Movies I Watched March 2024 - Greenfield Writes

Velvet Goldmine - dir. Todd Haynes

Music/Drama

Todd Haynes’ celebration of glitzy excess and homage to the glam rock era, drenched in so much style that it becomes dizzyingly hypnotizing to look at. I’m not sure how much it resonated with me emotionally, but it definitely inspired me. I’m writing a script right now that, like this film, is an homage to a bygone musical era, and this film is a distillation of that artistic goal to a T. 7/10.

Happy New Year - dir. Claude Lelouch

Heist/Romance

Boring. 4/10.

Jauja - dir. Lisandro Alonso

Surrealist/Historical

The story of a father who must let his daughter go. Director Lisandro Alonso is able to transform a rural pre-colonial Argentine desert into an alien landscape. I was actually very immersed in the film’s cinematography, it’s got a gentle beauty to it that really lets you sit in it. 6/10.

The Seventh Continent - dir. Michael Haneke

Drama

Just watching this kid eat cereal gave me dread.

Nobody plays with trepidation like Haneke. Really there’s nobody even close to getting into your subconscious without even trying. Extremely bold first film. Extremely confident. Ice cold, bitter; a cold touch to the soul.

Haneke knows where to linger. He knows where to break. He conveys emptiness in such horrifying magnitude that I became sick to my stomach long before the second act. This is just a hideously depressing movie, in all the right ways, right down to the ending too. The last flickers of Georg’s thoughts play out in the ambiguity of the TV static. Maybe regret? Maybe relief? I don’t know.

He envisions the seventh continent in its tranquil beauty. Maybe if they had just escaped.

Maybe. 9/10.

Benny’s Video - dir. Michael Haneke

Psychological Horror

Twisted. Bitter. Dripping with cynicism, like venom.

I won’t lie. Michael Haneke might be one of my new favorite filmmakers. He communicates so many themes and ideas with ice-cold minimalism. The fragmented family dying by its own failure to communicate. The negative influence of exploitative media on a lonely mind. The isolation that comes with middle class suburbia. When your life is void sometimes you seek to fill it with media. And sometimes it can really fuck you up.

I would probably disagree with Haneke’s philosophy on the glorification of violence in art. But I don’t feel I need to agree with his philosophy to appreciate his message.

I had accidentally spoiled myself on the ending and it still ruined my whole day. Just demented stuff. 8/10.

Pink Flamingos - dir. John Waters

Queer/Black Comedy

Actually one of the most disgusting things of all time. Somehow juggles grossness with comedy? Every time you think it’s peaked in filth it tops itself. I don’t usually feel sick watching movies but here I did. I don’t think I’ve ever grimaced harder at a scene than when Divine gives her son head. Eating dog shit too. What the fuck man lmao. 8/10.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - dir. Gore Verbinski

Adventure/Fantasy

Piracy is freedom. Solid close to a trilogy.

Oh shit there’s two more of these? 6/10.

Pyaasa - dir. Guru Dutt

Musical/Drama

Unfortunately I just don’t think I will ever fall for classical Indian cinema. I don’t have much patience for musicals and especially not musicals where the music is of such low audio quality (not necessarily the fault of the film, just the restoration/preservation).

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance - dir. Michael Haneke

Drama/Experimental

Even a ‘weak’ Haneke film still manages to say something with a lot of weight. 71 Fragments was not a gripping movie to watch, not like his previous two, but I still found value in Haneke’s minimalistic approach to exploring the human psyche. The scenes involving our central shooter, Maximilian, are all horribly depressing and repetitive, which is the point. His life is menial, meaningless, empty, boring, and it’s the combination of all these things that lead him down the path of violence. To push the point home, Haneke uses newsreel footage sporadically and to mundane effect, driving the sheer boredom and normalcy of cruelty, the way it’s turned into a humdrum spectacle.

We see the moving parts that build into the final tragedy, and the ending newsreel reduces the story we witnessed to just another piece of content on mass media’s conveyor belt; a story without much complexity, a random instance of ultraviolence with no discernible explanation.

All of this sounds super interesting, so why didn’t it work for me?

The best explanation I can arrive at is that Haneke’s minimalistic style works for small groups of characters. Two to three at most. He is at his best when he is examining a few people in great detail, and this film features a fairly large cast of characters, most of whom really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. 6/10.

Dead Man - dir. Jim Jarmusch

Acid Western

Positives: the trippy blazed out Western vibe is dope, can never hate on some slick ass electric guitar by Neil Young in the background, striking imagery that would probably go even harder on 2 grams of shrooms.

Negatives: the pacing. In no universe should this movie have been two hours. For what it is, and what it conceivably aims to be, I really can’t see it.

I respect Jim Jarmusch’s philosophies as a filmmaker and how he approaches the creative flow, but this might’ve been the wrong entry point for his work. I still feel three stars is appropriate given how unique and off-kilter this is. I respect it. 6/10.

Funny Games (Original) - dir. Michael Haneke

Psychological Horror

The obvious question, now that I’ve seen both versions of this film, is which I prefer. It’s a difficult question to answer because I don’t actually think there’s enough of a difference to merit placing one squarely above the other. They really are the same film, just with different actors, a different language, and a different setting.

So how does it stack up?

In terms of acting, I think I’ve got to give it to the original. Nothing against Tim Roth and Naomi Watts but Ulrich Muhe and Susanne Lothar just put on a masterclass and it’s not even that close. I do prefer the Beavis and Butthead of the American version, but the difference is not so dramatic that I would give it the edge.

Though I don’t speak German, I think the lines in the English version are awkward in comparison. “Tubby” is not a part of the average American lexicon, especially not for a dude in their early twenties.

The only thing that the English version does better is its setting, the United States. The message that Haneke constructs is far more suitable for an American film audience than anybody else in the world. 9/10.

Old Joy - dir. Kelly Reichardt

Mumblecore

I had a friend once, someone I considered my blood brother. When we were twelve, we cut our hands and shook them to solidify our oath to each other. Me and him would spend days exploring the woods and the beaches, talking about girls, about our plans to travel the world, about our frustrations in school. We were outsiders, but we had each other. We’d fight a lot. We were competitive with each other, as boys can be sometimes. But our friendship was undying. We always had each other’s backs, no matter what.

I haven’t spoken to him in 6 years. That’s over half a decade. A quarter of my life.

Alright, that’s a lie–we’ve texted here and there. But have we really TALKED? Have we REALLY?

No, we haven’t. Friendships just fade like that sometimes. If you don’t put effort, it can sometimes be impossible to pick up where you left off. It can feel awkward and mismatched to try to resuscitate something that’s long been dead and I think that’s why I just haven’t bothered trying to reach out. If it’s in the cards, it’ll happen. If not, well… I guess not.

Old Joy is a deeply delicate movie. Reichardt’s camera and writing is gentle. It offers a moment’s breath, never rushing or slowing, just moving at an easy pace. It feels like it barely even begins before it ends. Reichardt understands men, more than we even understand ourselves sometimes. I felt seen by this movie in a weird sort of way. It took me right back to those memories with my old friend. My old joy.

I miss you, Mio. Hope you’re doing good. 8/10.

Code Unknown - dir. Michael Haneke

Drama

Sorry man but this is just not it.

Are people pretending to like this movie? It’s okay to admit it’s kinda mid guys. Don’t worry. You’re not dumb.

Anybody who follows me knows I’ve been glazing Haneke like a motherfucker these last few days, but this is the first movie of his that’s left me genuinely confused. It seems to be making some commentary on isolation and disconnection, but Haneke has already made a slow movie that explores this topic to great effect (see Seventh Continent) so I struggle to understand the point of this film.

I still give this a 5/10 score because I thought there were some individually fantastic scenes. Anne doing laundry while overhearing domestic abuse in another apartment. An altercation in the street where everybody just watches blankly. Harassment on a subway without any intervention. These scenes do a great job to establish the central thesis of the work, but about 80% of this movie is comprised of utterly pointless nonsense that, like 71 Fragments, does absolutely nothing to build on Haneke’s thesis in any way, shape, or form. 5/10.

Police Story - dir. Jackie Chan

Action/Comedy

Watching John Wick versus watching Police Story really illustrates to me what the difference is between good and bad action movies. This isn’t a masterpiece, at least not to me, even within the action genre (Eega is still my absolute favorite), but it is still INCREDIBLY entertaining.

What’s funny is that my favorite scene wasn’t even that final long-ass setpiece but the courtroom scene, and the rapid-fire dialogue that builds and builds and builds and builds and explodes, in a way that feels almost reminiscent to the choreography of the aforementioned final action sequence. 7/10.

Fallen Leaves - dir. Aki Kaurismäki

Slice-of-Life/Romance

Most relatable part of the movie was shawty trying to steal food from her job. Worked at Whole Foods once. VERY true.

It’s pretty but feels like a waste of time. It wasn’t a net negative experience, there are endearing qualities to this film for sure. 6/10.

The Harder They Come - dir. Perry Henzell

Music/Crime

Banger soundtrack. Just bleeding soul, spirit, and passion with every piece of music.

It was unlikely that this film wouldn’t appeal to me. I like stories of musicians, and I like crime narratives with an emphasis on corruption. The Harder They Come is occasionally scattered but it’s still just a phenomenal piece of Jamaican art, a tapestry of Kingston and reggae. 7/10.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On - dir. Dean Fleischer Camp

Mockumentary

Annoying, unfunny, boring. Inventive premise and execution but legit do not care. 4/10.

Far From Heaven - dir. Todd Haynes

Period Drama

A clear homage to older melodramas from Haynes, there’s a lot of attention to detail when it comes to framing, musical cues, and dialogue. It’s an impressive movie but in my opinion it lacks the edge of Haynes’ other work that’s made me like him so much. This film plays it way too safe. I never felt like I was being pushed out of my comfort zone. Under any other average director this would’ve been generic Oscar-bait schlock, it’s only thanks to Haynes that it’s a cut above that. 6/10.

The Piano Teacher - dir. Michael Haneke

Erotic/Psychological Drama

I don’t even know if I can do this movie justice with a review. This is the first time I’ve ever felt totally unequipped to write about something. Like, anything. Ever. Any piece of art you can think of I could bullshit some long-winded nonsense about it.

I can’t do that here. There has never, EVER been a film that made me feel the way this made me feel. Sick to my stomach. Deeply sad. Sad in a way that really goes beyond all sadness. Empty inside. Carved out like a fucking jack-o-lantern.

This may be Haneke’s masterpiece. The more I sit with this movie the more I feel the urge to break into tears. I couldn’t take my eyes off. It’s almost 3 AM. I haven’t been able to get up to brush my teeth. I just couldn’t take my eyes off of this film.

Erika’s story awoke things in me that I don’t entirely understand. I’m not sexually repressed, not at all, but something about her character stirred feelings and trauma that I must not have worked through yet.

I feel so much for her. Sorrow. Guilt. Pity. Empathy. Love. Disgust. She doesn’t know how to love. She’s in her thirties in a state of arrested development. She doesn’t know what love looks like. She can’t communicate her feelings. She’s trapped. It’s soul-crushing. Absolutely fucking soul-crushing.

This is without a doubt the most devastating movie I have ever seen. 10/10.

The Legend of the Drunken Master - dir. Lau Ka-leung

Action/Comedy

Humans are amazing. The things we are able to do with our bodies is just absurd. I have the utmost respect for martial artists and dancers and anybody who contort and perform feats of physical brilliance. The stuntwork in this movie is nothing shy of incredible. The amount of coordination it must have taken and dedication on the part of the martial artists is commendable. I fuck with it. 6/10.

Shara - dir. Naomi Kawase

Slice-of-Life

Imma be real this one did not click for me at all. I enjoy Kawase’s documentarian approach but I don’t think I could tell you a single thing about any one of these characters. The most interesting scenes were the ones involving the wider community the characters belonged to, like the debates about how to host the festival. This movie just lacked the sentimental edge of Suzaku. 4/10.

License to Live - dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Drama

I have to give Kiyoshi Kurosawa all the credit in the world for not only exploring the premise of the film but unpacking it to its full potential. A young man wakes up from a ten-year coma to discover everyone has moved on without him. Tragically, none of them seem happy that he’s alive, and there’s this deep feeling of solitude and emptiness I get watching him try desperately to cling to that old sense of family he lost. It’s like everyone’s already done all that work processing the grief of losing him and now that he’s alive it’s like he’s an inconvenience. Truly depressing stuff. 8/10.

Before We Vanish - dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Sci-Fi

Watched another Kiyoshi joint with my dad because I was on such a high from License to Live and we picked the wrong one. This was absolutely atrocious on almost every conceivable level. I feel like my 3/10 rating is very generous–I tend to be more lenient on movies with original and interesting concepts–but as a writer I just could not believe how many basic fuckups were made on a purely logical basis.

I don’t like to spend paragraphs bashing movies unless I really passionately hate something so I’ll drop a few notable criticisms and then move on with my life.

Conversations were stilted and built on the writer’s desired outcome as opposed to feeling like natural progression towards a climax. The scene where Shinji steals the comically douchey boss’ conception of ‘work’ stands out in particular because every aspect of their exchange felt forced, unearned, unnatural, and ludicrous. This goes for most of the conversations in this movie. Even the humans aren’t acting like humans.
You’re telling me that the aliens can get killed by car but not by a fucking bullet? Lol.
The aliens could remotely steal people’s conceptions the whole time? Or did bro just unlock that ability in the third act for plot convenience?

3/10.

Time of the Wolf - dir. Michael Haneke

Post-Apocalyptic

Haneke’s attempt at a post-apocalyptic story of grim human nature leaves me, for the most part, mildly disappointed. Perhaps my bar is too high, but when I’m watching a Haneke film, I’m expecting to be left with my insides turned out. I just wasn’t blown away here. 4/10.

Freddy Got Fingered - dir. Tom Green

Comedy

Inspiring. 7/10.

Cure - dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Psychological Horror/Crime

Deeply unsettling. Pokes and prods at a void of the soul. Exposes an eerie emptiness underneath a facade of identity and society. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly how Kiyoshi is able to pull it off. There are so many shots and sequences that send chills down my spine. Just a shot of a silhouette lighting a cigarette in the pitch black was enough to get me to shudder. Shadows and obscurities. The horror of nothingness. 8/10.

Sicily! - dir. Jean-Marie Straub, Daniéle Huillet

Experimental Period Piece

Crazy how everybody is just lying here. Couldn’t be me. This shit was boring as fuck. 3/10.

Caché - dir. Michael Haneke

Psychological Thriller

I recognize the value of Haneke’s approach to talking about colonialism but I really think this movie is clumsy when it comes to that central thesis, at best. I’m not saying it’s bad per se but I wasn’t convinced that the film cared about that subject–it felt more tangential to a story of guilt. While I remain unconvinced of the movie’s effectiveness in communicating the tragedy of colonialism, I can absolutely attest to the needle-point accuracy with which Haneke is able to twist my conscience into a pretzel.

You know that feeling you get when you remember something awful you did as a kid and feel the shame wash over you like a fucking cringe waterfall? Haneke managed to take that feeling and convert it into a movie. So credit where credit is due. 7/10.

Student No. 1 - dir. S.S. Rajamouli

Action/Romance/Coming-of-Age

If this is Rajmouli’s weakest film then bro might wind up becoming one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. Not even kidding those two hours fucking flew by. Didn’t even notice the runtime. Pure, earnest, kind-hearted, over-the-top, bombastic cinema. He may have disowned this film but his campy fingerprints are all over it. 8/10.

Breathless - dir. Jean-Luc Godard

Crime/Romance

Further proof that people will deadass just give anything four stars if it’s French.

Don’t get me wrong I like new French wave as much as the next art hoe but this movie is actually just insanely boring. Doesn’t say much of anything, doesn’t have any sentimentality to get attached to, doesn’t have witty, insightful, profound, or even charming dialogue. The editing and shot compositions are ugly to behold, really bottom of the barrel stuff that’s basically outdone by every Truffaut film ever.

I give it a generous few points for being French because even I’m not immune to the charm of Parisian coolness. 4/10.

The White Ribbon - dir. Michael Haneke

Period Drama

Nightmarishly boring. Christ. 2/10.

Simhadri - dir. S.S. Rajamouli

Action

Confusing and convoluted. Lacks the boyish charm of Rajamouli’s debut, as well as the simplicity. I truly hope this film is a fluke because if it isn’t then I’ve forced my friend Diana to watch a bunch of mid-tier Indian movies with me and I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for that. 3/10.

Perfect Days - dir. Wim Wenders

Slice-of-Life

My girlfriend was bawling her eyes out during one of the scenes and I found that sweet but I wasn’t fucking with this movie quite on that level. It’s perfectly likable as a character study, Koji Yakusho deserves all the props he’s been given. Especially for that final shot, which was handily the highlight of the film. He’s able to balance so many emotions at once and it’s a testament to his devotion to the character.

I guess a big issue I had with this was twofold–one, the surrounding characters did little for me. His coworker was comically out-of-place and his niece was flat and dull. Two–like damn near every movie from 2023 this movie feels like it could’ve marinated longer in the editing bay. Two hours is ridiculous, even for the message the film is trying to convey.

Oddly enough my favorite scenes were the scenes where Hiroyama is alone, cleaning toilets. They have a zen-like quality to them that makes them almost hypnotic to watch. I could’ve easily watched an hour and a half movie of philosophical ramblings and dope needle-drops placed over soothing custodianship. 6/10.

Love & Friendship - dir. Whit Stillman

Period Drama/Comedy

Further proof that Barry Lyndon is like the only good British period piece ever lol. 2/10.

Tokyo Story - dir. Yasujirō Ozu

Slice-of-Life

Passing the torch from one generation to another. Drifting apart from your family as life creeps up on you. Disappointment with unfulfilled potential.

In one frame, we see a traditional Japanese pagoda structure–we then cut to a shot of a power line. The new upsets the old. Change is always more rapid than we think.

This film made me appreciate my grandmother more. She annoys the shit out of me sometimes but I love her.

When a film is able to place you in someone else’s mind, in a completely separate cultural context, and still make it resonate… that’s masterful.

“Isn’t life disappointing?”

“Yes, it is.”

There was one shot that almost brought me to tears, where Tomi and her grandson are plodding their way atop a hill. That shot alone encompasses everything this movie is trying to say. Breathtaking. 8/10.

Watching the Detectives - dir. Paul Soter

RomCom

Shoutout my girlfriend for encouraging me to diversify my film consumption habits. You a real one babe. 1/10.

Amour - dir. Michael Haneke

Drama

Amour is Haneke’s least disturbing movie to date and that makes it quite unique within the context of his work. I enjoyed the return to a more condensed group of characters, which is typically where Haneke excels. I find his expanded casts burdensome and boring–it’s when he focuses on the relationship between a few people where he really shines.

Amour poses a lot of moral questions with no clear answers. Is killing your suffering partner the right thing to do, to put them out of their misery? Is it cruel to preserve someone’s existence when it’s nothing but pain? Is it selfless or selfish to do so? Is putting them out of their misery a greater declaration of love than keeping them alive? 7/10.

Sye - dir. S.S. Rajamouli

Action/Sports

Wildly entertaining. Something I appreciate about Rajamouli’s work is that his male characters are all crazy expressive and genuine. Their coolness doesn’t come from being reserved or cold, it comes from their charisma and passion. His movies are very MALE but not in the way you’d think.

The movie runs a little long, even by Rajamouli standards, but I was entertained for a good 90% of it. Hard to hate on such a fire rugby sequence.

This is not going to appeal to the vast majority of people who follow me but I really fuck with Rajamouli as a whole. His musical segments are the only time I’ve ever enjoyed musicals. Super fun stuff. 7/10.

Sound of Metal - dir. Darius Marder

Drama

Probably would’ve been my favorite movie of all time if I’d watched it when I first heard about it, which was allllll the way back in 2020. Even now, though, it still drew some tears out of me. The scene where Ruben activates his implants and realizes, once and for all, that he will never get his hearing back absolutely fucking floored me. In some ways, this film is about the stages of grief. In others, it’s a character study about a man who cannot accept that his life, as he knew it, is over. 7/10.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God - dir. Werner Herzog

Historical/Adventure

So fucking boring, dope soundtrack tho

4/10.

Happy End - dir. Michael Haneke

Drama

Feels like a parody of Haneke lol this shit is so bad

2/10.

Kill Me Please - dir. Anita Rocha da Silveira

Slasher/Coming-of-Age

Feels derivative and tacky. Perhaps a more feminist read of this film could glean some insight but this did very little for me. 3/10.

Paterson - dir. Jim Jarmusch

Slice-of-Life/Surreal

Presents an image of utopia in the surreal; a post-racial, post-capitalist society where a bus driver can work a few hours a day to support him, his girlfriend, and one insanely mean dog. People can communicate with each other earnestly, without pretension or subtext. A couple need not exchange complex strings of conversation to deeply understand each other. Our loved ones are our twins, telepathically and emotionally linked to us through repetition, mundanity, ritual, and regularity.

I have nothing but respect for Jim Jarmusch. His style inspires me to write, to create with abandon, to not fear the rules but skirt them playfully. To place nothing but my soul onto the page. Jarmusch presents ideas about art that I find incredibly valuable. Paterson recites a poem at one point that describes a song he heard, and the ONLY line he recalls is a question: “would you rather be a fish?” My read on this is that it’s almost like Jarmusch is reaching through the screen and hinting to the audience that they can’t appreciate his work if they try to view his art in broad strokes. If even one moment from his films sticks with you, then, to him, he’s done his job, and you’ve derived value from the art. I don’t necessarily agree with the philosophy but it’s poignant and I admire it.

Losing your notebook is actually one of the saddest non-tragedies that can befall a person. When my old phone broke and I lost a year-plus worth of diary entries I wanted to fucking die. 8/10.

Knight of Cups - dir. Terrence Malick

Experimental Drama

I will attempt to explain the effect this film had on me, but I make no promises of clarity or consistency. Malick is a director who in theory should annoy the shit out of me, yet does the opposite. This film is a dream, a cautionary tale, a fable of redemption, God, truth, and love. It’s feverish and fuzzy, spiritual and materialistic, honest and empty, romantic and hedonistic. There are no characters, just archetypes. The artist lost in drugs and sex to escape grief. The women he gets close to only to shy away from. The father he couldn’t impress. His wayward brother that forces him to look at himself.

Malick’s vision of LA is swimming with gaudy symbolism. A film comprised of B-roll makes us feel as if no time has passed at all. That’s the effect of this infamous city on the artistic mind. Dreams turned into orgies of sensual overload, love transformed into transaction, reduced to carnal desire above the intimacy of souls.

Each frame in this film possesses hundreds of microscopic cinematic and poetic details that flowered into possibilities and interpretations in my head. I was constantly thinking about the religious subtext of the story, the way Rick often feels like a biblical protagonist, failing God’s test yet craving His love all the same. Malick’s God is decidedly a kind one. Suffering is not punishment, but a sign of God’s love. His tests are the quenching of our spiritual thirst. Suffering isn’t meant to be avoided–but embraced.

I imagine people may take issue with the religious undertones of the film. Personally, I found it to be awe-inspiring. I’m not religious–far from it–but I found a lot of wisdom and soulful nourishment in Knight of Cups. I knew it would speak to my heart, little did I know how much it would speak to my brain. 9/10.

Living Out Loud - dir. Richard LaGravenese

Comedy/Drama

Cute, but sorta average. 4/10.

Firefly - dir. Naomi Kawase

Slice-of-Life

REALLY doesn’t need to be almost three hours long man.

Some breathtaking shots and moments. Older lady stripping in the fountain was unironically peak cinema.

The Princess Bride - dir. Rob Reiner

Fantasy/Comedy

I didn’t find this funny when I was a kid, and I still don’t find it funny. Montoya probably the goat tho. 4/10.

Unfriended: Dark Web - dir. Stephen Susco

Digital Horror

Unironically one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a minute.

Some bad acting here and there but executes its concept near-flawlessly.

I expected schlock but I got an absolutely heart-palpitating ride. Very little reliance on cheap tricks, all focus on putting characters through a nail-bitingly suspenseful meat grinder.

This probably won’t appeal to most film nerds lol but it definitely impressed me. 7/10.

Made in Israel - dir. Ari Folman

Crime/Comedy

Well-crafted, genuinely funny, politically and socially charged spin on a Coen brothers vibe from Ari Folman. I really don’t think the humor can be appreciated with just subtitles alone, you have to understand Hebrew and Israeli lingo to find this funny–but trust me this shit is hilarious lmao.

Probably one of the few Holocaust-adjacent movies that didn’t bore me to tears? The dialogue is consistently sharp. Even scenes that objectively could’ve been cut from the script served the characters and setting.

Beyond simply functioning as a comedic MacGuffin story, Made in Israel asks some ballsy questions of the audience. Do Nazis deserve redemption? Is there any value to seeking vengeance? Extremely bold debut film from Folman. 8/10.

Cléo from 5 to 7 - dir. Agnès Varda

Slice-of-Life

I can 100% see why this is one of my girlfriend’s favorite movies. Cleo is just like her fr fr yknow? I get it man I get it. Which is why it pains me to say that I didn’t fall in love with this movie. Reading some reviews (shoutout @KaoriKap, give her a follow) opened my eyes to the fantastic symbolism laced throughout the film. I didn’t even pick up on just how many allusions Varda was able to make towards the central thesis of life and death. Think I’m gonna rewatch this in like 10 years. 7/10.

This Is Spinal Tap - dir. Rob Reiner

Music/Mockumentary

It’s funny here and there, but Popstar is literally just a better and funnier version of this. Sorry dad. 6/10.

Seconds - dir. John Frankenheimer

Psychological Horror/Sci-Fi

Far ahead of its time. What Frankenheimer is able to do with this film and concept is nothing short of remarkable. I always enjoy when movies utilize a bizarre/cool premise to its maximum potential. It helps that the movie’s visual language is so damn compelling to look at. Boggles my mind that this came out back in the 60’s because it does NOT feel like a movie from that time period at all. 7/10.

A Few Good Men - dir. Rob Reiner

Courtroom/War

Sharp script. I find Sorkin unbearably cheesy but this goes pretty hard. Probably not a movie I’ll think about ever again, though, mostly because of its fairly black and white morality. Sorkin’s writing is liberal at its core. At the end of the day a movie about the corruption within the military would be totally incomplete without a rejection of the system entirely, which this film is incapable of doing. That’s not to say it’s bad–I enjoyed it–but compared to stuff like Elite Squad this just isn’t gonna do much for me besides say “damn that was pretty fun.” 7/10.

Paris, Texas - dir. Wim Wenders

Neo-Western

Pairs. Two Parises. Two mothers. Two fathers. Two red cars. Two blonde women. A man out of time and his son out of place on opposite sidewalks. A former couple, once madly in love, talking through a one-sided window, never able to both be visible at the same time. Two ideas, conflicting yet possible; Paris, romance, beauty, art; Texas, dust, grime, trailer parks and dirt roads.

This is one of those movies that needs to be seen to be believed. It’s pure magic. 8/10

Little Women - dir. Greta Gerwig

Period Piece

Horrifically boring. Why are 99% of period pieces like this?

It’s a shame because I think Greta Gerwig is a cool person but her movies are so boring and annoying. 3/10.

The Mourning Forest - dir. Naomi Kawase

Drama

Nobody really does grief like Naomi Kawase. Her doddering, handheld camera places the audience squarely in the tranquil forest of the Japanese countryside. What I didn’t realize was how much pain and trauma was buried underneath the veneer of tranquility.

The scene where Machiko screams her voice hoarse for Shigeki to come back from the river was genuinely impossible to tear my eyes away from. I have NEVER heard such haggard wails in a film in my life. Absolutely heart-wrenching.

What I only realize in retrospect is how often in this film memory is blurred with the present. It’s disorienting at first. I had a tough time placing what was what, and I believe it was intentional. Kawase’s storytelling has always been about placing the audience as close to the characters as possible without neglecting their environments. So, in an effort to show how their grief still haunts them, Kawase shows us flashes of Machiko and Shigeki’s trauma; Machiko seeing a torrent of water come barreling towards her child, helpless to protect him; Shigeki’s wife dancing with him in the forest. The forest forces them to sit with their grief instead of pushing it to the side. 8/10.

Murmur of Youth - dir. Lin Cheng-sheng

Coming-of-Age/Romance

Femcel lesbian losers are gonna fuck with this one so hard. You know who you are if you follow me. I’m talking to you.

I wanted to love this film so badly but I felt I could never get past its coldness to feel the passion and friendship between the two central characters. It’s got some absolutely beautiful moments, and some funny exchanges, but not enough to grasp me and keep me from forgetting. 6/10.

Donnie Brasco - dir. Mike Newell

Crime

Crime films, in their essence, are typically projections of masculine fantasy and extremity. We see gangsters and they represent what men strive for; living above the law, screwing any babe we want, and being cool as shit while we do it. Donnie Brasco shows the tantalization of such a fantasy dangled in front of cold, hard truth. Joe is an ordinary guy with what, by all means, could be considered an ideal life. He’s got a loving wife and three kids, and a nice suburban house. But similar to Walter White, he sees the danger and risque of the criminal lifestyle and is captured by its allure. When Joe witnesses a cute blonde coming onto the ‘wise guys’ in a cafe, it’s hard not to crave that kind of outlaw hero-worship.

Digging deeper, Donnie Brasco questions not just the relationship between the male and the outlaw fantasy but the inherently toxic masculine environment that the gangsters inhabit. This is, of course, nothing new for the crime genre, but I found a lot of purity to the dynamic between Joe and Lefty. Their friendship is extraordinarily well-written, and often heartbreaking. 7/10.

Casablanca - dir. Michael Curtiz

Romance/War

What is it with golden age male actors just straight up not knowing how to act? This monotone shit is so annoying bro just emote.

Decent story, nothing too crazy. Doesn’t make me feel much. Never bought the romance between the two leads at all. One of those movies that people have collectively gaslit themselves into calling a masterpiece. I guess I’m just built different. 6/10.

Chatrapathi - dir. S.S. Rajamouli

Epic

What is Rajamouli doing man…

So many pointless scenes. So many repetitive dance numbers. So much unfunny shit that could’ve been trimmed at no cost to the story or characters.

Rajamouli tends to be extraneous but this is pushing it. None of the spectacle is worth the wasted time. None of the characters are particularly endearing, funny, or interesting.

Just a bummer. 4/10.

Red Road - dir. Andrea Arnold

Psychological Thriller

Jackie is a vengeful goddess patrolling the world from her ivory tower. Or, she’s a repressed woman who’s been through unimaginable grief. To me, this dichotomy is the crux of this film. Jackie holds all the power as someone who works in surveillance, monitoring the working class, but as a woman she is powerless and vulnerable to the aggressive men she ends up pursuing. 7/10.

I Shot Andy Warhol - dir. Mary Harron

Biopic

Insanely boring and repetitive.

I actually enjoy the politics of this movie. It’s obvious that Harron is poking fun at radfem ideology while also empathizing with the circumstances that created Valerie Solanas into an insane genocidal maniac.

You really have to consider the fact that if she was a dude talking about ethnic minorities, she would’ve had a huge audience. Despite her psychotic misandry, it cannot be denied that misogyny plays a big role in how we view her.

Though I really have to wonder how anybody could come away from this on her side. It’s one thing to empathize, it’s another to endorse, condone, defend, etc. She’s objectively a transphobic genocidal maniac. There’s nothing feminist about wanting to murder all men (and all trans women).

Mary Harron is the GOAT of making movies that morons like for the wrong reasons. Dudes with no media literacy have American Psycho. I Shot Andy Warhol is for the ladies out there with no media literacy. Mary Harron sees you too. 4/10.

Ticket of No Return - dir. Ulrike Ottinger

Experimental

I can’t do this shit man.

Even abstract films need development of some kind, even if it’s just an intensifying of the debauchery, a gradual melting of the synapses into psychedelic sludge, or changing perspectives to keep things from getting stale.

Ticket of No Return has a promising premise and fantastically weird costume/set design, but suffers tremendously from being repetitive and, at its core, toothless.

There is a narrative here about drunkenness and rowdy behavior being out of a woman’s grasp, and seeing a woman take on that role of pure Id is enjoyable, but the joke wears thin quick. The film establishes its themes within the first half-hour and proceeds to repeat itself ad nauseam.

I am a big fan of abstract, fever dream cinema, but this was simply not it. 4/10.

I Origins - dir. Mike Cahill

Sci-Fi/Romance

It’s not often that I cry watching films anymore. It really doesn’t happen, and when it does it’s at stuff that I never would’ve expected in a million years to make me cry.

I want to believe that love transcends the physical form. That we, as humans, are more than just the flesh we inhabit and the air in our lungs. That we have some kind of transcendence to our being that’s waiting for us in the afterlife.

As I’ve said before in my reviews, I’m not religious. I was raised secular Jewish with parents who dabbled in spirituality but still encouraged a healthy dose of agnosticism. My parents believe in their own versions of God. To my father, God is everything we do not yet understand. To my mother, God is love.

I like these interpretations a lot.

God is love. God is that indescribable feeling we get. When the lights begin to dim. And we go somewhere we’ve never been before.

Sorry.

Jokes aside; I sobbed like a bitch at the end of I Origins. It was the antidote to my cynicism. It reminded me that love IS transcendent. I will spend many lifetimes loving, I’m sure of it. Those I love are waiting for me on the other side, and I wait for them. Our humanity follows us wherever we go. My love for my girlfriend is precious, powerful, and downright divine.

This is a flawed movie. But I would be lying if I said I gave a shit about it. 8/10.

Nanayo - dir. Naomi Kawase

Drama

Hmm.

BARELY a movie I like. Just barely.

Kawase is perplexing because sometimes her magic will take your breath away and then other times it’ll fall totally flat. She is equally capable of producing the most boring film of your life as she is of creating something spiritually transcendent and life-affirming.

Nanayo is almost a good movie. It has a convincing setup, with a Japanese woman fumbling her way through rural Thailand. It has an endearing middle, with said woman finding connection across cultural barriers in a little massage parlor. And then it totally shits the bed in the final act, with a confusing mess of a climax and resolution. Kid goes missing somehow, people inexplicably get into physical altercations over it (?), and then the kid is found and suddenly everything is fine again. Felt rushed, senseless, purposeless, and above all, dull. 6/10.

Class Trip - dir. Claude Miller

Surrealist Horror

Legitimately a painful movie to watch. Lines are stilted and the performances are pathetic.

The fact that this has a 3.4 average is proof that people will in fact give anything a positive rating if it’s in French. If this were in English it would rightfully be derided as a ham-fisted, clumsy mess. 3/10.

Güeros - dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios

Coming-of-Age

To be young is to be a revolutionary, according to Gueros.

It made me melancholy, to say the least. It sounds ridiculous, but even as a 21 year old I feel like I’ve outgrown my radical sympathies. I’m no centrist, but I’ve lost much of my faith in my generation’s ability to enact true change on a societal scale. Self-identified communists just make me roll my eyes these days.

But Gueros is a gem in its portrayal of youthful radicalism, a reminder that, like a car causing traffic on a highway simply by stopping in its place, our ability to enact change depends on how much we are willing to sacrifice.

I believe the choice to shoot in black and white reflects the conversations our characters have about politics. There’s a scene where they’re sitting in the car with one of their revolutionary buddies and he’s saying, basically, you can’t be a centrist. You can’t sit in the middle. You’re either overthrowing the system or you’re contributing to it. In other words; it’s black or white. 7/10.

L.A. Confidential - dir. Curtis Hanson

Neo-Noir

Once you watch Elite Squad 1 and 2 you just can’t look at American cop movies the same way. This is a decent enough thriller but I found so many moments jarringly hammy that I actually laughed. The scene where the Latina rape victim is like “I lied. For justice.” LOL. Constantly beats you over the head with its themes with the cheesiest fucking dialogue on the planet. And then you have the scene where Crowe’s character dumps his big tragic backstory and it feels like the most obvious, cliche thing in the world. The tonal shift is fucking hilarious. It’s like they’re talking dirty and then BOOM anime backstory. VERY funny. 6/10.

Hanezu - dir. Naomi Kawase

Drama

Hey chatgpt make a movie in the style of Naomi Kawase. 2/10.

Merely Players - dir. Brian Follmer

Mumblecore

Shockingly not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. The poster makes it look way edgier than it actually is. It functions as a study of a toxic friendship between two dudes in their early twenties who suck at life. Camerawork was absolutely abysmal, but it’s obviously a no-budget film so you gotta do what you gotta do.

It would’ve been three stars but the ending was so unimaginably goofy that it ruined it a little. 4/10.

Terrified - dir. Demián Rugna

Supernatural Horror

Demian Rugna takes horror tropes and elevates them on sheer brutality alone. I find his scripts lacking, but as a horror filmmaker I really want to see where he goes. 6/10.

Sleepwalk with Me - dir. Mike Birbiglia

Comedy/Mumblecore

Cute little autobiographical story, in the same vein as Jenny Slate’s Obvious Child. It’s nothing to write home about but it has some funny moments. 6/10.

Under the Silver Lake - dir. David Robert Mitchell

Surrealist Neo-Noir

Beau Is Afraid but with worse dialogue and significantly less tension. Not once did I ever feel worried for the main character or even invested in the mystery. Once you realize what the film is trying to say about an hour in about nihilism, you realize that you aren’t going to get any answers to the thousand questions raised. And that’s fine with me. Buuuut it does mean that the surreality of the scenery has to evoke more than just mild amusement, which is what I felt for much of the runtime.

Three stars for being an enjoyable two hours, but anything higher is laughable to me. 6/10.

The Bed You Sleep In - dir. Jon Jost

Drama

Christ.

One of those pieces of art that redefines your perception of humanity. Takes the very notion of community and turns it inwards.

The fact that Ray operates a lumber mill seems like a trivial detail at first, but it aligns perfectly with the theme of communal rot stemming from lies. Ray destroys his entire family with his lies and corruption, and his business will destroy the environment much in the same way.

After the revelation, we see a shot of three young girls riding their bicycles through town. It’s the normalcy that makes this so fucking tragic. We know what Ray has done, and seeing the little girls playing just drives the horror of it all home. They play in a town that has disgusting, vile secrets. This small American town may seem serene, but it’s rotten to the core.

Husbands beat their wives. Fathers prey on their daughters. Companies destroy nature. 9/10.

The Legend of Billie Jean - dir. Matthew Robbins

Teen Action/Comedy

Delightful 80’s cheese. Hard not to smile while watching it. Would really work nicely as a mainstream solidarity film. It’s all about kids getting together and sticking it to the man. 6/10.

Red Eye - dir. Wes Craven

Thriller

Really fun actually?

Good script actually?

Not a total waste of time actually?

Super lean, no fat, kind of a perfect little contained thriller to watch late at night. Modern filmmakers could take some lessons from this lol I’m so sick of these pointlessly long and wasteful experiences. Maybe modern audiences like having their time wasted but not me. Not every action/thriller/horror needs to be 3 hours long. Sometimes it’s enough to just get some good actors and a decent script, and boom. 6/10.

2046 - dir. Wong Kar-wai

Romance

They made a movie about me.

That’s crazy.

Wong Kar-wai’s best. Only hit me after it ended, just like In the Mood for Love. I’ve had so many of these fleeting flings that were meager attempts to make up for heartbreak. In the end, everybody is left hurt.

“As I recall, that’s the very last time we saw each other.”

I fell in love, in my own way. I could lend my time and my body but I could never lend my heart.

Wong Kar-wai makes the most beautiful movies for toxic men. I gotta fuck with it. 9/10.

Assholes - dir. Peter Vack

Comedy

Zero hyperbole one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time.

Oozing creativity, provocation, transgression. Peter Vack is a talent to watch.

I showed my dad the scene where Aaron describes his gaping asshole fetish to his therapist and we couldn’t breathe we were laughing so hard. This shit is genius. 8/10.

Still the Water - dir. Naomi Kawase

Coming-of-Age

Nope.

Snoozer. 3/10.

Poltergeist - dir. Tobe Hooper

Supernatural Horror

What I love about older horror movies is their ambiguity. With modern ‘art house’ horror the metaphors are paper thin and rarely open to interpretation, but Poltergeist leaves plenty of room for discussion. You could read it from an anti-television angle, or a religious story of a family in paradise corrupted by the tendrils of Hell. It’s got a possession narrative laced in its subtext and a cosmic horror angle begging to be peeked into. 8/10.

The Grandmaster - dir. Wong Kar-wai

Martial Arts/Historical

Boring movie, reliant on exposition to the detriment of its emotional moments, fight scenes are really poorly shot, etc. 4/10.

The Ref - dir. Ted Demme

Comedy/Crime

None of the jokes land. Painfully unfunny and unpleasant. 2/10.

Kinetta - dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

Black Comedy

Just way too boring. 2/10.

Vikramarkudu - dir. S.S. Rajamouli

Action

I gotta say Rajamouli movies are way too long. Sometimes it’s tolerable but in the case of this movie it’s not justified at all. We get like 50 minutes of backstory on a character who is honestly insignificant to the final act. 5/10.

Woman in the Dunes - dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara

Psychological Horror

Words fail me.

There are so many different ways you can interpret Woman in the Dunes. It can be viewed as an allegory for capitalism, for gender roles, or for the hellish monotony of life as a whole.

Personally, I believe it’s a metaphor for mental illness. I don’t know which one specifically. Depression springs to mind, but it could be any of them, really. What’s important is the specific type of hell depicted on screen that so perfectly captures the feeling of descending into the recesses of your own mind. Shoveling sand endlessly, trying to escape but never being able to. Deluding yourself into accepting your reality for what it is. After all, isn’t this just what life is?

When you’re in the throes of depression, it really does feel like you’ve always got a mountain of sand on top of you, scratching your skin and pushing you deeper into the Earth every day. Slowly, but surely, you are being killed. A vicious death–bloodless and yet harrowing all the same. 10/10.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - dir. Tobe Hooper

Slasher

As much as I loved the set design and special effects (there were some moments here that had me legit nauseous) there were just too many bafflingly stupid character decisions every step of the way. It made it impossible for me to get truly invested. 5/10.

Dogtooth - dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

Absurdist Psychological Drama

Yorgos Lanthimos’ work is an examination of social norms. He seeks to recontextualize our understanding of language and behavior. Dogtooth is a precursor to everything he would go on to do, but to me it lacks inertia. I feel the concept does not get explored or built upon in a satisfying, escalating way. 5/10.

On Happiness Road - dir. Sung Hsin-yin

Coming-of-Age/Family

It’s cute but it’s a kids movie lol 4/10.

Alps - dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

Black Comedy

Painfully boring. I think Yorgos’ schtick doesn’t work for me like 99% of the time. 3/10.

Bless Their Little Hearts - dir. Billy Woodberry

Drama

Drifting aimlessly through stress and poverty. Hits extra hard when you’re unemployed, not that my circumstances are even remotely similar to Charles’ lol. The need to find work, to provide for your family, to preserve a standard of masculinity is all too real. A great film with a mournfully jazzy soundtrack.

The Favourite - dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

Period Drama

Shockingly good. Not typically a fan of period pieces. Olivia Colman is nothing short of brilliant here. There was a scene that nearly moved me to tears on her facial expression alone. She doesn’t need to do much to sell literally every iota of complexity her character has to offer. 7/10.

I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You - dir. Karim Aïnouz, Marcelo Gomes

Experimental/Road

Horniest geologist of all time?

A slow, meandering affair that feels a lot longer than it is. I give it credit for some of its more poetic moments, but it lacks a certain intentionality to bring it all together. 5/10.

Poor Things - dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

Absurdist Comedy

I don’t have much to say that hasn’t been said by others, but the discourse around this movie’s sexual elements may be one of the all-time dumbest. The absolute state of media literacy man.

Emma Stone deserved the Oscar. This movie deserved best picture. Can’t believe the 3 hour trailer won over this.

Self-actualization: the movie.

Patriarchy sucks: the movie. Somehow not the corniest shit in the world! Somehow actually really inventive and straight-up entertaining! Never feels preachy, patronizing, toned-down, or whitewashed.

I was a little baffled with Bella’s decision towards the end of the movie, but it made sense when I realized that her primary motivation as a character has always been curiosity above all. She was raised by a scientist and her natural state is to crave knowledge. There’s no way someone like her would turn down the opportunity to explore her past life, even if it came at a price.

I suspect Yorgos Lanthimos fell in love because Poor Things and The Favourite are both far more humanistic than his previous films. You can tell he’s got a newfound kindness and earnest to his work that wasn’t there before, and I’m excited to see where he goes from here. Sacred Deer, Favourite, and Poor Things is a crazy fucking run. 8/10.

The Pope of Greenwich Village - dir. Stuart Rosenberg

Crime

Just kind of a lame little movie. Feels pointless and derivative. 3/10.

For Your Consideration - dir. Christopher Guest

Comedy

Shot in the blandest way possible and isn’t nearly funny enough (or at all) to make up for it. 2/10.

The Hunt - dir. Thomas Vinterberg

Psychological Drama

I can completely understand why judgmental losers who buy into groupthink and hate thinking independently would absolutely despise this movie. If you are the kind of person who likes to think in terms of black and white and are REPULSED by the notion of moral ambiguity, who HATES having their worldview challenged and prodded at, you will deplore this film like none other. If you love being spoon-fed affirmations and self-congratulatory bullshit on a silver plate, I have no doubt that you would find this film insufferable.

What many modern feminists seem wholly incapable (or unwilling) of understanding is that the patriarchy fucks both ways. If women are children incapable of exerting agency, who need to be protected, perpetually the victim (as the doctrine of patriarchy says), then men suffer the inverse; always assigned the role of the monster, the victimizer, the causer of suffering. The mythology of patriarchy says that women are children and men are beasts.

Many such cases of men being falsely assumed to be predators or threats to children exist. If women are natural care-givers, it is inversely assumed that men are natural threats who must be monitored. If women are naturally asexual creatures, men are inversely assumed to be sexual monsters, deviant and volatile, to be treated with raised eyebrows and an elevated heart rate.

The Hunt IS in fact a feminist film–not overtly so–but very much concerned with not only the vile human tendency to buy into groupthink but the way in which patriarchy naturally causes men to be vilified.

Never have I had a more difficult time watching a movie. I am grateful my girlfriend was here to watch it with me because I have no doubt that I would’ve had an anxiety attack watching it alone. One of my biggest fears has always been being a victim of the mob. The thought of my loved ones and friends turning against me and vilifying me genuinely keeps me up at night. What pushes this film beyond simply being my nightmare is the complexity of every character. Though I was furious at the way people treated Lucas, I could never fully judge them or condemn their behavior (besides, yknow, killing his dog, throwing a brick through his window, etc). I could never even hold any real hatred in my heart for Klara. As horrifying the ramifications of her lie were, she IS a child, and children make a lot of shit up without thinking about it. It’s impossible to hate a kid for not understanding the gravity of the situation.

Vinterberg’s message is clear–we must always lead with empathy. I had a conversation with my girlfriend about this, and I told her that EVEN if Lucas HAD in fact done what he was being accused of, I still held onto the moral principle of leading with empathy. She responded with the classic “what about Hitler” and even as a Jewish man, I just don’t think it’s in me to be cruel to somebody. Even somebody who commits cruelty is human.

As viciously difficult as this movie is to watch, as cruel as it can be, I still found it to be humanistic in its desire to challenge the age-old tradition of the witch hunt. 9/10.

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem - dir. Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz

Courtroom Drama

Total coincidence that I watched The Hunt and Gett in the same day. Two films that both attack a perversely corrupt system of justice, albeit in different ways. While The Hunt, in my opinion, serves as a veiled critique of patriarchy, Gett is a head-on challenge. A poisonous finger lifted up at the blood-boilingly frustrating system that is not just Rabbinical law, but the patriarchy it works for.

To say that I wanted to kill a man while watching this movie is no exaggeration. Simon Abkarian is no joke–truly one of the most detestable performances in the history of cinema. I was yelling at my fucking screen for half the movie, begging God to smite him where he stood. Elisha represented everything there was to despise about patriarchy. His desire to possess Viviane like an object, to control her, to wear her down, to OWN her. Abhorrent.

Ronit Elkabetz is nothing short of an acting genius. I feel there isn’t much to elaborate on. Her work in this film speaks for itself. She commands the screen with a simple twitch of her eyes, her explosive monologues nearly bringing me to tears. She is quiet for much of the film, a passive presence to her trial, and this silence only makes her outbursts of emotion all the more potent.

What an incredibly frustrating film to watch, in the best way possible. If you have ever been in doubt of the evil of patriarchy, I implore you to watch this film. 8/10.

A Mighty Wind - dir. Christopher Guest

Mockumentary

I’m sure this is like the funniest thing in the world if you have never had sex. 3/10.

Irreversible - dir. Gaspar Noé

Gaspar Noe makes movies for people who pretend to be bisexual for attention I think. 3/10.

The Brown Bunny - dir. Vincent Gallo

Bud drives in circles for a living.

He is paid to live his life on a loop.

No progress can ever be made. No growth, no change.

Love only lasts as long as a rabbit’s lifespan.

Five to six years, tops. And no more. 9/10.

Elephant - dir. Gus Van Sant

Haneke would fucking love this movie man. Gus Van Sant might be one of the best to ever do it. This is a masterclass in dread. Nothing short of brilliant.

Feel like a lot of people are totally missing the point of this movie but it’s whatever. You either get it or you don’t. Van Sant isn’t saying “oh they became school shooters because they played violent video games/were bullied/were repressing their sexuality/were neglected/were isolated/were Nazi-adjacent/etc, what he’s doing is speculating on the myriad possibilities and media circle-jerked talking points that get tossed around when talking about something so unbelievably tragic.

That’s why, to me, the shooters come across more cartoonish and caricaturized than the victims. The point isn’t really to understand the brain of a school shooter, it’s to realize that it doesn’t fucking MATTER why it happened. We can NEVER know exactly what creates a psychopath. We can speculate all we want but trying to rationally arrive at some divine equation that can be cracked to understand something monstrous is impossible. This is not a movie about the creation of a monster, this is a film that aims to meditate solely on the routines and characters of its setting. It aims not to understand but to mourn. It aims not to rationalize but to empathize. Not to exploit but to humanize. 8/10.