Couldn't go without a final roundup of the years watching whinging.
The Last Duel. Blockbuster rape so good it deserves repeating, and that roller coaster duel at the end that places milady's fiery fate in the hands of dumb and dumber is so exciting: "will she burn? No, Yes, No, Yes, No!". It feels icky that Holofcener has her name on this because she usually writes compassionately. The feminist concession amounts to "but let's make her really nice", so she is kind to the peasants and animals, aww. Risible shit for idiots. Trashomon.
Dune. More absolute shit. Marvel in parade dress. I lasted an hour, then scrubbed through the rest. What is it with this twat and his love for beefy yank militarism. Your worms are shit. The oh so genius visuals look like Jack Vettriano doing an impression of Giger and Beksinski - vacuous commercial pap shorn of all texture and feeling. This is not cinema either.
That these types of films are now consistently hoodwinking critics and audiences alike is evidence of how we've been successfully conditioned to accept low grade sludge as a substitute for films. Everything looks and sounds like the last seasons of Game Of Thrones. There is no more valuable Cinema at this scale anymore, just empty content presided over by bland techy studio bros like Nolan, Denis, Snyder, Gunn. All using the same CGI asset pack, all bereft of creativity, imagination and artistry. The Netflix TVification of Cinema. I've given up on all big studio pics now as I can't trust them with my time anymore. And it didn't have to be like this, because you should be able to make big films with some imagination, originality and smarts, like before, but nah they buy anything and Scorsese is a boomer.
But stop crying because cinema lives on, and it's bountiful.
Pusher trilogy. Early example of Refn's stunted, puerile imagination at play but it's shot with bravado, energy and a scuzzy DIY aesthetic that I can respect. It's not even about taste, Refn is a twat and I hate him but he has Cinematic ambition, even if his talent doesn't match up. Refn is a filmmaker, Villeneuve is a Wimpy bar manager.
Anne at 13000 ft. Tender portrait of a barely-functioning manic, and those around her. The film's brilliance lies in its refusal to romanticise or indulge her condition, whilst still treating the character with compassion.
Azor. Sublime foreplay but it feels unfinished. And annoyingly I think that is part of the gimmick. Still certainly worthwhile.
New Order. Brutal, unrelenting and uncompromising. Treads a somewhat predictable, well worn path towards collapse, though it has an astute understanding of interpersonal interactions within the film's social context. I dig.
Voyage of Time. Tedious Brad Pitt mumbling over outtakes from Tree of Life. I muted it halfway through and the dinosaurs look just as bad on second glance. Mallick gets worse and worse but the visuals are great and at 40 odd minutes I wasn't mad at it.
The Wasps are Here. Great Sri Lankan realist film. It's closely related to the Parallel Neorealist stuff but it most reminds me of Mark Jenkins' Bait from a couple of years ago.
The Nun 1966 and The Nun 2013. Two adaptations of a Diderot story, both excellent. The earlier version is more dramatically satisfying but has some weird overly theatrical acting. The later version dials back the grimness but the last act has a weird, almost Pythonesque Castle Anthrax vibe that I enjoyed.
.
Incident By a Bank and Involuntary. Two fine early Ostlund films. He's the absolute master of social excruciation. Play and The Square remain my favourites and I need to see the new one.
I am Cuba. A masterpiece. Was dreading watching 2 and a half ours of stodgy Latin-American mid-century political Cinema after a long day but it was my last chance to catch it. No need to worry though because it was actually an early soviet propaganda film with all the broad stroke simplicity and vibrant, kinetic filmmaking that that entails. Only realised it was Kalatozov after starting the film and not the product of the Americas. The film flew by, thrilling and exciting.
Liberte. Grim and tedious French de Sadism. A long drawn out night of libertine depravity. Much less fun than it sounds, though respect to the actors who give wildly committed performances.
Gagarine. Delightful French outer space sci-fi fantasy, situated in and around a French housing project.
yep
(In the hope that they're good.)