1,000 Times Good Night

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Juliette Binoche does well as a photographic journalist whose dangerous work creates conflict in her home life. I would hate to be the cinematographer in a film about photography but the digital images are quite beautiful and occasionally a little self indulgent but still look great. An effecting drama and character study, slow paced but engaging.

Maléfique

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

This is a french film I vaguely remembered from a while back. I'd been thinking about it lately and took the opportunity to dust it off and see if I remembered it correctly. I really love the concept, a prison drama that turns into an escape movie using supernatural means, which then leads to some full on horror. A confined space with small group of actors is a great set up for low budget films and this one works it quite well.

I really liked it when I was younger. It doesn't quite hold up to my memories, I found a lot of the horror stuff a bit clumsy and certainly the effects show their age. Some of the drama works alright. It very much feels like an episode of the twilight zone the way the film plays out.

Always interesting to go back and see these. The memory comes back to you as you watch it, it feels very familiar and at the same time it's like watching it fresh.

Exists

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Kate

The Blair Witch dud is back. This time though, bigfoot is in the woods terrorising the group of young adults. It's a pretty classic cabin in the woods set up. They provoke a monster and then one by one get picked off.

It's a found footage film and makes use of go pros and night vision and the various regular tropes. Although oddly they have a cast list up front which really seems to negate the whole point of using the found footage techniques.

The cast are alright. Made me feel a little racist that the one African American guy I just wanted to die. But really he's the most annoying character, the one that just complains the entire time and does everything wrong and gets people in more danger. Perhaps that's intentional, typical horror film character.

But the characters in this one do a lot of really stupid things. So it's okay, they brought this hell on themselves.

There are certainly very effective scenes of suspense throughout. The sound design goes a long way in helping that. But this one ends up going for the roller coaster ride slasher thriller rather than the slow building suspense that Willow Creek managed so well. It has no problem showing the creature from the get go, and jumps right into the scares with no build up. It's a pity because the scenes of suspense really work well, but the teen slasher set up works against that. I kind of wish it was one or the other, the mix is a little weird. It feels like it just wants to be a straight up traditional film, but only manages to get its scares from the found footage slow suspense pieces.

Bigfoot himself works well seen in glimpses. But towards the end we get some close ups and the prosthetic effects are okay but it really take away any mystery the creature had.

Overall I think it was more of a success than I was expecting. It's just nice to have some decent horror films on the big screen. There's some cool stuff and some frustrating choices but overall it's pretty effective.

Man Of Steel

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No

Write Up.

Finally ordered a copy of the bluray that contains the extra features that for some frustrating reason weren't released in Australia. The picture in picture commentary is really interesting, some really cool behind the scenes stuff and every time Michael Shannon comes on to talk I could not help but laugh, what a hilarious guy.

The Drop

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

After the striking Bullhead, Michaël R. Roskam makes his english language debut and bring his lead actor with him to play an interesting supporting part. Tom Hardy gets to do another voice in this little Brooklyn character crime drama story. It's also, sadly, the last film from James Gandolfini. Interesting to see James Frecheville from Animal Kingdom pop up too.

It's really more of a character study. A dude that is trying to live a straightforward life but has one foot in the crime world. Gets saddled with a dog, falls for a girl with an ex boyfriend that's trouble. Then his boss gets caught up with mob stuff.

On the surface, a sweet little story with a few tense moments but I found the end quite troubling. Perhaps that's intentional.

My Old Lady

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

This was a play, so you KNOW it's gonna get all drama. But it's pretty inoffensive. Perhaps not exactly feel good, but close enough. Obviously the three leads are good. It's all in the trailer, you know what to expect.

The Double

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Write Up.

Wonderfully aggravating film. Funny and uncomfortable.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Mum

Write Up.

Really interesting seeing this again. And after watching the making of documentary that is also screening as part of the Ghibli festival. The insight really helps. That sadness was always there but seeing more clearly the intentions behind it made it that much more powerful. Also it's harder to take for granted the amount of work that goes into these films. The artistry is always on full display but the amount of work it takes to get it there is monumental.

I really love the rough design style and the light water colour backgrounds. The simple designs really just emphasise how great the naturalistic animation is, to make the characters read like real people. Beautiful work.

Just Before Dawn

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Tyler, Kate, Andrew

Wonderful to discover genuine 80's slasher films I've never heard of. Added bonus, it was neat! Deliverance hillbillies. Stabbing campers in the woods! Pleasantly surprised how well it was put together. Great fun.

Let's Be Cops

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Kate

This film is terrible. I've seen comedies with unlikeable lead characters before, and I've seen them work remarkably well but I have a feeling that these particular character are not supposed to be unlikable. Unfortunately they are just despicable idiots. And the only kind of people that would find any of this funny are despicable idiots too. 

I hate to be the grumpy old man but the way the film trivialises and celebrates their reckless behaviour in the name of comedy is disturbing. But is greater crime is the inconsistency of character, flip flopping on the feelings and desires to keep the flimsy premise going for feature length running time. Sometimes mere minutes lapse before a character does something that contradicts a trait they firmly set up before. 

I've seen Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. be much better than this. They try really hard to sell what they are doing but I just can't get into it. The jokes here are all sitcom level fluff with swearing and a bit of physicality added. There's no finesse to them and there are very long stretches of exposition and set ups before we get to the next failed gag. 

A troubling film. Please don't go see it.

7500

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Kate

Takashi Shimizu, of The Grudge fame, made this low budget mid-flight supernatural horror riff a few years back, it's finally getting out into the world. It plays out like an old twilight zone episode and indeed, they directly reference that within the film.

There's a slow creeping tension for the first half. Once the scares start though I sort of started losing interest, it's the same scares we've seen before and certainly some jumps work but the old J-horror trope of the creepy crawling girl is a little stale by now.

I really love one of the ideas behind the source of all this scariness, that's rooted in Japanese folklore. Fans of Death Note may be familiar too. But the final twist is something we've seen before as well. The one or two good ideas aren't enough to fix the film as a whole. It's well made despite its obvious low budget but the finale doesn't pack the punch I think they were going for.

22 Jump Street

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes

Write Up.

I really liked this on first watch. I've seen quite a few studio comedies this year since then. Compared to them, the jokes in this are so consistent and hilarious. I didn't think this was going to be the high point of the year for studio comedies but, man, it's been a shitty year.

So I got the bluray and went the through the extras, some really great stuff there. And the commentary track I watched tonight is very funny.

Stalingrad

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

This was the big closing night film of the Russian film festival. I know it is the first non-american film to get an IMAX 3D release. Pity we didn't get it in IMAX but at least I managed to see it in the cinema at all.

So confusingly this film starts Japan during the recent earthquake and tsunami. Not sure why. Then flashes back from there. It's a strange bookend. And despite the title, we don't really get much of an idea of the actual battle in Stalingrad, the battle has been going for some time when we enter the film and doesn't finish when we leave it. We only get to follow a small company in one house. But we do get to know them, all trying to protect a young girl who refuses to leave.

And at the same time we get Thomas Kretschmann on the german side, he has a girl to protect too. He's not entirely the typical evil Nazi and provides and interesting counterpoint to the main gang.

This was a really long film. And despite its impressive productions design, the effects in the sporadic action scenes and the striking colour grading, it really did seem to drag to me. I was never really that interested in either side of the conflict. And ultimately I don't think I learnt anything about the actual historical battle either. Impressive production and there's lost of cool stuff in it but the longwinded character drama stuff in between those bits failed to grab me.

West Side Story

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No

MAMBO!

Couldn't pass up the opportunity to see this classic on the big screen. Spectacular. Won 10 Oscars for a reason. Amazing cinematography, making full use of technicolor process. And while there's much that looks stage bound, the big open dance numbers in the streets are the best. This has always been a musical about the dancing, and the energy of it jumps out of the screen.

Of course Leonard Bernstein's iconic score has a lot to do with it too. And Stephen Sondheim lyrics. And Shakespeare. There's a hell of a pedigree behind this one.

It's been a while since I watched this, forgot just how awesome and effective it is. I can't remember if I saw the stage show or the film first, but I've always preferred the restructuring in the film. It's actually shorter than I remembered too, even with that really brief intermission card thrown in. The digital restoration looks great too. You can really see all that dark foundation on the actors faces... Check it out on bluray, or if you're lucky enough, at a cinema screening!