Justin's Review Thread

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Thanks for the heads up, Justin. This sounds interesting and, as it came out last year, I might be able to find it somewhere.
 
Haven't heard of that until now, I'll have to check it out. Also meant to post that I caught the new Winterbottom film, The Killer Inside Me a few weeks ago. I rate it a little lower than you but definitely worth seeing.
 
I'd probably start with After life. Before going over to the other side, you have to choose one moment of happiness, and the production crew of angels with reenact it for you.

It's a great question: What single scene of your life would you choose to take with you. What moment of happiness?
 
The International (Tom Tykwer,2009) [rating]2[/rating]



Had to watch this for my World Cinema course. Not bad, but not totally efficient in its storytelling. Like The Constant Gardener and Quantum of Solace, The International does present globalization theory in a pretty interesting manner. But those films -- especially the unbelievable Constant Gardener -- work more fluidly, whereas, The International sort of plods along and fails to keep the viewer engaged. While the concepts are interesting and the film is well-shot, it doesn't completely work on a fundamental storytelling level.

However, I did like how it ended, though, which was one of the better moments in the film.
 
I loved The innocents. Loved. It. There weren't any classic thrills and scares sequences, just a brilliant sense of macabre uneasiness and ambiguity. Some of the photography was kinda unbelievable [spoilers="The Innocents"](like the blurry woman in the lake, holy sh*t, I won't forget that any time soon)[/spoilers] considering the period it was shot. Definitely one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of the past year for me.
 
A lot of these newer films I have never heard about apart from actually seen. I've been dying to see Mother but it's not "available" yet if yall know what I mean.

Anti-Christ is one of the best films of the last 5-10 years, I would say. Absolutely a 10/10 for me.

I could never give Celebration a 10, because it's just shot so horribly. Intentional--I know--and I really sort of respect Dogme, but I don't see how this film is better by being Dogme. Honestly, the writing and performances are so strong that they really "deserved" a kinder visual treatment. Even if the quality of the film was improved a little. The graininess is a noticable bother. I'm not sure there's added intimacy here either. In fact, I'd even go as far as to call it a purposeful distanciation. The film works extremely well undoubtedly so I'm not sure if my "what-if" criticisms are even accurate, but this film--not so much The Idiots--"should not" have been Dogme shot IMO. I wouldn't shave off more than half a point, but film as art, as a poetic medium... NEEDS visuals IMO.
 
Yeah, definitely need to check out Farewell starring Emir Kusturica of all people. Thanks, Justin.
 
No probs man I have just restarted doing reviews I did my first yesterday for the first time in ages lol I have missed it
 
Rhys Ifans also gets a nice serious role in the film.

Plus there's also Greta Gerwig who plays Greenberg's love interst. She seems to be a young hypenate: Writer / Director / Actor / Singer, etc, etc. This was the first time I noticed her and she's obviously super talented; and someone to watch in the future.
 
I agree that it kind of plods, but a lot of the weaknesses in the movie in terms of having really thrilling action scenes I think were counteracted for me by how novel a lot of it looked and acted (at least for an action-thriller). That scene at the Guggenheim was some of the most fun I've had in an action movie of any sort and the locations (particularly the last segment in Istanbul) looked pretty inspired and idiosyncratic as I recall.

I appreciated that it ended against the grain for that sort of movie as well, and liked the ending just in general, as well, I agree that was a strong point. The script is a bit forgettable -- I can't seem to recall any of the major themes except for some typical greed/banking/war connections, very generally, but I guess I'm just more forgiving in this instance, since I'd probably give it a high [rating]3[/rating] or maybe even half a rating higher.

Thanks for the review.
 
Yeah, I thought the Guggenheim sequence was great. There were some nice action sequences and the globetrotting aspect was also entertaining.

Definitely. Ending on such a low-note was pretty refreshing, especially considering the "antagonists" being as large and sprawling as they were. It certainly caught me off guard.

No problem. It's a lot of fun for me, actually. Sort of nice to hear other perspectives about the films that I watch; plus, it helps me keep my thoughts in line.

One other thing; I thought I might mention that I'll be re-watching Greenberg, just for the sake of it. I'm not sure I liked it as much as I potentially could.
 
I certainly don't give it a 10/10 either, but I do think it's the European version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. I don't get why you think the visuals suck so much. It's probably the best-looking Dogme film I've ever seen, and it looks about 100 times better than Inland Empire and Public Enemies.
 
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes,1987) [rating]4.5[/rating]



Told with the use of barbies dolls and symbols, Superstar is a disturbing collage concerning Karen Carpenter's struggle with anorexia. I can honestly say that it's incredibly well constructed. The barbie dolls work perfectly in relation to the film itself, where literally everything is a metaphor. Sometimes, the film will almost go into a hallucinatory trip into stock footage and symbolic imagery. Truly a very unique experiment that ultimately works very well. I highly recommend everyone see this if they haven't already; however, it is banned, so it might be a little difficult to get a hold of. But, if you can, do it.

Right now, I'm a little torn between either a "4" or a "4.5", but we'll see how it holds up after a few days.
 
I was quite excited by the prospect of The Green Zone upon hearing about it, however, after looking a the trailers and a couple of interviews from Greengrass upon its release over here, I decided that it sounded more like something I could wait to see on tv. Your review and rating seem to confirm this was the right thing to do.
 
That's a good comparison. Both last all night and have you and the characters utterly drained emotionally by the end. Best visuals out of Dogme is not saying much. I haven't seen the film in a while, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't any better than Von Trier's Idiots... I might be projecting here a little though. I haven't seen Public Enemies, but I can't see how The Celebration looks better than Inland Empire. Even in the handheld bits of IE, everything was lit fairly well. Plus it was tripoded a good percentage of the time and compositions definitely matter to Lynch. I'm just not too big on that sort of camera work. It's basically skilless IMO. I'd compare the occasional beauty that comes out of it more to the products of surrealist automatism than "realism". I think it might just be the grain and bad lighting that bothers me, because Von Trier was at his shaky-cam peak in Anti-Christ, and I considered a lot of the shaky-cam work in that film to be really striking; his form as a whole was very varied in that film though.

Shaky-cam man... is this not the cinematic cliche of the 21st Century or what?

And yes, thanks for the recs, Justin.
 
I'd say that's about right. It's incredibly underwhelming and forgettable; but, like I said, some of the action sequences are very nice. That is assuming you can stomach the handheld aesthetic, which is unpopular (although I like it).
 
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