i've only seen e.t. from your list, which i weirdly watched for the first time in 2019. 4/5
my week:
the salesman (2017) 4.5 unlike lots of others, i don't really see this as being a dip in quality from farhadi's previous two films. i think it's every bit as good, and would be perfect if it wasn't quite so drawn out at the end.
the saddest music in the world (2003) 4 a step below my winnipeg & brand upon the brain as far as guy maddin films go, but still so god damned delightfully weird.
tapeworm (2019) 4 this is the most 'winnipeg' movie i've ever seen.
don't ask me why i love shambolic fuckery like this so much. i just do. it's not something that can be explained or defined. this is good to me. it may or may not be good to you. i'd definitely encourage you to try watching it to find out if it is.
possum (2018) 3.5 contains great things. enough of them that i wished i liked it more, but it does just lag a bit too much. i'm fine with it being confusing. as a depiction of someone's disintegrating mental state, it's very well done. it's almost a sister film to the great 90s indie 'clean, shaven.'
has some expertly presented, genuinely nightmarish images.
i might try giving this another watch to see if it comes together a little more effectively the second time around. it feels like there are tons of great things here, and maybe i need to work a bit more to provide the connective tissue.
the last house on the left (1972) 4 i can't really defend liking this as much as i do.
nightlight (2015) 2 mostly pretty dull found footage, though a few moments are effective - the cave & overhead lights scenes in particular.
not recommendable, but...if you just want something to throw on late in the evening while browsing twitter or whatever, go ahead & hit play. it has cute girls, though they're only on screen maybe...30% of the time?
brittany runs a marathon (2019) 3.5 mostly enjoyed it, though i felt it got a little too tony robbins-ish towards the end. good outweighs the bad, certainly.
gretel and hannsel (2020) 2.5 i don't want to plant my flag too firmly in either direction right now.
my initial thoughts are that i'm deeply disappointed yet think it's chock full of worthy things.
i've become a bit of a blackcoat's daughter obsessive. have watched it a silly amount of times, & i love lazing in its weird world. i didn't immediately love it, though. found it a bit of a slog my first go at it, as i recall, so i don't want to dismiss this out of hand. maybe i'll come to love this too.
but right now it feels just a bit too up its own bum and a bit too in love with its glacial austerity. i spent the last 40 minutes pleading with it to either get on with things already or just end.
open 24 hours (2018) 2.5 slightly subpar slasher/thriller. the lead is solid & sympathetic, i guess, but it takes a bit too long to get ramped up. has some solid violence and gore, though it could have used more.
lovers rock (2020) 4 great! very sweet & energetic & loaded with tons of great music. and short! make more short movies.
megan is missing (2011) 3.5 this is by far the most enthusiastic i think i've ever been about a film with a 1.4 rating.
execution is shoddy in places, granted, some of the acting is a bit sub-high school drama club. but it builds to a very stark & brutal ending. an ending that's a bit too drawn out. i'll also grant that. but i won't forget it i'm pretty sure.
i watch a lot of movies, and i forget most of them. i'm pretty sure i won't forget this one.
robocop 2 (1990) 3 the old man and ocp are the actual heroes of this movie. the mayor is the crusty government crony trying to hold back economic expansion.
this is pretty much worse than the original recipe in every single way. and it's mostly dour. the evil glee of the first one is mia for the most part.
but it's still passably entertaining.
red white and blue (2020) 3 errs on the side of being a little too heavy-handed imo. still a gripping story & all, but i can't help but feel it's a little diminished by being so didactic.
terminator dark fate (2019) 3.5 i enjoyed this much more streaming it tonight than i did when i caught it in the theatres. the first 1/2 hr or so of this truly cooks, and if it doesn't rise to anything like that level again, it's dependably entertaining.
it has its flaws - takes a dip when they get into that detention camp, and some of the action is far too glossy looking, but ... y'know, it's fine. good. and good things should be appreciated.
death wish (1974) 3.5 i don't think i've seen this before tonight. weird. if i had, it's completely fallen out of my head because it all mostly felt new to me.
it's not a pleasure on the level of 2 + 3 - it's just a bit too po-faced for me to love unreservedly - but i still dig its ugly, reactionary tone & message.
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[deleted]
3 years ago
the ladykillers (1955) 3 very pleasant and solidly amusing, but it never really made me truly lol.
slapstick comedy like this never seems to land with me, so take my opinion and throw it in the trash if you're so inclined.
the loved ones (2009) 3.5 pretty fun! would be a classic if it maintained its brutal energy all the way through, but i feel it kinda dissipated in the last third or so instead of building.
lola and her general attitude and demeanor kinda got my motor running, truth be told. i'd say she's approximately 10 billion times sexier than our guy's girl next door girlfriend.
the color wheel (20014) 4.5 a re-watch. i'd forgotten how funny this is. it has at least 4 scenes that made me genuinely lol. i didn't forget its ending, but even so it still kinda shocked me.
perry should make more comedies like this. i'd watch them.
black magic for white boys (2019) 3.5 i find tukel genuinely funny. he only seems able to hit one note in his performances, but it's a good note.
this could have been a little shorter, and holy cow does it leave you dangling and unresolved in many ways at the end, but it's another entry in tukel's caustic & i think very entertaining filmography. if he keeps making them, i'll keep watching them.
antiporno (2016) 4 y'know how, whenever a movie that's a little bit askew or messed up comes down the pike, about 30% of the lb reviews will say something like 'what the hell did i just watch?' or words to that effect?
this is one of those.
no idea what this was about. i'd imagine it's a statement on something - patriarchy or japanese porn, maybe. i have no idea. i'm not a deep thinker. i'll leave it to the smart people to tell me what this meant.
lots of fun though. colorful, exciting to look at, and pretty sexy at times.
the vast of night (2020) 3.5 i liked it a lot.
at a certain point, i kinda started wondering where this was going - are they ever going to get to the fireworks factor??? - but i never got impatient with it, and i think it did a great job of doling out its mysteries.
it's a modest film for the genre, but it's really well done.
this is martin bonner (2013) 5 this is something like the cinematic definition of an understated, lowkey masterwork. definitely at or near the top of my favourite indie films of the last 10 years.
swallow (2019) 4 i think this is about 85% of the way to being a great movie. if it got rid of one thing that i think didn't quite work, got rid of trying to create a 'she's like that because of this' explanation, this would be as terrific as 'safe,' to give an obvious comparison.
i'd still say it's really good. ends in a tantalizingly unresolved way that i found paradoxically satisfying!
star wars (1977) 4.5 i've heard it argued that the pace isn't great, and that kids these days find it too slow to get going. is that true? because i was having fun from the get go. it hit the ground running and never let up.
it's really good!
and i finished watching the first season of the boys. i initially really liked it, thought it felt like a complete breath of fresh air, but i did find myself getting a bit tired of the cynicism after a while.
i'll probably watch the 2nd season, but i'm definitely going to take a break from it for a bit.
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StoneKeeper (21186)
3 years ago
I’m a huge robocop fan!! Hate the sequel! Ok, hate is a strong word but The young boy being the cruel villain was a bad decision and it’s mostly a mess. 5/10
Dark fate: 7.5/10
Star Wars: 8.5/10
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[deleted]
3 years ago
i'm a big fan of the original too. i'm probably gonna give it a rewatch on the weekend.
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Mrmojo4700 (20441)
3 years ago
I love the end of Death Wish when Kersey points the finger gun at the punks. Perfect way to end it.
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