Movies I watched this week: Ramen Heads 3/5 I love food documentaries but nothing beats Jiro Dreams of Sushi (5/5) for me, so this movie only gets a 3. Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters 4/5 Knew next to nothing about Japanese author Yukio Mishima, and know I feel like I know too much. Very beautiful movie. The Act of Killing: Not sure what to rate this one, because while it's a very visually good looking movie the subject matter is very dark and it was hard for me to watch. Um 4/5 I guess?? In the Earth 4/5 Not much to say about this one except there were mushrooms involved in a Ben Wheatley movie again. Man really loves his mushrooms.
One of my all time favourite movies is the movie Pride. It's about the miners' strike in Britain in the 80s and how the LGBT community raised money for them, and then the miners supported LGBT rights. It deals with some heavy stuff, but I love love love the ending :D
Rewatched the original Jimmy Neutron film on Sunday! Still as stupid and silly as I remembered, it was nice
Just finished watching Ghost in the Shell. The music in the film is great! Criterion has a new playlist with movies all about A.I. Dark Star, Zardoz, Demon Seed, Electric Dreams, Making Mr. Right, Johnny Mnemonic, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Teknolust, 2046, Computer Chess, Her, After Yang, Life After Bob: The Chalice Study, All is Full of Love, Ennui ennui, Os Humores Artificiais. I'm going to watch A.I. because I love that movie but what should I watch after that?
Dykes, Camera, Action! 5/5 Very nice 2018 documentary about queer women in cinema pre-stonewall until now. The Hudsucker proxy 4/5 Not my favorite coen brothers movie but still pretty good. Stars one of my favorite actresses Jennifer Jason Leigh. Synecdoche, New York 4/5 Another movie with Jennifer Jason Leigh. I'll watch pretty much anything with her in it. Is it weird to watch movie primarily for the actors I like and not the director or the plot? Like it doesn't matter what the genre is or what the movie is about but if I see the name of an actor or actress I like in the credits I'll watch it.
Not at all! Lots of people do that, for lots of different reasons; some because they have a crush, some because they like enjoy that performer's process and presentation of the characters they play, some for nostalgia or comfort in the familiar, some for curiosity on how a complete genre change affects how the performer plays, some because they're famous and in lots of things lately and even hate watching. I'm sure there's lots more reasons, too, and a big example I can think of (though possibly cringey) is how many people were obsessed with Benedict Cumberbatch after Sherlock and wanted to see absolutely everything he was in (even if everything he was in came out like a bone dry sponge was playing the role)
No Country For Old Men 5/5 My favorite Coen brothers movie! It's interesting how there's no music at all in the movie. Anton Chigurh is terrifying.
Watched two movies by Masashi Yamamoto: Robinson Garden: 3/5 Not really my kind of movie, but very pretty. What's Up Connection: 4/5 More of a plot than Robinson Garden, I really liked this one! Robinson Garden is the more indie film of the two, and while the movie was beautiful and the acting great, I didn't really understand it? The second one was definitely easier to follow along with. I found it funny that about half an hour in the story pauses and the people being filmed stop to talk to the camera man and offer him a beer.
Cried a little during Air Doll, a movie about a blow up doll that becomes sentient. Yeah this movie got to me, and I wasn't expecting it to. Spoiler: The ending When she stabs him and then tries to breathe air back into him and he dies because she doesn't really understand what death is. Then she just puts him in a garbage bag and puts him on the curb. She throws herself out with the garbage later, and while she's deflating has a dream? Where people are wishing her happy birthday and she gets to blow out the candles on her birthday cake. Then the last scenes of the movie are dandelion seeds getting blown past all the people she's interacted with during the movie. It's up there with Glorious for weird premises for movies.
Okay, now I'm just remembering the Dutch Wife Fairy from Sexy Losers and how badly her exploits turned out (tw extremely dark humour involving Spoiler: spoiler rape and suicide).
The genre I think of as predicament horror is fun. "Fall" is a great movie - two climbers get stranded on the top of a massive tower with no ladder, and the movie is about the ingenious ways they try to get to the ground, and I keep meaning to watch "47 Metres Down". Gotta watch more of those.
The Outwaters: 2/5 This movie really disappointed me. I know it's a low budget horror film but the camera work was all over the place, and it was very slow to get anywhere. I honestly couldn't tell what happened and had to google hoping to get an answer. I feel like the trailer and the twitter mislead me a little regarding what the movie would be about. I thought there would be lovecraftian stuff but it seemed like it was actually Spoiler about a time loop where the guy ends up going back and murdering his friends with an axe? I think? It was so dark during the movie and what little light there was didn't focus much on what happened to the characters. It was so confusing I didn't realize any of his friends had really died until the daytime scene that takes place on the next day. Songs From the Second Floor: 4/5 This movie is so funny to me, but when I tried to explain why I found it so funny to coworkers I just couldn't seem to. To be fair it's a dark comedy about people's lives going wrong which is not for everyone. I just think my sense of humor is kind of messed up. Imagine trying to explain to someone that the funniest part of the movie is a sick girl being blindfolded and pushed into a pit while people stand around looking bored like they're just waiting for a train to come or something. It's also a very beautiful movie, and many of the sets look like paintings.
Blood Simple: Another Coen brothers movie! 3/5 Not as good as No Country For Old Men, but enjoyable. And With Him Came the West: 4/5 An interesting documentary about Wyatt Earp and the blurred line between movies and reality. How many people think Wyatt Earp is more of a badass than he was because of the movies about him? Probably about the same number of people who think 666 is the number of the beast because of The Omen, or that think playing with a Ouija board will cause you to be possessed by a demon like in The Exorcist. It's funny how what's in the movies gets stuck in people's heads to the point they become convinced it's real. I wonder if there's a name for things like that?
Grey Gardens: 4/5 This movie is a 1975 documentary about a couple of upper class women living in East Hampton, New York. It was surprisingly entertaining for a movie that's just women yelling at each other in a run down old mansion. I guess I just really like drama? The Devil and Daniel Webster: 4/5 Man sells his soul to the devil and gets a politician to try to get him out of it when he starts to regret the deal. I've wanted to watch this one since seeing this movie mentioned in Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched! Folk horror is my favorite genre/subgenre, and Criterion did a really good job restoring this movie.
Blithe Spirit 3/5 Took away some points because the acting isn't always good, but otherwise I enjoyed this movie. I would watch an entire series of the medium Mrs. Arcati fumbling her way through dealing with spirits. Play Time 4/5 This movie was a nice fun watch. It is about two hours long, but it didn't get boring for me.
Laura (1944) A nice little murder mystery noir. 4/5 The Quick and the Dead. Sharon Stone plays a gunslinger out for revenge against Gene Hackman's character. 5/5 Loved this one!
Supermarket Woman: 5/5 A good movie to watch back to back with Tampopo which was also directed by Juzo Itami! I want to watch more of his movies now, and I think I'll start with The Funeral since that's also on the criterion channel.
