🍿 Lost in Translation, 2003 - ★★★★
Watched on Monday August 26, 2024.
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🍿 Dune: Part Two, 2024 - ★★★★½
Paul kinda… sucks?
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🍿 Raising Arizona, 1987 - ★★★★
Watched on Monday August 19, 2024.
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🍿 The Hudsucker Proxy, 1994 - ★★★★
JJL’s Katharine Hepburn impression is my new inner monologue voice.
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🍿 O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000 - ★★★★★
WE
THOUGHT
YOU
WAS
A
TOAD -
🍿 Inside Out 2, 2024 - ★★★★
Knew from the first twenty minutes or so that I’d cry. 🥲 Not better than the first, but a great addition and continuation of its themes. Very funny and very real. If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, especially in high school, you’ll see yourself in this.
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🍿 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2004 - ★★★★
Been a while since I’ve seen this. Not my fave Wes Anderson, but it might be his most impressive from a world-building perspective? Maybe outside of Grand Budapest.
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🍿 The Descendants, 2011 - ★★★★
This was a lot funnier than I expected it to be. Hits hard still. While watching, I could feel the Hawaiian humidity on my skin and smell the sweet air… paired with the slack key guitar soundtrack, mmm, it captures it so well.
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🍿 After Hours, 1985 - ★★★★½
Love this genre of screwball comedy where things just keep getting crazier. Feels like it followed in the steps of Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday with a nice dark Scorsese twist. The camera just never stops moving, which I love and am seriously impressed by. So many laugh out loud funny moments in this. Watch it with someone who has a good dry sense of humor.
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🍿 Stagecoach, 1939 - ★★★
I’m sorry there’s no way that woman was nine months pregnant.
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🍿 Come and See, 1985 - ★★★★★
Watched on Thursday April 11, 2024.
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🍿 Sunset Boulevard, 1950 - ★★★★★
Enrapturing. Just as Norma Desmond would want it to be.
“A dozen press agents doing overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit.”
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🍿 Taste of Cherry, 1997 - ★★★½
Frankly a bit boring. Maybe not the best watch on an airplane. I think I need to read some analysis of the ending. Is it that life goes on with or without you? I don’t know. Maybe I’m too tired or dumb to get it. But I loved the cinematography and the acting. Spending the bulk of the film in the car makes it very exciting when we come outside of the car for a bit.
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🍿 Free Solo, 2018 - ★★★★
I’m torn on if I like the active documentarian aspect of this or not. I think it brings up good points about how people change how they act when they’re filmed (hello, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm), but I wonder if it dwelled on that topic too long.
Putting that aside, Alex’s physical feat is just incredible. Sweaty palms the whole time. Really wild stuff that I hope to never experience or witness in my life ever. Alex says no one ever achieved something great by being happy and cozy. I think I and the Epicureans would beg to differ.
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🍿 Shoot the Piano Player, 1960 - ★★★★½
I’m in love with Truffaut’s active camera. The kinetic energy in this film is so good. It’s a classic blend of tragedy and comedy. Would love to read more about it soon.
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🍿 My Cousin Vinny, 1992 - ★★★★½
Forgot how incredibly funny this is. I miss comedies. Can we make comedies a thing again?
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🍿 Dune, 2021 - ★★★★
I’m glad I waited this long until I saw this movie. I can see that if I saw it nearly three years ago when it was released I would have been disappointed. As it is though I’m just motivated to see the second part in theaters.
It seems like this is a story that really benefits from such a long first act. I haven’t read the book, but from what I’ve heard, it’s a lot of fictional politics. Which is a very difficult thing to pull off in a movie (*cough*The Phantom Menace*cough*trade negotiations*cough*). In a book you can stop, re-read, and think about it, whereas a movie just chugs along whether you’re with it or not.
That being said, I think this movie pulled it off well, at the expense of runtime. Which only makes it necessary to split it into two films. Now that I know fully the stakes at play, and can have several days to ponder it all, I can go into Part 2 a little more confident in understanding it all.
The action here was good, and the worm scenes intense. Things felt tactile and believable (with the exception of one shot that went a little too MCU.) Incredible shot composition.
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🍿 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, 2023 - ★★★★
Hard to rate when I’m still waiting for the conclusion! I think the opening scene was interesting, but then the two exposition dump scenes that followed were actually shockingly boring. Usually these movies are great at the “show, don’t tell” thing. Or at least “show while telling”. But instead we have a three minute scene of two photographs, a cassette player, and Tom Cruise moving his eyes.
There are a few other moments like that in the hours that follow (and I have my own dislikes of certain plotting decisions or editing choices), but crucially, the action is still as exciting as ever. And that’s really what we’re all here for, right? I’ve enjoyed the way the McQuarrie movies has melded the intrigue and cat-and-mouse nature of De Palma’s original film with the pure spectacle extravaganza of Brad Bird’s. It hits a really nice balance for me.
This one might be a little low on the spectacle, but it’s one of two parts. Gotta save the biggest stuff for last. I expect to read a news story about Tom Cruise falling off of a satellite or something this year.
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🍿 Past Lives, 2023 - ★★★★
I need to watch this again when I’m not so tired. This captures so well that giddy feeling of new love. Or old love maybe, in this case.
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🍿 About Time, 2013 - ★★★★
Sappy, sentimental movie for sappy, sentimental people. I consider myself lucky to fall into that category.
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🍿 It Could Happen to You, 1994 - ★★★
Silly and fluffy but cute. Bummer that it turns into a courtroom drama for a while at the end.
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🍿 Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, 2010 - ★★★½
Better than the first, if only for the 👏💃🌲“CAMP ROCK”🕺🌲👏 scene.
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🍿 Camp Rock, 2008 - ★★★
2008… what a strange era in history…
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🍿 Design for Living, 1933 - ★★★★
"Maybe I want to be a hooligan!!"
I haven't seen a ton of Pre-Code movies, but man, when Ernst was Pre-Code, he really was Pre-Code. Surprising in a lot of ways, but also really funny. Lags a bit in the last act, which I think is a bit intentional to contrast Plunkett's boring idea of life with George and Tom's hooliganism.
I've now seen Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and this out of Lubitsch's films. So far I think Trouble in Paradise is my favorite, followed by The Shop Around the Corner, then this, but they're all really great movies.
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🍿 The Luck of the Irish, 2001 - ★★½
In America we don’t believe in kings. We believe in baseball. *throws spear*
This is really just an alternate universe Psych episode. The abrupt “This Land is Your Land” singalong elicited audible gasps.