Post by Martin Stett on Dec 25, 2017 18:52:42 GMT
Gomorrah (2008) -- A grim, ugly, and lifeless look at the camorra and the evils they inflict upon Italy. The trouble is that it splits its attention between 5(!) different stories, and although any one of them would work by itself, the movie kills its momentum by moving to a new story every time the one we're currently on gets going. And the movie has to build up steam again. 4/10
The Iron Lady (2011) -- I heard it was bad, but wow. Streep is actually pretty good here (I'm not usually a fan), but I've seen music videos with more depth. In fact, this is a music video, come to think of it. How a movie looks at the life of a major politician and manages to not actually look at her real thoughts on any single policy is beyond me. 2/10
Killer of Sheep (1978) -- Sure, life sucks for some people. Why should I spend 90 minutes watching life suck if that's all your movie has to offer? 4/10
Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) -- It's shallow, but as a plot driven suspense movie, it works alright. Anything with Harry Dean Stanton as an eyepatch wearing outlaw can't be all bad, now can it? 6/10
Last Tango in Paris (1972) -- The film opens with a blasphemy screamed to the heavens in anguished rage, and right there Bertolucci sets up how raw and painful this movie can be... if he'd get out of his own damn way. The sex scenes are laughably "shocking" and are clearly meant to provoke, rather than actually give insight into the characters. The whole thing with Jeanne's movie director fiance seems like something out of a sugary romantic comedy, and doesn't gel at all with the rest of the movie. But when this movie actually examines its characters, it reaches for something better. The movie is a wildly inconsistent mess on the whole, but I don't dislike it. 6/10
Crumb (1994) -- A surprisingly candid documentary, but for the personal reason of being repulsed by Robert Crumb and wanting to vomit whenever I see his face, I can't rate this as highly as it probably deserves. 7/10
Festival (1967) -- A snapshot of the 1960's folk scene that captures a little bit of the uneasiness (about Vietnam, about race) in the very WASPy Newport area at the time, but is mainly just a picture showcasing a lot of folk music. Unfortunately, popular folk music is pretty terrible (dear heavens, stop Peter, Paul & Mary from ever playing again, I beg of you!), and though the majority of the film features the lesser-known artists that played at Newport, few of them are any good either, to my ear. The only musicians I really enjoyed at all were the older black blues musicians like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt and (my personal favorite performer of the movie) Fred McDowell. And although they do get a good amount of film devoted to them, they're ultimately drowned out by the noise of everyone else. 5/10
The Iron Lady (2011) -- I heard it was bad, but wow. Streep is actually pretty good here (I'm not usually a fan), but I've seen music videos with more depth. In fact, this is a music video, come to think of it. How a movie looks at the life of a major politician and manages to not actually look at her real thoughts on any single policy is beyond me. 2/10
Killer of Sheep (1978) -- Sure, life sucks for some people. Why should I spend 90 minutes watching life suck if that's all your movie has to offer? 4/10
Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) -- It's shallow, but as a plot driven suspense movie, it works alright. Anything with Harry Dean Stanton as an eyepatch wearing outlaw can't be all bad, now can it? 6/10
Last Tango in Paris (1972) -- The film opens with a blasphemy screamed to the heavens in anguished rage, and right there Bertolucci sets up how raw and painful this movie can be... if he'd get out of his own damn way. The sex scenes are laughably "shocking" and are clearly meant to provoke, rather than actually give insight into the characters. The whole thing with Jeanne's movie director fiance seems like something out of a sugary romantic comedy, and doesn't gel at all with the rest of the movie. But when this movie actually examines its characters, it reaches for something better. The movie is a wildly inconsistent mess on the whole, but I don't dislike it. 6/10
Crumb (1994) -- A surprisingly candid documentary, but for the personal reason of being repulsed by Robert Crumb and wanting to vomit whenever I see his face, I can't rate this as highly as it probably deserves. 7/10
Festival (1967) -- A snapshot of the 1960's folk scene that captures a little bit of the uneasiness (about Vietnam, about race) in the very WASPy Newport area at the time, but is mainly just a picture showcasing a lot of folk music. Unfortunately, popular folk music is pretty terrible (dear heavens, stop Peter, Paul & Mary from ever playing again, I beg of you!), and though the majority of the film features the lesser-known artists that played at Newport, few of them are any good either, to my ear. The only musicians I really enjoyed at all were the older black blues musicians like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt and (my personal favorite performer of the movie) Fred McDowell. And although they do get a good amount of film devoted to them, they're ultimately drowned out by the noise of everyone else. 5/10