i don't think i've ever seen meaning of life all the way through, but i think i know all the sketches from hearing the guys in my high school repeat all the lines constantly.
parasite's almost a perfect movie for me. 5/5
my week:
that obscure object of desire (1977) 5/5 i've spent the past 4 years or so doing my homework, trying to eat my cinematic vegetables and get to the sight and sound approved films.
and i have to say, of all the greats, bunuel is almost certainly my favourite. he's definitely the most entertaining. all of his films are filled with humor and an appreciation for the absurd. plus they aren't a billion hours long. unlike so many of the elite directors i've worked through, he seems to have taken the average human attention span into account.
this might be my favourite so far. at the least, it's his most entertaining to me.
the lodge (2019) 3.5 a bit long on atmosphere & short on tension in its middle section - at some point around the 1hr mark, i felt like i fell out of the film's grasp & started to be consumed by thoughts like 'let's just get on with things already, please.'
satisfying & unsettling ending though. definitely worth a watch by all means, but i wish it had been just a little leaner, & didn't have a few plot contrivances that i found maybe a touch silly.
cannibal ferox (1981) 3 in every way, this is not as good as that other one.
but it still is pretty fun if this is where your tastes run.
the phantom of liberty (1974) 3.5 all the bunuel films i've seen have had a strong sense of the absurd, of verging on pure silliness at times, but this is the most openly silly, surreal & absurd one. and it's quite baudy in places, which is something i always enjoy. bring back casual nudity in films.
it's episodic nature made it feel just a little slight & minor, compared to say... belle du jour or whatever. and i found myself tiring of it just a bit towards the end. even though it's relatively short, it started to feel just a bit long.
v/h/s (2012) 3.5 seems to be settled opinion that the sequel improved on this, and i guess i agree. i still find plenty to enjoy in it, though.
tristana (1970) 3 just a few days ago, i was ululating to the world that bunuel was the one classic prestige director who could do no wrong in my books. i had to say that, naturally, because here i am two days later not digging this one at all.
it has it's moments, most of them front-loaded, but i was mostly bored by this disappointingly normal melodrama. three stars because bunuel clearly loved ogling deneuve's perfect face.
mausoleum (1983) 3 marjoe goertner is the least cool actor i've ever seen in a film. even his name is ridiculous. it's incredible to me that somebody like that regularly got gigs.
has generous amounts of nudity, & some fun, silly looking effects, & while the story is no classic, the whole thing chugs along reasonably well. i was not bored, which is all i ask for when i hit play on something as dubious looking as this.
castle in the sky (1986) 3 my second crack at this one, and i once again found it to be not very enjoyable.
i dig everything else i've seen from miyazaki, from the studio, but i find this one too long & the story and the characters a bit unengaging.
spirited away (2001) 5 first time i've watched the english dub.
i know people get very sniffy about dubs, but i think they're generally fine for animated films. the only issue here is i think a few lines get changed pretty substantially - the joke about the guy's ass getting bigger, so there's more of it to kiss got completely dropped, for some incomprehensible reason. is it because north americans are prudes?
you probably don't need me to tell you about this film.
my neighbor totoro (1988) 5 as above, my first watch with english dubs. it's still cute.
scare package (2019) 3 new horror anthology streaming on shudder. too long! they should have dropped at least one of the shorts, i'd say. it's perfectly entertaining & has lots of good gore. none of the segments really stand out as being great or exceptional, but they're all breezy and mostly fun.
it just should have been shorter.
life is sweet (1990) 4 not quite as high on the level of greatness as i've come to expect from leigh films. in particular, spahl's character is cartoonish, almost a caricature to me, and definitely feels out of step with with working class pulse leigh always has his finger on.
still very much worth the watch, with the richly textured characters you'd expect if you know his films.
princess mononoke (1997) 2 lots of people love this, obviously. i'm happy for them. it's a big world, and we're allowed to be different.
i was so bored and indifferent to this. and my god it was long.
at one point, i thought 'it's gotta be over soon, at least.'
& instead found that there were 55 minutes left.
not for me.
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[deleted]
4 years ago
pi (1998) 4 on any given day, depending on my state of mind, this is probably my favourite aronofsky. i love its raw, punkish energy and its nightmarish images that remind me of tetsuo and eraserhead.
i don't like it's math/religious/stock-market plot as much. that's just the buffer holding the good parts together imo. you could get rid of all that and not lose a thing.
mayhem (2017) 3.5 fun, violent, gory good time. contains a trope that i kinda hate (all corporate managers are inhuman monsters), but all told a very enjoyable watch.
the sublet (2015) 2.5 another crazed 'new mother has a meltdown/is it real, is it in her head?' affair. the problem i almost always find with these types is that when you find out what the actual answer is, it's generally kinda underwhelming. this sidesteps that, by (spoilers, i guess?) not really giving us an answer.
but it's watchable, moves along reasonably well. held my attention, never bored. the leads are pretty good, but some of the supporting actors, especially the french ex-girlfriend, were community theatre level, imo.
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StoneKeeper (21044)
4 years ago
Just looked Bunuel up, never heard of him. looks like quite the specimen.
The lodge is on my list.
I been trying to see Spirited away forever but I aint willing to pay 20$ for it.
Pi: My favorite director. 7/10
Mayhem: I think I own it.
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