film: watched recently

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+A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
+----------------------------------------
+
+Not much to say about this other than I loved it. Great music, mood. So cool.
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+Notable films I saw in 2017, loosely ordered by when I saw them.
+
+Hypernormalization (Adam Curtis)
+---------------------------------
+
+Ugh, can't even remember what this one is about. I still think fondly of
+AWOBMLG and Bitter Lake, but feel pretty done with Curtis for a while. There's
+a short youtube mockumentary floating around that we screened after watching
+this as a group in SF and it cuts close to the bone.
+
+Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky)
+----------------------------
+
+Had been meaning to see this for a long time, and finally screened it with
+Logan. A film with a lot left shrouded in fog, but it does seem to have a
+bones under the skin. The sense of danger and doubt when the troupe is
+traveling into The Zone, following a ritualistic little game of throwing rocks
+felt very real to me: the sense that danger could be either entirely invented,
+or just beneath the surface, and the "non-metric" nature of navigating towards
+a goal that superficially seems so close.
+
+I'm not sure I would have gotten as much out of this watching it when I was
+younger: the relationships between the troupe, and in particular the almost
+hostile mutual suspicious paired with being fellow travelers. Not a vibe I
+encounter often, but when it's there it appear between people who seek for
+years (decades) for something bigger than themselves.
+
+Get Out (2017?)
+--------------------------
+
+The Handmaiden (2016, Park Chan-wook)
+-----------------------------------------
+
+La La Land (2016, Damien Chazelle)
+------------------------------------
+
+I visited LA recently for the first time in years, and enjoyed it a lot more
+that I thought I would. I think a more cynical or critical minded Bryan would
+have found this film Hollywood-indulgent, but it caught me at a very receptive
+moment. I enjoyed it more than the Cohen Brothers' "Hail Caesar"; similar to
+Birdman.
+
+Risk (2017, Poitras)
+-----------------------
+
+Saw with a heavy heart. Felt like there was almost nothing here for me, despite
+being super-attuned to who-was-in-the-room-when details. Hit many (but not all)
+of the nails of disapointment with this group for being human after coming so
+far through such struggles ("how could they be so foolish?"). In particular
+Laura's entire directoral style hinges on our trust in her as an observer and
+editor, and she reveals herself as a compromised (though at least honest)
+participant here.
+
+Glad the film exists, as a reference and historical record, but it's very
+existance is a bittersweet reminder how far along the narrative trajectory
+radical international crypto/info movements have come, and despite their
+not-insignificant impact, how fucked our world is politically.
+
+Volver (2006, Almodóvar)
+--------------------------
+
+Solid, memorable.
+
+Bad Batch (2017, Amirpour)
+----------------------------
+
+It's too bad the desert grim-dark-spoitation/favela-chic desert niche has been
+played out so much (*Kin Zah Zah*, *Mad Max*, *Fury Road*), because i'm a total
+sucker for it.
+
+Saw this entirely on the fact that it's directed by Ana Amirpour (*A Girl Walks
+Home Alone at Night*). Watched it alone, but wish i'd had somebody to unpack it
+with... the violence and aesthetics distracted from allusions and references
+that were bouncing around. Didn't feel very tight, a lot of scenes and imagery
+and critique squeezed together. I absolutely could not take the Keneau Reeves
+conversations seriously enough to know if there was anything there at all
+beyond conflating plumbing with modernity. The awkward sexual tension between
+the main character and Miami Man was reminiscent of *Girl Walks*, but was sort
+of a let down in the end.
+
+Will probably watch *Spring Breakers* after having seen this, though i'm not
+really looking forward to it.
+