Always enjoyed 'The Professional' aka 'Léon' created by Luc Besson, and along with Gary Oldman crushing his role and young Natalie Portman, thought it was an action classic. I discovered very late it was actually a spiritual sequel about the original assassin, Nikita in Luc Besson's 1990 movie 'La Femme Nikita'. Watched it and it's pretty good, the actress has solid range and grows more attractive and skilled as the movie goes along. You see Nikita's inner turmoil and double life, much like Leon later experiences. 8/10
Decided to rewatch Wind River again. It's a really good movie. 8.5/10. Really enjoyed the tone and the setting. Following the Sheridan movie, I rewatched Hell or High Water, too. 8/10 for that one. I enjoyed it more this time than the first time. It's such a stark contrast for the quality of Sheridan's movies compared to Yellowstone which was trash. 1883 was decent. Haven't seen 1923 yet. I watched the first season of Tulsa King which was a dumb kind of good.
One Cut Of The Dead (director, Shin ichiro Ueda) 10/10 One of the best films I have seen. The one thing you need to know is that it isn't a traditional horror film, and it may not actually be what the film is about. Think if you and your friends got one shot to make your dreams come true, but you are a bunch of screw ups, what would end up happening and you'll get the basis for this film. It is almost similar to Hosiers to that degree. There is also a sequel to this which is very good if you liked the first one called: One Cut Of The Dead: In Hollywood. Think Happy Gilmore 2. The movie is about a time in your life when you were just trying to make it. If you don't like foreign movies, this is what I would start with. And you could triple feature it with a movie called: Happy Times which is similar to Knives Out.
Watched 5 films recently. Two yesterday and three today. Here is my overall rank: 1. Let it be morning 2. Everything Went Fine 3. Megan 4. Zero June 5. Anatomy of a fall All of these films are pretty good to very good and they all achieve an initial approval on my scale. Let it be morning (8.3/10) being the best of what I watched. Directed by Eran Kolirin, I really enjoyed the intimate scope of the drama. The idea is this: what would happen if you forced a family to live with each other during a military occupation. Eran begins this movie with a wedding which allows him to gather a family in one spot. I feel the film requires watching more than once as you will be able to appreciate the details of the story more on a second viewing. The main story revolves around Sammy (Alex Bakri) who is injured in his soul when he is unable to speak to his mistress on the other side of the border and must actually talk to his wife (Juna Suleiman), who is mercurial and deadpanned. She doesn't really speak a whole lot, but her presence is felt when she does. The other character is abed (Ehab Salami) who believes the way to win his wife back is to buy a Taxi and then go to her window and play Chandelier by Sia, lol. If you enjoy absurd films, you might like this. Although, it is not a straight up comedy. It is more like the comedy you'd see from Broad City. Everything went fine (8.2/10) directed by (François Ozon) is a story about the choices we make at death and how it affects your loved ones. It is pretty much on the nose, if you every had to go through that, except it involves assisted suicide. The best part of the film is the ending. Megan (6.7/10) directed by (Gerard Johnstone) is a decent horror film that I believe achieves its objective of being entertaining. I didn't think it was anything special. I am sure most of you have seen it so I won't rehash it here. I did enjoy the fight scene, but I felt the film was way too thin and the character were sort of stereotypical. There wasn't much depth here, which for a horror film, at least for modern horror, I feel is a necessary element. I need to know that the main characters are actual people with the ability to have choices and not some bad guy, or the overworked parent, etc. Zero June (6.7/10) directed by (Jake Paltrow) is a based on a true story of Adolf Eichmann's trial from 3 different perspectives of the people involved in that trial. I overall found the film to be engaging, and often very good. However, the overt monologues and the political brow beating was enough to rate it pretty low on my list. I still think the film is worth seeing because it does have a unique aspect, but it ultimately is unsatisfying because of Jake Paltrow (Gwyneth's brother) lack of control of his film elements. Anatomy of a fall (6.5/10) directed by (Justine Triet) is a murder mystery courtroom drama which won the Palme d'Or and was up for an academy award. Despite that, I rate it rather low here mainly because there is no one here to root for, and every character seems despicable. I did find that a major piece of the story was withheld until the end of the film was a cheat. And while it is masterfully edited and a good film overall, I just could not make an emotional connection to the story. A good film and worth the watch, but wasn't my favorite.
The Clouds of Sils Maria (director, Olivier Assayas) 8.8/10. about an aging, but extremely well-regarded actress Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche), who is suddenly presented with a script, a reprisal, that is, of a script, of one of her most important roles 20 years after the fact, on the day that the original filmmaker of that film died, and how she must navigate living up to her original performance with who she is now, and the sort of safety net she lives in now, which this new film will challenge. And because of that, she spends vast amounts of time worrying that she won't do it, and this is exacerbated by the fact that she will have to play opposite of a new (hot shot) actress Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz), who seems to be all the rage. The movie mainly centers around Maria Enders and her assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart) who won a Cesar for her role opposite Binoche. And how Kristen represents the youth perspective to challenge binoche on a day to day level. In this, the film is very similar to The Wrestler (Micky Rourke) in that you have a once-on-top performer who must deal with getting old. I could also see this as a commentary on female ageism and how hollywood worships the 20 somethings. And in that light, Kristen Stewart's part, given who she is is an apt comparison as she was once the hollywood it-girl who is taking lessons from the ultimate reject-er of hollywood, the great Juliette Binoche. I thought the film was personally enjoyable, but not perfect. But it raised a lot of questions so I enjoyed it.
Some Fun Movie Sunday POPEYE: The Slayer Man - 5/10 - nothing Special Shiver Me Timbers - I dunno if it was a prequel or a sequel or what - a solid Meh 5/10 Hostile Dimensions - Kind of funny. Interesting concept 6.5/10 Leaf Life - Local Production - 7/10 Solid for the budget Rocket River
