Films I Watched This Week — Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2024
Suicide Club (2001)
A morbid and fascinating commentary exploring the extremely high rates of suicides in Japan and the superficialities in pop culture.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
A very boring sequel with exhausted ideas, an obnoxious man-child performance by Ryan Reynolds, and a story which simply includes a series of predictable childish gags, or situations, or sketches, all engineered for a edgy teen meme machine.
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Andrei Rublev which Tarkovsky called a "film of the earth," is set against the background of 14th century Russia, as the film is only loosely based on the life of the great icon painter, and seeks to depict a bleak and violent portrait of medieval Russia. Tarkovsky wanted to create a film that shows the artist as a world-historic figure, as its story is about the essence of art and the importance of faith, showing an artist who tries to find the appropriate response to the tragedies of his time. Too experimental, too frightening, too gory, and too politically complicated, it was not allowed to be released domestically in the officially atheist and authoritarian Soviet Union for years after it was completed, except for a single screening in Moscow. The film projects a sense of an entire world, a harsh and brutal force trying to assault ones senses while one views the naturalistic images Tarkovsky puts on the screen, including the composition of a cat walking across a corpse-filled church, wild geese fluttered over a savaged city, the slow decomposition of a ravaged swan, and a horse's hooves on the surface of a turbid river (To Tarkovsky horses were a symbol for life). The films brutal depiction of violence, torture and cruelty toward animals, quickly gained controversy and gotten Tarkovsky into trouble with Soviet authorities, almost driving him into exile. Most of these disturbing sequences take place during the violent Tatar raid of Vladimir, showing for example such shocking images of a cow being set on fire and the stabbing death of a horse.
Andrei Rublev (1966) is on MY TOP 300 FILMS LIST
Kameradschaft (1931)
The brilliant mix of elaborate studio sets and location shooting give the movie a cinema-verite aesthetic. The sequences of the catastrophe and rescue look like some of the most brilliantly shot and storyboard. Director G.W. Pabst gives a hopeful and progressive ode to solidarity, comradery and brotherhood to our fellow man.
Thirst (2009)
For Halloween, I decided to watch Thirst (2009), a South Korean vampire romance by the great Park Chan-Wook, the director of Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, and the Handmaiden. What an incredibly erotic, disturbing Korean flick with enough bloody violence and sexual imagery to satisfied my holiday bloodlust. Park Chan-Wook has done it again!
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
The animation, editing, and voice work are incredible throughout Into the Spiderverse. I love the stylish technopunk aesthetic, the rich and vibrant color schemes and the six different animation styles, such as 2D and 3D, hand-drawn, computer-generated and painterly images. The animators uniquely give different styles for each character and world with ambient changes to reflect each different character and their distinct personality. This film proves why superhero movies are best suited for its original animated form. Animation is able to achieve things live action could never be able to do.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a revolutionary achievement in animation. It’s a wild and darker journey for Miles Morales, expanding upon the complex rules of the multerverse, the threads that hold together what is forever canon and what can be changed for better or for worse. If the third movie is as extraordinary as this film, this might be the greatest superhero trilogy next to Nolans Dark Knight trilogy
Chopper (2000)
Chopper is a excellent true crime film by Andrew Dominik, the Austrialian director, who also did the amazing Assassination of Jessie James. Eric Bana is unrecognizable as the role of a real to life king pin who people call the Austrialian Al Capone. The criminal is named "Chopper" Read, arguably Australia's most infamous former criminal. The film draws on police records, court transcripts, news coverage and interviews with people who knew Chopper Read. It's a stellar crime drama and also darkly funny.
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