Post by Martin Stett on Feb 15, 2021 19:23:37 GMT
About a Boy (2002 rewatch) - Magnificent fun. Hugh Grant has never been better, and I love that this is a romantic comedy that focuses more on the characters "growing up" than actually doing all that mushy stuff. 9/10
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1952) - I'm gonna chalk this one up to cultural differences. The kabuki-inspired acting and staging just left me scratching my head the whole time. 4/10
Tower (2016 rewatch) - Second viewing, actually. I was kind of afraid to revisit this, because DANG this is a hard film to watch. But unlike so many other portraits of tragedy, this is a rousing celebration of the victims and heroes of that day. Of course I remembered Rita Starpattern's big heroic moment - there is a reason she features so prominently on the film's poster - but I had almost forgotten how powerful the interviews with Artly Fox, Brenda Bell, Allen Crum and Houston McCoy were. The actors do such an amazing job of interpreting their characters, as well. I never really thought about how great the ensemble is, but they are best of the year material. 10/10
The Wild Goose Lake (2019) - This is pretty at first, but it quickly becomes apparent that Yinan doesn't have any interesting characters to pin his pretty pictures on. This meanders, and detours, and drags, and although it kept my interest for quite a while, once it became apparent that Yinan had padded out a ten star 20 minute movie into nearly two hours, I stopped caring. 4/10
The Holly and the Ivy (1952) - A Capital-G GREAT movie in concept, but all of its big emotional beats are tackled way too directly. The underlying ideas (the resentment the children feel for their father, the shame that Margaret hides from her siblings so they don't have to lie to their parents, Jenny hiding her engagement from her father out of the fear of leaving him alone) are the skeleton of an amazing movie... and then everybody just straight up spells out the themes of the movie in artificial monologues. I still like the movie. There is such a strong foundation that the film doesn't crumble. But it should have been more. 6/10
The Vast of Night (2019) - Starts off as a magnificent romantic comedy - Before Sunset as directed by Howard Hawks - before settling into a pretty good (if derivative) sci-fi radio drama. The two leads are so utterly charming that they kept the movie exciting whenever they spoke. Unfortunately, this gets marred by first one and then another MASSIVE monologue from side characters who are far less interesting than Fay and Everett, and the movie never really gets its mojo back once it loses sight of the main characters. Also, the lighting is hilariously awful and if I hear any more crap about this movie looking awful because of a "shoestring" budget of $700,000, I will kick a puppy into orbit. That is around three times as much money as you need for a competently lit film, and I think I'm being conservative. 6/10
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1952) - I'm gonna chalk this one up to cultural differences. The kabuki-inspired acting and staging just left me scratching my head the whole time. 4/10
Tower (2016 rewatch) - Second viewing, actually. I was kind of afraid to revisit this, because DANG this is a hard film to watch. But unlike so many other portraits of tragedy, this is a rousing celebration of the victims and heroes of that day. Of course I remembered Rita Starpattern's big heroic moment - there is a reason she features so prominently on the film's poster - but I had almost forgotten how powerful the interviews with Artly Fox, Brenda Bell, Allen Crum and Houston McCoy were. The actors do such an amazing job of interpreting their characters, as well. I never really thought about how great the ensemble is, but they are best of the year material. 10/10
The Wild Goose Lake (2019) - This is pretty at first, but it quickly becomes apparent that Yinan doesn't have any interesting characters to pin his pretty pictures on. This meanders, and detours, and drags, and although it kept my interest for quite a while, once it became apparent that Yinan had padded out a ten star 20 minute movie into nearly two hours, I stopped caring. 4/10
The Holly and the Ivy (1952) - A Capital-G GREAT movie in concept, but all of its big emotional beats are tackled way too directly. The underlying ideas (the resentment the children feel for their father, the shame that Margaret hides from her siblings so they don't have to lie to their parents, Jenny hiding her engagement from her father out of the fear of leaving him alone) are the skeleton of an amazing movie... and then everybody just straight up spells out the themes of the movie in artificial monologues. I still like the movie. There is such a strong foundation that the film doesn't crumble. But it should have been more. 6/10
The Vast of Night (2019) - Starts off as a magnificent romantic comedy - Before Sunset as directed by Howard Hawks - before settling into a pretty good (if derivative) sci-fi radio drama. The two leads are so utterly charming that they kept the movie exciting whenever they spoke. Unfortunately, this gets marred by first one and then another MASSIVE monologue from side characters who are far less interesting than Fay and Everett, and the movie never really gets its mojo back once it loses sight of the main characters. Also, the lighting is hilariously awful and if I hear any more crap about this movie looking awful because of a "shoestring" budget of $700,000, I will kick a puppy into orbit. That is around three times as much money as you need for a competently lit film, and I think I'm being conservative. 6/10
