🍿 Home Alone, 1990 - ★★★½
Watched on Monday November 20, 2023.
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🍿 The Marvels, 2023 - ★★★
Honestly wasn’t terrible. I laughed quite a bit more than I thought I would and the chemistry between the leads is pretty good. Love the Khan family, easily stole every scene they were in. The plotting is very rough and the final act is extremely ho hum (these heroes really need to start by talking with the “bad guys” and seeing how they can help with their problems). But that’s pretty much par for the course for Marvel.
At the end of the day, I got to sit in a theater and forget about work and eat some candy. Sometimes that’s all my dodo brain needs. 🦤
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🍿 A Christmas Prince, 2017 - ★★
Watched on Monday November 6, 2023.
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🍿 Miracle on 34th Street, 1994 - ★★★½
Watched on Monday November 6, 2023.
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🍿 The Big Short, 2015 - ★★★½
Watched on Wednesday October 18, 2023.
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🍿 Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, 1968 - ★★★★
The concept of reflexivity is well worn territory in film. On one hand, you have very explicit reflexivity like F for Fake and nostalgia like Cinema Paradiso or The Fabelmans. On the other hand is a more subtle reflexivity, like the monolith and interstellar trip of 2001 and the hidden, behind-the-scenes reflexivity of the probably hundreds of obsessive, possibly self-destructive actors/directors/screenwriters who have slaved away creating films about obsessive, definitely self-destructive characters — Fitzcarraldo, The Phantom Thread, probably every Wes Anderson film, and definitely anything Charlie Kaufman makes.
Any work of art reflects the human beings involved in its creation. This transcends film - writing, painting, interactive media and music all carry this same fingerprint. But (at the moment) film is the only way to capture that behind the scenes hidden truth.
Or… is it? By turning the camera away from the actors and towards the director, do they just become another actor? What about the sound recordist or the camera operator? This is Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, an incredibly silly film at its core about the act of observing anything, or being watched by anything, and how that changes everything or maybe nothing at all.
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🍿 The Shop Around the Corner, 1940 - ★★★★½
The comedic timing in this is so good, the romance is very believable, and ole Jimmy is at his peak. What more could a movie need? Also love how retail workers have hated being retail workers as long as retail has existed.
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🍿 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, 2023 - ★★★★½
I love when Wes really leans into the fakery. This sub-hour whirlwind packs pretty much every tool he has into its limited runtime. With everything we watch there’s an element of suspension of disbelief, and what Wes does so well in his films is he essentially races to break any semblance of believable façade as fast as possible. He just takes a stop-motion yellow-and-pink sledgehammer to that concept and allows us to see that it’s fake, acknowledge it, and move on with the story and format, now with a lighter tone and more breathing room to play with. Many filmmakers work within the ever-tightening boundaries of “will people believe this effect?” or “is this too cheesy?” Wes Anderson operates at a complete inverse. The cheese is the point, and you know he’ll pick the finest aged gruyère.
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🍿 Trouble in Paradise, 1932 - ★★★★½ (contains spoilers)
This review may contain spoilers.
Exquisite! So much fun. I would take a whole franchise (TV series?) of Gaston and Lily taking on the world, stealing from the rich, each time nearly breaking up but always getting back together in the end. Somebody make it happen!!
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🍿 Ponyo, 2008 - ★★★★★
- I’d let a fish lick me if it’d get me out of this wheelchair!
- Well I don’t know about all that licking.The first ~ten shots in this movie contain some of the most impressive animation of all time. Love the colored pencil backgrounds throughout, unique for a Miyazaki film.
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🍿 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, 2023 - ★★★½ (contains spoilers)
This review may contain spoilers.
It’s better than the first one, I guess. I love the wide angle stuff (the VFX work on those shots is absolutely stunning). And u know I love backstory. But overall it was just kinda icky. There’s lots that is icky in this, but for example: I don’t know how I feel about Peter’s characterization in this film. He goes from “the Guardians don’t kill” to “kill them all” in like… two scenes. Not to mention the least emotional reaction to the death of a literal entire planet since Alderaan. Or just… War Pig. I don’t feel in any rush to watch this again soon.
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🍿 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2017 - ★★★★
Watched on Thursday August 24, 2023.
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🍿 Guardians of the Galaxy, 2014 - ★★½
Watched on Tuesday August 22, 2023.
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🍿 Barbie, 2023 - ★★★★½
Ken is a professional at beach. I am a professional at crying in the Barbie movie.
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🍿 Paperman, 2012 - ★★★★
Had to come back and watch this again. AFAIK the first of this 2.5D style. Let me know if you read this and are like “heck no it’s not”
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🍿 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, 2022 - ★★★★
I remember hitting a point with CG animated films where I wondered if the art style would ever change from that big-eyed-but-somehow-hyper-realistic Disney•Pixar style. Not that it’s a bad style! Just spawned a lot of copycats that could never quite match Pixar’s level of polish.
We’re sort of seeing a similar thing now in a post-Spiderverse (or is it post-Klaus-teaser? or even post-Paperman?) where we have a whole lot of films coming out with this 2.5D blend. Part of me worries that it’ll grow old too, but the difference with this art style is it allows for so much more flavor. Paperman’s filmic fluid style couldn’t be more different than the animated-on-threes action sequences in Puss and Boots: The Last Wish. But both reflect unique approaches to animation that celebrates the medium’s unrivaled flexibility.
For Puss and Boots, it lends itself extremely well to its representation of Puss’s relentless stalker and his subsequent panic attacks (a surprisingly heavy-hitting theme throughout the film). And the strongly keyframed action sequences offer a visual buffet without getting lost in the noise, something that most live-action action films lack. Looking at you, Marvel (also looking at you, Speed Racer, for being so ahead of your time in this regard).
Bummed it took me this long to get around to watching this. There’s a particular impression of a certain actor towards the end that cracked me up.
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🍿 Minari, 2020 - ★★★★½
Feels like a literary classic. Exquisitely made film. Every character has such unique arcs. I felt especially moved by the father’s very flawed character. He sees himself as a male chick in grave danger of being discarded. His actions are seen through that lens – his need to prove his worth and usefulness to his family. But that drive just pushes them further away. It’s a terrible trap to fall into.
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🍿 Asteroid City, 2023 - ★★★★
Easily his most surreal film, Asteroid City takes The French Dispatch’s English translation of a French theatrical play of a story of a boy that inspired a riot from within a magazine article within the story of said article being written [breathes] and runs with that level of self-compartmentalization. This is a dramatization of a play within a made-up story about a playwright within a local television station’s evening programming. Still, it’s so easy to forget that, as the actors (or the actors of the actors of the actors) play their parts so well, I found myself getting emotionally invested in the fate of an urn that was simply a Tupperware prop of a prop of a prop.
If none of this makes sense to you, don’t worry. It doesn’t make much sense to me either - or even to some of the characters of the film. This is a movie about accepting that strange things happen. That events and occurrences in our life often cause us to wake up to a different reality, or realize that perhaps we had been sleeping without knowing it. It’s about getting outside of your head. Which is a remarkable theme for a director who - I’m convinced - has a cross-sectioned diorama for a brain.
Remarkably funny throughout with some very magical and chilling moments that took my breath away. Despite that, the gestalt of it still falls somewhere below his masterpieces (which are, in my opinion, and in some sort of rough order, Grand Budapest, Mr Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, Tenenbaums).
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As a side note, the theater I saw this in (Scotts Valley CineLux) didn’t have its surround system working properly. So unless this movie was mixed in mono (wouldn’t put it past Wes) there’s a good chance I missed some important audio cues. 😒 Indy earlier today (same theater) had rough sound too.
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🍿 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, 2023 - ★★★½
Overlong, and a little style over substance in places. But overall a really fun popcorn flick, which is all this franchise was ever meant to be at its core. The couple next to us were “oof, that’s gotta hurt!”-ing and “oh no no no!”-ing at every punch or gun pull, and while I was initially peeved I sort of grew to accept that that’s the whole point of these films. Although I’m looking forward to a rewatch where I don’t have them talking in my ear and where I can pause to use the restroom.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Harrison Ford totally nail it, and Mads does his thing well. Direction is solid, but the plot could have used some clarity. I suppose that’s to be expected from a movie in development for more than a decade.
Last thing I’ll say is: I’ll be glad when the de-aging trend goes away.
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🍿 Napoleon Dynamite, 2004 - ★★★★
Watched on Wednesday June 21, 2023.
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🍿 The Apartment, 1960 - ★★★★½
I don’t know that I’ve seen a film from this era that takes such clear aim at sexism. (With the caveat that, of course, it’s still a product of its time.) C.C. Baxter tries so hard to fit into the misogynistic guy’s club of his workplace and society as a whole, and prioritizes success over pretty much everything else: honesty, dignity, sleep. Because he’s a taker, not the one getting took.
You could view it as a gender divide or a class divide or a combination of both, but it’s clear that when takes a side - the successful side - in front of Fran, he becomes this other category of human. And when he chooses, proudly, to become a mensch, a human again, that’s where he finds peace. It’s a rebuke not only of sexism but also success and (in a way) hustle culture.
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🍿 Make Way for Tomorrow, 1937 - ★★★★½
A real tearjerker at the end there. Some of the sweetest romance writing of all time. It’s interesting how quickly and completely I shifted from laughing at how old the grandma is to falling in love with her character. Drags a bit here and there, but that final sequence just hits perfectly.
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🍿 Shanghai Express, 1932 - ★★★★
Watched on Thursday April 20, 2023.
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🍿 3 Men and a Baby, 1987 - ★★★
Ted Danson looks much better now that he’s old.
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🍿 Suzume, 2022 - ★★★
Really impressive animation - there’s a reason like 90% of any desktop wallpaper website is stills from Your Name - but the story lacks focus.