Too casual philosophy and too-formal blogging
Dir. Ana Lily Amripour, Cin. Lyle Vincent; In English; 115 minutes. I enjoyed the camerawork and the world, but this film ultimately was too sprawling and disconnected; it opened strong but fizzled until its very end. Arlen's aimless plod through a desert Arkham City, and what could have been interesting moral complexities, namely picking between … Continue reading The Bad Batch (2017)
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, Cin. Raoul Coutard; In French, with English subtitles; 90 minutes. As a piece of film, Breathless is unsteady, uneven, charming, and dated: its montage at times feels laughably sloppy because riddled with awkward jump cuts, its dialogue unbearably cringy because grossly sexist and as choppy as its camerawork. But still the film … Continue reading Breathless (1960)
Dir. Akira Kurosawa, Cin. Takeo Ito; In Japanese, with English subtitles; 99 minutes. Kurosawa and Mifune fit together perfectly, even in their very first collaboration. The opening acts proceed clumsily, because they stuff almost all of the film's exposition into bland, unrealistic dialogue. The rest of the film fares much better, breaking into a brutal … Continue reading Drunken Angel (1948)
Dir. Abbas Kiarostami, Cin. Homayun Payvar; In Farsi, with English subtitles; 95 minutes. Taste of Cherry absorbed me into a man and a world that I knew almost nothing whatsoever about (one thanks to the film, the other to cultural barriers), mesmerizing me with the back-and-forth of its montage: holding long on static, personal close-ups … Continue reading Taste of Cherry (1997)
Dir. Dan Gilroy, Cin. Robert Elswit; In English; 117 minutes. Tense, disquieting close-ups give the viewer a deeply disturbing journey into the depths of a monomaniacal white man's psychology. Films like this remind me of riding a roller-coaster; I know exactly where they'll go, what cheap tricks they'll pull out, but enjoy the thrill all … Continue reading Nightcrawler (2014)
Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz, Cin. Pierre Aïm; In French, with English subtitles; 98 minutes. This film — French crime drama following three banlieue-dwelling friends over one tumultuous 19-hour day — amazed me. It laid bare its understanding of the roots and effects of cyclical violence, presented very full, empathetic characters, stayed thematically focused without becoming preachy, and did … Continue reading La Haine (1995)
Dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Cin. Mark Lee Ping Bin; In Mandarin, with English subtitles; 108 minutes. Like eating molasses—overindulgent in nearly every shot, flowing slowly forward, and opaque. Despite the film's beauty and Hou's practiced style, and some legitimately astounding scenes (any of the very sparse fight scenes and Yinniang's POV through golden curtains come immediately … Continue reading The Assassin (2015)
Dir. Wong Kar-Wai, Cin. Christopher Doyle; In Cantonese, Shanghainese, and French with English subtitles; 98 minutes. I almost don't know what to say: I am blown away every single time by the film's totally overindulgent style that somehow fits with its deeply heartbreaking drama, relatable though so far in both time and space to anything … Continue reading In the Mood for Love (2000)
Dir. Mizoguchi Kenji, Cin. Miyagawa Kazuo; In Japanese, with English Subtitles; 97 minutes. I enjoyed this film, but found it uneven. Some scenes featured strong acting and fully-realized supernatural spookiness (the boat scene in particular, pictured above), while others made the paranormal seem like a humdrum marriage trap. Thesis: war is hell, but hell most of all … Continue reading Ugetsu (1953)
Not Opinionated Enough 