Thanksgiving

Thought this was going to be a serious slasher film not as comedic as it is, Tim Dillon is great in the few parts he is and very gory but otherwise it’s just ok.

I was definitely expecting more Terrifier or You’re Next than something like Happy Death Day or Freaky.

The Running Man a timeless classic from the 80's made for anyone that want to get there Arnold on.

Nov 10, 2023 4:05:02 GMT c said:

Rewatched Under a Silver Lake. One of the most underrated films that came out in the last decade. Total box office bomb, but a fantastic 90's inspired youth neo-noir film. IMO far better than It Follows. I liked It Follows, but I loved this. Andrew Garfield really shined here.

Still haven't seen It Follows, but I really enjoyed my time with Under the Silver Lake. I was worried half-way through they weren't going to deliver on a pay-off and were going to go down the unreliable narrator path but I was satisfied with what they delivered. I remember the movie had several plot threads that were left open, either meant as red herrings, or just alternative character interpretations that flesh out the cast that would be well worth exploring on another watch. I know there was a reddit community that delved even deeper and were looking into clues the movie left, which seemed fun but I never saw if they came up with anything.

It's one of those love it or hate it type of movies. A few scenes are just genuinely off-putting, it's a difficult film to get invested in but if you enjoy the genre and movies like Inherit Vice, Brick or just something unconventional, it's well worth watching.

Still haven't seen It Follows. I'm not a huge horror buff, but too many people have talked it up and I'm in the mood for more 2010s cinema.

Yeah, I was really happy with the ending of Under a Silver Lake. Was a great way to tie things together. Usually movies like this miss the landing, but this one did not.

Nov 8, 2023 12:34:03 GMT System said:

The Marvels

sandylea asked me if I spiked the popcorn with drugs halfway through this film.

SPOILER: Click to show

They go a planet where the people sing and dance as a language and Captain Marvel sides a sings song and dance number with the Prince..they get what they went to the planet for and leave.

Almost completely irrelevant to the plot. The SFX look like a Star Trek Next Generation episode and that started airing in the 80s. One scene in this could have been re-cut to be a great horror scene though.

This movie is hilarious.  Top dollar actors, big dollar CGI, then sets that look like they were made from painted styrofoam that they tried to use CGI to look passable.  Like the weapons they are using were so fucking bad even the CGI could not save them and they looked like cheap plastic halloween weapons. 

Huge Iman Vellani fan, and she was great in this, as were all the Desi actors.

Hope for the next film, we leave the baggage behind and just do Ms Marvel alone.  And stop trying to make the Kree - Skrull War work, no one like it for decades now.

///

Also fun now no one is holding back.  Brie is awful as Captain Marvel and almost all reviews now are not afraid to call her out.  She can rage again at the narrative of reviewers hating women, but they loved Vellani and liked Parris.  

Sister Act 2...

It was okay.

Watched Quiz Lady on Disney+. It was interesting because the part Sandra Oh plays is usually the part Awkwafina plays and vice versa. Funny in all the right parts. Mom and I both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Best.Christmas.Ever. on Netflix was a miss for both of us. Fun family film, maybe? Very predictable and some of the characters were pretty unlikable even though you were supposed to like them, because they came off as just 'too perfect' so disingenuine.

Quiz Lady was so cute.

If you like campy horror with fun death scenes, strong recommendation that Thanksgiving is the movie for you. It’s pretty over the top slapstick horror that accomplishes the mission of not taking itself seriously at all. The heroes are stupid (and annoying enough to make you root for the villain) the killer is omnipotent, and any movie that takes on how awful stores starting Black Friday on Thanksgiving is a winner for me.

Napoleon

Never thought I’d say this as someone who likes when movies you know, get to the point but I really want to watch the 4 hour version of this. Considering how much happened in Napoleon’s life that you could make an entire season out of each event depicted in this film it really condenses things to the extreme.
Phoenix not bothering with an accent was probably the wisest choice.

The main thing it doesn’t condense is his relationship with Josephine and the struggles with that, which while an important part of his life isn’t exactly the strong suit of the film.

Still the battle scenes are incredible and the highlight of the film and accent aside Phoenix portrays the ups and downs of Napoleon’s journey quite well.

I think for this I will wait for the four hour version. I tend to prefer the movies directors want to make than the cut versions Hollywood wants.

Thanksgiving waiting to watch a group. Glad to hear after all these years it did not disappoint.

Nov 23, 2023 5:16:30 GMT System said:

Napoleon

Never thought I’d say this as someone who likes when movies you know, get to the point but I really want to watch the 4 hour version of this. Considering how much happened in Napoleon’s life that you could make an entire season out of each event depicted in this film it really condenses things to the extreme.
Phoenix not bothering with an accent was probably the wisest choice.

The main thing it doesn’t condense is his relationship with Josephine and the struggles with that, which while an important part of his life isn’t exactly the strong suit of the film.

Still the battle scenes are incredible and the highlight of the film and accent aside Phoenix portrays the ups and downs of Napoleon’s journey quite well.

There was an excellent TV mini series with Armand Assante and Jaqueline Bissett in 1987 that I thought was really well done.  Of course it focused more on the love story between Napoleon and Josephine, but it dealt with all facets of his life as well. I remember when I watched the scene with him crowning himself Emperor and then the painting he had commissioned in which he had the painter paint his mother (who did not attend) in. Then years later I stood in front of that same painting at the Louvre and it was a surreal moment.

I am very anxious to see this film but like c , might wait for the 4 hour version as I feel his life is so interesting that even a 2 hour and 38 minute run time would leave so much out. I believe they got the right actor to play the role though. 

Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)

One of the few Nolan films I hadn’t seen. Although it doesn’t reach the heights of Memento and The Prestige, I thoroughly enjoyed Interstellar. Visually amazing, I can imagine it being truly breathtaking on the big screen. Great cast and a great story. I loved the design of the robots and how Nolan was able to humanise big lumps of metal. I popped for Michael Caine and even more for Matt Damon, what a lovely surprise. The conclusion lost me, which is a shame because the science fiction was kept simple and clear for the most part, then at the end there’s this whole world with five dimensions and communicating though space and time by pushing books from a bookshelf and lots of other nonsense. It went too implausible even for science fiction but it hardly ruined the film. I did like all the narrative twists and turns, and some of the space piloting trickery that the lead pulls off is phenomenal.


John Wick Chapters 2, 3, 4 (Chad Stahelski)

If you review my posting history you’ll see that I praise the first instalment of the extremely successful action franchise John Wick while dismissing the second film as “silly”. On a whim I decided to give it another go. I ended up binging chapters 2 through 4 and enjoying every second. These films are undoubtedly silly but that’s the point, when I let my brain relax and simply absorbed the insanity in front of my eyes, it became tremendously entertaining.

There came a point in Chapter 2 where I realised that these movies are action video games on the big screen. Once I reframed it in that way the whole experience became a whole lot more fun. I could see Wick’s health bar go down as he gets hit by a car (dude gets run over a LOT) or falls down a flight of stairs (dude falls down a LOT of stairs), but he finds time to rest for his health bar to restore. I hope his stuntmen got a big payday. After that I started making parallels to video games everywhere. He takes time to reload. He replenishes weapons and ammo by killing people and looting corpses. There are regular enemies, mini bosses and big bosses. There are different settings with different features. One scene in Chapter 3 shows the action in first person perspective, another in Chapter 4 uses a top down perspective. Chapter 3 has a sequence that is literally a live action version of the motorbike mini game from Final Fantasy 7. When John Wick is not fighting he’s obtaining quest items and searching for key NPCs to obtain his next mission. While he travels there are random encounters because 50% of the population is in this secret assassin’s guild who want the perpetually increasing bounty on his head. By Chapter 4 he’s unlocked fast travel, allowing him to teleport to nations all over the planet without random encounters.

The first John Wick is grounded, gritty and somewhat realistic, but possessing a unique style and presentation, a trademark that revitalised the entire genre. The sequels retain that action style and minimalist narrative, but take away the groundedness and replace it with increasingly far fetched and grandiose locations and set pieces, while giving John Wick himself considerably more hit points. It’s this jarring change that caused me to struggle to get into, and ultimately reject, the sequel. Fortunately I’ve overcome that mental obstacle.

Director Chad Stahelski knows what he wants from his action films and he has stayed true to that highly effective style. Squeaky clean action scenes where we can see every millisecond of the elaborate combinations of grappling, blades, guns, and improvised weaponry. The way Wick seamlessly blends these styles is masterful and we see why he is a legend in his field. The world building is phenomenal, exposition is kept to the bare minimum with background details left open, which is absolutely the best way to go about it. Very little dialogue, I’d be surprised if Reeves spoke more than 100 words across the entire four films. He does bring a dark, brooding charisma to the role, but I feel almost any competent action star could have played John Wick just as effectively. The supporting cast is great, I loved Winston (Ian McShane), Charon (Lance Reddick) and most of all The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon), a character who I really wished would have appeared in Chapter 4. Laurence Fishburne was a smart casting decision for obvious reasons but he hammed it up a bit too much for my liking. I also wasn’t particularly fond of Bill Skarsgård as the main antagonist in Chapter 4.

The finale was suitably epic, with a long gauntlet and boss rush heading to the final showdown. The duel was masterfully written and acted, turning The Marquis’ arrogance against him. John Wick is grievously wounded but given there’s a Chapter 5 in the works, I assume he survives, despite his gravestone being witnessed. After all, he took enough damage to die a hundred times over the course of the series, you think being shot a few times will stop him? Wonderful stuff and I’m on board for what is to come.

Leo - That weird netflix Adam Sandler film, actually a good watch, I have weird taste in films.

It's a musical in the same vein as his Eight Crazy Nights, which...I'm a watch later on.

Saltburn

Had a lot of time to kill today and one of the cinemas had $1 tickets for VIP members so I went in knowing next to nothing about it. Much like Barbarian it’s best enjoyed that way.

Spoilers because Sandra hasn’t seen it yet

SPOILER: Click to show

I’m so glad I went in not knowing anything about, like it was directed by Emerald Finnel who directed Promising Young Woman. Not because I didn’t like said film (I loved it) but because I would have certain expectations.

The chemistry between Barry Keoghan & Jacob Elordi is fantastic and you really believe in the initial friendship between them. Absolutely gorgeous film and the 4:3 aspect ratio leads to some really impactful shots.

Definitely not for the prudish, there’s some of the weirdest sexual stuff I’ve seen in a film this year…and I’ve seen Beau is Afraid. Was more than a few uncomfortable groans in a certain scene.

10/10

The Marvels (Nia DaCosta, 2023)

In an unusual structure for my reviews, I'll get the negatives out of the way first. Don't worry, I have few complaints.

The first is the alien cat, Goose. The comic relief in Captain Marvel, revealed to be the origin of Nick Fury's missing eye. Understandably many fans were up in arms about that. I personally didn't care and thought it a lame but harmles gag. Well, Goose is much more prominent in The Marvels, in particular the entire scene dedicated to baby alien cats swallowing an entire crew for the good of the human race. Taking a decent comic relief idea and running into the ground.

My second and final complaint is the whole subplot on the water planet, the planet full of people who communicate in song, where it is revealed that Captain Marvel had a diplomatic marriage to the Prince. Between this scene and the alien cats I am reminded of Thor: Love & Thunder in how the narrative so jarringly goes from pretty serious to bizarre light-hearted "comedy". By the way, the whole point of this interlude is that the villain opens a wormhole to steal every drop of water from the planet, a plot point that is dropped rather suddenly and never resolved or answered. I can't say I particularly care about how the perpetual singer-dancers fared, but it's poor writing.

On the whole, The Marvels strikes the same notes as Captain Marvel while adding two new superheroes and higher stakes. This is a good thing, because I really enjoyed Captain Marvel and the sensitive tackling of personal, human issues blended into a superhero story. In this case the emotional weight stems from Captain Marvel's loneliness and her lack of confidence in being an effective superhero. Perhaps this choice of narrative is in part driven by fans complaining that Captain Marvel is overpowered. Overpowered she may be, but with great power comes great responsibility. We learn that her furious and effortless destruction of the Supreme Intelligence made the Kree planet Hala almost uninhabitable, the Kree justifiably declaring her a villain with the unflattering moniker "The Annihilator". Naturally this put a huge dent in her self-confidence which is a constant presence in the film, and convincingly acted by Brie Larson.

This serves as the motivation for Dar-Benn, a character whose motivations at first appear...not so villainous. She is trying to save her race. Why, therefore, is she the villain, and not Captain Marvel, who is trying to stop her? It's an intriguing question, but it isn't long before the ambiguity is resolved when Dar-Benn reveals her true colours. Her plan is to use wormholes to siphon the atmospheres from other healthy planets, wiping out their citizens. That's not very nice, is it?

We see Captain Marvel and her companions race around the galaxy, evacuating citizens and trying to stop Dar-Benn. I suppose I ought to talk about her companions? First is Monica, the daughter of Captain Marvel's best friend from the first film, effectively her niece. Second is Kamala Khan, who by pure chance owns a legendary artefact that gives her superpowers. She's smart, and she's noticed this. She idolises Captain Marvel and by happenstance gets to meet her in the events of this film. The way these characters come together is brilliantly written and acted, carefully balancing silly humour with more weighted conversations. How The Marvels improves over Captain Marvel (or at least how I remember it) is that it doesn't drown the audience in serious talk. The moments of gravity are there, and they tugged at my heartstrings, but they struck a better balance than the predecessor.

Fantastic movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but could have done without the cat overload.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I have no idea who the bow-and-arrow lady was, the lady recruited by Kamala at the end of the film, nor who the people were in the post-credits scene. Am I supposed to know?

Kamala carried the movie IMO.  Which makes sense as that girl is really an Avengers superfan girl, and even write comics now.

That was Kate Bishop at the end, recruiting Kamala for Young Avengers. Bishop was from the Hawkeye show.  Believed at least the next Avenger movie will be the young Avengers, though they are trying to bring everyone they can back down superhero fatigue is hitting.

Nov 23, 2023 23:49:40 GMT Emperor said:

John Wick Chapters 2, 3, 4 (Chad Stahelski)

If you review my posting history you’ll see that I praise the first instalment of the extremely successful action franchise John Wick while dismissing the second film as “silly”. On a whim I decided to give it another go. I ended up binging chapters 2 through 4 and enjoying every second. These films are undoubtedly silly but that’s the point, when I let my brain relax and simply absorbed the insanity in front of my eyes, it became tremendously entertaining.

There came a point in Chapter 2 where I realised that these movies are action video games on the big screen. Once I reframed it in that way the whole experience became a whole lot more fun. I could see Wick’s health bar go down as he gets hit by a car (dude gets run over a LOT) or falls down a flight of stairs (dude falls down a LOT of stairs), but he finds time to rest for his health bar to restore. I hope his stuntmen got a big payday. After that I started making parallels to video games everywhere. He takes time to reload. He replenishes weapons and ammo by killing people and looting corpses. There are regular enemies, mini bosses and big bosses. There are different settings with different features. One scene in Chapter 3 shows the action in first person perspective, another in Chapter 4 uses a top down perspective. Chapter 3 has a sequence that is literally a live action version of the motorbike mini game from Final Fantasy 7. When John Wick is not fighting he’s obtaining quest items and searching for key NPCs to obtain his next mission. While he travels there are random encounters because 50% of the population is in this secret assassin’s guild who want the perpetually increasing bounty on his head. By Chapter 4 he’s unlocked fast travel, allowing him to teleport to nations all over the planet without random encounters.

The first John Wick is grounded, gritty and somewhat realistic, but possessing a unique style and presentation, a trademark that revitalised the entire genre. The sequels retain that action style and minimalist narrative, but take away the groundedness and replace it with increasingly far fetched and grandiose locations and set pieces, while giving John Wick himself considerably more hit points. It’s this jarring change that caused me to struggle to get into, and ultimately reject, the sequel. Fortunately I’ve overcome that mental obstacle.

Director Chad Stahelski knows what he wants from his action films and he has stayed true to that highly effective style. Squeaky clean action scenes where we can see every millisecond of the elaborate combinations of grappling, blades, guns, and improvised weaponry. The way Wick seamlessly blends these styles is masterful and we see why he is a legend in his field. The world building is phenomenal, exposition is kept to the bare minimum with background details left open, which is absolutely the best way to go about it. Very little dialogue, I’d be surprised if Reeves spoke more than 100 words across the entire four films. He does bring a dark, brooding charisma to the role, but I feel almost any competent action star could have played John Wick just as effectively. The supporting cast is great, I loved Winston (Ian McShane), Charon (Lance Reddick) and most of all The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon), a character who I really wished would have appeared in Chapter 4. Laurence Fishburne was a smart casting decision for obvious reasons but he hammed it up a bit too much for my liking. I also wasn’t particularly fond of Bill Skarsgård as the main antagonist in Chapter 4.

The finale was suitably epic, with a long gauntlet and boss rush heading to the final showdown. The duel was masterfully written and acted, turning The Marquis’ arrogance against him. John Wick is grievously wounded but given there’s a Chapter 5 in the works, I assume he survives, despite his gravestone being witnessed. After all, he took enough damage to die a hundred times over the course of the series, you think being shot a few times will stop him? Wonderful stuff and I’m on board for what is to come.

I am very glad that you have finally found a love for the John Wick franchise. They are by no means one of my favorites, but they are still an AWESOME / BADASS experience. You hit the nail on the head perfectly with the video game thing. Not that I actively compared them to video games to such an extent as you have here, but I did have thoughts as I watched them that particular scenes were very video-game like. As is the overall concept.

But more importantly, it is simply that spirit that I am glad you captured. The fact that they aren't intellectual masterpieces, simply well-executed displays of cool shit happening nonstop. Which, in hindsight, is indeed very much the point of video games like God of War or Uncharted. Which actually explains now why I like these movies so much.

I was a bit confused about it because I usually HATE when movies show off cool shit just for the sake of cool shit with no regards to the plot, story, or development. It's one of my pet peeves even. But the fact that it is so well executed in these films to such technical precision of endless choreography at such a high level transcended that for me. And it probably is because they are so video-game like, something else besides movies which I like a tremendous amount.

PS You now need to play through the Uncharted series.

Bottoms:

Funny at times but it’s such a strange contrast having fleshed out well acted characters than people who are just essentially caricatures like the Football guy as it killed any serious moment this film was going for.

Would have much rather they went more into the girls

SPOILER: Click to show

Getting cancelled for their behaviour than being glosses over

Soundtrack was great too

Godzilla Minus One:

Unlike most Kaiju films, the monster is the least interesting part of the film. And that isn’t a knock, it’s that the characters and storyline surrounding it is that good.
Very interesting the route they went being critical of some aspects of Japanese culture.

Uproar:

So many things all happening in this movie that it doesn’t get sufficiently tied up. It’s under 2 hours so it’s not like it couldn’t have fleshed it out a bit more. The lead guy was great and it was cool to see a Kiwi film on the big screen.

Animal



Holy fuck, this was amazing. 3h 31m (with intermission) this is just insanity.
What a love about the Hindi films I’ve seen is they don’t do subtlety at all, everything is just completely over the top.

Action is insanity, one scene the protagonist is massacring people with an axe while his comrades sing (because Bollywood). Oh you want more insane action? Bring out a Gatling gun that looks like it’s out of pimp my ride.

There’s drama with relationships & romance, Rashmika Mandanna was incredible in this. A lot of great laughs & much more crude humour than I’ve seen in other Indian films. So much stuff happening in this film even as the credits roll.

I saw this in ExtremeScreen and it was concert levels of loud, definitely a riveting experience.

I’m glad they joke about the confusion with the swastika too, I know it’s a good symbol in India but seeing a character make an angered speech in front of one can definitely be taken out of context :lol:




tl:dr it’s Indian John Wick

10/10 film


Silent Night

Really bold choice of having next to no dialogue in this, really fun revenge film but the lack of dialogue as cool of an idea it is does limit the film a bit.

One True Loves

Simu Liu is the only saving grace in this movie. Commercial level acting, blatant product placement and just sheer stupidity. Character’s husband goes missing in the pacific, so she stands on a pier somewhere in the North East US to stare out in the Atlantic Ocean. Even if she had the right ocean, it’s still incredibly dumb considering how big the Pacific Ocean is. I know it’s a romcom not a survival film but at least put some effort into that aspect of the story.

Leave the World Behind

Basically Barbarian meets Knock at the Cabin. Great performances.
A lot of cool ideas and premises but I think people that want a more definitive film will hate this with a passion.

The ideas of people being completely hopeless without communication & technology wasn’t new but explored really well, especially with languages.




Also once I saw the Obama’s name pop up in the production credits I thought the film would go a certain way and I was unsurprisingly right.

Def had Animal on my radar as it just looked crazy.

Five Night’s at Freddy’s: It wasn’t a bad movie, but it was just…a movie. If vanilla was a movie it would be FNAF, nothing very interesting happens, in fact very little happens at all until just before it ends. Worse ways to spend your time (Halloween Ends, we’re looking at you), but no reason to go out of your way to watch it, and I can’t imagine the desire to rewatch it.

Dec 10, 2023 3:54:51 GMT System said:

Leave the World Behind

Basically Barbarian meets Knock at the Cabin. Great performances.
A lot of cool ideas and premises but I think people that want a more definitive film will hate this with a passion.

I think you summed it up for me with this sentence. I was enjoying it at first but instead of building towards a climax of tension I found myself caring less and less as time went on, the interaction between the characters which started quite engrossing got progressively less engaging, and then in the end nothing really happened. 

No One Will Save You

This is like one step above Tubi garbage, Silent Night (2023) did the no dialogue approach so much better & Where the Crawdads sing did the exiled girl story better.

Dolores Claiborne (Taylor Hackford, 1995)

One of the lesser known Stephen King adaptations. Five years after Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her lead role in the more famous adaptation Misery, she returns as the lead character. I've not read the novel, so you are saved from several paragraphs referencing a book none of you have read.

Misery would be an appropriate title for Dolores Claiborne: it's an unrelentingly bleak film which piles on the unforgiving darkness of its characters and their traumatic pasts. Of course this is the type of thing you expect from Stephen King, but his depressing/horrifying subject matter is normally balanced out by adrenaline-pumping thrills or black comedy - a prime example being Annie Wilkes' disturbingly childish personality from Misery. While there are some thrills, most notably the flashback depicting the death of Dolores' husband, it's mostly just miserable dialogue and harrowing flashbacks. I do not fault the effectiveness of how it's delivered, but as a rule I do not particularly enjoy mountains of sadness with little to show for it.

Taking my personal feelings aside, I can't deny it's a powerfully-crafted piece of cinema. Most of the story is told through flashbacks, but the interweaving between past and present is sublime. Not just narratively - the cinematography is brilliant too: we see Dolores' beaten down house transform from grey and black to gold and red; Dolores herself undergoes a positive change, from the tormented soul of the present to the vivacious, loving mother and wife of the past. The presentation is more than a clever trick: it emphasises that these character's memories have been triggered in the moment, in some cases a repressed memory being uncovered for the first time. This plot device is key to the conclusion of the film, so it's crucial that it is communicated in the clearest way possible.

Dolores Claiborne is full of tormented souls. Apart from the title character, there is her alcoholic, abusive late husband Joe (David Strathairn), her estranged daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Detective Mackey (Christopher Plummer) and Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt). The only mentally healthy character in the story is Constable Stamshaw (John C. Reilly), but even Reilly's typically happy-go-lucky persona is reduced to a mere flicker in the opressive shadow of the plot. Fortunately the constable is able to keep his distance for the most part, so there's hope he doesn't join the tormented souls.

The lives of each of these characters come together in a dark, twisted way, their torment justified largely through no fault of their own. One of King's greatest strengths is the depths of his characters, and this particular story is a shining example. The acting for the most part lives up to these personalities, with one exception: Jennifer Jason Leigh. I simply wasn't convinced by her performance: it didn't help she was surrounded on all sides from brilliant portrayals by Bates, Plummer and Parfitt. However Strathairn stole the show with his portrayal as an unquestionably deplorable human being. His performance was captivating in the worst possible way. It's incredible to watch him squirm and contort his face as he tries to justify (both internally and externally) the terrible things - and he knows they're terrible - that he does. We never learn about Joe's past, how he became the demon he is, but we don't need to. It is Dolores Claiborne's story, after all.

Dolores is encouraged by Vera to murder her husband, although not exactly in those words. One of the big moral questions raised is: given that both characters know exactly what Joe has done, isn't she justified? Perhaps the biggest theme of Dolores Claiborne is the relationship between her and her daughter, with the mountains of shared trauma they both possess. Leigh's unconvincing acting puts a damper on their scenes, but the dialogue is strong, and the film ends about as well as it could, with a reconciliation of sorts. Dolores is, at heart, a good person, struggling her way through life like the rest of us, but she was dealt a very rough hand. This is her story, and it's a good 'un, despite my relative lack of enjoyment.

They Cloned Tyrone

Too goofy for me, Jamie Foxx by far the highlight.

The Boy and The Heron
(Dubbed)

The few Miyazaki films I’ve seen were whimsical fun. This should have been a horror film, like Alice in Wonderland it’s a dark story & a few jokes didn’t lighten the mood too much so this would look like the work of Junji Ito presented in a different way.

Suzume did this concept better & was much more tonally consistent.

Wonka:

Best mafia film of the year. Can’t believe someone pulls out a gun in this :lol:
Quite funny, a lot better than I thought it would be

Past Life:
This is so boring, I’d honestly rather watch One True Loves again.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

★★★★★

This film has been on my watchlist for a long time. I always felt like it was one I ought to watch with some preference due to the acclaim, but kept putting it off. Perhaps it was the fact that the name came off as a bit disconnected to me. I'm not very keen on geography and the location being the focus of the title didn't exactly entice me to action.

Well, tonight I decided to put it on. And I am glad I did. It turns out that the name couldn't be more appropriate. The true treasure of the Sierra Madre is not the gold which is the subject of the story, but this film itself. Having inspired such a wonderful tale is about as great a merit that a mountain range can possess.

This is only the third film I've seen Bogart in, but it thoroughly convinced me I need to see a lot more. More so than The Big Sleep and even Casablanca did. Though I loved both of those movies and his acting was exceptional, this role was far more interesting and he performed it fantastically. An atypical role, especially for an actor so often lauded for his glamorous roles and handsome visage. I've almost always heard him mentioned in reference to his roles of heroic detectives and romantic leads.

Well, there is another side to his talent. A darker and more intriguing side. Before filming, Bogart encountered a critic while leaving a New York nightclub. "Wait till you see me in my next picture", he said. "I play the worst shit you ever saw". But the mental dilemma his character wrestles with is not entirely unsympathetic, as the film itself reflects on. And he captures the struggle through this performance in a very convincing and human manner.

And if that's not enough, it may not even be the best acting in this movie! Walter Huston puts on a near show-stealing performance. For someone who got the role because his son was directing, no complaints can be made as to his qualifications or how perfect he was for it. I've not seen much of him in other works, but I'm now equally as intrigued to explore more of his work as I am Bogart's. For a man at the end of his career too, at the age of 65, to still put on such fine work... It is impressive. I am excitedly anticipating to see more of him in the prime of his career.

Story-wise, there's nothing particularly groundbreaking about this film. It's carried by the characters and the psychological machinations slowly at work. The light story becomes heavy through the expertly delivered scenes and the power of the actors to draw you in and become attached to their plight. Even as their good conscience starts to sour, you don't want anything bad to befall them because you are personally invested.

The fact that myself and others can still experience and enjoy this film today, 75 years after its creation, is a testament to the fact that life isn't actually all that bad. Despite the troubles one encounters in life. Which rather matches the final sentiment of the movie.