movie challenge - january
Jan. 30th, 2017 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bond_girl2. A movie based on real events : War Dogs (2016) 
• Based on the true story of two young men who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan. | with Miles Teller and Jonah Hill
• Apparently, based on the amalgam of true stories. It was sort of fun at first, in a Scarface way. But the movie kept insisting that as the protag was a cute puppy, it was ok for him to be immoral. That it was too bad and everyone else's fault that the "adorable" character didn't succeed to swindle the American government. Yes, a movie shouldn't always be ~moral, but then the judgment should be off everyone equally and not just the adorable dirtbag getting a pass. There was also a blatant plot device of a girlfriend with an unexplained accent - I felt her vague foreignness existed only to show that Miles Teller was a good guy. Blergh.
• In short : a movie without a moral compass
5. A British movie : Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)
• A fisheries expert is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik's vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible possible. | with Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt
• Romcom is my least favorite genre, but I really wanted to love this for the actors. And I really wanted the focus of this to be more on the nerdy fun and challenges of making salmon fishing in the Yemen happen. But nope. It turned out to be a boooring, unconvincing romance where everybody is being unfaithful. Ewan and Emily are very pretty though. And there's Tom Mison of Sleepy Hollow. And a great behind-the-scenes featurette.
• In short : an average blah romantic comedy
6. A modern bestseller adaptation : Ender's Game (2013)
• A young boy is recruited by the military to lead the fight against a genocidal alien race which nearly annihilated the human race in a previous invasion. | with Asa Butterfield and the paycheck Harrison Ford
• I would have been SO mad if I were the fan of the Ender book cycle. This is a particularly uninspired movie, with poor visuals and paper-thin characterizations. One can sense that the original idea is not bad at all, but the movie doesn't do it justice.
• In short : a spectacularly crappy, low-rent adaptation
9. A movie where the main character learns something new : Europa Report (2013)
• An international crew of astronauts undertakes a mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon. And disappears. | a "found footage" genre
• A very nice mix of hard sci-fi and Lovecraft here; the space feels gorgeously cold and lonely. It's told from different people's POVs, and the technical stuff is the business! It's hard to speak of it without spoilers, but it's very human and well-acted.
• In short : a found-footage movie for science and Lovecraft nerds
♥
10. A movie with animals : The Shallows (2016)
• A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills. | Blake Lively
• My 2017's movie year started with a bang and Blake Lively. While I don't think Blake is a great actress, I like her so very much in the right role like here. This movie knows well what it's about: woman against nature. It's not Jaws, but just like Jaws, it's about blondes in the water, adrenaline, survival smarts, primal fear of what lurks beneath. The ending is a cop-out, but I still had lots of fun and this gorgeous Lord Howe Island beach in the Pacific is unforgettable. The two animals are the great white shark and Blake's sidekick - a plucky gull she names Steven Seagull.
• In short : an endearing, prettily shot killer-shark B-movie.
♥
11. A unpopular movie that you liked : The Magnificent Seven (2016)
• Seven gunmen in the old west gradually come together to help a poor village against savage thieves. | with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard, and other familiar faces
• I knoooow, but I liked it. While it's not ~magnificent, there was nothing wrong with it, like with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. All actors delivered. I know it's not up to the previous adaptations of the story and it doesn't bring anything new to the western genre, but it was fun, with pointedly cliched characters. Unfortunately, Matt Bomer got fridged in the first five minutes.
• In short : a vanilla western remake
18. A movie about making movies : Body Double (1984)
• A young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences. | by Brian de Palma, with a brilliant Melanie Griffith in the second part of the movie
• This movie is what happens if Vertigo and Rear Window have a baby: there's deception and there's peeping. De Palma's thrillers are well-reviewed and iconic but they don't work for me. Everything is too long, too loud, too gory, scenes and extreme close-ups taking forever. Their treatment feels dated. With how it looks at women, Body Double has a sleazy feel of vintage pornography. It also has lots and lots of literal pornography. It has these brain-bleach lines like "Hello, Gloria. Maybe you remember me. I'm the guy who almost fucked you on the beach today." However, when you suppress the gag reflex, it has a lot of humor and the thriller part is perfect and you are glued to the screen. It's just clockwork. And the reveal is so freaking good. How is it about making movies? It's a spoiler :)
• At one point, the lead character guy is suddenly inside an X-rated 80s music video of a real hot band of that moment. Trippy in the best way.
• In short : a sleazy thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously
19. A prison break/other escape movie : [Watership Down (1978)
]
• A group of rabbits flee their doomed warren and face many dangers to find and protect their new home. | by Richard Adams who passed away on Christmas; Guillermo Del Toro's favorite movie
• YEAH. Was I expecting to fall into a rabbit hole and pass by brutality, death, gore, abuse, right-wing dictatorship, mental illness, self-doubt, fight for survival? My mind was blown by how dark it was. This was one of the first animated movies not meant for children. A great story of a great depth, about the oppressed vs. the oppressor - be it human or other rabbit. I would still fault it for the movie being hard to understand in places: I often felt lost in the plot. And so the book is on my list!
• In short : the opposite of an animated Disney movie with fluffy frolicking animals; a cult classic
21. A movie for a modern tech geek : Elysium (2013)
• In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds. | by Neill Blompkamp, with Matt Damon, Diego Luna and Jodie Foster
• I wanted to see this because Matt Damon AND Diego Luna. Elysium is by the same director who brought us District 9. It's gritty and it wants to touch on many -isms and modern problems like immigration, health care, income gap, etc. However, it all too quickly turns into a hero action movie with lots of cool tech. Which is a shame. I wish that instead, it tried to find the real solutions to how to fix the scarcity of resources on that Earth. At least for five minutes amidst all those explosions and muscular dudes running around in exoskeletons and fighting the 1-percenters. I did enjoy that it was a little Mad Max, a little Blade Runner feel to it.
• In short : a cyberpunk sci-fi which doesn't keep its promises
22. A war movie : Hearts and Minds (1974)
• An examination of the conflicting attitudes towards the Vietnam War. | an Oscar-winning documentary
• Any real wartime movie is difficult to watch, and on top of that, Hearts and Minds is quite provocative. It consists of many, many candid interviews with politicians and veterans, and some truly disturbing real footage from Vietnam. Complex and informative, it's also a meditation on American power and perceived place in the world. The title comes from the Lyndon B. Johnson's speech: "ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there". Ebert said he felt too obviously manipulated by how the movie was crafted, and yeah there's an obvious bias, but I don't see why a movie can't have an agenda as long as open about it. I cried a few times, for the Vietnamese and for the American vets, but it was because the footage itself is so vivid and heartbreaking. The takeway wasn't new for me, but still deeply felt: wars hurt both sides and I'm deeply fucking sorry for (almost) everybody when wars happen.
• In short : an effective, sobering piece of anti-war propaganda
26. A biopic : The Revenant (2015)
• A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. | with my prince, Leonardo Dicaprio
• I was putting off The Revenant for such a long time because I knew I'd love it and I was waiting for the right mood to really get into it. Wow, wow, wow. This is 300% my jam: a spectacular nature cinematography and an extraordinary survival story. You can really tell that this was filmed in season and on location: the very particular color of midwestern winter skies can't be faked by CGI or shot in warmer climates. I especially appreciated the visual callbacks to Tarkovsky's movies and the work of Terrence Malick's favorite cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki.
• A bonus: a incredibly transporting soundtrack.
• Even if you watched the movie, I really recommend this side-by-side comparison of Tarkovsky and Inarritu's homage to him in The Revenant:
• In short : fucking amazing, will watch again apart from the very gory bits
♥♥♥
32. A horror or a supernatural mystery : Wind Chill (2007)
• Two college students share a ride home for the holidays. When they break down on a deserted stretch of road, they are preyed upon by the ghosts of people who have died there. | with my current movie crush Emily Blunt
• Good: very "winter wonderland gone wrong" atmospheric, nice suspense and pretty winter-storm visuals. It reminds me of the better SPN episodes like Roadkill and it's not a gore fest. Bad: Some odd character behavior seemed deliberate and pointedly mysterious, but it didn't make sense and there was no attempt for explanation. Maybe it was bad editing, maybe bad directing, but there was this weird disconnect between the acting and the story.
• In short : an atmospheric horror flick. To watch in the dead of winter. I liked it.
33. A movie directed by an actor starring in it : The Candidate (1972)
• Bill McKay is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California. He has no hope of winning, so he is willing to tweak the establishment. | with Robert Redford, acting and producing
• I'm fudging this challenge entry because Redford produced, not directed this excellent forgotten movie. He wanted to make a movie about a man who sold his soul and the studio only okay'ed this because of his involvement. The result is simply great and while the movie's aesthetic is firmly 70s, the political workings are as fresh and relevant now as they were then. I really recommend this as you can see parallels to the last election - and Redford is brilliant as usual.
• The Candidate was released a month prior to the 1972 California Presidential primary. Promotional sheets were put up in southern California resembling political posters. They had simply a photo of Robert Redford, with the slogan, "McKay: The Better Way!" - "McKay" got write-in votes in the June election.
• A prop campaign button from this film is on display at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in Washington. Next to authentic campaign buttons.
• In short : a biting political satire, 100% fresh even 45 years later
♥
36. A movie with a quirky character : Bright Lights: Starring Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher | HBO (2016)
• An intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty. | an authorized documentary
• Probably because my parents are so maddeningly well-adjusted and happy, I have a special love for dysfunctional, love-hate family stories. If you read any Carrie Fisher books, many eye-popping stories from Bright Lights wouldn't be a shock to you. However, it was just so lovely to have her wonderful persona onscreen. An hour and a half simply wasn't enough and that's my main complaint. And Debbie Reynolds had such a true Hollywood star's shine and class, till the end. Their complicated mother-daughter relationship is laid out well in front of us, as well as their devotion to each other.
• In short : a touching Fisher-Reynolds family movie
♥
46. A movie with aliens : Starship Troopers (1997)
• Humans in a fascistic, militaristic future do battle with giant alien bugs in a fight for survival. | by Paul Verhoeven
• You can watch this movie two ways: one, as a straightforward military sci-fi action romp in space and two, as a brilliant, almost subliminal satire. The director, who grew up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, took a well-known right-wing book and shot a movie that has some sequences copied frame by frame from Nazi newsreels. In the Starship Trooper world, everyone is beautiful, everyone is rah-rah patriotic, and everyone is ready to die in combat for their planet. And then, they do die. Die, die, die. For absolutely nothing as they are fighting a pointless war with a mirror bug society. The director hired a bunch of pretty, wooden TV soap actors because he didn't want them to be good, he wanted them to be caricatures. Writing and acting was so deliberately on the nose, I laughed a lot. It's trope subversion and trolling at its finest, though the movie was largely misunderstood when it came out.
• When asked "Why are you doing a right-wing fascist movie?" Verhoeven replied, "If I tell the world that a right-wing, fascist way of doing things doesn't work, no one will listen to me. So I'm going to make a perfect fascist world: everyone is beautiful, everything is shiny, everything has big guns and fancy ships, but it's only good for killing fucking bugs!" --- A great and scarily relevant article on the movie: HERE.
• In short : a subversive anti-war action movie. in space.
49. A movie about an artist : A Bigger Splash (2015)
• The vacation of a famous rock star and a filmmaker in Italy is disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter. | Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson
• The Bigger Splash is also a famous pop-art painting by David Hockney (below) and I'm pretty sure the movie was named to evoke its sensation of hidden violence in paradise. It's also a loose remake of the French classic The Swimming Pool - La Piscine (1969). It's good if you enjoy movies about messy relationships, strong sex vibes, and dark shadows cast by the bleaching, blinding sun.
• Tilda Swinton is this ethereal stylish creature from outer space, Dakota Johnson is a better actress than expected, and the hot filmmaker husband is hot and sexually confused. Fiennes is simply brilliant in it and seeing his hedonistic Harry dance his trademark wacky dance gave me life! It's not gloomy or morbid which is a plus for me.
• In short : a decent psychosexual Euro thriller without cheap tricks. Has depth and style.
♥
52. A movie to lift your spirits : Sunshine Cleaning (2008)
• A mom starts an unusual business--a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service--with her unreliable sister. | with Emily Blunt and Amy Adams
• I LOVED THIS. About looking at the bright side even when you don't have much to feel good about. It's about real people, doing real work and finding satisfaction in it, and there's no concern trolling or over-dramatizing about how real work, real concerns over money, real messy love life can be. It's like I was in there with a best friend, all gloved up and armed up with a toothbrush, bleach and optimism. There's a hopeful vibe without ever being corny. Half-star off for an abrupt ending. Why should you watch it? Great acting, great story, and lots of compassion, fun and tears.
• In short : a joy. Emily Blunt and Amy Adams are killing it.
♥
Movie I quit after 10 min and gave it a
star:
• Sully (2016) - Because a) this was directed by Clint Eastwood whose clunky and portentous work I never like, b) I googled that unlike the movie pretends, the government investigation was NOT accusatory in tone. As I'm not feeling kind towards right-wing propaganda these days, I chose to spend my time to read about the actual and not ~alternative~ facts of the Miracle on Hudson.
Movie of the month ♥♥♥:
• The Revenant, holy f.
|17/52 for 2017 movie challenge|
- A tour de force - or - this movie/show got to me on a very personal level.
- Great stuff, recommending it.
- Good stuff, I liked it enough to complete.
- Lost my interest half-way.
- Hate-watched parts of it.
♥ - Faves.
• Based on the true story of two young men who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan. | with Miles Teller and Jonah Hill
• Apparently, based on the amalgam of true stories. It was sort of fun at first, in a Scarface way. But the movie kept insisting that as the protag was a cute puppy, it was ok for him to be immoral. That it was too bad and everyone else's fault that the "adorable" character didn't succeed to swindle the American government. Yes, a movie shouldn't always be ~moral, but then the judgment should be off everyone equally and not just the adorable dirtbag getting a pass. There was also a blatant plot device of a girlfriend with an unexplained accent - I felt her vague foreignness existed only to show that Miles Teller was a good guy. Blergh.
• In short : a movie without a moral compass
5. A British movie : Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)
• A fisheries expert is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik's vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible possible. | with Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt
• Romcom is my least favorite genre, but I really wanted to love this for the actors. And I really wanted the focus of this to be more on the nerdy fun and challenges of making salmon fishing in the Yemen happen. But nope. It turned out to be a boooring, unconvincing romance where everybody is being unfaithful. Ewan and Emily are very pretty though. And there's Tom Mison of Sleepy Hollow. And a great behind-the-scenes featurette.
• In short : an average blah romantic comedy
6. A modern bestseller adaptation : Ender's Game (2013)
• A young boy is recruited by the military to lead the fight against a genocidal alien race which nearly annihilated the human race in a previous invasion. | with Asa Butterfield and the paycheck Harrison Ford
• I would have been SO mad if I were the fan of the Ender book cycle. This is a particularly uninspired movie, with poor visuals and paper-thin characterizations. One can sense that the original idea is not bad at all, but the movie doesn't do it justice.
• In short : a spectacularly crappy, low-rent adaptation
9. A movie where the main character learns something new : Europa Report (2013)
• An international crew of astronauts undertakes a mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon. And disappears. | a "found footage" genre
• A very nice mix of hard sci-fi and Lovecraft here; the space feels gorgeously cold and lonely. It's told from different people's POVs, and the technical stuff is the business! It's hard to speak of it without spoilers, but it's very human and well-acted.
• In short : a found-footage movie for science and Lovecraft nerds
♥
10. A movie with animals : The Shallows (2016)
• A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills. | Blake Lively
• My 2017's movie year started with a bang and Blake Lively. While I don't think Blake is a great actress, I like her so very much in the right role like here. This movie knows well what it's about: woman against nature. It's not Jaws, but just like Jaws, it's about blondes in the water, adrenaline, survival smarts, primal fear of what lurks beneath. The ending is a cop-out, but I still had lots of fun and this gorgeous Lord Howe Island beach in the Pacific is unforgettable. The two animals are the great white shark and Blake's sidekick - a plucky gull she names Steven Seagull.
• In short : an endearing, prettily shot killer-shark B-movie.
♥
11. A unpopular movie that you liked : The Magnificent Seven (2016)
• Seven gunmen in the old west gradually come together to help a poor village against savage thieves. | with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard, and other familiar faces
• I knoooow, but I liked it. While it's not ~magnificent, there was nothing wrong with it, like with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. All actors delivered. I know it's not up to the previous adaptations of the story and it doesn't bring anything new to the western genre, but it was fun, with pointedly cliched characters. Unfortunately, Matt Bomer got fridged in the first five minutes.
• In short : a vanilla western remake
18. A movie about making movies : Body Double (1984)
• A young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences. | by Brian de Palma, with a brilliant Melanie Griffith in the second part of the movie
• This movie is what happens if Vertigo and Rear Window have a baby: there's deception and there's peeping. De Palma's thrillers are well-reviewed and iconic but they don't work for me. Everything is too long, too loud, too gory, scenes and extreme close-ups taking forever. Their treatment feels dated. With how it looks at women, Body Double has a sleazy feel of vintage pornography. It also has lots and lots of literal pornography. It has these brain-bleach lines like "Hello, Gloria. Maybe you remember me. I'm the guy who almost fucked you on the beach today." However, when you suppress the gag reflex, it has a lot of humor and the thriller part is perfect and you are glued to the screen. It's just clockwork. And the reveal is so freaking good. How is it about making movies? It's a spoiler :)
• At one point, the lead character guy is suddenly inside an X-rated 80s music video of a real hot band of that moment. Trippy in the best way.
• In short : a sleazy thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously
19. A prison break/other escape movie : [Watership Down (1978)
]• A group of rabbits flee their doomed warren and face many dangers to find and protect their new home. | by Richard Adams who passed away on Christmas; Guillermo Del Toro's favorite movie
• YEAH. Was I expecting to fall into a rabbit hole and pass by brutality, death, gore, abuse, right-wing dictatorship, mental illness, self-doubt, fight for survival? My mind was blown by how dark it was. This was one of the first animated movies not meant for children. A great story of a great depth, about the oppressed vs. the oppressor - be it human or other rabbit. I would still fault it for the movie being hard to understand in places: I often felt lost in the plot. And so the book is on my list!
• In short : the opposite of an animated Disney movie with fluffy frolicking animals; a cult classic
21. A movie for a modern tech geek : Elysium (2013)
• In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds. | by Neill Blompkamp, with Matt Damon, Diego Luna and Jodie Foster
• I wanted to see this because Matt Damon AND Diego Luna. Elysium is by the same director who brought us District 9. It's gritty and it wants to touch on many -isms and modern problems like immigration, health care, income gap, etc. However, it all too quickly turns into a hero action movie with lots of cool tech. Which is a shame. I wish that instead, it tried to find the real solutions to how to fix the scarcity of resources on that Earth. At least for five minutes amidst all those explosions and muscular dudes running around in exoskeletons and fighting the 1-percenters. I did enjoy that it was a little Mad Max, a little Blade Runner feel to it.
• In short : a cyberpunk sci-fi which doesn't keep its promises
22. A war movie : Hearts and Minds (1974)
• An examination of the conflicting attitudes towards the Vietnam War. | an Oscar-winning documentary
• Any real wartime movie is difficult to watch, and on top of that, Hearts and Minds is quite provocative. It consists of many, many candid interviews with politicians and veterans, and some truly disturbing real footage from Vietnam. Complex and informative, it's also a meditation on American power and perceived place in the world. The title comes from the Lyndon B. Johnson's speech: "ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there". Ebert said he felt too obviously manipulated by how the movie was crafted, and yeah there's an obvious bias, but I don't see why a movie can't have an agenda as long as open about it. I cried a few times, for the Vietnamese and for the American vets, but it was because the footage itself is so vivid and heartbreaking. The takeway wasn't new for me, but still deeply felt: wars hurt both sides and I'm deeply fucking sorry for (almost) everybody when wars happen.
• In short : an effective, sobering piece of anti-war propaganda
26. A biopic : The Revenant (2015)
• A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. | with my prince, Leonardo Dicaprio
• I was putting off The Revenant for such a long time because I knew I'd love it and I was waiting for the right mood to really get into it. Wow, wow, wow. This is 300% my jam: a spectacular nature cinematography and an extraordinary survival story. You can really tell that this was filmed in season and on location: the very particular color of midwestern winter skies can't be faked by CGI or shot in warmer climates. I especially appreciated the visual callbacks to Tarkovsky's movies and the work of Terrence Malick's favorite cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki.
• A bonus: a incredibly transporting soundtrack.
• Even if you watched the movie, I really recommend this side-by-side comparison of Tarkovsky and Inarritu's homage to him in The Revenant:
• In short : fucking amazing, will watch again apart from the very gory bits
♥♥♥
32. A horror or a supernatural mystery : Wind Chill (2007)
• Two college students share a ride home for the holidays. When they break down on a deserted stretch of road, they are preyed upon by the ghosts of people who have died there. | with my current movie crush Emily Blunt
• Good: very "winter wonderland gone wrong" atmospheric, nice suspense and pretty winter-storm visuals. It reminds me of the better SPN episodes like Roadkill and it's not a gore fest. Bad: Some odd character behavior seemed deliberate and pointedly mysterious, but it didn't make sense and there was no attempt for explanation. Maybe it was bad editing, maybe bad directing, but there was this weird disconnect between the acting and the story.
• In short : an atmospheric horror flick. To watch in the dead of winter. I liked it.
33. A movie directed by an actor starring in it : The Candidate (1972)
• Bill McKay is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California. He has no hope of winning, so he is willing to tweak the establishment. | with Robert Redford, acting and producing
• I'm fudging this challenge entry because Redford produced, not directed this excellent forgotten movie. He wanted to make a movie about a man who sold his soul and the studio only okay'ed this because of his involvement. The result is simply great and while the movie's aesthetic is firmly 70s, the political workings are as fresh and relevant now as they were then. I really recommend this as you can see parallels to the last election - and Redford is brilliant as usual.
• The Candidate was released a month prior to the 1972 California Presidential primary. Promotional sheets were put up in southern California resembling political posters. They had simply a photo of Robert Redford, with the slogan, "McKay: The Better Way!" - "McKay" got write-in votes in the June election.
• A prop campaign button from this film is on display at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in Washington. Next to authentic campaign buttons.
• In short : a biting political satire, 100% fresh even 45 years later
♥
36. A movie with a quirky character : Bright Lights: Starring Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher | HBO (2016)
• An intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty. | an authorized documentary
• Probably because my parents are so maddeningly well-adjusted and happy, I have a special love for dysfunctional, love-hate family stories. If you read any Carrie Fisher books, many eye-popping stories from Bright Lights wouldn't be a shock to you. However, it was just so lovely to have her wonderful persona onscreen. An hour and a half simply wasn't enough and that's my main complaint. And Debbie Reynolds had such a true Hollywood star's shine and class, till the end. Their complicated mother-daughter relationship is laid out well in front of us, as well as their devotion to each other.
• In short : a touching Fisher-Reynolds family movie
♥
46. A movie with aliens : Starship Troopers (1997)
• Humans in a fascistic, militaristic future do battle with giant alien bugs in a fight for survival. | by Paul Verhoeven
• You can watch this movie two ways: one, as a straightforward military sci-fi action romp in space and two, as a brilliant, almost subliminal satire. The director, who grew up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, took a well-known right-wing book and shot a movie that has some sequences copied frame by frame from Nazi newsreels. In the Starship Trooper world, everyone is beautiful, everyone is rah-rah patriotic, and everyone is ready to die in combat for their planet. And then, they do die. Die, die, die. For absolutely nothing as they are fighting a pointless war with a mirror bug society. The director hired a bunch of pretty, wooden TV soap actors because he didn't want them to be good, he wanted them to be caricatures. Writing and acting was so deliberately on the nose, I laughed a lot. It's trope subversion and trolling at its finest, though the movie was largely misunderstood when it came out.
• When asked "Why are you doing a right-wing fascist movie?" Verhoeven replied, "If I tell the world that a right-wing, fascist way of doing things doesn't work, no one will listen to me. So I'm going to make a perfect fascist world: everyone is beautiful, everything is shiny, everything has big guns and fancy ships, but it's only good for killing fucking bugs!" --- A great and scarily relevant article on the movie: HERE.
• In short : a subversive anti-war action movie. in space.
49. A movie about an artist : A Bigger Splash (2015)
• The vacation of a famous rock star and a filmmaker in Italy is disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter. | Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson
• The Bigger Splash is also a famous pop-art painting by David Hockney (below) and I'm pretty sure the movie was named to evoke its sensation of hidden violence in paradise. It's also a loose remake of the French classic The Swimming Pool - La Piscine (1969). It's good if you enjoy movies about messy relationships, strong sex vibes, and dark shadows cast by the bleaching, blinding sun.
• Tilda Swinton is this ethereal stylish creature from outer space, Dakota Johnson is a better actress than expected, and the hot filmmaker husband is hot and sexually confused. Fiennes is simply brilliant in it and seeing his hedonistic Harry dance his trademark wacky dance gave me life! It's not gloomy or morbid which is a plus for me.
• In short : a decent psychosexual Euro thriller without cheap tricks. Has depth and style.
♥
52. A movie to lift your spirits : Sunshine Cleaning (2008)
• A mom starts an unusual business--a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service--with her unreliable sister. | with Emily Blunt and Amy Adams
• I LOVED THIS. About looking at the bright side even when you don't have much to feel good about. It's about real people, doing real work and finding satisfaction in it, and there's no concern trolling or over-dramatizing about how real work, real concerns over money, real messy love life can be. It's like I was in there with a best friend, all gloved up and armed up with a toothbrush, bleach and optimism. There's a hopeful vibe without ever being corny. Half-star off for an abrupt ending. Why should you watch it? Great acting, great story, and lots of compassion, fun and tears.
• In short : a joy. Emily Blunt and Amy Adams are killing it.
♥
Movie I quit after 10 min and gave it a
• Sully (2016) - Because a) this was directed by Clint Eastwood whose clunky and portentous work I never like, b) I googled that unlike the movie pretends, the government investigation was NOT accusatory in tone. As I'm not feeling kind towards right-wing propaganda these days, I chose to spend my time to read about the actual and not ~alternative~ facts of the Miracle on Hudson.
Movie of the month ♥♥♥:
• The Revenant, holy f.
|17/52 for 2017 movie challenge|
- A tour de force - or - this movie/show got to me on a very personal level. - Great stuff, recommending it. - Good stuff, I liked it enough to complete. - Lost my interest half-way. - Hate-watched parts of it.♥ - Faves.
