Log: week 30 / 2019
An intense and unsettling retelling of the gruesome events that happened on Utøya 8 years ago. Edited to make it look like a one take and matching the length of the actual attack, we follow Kaja as she tries to find her sister while keeping out of the hands of the shooter. Not a fun watch, but an impressive one nonetheless.
Aster returns with a slightly better attempt at horror. Even so, his grave and serious approach doesn't really fit the sometimes hilarious pagan antics. There are some fun and memorable scenes in here and Aster at least tries to add some originality to his film, but the results is still a little too muddled and half-hearted for my taste. Not a bad film, just not worth all the accolades.
Amusing road movie that stands out because of its central trio. Weaving, Pearce and Stamp do a great job, though their transvestite characters aren't half as remarkable as they used to be. A decent mix of comedy and drama, some nice country sights and a rather economic running time make this a fun diversion.
When a doc starts with a worried dad on a mission to confirmation bias his beliefs you know you're in for a waste of time. The simplistic good guy vs bad guy narrative, the strong focus on human interest stories, the lack of exploration of the underlying problems and the absence of any solutions make this film little more than some good old tech doom nonsense.
A plain road movie that hinges on somewhat uninspired dialogues between three war veterans. All the classic themes about pride, fighting for your country and being fucked over by the government are present, sadly Linklater fails to add anything new or interesting to it. A pointless film that offers little more than two hours of tepid drama.
Frankenstein Conquers the World
A typical Honda film, with a couple of huge monsters battling it out after a relatively lengthy intro and a drawn-out middle part. Of course the atom bomb has its role to play in the setup of the story, but ultimately these films are all about campy fun and elaborate destruction. It's decent filler, but I don't think I'll ever become a big fan of Honda's work.
A disgrace. Tom Holland wasn't one of the greats, but he was a decent director with a couple of nice horror films to his name. His latest looks like an incapable amateur's attempt at horror, uploaded to YouTube. Madsen is crazy bad, the rest of the actors are horrible too, the script is a lazy cut-and-paste job of equally lame horror flicks and everything looks dead cheap. Poor Tom.
It's quite interesting that despite all the narrative frivolities, dream sequences and blurred lines between dream and reality, Deconstruction Harry still feels like a pretty regular, run-of-the-mill Woody Allen film. His character and dialogues pretty much overshadow everything else in his films. I generally appreciate his work, but I'm not a true fan.
A solid oldskool horror anime. Much like the live action adaptation, this is a film that keeps things well within bounds of the acceptable, but not without flexing its muscles once in a while. The animation is decent, the designs are distinctive and the mix of horror and fantasy is effective. I had a lot of fun with this one.
A dark fairy tale that works slightly better on the fantasy side. There's a little too much rubber and borderline CG to make the horror part stand out, but this is a fun, creative and interesting film regardless. The direction is solid, the atmosphere is spot on and the film doesn't overstay its welcome. Recommended for adventurous genre fans.
Cheesy comedy with a few more misses than there were hits. The film is fragmented and little more than a collection of comedy sketches, most of which go on for way too long. Luckily it doesn't overstay its welcome and there are some genuine giggles here, but unless you like really predictable jokes this is little more than random filler.
Another solid Yuen Chor film. Plotwise it doesn't differ too much from all the other Shaw Bros films, but Chor's trademark touch of fantasy is what makes his films stand out. Set design and some rudimentary but effective special effects create a fantastical atmosphere that is well ahead of its time. Good, but only for fans of the Shaw Bros films.
A rather mediocre romance that takes way too long to come to a conclusion and relies too heavily on performances that aren't all that great. It's all pretty cliché and boring, the life lessons are cheap and deceptive and both Zellweger and Cruise fail to make the romance captivating. When Cuba Gooding Jr. is the best actor in a film, things aren't all that.
A solid black comedy that thrives on good performances and a decent crime story. The 50s suburban setting is nice, the two different plot lines (a black family moving in and an insurance scam next door) next truly seem to belong to the same film though. Not Clooney's best film, but he rarely seems to disappoint as a director.