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[personal profile] felicityking
Watching anything and everything is proving to be fruitful. I've discovered a ton of films I wouldn't have regularly watched--and to my surprise--have seen very few ~bad~ films this year (under 10 ten, and of that only 3-4 that I really loathed). I know I say "I love this film," "that film was amazing!," or whatever. But seriously, if I link it here or repeatedly say "watch this film watch this film!" on tumblr, it means WATCH THIS FILM! I've seen many films I've liked and loved this year, but only a handful that are like "oh shit, everyone should see this." I will confess a part of me dies everything I reblog about a film that is THAT GOOD YOU MUST WATCH IT NOW!, and nobody expresses any interest on it on here or tumblr. Oh, I know why it is. The films I'm recking aren't Hollywood mainstream or those indie ones that are current but get awards attention (tumblr has given me so. much. insight. into people's idea of cinema these days. And it saddens me. People would really be ~safe~ than adventurous.)

Anyway, here is my newest batch of reviews.



Daisies (Sedmirkrasky) (1966)
I fucking loved this film. It ranks as the second weirdest film I've watched this year (nothing can or will top House), but man!, it was a visual feast. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if Sofia Coppola was inspired by this film when she made Marie Antoinette. The film is basically a Czech psychodelic Oscar Wilde. A tale of two sisters who get bored easily and just need stimulation, whether food, dancing, adventure, or argument. Every. single. frame in this film is stunning. The fashion, cinematography, and sets all blend effortlessly together into an orgasmic feast. And, to boot: this film was made in 1966 but it makes many a Final Cut/Sony Vegas fanvid look dated. That is how amazing its special effects and colouring is. YES YOU SHOULD SEE THIS FILM! IT IS ON YOUTUBE! GO WATCH IT AND IF YOU HATE YOU CAN STILL TELL ME CUZ AT LEAST YOU'LL HAVE SEEN IT! STOP READING THE REST OF THIS AND WATCH THIS! (yes, I'm definitely adding this film to my collection)

Swingers (1996)
When I watched this film earlier this year, I thought "I might like this more on rewatch" and I was right. Even though I still find parts of it problematic, I really like that it celebrates those of us who are down and out, the ones who don't feel cool, don't feel like they made it, are socially awkward, and just struggling. I knew I had to rewatch this after viewing the disaster that was Hairshirt, which covers the same territory (making it in Hollywood, being in a relationship) but with far more cliched and stupid results. Swingers, whatever its flaws, feels genuine. I think this is one of those films that will grow on me the more I watch it. The rewatch and the good feelings it gave me also came at a time I needed it. (Money problems always make me feel like a loser.) So for that alone, I'll have a soft spot for this film.

Pandora's Box (1929)
Every. single. moment. of this film has music overlaid over it. Which ruins anything good about it, because all films need at least one quiet moment to let you and the characters "absorb" the moment. What's worse is that the music isn't quiet chamber music but huge, orchestral, dramatic every minute! Louise Brooks is excellent though and the cinematograpy and costumes are amazing. The last 10 minutes had me on the edge of my seat. Soundtrack aside, it is good. The film is about a woman who slowly loses everything.

New York Stories (1989)
A trio of short films all in one featuring Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen about life in Manhattan in the 1980s. I did NOT like this. It had so much potential, but the stories were cliched and stereotypical with no new insights. And forget diversity: the characters were all upper-class well to do influentials. Such a shame!

A Dog's Life (1918) (Chaplin short)
Chaplin's version of a frat boy film. An amusing short about the Little Tramp and his dog and their adventures.

Marie Antoinette (2006)
I like this film, but oddly my feelings about MA herself change everytime I watch this film. Because I'm THAT poor, I completely sympathize with the pleasants (who I note Coppola keeps to a miminum) and find her to be out-of-touch with the realities that go on around her outside of the palace. The sets, costumes, and actors are all flawless as usual. I noticed this time just how good at Jason Schwartzmann is.

Kuroneko (1968)
Like Ugetsu, but with more horror. A story about 2 women, a mother and her daughter-in-law, who decide take revenge on all samurai after being raped and killed by a group of them. But it gets complicated when the son/husbnd returns home...as a samurai. This was actually very good and had some excellent commentary on war, rape, and class issues in it. I quite enjoyed this.

The Daytrippers (1997)
Greg Mottola's debut film and it NOT worth seeing. It's your typical indie film: character A has a problem, goes on road trip with overbearing family [insert family problems], and on the way runs into quirky characters and have many Intellectual Discussions. BUT THERE WAS NO POINT TO THIS FILM! Flirting with Disaster had a point: it doesn't matter who our family is, we are what we are, and we are connected. This film was just...an exercise in pretense. I hated this film.

A Study in Scarlet (1933)
I think this was (very loosely) based on 'The Sign of the Four' but they called it ASIS because it was the first of the SH franchise for the studio itself. BBC Sherlock fans who bitch about Elementary should watch this. It just takes the characters, slaps them into another environment, with a plot that is "suggested by Arthur Conan Doyle" (understatement of the year) and then insists it is Sherlock Holmes. It was bad.

A Taste of Honey (1961)
Of all the coming of age dramas I've seen this year, this one felt like it was genuinely about teenagers. The actress in the lead was flawless. It's about a working class girl who gets pregnant by a African-American sailor, gets abandoned by her mother, and is friended by a gay man. Apparently, the play was considered an important part of "kitchen sink realism." The plot sounds cliched, but it did have heart, and it wasn't stereotypical.

Diabolique (1954)
I can't remember if I've seen the original, the Sharon Stone remake, or both. (It was way back in the 1990s when I first saw one or the other.) In any case, the original is considered the best film Hitchcock never made. It's a film noir about a wife and mistress who kill a guy who is unrootable. He's that mean. But, after he dies, strange things start happening. Were it not for the very last "gotcha!," I would say this film is flawless, but that last gotcha spoils the film for me, even if this film does deserve its place as one of the greatest films of all time.

Seven Samurai (1954)
This film is labelled as the greatest western not made by Hollywood, but I actually thought it shared more in common with action-adventure films then westerns. I think it is overrated. Not boring, but not as great as it is made out to be.


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