Tag Archives: Movie

Oct 13 2022
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, United States

Go (1999).

This is a who’s who of 1999 – Sarah Polley, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, and the loon film buff from Scream 2 (1997).

It’s a wee bit annoying that the characters don’t appear to be affected much by anything that happens but then the movie does exist in this enclosed Tarantino-World with its own parameters. I’ve also never even heard of supermarket employees living such ridiculous adventures. And it’s good to once again have a movie that reveals Las Vegas for what it is – a pointless mess of a city consisting of predators and losers. 

Revelation: I never knew William Fichtner could do comedy. He’s understatedly very amusing, his “ulterior motive” confession capping off the most awkward Christmas dinner ever.

Like all Doug Liman films, it’s a brisk affair, unpredictable and with a purposeful style that never wavers. 

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Oct 07 2022
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Soviet Union, Uncategorized, United States, USSR

The Good Shepherd (2006).

Firstly, let’s get this out of the way: Angelina Jolie should not be in movies. She has no acting ability that has ever been evidenced in anything she has featured in. I mind that Sony Pictures hack years ago when a producer referred to her as a “minimally talented spoiled brat”. Sums the situation up. For some reason she is in movies, and was cast in this to put bums on seats, though I do question the sanity of folks who’d watch it for the delights of Jolie. She’s awful.

Now that’s cleared up, some positives. Like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2001), this was gripping without ever seeming to be about anything; it’s the little details and the intricacies and the things that are easily missed. It’s less a depiction of Cold War espionage and more a portrayal of a bloke operating within a system of double entendres, maintaining the poker face at all times (Damon is a cold fish here but we can see why).

De Niro hasn’t made many films and this one is curious subject matter. Of all the topics and milieus, I’d never imagined he’d be interested in something like this. It’s very well made, a bit of the Michael Mann about it.

Bobby should make more spy flicks.

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Sep 29 2022
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, Uncategorized, United States

Blonde (2022).

Andrew Dominik made Chopper (2000) and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), so I’ll watch anything he makes, despite a batch of bad reviews for this one. I don’t know what these critics are on because this movie is dazzling from the get-go, an opening sequence featuring a Golden Age Hollywood in flames.

It’s a fascinating, absorbing watch, and you’re pulled right into the tapestry with the magnificent sound editing and cinematography, Dominik a master of his canvas. And it’s one dark canvas, Monroe a bullied, manipulated, tragic figure, less a character than a metaphor for Hollywood itself. I can see why so many folk hate this movie – it’s realism at its most brutal, the myth busted.

How to summarise it? An NC-17 anti-biopic with more visual treats than most of the crap pumped out by the system it lambasts.

I’ll be watching again in a few weeks.

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Sep 24 2022
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies

The Gray Man (2022). Daft and dull as hell.

This felt like it was seven hours long and not in a good way. It was a series of relentless explosions and fisticuffs all shot through with no imagination and zero need for any of it to be happening. Sometimes with nonsense like this fare it can be a lot of fun, but not here.

The mammoth budget is shocking (what a waste), but the most irritating thing was the totally charmless Chris Evans’ attempt to make himself interesting by having a silly moustache. It’s even commented upon in the movie in a rare moment of self-awareness.

I don’t even know what this was even about (a stolen disc or something). So boring, the highlight was that most of the scenes reminded me of far superior movies.

Pish.

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Sep 23 2022
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies

Midnight Express (1978). This movie is a pile of shite.

The wee exposition and the build up are awarded a wee semi-kudos, as is the stark style throughout. It was also one of the last motion pictures with the existence of a telephoto lens. It does feel too much like an Oliver Stone movie, which doesn’t say much about the film’s hack director.

It’s well shot. That’s all I can compliment it with.

The utter stupidity and narcissism of the smuggling Billy Hayes vexed me even down to his semi-mullet, which even got to the stage of him jerking off to an ex through a glass window. The needlessly sensational violent scenes (one with Hayes spitting out a tongue of a guard he’s just jousted) were even more out of place.

The appearance of the father only intensified my dislike of this rubbish movie, the constant hatred of Turkey, and even from this bloke, who appears at first to be an avuncular sort; there is a scene in which he even slags off the locale cuisine.

It was only good when it avoids the very disconcerting politics. Stone has always been a beguiling one, an alleged left-winger/liberal with a predilection for casual racism and a fawning thing for dictators. This is one of his worst contributions to human history.

The funniest bit of this atrocious movie was the ending, when he even can’t walk away from a prison properly. At the appearance of a military car he slumps his shoulders back like an outcast goblin in a cathedral.

Horrid film. Absolute crap.

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Sep 21 2022
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

Million Dollar Baby (2004) is a horrifying watch.

Saw this once. Hated it.

Saw it again last week. Hated it.

Not the movie – I’d say it’s extraordinary, but I hated the experience of watching it. The gloom and the dread and the realism and Clint being a very unhappy Clint. I just mind folk were peeved because he won the Best Director Academy Award over Marty for his The Aviator (2004), a standard Oscar bait biopic and one of the few Scorsese movies not even worthy of a second viewing.

Clint does this thing – he will make five stinkers in a row but then pull a motion picture out the bag that totally blows away all doubters.

But I’m never watching it again.

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Sep 15 2022
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

The Card Counter (2021). Brilliant and vintage Paul Schrader.

This guy makes movies about the worst people, humans you don’t even want to know. But he always draws out the dimensions and probes at the reasons why people are the way they are. He’s the most mature filmmaker, a bloke actually interested in the human psyche and how film can treat this. He’s also clearly obsessed with Robert Bresson. The ending here, I think he’s done the Pickpocket (1959) tribute a dozen times now.

The acting in this is magisterial and the style of Schrader always suits his stories; he’s so underrated as an artist, perhaps because he’s not razzmatazz, but he can be when the moment needs it.

Most films these days are fucking pathetic, either derivative tripe, childish nonsense about superheroes, or leftist politics running riot at the expense of story or ideas. There is no fun in The Card Counter but that’s the essence and point of it – it’s gruelling and heartbreaking, like Travis Bickle taking a WASP to a porn movie (thank you, Paul Schrader).

Schrader is one of the few left with a soul and the lad has been kicking about for half a century. I define ‘The Few’ as writers and directors who make cinema about and for adults and aren’t afraid to take risks and put themselves out there. He’s incredible and we need many more gems from the lad.

This is a proper masterpiece.

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Sep 14 2022
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, Uncategorized

Jean-Luc Godard. Cheers.

I’ll leave it Roger Ebert to summarise the master: ‘Godard is a director of the very first rank; no other director in the 1960s has had more influence on the development of the feature-length film. Like Joyce in fiction or Beckett in theater, he is a pioneer whose present work is not acceptable to present audiences. But his influence on other directors is gradually creating and educating an audience that will, perhaps in the next generation, be able to look back at his films and see that this is where their cinema began.’

Scorsese brought me here:

Further reading/viewing:

https://variety.com/2022/film/columns/jean-luc-godard-tribute-remembered-breathless-1235371061/

https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/in-memoriam-jean-luc-godard-1930-2022-dv/

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/14/godard-shattered-cinema-martin-scorsese-mike-leigh-abel-ferrara-luca-guadagnino-and-more-pay-tribute

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Sep 10 2022
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Planes, Transport, Travel, United States

American Made (2017).

With his natural, unforced charm and (still) boyish looks, it’s easy for many to dismiss Cruise as being of a limited range, a man of few talents but maximising them. It’s a nonsense argument when you scroll through the magnificent works and superlative performances. You can name at least 15 films worthy of repeat viewings, some verified modern classics. I don’t think he’s ever had a bad role, and to lazily use a well-worn idiom, he has aged like a fine wine.

American Made (2017) is rollicking fun, an ’80s throwback which is amusing as Cruise remains an ’80s throwback but he’s an ’80s throwback … throwing back … the present. What I’m trying to get at is: he’s still relevant.

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Aug 23 2022
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Architecture, Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies

The Painted Veil (2006).

The music of Alexandre Desplat can elevate even the most prosaic of scenes but the exposition here would have been just as glorious without his Malick-esque melodies. It’s the cherry on top, though.

I was intrigued from the start, and the movie never faltered in its pacing and performances, the way in which its characters continued to evolve and adapt. The stylistic flourishes, too, were a surprise, as this sort of fare is usually a static camera affair.

Naomi Watts is captivating, and Edward Norton is as far away from an Edward Norton performance as you can get. What a talent he is, as is the seemingly omniscient Diana Rigg.

A lot of these period pieces are a grind, the usual stiff yarns concerning archetypes without agency simply reacting to events. This is different, with characters influencing their calamitous environment, or at least trying to. It also felt like another time and place, not merely an attempt to depict one.

It’s so entertaining, and yet it shouldn’t be.

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