movies What's the last film you watched? And rate it!

A Movie directed by Bruce Conner - 9/10
The first film I watch for my cinema studies courses is actually a pretty darn good experimental film. This is the kind of film that I was attempting to make with my last short film in the way that it combines and compares motions, and it is also very thought-provoking. I do think some parts aren't particularly special, but I think few experimental films sustain a high note for a lengthy period of time.

Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story directed by Michael Winterbottom - 8/10
I found it strange that for our first feature, our teacher would show us a more recent comedy film but I'm glad she did. This is the kind of film that I would say "kind of interesting, but not so much" and would not watch but I'm glad I watched it. To me it's a sort of mix of early Woody Allen with an 8 1/2 and All That Jazz style of story. The parts that are funny, are really damn funny and I like how the film plays with conflicting plots that can even confuse the viewer. Occasionally there are parts that don't really work because they don't really do anything, but for the most part this was a thoroughly enjoyable film.

A Bronx Morning directed Jay Leyda - 8/10
A nice Soviet montage style film from New York that I think deserves some more attention. The film grasps both my intellectual and visceral sides in a way that only montage style filmmaking has. It's also a nice portrait of New York in the early 1930's. Not quite up there with Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, and Ivens but definitely the work of a great student of the masters!
 
the french connection: 3/10, I didn't care for it

If...: 6/10, was presently surprised by this, although I don't think the end would go over well with modern audiences.
 
sfoster said:
It's pleasing my recommendation went over well.
Mother is a great one too with the same lead dude, but it's not an action film.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a really good action film, it feels like an updated heroic bloodshed kind of film that I love. I have some problems with it regarding the characterization in the second half of the film, but overall it's a fantastic film!

I'll check out Mother as soon as possible, I heard that Bong Joon-ho is a great director!
 
Triads: The Inside Story directed by Taylor Wong - 5/10
It was interesting to find this little known Hong Kong film starring Chow Yun-fat on Netflix, but it was a disappointment for two reasons. As with many HK films on Netflix, for some reason there is only a dub option! And also, the film itself was promising but failed to live up to its potential. I mean it's a triad film starring Chow Yun-fat in his prime, yet he never picks up a gun (nor do any characters most of the time). That's kind of a superficial reason to be disappointed, but the story and the writing itself just didn't provide compelling drama, and it sucks because it did have a decent concept. I will say that the directing is not bad, and seeing Chow Yun-fat is always awesome as well as famous HK supporting actors (Kenneth Tsang, Shing Fui, Roy Cheung, and Michael Chan). As the title suggests there is an attempt to get a closer look at Triad life but this is mostly limited to the beginning of the film, and it sucks because this could have made it stand out from other heroic bloodshed films so that it could stand alongside the work of John Woo, Ringo Lam, and even Patrick Tam. But nope, this is a disappointing film overall that I would only recommend to diehard Chow Yun-fat fans, because I mean even the action in this film isn't really any good.
 
Guardians of the Galaxy. Disney and Marvel get another A for this one.

It's natural to compare it to The Avengers. I probably wouldn't say it was more entertaining than The Avengers. But I would say it had more heart and was more moving (read: pulls on the heart strings a little more, or is more sentimental), which is what I like from a film like this.

So, it's fun, has a heart, and is very well made for what it is.

And yes, there is one of those little scenes at the end of the credits, so stay, if you like to catch those.
 
Jiro Dreams of Sushi 11/10

You'd think something so simple would be hard to keep you entertained, but it's a doc about a man who devoted his life to an ideal (like Batman lol), but seeing Jiro's passion and preciseness when it comes to his business is pretty great.
 
The Guest - Really enjoyed this, despite the fact that I walked out not quite knowing what happened in the third act. But, that's fine; the film seems comfortable in the knowledge that you're not going to get it, so it just rolls with it. I think I might be a big Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett fan.

And the score is awesome.

8/10
 
Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles - 10/10
What do you know, the first film we're supposed to properly study in my first Cinema Studies course is Citizen Kane but I'm not complaining. I saw this film already when I was 16, and unfortunately I knew very little about aspect ratios back then so I saw the wrong one back then. Watching it again yesterday was a great experience, I rarely feel like nothing is lost on second viewings (usually when I re-watch I don't like the movie as much), but this time I think I like the film even more. There is just so much going in in the film's form and style, I can't really say I have any problems with the film itself, although of course I have problems with the fact that this film overshadows many other masterpieces by Orson Welles, by others working in Old Hollywood, and just in world cinema in general. Oh and Chimp, there is no plot hole,
I listened closely and the man that the reporter talks to at the end said that he heard Kane's last words, so the plot doesn't hinge on a plot hole.

Flowers Of Shanghai directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien - 10/10
This is a formalist's dream come true for cinema. Extremely rigorous form and extremely rigorous style to match the beauty of an Ozu film. The film is made up of less than 40 shots, it's about 2 hours long, and it never makes any hard cuts, it always fades to black. The cinematography and lighting work together to give us these very warm colors that are very true to the period the film is set in. The incredible gentle moving camera, and the very realistic dynamic staging make the extremely long takes not only bearable, but really hypnotic. Watching this on a 35mm print was really amazing, and I doubt that many cinematic experiences will match it for me. The film also has a musical score that repeats so much, that feels as if it is wind blowing across the scene. While the great actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai is in the film, it isn't about one particular performance, but about many many performances making the world believable. When I first started watching the film, I thought it was an interesting experiment but one that would grow tedious, but when the film ended, I didn't want the film to end at all, I wanted to continue inhabiting the world of the flower girls and their patrons, I wanted to continue following all of their lives. Some people would refer to Hou as the anti-Zhang Yimou filmmaker in his historical dramas. I would argue otherwise. Yimou and Hou share this gift at creating some of the most complex characters in all of cinema, in the way that they do not even feel like characters, I am more likely to compare them with actual human beings. I suppose their storytelling methods are very different. In general, Yimou has stories to tell that are embellished by his cinematography and supported by an interesting structure. Hou on the other hand, chooses to let the aesthetic dominate the film's form rather than the narrative, so instead of getting a story told to us through cinema, we have stories rising organically from the cinema (in a manner that is somewhat reminiscent of Ozu). I'd like to say that while Ozu and Hou are different filmmakers, they are made from the same thread, rigorous formalists with a great humanist spirit in their work that also have a great ability to capture the real meaning of everyday tasks. I feel like most filmmakers and critics are reluctant to say that a film is "perfect." But I would say that there are films that I wouldn't have any other way, and I wouldn't want to change them in any way, and I think these films are perfect, and Hou's Flowers of Shanghai is definitely one of them.
 
ELENA, directed by Petra Costa - 9/10
Just watched it on iTunes. Even though it's classified as Documentary it's hard to define this film. It's extremely personal (a jorney of three women: two sisters and a mother) with lots of "dreamy imagery" (some beautiful river shots).
 
The Dark Knight Rises: 2/10 - A giant pile of steaming shit covered in hair and bits of undigested carrots -- a critically successful one at that. And I usually like Christopher Nolan.
 
A Summer At Grandpa's directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien - 10/10
Definitely one of the best and most charming films I have seen. Here Hou continues to mature as a filmmaker by essentially developing his main themes and concerns while still maintaining a less rigorous form and style. The film just has so many memorable scenes, and features some of the best child characters (and performances) in all of cinema. The film does a good job at being entertaining while having some interesting themes that are certainly thought-provoking. I'd say that if I were to introduce Hou to a non-cinephile I would probably choose this film as the best way to start. It's charming, it's funny, it's warm, it's human, it's beautiful, and it has the perfect style and narrative for the story it's trying to tell. Watching this on the big screen on a 35mm print was really wonderful, hopefully more people will discover these cinematic treasures!

Three Times directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien - 7/10
Just when I thought that Hou could do no wrong, and could only produce masterpieces in his mature period, this film came along and ruined my hopes. It's not a bad film, but it is an inconsistent one that isn't quite as engaging as Hou's other films. The film is composed of three short films, each of them in dialogue with one another which is more interesting in concept than in execution. The first short film is the most successful, yet it is also the one with the least depth. It is basically Hou doing Wong Kar-wai (set in the 60's too of course), to great effect as he takes the romantic mix of popular music, intimate cinematography, and a beautiful love story that characterizes Wong's style and makes it his own. This film is actually one of the best short films I have ever seen, mostly because it is so tightly constructed. The second film is more experimental as it is a silent film that's in color, and this film seems to be the one that tries to have most depth but it is the least successful for me. It has moments of genius, but I felt like Hou was not good at writing silent film dialogue as he approached the dialogue very much in the same way he would dialogue in sound films. I also thought that the story was a bit hard to follow since it was so rooted in Taiwanese history, whereas Hou's other historical films seemed to do a better job of integrating history with universal themes. The second film is definitely one that I feel could have been the greatest in concept, but Hou failed to engage me in this story, but maybe if I gain some more knowledge about the historical period and the story Hou is trying to tell then I'll change my mind. The third short film is set in modern day Taipei, and I also think this one is very uneven. I don't find Hou's modern day Taipei to be as interesting as say Edward Yang's Taipei or Tsai Ming-liang's Taipei. The characters he gives us are also not too interesting, but I suppose they are all right. What makes this film stand out is how well Hou depicts our relationship with electronic messaging and how new technologies combined with new sensibilities are changing the way we relate with one another. I felt like Hou's message here was interesting, but his story was not entirely clear (and it seemed like it should have been) so it disoriented me. Overall, this is an interesting anthology by a cinematic master. I think the first short film is just about perfect even if it isn't deep or original. The second and third films are more interesting in concept but are very uneven (but they aren't bad). All of the films are at least engaging, and they are always aesthetically pleasing as Hou experiments with long take cinematography, staging, and music to great effect. But unfortunately, I find this to be one of Hou's lesser films (even though I would still rank it high among other anthology films).
 
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Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang - 10/10
I love this film even more now than when I saw it two years ago. Back then it was one of the very first silent films I had seen, and I didn't actually see the complete version, but now I feel like the film isn't just a masterpiece to me because it's considered to be masterpiece, it's a masterpiece to me because it's an involving film. I guess I don't even have much to say except that the combination of visuals and editing on this one really make it stand out from most films I have seen.

Millennium Mambo directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien - 6/10
Sorry Hou, this is the first of your mature works that really doesn't work for me. On one hand, I like how Hou is trying to branch out by dealing with the contemporary generation of Taiwan, as well as branching out into more globalized territory with the inclusion of sequences in Japan. On the other hand, I feel like it is Hou taking his rigorous aesthetic but imitating others. Here you have Hou exploring sort of isolation in contemporary Taipei a la Tsai Ming-liang, you have some obvious influence from Wong Kar-wai in some shots (and in the destructive relationship which reminds me of Happy Together), but Hou doesn't really do much here besides using these elements to make a formally beautiful film. Of course Hou's long take aesthetic is wonderful, the first shot is one of the best shots I have seen in any film, and of course Hou is a master at staging, lighting, and setting. And yes there is a very beautiful great actress in the film. And there's also something new, some visual abstraction that only enhances the fact that there is some narrative ellipsis in this film. But what is driving this formal perfection? I feel like Hou only gets the superficial side of the new generation, but he doesn't quite get the philosophies that drive this new generation so he ends up making a film with a very superficial view of the generation it's trying to portray. The film starts and ends with some of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen, and for the most part the film is engaging and entertaining, but second half of the film really just goes in disorienting directions. Was it Hou's intention to disorient the viewer? It's quite possible, but the effect doesn't result in contemplation or even in just engaging the audience (at least for me) so I feel like it could have been handled better. This is one of those films that I wanted to love, but then I got less than what I hoped for but still liked it, but then upon reflection and discussion I find this film to be not much better than even Hou's debut (which is obviously less ambitious, but is at least entertaining from beginning to end). Still I might have to re-watch this film to see if I missed anything, but as it is I'll praise it in the way that I praise Mikio Naruse's silent film Apart From You, it is a film of basically formal and stylistic perfection in service of a mediocre/flawed story and characters.

EDIT: Oh, and I have to mention that the main song that is repeated throughout the film is just amazing, Hou really has great taste in music!
EDIT 2: I'll raise my score to a 7, I think for the same reasons I mentioned in the review but I just think I was reacting to how the film stands in Hou's filmography, if I rate it as I would any other film I think it would get a 7.
 
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