The Red Turtle

Nicely done. 7/10

Lion

I did enjoy this film, but I do think there were some things wrong with it.

The film really held my attention when it told the story of the main character as a child in India. The child actor was amazing, and the story was told really well then.

I think it sort of lost its way halfway through though. I found the interactions with the girlfriend character to be a bit annoying and not as convincing as the story about his childhood. Afterwards I read that the "girlfriend" character was not just one person, but a mish mash of all of his girlfriends over the years. And this was perhaps the problem here – she wasn't a real person, just someone thrown into the mix to be a stereotypical love interest, who gets put on the back-burner while he goes deep into the search for his family, and then brought out at the end to make us all feel happy.

This wasn't the story. The story was about him trying to find his family he'd lost, and perhaps they should've focussed more on that than trying to throw in some bullshit Hollywood-esque relationship stuff for all the lovers out there.

No, this story had enough in it without trying to squeeze more tears from the audience.

That being said, the child actor in this was amazing, and the parts set in India really made the film for me.

Good film, overall. 7/10

He's Just Not That Into You

Please don't ask me what I was thinking watching this late at night when everyone had gone to bed.

I think I'd seen bits of it before, but weirdly, I actually quite enjoyed this. I think the acting was cheesy, and the characters were pretty flimsy, but at the same time I felt like the attributes of romantic relationships were pretty realistic, and touching too.

After I watched it, I went on IMDB and saw some of the terrible reviews it got, but really, what was so terrible about it compared to all the other shitty rom coms out there? I actually felt that there was a lot of human honesty in this film regarding the attitudes between men and women which was quite refreshing. There was an awareness of how we can be idealistic or selfish or overbearing in how we deal with romantic partners.

God. What am I becoming? 7/10

In Bruges (Re-watch)

I was re-watching this one because my viewing partner hadn't seen it.

Dark, disturbing, intelligent, funny, sad, moving.

I'm pleased to report that it went down well. 9/10

Girl, Interrupted

Not that I didn't like the story, but I thought the film was badly made in some ways.

I think it could've been so much better if it had better filmmakers behind it. Because there was most definitely a great story here. And I suppose that's what held the film together ultimately. 6/10

Crimes and Misdemeanors

Classic Woody Allen film. I watched it some time ago now, so not sure what I can say about it now. This will teach me to write my reviews ASAP.

Off the top of my head: Liked this film. Hated the dude in it. 8/10

Inherent Vice

Well... I'd been really looking forward to watching this film. Paul Thomas Anderson is definitely one of my favourite directors making films at the moment, and I think The Master is possibly my favourite film of the past 10 years or so.

But I wasn't so keen on this film. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I didn't like the story? I felt like it was going nowhere. I haven't read any Thomas Pynchon, but he's just one of those writers I can tell I'm not going to like. Most definitely I can tell these kinds of writers, because they're usually recommended to me by people who like all of the same writers I know I am not going to like.

So this film was a good way to test out whether I liked Pynchon's idea of a story (without having to read his books). And yes, I can safely say that Pynchon remains a writer who I'm pretty sure I don't want to read.

If his books are anything like this, I know they'd just frustrate me. It all just went nowhere.

It was saved by a great performance from Joaquin Phoenix, and some lovely cinematography.

But other than that, it was pretty lukewarm. 7/10

The Keep

This film was BIZARRE.

Reading about it online afterwards it turns out it's some kind of cult classic now. But what a weird film... Possibly the strangest thing I saw in 2017.

The opening seemed really strong, and I was looking forward to a classic 80s hidden gem. But it just felt all over the place. It seemed like they were just making it up as they went along.

Golems? Jewish myths? Nazis? A haunted old castle? Some dude with shining eyes?

No idea what was going on here...  6/10

Chicken People

This documentary was crazy.

I don't really want to spoil it for me people, but all I'll say is, if you liked Best In Show, this might be the documentary for you.

Eggselent. 8/10

Spider-Man: Homecoming

What the hell was I thinking?

I don't know. I think I had a hangover. I wanted to watch something that wasn't very challenging. I dunno. Forgive me.

The thing is, I've always had a soft spot for Spiderman. I don't like all of these superhero films coming out these days, and to be honest I feel pretty sick of them in general. But Spiderman reminds me of my youth when I used to watch the old cartoons.

But this film was just so self referential. I didn't know what the hell was going on! What the hell was Ironman doing there? I suppose because I don't watch these films, I'm not in on the stupid world that's been created surrounding all of these films.

But they might've thought of the idle watcher coming to this for the first time. I didn't get any of the stupid jokes that I think everyone who'd seen every Marvel film under the sun would get. Because of this, I can't really say I enjoyed it that much.

My spider senses weren't tingling. Sorry. 5/10

Your Name

I'd heard all the hype about this anime all the way from Japan to England, but thought I'd give it a go.

Well, it was spectacular. I don't just mean in terms of storyline and characters (these were OK, but not what made this film so amazing to me). What made the film so incredible to me was how realistically it depicted Tokyo.

I'm writing a book set in Tokyo right now (I've been working on it for about 2 years now), and I have to say that this was one of the greatest depictions of the city I've ever seen in an anime film. So realistic, and so true to life there.

I loved the countryside setting as well, and it all just made me so excited for a trip to Japan I'll be making in March of 2018. Can't wait now.

The premise for this story was pretty standard, and something we've seen before – body switching, the town mouse and the city mouse, gender swapping etc.

But it did it very well, and I can really say I enjoyed this. 8/10

When Harry Met Sally (Re-watch)

OK. OK. OK.

I've been really slack over the past month. I've added films to my blog, and I've just let them sit there without any thoughts or comments on them. I'm going to try to be better about this.

I've also recently got into the habit of putting on old films I've seen before and just re-watching things I already like. Perhaps in the coming year I can get a bit more adventurous and try to watch new films rather than just re-watching old ones.

All this being said, this film doesn't need much comment. It's a sappy hate/friendship/love story that does what it does very well. The film works because we get two very interesting characters who work very well with each other – we want them to get together, we root for them to get together, and they do at the end. And that's how you do a love story.

Guilty pleasure. 8/10

The Meyerowitz Stories

This was pretty funny.

I can see now why Netflix has been throwing out so many Noah Baumbach films my way – most likely because this was just about to be released (and produced) by Netflix.

Similar kind of humour to The Squid and the Whale – the dad was almost exactly the same in both films. He even uses the same phrase, calling something "a minor work". The father figures are so bad in all of Baumbach's films it makes me think he may not have had the best father...

There are some big names in this film, and they all put in good performances. The dialogue is good, and funny, and there are some great comedic moments (the blood on Ben Stiller's nose giving the speech made me chortle).

Not bad. 7/10

Blade Runner 2049

Well, this is going to be a really difficult one to review.

First of all, let me just preface this by explaining that the original Blade Runner film is one of my favourite films of all time, and alongside Withnail's Hamlet soliloquy to the zoo in the rain at the end of Withnail & I, the 'tears in the rain' speech at the end of the original Blade Runner is my favourite scene in cinematic history. Something I don't think will ever be recreated.

So it was tough for me to even come to terms with them re-booting a film I loved so much. I think I got angry the first time I saw the trailer for this and took to social media writing something stupid like "Harrison Ford, retire thyself."

But I heard good things about this, and from people whose opinions I respect. And didn't this director do a couple of great films recently, like Arrival and Prisoners? "Maybe I should give it a chance..." I thought to myself.

And so I went along to the cinema, slightly nervous, but hoping for good things.

I might need to ask a few ranty questions here, so forgive me, but...

Why the hell did they cast Jared Leto as the villain? Why was he so overly creepy and villainy? Why didn't he just leave that visual chip thing in his neck all the time? What was the point of the scene where he stabs the replicant he just made in the tummy? Why did his assistant cry at that point, and then turn out to be the most evil kind of henchwoman in the world afterwards? Wasn't the virtual girlfriend storyline a bit too much like the film Her? Why did the tough replicant at the beginning even let K (Ryan Gosling) retire him? Surely it would've been better to kill Ryan Gosling and then no one would've found Rachel's remains? Why was the music so loud and jarring? Why is Hans Zimmer making jarring scary music (after Dunkirk and this, I think he might be losing his touch a bit when it comes to sound – too loud, too icky) when they could've got Vangelis to do the soundtrack instead? Why was it so bright? Why couldn't they have kept it dark like the original? Was Deckard a replicant or not? (Actually, I like not knowing) but did the fact he was living in radioactive Las Vegas mean he WAS a replicant? Because when they track Deckard and K down, the people who come to get them are wearing gas masks.

Also, why was the film so long?

It might sound like I didn't like it, but I did. It's not a bad film, at all. There was a lot I did like about it: the cinematography was beautiful (despite not being dark & noir enough), the acting was good (apart from Jared Leto), it didn't just rely on action but created suspense in the traditional detective/crime format, the sets were pretty and the dialogue was good.

If it wasn't connected to the original, I might've been able to relax a bit and enjoy it more. But I found myself overanalysing everything. It didn't help that the plot was overly complex and opaque at times.

But I didn't hate the film, I just hate this re-boot culture we're living in now.

Why can't we just make new art? 7/10

Gaga: Five Foot Two

Please, please, please, please don't ask me why I watched this absolute vapid piece of junk.

If you want to see someone talking about themself and crying for 1hr 40mins, you might've found your documentary.

I just want my life back.

The one thing I took from this film is: money obviously doesn't make Lady Gaga happy. Oh, and her music is bad. 0/10

The Big Sick

Well aren't I a big sappy shithead.

Because I enjoyed this film. A lot.

I was recovering from sickness myself when I watched it, and I think I just wanted something lighthearted that would distract me from how I was feeling.

Romantic comedies are usually a bit sickly (no pun intended), but this one dealt with a wide range of issues in a very neat and refreshing way. I thought the premise was good and the comedy toed a very nice line between normal everyday people trying to be funny, and actually being unfunny.

I was pleasantly surprised to see in the credits at the end that it's based on a true story and was written by Kumail and his actual partner in real life.

Awwwwwwwwww. I might have to be sick now. 8/10

I Am Your Father

The premise to this documentary sounded really interesting.

But it wasn't.

Boy oh boy have I been having some bad luck with documentaries recently.

It was terrible. I hated the filmmaker's stupid smug face, and David Prowse sounds like a big blabbermouth who got cut out of the franchise because he talked to the press too much. No matter how they spin it. I sympathised with George Lucas in this case – and that's not a sentence I could've foreseen myself saying in a while.

Waste of my life. 1/10

Take Shelter

Well. This was batshit.

I think I'd heard too much about it before watching. I thought it was absolutely beautifully shot though – some of the weather scenes, the birds flying in the sky, the part where all the furniture flies in the air in slow motion – fantastic.

It was a great exploration into the nature of mental health, and it definitely made me paranoid and uneasy. Most certainly a film that illustrates the elusive nature of truth and reality.

The scene where the main character has his outburst in public is incredible. I just wish I hadn't seen it a million times before on YouTube, because I think I spent the majority of the film waiting for him to lose his shit.

"There's a storm comin'!" 7/10

Prisoners

Note to self: try to write review sooner rather than later.

I really enjoyed this film. I thought it was dark, brooding, not easy to predict (in fact the plot threw me in completely the wrong direction a couple of times). I thought the acting and dialogue were great, and it was a really immersive world.

At times I think it could've moved a tiny bit faster, and it was a very long film.

But overall, I enjoyed this a lot.  8/10

Kicking and Screaming

Netflix has definitely been throwing a lot of Noah Baumbach my way.

I liked this film. It had a tender nostalgic feel to it, and I'm feeling pretty susceptible to nostalgia at the moment. I liked the quirkiness of the characters, and how they interacted. It wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, but it made me crack a few smiles here and there.

I like these coming-of-age tales, because they seem applicable to any time of life (as far as I can see). I also enjoyed the romantic plot – reminded me a bit of Before Sunrise etc.

Some of it felt a bit technically ropey, and the acting wasn't as good as it could've been. At times there were definitely audio issues, and characters talking over one another.

As things stand, I think The Squid and the Whale is still my favourite Baumbach film I've seen. There's something attractive about the dialogue and characterisation in all of his films. They're films about real people – even if they're sometimes idiots, they're real idiots. 7/10

Mother!

So, apparently this film has been pretty divisive.

But let me just make this clear right now: anyone who didn't like this film is WRONG. Yes, there is such a thing as an opinion, but it would most definitely be a WRONG opinion to not like this film.

It was brilliant. Don't read any spoilers. Just go watch it.

Absolutely incredible indictment of how shit humanity is. Beautifully shot, perfect pacing, intriguing plot.

I really want to write more about this film, but then I don't want to risk spoiling it for anyone. I'll say it again: just go watch it.

Loved it. 9/10

While We're Young

After enjoying The Squid and the Whale so much I decided to check this one out.

I found it to be quite an interesting premise, and I did enjoy the analysis and contrasting of the ageing technophile couple with the younger hipsters. I found the general exploration of hipsterdom pretty funny too.

But overall the film felt a bit weak. The dialogue wasn't bad, but perhaps some of the monologues didn't quite achieve what they set out to.

Not a bad way to kill time though. 6/10

Hard Eight

I'd been meaning to watch this one for a while, and finally got to it.

Not bad. But by no means to the standard of PTA's other films. In general, it was extremely well shot, and the acting was good. The story unfurled in an interesting way.

But there were inconsistencies in the plot, and I felt like characters didn't behave in the way they had been established earlier in the film. Afterwards I read that a portion of the film is a re-shoot of a short film PTA made with Philip Baker Hall called Cigarettes & Coffee and this possibly explains why parts of the film didn't mesh with the rest – it felt like things had been shoehorned in at times.

It was good to see Philip Seymour Hoffman in there, if only for one scene.

Not bad, but I'll give it a hard 7/10

The Squid and the Whale (Re-watch)

Well, this film is definitely a good example of why it's worth re-watching films.

My younger brother gave me this on DVD for my birthday many years ago, and I watched it straightaway, but really didn't get into it.

Watching it again now (after having done an MA in Creative Writing) I really, really, found this funny. The dad is just about the worst dad in the history of film. I found him amazingly funny for all the wrong reasons. He reminded me of Competitive Dad from The Fast Show (if you fancy a laugh, check that out here) and I just can't believe that people like him exist in reality. What an arsehole.

Yeah, I was definitely laughing out loud on this viewing – all of the characters are brilliant. 8/10

Night on Earth

I'd been telling someone about the taxi driver story in the book I'm writing and they recommended me this film. I thought I'd check it out, so stuck it on while eating a Chinese takeaway banquet.

I'm really glad I got to see this! A Jim Jarmusch film from 1991 that had completely slipped under my radar. Looking at the credits it seems like it was funded/produced by a Japanese organisation.

The film is made up of 5 stories, in 5 different cities throughout the world. They are linked through an interlude scene which shows the 5 different time zones on clocks on the wall. The camera then zooms into the clock, through it to a map, to the city. The 5 cities are: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. From the intro where we see the Earth in space, it almost looks as if we are an alien coming down to Earth for the night to witness the lives of 5 taxi drivers. Maybe it's an alien writing a PhD on Earth's taxi drivers...

The LA story kicks things off, and this was the ropiest of them all – Winona Ryder is the Tom Boy taxi driver, and who would guess it – she's also a babe who's about to unexpectedly get cast as a movie star by the female exec passenger she takes on. But the ending saves this part of the film, and then it just gets better. I loved all the characters, I loved the dialogue – and a lot of the film revolves around dialogue, but it never drags – and I loved the shots of the cities the cabbies drive through.

I can't decide which of the stories was my favourite, because I think they were all as strong as each other.

The film made me nostalgic for a time when storytelling and pace could be a bit slower. I think the shift to digital has made filmmakers rush too much. Everything is rushed now, there are no slow builds and we've lost a lot in the way of atmosphere from modern films.

Really enjoyed this. 8/10

The Birth of Saké

Yeah, this was an interesting documentary.

I have to say – I was more interested in the lives of the workers than I was in the saké itself. Watching it with a hangover was perhaps one of the reasons why I didn't get too excited about seeing lots of shots of booze.

To be honest, therein lay the issue with this documentary. I looked up the director Erik Shirai on IMDB afterwards and saw that he was a director of photography/cinematographer. There were too many atmospheric shots of steam rising etc. He didn't focus on the people who made the nihonshu enough, and I think that's what slightly marred what could've been an amazing documentary. In comparison to Jiro Dreams of Sushi, this documentary spent too much time trying to look pretty, and would've benefitted from delving into the lives of the brewers more.

Because they were so interesting! These guys have an amazing amount of dedication to their jobs – sometimes at complete sacrifice to their own lives. For example – it was interesting to learn that they all live at the brewery for 6 months and leave their lives behind, but I honestly would've loved to see what these guys do for the other half of the year! It would've taken a tiny bit more work on the filmmaker's part, but I think it would've made for a better film overall. Like the dude Chi-chan who lived in a big old house by himself, and we found out that his wife had passed away, and so he couldn't wait to get back to the brewery. Why couldn't we have spent more time with the characters?

A good subject, and nicely shot, but I think slightly flawed in its insistence on pretty camerawork and slowed down footage. 7/10

Mean Streets

Well... this film was just plain bizarre.

I think I tried to watch it many years ago and couldn't get into it. I can see why – it's a very peculiar film, and there's a lot of WTF moments in it.

I managed to see it all this time, but it did take me two sittings. Started it yesterday, but got tired midway through so I finished it off today.

It's not necessarily a bad film at all. But it is rather confusing and chaotic. A lot of the time the editing and the voice overs (coupled with bad sound recording) make the film feel lurchy and distorted. The drunken scene with Harvey Keitel when he has the camera strapped to him great, and I think works really well, but other parts of the film are equally disorienting due to shaky camera work and choppy composition, when perhaps that wasn't the desired effect.

There's lots of bad cutting between scenes that often makes you scratch your head, or jump back a bit in surprise. I spent a bit of time wondering wait, where are we? What's going on? And I don't feel like it was in a positive way.

Some of the storylines seemed like non sequiturs, and I wasn't sure what they meant. For example, just off the top of my head, the scene where the drunken soldier back from Vietnam jumps up and tries to attack the girl, why did he do that? And why did Harvey Keitel end up dancing with her in a cupboard? What was the deal with the dancer who he invited out for Chinese food, but then didn't show? And why did we cut to a scene with her at the end after the car crash? Why? What? When? How?

The final scene was pretty good (and very unexpected). Robert DeNiro was great in it, and I found the character he played pretty different from anything else I've ever seen him do. The music was also fantastic.

I wasn't sure about all the religious themes running through the film. At times it felt a little overdone.

But the thing about the film is, in this weird way, from the moments of brilliance here and there, you can see that Scorsese was destined for bigger things. 7/10

Contact (Re-watch)

It was a rainy summer's day, so we decided to stay in and watch a film.

I'd seen this film many years ago, and I remembered bits and pieces. My viewing partner commented on the excessive use of music throughout the film, and once this had been drawn to my attention, I couldn't quite block it out.

The film is OK. I liked a lot of the ideas behind it, but I wasn't sure of the execution in parts. It reminded me a lot of the the film Arrival, which I saw at the cinema in November last year. But I have to say that this film hasn't aged so well, and that Arrival just does it all a lot better.

We couldn't quite work out how Matthew McConaughey's character went from being some crackpot journalist in the jungle, all the way to being some hotshot bigwig in the White House. It seemed to be the most far-fetched aspect of the story.

It made me want to watch Carl Sagan's TV series called Cosmos. 6/10

Withnail and I (Re-watch)

I forget how many times I've seen this film. I think the last time I saw it was at the cinema in Kichijoji, Tokyo. I have a vague memory that the art house cinema in Kichijoji was closing down, and allowed its visitors to vote which films they would like to see in the run up to its closure. This was one of the films they chose, and I love that the film has as much of a strong following in Tokyo as it does in the UK.

I won't drone on about how much I love this film, but I'll just say that I think it's one of the best endings to a film ever made. It never fails to resonate emotionally with me.

Such a sad and funny film. 9/10

Dunkirk

Saw this in the cinema on IMAX.

Firstly, and unrelated to the film itself, I couldn't help but snort at the intro to the IMAX cinema when they played a little film essentially telling me how much of a good time I was going to have. It was almost like some weird brainwashing technique to hypnotise you into feeling you'd made the best decision of your life. I still can't get over the fact that we paid £16 for tickets, but I spent the film with a man's head blocking the lower part of the screen. Anyway, enough ranting about overpriced cinema experiences.

The film was good. There was a lot of it that I liked. I'm personally not such a big fan of war films, and I don't like the feeling that people are trying to manipulate viewers into a sense of patriotism or nostalgia for something that is in essence the most diabolical aspect of human history. However, I don't think that was the message of this particular film. This film is a crash course in imagining all of the terrible ways it is possible to die, then dangling those possibilities in front of your face (with full surround sound).

I liked the fact that there wasn't much dialogue. I liked that we never really saw "the enemy". I also enjoyed the separate stories and chronologies because they involved a little legwork on the part of the viewer.

On an aside, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that they'd given Tom Hardy another role where his mouth was covered and we couldn't really hear what he was saying. I kept thinking Bane in a plane, Bane in a plane whenever he came on.

But I liked the film, and I think I'll watch it again soon. 8/10

Paprika (Re-watch)

I must've watched this originally in 2006 (the year it came out), and I remember being slightly underwhelmed, but I would say mostly confused.

And I suppose this is a perfect example of why I should always revisit films, even if I didn't get on with them the first time. Sometimes I get things completely wrong.

What a drastically different experience it was watching for the second time! I'd got the urge to re-watch the film after I'd seen this incredible YouTuber who posts video essays on films. He goes by the name Every Frame a Painting, and I would definitely recommend taking a look at his YouTube channel here.

I'd watched one video in particular analysing the works of the anime director Kon Satoshi here and seeing how Kon Satoshi had influenced Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky so much (with actual scenes being completely recreated in their films as homage to Kon), I decided Paprika deserved one more, closer, watch.

On a side note, I watched another film by Kon called Tokyo Godfathers last summer as research for the book I'm writing at the moment. It was great – a film about three homeless friends in Tokyo trying to carve out a life for themselves, all running away from their pasts. Unfortunately I watched it before I started this blog, so I don't have a review for it, but would recommend it.

But Paprika was just spectacular though. I suppose I watched it before Inception was even made, but I have to state clearly Inception probably would not exist if Paprika hadn't been made. When I first watched Paprika, I don't think I followed the plot well, but this time I understood it better, and it really blew my mind. People diving down into sleep to experience shared dreams, a mass subconscious of a dreaming city becoming overcome with a common dream of modern consumer-driven madness. The shared dream involved an insane procession of religious and commercial items walking through the streets of Tokyo – Salarymen leaping to their deaths from the tops of buildings, films merging into dreams, dreams merging into films, the city itself fighting against nature, nature fighting back. Breathtaking.

I can't stress this highly enough. Go and watch this film. 9/10

Lolita (Re-watch)

Woke up early with a hangover and saw this on Netflix. Thought it would be a good way to pass the time.

It's not a bad film, but some of it looks a bit dated. There were a few shots that I would've actually cut in embarrassment if I'd been the director.

I think it's always going to be tough making a film version of such an incredible book, and the film toes the line awkwardly between sexualising Lolita, and showing how young and immature she is. I can see how this might have caused some controversy when released, but I would say that this film can only be understood fully by reading the book, which I think depicts one of the greatest unreliable narrators in the history of literature.

Nevertheless, worth a watch. 8/10

Kedi

They need to make more films like this. A documentary following the lives of several cats who roam the streets of Istanbul, getting into adventures and forging relationships with humans.

I loved it.

The book I'm working on at the moment shares something with this documentary, so I was really excited to see it when I first saw the trailer. It really didn't let me down.

It could've been even longer and delved even deeper into the cat population of Istanbul, alongside the interesting people who look out for them, and live alongside them. The old man who went to feed the cats everyday because it helped him with his depression – these are the kinds of stories I like to hear about. People who take a moment to recognise the real beauty in life.

"You can love if your heart's eye is open," one man observes. "Everything is beautiful if you look at it with love. If you can enjoy the presence of a cat, a bird, a flower, all the world will be yours." And later, we hear, "A cat at your feet is life smiling at you."

Incredibly moving. 9/10

The Breakfast Club (Re-watch)

Sigh. Back when films were magical.

When they took chances – perhaps they didn't have the flashiness or the visual effects – hell maybe the dialogue even was a bit ropey here and there, but they tried to be engaging and deal with deep themes.

I've seen this film so many times, and there's not much I want to say about it really, other than the fact that I just wish there was a director like John Hughes around today, because what will the youth of today have to look up to in terms of art in the future.

Nothing but a culture of hedonistic materialism. 9/10

It Comes at Night

Went to the cinema to watch this and enjoyed it.

I'd watched the director's first film called Krisha so I was looking forward to seeing this full-length feature. It didn't disappoint.

The film followed a time-honoured set up – a kind of post-apocalyptic world where a surviving family live in fear in an old house in the woods. They don't go out at night, and there's something they fear.

I won't spoil what happens, but I enjoyed the pacing of the film. I loved the dream sequences, and the characters were all intriguing.

Well shot, and a solid film. Perhaps I enjoyed Krisha more, but this was still great. 8/10

Beware the Slenderman

Well crikey, this was some fucked up shit.

This wasn't a film I knew anything about – my viewing partner picked it out. I hadn't heard anything about this case of two young girls attempting to murder their friend by stabbing her to death because of their belief in an Internet meme called Slenderman (pictured in the film cover).

I found this troubling to watch, and there were many points at which I wanted to turn it off. Watching the interview tapes carried out by the law enforcement officers got me imagining having to interview these two kids myself, and all I could think of was how I wouldn't be able to let something slip out along the lines of, "Wow, kid. You're pretty fucked up."

The dad's blaming it all on the iPad made me wonder too. It's another case of technology and the Internet being blamed for another human atrocity. There's nothing wrong with these technological advances we're making, but there may well be something inherently wrong with us as a species.

I just wonder about this world we live in sometimes. 7/10

Like Father, Like Son (Re-watch)

This film is just fantastic.

So well written and filmed, with this deep layering in terms of themes, images, scenes and words. My favourite scene is still when the mother and son (?) are sitting on the train as it goes through tunnels making it darker and darker, meanwhile she suggests to the kid that they run away together. So well executed.

I think I've seen it four times now, but I see new things in it each time I watch. I mostly put it on because I wanted to show it to my viewing partner, who ended up enjoying it too.

So that was a success. 9/10

From Up on Poppy Hill

My 100th Review!!

Such a shame that I let my blog go to pot a bit just as I hit my 100th review.

It's now a few weeks since I watched this film, but I remember thinking it was all right. Nothing special. One of the reasons I watched it was because it is set during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and I thought it would be a good bit of research to watch this. However, the Olympics did not really feature that much in the story, and it was more like a standard coming of age love story (which at one point, could've gone down an extremely twisted and demented route. Luckily, it didn't)

Not a bad film, off the top of my head. But not one of the best from Ghibli. 6/10

Still Walking

After seeing Koreeda's latest film, I thought I'd catch up on one of his I hadn't seen.

I enjoyed this a lot, but in some ways I wish I hadn't watched it so close to After the Storm because the actors and the themes were too similar.

I did love a few of the scenes though, in particular the one where the grandma (Kiki Kirin again) confesses that she wants to make the young man her dead son saved suffer. I loved how the camera moved to a side on angle, and there was something so dark and revealing in the way she spoke at that point.

I liked the characters a lot. Good film. 8/10

After the Storm

Well, this film was just perfect for me.

The Japanese title is 海よりもまだ深く (umi yori mo mada fukaku), which translates to something like 'Even deeper than the ocean'. After the Storm worked nicely as an English title though, and I'm glad that's what they went with. Although it did lose the nuance of the Japanese title, which makes a reference to a song that's playing on the radio, causing the grandmother to enter into a very touching monologue – perhaps the climax of the film. I found it very moving, for reasons I can't quite put into words. It's that wabisabi, monoaware side of Japanese art that deals so well with sadness and death. Absolutely beautiful.

I just love Koreeda's way of telling a story through simple, everyday character studies. These are real people, living real lives, and facing the kind of real drama that affects us all. His films resonate with life so much more than other directors' work out there right now.

He keeps it simple, and there's beauty in simplicity.

I was glad to see a return to form after the slightly disappointing Our Little Sister, which I watched in February. This film just had more to it, and I thought the actress who played the grandma (Kiki Kirin) really excelled herself in this film. I've seen her in a few other Koreeda films, and she tends to play bit parts, but here she had a chance to craft an interesting character.

I also thought Abe Hiroshi was brilliant in it. I've always found he treads the perfect line between comedy and tragedy, and he managed to depict a really loveable, if slightly infuriating protagonist. He really cracked me up several times with his delivery, and he almost made me cry a few times too.

I'm sure I'll watch this film again, and I'll just have to wait and see whether it withstands multiple viewings.

But sitting here writing this now after coming back from the cinema, I'm happy. 9/10

Rogue One

This film just left me feeling cold, empty, and depressed.

To the extent that I had to stop watching it. Get over it people. It's done. It's dead. The originals were amazing, but stop milking it.

The constant music pissed me off, the storyline was convoluted, Forest Whitaker doing a silly voice was obnoxious, the whole thing stunk. The only thing I kind of liked was the robot with attitude (hence why I used his film poster for this review). Isn't it funny that the only real and human character they managed to create was a fucking robot? And don't get me started on the guy with the fake face! What were they thinking?

Let's make some new art. DNF

Stranger Than Fiction (Re-watch)

This film was kind of dumb.

I remember I watched it in Japan when I moved there and I thought it was a good film. Turns out I was wrong. It was pretty average.

I think my tastes must've changed a bit, but it seemed too schmaltzy and contrived. Apparently it was heavily based on a book written in Spanish where the main character goes to meet the author who is writing the story he's in. But in that story, the main character commits suicide at the end. Maybe that would've made this film better?

I dunno. I think it's tough when making art about making art – there's this bit where Dustin Hoffman's character (a professor of literature) is going on about how the character's death is so beautiful, perfect and meaningful, but ultimately I thought it was kind of shit.

You can't build up the fiction inside the fiction so much – it really is on trial here.

And all the stuff with Maggie Gyllenhaal and the cookies made we want to throw up. Blurgh! Sickly sweet unbelievable love story alert. Yeah, it would've been better if Ferrel died at the end. 6/10

God's Not Dead 2

I thought we'd established this from the first film. No?

It would follow that if the first film proved CONCLUSIVELY that god is not dead, there would be no need to make a sequel.

This film succeeds in having just as dumb a premise as the first one, presumably written by someone who had never set foot inside a courthouse (just as the first one had without a doubt been written by someone who'd never set foot in a university).

But honestly, this film was even worse than the first one. There weren't as many absurd things to laugh at.

I wonder if they'll make God's Not Dead 3. I'll probs watch it. 0/10

Closer (Re-watch)

I watched this the other night when I was drunk. Because of this, I don't really have any kind of clever insights into the film.

The only thing I can say is that I'd forgotten how miserable this film makes you feel about relationships, and how awful the characters are (apart from Clive Owen and Natalie Portman, who I kind of rooted for).

Still, it nails this greedy, horrible human spirit that seems quite pervasive in the world of relationships. 8/10

Lady Macbeth

I thought this was beautifully shot. The cinematography and the lighting were great. But the characters just didn't do anything for me. They were all so horrible that there was nothing to really grab onto.

I also found some of the dialogue a bit shit. The bit where they were talking about the dogs, but really they meant Catherine was so flat.

I also didn't get Catherine at all. Why did she get into a relationship with the rapey dude? Didn't make much sense.

Not my cup of tea. Too brutal. 6/10

Moonlight

I just thought this film was so good. Sometimes I kick back against Oscar winners, but this film seriously deserves a lot of praise.

It managed to move me a great deal, without piling on the drama. There was something I really connected with in this idea of someone being trapped within their own prison.

Afterwards I read it had been shot on a really low budget - proof that you can make great films without pots of money.

Fantastic. 9/10

The Wind in the Willows (Re-watch)

I don't think I can rate this.

I've been watching this since I was two, and it still gets me.

Not to sound like a whinging grown up, but I don't think they really make children's entertainment like this anymore - with eloquent dialogue, darkness, and sadness.

I think it taught me a lot about narrative sensibility.

Brokeback Mountain

Great film. Very moving. 8/10

The Handmaiden

Unfortunately I let a lot of time lapse before writing a review of this film. I wish I'd sat down and written my thoughts as soon as I'd watched it.

Golly. What a ride it is! It's beautifully shot, and it has a very immersive plot and extremely absorbing characters.

I was impressed with how well the Korean actors spoke Japanese – I read that some of them learnt Japanese especially for the film. All of their accents and pronunciation were spot on, which was nice to see.

Apparently this is based on a British book by Sarah Waters. I loved the idea of re-telling it in colonial Korea. Brilliant.

Really enjoyed this. 9/10

Waiting for Guffman

This was OK. 6/10