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Gojira -1.0 (2023)
The best Godzilla movie
With a strong drama plot background, Godzilla Minus One feels like the type of thrilling blockbuster with all the right elements in the right places: lots of heart, likable characters, great production values (not just the excellent, Oscar-winning visual effects but also set/creature design), a powerful OST and several monumental action sequences.
There is no attempt to underestimate the terrible ordeals of post-WWII Japan and it shows the country's remarkable resolve and gradual reconstruction. While Godzilla threatens Tokyo, the plot about a kamikaze pilot meeting and falling in love (despite himself) with a woman who adopts a baby girl she found in the rubble is very moving and makes many viewers teary-eyed during the last scene. One of 2023's very best movies.
Buffet froid (1979)
Beautifully filmed, whimsical black comedy
Buffet Froid's absurdist narrative is made lighter by several things:
-it's impeccably filmed by Bertrand Blier, with beautiful cinematography, excellent actors' blocking and a brisk pace;
-the casting/acting itself is equally marvelous with lots of chemistry from several French greats. Instead of upstaging attempts, they coalesce into a group of kooky types who go about aiding and abetting/committing murder and sipping red wine. Bernard Blier's deadpan inspector is particularly fascinating but they all shine;
-the scenes are encapsulated into specific episodes so to speak and at the same time flow very nicely;
-locations look eerie and yet familiar/dreamlike.
All in all, it's a movie whose macabre plot is never quite dour because of its surreal tone.
Zhì chi (2021)
Brilliant in form and content. One of the best serial killer/neonoir thrillers of all time
Limbo's main characters move frantically among the debris of a metallic, dystopian Hong Kong that looks simultaneously dystopian, noir and even cyberpunkish. Cinematography is stunning in both its crispness and brilliant angles/framing.
The good cop/bad cop dynamic is made more complex by personal issues both trivial (the highly symbolic wisdom tooth ache) and massive (personal tragedy).
The contrast between the tormented veteran cop and brutal way he deals with the petty thief girl who was the culprit for his ordeal has a startling ruthlessness that becomes more and more layered.
The cast is very good. The actress' (Cya Liu) performance particularly is one of the best I've seen in the last few years. It's at once fragile, physical, vulnerable, relatable and overall awesome. Even the way she closes her eyes in one particular scene is full of meaning and beauty.
The plot itself relies on sheer tenacity even when characters make mistakes until it reaches a dark catharsis. Limbo is a genre masterpiece.
Perfect Days (2023)
The beauty of living
One of 2023's greatest movies, Perfect Days will have you paying attention to the simple act of living: working, grooming, chores, reading, socializing in the most self-unconscious way.
And the movie will help you reconnect to the fact that these experiences are all beautiful.
Perfect Days presents fragments/episodes/life stories which are almost painted in both form and content and flutter with a matter of factly lightness and gentleness.
Focusing on things as they're presented to the main character is rewarding to the viewer as well. The ending is brilliant because it surprises, then charms those lucky enough to watch this great movie, one of Wenders' best.
Road House (2024)
Lazy and not fully attuned to its core audience
Apple has to encourage the ppl involved in these projects to take more risks and be creative/make an effort instead of being by the numbers hired hands. And if it wants to appeal to a male demographic (as it should), present moments of female beauty and sensuality instead of the vaguely homoerotic approach of the movie.
The plot is interesting and cinematography's good. It is however a subpar movie because the directing/screenwriting is mediocre.
The full story itself was not adequately conceptualized and it seems stiff/predictable here and there.
Jake and Connor seem to have had too much say in the script and their quipping gets in the way. The movie's too wordy in general with cliche, poorly written dialogue and the lonesome cowboy metaphor is too on the nose, there's a predictability to it all.
Ultimately, it fails to take risks and the sudden tonal shift towards brutal violence happens too late when the previous, relatively subdued tone was already established.
Poor Things (2023)
Shiny apple partially rotten on the inside
Worth watching without paying for because it is ultimately an ideologically rotten movie-- but NOT for the reasons some people assume.
Bella's sexual awakening is persuasive and in fact raises an apolitical aspect that's very timely-- sex is enjoyable, no big deal.
The problem is that Bella is at one point indoctrinated: starts reading Emerson, which is iffy but ok.
Then her lesbian lover gives her a socialist pamphlet and it's all predictably downwhill because that's when the character gets morally poisoned and the movie resorts to tired self-destructive cliches (le weak beta male, le evil gun-touting military, the character "God" who dies).
In the end she establishes a type of socialist commune with her lesbian socialist gf (!) beside her and the military man ex-husband turned into an animal.
It looks great, the sex scenes are good, acting is engaging and there's a lot to enjoy (the dissonant OST works as well) but do not fall for its underlying one-sided dim, biased nonsense.
Squid Game: The Challenge (2023)
The 2 worst final rounds in the history of reality shows
1st of all: I did like the winner, it was a person who earned it through several wise decisions and effort. That said, here are some observations about SG: Challenge.
Pros:
-excellent production values, from the settings (virtually equal to the series) to the nice camera angles
-it establishes a competition among people who, for better or worse, look real
Cons:
-starting with the worst: the semifinal round is manipulated in the most blatant way. The "light that'll turn red, gray or green" isn't a competition but an obvious way for the producers to choose who'll advance since it's easy to change the color as they wished and the choice is utterly predictable; that alone compromised the entire show
-the final is, believe it or not, a pathetic, rote rock paper scissors game! They even put the 2 contestants in the squid game format but do nothing with it
-other games were equally mediocre: playing dice lol!!!
-there were no strength based games
-the choice of "allies" that phases out the man (22) /women (9) imbalance is ludicrous and obviously scripted;
-the editing is too sluggish at the beginning and gets too hurried in the later rounds
-some candidates make suspicious choices
-the interviews are too long and dull and sound fake
All in all, it's a waste and it's been ruined by slow editing but most of all by contests that were either pedestrian or not contests at all.
Anatomie d'une chute (2023)
Mediocre, overrated, dishonest
It's a courtroom drama interspersed.with marital issues flashbacks. There's little if any artistry in it, with a verite style that aims for a realistic approach both in the supporting cast and some of handheld camera movements.
Huller's acting is correct but not on the same level of, say, Toni Erdmann. The other main actors are ok too, with the prosecutor's tour de force being the most impressive of all.
Other than that, it's an entirely run of the mill story and its heavyhanded identitary undertones seem to be geared towards emphasizing male "weakness" as opposed to woman's creative and say, intimate "assertiveness". The husband is depicted as stuck whereas the woman is a liberated type. It also overrelies on emotional aspects and "feelz" to the detriment of assessing the real facts.
Overall, it's tedious and a movie whose "message" has to be seen with a level-headed wariness and suspicion.
Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)
Much better than I assumed, deservedly successful
Surprisingly good. Though it's a tad slow here and there, it has
-excellent cinematography
-SUPERB practical effects
-a layered plot which ties in to the lore (I assume as I went to the theater without ever having played FNAF)
-a very good, believable cast
-a clever balance of themes: it doesn't fall into a lazy repetition of scares and its plot ingeniously follows the title, taking place during five nights
Its immense success is well-deserved, the word of mouth is excellent because it delivers and it is yet another example that critics have self-destructed and become irrelevant. I look forward to the sequels.
No One Will Save You (2023)
Flawed but original and worth watching particularly for fans of alien contact movies
The movie's uneven but also makes an effort to be original, its pace/plot reminded me a bit of Dagon's (both are quite different in several aspects though).
The alien CGI is subpar and the aliens themselves are quite incompetent as the main character escapes over and over despite their having telekinetic powers etc.
Cinematography's also hit and miss with a lot of that dull grayish tone so many movies misuse these days but it also has moments of beauty: when the girl comes out of the dark, the red lit sequences and the take when the aliens look upward for instance.
It wastes no time moving along and has multiple endings so to speak, one on top of another and the final explanation hints at a type of virtual reality human vivarium based on the main character's ideal life.
The entire movie has a somewhat unreliable narrator who I recall speaking exactly once ("okay") and the fact that it shuns dialogue is an interesting choice.
The Covenant (2023)
Thrilling, moving. One of this year's very best
A thrilling war movie elevated further by Dar Salim's outstanding acting, The Covenant is one of the very few movies released recently that feels real and dignified by its unflinching sense of honor.
Salim plays the simultaneously virile, gentle, matter of factly and discreetly religious interpreter with a likable, unassuming demeanor punctuated by outbursts of lethal self-defense that has the viewer rooting for him and his family even as the odds get tougher-- and they do.
The movie has lots of action scenes (some with military heavy equipment) and quite a bit of violence. Gyllenhaal acts with quiet determination and the side characters also feel real, as does the movie's brilliant sense of place.
The Covenant is also an indictment of JoeB.'s administration incompetence that resulted in 300 interpreters being killed by the Taliban and over a thousand still hiding. All in all, it's a movie that makes the audience empathize but also learn the cautionary lesson about the mishandling of power. It correctly condemns cowardice and exalts resilience and duty.
Scream VI (2023)
Awful and morally disgusting
It's not merely derivative (that's to be expected). It's amateurish. There are SEVERAL idiotic decisions and plot contrivances: people shouting HEY so as to draw attention to the killer instead of simply shooting, or characters who can't die for contractual reasons and being stabbed in the gut but no biggie-- one of them actually walks to the place where the movie ends! Scream VI is bottom of the barrel in narrative and moral terms.
If you're familiar with.who Hollywood typecasts.as villains during its current abysmal phase, you'll figure out the killer-- and this time, believe me, it's even more appallingly on the nose and biased in a way that seems borderline disgusting. The ending is the most absurd you could possibly imagine-- think a major character with certain family bonds that would be IMPOSSIBLE not to be public knowledge.
The movie is also quite ugly in the literal sense and every single actor does an awful job- in fact, it's the worst ensemble cast in recent memory and that's saying something.
Do not, by any means, pay to watch this dreck. I'm happy I didn't.
Infinity Pool (2023)
Excellent and not for the mediocre
Hazily located in JG Ballard's dystopian, sexually charged speculative shores, Infinity Pool approaches issues of identity, both individual and collective, in a way that feels at once cozy and.feverish.
The main character goes through a series of challenges that are steeped in sexual desire, violence, peer pressure under contrasting social norms and traditions that seem to initially repulse then thrill him.
The undefined resort on the seaside of a seemingly remote, less developed country, seems universal: the manicured entertainment, the booze, the trinkets (particularly some Francis Bacon-inspired masks) and heavily armed guards all seem credible, as does the loosening of morals, the rampant alcohol/drug use and the sex.
Mia Goth is great as the dubious, seductive and occasionally demanding co-main star along with Skarsgard , whose confusion, delirium and emotional upheavals look quite believable.
Expect some wonderful surreal sequences and fully atmospheric soundtrack. The movie's beautifully shot overall, down to the very opening and ending credits. Infinity Pool already has a place in 2023's best-of lists.
Heojil kyolshim (2022)
Masterpiece
Park Chan-wook's is on a level of his own. Decision to Leave is a noirish romance with amazingly inventive shots, which impact and add to the narrative itself. Cinematography is predictably gorgeous and Tang Wei as the ambiguous femme fatale has the ideal face and mannerisms of inscrutable mystery. She's 100% captivating every second she's onscreen.
Decision to Leave also has some surprising wry humor and it manages to use technology as an element to push the story forward and even makes cellphones, smart watches etc almost characters in the movie since they often have a perspective of their own and reproduce messages and voices that seem at once poignant and surprising. OST is also excellent, likewise the believable way every single character is written and interpreted by the excellent cast.
Best movie of 2022.
Unsolved Mysteries: What Happened to Josh? (2022)
Best episode of the first six from this season
It feels pacier, there is a very engaging mystery with several investigative lines, it has a great sense of place (a huge campus in rural Minnesota) and as the story goes on new layers are revealed. It even has a very vague but perceptible Twin Peaks S01 atmosphere.
The people being interviewed go one step beyond the usual lachrymose reminiscence remarks because 2 of them are perhaps part of one of the scenarios involving Guimond's disappearance.
As in other episodes (particularly the Buffalo Jim and David Carter ones), expect to be exasperated by some of the flaws in the investigation.
In this case, Guimond's room and COMPUTER are freely accessible for a few days until the investigators discover its hard drive has been wiped. What's discovered years later is surprising. Likewise, campus security doesn't go after a student who jumps out of a car and runs into the woods.
All in all, an interesting mysterious episode with engaging characters and better editing compared to the somewhat glacial pace of some of the previous ones.
Smile (2022)
Derivative mix of horror tropes with a subpar ending
Smile is the type of movie made by directors/writers who aren't entirely untalented but are essentially jugglers and borrowers: the movie is a visual and narrative patch of previous movies,subgenres and tropes.
It borrows mostly from Asian horror movies with a "grudge" trope, but also from It Follows, Conjuring-type movies and more peripherally from some Exorcist 3 set pieces.
Is it good? It's the definition of barely watchable. Though it has several scares, it feels unoriginal and features some questionable stylistic choices: it has a rosy cinematography and the main character is called "Rose", so it comes across as a bit wink-wink nod-nod (also an on the nose reference to Aliens seems too crass). It overdoes the camera upside down shots, and some characters seem underwritten if not left behind. Kal Penn's acting is hammy and tonally confused.
The fact that it merges 2 unrelated narratives (the mother and the smile, though imdb trivia points at a very tenuous connection) seems forced-- likewise the ending, first with a false ending than with what seems like a complete cop-out, let's finish this final scene.
Don't Worry Darling (2022)
Trite, predictable and intellectually shallow
Florence carries the movie with close-up candor: her acting isn't even that well-rehearsed but she feels lifelike, including the beautiful, realistic details of her skin. She is consistently interesting even if the movie is far from it.
Essentially, it''s a drawn-out Black Mirror episode: an idyllic but vaguely stiff, unnatural 50s world and a tired, lazy "twist": it's a simulation (you don't say)! With a low IQ, heavy-handedness about it that awkwardly emphasizes women as being kinda hijacked by men (even though there's zero reason for the opposite not to happen as well).
Olivia's directing is mediocre, cinematography and settings work adequately but as mentioned above acting is bad (particularly her own).
The Beach House (2019)
One of the best Lovecraftian/cosmic horror movies
Pace is very deliberate and precise, the crescendo works fine with a great sense of place, fully fleshed-out characters, believable interactions and an unrelenting.descent into a type of horror too vast to fully comprehend.
The interplay between the two couples gives a sense of uncertainty at first but the movie cleverly moves into another narrative direction.
Liana Liberato's biology exposition at the table serves as a metaphor/approximation for the later events. The movie has an added touch of body horror when things start to go awry. Third acts moves swiftly and the movie's very last image is striking.
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Utterly incompetent directing, writing, acting; awful in every sense
It's a clumsy, boring murder mystery attempt clogged by:
-abysmal directing: jumbled cuts, inept handheld camera takes, terrible framing and lighting; not one competent producer or film school teacher should ever highlight an inept mess such as this one
-similarly amateurish screenplay:both the self-involved, tedious exposition dialogue, vapid drama and the attempts to show characters as shallow, very dumb types clinging to woke vocabulary come across as annoying
-a cast so unlikable/unsightly it goes beyond satire
In sum, the movie is almost a social experiment that serves as an indictment of.current directing/writing lack of standards as well as showing some of the most insufferable, unwatchable characters of the year.
Nope (2022)
Atrocious and heavy-handed
NOPE is an objectively bad movie:
-it has a bitter, poorly thought-out view about spectacle, which it tries to hypocritically and shallowly portray as exploitative
-disjointed
-full of staggeringly idiotic plans and decisions
-though they vaguely add to the movie's jumble of threadbare ideas, both the chimp and the cinematographer are ultimately disposable, never a good sign to any plot
-heavy-handed: Peele is still burdened by a cringeworthy, self-conflicted and self-destructive racial bias
-not scary
-tonally undecided
-the 2 main characters are very unlikable and annoying in diametrically opposed ways
-overuse of pop (mostly music) references which come across as insecure and try-hard
-Hoyte van Hoytema's usually astounding cinematography is uneven, with a couple of poorly lighted scenes (which seem to have been a directorial rather than technical decision)
-the screenplay is underwritten and poorly structured
-it pilfers too much, even if subtly: the most obvious reference will be Shyamalan's much better movies, but also lifting the Orson Welles' smart time trick from "F for Fake" (read the 1st trivia item to see what I mean).