From 17330581d9ce62079281f6d7dda3369442eb6036 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: bnewbold Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2017 18:29:07 -0400 Subject: film: watched recently --- film/2015.page | 5 ++++ film/2017.page | 84 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 89 insertions(+) create mode 100644 film/2015.page create mode 100644 film/2017.page diff --git a/film/2015.page b/film/2015.page new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff73337 --- /dev/null +++ b/film/2015.page @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ + +A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) +---------------------------------------- + +Not much to say about this other than I loved it. Great music, mood. So cool. diff --git a/film/2017.page b/film/2017.page new file mode 100644 index 0000000..366c75a --- /dev/null +++ b/film/2017.page @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ + +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. + -- cgit v1.2.3