January 2011
30 posts
2 tags
#028: Black Swan
I remember writing about The Machinist last year that I didn’t like it because the point of a descent-into-madness movie is to make the truth about what’s happening ambiguous. In that movie I never really felt there was much doubt as to what was really going on: in Black Swan it’s another story.
Initially a little slow and underwhelming, when it eventually kicked into full...
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#027: George Washington
This was an interesting movie. At first I found it terribly slow and thought I was settling down for a ninety minute indie wank-fest, but slowly and surely it grew before me and turned into something strange and fascinating. One review I saw called it “the offspring of Gummo and Stand by Me” and I’d go with that, but I’d also throw in a touch of Unbreakable what with its...
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#026: I Spit On Your Grave
This film is pretty much split into two halves: the rape, and the revenge. One part’s good and the other not so much, and I wish - I wish - it was the other way around.
The rape section is pretty brutal. And though I’m not really a fan of torture porn horror, it’s real enough and awful enough to achieve its aim. After watching that, I was amped for some awesome, justified...
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#025: Winter's Bone
Slightly torn on this one.
On one hand, there were a few things I really liked about it. It’s mature, intelligent and it paints a world with such vivid detail that everything feels completely believable. It’s a classy picture through and through; to the point that I’m actually loath to criticise it at all.
But honestly I have to say that I found the story a little flat....
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#024: Rabbit Hole
Wow. I’m really surprised by how much I liked this.
Based on the subject matter and all the marketing, I was expecting some kind of harsh, depressing melodrama; all plate-throwing, crying and despair. In actuality it’s a really subtle, beautiful portrait of grief and recovery. Achingly sad from start to finish, no doubt, but also warm, funny and just faintly tinged with...
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#023: The Virgin Suicides
There’s something about The Virgin Suicides I never quite got, I think. There were things I liked about it: the soundtrack, the way the girls and boys are mostly separated and how the boys largely create the romance in their heads. But it never really spoke to me. And for a Sofia Coppola movie about depressed virgins that’s kind of a surprise.
I genuinely wonder what people who...
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#022: Exit Through the Gift Shop
“It was like a spiral, and I just fall in it. I just fall in the spiral.”
I really enjoyed this. Much like with Catfish I’m not completely certain I should be taking everything at face value, but it works as a movie either way so I don’t care. Both as a look at the Street Art scene and as a fascinating individual narrative, I found it tremendous fun.
Cracking.
...
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#021: Blue Valentine
Jesus Christ. When I read about the controversy surrounding the sex scenes initially earning this an NC-17 rating, I assumed it was because they were deemed too salacious and, naturally, I assumed it was nonsense. But having now seen it, I have to say that although I don’t agree with the decision, I can kinda see how that rating came about. It’s not that it’s sexy or graphic,...
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#020: The Killer Inside Me
Everything I’d seen about this movie beforehand focused on it being a “character piece”, and so I thought maybe it was one of those that lacked a more general appeal. Not so.
True, Affleck’s the stand-out player, but I liked pretty much everything about this. It looks great, the soundtrack really works, Jessica Alba’s not intolerably bad and Kate Hudson’s...
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#019: Predators
It’s hard to say much about this. In terms of action bang-for-your-buck it’s not too bad, but the absolute absence of story is baffling and renders the whole thing pointless. I actually barely feel like I’ve watched a movie I’m forgetting it so quickly. So yeah… probably more enjoyable than staring at a wall for two hours, but not really any more rewarding.
...
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#018: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
“With some of those who are most reflective it’s gone to a deeper layer, and they are looking at the corporate culture itself in this country.”
I finished watching this about an hour ago and I still can’t stop shaking my head in disgust. As a movie, it’s a relatively dry, yet tidy and comprehensive look at what happened with the Enron scandal. Not massively...
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#017: The Other Guys
Quite often my dad will watch a movie, laugh at every single joke and then suddenly declare how terrible he thought it was. He did that again today with The Other Guys, and whereas I would usually deride him for the logical inconsistency, this time I could totally see where he was coming from.
Funny in parts, but too inconsistent to really enjoy.
Grade: **
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#016: My Bloody Valentine 3D
Ugh. What an irredeemable pile of wank this was.
Tip for Screenwriters: When writing a ‘whodunnit’, make the identity of your killer mysterious by giving several characters believable motives. Do not, as this movie does, attempt to add mystery by giving no-one a satisfactory motive. This creates ambivalence rather than ambiguity, and your pay-off will feel like it was picked via a...
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#015: 127 Hours
Slightly disappointed with this one, to be honest. It was still a pretty decent movie and I really enjoyed Franco’s performance, but Danny Boyle’s hyperactive style felt completely incongruous with the story to me. I was expecting Buried on a mountain. A dying man, a mountain, a knife and a ticking clock: a really raw piece of cinema. But it’s really not like that at all....
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#014: Double Indemnity
What a bloody brilliant movie.
Y’know, I heard Stephen Fry say about Billy Wilder once that he was amazing because he not only jumped across genres, but because every time he did he mastered it. What a shout. Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Sunset Boulevard, this— all absolute cinematic perfection.
I’m not even a noir guy. I don’t know how many times I’ve already...
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#013: The Last Exorcism
This started out pretty terribly, but I have to admit that at times it went from awfully contrived to awfully creepy. There were definitely some fun, scary moments. Sadly, it wasn’t enough to salvage this completely. I was far too put off by seeing Prof. Jeremiah Lasky in a lead role and a much-too-old girl playing sixteen.
Not awful though. The good bits were almost enough. Almost.
...
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#012: Catfish
I honestly can’t decide whether I think this is real or not, but in the end I don’t think it matters: I thought this was a really terrific film. Where The Social Network acts as kind of a historical document for our online age, Catfish tells a much more real story of it.
Fantastically interesting and compelling.
Grade: ****
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#011: Monsters
I feel a bit misled by the marketing and some of the reviews I read, but I enjoyed this anyway. Strangely uneventful and carried mostly by the believability of the characters, it was kinda like a Sofia Coppola monster movie. Not hugely captivating, but I dug it.
Grade: ****
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#010: Serenity
I don’t think I’ve ever described my mood as woebegone before, but that’s where I was when I put this on and it’s pretty much why I put this on. It kinda did the trick.
Watching it for the first time in a while I can see how for some people it’s just another cheesy sci-fi adventure, but I still love it. It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s surprising and...
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#009: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Bizarrely enough, the film I’m most reminded of after watching this is Amélie.
I remember watching that movie, swathed in hype as it was, and feeling like everything was just a little too easy. I enjoyed it for the visuals, the romance and the general tone, but story progressed too easily from A to B to C and so I was never hooked in emotionally.
This was much the same.
I enjoyed...
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#008: Be Cool
Directed by F. Gary Gray. And y’know what? F. Gary Gray indeed. If ever there was an example of the fine line between colourful characters and crass caricatures, it is Get Shorty and Be Cool. Really lazy, insipid and uninspired sequel.
Grade: **
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#007: Buried
Very good, I thought. Not intensely exciting exactly, but a pretty huge success in that it remains so compelling under such extraordinary circumstances, both cinematically and dramatically. Mad props are surely due.
Grade: ****
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#006: The Kids Are All Right
“Wouldn’t you guys just rather watch girls doing it, though?” “Well, you would think that, but usually in these movies they hire two straight women to pretend, and the inauthenticity is just unbearable…”
I really like this line relation to the movie’s broader context, because the best thing about this film is how fantastically believable it all is....
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#005: The A-Team
You know how some people play ambient sounds to help them fall asleep? “Whale Songs Vol. 4” or “Sounds of the Rainforest” etc.? A film like this makes me wonder whether, in a few years or so, people struggling to sleep will play “Sounds of the Modern Action Movie” to lull themselves into oblivion. Because, yes, I fell asleep during this movie - and it’s...
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#004: Legendary
Far from good, but not a bad watch really. One of those movies which coats its dodgy script in a swelling score to make everything surprisingly emotional. Kinda like eating bland chicken that’s so drowned in sauces you don’t care.
Grade: **
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#003: Somewhere
More morose and less subtle than Lost in Translation, but right in my thematic wheelhouse, to be honest. Aimlessness, restlessness, separateness, isolation: it’s all good stuff. And who cares about subtlety if you achieve affecting? I enjoyed it a fair bit.
Grade: ****
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#002: The Incredibles
This movie is littered with bits where Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl look at their children and exchange these exquisitely tender expressions of pride and love. I hope it doesn’t say too much about me to say that every one of these moments kills me every time. It goes without saying that this is good. “Pixar ftw!” and all that. Grade: ****
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#001: Get Shorty
“Fuck you, fuckball!”
I was hugely into this movie when it first came out. I’d enjoyed the book already, Travolta was wrapped in post-Pulp Fiction cool and the rest of the cast was awesome too. I was a big fan. Watching it again for the first time in years, it’s not quite as good as I remember it, but still fun. Colourful in every sense of the word really.
Grade: ***
1 tag
2011
In the immortal words of Coolio, “aw, here it goes!”.
I don’t actually expect to hit 365 this time, so the pressure is off. Hopefully this will make it more fun and I won’t vomit at the thought of watching another film come August.
December 2010
11 posts
1 tag
Final Score
So here are the final numbers: Movies watched: 247 Movies watched for the first time: 219 Average rating out of 10: 5.99
And so it’s over - and I have failed. As I write this I feel slightly guilty for not following through with more vim and vigour, but on the whole I’m not too bummed about it. The whole point of this project was to stop myself doing things I got nothing out of -...