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
Il Dono (the gift) [director, Michelangelo Frammartino] 9.4/10. The movie is a non-dialogue film in the sense that the dialogue that is used in the film doesn't contribute to the telling of the story and so you would think that it would be a rather technical film, or an experimental film and not a fully realized piece of art. That's what I thought when I put it in: that that is what it was going to be, and the only reason I bought the film was because I generally buy every new release in their world cinema line from Kino Lorber. However, that couldn't be further from the truth. This film proves that cinema is at least 80 percent the moving picture on the screen. The movie involves a day in the life of a shrinking town of Caulonia, and there are a few things going on. One involves what I call: man vs cell phone as Angelo Frammartino watches the cell phone vibrate across the table as if it is alive: I don't think he is sure if it is or not. And the other involves Gabriella Maiolo, the town w**** who must atone for her sin by sitting through a strange ritual of escalating complexity. The film is almost a symphony in the way that the town creates the music like a Mozart sonata. One of the best films I've seen.
The Double Life of Véronique (director, Krzysztof Kieslowski) 6.8/10. I bought this film thinking it would be the type of French drama that I enjoy -- that is, over-wrought and with a ton of dialogue. But I didn't realize that Krzysztof Kieslowski is one of THOSE directors that Criterion puts in their collection for the fanboys who worship the David Lynch types and Blue Velvet. I am not one of them. I will say that the Cinematography is extremely inventive and amazing, but the story is too complicated to understand and Krzysztof hids his story in allusions and metaphors and never really brings it together. I didn't realize that he was responsible for the "Colors" trilogy, which the fanboys worship. I also felt that I could not connect with the main character of the story Irene Jacob (Véronique/Weronika) and so there was no emotional connection. The film was all flash and mirrors as far as I am concerned and I am only glad that the cinematography was so nice, else I would have wasted my hour and a half. If you like David Lynch, you might like this. I would explain more about the story, if I understood it. But I didn't. As the title suggests, the main character(s) lead a double life. And that's about it.
I didn't look at the director before I bought it. I in fact buy a ton of blind purchases. I looked at the title, mainly to make sure it was a foreign film and I probably looked at the rotten tomatoes score, which was good. And before you get up in arms, I did enjoy Tar, which has a similar pretentious bent, but was a least easy to follow and was superbly acted. My favorite actress is Vicky Krieps, at the moment and loved her in Bergman Island. But again: because of paul thomas anderson, my least favorite film of hers is Phantom Thread. I loved her in Hold me tight. I also love films like Two Days, One Night: the Dardenne Bros. film and starring Marion Cotillard. But hated Rust and Bone. I also love the work of Christian Petzold and own about 5 of his films. And also, it isn't like I ONLY watch french films. I own and have watched Cold War by Paweł Pawlikowski and also Ida. I think he is brilliant. I love Shin ichiro Ueda: One Cut of the dead. I watch Israeli director: Nadav Lapid and his film: Ahed's Knee. But once I found The Double Life of Véronique to be a certain type of movie that's when I did some research on Krzysztof Kieslowski. Also, I do find that Criterion fixates on bro type films, way more than they used to: fan favorites such as Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson. I am much more interested in: Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 5, than I am into: Bong Joon Ho. But that is problem, since 4k blu rays are a niche hobby most boutique labels release a certain type of film that will appeal to that crowd, not always and criterion still releases fantastic movies, but they also realize that to turn a profit they probably need to release crowd favorites, which is the reason you see them releasing: The Wiz or Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. But yeah, I like what I like.
9/10 for this genre. Wish I had seen it in a movie theater. Creepy moments, scary moments, funny moments (especially near the end), and just fun overall.
A House of Dynamite: 9 / 10 - Great movie! Keeps your attention throughout with great editing. I would have given it a 10 out of 10 if it wasn't for the ending.
I want to see this just for Rebecca Ferguson, I bet she is fantastic in this. I also want to see A Sentimental Value and If I had legs, I'd kick you. I want to see It was an accident.
