Log: week 34 / 2021

Mr. Shome is quite the dialogue-driven film, sadly the themes were rather dull and predictable. The cinematography is dreadful, the soundtrack not pretty at all, the performances pretty weak. There were little to no surprises here and the pacing was just excruciating. It'll be awhile before I'll watch another Indian classic, that's for sure.

The performances are decent and the soundtrack's a real plus. The 4:3 aspect ratio on the other hand is cliché and pointless, and the cinematography is pretty poor. And though the film was in my mother tongue, I still needed subs because the actors are simply unintelligible. It's certainly not the worst film of its kind, but this type of drama rarely works for me, and Home is no exception.

I don't think I've ever seen a film in more dire need of an editor. It's as if they shot every scene five times and just stitched all the material together for the final film. There is so much pointless overhead that it completely kills the pacing. The effects are terrible, performances are weak, the score is laughable and the 3-hour runtime indefensible. Even worse than most contemporary Marvel stuff.

The film offers little beyond its bland little romance. The cinematography is extremely functional, the soundtracks is a wreck, performances are poor, and the emotional drama is really hard to get into because of the horrible characters. There's very little to like here, beyond the relatively short runtime and semi-decent pacing.

Despite all the Mexican couleur locale, Old Ways is a pretty basic film about demonic possession. The horror scenes are very predictable, performances are quite poor, and the location is poorly used. It's not a terrible film, just not a very remarkable one. A pretty plain horror film.

The premise may not be the most original, but the presentation is really nice. The editing is snappy, the camera work inventive and the dialogues, while somewhat fluffy, do contain a lot of wit. The film is short and concise, the pacing is perfect and the ending memorable. It lacks that tiny bit of stylistic polish to make it a true standout, but Nakahama's talent should be plain for all to see. I'm already looking forward to his next film.

The performances are pretty dire, the soundtrack is hellish, and the plot is a real bore. I will say that even though the film has few positives, it's still a pretty easy watch. The pacing is decent and while predictable, it never gets excessively dull. Not my kind of movie, but in its genre it isn't the worst.

Looking at the title and the premise, it's not that difficult to figure out the broad structure of the film. Watanabe sticks to these expectations pretty closely, but stands out with above-average direction. The cinematography and soundtrack are very nice, performances are solid too. There is a bit of a shocker tucked away at the end, which does give the film some extra shine, but it's a case of too little, too late to turn this into a personal favorite. Its prime filler status is fully earned though.

Nishimura is used to working on a budget, but without his wacky creations it tends to feel a bit too flimsy. The musical numbers aren't very good, performances aren't great, and the comedy isn't all that surprising either. There's still some weirdness and wackiness that keeps things amusing, but it's one of the weaker Nishimura's I've seen so far.

No doubt director Cox had only a limited budget to his disposal, but he didn't use it wisely. There are a handful of flashbacks that feel woefully misplaced, the soundtrack too is extremely pompous. In contrast, the cinematography is absolutely appalling, and the drama is rather overwrought. I didn't care one bit for this film, but there is a layer of realism present that earns it a measly bonus point.

The mockumentary isn't too convincing, and the premise isn't the most original. The cursed (fake) film on the other hand is quite well-made. The problem there is that things get a bit too repetitive, and it's never quite as dark and/or disturbing as it hopes to be. Fans of 70s horror cinema may get a bigger kick out of this one, I felt it mostly dragged on for too long.

Like most Chinese blockbusters, you get a mix of genres here. At the core of End Game lies a crime story, but there's also room for some action, comedy, romance and even minor thriller elements. The cinematography is super polished, performances are solid and the pacing is perfect. It's all a bit too flimsy and slick to be a real masterpiece, but this was fun filler alright.

The premise is interesting enough, but the bland characters don't do it any justice. The mind games aren't exactly subtle, still it's hard to buy the setup between the two leads. The soundtrack is middling, the cinematography nothing too special (though it does pick up during the finale). A very forgettable film.

Performances are solid, and the setting is pleasantly remote. The characters aren't quite weird enough though and the dark comedy twists are pretty predictable. There are traces of Fargo and Calvaire here, but Genz fails to elevate his film to similar heights. Decent filler, nothing more.

Performances are decent, and the fantasy elements are interesting enough. It takes a while before the film gets up to steam though, and it isn't until the finale that Ôbayashi goes full out. The visual effects may not be very advanced, but they're very charming. Not Ôbayashi's best, but an entertaining little diversion nonetheless.

Performances are solid, with Shin'ichi Tsutsumi in a stand-out role as Kazuto. The cinematography is polished, the soundtrack is adequate and the emotional cues are timed perfectly. It's just that it all feels a bit overdone. It's certainly not the first film to handle these themes and I think a more subtle approach would've worked better here. Not bad though.

I'm quite partial to these freer narratives, the slick black and white cinematography and free-flowing camera work certainly help too. The biggest flaws for me were the soundtrack and the dialogues, both of which are ever-present and not very appealing. Performances are decent, and the limited runtime is a blessing, but it can't quite match the best of its French peers.

It's not very unusual for me to be left cold by the songs and music in a musical, the problem is that the sets, performances and cinematography simply weren't bold and strong enough to compensate. The rather bare-bones plot, the long runtime and Chucky-level animatronics didn't really help either. I just hope Carax got the musical bug out of his system now.

The sci-fi premise is just there to give a new spin to a core romance plot with strong thriller elements. Performances are solid, the budget was there to do justice to the sci-fi and the near-future world of Reminiscence is fun to explore, but once the film has settled in and the plot takes over, Joy starts to show her weakness. The second hour is a bit dim, just a string of cookie cutter reveals that do little beyond dragging out the runtime.

The most notable element of this film is the soundtrack, which almost sounds like it was made for a video game, only video games didn't really exist back then. Performances are mediocre, and the comedy is limited, luckily the pacing is solid, and the runtime is pretty short. Chor feels a bit lost with this material, but it's interesting to see him take on all these different genres.