Mascots

Not a bad film, but not really a great one either.

Other films by Christopher Guest I've really enjoyed (Spinal Tap, Best in Show), but this one just seemed dull in parts. Like it was lacking humour, or direction. A lot of the time that it was just a bunch of actors getting together again and saying, 'Hey, we did it before and it was funny, so I suppose we just have to keep doing the same thing?'

Characters and plots just fizzled out all over the place, and nothing felt tightly structured or resolved. The mocumentary thing, with people looking at the character, is getting so old now, and I feel like all irony and originality has been bled from that format.

I'll give this a 6/10 and move on with my life.

After thought: The scene with the plumber and the poo was amazing.

Arrival

Saw this at the cinema. Nothing better than a good old sci-fi blockbuster on the big screen. I really enjoyed this film – it was really gripping and engrossing, and I liked how the action unfolded.

I liked the linguistic element, and it reminded me of something one of my Japanese friends used to talk about: how he was always in awe of the first Japanese and English-speakers who came into contact with each other and how they went about learning each other's languages without dictionaries or any kind of fixed reference point in terms of culture.

I loved the use of time in the film, and it was really cleverly organized.

There were just a couple of quibbles I had, and a few things I would've done differently (if I'd been the director of a big-budget film), but none of those detract from making this worth seeing. 7/10

Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Cafe)

God. What a cheesy piece of shit film. I seriously want back the time I spent watching this. It took me two sittings to get through it, because the sickly sweet schmaltziness of it was making me want to gag.

"Yessir, we're from the South, so we tawk funny, and everything is a loooonnng ass stowry. I remamber way beck wen..."

What a pile of toss. Why the hell did Kathy Bates's character sit through the mental ramblings of an old lady in a hospital? I would've rather she'd flipped out and gone all Misery on her.

And what's with the little twist at the end? So cannibalism is OK? Feeding a dead body to an officer of the law is fine, is it? We're OK with that? We're going to walk off arm-in-arm into the sunset with big goofy smiles on our faces, knowing full well that A HUMAN BEING FED ANOTHER HUMAN BEING WITH SOME HUMAN BEING MEAT?!!?

Seriously, get in the fucking sea. 3/10

Freaks and Geeks

I'm not planning on writing about TV series on this blog much (mainly because I don't really watch that many), but I just finished watching this and thought it deserved a mention.

I liked how they focused on the kinds of characters who normally get glossed over, or just act as supporting characters in standard sitcoms. It was fun how they explored all sorts of different storylines and themes. At times it was quite touching and sad.

I really grew to like the character of Bill a lot, and possibly the two 'main' characters sort of drifted into the background as they developed others. Good fun, overall 8/10

Days of Heaven

Hmmmm.... What to say about this one... I thought the cinematography was absolutely stunning and some of the shots just blew me away. It was a very atmospheric film with great visuals. I'm told the film was shot in almost entirely natural light (like Barry Lyndon) and it really did look great.

However, I'm not sure I like the way that Terrence Malick tells stories, and this was also the problem I had with Tree of Life. The editing seems jumpy, and sometimes the characters change expressions or feelings too quickly through choppy editing. It feels wobbly, or unnatural, and I don't like much regarding the pace of the film.

I hated Richard Gere's character, and it was difficult to watch him being such a d-bag all the way through the film. Despite what I said about the cinematography earlier, I dislike the movement of the camera in the film. It always seems to swoop around, or zoom in, when it shouldn't. Kind of a frustrating film, but not a terrible one. 6/10

Nocturnal Animals

Saw this at the cinema tonight. Knew nothing about the film before going to see it, and I was mildly disturbed with the weird intro (chubby naked ladies dancing in slow motion with confetti flying everywhere). But when the plot got going – bored lady in the art world, sent completed novel by ex-husband – I was really sucked in.

The film was dark, the story within a story even darker. Michael Shannon played a great sherif-type out in West Texas, and he cracked up the whole audience with some of his witty dialogue.

I loved the ending, because it made me reassess the film as a whole. 8/10

Switchblade Sisters

Crikey. I tried really hard to hate this film, but found myself liking it despite myself. If you do decide to watch it, you'd better brace yourself for shock and amusement in equal proportions.

My favourite scene was probably the classroom scene where the nervous teacher accidentally wiped his face with a pair of panties...

So much that goes on in this film is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Absolutely mental. 6/10

Jackie Brown (Re-watch)

Put this on to kill some time on a hungover Sunday. I'd forgotten how engrossing it is. At times the pace is slowed right down, and I loved some of the experimentations with chronology (especially the split-screen part where the Bail Bondsman clocks that Jackie has taken the gun from his glove box).

The soundtrack is amazing, and I'll probably be listening to it for a few weeks to come. Lewis (Robert DeNiro) is insane, Samuel L. Jackson's character was a ruthless asshole, the dynamic between Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) and the Bail Bondsman (Robert Forster) is great.

Such a sad ending as well. Really touching. 9/10

Samaritan Girl

God. What a sad and brutal film. I wasn't sure what to expect at the beginning, and I have to say the way the film evolved was completely different to the kind of film I was expecting it to be. But it was really moving, and definitely worth sticking through some of the shaky early parts.

I'd seen another film by the director (Ki-duk Kim) many years ago called Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring and I remember very much enjoying that when I saw it. This film definitely had some similarities in terms of aesthetic and also the ideas explored. 8/10

Lupe Under the Sun

Yeah... What can I say about this film? Very slow, and possibly never really delivers as much as you think it will. Each shot was really well composed -- almost like a photograph, and sometimes the dialogue was so slow and stilted it reminded me of Ozu. I liked the opening scenes with him drinking a beer beneath the cherry blossoms, and I felt like there was a bigger story to tell about this kind of guy, living his life under harsh conditions, but I felt like the film itself fell short in telling us anything real.

I watched another film recently called Schultze Gets the Blues which I thought did something similar to this film, but a lot better. 6/10

Election

Topical film to watch today. Matthew Broderick's second best role after Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I'd seen this film before (a long time ago now) and I'd forgotten a lot of what happened. I enjoyed the fact that most of the characters were dislikable, and did some pretty reprehensible things. But, hey, that's politics folks... Fingers crossed things go favourably tonight. 8/10

Margot at the Wedding

This was a bizarre film. I didn't really understand it at times, and the dialogue felt like it was trying to do more than it was actually achieving. It wasn't as good or funny as The Squid and the Whale. Jack Black's character was quite funny at times, but overall I didn't really like any of the other characters. 6/10