GaijinPunch wrote:Licorice Pizza
Delightful. Didn't even realize until I started writing this that it stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman's son. Remains to be seen if he will deliver on the caliber of is father, but he was fantastic in this. Quite hilarious - in the vein of the first half of Boogie Nights and a bit of Inherent VIce. Obviously similar vibes due to the era.
It's a fantastic film. There is a sense of deja vu with BNs, but it's far more polished film in every regard, and it has enough of it's own personality to stand on it's own. I mean, the shots are composed so beautifully I had shivers down my spine. My favorite shot was when the two main characters are sitting across from each other in the restaurant booths and the camera gives us pov. So smoothly done that it's able to convey all of the emotion and all of the internal dialog between them without either one speaking a word to each other. I actually got a little teary after that scene because it was like I could feel what was going on.
Myself, I've been kicking off October with horror films. The gf and I are trying to average at least one a day up until Halloween.
OK. Yesterday I watched Reanimator 7/10
This is not even close to my first watching, but it's been awhile, and I'm almost always drunk when I watch horror movies. It's as great of twisted tale as ever, with it's Lovecraftian subhuman half-things finally materializing to wreak unnatural havoc on the mortal plane. My favorite character is David Gale, as the (ultimately) headless terror, carrying his own head around and sating occasionally in a pan of blood. It's so fucking classic, should be required watching for October.
After that we watched Get Out 6/10
This was not a horror film, but gf basically insisted I watch it for it's cultural importance. I liked it okay, but not as blown away as everyone who has been trying to push this movie on me for the past 3 years or so. I got the point of it (it's kind of impossible not to), but I thought the way they went about revealing the plot felt really contrived and forced. It wasn't especially believable or anything (not that it has to be), but believability can be pretty important when you're trying to make big socio-cultural points about race and class. In a lot of ways, Peele ends up diluting his own message by allowing for "special circumstances," while narratively insisting on a particular bigoted stereotype of all various groups represented. Does the movie mention good points, and difficult truths about race, class and American culture? Absolutely. Does the movie explore those idea in any meaningful way? Not in the slightest. And it ends as weakly and wishy-washy as it starts, on an unrealistic upbeat note.
It's interesting that I saw Nope before this one, because I probably would have liked it better if I saw it first; as it is, I was able to understand Peele's failings before the movie that made him a household name turned out to be a fluke. Well, maybe future movies will be better. One can always hope.
Also watched Resident Evil 7/10
Yeah, I said it. It's that good. It's actually one of my favorite sci-fi horror flicks of all time. It's action-packed, lots of great zombie moments taken right from Day of the Dead, and some great CGI work done with the Hunter and the Red Queen. Special mention goes out to the scene where one of the security officers gets diced by the laser. yum. Only could be made better if they showed us more of the gore, but I take it they didn't want to have an NC17 rating.
when he handed Jessie the iconic beanie, revealing a bushy full head of brown hair. Always pictured him buzzed/bald. 
even mean, though?!
. More than the required drama the film cooks up, I enjoy how Clint actively deconstructs all the accumulated tropes of his career. A smoker, a spitter, gunslinger, antisocial, mean bastard, dirty and hairy, etc., and puts it to work. Even so that the ending doesn't feel down, more somehow full circle. Man, he even sings on the ending credits! A fine exclamation mark to end a presense before the camera, or so it was intended. Yes, I know about The Mule. Haven't seen it. Is it save to watch?
the rhetorical inhumanity.
Fallen Angels did little for me. Am I weird that I liked In the Mood for Love the best? 