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Reviews
Doraibu mai kâ (2021)
One of the most healing screenplays of the year
Brilliant acting, right off the bat. Hidetoshi Nishijima's acting during the long take is so well done. He conveys such a raw, deeply felt tone of loneliness and longing. It's such a simple film on the surface, but once you really dig deep into the morals and themes of the film, you really realize how moving it is and how much its themes of loss and acceptance resonate with you. It is 3 hours, but I never once felt the runtime. The movie was constantly engaging right up until the very end. What a gorgeous movie. The cinematography as well, very good. So much of the shots of the car driving were so relaxing and therapeutic. The dialogue flows so smoothly and the acting helps a lot with that. By far, the best part of this movie is the screenplay. The beats of the film. It was so well written. Like I mentioned, the dialogue and the feel that the writer-director is able to craete are beyond spectacular. This movie richly rewards those who are able to stick with it until the end. The play scene at the end is so emotionally rich. The ending in Korea, while not very meaningful on the surface, is packed with symbolism. A typical viewer would likely be confused. "If she's driving his car in Korea, where is he?" It symbolizes that he has let go of his past, which has tormented him with the voice of Oto for the longest time (the car, in fact, did contain tapes of Oto rehearsing the lines of the play). Similarly, the fact that Misaki lives in Korea shows that she too has let go of her past and moved away from Japan, which has been the source of the torment she went through in her past years.
Paris, Texas (1984)
In my opinion, a virtually flawless film.
This film is likely not going to please everyone, but I firmly believe that everyone should at least give it a try. I had very low expectations going in and I was absolutely blown away by just how amazing it was.
Everything about this movie is pretty much perfect, to me at least. The cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful, the acting is some of the best acting I've ever seen in a dramatic film, the writing is on point, just everything about this movie is done incredibly well.
The film is very raw and gives off a very documentary-like style. The characters find themselves in dirty, grimy settings. The mood of the setting is never overdone. When Travis enters the first booth in order to try and talk to Jane, another woman appears. It's an unpredictable film. There are no perfect situations, much like life itself. This is why I feel that the film gives off a documentary-like feel.
Harry Dean Stanton cements his position as one of the most brilliant character actors with this performance. He's a man who's been through a lot, a man who wants to make up for lost time. He's been drifting around the desert for 4 years, and he wants to find perspective of his life again.
Nastassja Kinski gives an equally brilliant performance. There's a certain segment in this movie where it's just a long take on her face while she's listening to Travis's story through the glass, and I thought it was one of the most impressive takes I've ever seen in a movie. The way she is able to convey so much deep yet subtle emotion with just her face is amazing. She doesn't need to suddenly burst out in tears. She's restraining herself, and not a beat is missed during the whole scene.
The last 25 minutes of the movie, which include the climactic conversation between Travis and Jane, were some of the best final scenes in any movie I've ever seen, period. I'd venture so far as to say that the conversation itself is one of the most emotional scenes in the history of cinema.
The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and it's one of the most deserved Palme d'Or wins of all time in my opinion. There were some truly great winners like Taxi Driver and The Tree of Life (controversial as that win may be), but Paris, Texas is one of the best.
When Mark Kermode reviewed this movie, he said that the title of the film indicates a fusion between the European style of film and the American style of film. I thought about that comment, and it could not be more true. The director of this film (Wim Wenders) is German, and it appears that he used a lot of that dreamy European cinema influence in this film.
The whole movie is virtually flawless. There are some people who will likely disagree with that, but it's a film that changed how I view the idea of cinema, and for that reason, it's in my top 5 films of all time.
Her (2013)
One of the sweetest films of the decade.
I don't even know where to start with this one. This review will probably look really all-over-the-place. Everything is just absolutely top-notch. The acting in this movie is off the charts. Joaquin Phoenix turns in probably my favorite performance of his (and I did see Joker). Scarlett Johansson brings such a humane quality to her character. She was perfectly casted. I read that she was casted at the last minute during editing or something like that.
This is a very intimate movie. It uses a lot of handheld camera movement, as well as a lot of close-ups on the actors' faces. It was perfectly suited for this movie, as I feel you need to know as much about the characters as possible, because let's face it, this movie is ultimately about the characters. This is a character study of a lonely man. It reminds me of Taxi Driver, but only in the fact that it's about a very lonely man, and not the blood and guts and grittiness of Taxi Driver.
This is kind of a weird plus about the movie, but it has my favorite love scene in any movie that I've seen. It doesn't focus on being erotic or titillating, it focuses on the passion that the characters are feeling. I love when it fades to black halfway through the scene because it sucks you into the moment and intensifies the scene for the viewer.
This movie also has my favorite original song from any movie that I've ever heard. It's called "The Moon Song", and it's one of the simplest yet most beautiful songs I've ever heard in my life (I wouldn't imagine that does much for my musical tastes lol). There's other stuff like it inspired me to learn the ukulele, but that's not stuff I'll go deep into for this review.
The ending is very poignant. Two characters who, over the course of the film, found solace in AIs. Two characters who grew genuine relationships with these machines, finding solace in one another. It was the perfect sendoff for the movie.
Funny Games (1997)
An agonizing watch, but a very interesting one
This film affected me in such a way that no film had ever done since I watched Requiem for a Dream for the first time. I cared about the characters and wanted to see them out of their turmoil so badly. It's funny, only when the characters are in some high level of emotional pain do I care about what they're going through. I guess it's normal though, I don't rejoice for their victories as much as I worry about them for their pain.
This film is very interesting from top to bottom. The use of fourth-wall breaking by one of the antagonists, Paul, was very unconventional, I didn't really see that coming. One of the scenes that was particularly intriguing was when Anna takes a shotgun and kills Peter. Paul, who is in a rage, finds the family's remote control and literally rewinds the events of the film so that Peter's death never happens. That was just one of many moments where my heart dropped for the family, as it showed they could do absolutely nothing about what they were going through.
Another time that just broke me was when Anna begs Peter to let them go and ensures him that nobody will know about the invasion. Seeing her at such a point, trying to convince Peter by telling him about how much of life he's got ahead of him, it just devastated me. I guess the best way to describe this film is that it was very visceral. There are so many scenes I can point out that made my heart drop, for example the scene in the middle of the film where Georg hears the golf ball rolling on the floor. I won't get into the significance of the golf ball, but you'll know what I mean when you watch it for the first time.
I loved the callbacks and the psychological play concerning the conventional thriller flick. On the Wikipedia page for this movie, I read something that I thought was super interesting. It said, "Throughout the film, Paul shows awareness of the audience's expectations." I didn't really catch it when I was watching the movie, but when Paul says the film has not reached feature length yet, he was playing with the audience's thoughts by referencing what happens in a traditional thriller movie. The fact that Paul is the only character in the film who breaks the fourth wall and can rewind the events of the film I think, makes him the true antagonist in control. Throughout the movie, he also calls Peter a "fatty", which Peter continually tells him to stop doing. Yet, he still does it. The fact that Peter just sits there, being humiliated, and has no power to do much of anything, also supports this idea. Also, while I was reading through the Wikipedia page, it mentioned the film's lack of a "final girl", or the last character who manages to survive the events of the story. Probably the example that comes to mind first for me, is Sally from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). That's also the first example that Wikipedia brought up. You would think for this movie, that the final girl would be Anna, who indeed is the last family member killed. In fact, when Georg gets off the boat to investigate what happened to Rolfi at the beginning of the film, there is a lingering shot of a knife. This shot implies that the knife will be used in a partly to fully successful manner later on in the film, and it is used, just not successfully. The scene where Anna tries to untie herself using the knife but fails, proves the scene at the beginning as a red herring, as Wikipedia states. I thought this idea was very interesting, as it serves to enhance the idea of just how much Michael Haneke plays with the mechanics of your mind over the course of the film. Overall, just a brilliantly constructed film with loads to talk about.
The Tree of Life (2011)
A mesmerizing view on the nature of life.
This is the first Terrence Malick film I've seen. I absolutely loved it. I'd be lying if I said I understood all of it, but nevertheless, it was a euphoric experience. One of the biggest praises I have for this movie is that it shows childhood in such a raw way. Nothing is filtered. You can divide the childhood sequences into segments like the transition from innocence to realization of the nature of the world. I saw a YouTube comment that said that this film was the most accurate depiction of childhood they had ever seen, and I cannot agree more. It's absolutely incredible.
The Lacrimosa sequence was beautiful as well. Watching the creation of the universe, the timeline of Earth, and the formation of life as we know it was just... stunning. Some of the most beautiful visuals I've ever seen in a movie. One scene, where Mr. O'Brien holds his newborn baby, was the essence of purity. That moment where nothing is felt but unending wonder was captured perfectly by Malick. The acting is top-notch, as well, especially the young actor who plays Jack. He does such a good job managing such a difficult role, the development of a child through all stages. It is a very challenging part to pull off, but he did it very well. Same with the two other child actors. Sean Penn isn't in it as much as I expected him to be, but with what he is given, he does very well.
Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt are fantastic as the parents of the three boys. Their differing personalities "wrestling" inside Jack's mind was very interesting. The message of the film is absolutely wonderful, with a beautiful view on the "way of nature" and the "way of grace", as Mrs. O'Brien puts it. I thought the depiction of Mr. O'Brien as the unflinching way of nature clashing with Mrs. O'Brien as the elegant way of grace was very symbolic and gave a lot to think about. Just a stunning film that left my jaw dropped at the end.
"The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by. Do good to them. Wonder. Hope."
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Incredibly restricted yet constantly engaging
Quentin Tarantino's debut film, strangely enough, reminds me of 12 Angry Men, another film that takes place in a single area. This film doesn't take place in a single area per se, as there are many flashbacks leading up to what happens in the present, but nevertheless this film is constantly engaging. I really liked all the performances, especially Harvey Keitel. I loved how endearing he is in this film, despite the nature of the story and the situations that the characters find themselves in.
I really enjoyed how the different characters acted relative to each other. It's structured like a family. Joe Cabot as the really strict dad, Nice Guy Eddie as his goofy son, and the criminals each as Eddie's brothers (Mr. Blonde as the mentally insane brother, Mr. Pink as the slightly superstitious one, Mr. White as the kind one who looks out for his family).
I think this is a brilliantly written film as well. The opening scene is just great. It gets you right into the feel of the movie. The dialogue is excellent. "YOU'RE GONNA BE OKAAAAYYY!" I love the obvious shift in tone between scenes. All in all, just a really well-made film.
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988)
A beautiful, sentimental look at the joy of cinema
This film is incredible, from the beginning to the end. The pure sense of joy and discovery that lies in the story is worth the price of admission. Toto's discovery of film reminded me very much of my own discovery of the magic of cinema. Philippe Noiret as Alfredo was just the most loving character I've ever seen in a film. Salvatore Cascio as Toto was a perfect casting choice. He brought so much to the magic of the movie. The romance aspect was fantastic, so reminiscent of French New Wave cinema. The whole movie is really just one big homage to what cinema stands for as a whole.
Giuseppe Tornatore's directing was great as well. Some of the shots in this movie are genuinely some of the beautiful shots I've ever seen in a film. This isn't a spoiler, but there's a certain shot with an anchor in it, and it's honestly worth framing in my opinion. Also, that ending. My favorite film scene of all time. I've never seen an ending with so much love, so much care put into it. An incredible feature.