I think it's well on its way for me at this point that I prefer Isao Takahata to Hayao Miyazaki. Maybe that will change, I'll have to go over all my ratings when I've finished watching all the Studio Ghibli movies. His films are more sentimental than action, which I prefer at this point in my life. His art is always unique and a break from the "normal". Also COUGHCOUGH he doesn't have to make every movie about airplanes COUGHCOUGH.
Only Yesterday is about a woman going for an 8 day vacation to work on a farm in the countryside as she's always felt more at home there than in the city. Because she remembers as a child all her friends got to take summer vacations in the countryside and she was left alone wishing she could too. Now because of her older sister's parents inviting her, she finally has that chance. This sparks memories of that entire era for her As she plans and takes the train out and works there she is constantly thinking about her 10 year old self in 1966 and various memories of that year. The beginning of puberty and boys and hating math and, well other things I won't spoil. Which then leads to her wondering if she stayed true to her childhood desires. Also, she meets a sweet young farmer during her time there and two end up having a lot in common.
It's a very simple, pensive movie. What I really loved in this movie was the half drawn and/or erased presentation of all the memory sequences. We get neat little sequences such as explaining the history, uses, and farming of Saffron flower. But really it's a movie once again about people accepting themselves and being accepted for who they are despite the pressures of society and the world and god damn that speaks to me.
EDIT: Oh and I learned what an Aiaikasa is and I like it. It's very sweet. So there.
Meh. Unfortunately it's just one of those filler types of documentaries that tells you absolutely nothing new. May as well have been an hour long VH1 biography or something. Very strange since the one guy said he spent years just recording everything, then you get about 5 minutes of that tops in the whole thing. Guess it was boring or bad quality or both. Disappointing.
This was good but very unsatisfying in that I could've watched 4 more of these. It goes through all of the issues but it comes off more like a greatest hits and leaves further answers up to the viewer to attain in their own time. At the very least its a reminder to those who now try to lionize Ronald Reagan of his very worst policies that started us on the racial and criminal roads we still travel on today.
Appropriate Killer Mike song: https://youtu.be/6lIqNjC1RKU
I... really liked this. I did not expect to but something in the trailer grabbed me so I gave it a shot. I liked the movie, I liked Lil Peep, and holy shit I think I actually even like a few of the songs ("Witchblades" is especially good). I still can't say I understand these people, or the face tattoos, or whatever, but he was a really unique and creative dude and was actually leading the way and doing things first instead of just copying other people. This movie, semi-based upon handwritten letters he'd get from his grandfather, is really well done. It even led to me checking out his discography on spotify and liking way more songs than I expected to. I checked out the artists in the movie besides him, and, well... yeah they suck. XXXtentacion has a few good songs but the rest are pretty bad and nobody is near Peep. 21 is just an obscenely early age to die but he packed a lot of life in on his way there. Going to give this one a high score, if you actually liked him already, definitely check this out. RIP.
I have seen every Christopher Nolan film except Larceny and those 3 shorts he did. He may be my favorite director. This is the worst movie he has ever made. When I think of this movie I think of George Costanza yelling ITS FINE and that's what I want to do. I am pretty sure Nolan had the idea about a backwards car chase and thought, "well how do I make that into a movie?" and poof, here we are. The writing is extremely snappy, almost to the point of parody. People non-stop rattling off 6 word sentences at one another with almost zero silence between them. The action, well, I had no idea what the heck was going on most of the time. It's just not written well. I am a geek for time movies or time-anything. I watch it all. I have never once not understood the movie/whatever. Even the so-called complicated ones. This? I have no idea what was going on. I mean I get what the evil Russian big bad was doing, but the actual action sequences with the inverse-whatever its called? No idea. There's also stupid stuff like loudly discussing terroristic plans on airport subways in a crowd while everyone around does seem to notice. But its a pretty movie with pretty people that are all good to great actors. Nolan should be glad COVID made it so nobody saw this in theaters. It helps his reputation to not see it, because this was not up to his standards in anything but the visuals. Maybe he can get back to that Jim Carrey cum Howard Hughes movie he had to cancel all those years ago. As for Tenet? ITS FINE.
Due to the name, I've wanted to see this for well over a decade. I know its an artsy fartsy name, but something about it appeals to me. TSoGP is not a movie for everyone. For the first hour and twenty minutes of its hour and forty minute runtime, there is almost no dialogue, and little hint of a plot. Yet more movies should be made like TSoGP in the sense that it conveys such overwhelming positivity and beauty. The movie is about a poor village girl in early 1950s Vietnam named Mui, who comes to Saigon to work for a well off family of cloth sellers. On the surface the family appears to have it all, but knowing the details of their lives reveals they suffer as much or more than anyone. We watch the family through Mui's eyes and Mui pays very close attention to not just them but to the nature around her as well. She is seemingly most pleased by the ordinary, such as a single ant transporting his food, or the milk of a papaya stem dripping onto a leaf. She works hard and she works well. Outside of the older servant she learns from, the youngest son that torments her in childish ways usually involving lizards or farting, and the mother who comes to view her as something of a daughter, much the rest of the family doesn't seem to notice her at all. In the final act of the movie we skip 10 years ahead and the family is down on its luck and must send her away, but she is hired by the family of a boy she has had a distant love for since they were both children. He is rich, a pianist, speaks French, and has a high class fiancée. But eventually despite their separate roots, he comes to love Mui much like the viewer has. It is a whirlwind romance to end the film. Its probably not believable any more than Cinderella or Pretty Woman. But we are still happy for Mui in the end. Good things happen to good people in this world. And that's wonderful.
I will say first. Kudos to both the marketing machine AND the viewers. Everything I thought this movie was going to be was wrong. Allow me to repay the favor and say if you haven't seen this, don't read this or any review.
Parasite really is not what I expected. I don't know what I expected. But with the creepy name and the unsettling movie poster, I didn't expect the first half to be a light hearted comedy. The majority of the movie, if anything, reminds me of a classic farce. They keep adding layer after layer of the con that by the time they had the drunken party at the house while the family was away you almost half expected them to get away with it. But when the former housekeeper shows back up in the middle of a rainy night, you know something is about to go wrong. Just how wrong, was completely unexpected however, culminating in an array of murders for an array of reasons. How it turns out, who knows. We see the son's fantasy of how he would like it to turn out. But that's just a fantasy. However with only a few family members left, there certainly doesn't seem to be room for a sequel. By the time the movie is over it has run through near any genre you could think of and handles each one deftly. Despite all the hype, this one does not disappoint.
Well, I thought I saw the best "comic book movie" ever earlier this year when I finally saw Logan. That title has now moved to Joker. I was a bit hesitant going into this. One, because I'm not that into comic movies normally, two, because DC movies are a lottery of quality standards, and lastly because its by the guy who's famous for comedies like The Hangover and Old School taking on the aforementioned 2 things. But I'd recently seen a still from the movie, of Phoenix laying back against grimy 70s subway glass and for some reason that sparked something in me that made me want to go watch it finally. I'm glad I did. This is the first "super hero" movie I can recall, that would be the same movie even without the "super heroes". Phoenix is completely amazing through-out the entire movie, and the story held up its end of the bargain. Was this ever a comic story or was this brand new? I have no idea. I do know that if every comic movie was this dark and grounded in reality, I'd watch them all, constantly. The whole cast shines through, but 1970s New York (Gotham) outshines them all but Phoenix himself. The city is disgusting and scary and going through collapse. Thomas Wayne is not the white meat good guy. Joker is not entirely a bad guy, certainly not until the very end and certainly not when the movie starts. I cannot say enough about how much I liked this movie. I read that it was supposed to be a one-off but the obscene success it saw has lead to a sequel that is currently in the idea phase. I can only hope it lives up to this. Stay f*cked up and stay in reality, and it just might.
This movie isn't out yet, but this place holder image is absolutely hysterical so 10/10 already.
This had showed up in my youtube recs a bunch but I ignored it until this past Halloween season. I like a Found Footage horror if done right. This one mostly is. When they reveal too much it can be silly but that happens extremely rarely, I think twice for a total of 3 seconds in the whole thing. Also, the character who covers ALL of his clothes in tin foil I can see really taking people out of the movie for being so cheesy and it almost did me but I was able to mostly deal with it to the point that by the end I had come around on it. The guy is just SUCH a tortured psychic that he'll do anything to stop the voices. I kind of like that. Hard to say much more without giving away key plot moments that are better off left seen by the viewer themselves, but this is definitely worth your time. I want to see his genre-follow up Occult sooner than later.
I keep rating this one lower every time I think about it. It's great to see the Borat character again, and Maria Balkova does a great job as his daughter, as seemingly everyone has said at this point. But the original charm of Borat (and all Sasha Baron Cohen characters) was their ability to slide into reality and show how people reacted when things were out of their comfort zone, or, a little too in it. Unfortunately this movie is almost majority staged and scripted and it doesn't work nearly as well. There are still some funny moments such as the cake decoration/abortion confusion. Also, the Giuliani pay off to end the movie isn't quite as shocking as its made out to be which is a bit of a let down. Overall its a major step down from the ground breaking, hysterical original, but its not a bad way to spend 90 minutes if you're nostalgic for the character.
This was actually as good as the hype, and usually hype ruins things for me so that's saying something. I love Moss already and expected that she wouldn't pick a bad script since she never does and luckily that held true. She plays someone questioning their sanity as the world turns against them and does so exceedingly well, credit to the make up team as well as she even physically deteriorates as time passes in the movie. Though I won't spoil what or how, the script also brings a modern take on the invisibility aspect as well, which is nice. The usual fun Invisible Man semi-reveals like his breath in the cold or footprints and so on are here as well as fights where the actors roll around looking ridiculous and its all as fun as it ever was. But this time around the tone is much more serious and bleak as a possessive lover tries to take everything away from the protagonist... and then take some more. A more serious and adult tone on a somewhat silly concept with a strong lead that turned out really well.
As with a lot of true crime stuff, it's hard for me to rate them very highly unless they're bringing something new to the table. I've already watched a ridiculous amount of Chris Watts case coverage and this did nothing to add to it. It felt like the case in fast forward. I noticed technically it very nice, as in, a lot of the famous interrogation or body cam footage was extremely cleaned up and HD this time around. But there was no new info at all. It was also rather strange that they presented the mistress as an innocent bystander when there is much, much more to her story than that. Anyways, I think it's a good primer, if nothing else.
The final episode was a little silly with the Incredible Hulk drink but this show is just beautiful, one of my favorite animation styles ever, especially of the environments. And yeah, like everyone says, it's probably the most metal shit in history that isn't called Iron Maiden. Which is interesting, because the show is strongest when the characters show momentary empathy for others that are also surviving the best they can. Also, I'm kind of a sissy so some of the suffering and pain in the show was hard to watch but I also think that was the point.
This movie could alternately be called "Stress Will F***ing Kill You". Because often times, this movie could be taken as the occasional break downs of an over burdened woman named Yoshimi hurdling towards mental collapse. From the director who started the J-Horror craze of the turn of the millennium with Ringu, Hideo Nakata, The plot follows a recently divorced woman, trying to take care of her daughter and avoid the same divorced childhood that she grew up in, which, coincidentally, was also the same circumstances of the vacant apartment above them where the daughter ended up going missing. Her callous ex-husband tries to make her efforts as miserable as possible, out of simple spite. She attempts to put on a strong front and has little successes, but eventually the water just will not stop dripping from the ceiling and her sanity is chipped away slowly.
The end of the movie was almost the most tragic of all. Ten years later, the daughter, Ikuko, randomly ends up in her old neighborhood and finds her old apartment, now condemned. She has no memory of the place at all besides "I used to live with my mother here," forgetting Yoshimi's extreme sacrifices for her in life, that she has even continued on carrying out in the afterlife.
Honestly I'd have preferred if the movie was just about mental breakdowns from stress but alas the monster here is real. It may make the movie have a bit less of a statement, but it doesn't make it any less good as others could help themselves by borrowing from the "less is more" philosophy seen here.
I have mixed thoughts on Fury Road. I loved the story, the characters, the scenes completely drenched in blue or red, the chases, the action. It was a great time. But wow did I hate the costuming for basically everyone except the protagonists. From the electrified yellow hair of the main villain to the baby/man thing, to the bikers with dreads made out of cloth and on and on, I just didn't like any of it. Luckily though, everything else is excellent and overall it was a very fun watch.
Also, on a side note, watching the movie, it came off to me as a bit of a rip-off of Fist of the North Star. A quick google shows FOTN debuted in 1983 and the original Mad Max in 1979. So actually it's the other way around and now they just kind of "borrow," so to speak, from each other. Just thought that was interesting, both are very clearly inspiring one another to the point even someone with minimal knowledge of either like myself can notice it.
This is just pure nonsense cop-a-ganda. It's the Pearl Harbor of cop movies. It's a long Pena and Gyllenhaal bromance, where they constantly espouse their love for one another in hushed tones. It's a long line of giant busts for 2 patrol cops that could be movies of their own (crackheads with babies taped up on the closet, rich cartel cowboy pull overs, cartel mass graveyards, and on and on and on with the heroes easily dispensing of the villains and moving on to the next huge bust that comes from "checking out that scene again" or "a random welfare check". Not to mention the cartoonish Mexican gangster arch villains who stab people in the eye with kitchen knives (the victim talked his way through this entire thing by the way, with a knife in his head) that mostly just scream that they have no fear and have names like "Big Evil". This is some of the most sanctimonious trite ever put to screen. Completely shocking that this is by the same person who made a film as good and real and raw as Training Day.
EDIT: I forgot the fore-shadowing. At Gyllenhaal's wedding, there's a guy who looks like an old version of him, talking about how his partner took a bullet that was meant for him even though his buddy was great and he was just a piece of sh*t. This, after spending whole movie calling Pena great and "aw shucks" calling Gyllenhaal a piece of sh*t, even as soon as the next scene. Boy, I wonder how the movie is going to end...
Honestly this was even better than I remembered. In terms of the US, this was a massively popular early anime, at the time as popular as Akira or Ghost in the Shell. I remembered only that I loved it and that is was really bloody. Both of these things were even more true than I knew. Ninja Scroll fears no nudity and no gore as Jubei, the hero of the film must face down the Eight Devils of Kimon, led by Genma, a man Jubei had already beheaded once before, before he can become the Shogun of the Dark. Genma is also a bisexual as his underlings all strive to be among his sexual partners, in a plot line that seems quite racy for 1993. The movie is lush with the beauty of ancient Japan, and many of the scenes are breath takingly gorgeous. The Eight Devils all have their own unique supernatural ability (except for the blind swordsman, who can just hear really well) and all provide almost impossible challenges for Jubei and his two companions to overcome as they narrowly escape the odds each time. It’s a shame they never made a sequel and that the TV series spin off doesn’t look up to par. It’s also quite strange the the director, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who was quite successful at the time with other movies such as Wicked City, Highlander, and one of the skits in The Animatrix, didn’t go on after said movies to direct much of anything. Ninja Scroll was such a provocative, well done, and beautiful movie, that it feels like something has almost been stolen from the world by its creator not having more output.
Hugely successful at the time, Borat still holds up today as a lot of the things being mocked still apply 15 years later, maybe even more so. It had a huge cultural impact, how many times have you heard someone in a generically Slavic accent say “it’s nice, I like”? Even people that have never seen the movie attempt to use that catchphrase. Borat was brilliant in that it pushed the bounds of what was acceptable, by going after things that are unacceptable. Racism, sexism, classism, anti-semitism, and more - they’re all here and all being exposed for the ridiculousness that they are.
The one that started it all. Hadn’t seen this in decades yet still remembered the vast majority of it, including the amazing motorcycle gang face off at the beginning as a biker goes soaring down the highway holding a pipe that scrapes along the ground in menace as motorcycle tail lights leave trails as the bikes weave in and out. Akira takes the story of a wimp growing to be something more and turns it on its head. The loser sidekick gets all the power in the world, but instead of learning anything, or doing anything better, he takes out a lifetime of frustration on everyone he encounters, until the very end when, losing again, he begs for his big brother figure that he’s tossed away and tried to kill, to save him. Visually the movie is as beautiful as ever with grand set pieces and endless style. While the ending is hard to get your head around, I’m still not sure if I understood it, its easy to see why this movie took the world by storm and started an entire industry both at home and around the globe.
First 2 episodes start strong, and are actually about the topic. The remaining 3 run out of things to talk about and follow around people at best tangentially involved in the case endlessly, with more to say about their lives then was ever said about Pazuzu, who this is supposed to be about. Lot of potential, didn't live up to it, last 3 episodes are basically pointless.
Adam Scott's character was funny. The rest was the typical pro-drugs type of documentary you've seen 100x before with the cliche art and typography, except with more famous people in it. Pretty boring.
Carole Baskin!
Extremely entertaining and bingeable show featuring a full cast of complete scumbags that don't give a single shit about tigers or animals in general even if they may have back when they started. Tim Lowe comes off the worst, just a complete con and manipulator without a single shred of human decency in him. Carole Baskin almost definitely killed her first husband. Even Joe, who they make you feel sorry for at times, is totally manipulative and thinks he can do anything he wants, including that white trash haircut that died in 1985.
These people are awful. Which unfortunately tends to make for the best reality shows. This one is no exception.
I think the cover art references to Serial and The Jinx are a bit silly. It's just a really long episode of Dateline or something. But still, I love Dateline so I enjoyed it.
I have no idea why Netflix is referring this terrible movie to so many people lately but this movie is really lame. Every single thing was ultra cliched, the boyfriend is making a career of being not-James Franco, and the lead actress has one of those squeaky voices that make you want to tear your hair out. Also, way to proliferate fear of the mentally ill. "Oh, schizophrenia, that's why she's so crazy!" Ugh.
Not a bad movie. Well, it was kind of bad. But it was charming. Tanahashi is actually a pretty good actor, not over shadowed by anyone in the movie. It's a corny story about a kid being embarrassed of his dad's job and getting over it but its a fine daytime TV movie or something. Plus, if you have a soft spot for wrestling, that helps, as does being able to pick out tons of New Japan stars that are all over the place through out. It's brought down by how completely dumb they make the kid. He's already a foot shorter than everyone else in his grade, but he seems about 50 IQ points behind them too. So its weird that they're supposedly his peers when it seems like he's a first grader among fifth graders. Anyways, the time goes by quickly and its entertaining for what it is.
Probably the best season so far (I would go 3, 1, 2, I didn't really care about all the political intrigue of season 2). The main cast is stronger than ever, with Laura Linney almost taking over the show with her powerhouse performance. The last two episodes of this season are so tense and an incredible explosion of all that had built up during the season. I'm not sure I like where the show is heading with all the Langmores aligning with Darlene, but I trust the writers enough at this point to know they'll do it right. Add in the cartel's new direction with the finale and we should be in for a great season come 2021.
10th Anniversary edition.
It's just extremely boring to me. I think I'm supposed to be amused by this group of hillbillies but there's nothing extraordinary about them. It's just a big uneducated hillbilly family. They screw and do drugs with reckless abandon, sometimes on top of each other, but I didn't find them or the movie particularly entertaining as they continue to snort pills and breed.
The Boone County Mating Call is the only amusing part of the movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aiWXM9FFI
Still love this show. It's more clear than ever that its Breaking Bad inspired but on this show the action comes at a more consistent pace, and its also a bit less grounded in reality. Not really a complaint though, BB is going to inspire a hundred shows and this will likely be one of the best ones of that class. One complaint is the writing in this season did seem to take a bit of a dip from season 1. Also, the violence went from legit frightening to a little hokey. Also, the violence went from legit frightening to a little hokey. But still, looking forward to starting season 3.
I'm a huge sucker for Jason Bateman, I'll watch things purely because he's in them. That's what happened here for this Joel Edgerton written and directed thriller about bad things happening to bad people. It's hard to discuss this movie without spoilers but basically you go in expected one thing, and getting it, and slowly the movie gradually turns into something else. Bateman is outstanding in this, playing a nasty character that I've never seen from him before, and his wife, played by Robyn Callem, and antagonist Gordo, played by Edgerton, do a great job of ratcheting up the tension through-out the movie until the very end, when everything explodes. If I had one complain its that I'm not sure I like that the movie ended on SUCH an open ended note, with a lot of horrible questions going unanswered.
