this gentle coming-of-age movie and I can’t recommend this enough. “I must, I must increase my bust!” I laughed myself silly when I heard that. (4/5) I find your reviews extremely useful, thanks for taking your time to share them. I found the first half of No hard feelings very funny, some of the dialogues were just hilarious, the second half was just boring.
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