Log: week 15 / 2024

The Jordans are throwing a dinner party because some wealthy lords from England are visiting their city. And so they invite over a bunch of people to throw a good old-fashioned party. Of course, everyone there has their reason for joining, and not everyone attends with the best of intentions.

It's a standard farce, the kind of play where everything happens in one or two rooms and various characters keep entering through doors. The conversations are boring, the performances are middling and the runtime is excessive. This is the exact opposite of what I want to see in a film, the only thing saving it from utter direness is the light tone.

Ms Marvel is a big fan of Captain Marvel, and fate will bring them together. When Monica touches a galactic portal that is stuck, she creates a trinity where the three of them switch places when using their powers at the same time. Captain Marvel crosses paths with the Kree again, and she'll need her new companions to beat them.

Who says India says Bollywood, and yes, there is a song and dance scene here. Yay for that. The plot is bland, the performances are pretty bad, and having another kid in the lead didn't improve things. The only good thing about The Marvels is that is clocked in well under two hours, making it a little less painful than some of Marvel's other stinkers.

Lucia falls in love with Lorenzo, the writer of her favorite novel. In a bold move, she convinces him that they should live together. Their romance is passionate, but Lorenzo has a hidden past and when that past resurfaces in his latest novel, he has a tough time keeping that part of him hidden from Lucia.

The performances are strong and the setup of the story is pretty interesting, but it's not enough to fill the 127-minute runtime. It somewhat lost me in the middle part and while the finale was good, it wasn't so good it could make me forget the small lull before. A fine film for sure, but it lacks that little extra.

Toto is an orphan who was raised by a gentle old woman. When she dies he goes to live in an orphanage and after WWII he moves to Milan to look for a job. There he joins a group of homeless people, becoming their unofficial leader. They band together and make their own village in an abandoned field.

The minimal dialogue is a plus, the continuous presence of music not so much. The performances are overstated and the plot wasn't all that interesting, the cinematography was slightly better than usual, but not good enough to wow me. So yeah, this was an interesting experiment from De Sica, but the result isn't all that impressive.

Two young women are on their way to visit Pupu's grave. He's a fictional pig, but that doesn't seem to bother the two. On their way, they meet a variety of interesting people, though somehow they always get into trouble. Luckily there is Trunkman, a young boy who saves them whenever things get too dangerous.

The plot and characters are pretty nonsensical, so it's probably no surprise Watanabe was able to cast Seijun Suzuki for a smaller part (he also returned the favor with Pistol Opera). The characters are fun and anarchistic, the styling is pleasant and the plot is hilarious. It's a joyous, short, and wacky little film, the kind you'll only find in Japan.

Qiyao's life is about to change when a local photographer bumps into her. He pushes Qiyao to enter the Miss Shanghai contest, which she wins. She becomes the mistress of a renowned official and lives the life of a socialite. Her beauty fades though and her friends leave the city one by one, while she remains alone in Shanghai.

It's a solid enough premise, but the direction needed to be a bit more refined. The moody cinematography and oldskool music are nice, but can't compete with the better films in the genre. Neither can Tony Leung and Sammi Cheng, despite their efforts. It's a pleasant film, worth a try if you haven't seen it yet, but it's not good enough to be a personal favorite.

When Itto's wife is murdered by the shogun, he doesn't want to live under his reign anymore. Unwilling to commit harakiri, he kills the shogun's men and moves away with his young son. He becomes an assassin for hire, but the shogun can't just let Itto go, and he puts even more men on his tail.

There are some nicely stylized action scenes, but they're ruined by terrible dubbing and some nonsensical editing. The story is quite fragmented as if you're watching a compilation video rather than an actual film. Maybe seeing the original films will change my mind about this "experiment", but for now, I'm not impressed with Houston's work.

Meng Po is the Chinese goddess of Oblivion. She lives separated from her lover, Meng Qing, who finds her after years of searching. Sadly, their reunion is cut short by Asura, who needs something from Meng Po. Meng Qing is furious and vows to protect her with all his power, but Asura is a menacing villain.

I'm not sure I've seen anything from the Meng Po story before, but the more you watch them, the more you'll find that these stories are all very much alike (it's not that much different from Greek mythology either). It's a good thing then that the focus lies on flashy, fast-paced action scenes, not so much on the plot and characters. I had good fun, but that's because I love this kind of thing.

Pearl moves to her aunt's ranch in Texas after her father kills her mother and the man she cheated with. There she meets two brothers, very different fellas who both fall in love with Pearl. She has a hard time deciding between the two of them, but then faith forces her to make a decision.

The performances are terrible, the dialogues are so bad they're almost funny (and that's coming from someone who rarely cares about dialogues. The setting isn't for me either, and the runtime is excessive. There's really nothing at all I liked, apart from the fact that I was able to skip the overture.

Two of the characters are adopted kids who lost touch with each other when they arrived in Norway. The other two are a Polish housemaid and a young soldier who went through a traumatic experience while on duty. The four of them mingle and try to leave their past issues behind.

The performances are decent, but the presentation is rather dim and there's no real urgency. The stories start to meander and even though I didn't mind the open ending, I don't think it added anything of value either. The film is relatively short and the drama is decent, but there's too little to set it apart.

He puts his camera on his family and friends and directs the film from his own persona. It's not a pure documentary though, some scenes and moments are clearly staged, but that makes it a little easier to watch, as the cinematography is pretty decent. Suleiman even adds some dry comedy in places, something I didn't expect.

In the end, I didn't get a whole lot from this film. I'm not particularly interested in the Middle-Eastern region, and save some funny moments (like the tourist taking a pic of the two guys in front of their store) many of the scenes and sketches fell flat. Not to say it's a bad film, it's just not for me.

Bea and Ben meet by chance and they immediately hit it off. But after spending a night connecting, their fear takes over and they each go their own way. Six months later they are forced to spend a weekend together again, as they both need to attend the same wedding in Australia.

So yeah, two people, who clearly belong together, and you're just watching the push and pull until the film finally settles down into a predictable finale. The comedy is pretty bland, and the chemistry between the leads is minimal, but the setting is pleasant enough and the pacing is decent. Far from best in class, but not the worst of its kind either.