Films I Watched This Week — Sep 16–22, 2024
Margaret (2011)
Great movie. Some plot threads felt half baked. Film should have been longer because I would have loved to see the other supporting characters fleshed out more. Still, a powerfull thought-provoking drama with a extraordinarily powerful lead performance by Anna Paquin and also her mother J-Smith Cameron. A young niave girl who is going through an emotional moral crises and who is trying to cope with her feelings on what she feels is right and what she believes is just. Excellent. I would love to see the longer cut that was intended by the director.
This Boy's Life (1993)
A powerful coming of age story about a troubled young teen trying to get out of his dysfunctional family life life and become something more. DeNiro has never been as unlikable as the abusive step father who can only be described as simply a monster and any child's worst nightmare.
Inherent Vice (2014)
Started off great. A mix of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and The Big Lebowski. Quirky humor and an amazing cast. But it went on far too long and after the missing character was found and the girl returned home the mystery and suspense died and the rest of the movie was a bore and chore to get though.
Like Someone in Love (2012)
A touching story about friendship and dangerous obsession by Abbas Kiarostsmi. It's probably his most conventional and straightforward story. Ending was a little abrupt and underwelming. By far the weakest of the movies I have seen of his but coming from a master like himself, it is a lot better than most directors best films.
The Last Days of Disco (1998)
Mildly enjoyable movie with engaging characters. Most of Walt Whitmans films involve yuppy upper-class teenage New Yorkers who believe they are smarter than they are. What makes the movie stand out from most standard comedies is the dialogue, the pseudo intellectual conversations been the characters, whether they are discussing Freud or Marx or the moralistic integrity of the characters in Lady and the Tramp.p
Poor Things (2023)
Poor Things is proof that there is still wonderful work being made in cinema today. This is Yorgos Lanthimos at the height of his creative powers and probably one of my favorite films of 2023. Immediately from the first frame both Frankenstein and the Elephant Man influences are apparent, whether its the rich black and white cinematography or that the director put a 16mm lens on a 35mm camera, giving viewers a scope like lens POV creating a sort of surreal dreamscape. The film is a comedic takedown of societal constructs while analyzing gender roles often forced on women by cultural and societal patriarchy. Yorgos Lanthimos is known for making both peculiar films and stories that are darkly funny. Poor Times does not disappoint in both departments. What I found extremely funny was Bela's newfound lust in sex. During her journey away from home, the enjoyment she receives from sex garners such a strong condemnation among the men in her life, especially when she gladly takes a position as a London prostitute. "You can make money for jumping on others?" Yet the movie does not judge her, and in fact, it celebrates it, knowing its just another step among others in this quest to learn more about the world and about herself. I believe its perfect for Lanthimos to frame the character of Bella as a reanimated woman with a child’s brain, because as bizarre as that seems, it’s a smart way of reintroducing the harsh realities of the real world to her, as we watch her grow and progress intellectually. When she returns home to her creator and husband in the end, she no longer has the child-like naivety of her previous life. She now blossomed into her own woman, strong and confident of who she was and where she was from.
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