i thought lights out was fine. i agree it is heavy on the jumps, but some of them gave me a pretty good jolt, & i think it did a pretty decent job of drawing sympathetic characters too.
don't know any of your other films.
my week:
klute (1971) 3 call girl gets enmeshed into a missing person investigation. first half great, second half meandering & not so good.
the first half seemed to be working towards the greatest movie about a hooker movie ever made, but then it trails off to a meandering, uncertain crime/mystery story that got progressively less & less interesting, at least to me.
promised much, delivered less.
doctor sleep (2019) 2 fairly massive disappointment. i've liked everything flanagan's done so much, but i really saw none of what attracted to me in the past here. it's terribly clunky, filled with trite lines & odd pacing & absolutely no atmosphere or tension. that said, it's received reasonably good reviews, & i like flanagan's other films so much that i'm willing to believe i might have missed something here, so i might try to catch it again before it leaves theatres.
soni (2018) 3.5 very tidy, minor key look at the frustrations of female police officers in delhi. light on major conflicts, heavier on personal drama. quite good!
safeword (2015) 1.5 i want there to be dirty, kinky, s&m themed films. i don't mind if they're cheap or amateurish. that can be a feather in their cap, even.
but jeez, can a little bit of rigor be applied to the plot & script? there is a twist here, but it's a twist that still leaves most of the elements of the film making not even the smallest amount of sense.
i could forgive that if it was at least a little bit steamy, but they can't even give me that. the actresses are attractive in my books, & we get a bit of nudity, but sadly this is completely bereft of anything that came close to getting my motor running.
theory of obscurity: a film about the residents (2015) 3 . very straightforward doc on a less than straightforward camera shy cult band,
it's perfectly fine, though after 90 minutes i felt like i still knew very little about them, why they did what they did, etc.
dangerous worry dolls (2008) 3 utterly ridiculous. it's hard not to be disappointed by a women in prison film that contains no sex & almost no nudity (& the nudity you get is not what you might expect), but this was weird & silly & it provided me with solid entertainment. fun!
the wandering earth (2019) 3 mankind works together to move the planet out of the solar system when the sun goes haywire. this is definitely one of the most adolescent films i've seen recently. not a terrible thing, really. it's the kind of idea a 14 year old would cook up in his creative writing class. it's silly & goofy & melodramatic, & i had a pretty good time watching it.
it's just a good bit too long & a bit too full of bombastic music that wore out its welcome.
but i say don't judge it too harshly. it's silly harmless fun, & if you don't take yourself too seriously you'll probably mostly enjoy it.
landing lake (2019) 2.5 techs on an out of town call run into paranormal forces (i think?)... absolutely terrible in some ways, but i kinda admire its audacious shoot for the moon spirit. it's only about 1/4 of the way there as far as execution goes, but it's still worth a watch for fans of mind-bending fare like the endless or coherence - just don't expect it to be anywhere as good as that.
it's also far too long. they had 80 minutes of material, really
layer cake (2004) 2 i avoid crime/gangster films. everything about them makes my 'i'm bored' neurons trigger. but i gave this a try tonight after hearing generally positive things from a few sources.
didn't like it. the first 20 or minutes chugged along with a nice, bristly energy, but after that it just was a turgid jumble of this guy connected to this bad guy & another guy threatening someone else & i just couldn't make myself care enough to try to follow along with its needlessly complicated plot.
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5 years ago
long day's journey into night (2019) 4.5 when are they going to put trigger warnings on films where characters have runny noses and make no effort to clean themselves up? why do film-makers film this?
there is a very long shot around the 1hr4minute mark of a guy eating an apple while his nose runs. it goes on forever, and it is completely disgusting. why???
ok, with that out of my system, i am actually happy to say it turns out i absolutely loved this! leave the running nose & the needlessly long running time aside. the last hour of this is just dizzyingly great. i could almost imagine it sliding into that last season of twin peaks with a little tweaking.
i wish the opening 70 minutes were just a little tighter, perhaps - a bit too much preamble. and i can't forgive that business with the apple & the nose. that was too much for me to take.
but even with its flaws, this is definitely one of my favourite movies of the year. if you have any kind of fondness for films that go all in on dreamlike, ephemeral atmosphere & completely sacrifice narrative, you might dig it as well.
bride of re-animator (1991) 3.5 i'm not going to push back against all the people who are saying it's not as good as the first one. it's a step below it for sure. it's oddly talky at times & lacking the go for broke crude sensibility of the first.
but it still has fun gore & a good sense of humor. you'll find things to enjoy here.
army of shadows (1969) 4 resistance group plots against nazis in wartime france. there were elements i thought were great. in particular, an early scene where a betrayer in their midst has to be dealt with is one of the best of its kind i think i've seen. there were several moments like that, where i felt i was seeing some of the most realistic, true depictions of what it might have been like to be someone in that time & place.
but parts of it really confused me, and i found it just a bit too long. i wish people wouldn't make such long movies.
the midnight swim (2014) 3.5 trippy, weird story about three sisters (two of whom are very foxy, thank you very much) returning home after their mothers death & having odd, perhaps paranormal experiences. i really like this a lot. has a really cringe-inducing scene in the middle, but it's odd & spacey in a way that is handled very deftly. if you like slightly trippy head-scratchers, this is a great hidden gem i reckon.
too late (2015) 3.5 private investigator searches for a missing woman. about 2/3s fantastically enjoyable & full of surprises, 1/3 cringe inducing dialogue. & a scene where john hawkes sings a sensitive song about his feelings almost made me turn it off.
but it's not some cookie-cutter exercise. it's fun & i never knew where it was going, so in the main i give it a fairly big yay.
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