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