Movies I Watched in June 2023 - Greenfield Writes

Thanks to a very good friend of mine, I’ve gotten myself back into the world of film consumption and analysis. As I watch these films, I write my raw thoughts on them, then later write a more condensed and concisely summarized ‘review’ on each one. I’ve decided to compile these ‘reviews’ on my blog, for the sake of whogivesafuck and whythehellnot.

All the Money in the World - dir. Ridley Scott

A well-shot historical drama that explores wealth through the lens of a child of the Getty family being taken for ransom, but held back by clumsy narrative decisions. 6/10.

Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse - dir. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson

Superhero/Sci-Fi

I haven’t had a theatrical experience like this in a long, long time. I remember, as soon as I walked out of the theatre, I kept saying “HOLY FUCKING SHIT” to myself, repeatedly. The bar was set pretty damn high after the first film, and they somehow cleared it here, with stellar animation, excellent character work, and some truly riveting action (plus an immersive soundtrack to boot). 10/10.

Silence - dir. Martin Scorsese

Historical Epic

A slow-burn historical drama with phenomenal sound design and an incredibly nuanced dissection of faith and martyrdom. 8/10.

The Place Beyond the Pines - dir. Derek Cianfrance

Drama

A deeply tragic tale told in three parts that shows how the sins of the father are perpetuated through the son. Ryan Gosling absolutely sells the shit out of it, and the soundtrack is one of my favorites of all time. 8/10.

Taxi Driver - dir. Martin Scorsese

Psychological Drama

A classic for a reason. Robert De Niro embodies the role of Travis Bickle with gusto. We see a man slowly descend into madness, and in a lot of ways, the movie still feels relevant today. 8/10.

Tangerine - dir. Sean Baker

Comedy/Drama

Filmed entirely on three iPhones, Tangerine is the most authentic depiction of Los Angeles I’ve ever seen in film. The plot centers around two trangender sex workers and their fraught life across a single day in Los Angeles. This movie is grimy, raw, and… just a little too all over the place. 7/10.

Jules and Jim - dir. François Truffaut

Romantic Drama

The first black and white film I’ve truly enjoyed in a long time, this aggressively French movie is a tragedy in two halves. The first half is basically fun vibes and the second half… well, you’ll see. Feels like a movie that is ahead of its time in terms of how it tackles relationships. 7/10.

Run - dir. Aneesh Chaganty

While Run does have some solid ideas and a strong pace, its plot contrivances are stupid and the two lead performances left a lot to be desired from me. 5/10.

Brooklyn - dir. John Crowley

Romance/Period Drama

Saoirse Ronan gives a career-defining performance in this romantic period piece. Sure, it has some poor writing decisions here and there, but it is just a very fuckin wholesome movie about an Irish woman trying to make her way in New York. I couldn’t help but love it. 8/10.

Mother - dir. Bong Joon-ho

Crime/Thriller

A slow burn crime thriller about a smalltown Korean mother trying to exonerate her mentally handicapped son from a murder accusation. This film is fucking dark as shit, and the ending left me speechless. Bong Joon-ho is a god. 9/10.

Frost/Nixon - dir. Ron Howard

Historical Drama

A historical drama that serves as an excellent character study of Richard Nixon and David Frost. 8/10.

Blindspotting - dir. Carlos López Estrada

Comedy/Drama

A funny, dramatic, deeply sad look at gentrification and racial profiling in Oakland, CA. 9/10.

Wolfwalkers - dir. Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart

Fantasy

Gorgeous and unique animation, excellent voice acting, but a mediocre plot. 7/10.

Living in Oblivion - dir. Tom DiCillo

Comedy

A hilarious and very weird film that takes you into the nitty-gritty of indie filmmaking. 8/10.

Fences - dir. Denzel Washington

Family Drama

Though it has some truly next-level performances from Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, the film is held back by its inability to commit to the medium, and winds up feeling more like a drawn-out play than a movie. 7/10.

Iron Jawed Angels - dir. Katja von Garnier

Historical Drama

An interesting story about suffragists in the early 1900s buried underneath awful editing, soundtrack, and writing choices. 3/10.

A House Made of Splinters - dir. Simon Lereng Wilmont

Documentary

A moving, tear-inducing documentary about a Ukrainian children’s shelter. 9/10.

James White - dir. Josh Mond

Psychological Drama

A raw, frenetic exploration of grief and young adulthood, with claustrophobic cinematography and some of the most devastating performances I’ve ever seen. 9/10.

Casino - dir. Martin Scorsese

Crime

Feels less like a story in three acts and more like a handbook to understanding crime in Las Vegas through the lens of three incredible leads. 8/10.

Lawrence of Arabia - dir. David Lean

Beautiful cinematography and impressive use of practical effects, but a lackluster script that feels bogged down by its own monumentality. I often struggled to care about the characters on the screen. 6/10.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - dir. Park Chan-wook

Revenge/Drama

A movie steeped in bleakness and darkness, to the point where it’s almost funny. There are some really hard scenes to watch here, and it’s an incredible subversion of the revenge story. 7/10.

Weekend - dir. Andrew Haigh

Slice-of-Life/Romance

A tender, raw and honest love story that meditates on the nature of hookup culture, within the context of queerness. 8/10.

Lady Vengeance - dir. Park Chan-wook

Revenge/Drama

The final film in the Vengeance trilogy by Park Chan-wook, and also the one that I just… didn’t connect to at all. It had some real brutality to it, which I respected, but it was so all over the place and confusing that I had a hard time following it. 7/10.

M - dir. Fritz Lang

Crime

Supposedly a monumental piece of cinema. For a 1931 film, it’s impressive in a lot of ways, but story-wise, the lack of a central protagonist (besides the killer themselves) made it damn near impossible for me to get invested in the story at all. It has some interesting things to say about mob mentality and the way society talks about mental health, but I was falling asleep for most of it. 4/10.

Colossal - dir. Nacho Vigalondo

Unfunny dialogue, which is a huge, huge flaw for a movie that is at least in some part supposed to be comedic. It has a great concept, but it’s just… not executed that interestingly. 4/10.

Young & Beautiful - dir. François Ozon

A deeply fucked up and fascinating movie about a French teenager who becomes a sex worker. Surprisingly, there’s not really that much commentary on sex work itself, instead opting for a character study of somebody utterly unreadable, whose motives are implaceable. If you want a movie that will make you squirm, this is it. 9/10.

mother! - dir. Darren Aronofsky

This movie has so much to fucking unpack, and I had the absolute worst time watching this, in the best way possible. It’s like being trapped in a nightmare. Everything is surreal, the religious metaphors are off the fucking charts, and the anxiety-inducing panic as everything goes to shit is just…whoo boy. 9/10.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things - dir. Charlie Kaufman

Surrealist Horror

An intensely surreal exploration of regret and inevitability. Charlie Kaufman continues to prove to me why he’s one of my favorite filmmakers, and although I was utterly baffled the first time I watched this, it’s still being toyed around with in my mind. I love the unflinching honesty with which it tackles depression, but I need more time with it. 8/10.

The Counterfeiters - dir. Stefan Ruzowitsky

Historical Drama

Probably the best Holocaust movie I’ve ever seen. The way it talks about human self-interest and human compassion as two sides of the same coin leaves me in fucking tears. Despite the fact that these Jewish prisoners are incentivized to sell each other out, they remain strong together, in the face of the unending depth of human cruelty. 8/10.

Blow Out - dir. Brian De Palma

Mystery

Dear lord, I cannot stand the way Sally is written here. One of my least favorite tropes is the ‘born sexy yesterday’ trope, wherein a female love interest acts like a fucking child and it’s supposed to be ‘attractive’. Newsflash, it isn’t. It’s just uncomfortable. Creative story, though? 5/10.

My Blueberry Nights - dir. Wong Kar-wai

Romance

Darius Khondji is a good cinematographer, but no pretty shot can save this film from its absolutely corny ass script and weak performance from Norah Jones. Love her music, but she cannot act to save her life, and it makes this movie unwatchable for me. 3/10.

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life - dir. Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam

Comedy

A decent collection of sketches with pretty insane production value, with some funnier than others. Wasn’t THAT funny, though. 5/10.

Mr. Nobody - dir. Jaco Van Dormael

Sci-Fi/Drama

I had to really be patient with this movie before it started clicking for me. At first, I sort of thought it was all style over substance, but as the movie progressed, I really became invested in the various lives of the main character. The way the film uses surrealist sci-fi to unpack decision-making and fate is so damn creative. I love emotionally resonant sci-fi. Also, Jared Leto is actually… really fucking good here? Like, damn. 9/10.

Annie Hall - dir. Woody Allen

Romantic Comedy

Woody Allen plays the most neurotic Jewish guy on the fucking planet, and I gotta say, I was a little uncomfortable with how much I related to his character. This is one of those movies where nothing happens, but it reminds me a bit of 500 Days of Summer because we see what is essentially a full-blown dissection of a relationship gone wrong. Very funny, if a little tedious at times. 7/10.

Seven Samurai - dir. Akira Kurosawa

Samurai Epic

I can see why this is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. I came into this film expecting to be disappointed, but I was anything but. For 3 and a half hours, I was glued to my goddamn screen. The cinematography here is gorgeous, the script is perfectly paced, the characters are developed so meticulously and brilliantly that I was shook to my core by the time I got to that haunting, final shot. Just an absolute monster of a movie. 10/10.

Split - dir. M. Night Shyamalan

Thriller

I wanted to like Split, because I tend to like the concepts that M Night Shyamalan works with, but I just couldn’t connect to this one. Anya Taylor Joy gives a great performance, but the script doesn’t give her much to work with. As compelling as James McAvoy is, the depiction of DID feels oddly… shallow? I just feel like this movie doesn’t have anything interesting to say with its premise. 4/10.

A Brighter Summer Day - dir. Edward Yang

Coming-of-Age/Crime

So, this movie is four hours long. Does it really need to be four hours long? Maybe not. But this isn’t the kind of movie that moves at a breakneck pace, it almost completely lacks a central plot. What this movie really is, is a slice of life story about Chinese immigrants in Taiwan. The film doesn’t even really explain much, it just sort of drops us in this strangely stagnant environment and guides us around as beauty and tragedy unfold, under the quiet, watchful eye of Edward Yang’s all-seeing camera. 8/10.

Barry Lyndon - dir. Stanley Kubrick

Period Drama

The first Stanley Kubrick movie I have ever enjoyed. Not only did I enjoy this movie, but I LOVED it. For three hours, I was legitimately fucking GRIPPED. It feels almost like satire of old European aristocracy, but it also plays it so emotionally straight that I got invested in Barry from the moment he first appeared on screen. His evolution from naive, romantic kid to egotistical, manipulative aristocrat is a perfect character arc. 10/10.

Another Earth - dir. Mike Cahill

Sci-Fi/Drama

A sci-fi film that poses the question: if you could meet yourself, what would you say? What I like about the film is that it uses the sci-fi premise (a duplicate Earth appearing in the solar system) to explore the two main characters. Good character work is the key to keeping me engaged, and I actually really like the two lead performances here, from Brit Marling and William Mapother. The film, to me, is only held back by some real corny dialogue. 7/10.