This has been getting rave reviews everywhere. Cool to see a movie getting this much praise when so much of the dialogue is as gaeilge. The girl goes to school with some lads from my son’s soccer team. Which gives it a bit more local interest for me! Must watch it.
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
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Personally found it boring. Had to split it into two bits. One half one day and the other half another day. Sister said the same.
IMO up to There Will Be Blood are brilliant. After There Will be Blood are not so good.
Yeah it's getting a lot of acclaim from outside of the usual circles where you'd expect people to take an interest in Irish-language film and having seen it I can fully understand why. The lass in it is great, hopefully got a big future ahead of her!
Let me know if you get a chance to catch it, would be interested to hear what you thought.
Re watched last night it as a double bill along side Lost In Translation(Both films came out around the same time and have somewhat similar themes and while I’ve got a soft spot for Sofia Coppola, the difference between the two film is just massive.
I still can’t tell if Lost In Translation is a mildly bigoted film which views Japan as a country full of crazy people that are to be laughed at or Coppola has perfectly captured the ignorance of American tourists. But in terms of tackling subjects such as loneliness, lack of purpose in life, creative processes, etc. Tokyo.sora is just on another level.
Ah yeah I've never felt like LiT makes any interesting comments about Japanese culture. The story feels more like it's commenting on a general sense of disbelonging and uses culture shock as a way we can more easily identify with. Really I think it could have been set anywhere far flung - Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Cambodia. Japan is visually cool though I suppose.
Tokyo.sora is much subtler in its approach. It approaches the same feelings but in a more realistic way, suggesting people aren't wholly aware when they're feeling lonely.
Must admit though, I had a tough time keeping track of all the characters. Apparently there were six individual stories?
Archive (2020)
Available on Netflix. Interesting sci-fi story not too dissimilar to Ex-Machina, not as intelligent but certainly with a twist right at the end that knocks it into the shade. Working in a remote location in Japan, a robotics scientist designs a robot capable of housing the AI and memories of his deceased wife. However, an earlier prototype is not so keen on the idea and becomes increasing jealous, fearing it will be cast aside. The film looks great and has some stunning shots of the local landscape. The research facility is also well designed and aesthetically pleasing on the eye giving the film that quality feel rather then the low budget tack commonly seen in this genre.
Story is simple enough with the main character and his robots central to the plot with three or four other characters sharing some screen time. The film does take a big jump when his 3rd prototype moves from work in progress to fully operational and it's at this point that things begin to escalate. The film won't have you at the edge of your seat but is still very compelling nonetheless and good value for its sub 90-minute running time. It's well worth it though as he plot twist at the end is a real doozy. That's all I'm saying.
I'm giving this a 7/10.
Available on Netflix. Interesting sci-fi story not too dissimilar to Ex-Machina, not as intelligent but certainly with a twist right at the end that knocks it into the shade. Working in a remote location in Japan, a robotics scientist designs a robot capable of housing the AI and memories of his deceased wife. However, an earlier prototype is not so keen on the idea and becomes increasing jealous, fearing it will be cast aside. The film looks great and has some stunning shots of the local landscape. The research facility is also well designed and aesthetically pleasing on the eye giving the film that quality feel rather then the low budget tack commonly seen in this genre.
Story is simple enough with the main character and his robots central to the plot with three or four other characters sharing some screen time. The film does take a big jump when his 3rd prototype moves from work in progress to fully operational and it's at this point that things begin to escalate. The film won't have you at the edge of your seat but is still very compelling nonetheless and good value for its sub 90-minute running time. It's well worth it though as he plot twist at the end is a real doozy. That's all I'm saying.
I'm giving this a 7/10.
I'm about 20 minutes into The Adam Project and surely that kid is Ryan Reynolds actual real life bastard? Their delivery is virtually identical.
For me at least I found LIT at times to see Japanese people as the butt of the joke more often than not, The film has a sorta mid 2000 American reactionary vibe about. Tokyo.sora doesn’t have this issue and it’s not because it was made by a Japanese director or started Japanese actors but due to as you it's more subtle approach. The opening scene isn’t a music video staring Bill Murray but a woman watching her hands in a brightly lit bathroom.
Also in LIT they aren’t really losers or even that sad. They are lost in a empty consumer sense, both character have travelled the world and use it all up and still feel empty. Compared with the struggle the characters go through in Tokyo sora. Still I don't hate LIT just isn't on the levl of Tokyo.sora imo.
My memory is shot to pieces so I just guessed I was at fault but yeah it’s confusing. There’s six stories but they come two at a time and also interconnect with each other. I did near the end have to pause to get a grip on what was going on.
Top Gun: Maverick
I did not expect this movie to be so good. Its was brilliant throughout and im not even a big top gun fan. Really well acted, very tensed and you could almost feel the stress in the pilots body with the insane flying they had to do. Love it from beginning to end. One of the best movie I've seen in nearly 2 years. 9/10.
I did not expect this movie to be so good. Its was brilliant throughout and im not even a big top gun fan. Really well acted, very tensed and you could almost feel the stress in the pilots body with the insane flying they had to do. Love it from beginning to end. One of the best movie I've seen in nearly 2 years. 9/10.
Eternals (2021)
Second time I've watched this and I have to say I'm loving it even more. First time round I was going to switch it off after half an hour but stuck with it and was glad that I did. It's just so different to most of the dross that Marvel has churned out over the years. Interesting characters with more depth than the usual MCU cardboard cutouts (loved Sprite, Makkari, Thena, Druig and Gilgamesh). A proper story based around the characters rather than being driven by overblown CGI and effects. Real jeopardy and intrigue. Doing away with the over the top humour and campness that has blighted the MCU until they came to their senses in Doctor Strange 2 (apart from Kingo and his valet, but it was tolerable). The dynamic between the Eternals was great with all the sub-plots and inter-relationships perfectively and seamlessly woven into the main story as the characters navigated their own personal conflicts.
Action sequences were great and dialogue was devoid of the usual cliches and monologuing that can become really tiresome. It's a solid entry in the MCU pantheon that I could watch again and again. It's definitely been pushed into my top 5. Looking forward to Eternals 2.
I'm giving this a 8/10.
Second time I've watched this and I have to say I'm loving it even more. First time round I was going to switch it off after half an hour but stuck with it and was glad that I did. It's just so different to most of the dross that Marvel has churned out over the years. Interesting characters with more depth than the usual MCU cardboard cutouts (loved Sprite, Makkari, Thena, Druig and Gilgamesh). A proper story based around the characters rather than being driven by overblown CGI and effects. Real jeopardy and intrigue. Doing away with the over the top humour and campness that has blighted the MCU until they came to their senses in Doctor Strange 2 (apart from Kingo and his valet, but it was tolerable). The dynamic between the Eternals was great with all the sub-plots and inter-relationships perfectively and seamlessly woven into the main story as the characters navigated their own personal conflicts.
Action sequences were great and dialogue was devoid of the usual cliches and monologuing that can become really tiresome. It's a solid entry in the MCU pantheon that I could watch again and again. It's definitely been pushed into my top 5. Looking forward to Eternals 2.
I'm giving this a 8/10.
Have you seen the Ryusuke Hamaguchi movies that are currently on MUBI? I think you'd like them based on what you're saying - https://mubi.com/cast/ryusuke-hamaguchi
Happy Hour is arguably the most similar to Tokyo.sora, certainly the most naturalistic and emsemble-ish, but it's not there right now. It's also 5 hours long. You can of course pirate it like I did
Also Eureka is fantastic and similarly long and slow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(2000_film)
Everything, Everywhere is Shite all the Time.
Zaaany, irreverent, madcap subversion. With bloody dildos and buttplugs. Really hip stuff bro. Except it's actually just a bunch of aimless crap smashed together and smeared over a Centrist-conservative corpo ideology. "Our institutions are crumbling and we must return to what made us great, again" they actually say in the movie. "Great evils" and "good people".
Apparently the Russo brats were involved, which makes sense because they make utterly shit movies routinely.
A film for the Kiers and Kamalas of the world.
Zaaany, irreverent, madcap subversion. With bloody dildos and buttplugs. Really hip stuff bro. Except it's actually just a bunch of aimless crap smashed together and smeared over a Centrist-conservative corpo ideology. "Our institutions are crumbling and we must return to what made us great, again" they actually say in the movie. "Great evils" and "good people".
Apparently the Russo brats were involved, which makes sense because they make utterly shit movies routinely.
A film for the Kiers and Kamalas of the world.
Ooof, I do enjoy a @dumbo review 
Oh cheers, didn't know he stuff was on Mubi. I was forward to watching Drive My Car in the cinemas but it never popped, will have to give it a watch.
Just watched the trailer for Happy Hour, yeah thats next on the watch list when I get the time. Lately I've been trying to get into more slow cinema stuff, have watched a couple of Tsai Ming Liang short films(No No Sleep is so far my personal favourite). For me at least it's taken a while to get used to but well worth it.Happy Hour is arguably the most similar to Tokyo.sora, certainly the most naturalistic and emsemble-ish, but it's not there right now. It's also 5 hours long. You can of course pirate it like I did
Also Eureka is fantastic and similarly long and slow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(2000_film)
Nice nice. Tsai Ming-liang is brilliant
Judging from the trailer it looked far too over the top. Like they had an interesting idea but figured people wouldn't watch it unless they made it incredibly zany.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
90s coming of age drama with Johnny Depp and Leo di Caprio playing a mentally disabled teen. It’s a good family drama, done fairly by the numbers. I enjoyed it. 7/10
90s coming of age drama with Johnny Depp and Leo di Caprio playing a mentally disabled teen. It’s a good family drama, done fairly by the numbers. I enjoyed it. 7/10
It's receiving universal acclaim, with both critics and audiences as equally effusive. I appear to be wrong on this one.
So then how do I explain being so out of step here. Well:
1. Marvel has poisoned the well. As fecked up as I find their social ideology, I think the inherent silliness of the Marvel brand puts a fairly low ceiling on their political influence. I think what Marvel has had an affect on however is the lowering of the acceptable standards of filmmaking. On every level the basic craftsmanship seems of seriously poor quality. Watch enough of these films and you get used to that level. And with other studios attempting to compete, they adopt the same careless model of working. Bigger is now better than good. Everything Everywhere All at Once is not a Marvel film and it certainly has more ambition from a filmmaking standpoint but I'm convinced that there is a heavy influence at play. Rhythmically and stylistically it's Marvel light.
2. Audiences have been conditioned to no longer want art, or films, movies, even entertainment. What they have become accustomed to settle for is a steady stream of basic content; a soporific trip with recognisable dramatic checkpoints on a gently undulating narrative plain. Films have been replaced by easily digestible social instructionals. Everything Everywhere All at Once is two and a half hours long, and that's no longer unusual for these popular films with broad appeal. Two to three hours is a seriously hefty screen duration and it takes a hell of lot to keep an audience engaged in a work for that long. Alternatively you can choose to ignore any attempt to engage the audience and instead pump out cheery, palatable cinematic soma. TV has mastered this art. Offer the audience gentle emotional manipulations, a naughty joke here and there, pander to their needs for comforting societal expectations and alleviate their fears of the unexpected and unpleasant. Content doesn't make any demands of its audience, it's there to placate and keep you in a perpetual stupor.
3. Maybe everyone else is actually right and you can start shovelling the dirt in on me now.
@Sweet Square I've been wondering - where did you hear about Tokyo Sora? If it was on a list of 'best japanese movies' or something could you please share the link
@dumbo that's a good post and I largely agree but I'm wayyy too sleepy to post a thoughtful reply. Have this as your upvote
@dumbo that's a good post and I largely agree but I'm wayyy too sleepy to post a thoughtful reply. Have this as your upvote
Everything Everywhere All at Once is all kinds of batshit crazy brilliance.
No worries. I heard about film from this twitter user - https://twitter.com/dotinglyricism. They just tend to post just random pictures of films they like and I happen to see the bathtub picture from Tokyo.sora and googled it.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
They have a letterbox - https://letterboxd.com/doting_lyricism/.
Also
- https://www.youtube.com/c/Harkinless/videos - This is the channel that I watched Tokyo.sora on. It has some other movies as well, Bokura Wa Aruku, Tada Soredake(2009) is a really great little film, slow paced and has a brilliant performance from Sakura Ando.
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUSIiRAj3RQBv4YvvP8wRyg - Channel with Japanese films from the late 90's to late 2000's. Have only watched Mirrored Mind but loved it(David Lynch vibes).
Two other short films as well
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@Sweet Square solid thanks. I watched August in the Water recently which is on the second person's channel. There's some big Lynch vibes to that.
Will check out mirrored mind and bokura
https://mubi.com/lists/japanese-cinema-of-the-2000s
https://mubi.com/lists/japanese-cinema-of-the-1990s
These are the lists I've been using over the past few years. It's been a nightmare to find some and I've probably only seen half (if that) but more are finding their way onto YouTube, which is nice.
Will check out mirrored mind and bokura
https://mubi.com/lists/japanese-cinema-of-the-2000s
https://mubi.com/lists/japanese-cinema-of-the-1990s
These are the lists I've been using over the past few years. It's been a nightmare to find some and I've probably only seen half (if that) but more are finding their way onto YouTube, which is nice.
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Cheers. I use Mubi a lot but always forget that people post watch lists. Some great films on there I'll have to find.
In @dumbo defensive he is the only one I've seen correctly review Titane. Pure shitehouse cinema that one.
Just come back from watching Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Enjoyed it although I thought it was slow in places.
Found it a chaotic mix of The Matrix and the new Doc Strange.
(There's even a 3rd eye and cartoon multiverse)
I can understand people who say it's a mess of a film but can't understand people putting it in their top 10.
Think I would have enjoyed it more if it was on Netflix and I was sat at home watching though.
Enjoyed it although I thought it was slow in places.
Found it a chaotic mix of The Matrix and the new Doc Strange.
(There's even a 3rd eye and cartoon multiverse)
I can understand people who say it's a mess of a film but can't understand people putting it in their top 10.
Think I would have enjoyed it more if it was on Netflix and I was sat at home watching though.
I just want to riff on the bolded. I think Marvel has a much greater negative societal influence than you acknowledge here. The reason is that it mostly influences the worldview of kids when they are malleable. We haven't fully seen the long-term negative impact but I think it greatly contributes to America's general mindset on guns. It 100% reinforces the whole "good guy with guns" narrative by consistently presenting the audience with the view that there are big bad evil people and the only thing to stop those big bad evil people are good guys that are heavily armed (with superpowers). They completely overlook any sort of institutional reform or collective means of problem-solving for this whole charismatic superhero as the solution narrative. It reinforces these cognitive frames way before people grow old enough to vote. It's essentially training kids to accept many of the narratives you hear from the worst of the conservative politicians.
Wanton destruction and in the next movie everything is rebuilt and the casualties and even daily stresses of the average person are overlooked, completely shoved into the background, because the effects on the average person are ultimately unimportant. The narratives in Marvel movies craft a worldview where people don't have to think because the superhero will save them. We can see variations of this exact mindset in Trump and his followers. How they idolize him like he is a superhero because he is rich. In many ways, Marvel movies train these people that become mindless Trump (or Elon Musk) fanatics. It removes a nuanced way of viewing how the world works.
There have been some comic books that actually deconstruct this phenomenon and essentially portray what the world would really look like if people had superpowers and it wouldn't be anything like Marvel movies. Miracleman: The Golden Age from Neil Gaiman is one that is remarkable in pulling back this curtain and examining what the superhero narratives really mean.
Is this a meme originating from the Marvel thread?
Watched The Valet on Disney+, new rom-com starring Samara Weaving.
Really enjoyed it! Very funny, sweet script and the actors were great, especially the minor characters.
It was very well-paced and it was cool to see a movie about the division between the working class in LA and the rich and famous.
If your missus wants to watch a rom-com, stick this on.
7/10
Really enjoyed it! Very funny, sweet script and the actors were great, especially the minor characters.
It was very well-paced and it was cool to see a movie about the division between the working class in LA and the rich and famous.
If your missus wants to watch a rom-com, stick this on.
7/10
On the count of three
Two friends agree to a suicide pact whereby they shoot each other in the head. One is in a mental health facility, having tried to commit suicide 3 days earlier, and the other is in a dead end job and has been dumped by the girl he was about to propose to. The second guy helps the first guy to escape and they drive to the back of a strip club to kill each other but they botch the attempt and then decide to have one last day where they settle some old scores before having another go later that night.
I don't want to go into any more detail but it's an interesting film with some dark comedy and good performances from the two leads. It also guest stars Henry Winkler and JB Smoove. Worth an hour and 25 minutes of your time.
8/10
Two friends agree to a suicide pact whereby they shoot each other in the head. One is in a mental health facility, having tried to commit suicide 3 days earlier, and the other is in a dead end job and has been dumped by the girl he was about to propose to. The second guy helps the first guy to escape and they drive to the back of a strip club to kill each other but they botch the attempt and then decide to have one last day where they settle some old scores before having another go later that night.
I don't want to go into any more detail but it's an interesting film with some dark comedy and good performances from the two leads. It also guest stars Henry Winkler and JB Smoove. Worth an hour and 25 minutes of your time.
8/10
I've been reading DFW's essay on Lynch which he wrote after spending time on the set of LOST HIGHWAY. Quite interesting if you're into this sort of thing.
http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html
I think this is a shorter version of the original essay, not 100% sure.
http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html
I think this is a shorter version of the original essay, not 100% sure.
Why do I feel you've gone into too much already
It’s all in the trailer (movie looks very good)Why do I feel you've gone into too much already
Oh Okay.
I usually stay away from trailers as well, prefer to go into a movie with as little knowledge about it, aside from a basic plot if possible.
I only describe the first few minutes of the film really.Why do I feel you've gone into too much already
Same. One of my biggest movie beefs is how often trailers are full of spoilers. Just lack the self discipline to not be nosy!
Matrix Resurrections:
I have no idea how to rate this. Grinning idiotically through half of it, extremely bored with the rest, the pandering and nostalgia worked perfectly, the meta stuff was great fun, the "actual" story was boring, many plot threads seemed to go nowhere, and it's really sad to compare the action now with the effect the original had.
7/10? Doesn't feel deserved but again I was having too much fun to give it lower.
I have no idea how to rate this. Grinning idiotically through half of it, extremely bored with the rest, the pandering and nostalgia worked perfectly, the meta stuff was great fun, the "actual" story was boring, many plot threads seemed to go nowhere, and it's really sad to compare the action now with the effect the original had.
7/10? Doesn't feel deserved but again I was having too much fun to give it lower.
Started watching it last night too....then fell asleep with about an hour left, I think. So I have to go back to it today. Initial impression was that I missed the Matrix feel that the first trilogy had. They created an environment that drew you in even if they were talking double-dutch all the time. With this offering it felt just a little flat. You could see they were trying to recreate it at times but it was just wasn't working for me, even with the agents and 'bullet-time' stuff. Characters were a bit flat too.
Perhaps I'll be a bit more positive when I get back to it later.
Nah, the action and aesthetic and everything else was terrible. The part that I enjoyed was when they were talking about the impact of their own movie, the stupidity of sequels, stuff like that. This one doesn't work as an action movie at all.
I was talking about what was good about the original trilogy. This one doesn't have the look or feel of any of them.