Log: week 19 / 2023

A rather dreary romcom by Nancy Meyers. I understand the film's supposed to be funny, but it's really rather sad, and the comedy itself isn't very refined either. It's obvious the film relies on its leads to make the best of it, but Keaton and Nicholson are merely running on autopilot here.

Not the easiest franchise to turn into a live-action film, and the struggle shows. While the film is quite ambitious, certainly the second half, the bland direction and poor use of budget let this fantasy/adventure down. Not that I liked the animation better, but they could've done more with these films.

A pleasant slice-of-life drama, that moved just a little too slow for my taste. The lead character didn't really win me over either, but the laid-back atmosphere was nice and the summary Madrilanian setting surely helped with the appeal. Thirty minutes shorter would've made a real difference though.

Ron Howard doing a low-profile disaster flick. No continents, countries, or cities in danger here, just thirteen lives. The story of the Thai football team stuck in a cave was pretty popular at the time though, so it was inevitable that it would be made into a film. The result is decent enough, but hardly memorable.

My second Rivette was a bit of a disappointment. I quite like the Nouvelle Vague, especially for its playfulness. When that's not there (or fully realized), I struggle to get into these films. It didn't help that this one was more than three hours long, a bit ridiculous for what's on display here.

A pretty grim and relentless film. Keitel is perfect in the role of an unredeemable cop, but it's Ferrera's slow and deliberate direction that makes this film stand out. Maybe if I'd been a bigger fan of the 90s New York setting I might've liked it even better, but this was a pretty pleasant discovery nonetheless.

A fun teen flick with a dark twist. It reminded me a bit of late 90s films like The Craft, though it's not quite as frilly or commercial. It does lose steam in the second half and the big reveal is a bit of a bust, but there's more than enough quality here to keep genre fans entertained for a good 90 minutes.

Yet another Chinese fox-themed fantasy. These Chinese streamer films are pretty samey, but even the themes and plot are becoming very difficult to differentiate. I'm pretty certain that 10 years from now I won't be able to distinguish between many of these films. They're fun and slick filler though, so I don't really mind that much.

A low-budget psychological thriller. It's an ideal genre to do on a budget as it thrives on suggestion, but even then some skill is required to keep the tension alive. Blackshear does a decent enough job, except for the finale, which feels a bit too much like a cop-out and didn't deliver on its promise.

I'm not a very big Dragon Ball fan. Not that I've watched or read a lot, it's just that it never really appealed to me, and what I've seen never pushed me enough to dig deeper. It is one of anime's biggest franchises ever though, so I figured I might as well watch the films. They are pretty short too, so there's that at least. Turns out this first one was actually pretty amusing.

An early post-war Hitchcock. The promise of Dali's involvement sounded somewhat promising, the reality wasn't quite as rosy. While these scenes are by far the highlight, they only represent a small part of the film. The rest is just endless talking on top of an overly sentimental score.

A rather quaint comedy based on the infamous Bobb Ross character, even though he is never called by name. It's a bit of an odd but intriguing setup that sadly doesn't go anywhere meaningful. Once the basic joke is laid out, it's repeated ad infinitum, masquerading as a simple rom-com.

Luc Besson wasn't just a pivotal director for French genre cinema, he was also one of its most influential producers. District B13 is the film that popularised parcours (or free running), seeing the potential of its aesthetics and fluidity as a perfect addition to the spectrum of cinematic action. The result is a slick, superbly paced, and explosive little action flick that still stands proud today. It's a master class in how to do genre cinema well, while also pushing its boundaries. And it's nice to see Besson giving that opportunity to young and talented directors like Morel.

A proper Taiwanese thriller, but I can't help but wonder what happened to the wave of promising and challenging films that made Taiwan one of the most exciting film industries of the past decade. The Post-Truth World is simple genre fare, fairly executed, but safe and by the numbers every step of the way.

A decent but rather middle-of-the-road Japanese drama. Sato is a tad lazy and relies too much on basic drama, with so many similar films around though there's simply not enough here to make the film stand out from the crowd. Makes you wonder why this film was chosen for international distribution over a slew of better options.

SPEC is one of those franchises that went everywhere, trying to fit all the pieces together is nigh impossible. Life is a made-for-TV feature-length film that is set in the SPEC universe, though I have no clue how it fits into the bigger picture. Availability in the West is pretty random (and largely dependent on fandom), so you take what you can get. It's easy enough to follow once you get the basics down though.

Ritchie's attempt to relive his former glory. The Gentlemen is a quintessential 90s Ritchie flick, only with some modern touches. That means it's an old man's film trying to pose as something hip and current, not a vibrant contemporary film trying to push the boundaries. Two very different things.

The third and final part in the infamous Hong Kong Triad/spy trilogy. I liked this one the best, and upon watching it again I still think it's the best of the three. It's just not quite as slick and cunning as I remembered it to be. It's a rare example of a third film beating out its predecessors though.

The first part in a short film trilogy, following a TV series. It's a pretty basic anime full of familiar tropes, though sporting a rather peculiar setting. That means it might take some time to get the hang of the characters and their particular function and skills, but if you've seen some anime series before, it shouldn't take you too long to catch up.

The poster may look colorful and somewhat exciting, but the actual film is a barren and dreary drama that did very little to change my perception of classic Turkish cinema. It's stylistically poor poverty porn that thrives on misery and unpleasant characters. Not really my kind of cinema really.

An amusing thriller that gets pretty graphic in places. Bloodline is pretty cold and relentless and goes against conventions (the ending in particular was pretty gratifying), but there's still a bit too much restraint for it to be truly great. Not the first Blumhouse film that struggles with this.

An amusing TV project from Koki Mitani. It's not so much a film as a combination of sketches that draw inspiration from the same premise. It's not that different from his regular film work, except that the polish is lacking. That's not too damning for a comedy though, which is why I enjoyed this quite a bit.