Post by Martin Stett on May 7, 2018 16:39:14 GMT
The Florida Project (2017) -- Yeeeeah, I have issues with this movie. Nevermind that I found the viewpoint on the "innocence" of the children to be both insufferable and demeaning to actual children. Nevermind that this is misery porn with no point to it. When I look back on the film, my real problem is that the whole thing takes almost all burden of responsibility off of the characters so that it can point fingers at the audience. "Your capitalism is responsible for this, you monsters!" And I am fundamentally in disagreement there; people make their own decisions. Circumstances may make some choices easier, but simply showing a movie about bad people doing bad things and then blaming society for it is shallow and dishonest, and doesn't treat the actual people going through hardships with any respect. 3/10 for the excellent acting.
The End of the Tour (2015) -- The conversations touch on some interesting themes, but none of it comes out in the narrative, which is a cookie-cutter road buddy movie. 6/10
Coco (2017) -- Like seemingly every other movie nominally aimed at "families" in recent times, this is a high-octane, sugar-fueled adventure that drives its "themes" home with a jackhammer a dozen times over in case you missed them them the first time. And if it was content to be a simple comedy or adventure, I'd be okay with that. But this movie keeps insisting that it's deeper than it is, trying to force its themes of "FAAAAAAAMILY!!!!!!" down your throat and make you cry through the most superficial twists. At some point early in production, it may have been something better than the mass-produced product we wound up getting. The movie touches on interesting things: Is love abandoning a hatred that once consumed you because the way you see the world has changed? Is it the willingness to give up your personal dreams for the companionship of people around you? Is it a willingness to accept that your way isn't always the right way, that someone else you thought foolish may in fact be right and yourself wrong? What if someone in your family is simply hard to love?
These are all given small glimpses, but the movie has to rush on to the next action sequence, the next set piece. It's exhausting. 4/10
They Live By Night (1948) -- A decent "lovers on the run" movie. Nothing spectacular here, just the normal cliches, but they're decently executed nonetheless. 6/10
Sicario (2015 rewatch) -- A rewatch for the 2015 AMARAs really changed my opinion on this one. This time through, I felt the constricting fear of Kate becoming more and more entangled in this world, as she willingly plunges herself ever deeper, needing to know more about this new world before her. The fear of her knowing that this knowledge is destroying her and the person she always felt that she was, yet she's addicted and can't stop. On the flip side, Alejandro as a man who already knows everything about this world, and has gone mad with the revelation; turned into nothing more than a soulless attack dog, going where he is sent to kill who he is told, but never gaining any joy from his work. I saw this as a condemnation of U.S. drug war policy before; now I just see the sadness of these two lost souls as they fall deeper into the Abyss. 8/10
Paris Belongs to Us (1961) -- Wait, so Metal Gear Solid 2 was based on a French New Wave film about self-absorbed intellectuals? AWESOME! To be honest, I enjoyed this a lot more than most FNW movies, simply because Rivette isn't interested in all of the tricks and nonsense employed by Godard or Resnais. His story is nonsensical, I suppose, but it isn't outrageously so. He isn't showing off how terrible of a director he is the way his contemporaries liked to do, is what I'm saying. 6/10
45 Years (2015) -- I don't think these still waters run all that deep. It's a pretty superficial tale about characters who are both self-absorbed and kind of unpleasant. You know, like Weekend. It isn't bad, but there isn't anything here that can't be gleaned from watching the first 15 minutes of the movie. 6/10
The End of the Tour (2015) -- The conversations touch on some interesting themes, but none of it comes out in the narrative, which is a cookie-cutter road buddy movie. 6/10
Coco (2017) -- Like seemingly every other movie nominally aimed at "families" in recent times, this is a high-octane, sugar-fueled adventure that drives its "themes" home with a jackhammer a dozen times over in case you missed them them the first time. And if it was content to be a simple comedy or adventure, I'd be okay with that. But this movie keeps insisting that it's deeper than it is, trying to force its themes of "FAAAAAAAMILY!!!!!!" down your throat and make you cry through the most superficial twists. At some point early in production, it may have been something better than the mass-produced product we wound up getting. The movie touches on interesting things: Is love abandoning a hatred that once consumed you because the way you see the world has changed? Is it the willingness to give up your personal dreams for the companionship of people around you? Is it a willingness to accept that your way isn't always the right way, that someone else you thought foolish may in fact be right and yourself wrong? What if someone in your family is simply hard to love?
These are all given small glimpses, but the movie has to rush on to the next action sequence, the next set piece. It's exhausting. 4/10
They Live By Night (1948) -- A decent "lovers on the run" movie. Nothing spectacular here, just the normal cliches, but they're decently executed nonetheless. 6/10
Sicario (2015 rewatch) -- A rewatch for the 2015 AMARAs really changed my opinion on this one. This time through, I felt the constricting fear of Kate becoming more and more entangled in this world, as she willingly plunges herself ever deeper, needing to know more about this new world before her. The fear of her knowing that this knowledge is destroying her and the person she always felt that she was, yet she's addicted and can't stop. On the flip side, Alejandro as a man who already knows everything about this world, and has gone mad with the revelation; turned into nothing more than a soulless attack dog, going where he is sent to kill who he is told, but never gaining any joy from his work. I saw this as a condemnation of U.S. drug war policy before; now I just see the sadness of these two lost souls as they fall deeper into the Abyss. 8/10
Paris Belongs to Us (1961) -- Wait, so Metal Gear Solid 2 was based on a French New Wave film about self-absorbed intellectuals? AWESOME! To be honest, I enjoyed this a lot more than most FNW movies, simply because Rivette isn't interested in all of the tricks and nonsense employed by Godard or Resnais. His story is nonsensical, I suppose, but it isn't outrageously so. He isn't showing off how terrible of a director he is the way his contemporaries liked to do, is what I'm saying. 6/10
45 Years (2015) -- I don't think these still waters run all that deep. It's a pretty superficial tale about characters who are both self-absorbed and kind of unpleasant. You know, like Weekend. It isn't bad, but there isn't anything here that can't be gleaned from watching the first 15 minutes of the movie. 6/10
