Viewing Up to 9/11

Tsai Ming Liangs brooding drama about displaced lonely people. Its slow but somewhat infectious. Towards the end it has a few great scenes. But as a whole I was not destroyed.

3/5













Nimrod(Kontroll) Antal's hitchcockian thriller. Generic but well executed. Surprisingly toned down for a movie about people forced into a snuff film. A few good moments and an interesting look make it watchable but forgettable. Honestly say I expected much more out of Antal.

2/5
















Kinji Fukasaku gangster pic. Not as wild as usual. Maudlin as hell in parts, but still has some charm. Low on the Fukasaku canon.

3/5










Its a bugs bunny cartoon starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti and a horde of dead nameless thugs. Id say its about 50/50 with hit/miss jokes. Some cool action, some to crazy. But in the end its a fun experience.

3/5

On my plate

I'm working on my own spin on this piece of awesome.

9/5 Viewings.

David Mackenzie's Young Adam was fairly bashed when it came out a few years ago. Im at a lost to why, its a very intriguing and complex character study. Joe (Ewan Mcgregor) works on a small shipping boat with Les (the awesome Peter Mullan) and his wife Ella(Tilda Swinton) and their young son. One day Joe and Les find a nearly naked woman floating in the river and they drag her ashore. An intense well plotted sexual drama ensues. Mcgregor's character is a complicated sort of man that we slowly fill in the blanks about. The revealing bits of character are well spaced and fit nicely into the Hana-bi like structure of the film.Save for one misfire scene in my opinion it is a good bit of underrated film making.

4/5



Kinji Fukasaku's youth drama is a decent but in the end underwhelming. It features his trademark wildman editing and maniacally frenetic camera work. The plot follows a bunch of blue collar youth and their quest to buy a dump truck in order to "make it". There's fighting death and a rather wild sex montage. Beyond the wild style the film really never takes off.

2/5

Stepping up my game.

Got that 5 out at a time netflix now.

know these films.

There will be blood.

My Blueberry nights.

Ploy(When the song changes the movie looks amazing, its some kind of cruel joke before)

Breath

Be kind rewind.

To many movies to little time

James Mangolds star studded western. Man code is in full effect here with a great story and fully realized characters. A western in the traditional sense. Mostly lackluster action scenes(the end is decent) are the films only real weak point.

4/5









Steven Spielbergs Empire of the Sun. A young Christian Bale struggling to live in Japan occupied china. Interesting story, big ass production value that impressed me several times. Doesnt quite come together as well as it could.

3/5





Katsuhiro Ishii's remake of fanny and alexander(which I havent seen) an amazing heartfelt oddball comedy. Features one of my favorite scenes and characters ever. This film couldnt have made me any happier.

5/5










Aki Kaurismaki's offbeat comedy with a dog like heartfelt main character. Slow but infectious you will be sad when bad things happen to our main character.

4/5












A true life drama by John Sayles features great acting by a host of famous and soon to be famous actors and a young Bonnie Prince Billy. Great Cinematography and a powerful story. Great Picture.


5/5





Sogo Ishii is crazy, very cool filming of people sprinting like mad. 3 stories vary in quality, 3rd is the coolest. Runs only 60 minutes. Decent.

3/5















James wan shoots people they go boom. Stupid and ham fisted but entertaining.


3/5









Some jackass who will never direct again's War. Stupid as hell, shitty action scenes and a dialogue about how much Devon Aoki wants a salad. Worst movie ive seen since RE apocalypse.

1/5

Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull

Raging bull is one of those films that gets mind boggling praise. Afi's #4 film of all time, Entertainments Weekly's #5, Premieres 5th greatest performance of all time(for Bobby D). Its about as good as films get.

Raging bull tells the story of New York boxer Jake La Motta. Jake prides himself on his ability to take vicious beatings in the ring and keep standing. Its a biopic of a violent muddled man played to near perfection

From its opening shot you know what you are getting into. De Niro boxes the air in slow motion while a sad bit of music plays. Its a brilliant shot that at first makes us see La Motta's ability as a boxer, but after a while it causes a sad and almost defeated feeling. The film is powerfully violent. Its not like Rocky, boxing isn't fun in this film, its ugly. But the real credit to the film is that some how, some way this brute of a man is sympathetic. Across the board the performances are amazing, they feel spur of the moment, so painfully genuine from Pesci and De Niro's brotherly talks to Cathy Moriarty's tortured wife the film hits hard.

Raging Bull never glorifies in anyway the life of Jake La Motta or of boxing in general, its dead serious and its honest in a way rarely seen.

5/5 "A Classic"

Lars Von Trier's Breaking the Waves

Breaking the waves is a film that really just feels inspired. Von Trier and company craft painfully realized characters that we ride along the highs and lows with.

The story is simple and powerful. Bess a young woman in a draconian Christian society marries a slightly worldly man named Jan. Jan works on an offshore Oil derrick and Bess can't deal with his absence. Disaster strikes and life spirals out of control.

The film is staged in such a manor that it feels painfully real. The lighting is never overt or theatrical but simply true to life (which makes sense for Mr Dogme95). The performance by Emily Watson is so real and filled with life it gives every moment of elation or depression a truly painful weight. Not to mention Stellan Skarsgard continues his fantastic screen presence, his calm to Bess's innocent excitability makes for brilliant chemistry.

It's not a ridicolous as Dancer in the Dark but when the film gets heavy its real heavy. It can be hard to watch and its not for everybody. But its powerful story and underplayed yet stylish feel not to mention a career making performance by Emily Watson make for a great film.

"Bess I'm so sorry"

5/5