Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 105

I respect this take a lot..... I haven't sat down and worked out where I place them all officially. In a nutshell, I never liked Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 *quite* as much as the rest of the world seemed to, and I liked the Marc Webb / Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man movies a lot more than the rest of the world seemed to and kinda feel like they didn't get a fair shake.

 

I liked them just because I like Andrew Garfield, but definitely like TH as Spider-Man the most. Definitely liked the lighter vibe after how intense avengers was.

 

I haven’t seen Far From Home yet, but I only have two criticisms about Homecoming and they are both very minor and random and I would call the first one oblique but I am not sure if I am using that word correctly. I thought there was just slightly too much Avengers (or more specifically Tony Stark) emphasis in the narrative for my liking. I am talking like if a world class chef makes an amazing dish and one of the many ingredients is turmeric but then someone else tries the same recipe and they just use a tiny bit too much turmeric. This Spider-Man is awesome, and I think working him into the overall MCU narrative was only incredibly positive for the Avengers movies and Civil War, but I think it was a tiny bit more of a double-edged sword for the Spider-Man movies themselves.

My second criticism is that I just simply cannot wrap my mind around the casting of Marisa Tomei as Aunt May. It boggles my mind.

Homecoming is an amazing movie though and I think I was just a little more surprised by Into The Spider-Verse and how great it was and where the story went because I had no idea what it was even about before going in, and I went into Homecoming fully expecting it to be great.

 

Spider-Man 2 was the greatest Spider-Man movie until Spiderverse

Far From Home stunk

 

You put in all that time responding and I realized I said homecoming, when I meant far from home, which I saw this morning. My bad!

As far as Tomei goes, I like her in the role and how she’s a young, hip, attractive version. Definitely better than old lady Aunt May.

 

All the Toby Spider-Man movies are pretty shitty tbh. The MCU movies may all be basically the same but at least that means they’ve got the formula down well enough so the audience doesn’t experience second hand embarrassment from half the dialogue

 

Her Smell - While this didn't occur to me during the movie but only after reading some reviews on Letterboxd, it really is a funny coincidence that I randomly decided to watch this to break up my John Cassevetes marathon after finishing Faces just last night. It's not hard, in hindsight, to see the similarities, and in fact I may have, if I instead hadn't spent the whole time thinking that if Gasper Noe had something important to say literally ever, this would be the movie he'd make (contingent also upon if he could show the least bit sympathy to humanity) (sorry, his latest movie still has me pissed off on a daily basis)

Elizabeth is truly a tour de force in this movie, and the first half was for me just the right amount of challenging with poignant nods to her internal life and struggles (the scene of her sitting in the studio watching the akergirls for the first time while the camera slowly zooms in on her is fucking masterful) and very unsettling sound design that give way to a calmer but still anxiety-ridden second half (and one very effective at justifying and/or helping us understand the relentlessness of the first half)

One of the best films of the year for me, but I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone.

 

Stuber was a good time. From the trailer you can probably guess what the theme's gonna be, but that doesn't take away from it.

 

I actually enjoyed Bumblebee. The other Transformers movies aren’t great, but this was different.

7.5/10

 

Midsommar - Even before the cataclysmic event that occurs within the first ten minutes of the movie, we know that Dani isn’t exactly healthy. Mental health issues run in her family, and Dani herself is prone to panic attacks and an over-reliance on others; namely, her incredibly aloof and toxic boyfriend who we know has been planning on breaking up with her for a long time but hasn’t the respect for her nor the humility to do it. His friends, who are nearly every bit as cotton-headed as he is, repeatedly berate him for being with a “psycho,” and they speak no better of her after she experiences a life-changing shock brought on by her unstable sister.

What follows is a surreal, absurd, funny, and beautiful arthouse horror of the highest order as we watch Dani grapple with the loneliness of extreme grief while also trying to find peace and order through an increasingly distant social network; her boyfriend refuses to even acknowledge the reality of her emotions, and instead repeatedly gaslights her into letting him do whatever he wants. Her internalization of negative feelings and increasing sense of isolation is evident in not just how quick she is to apologize for speaking up but in her distant, silent gazes.

Her boyfriend’s friends, too, whom she joins on the trip to a bucolic countryside in Sweden, all show similarly toxic traits. Whether it’s a solipsistic indifference to the earth, frat-like objectification, or a willingness to turn a blind eye to extreme ritualistic violence “out of respect for the culture,” while simultaneously showing an academic disrespect for that culture, Ari Aster makes little attempt to get you to sympathize with this group.

Dani's use of psychedelics brings her closer to a truth while also bringing her closer to face the traumas of the past, which is necessary for her to move forward. Her reaction to "the scene" is muted compared to the other tourists, and the close-up shots of the gore serve to offer a look at the ugliness of what Dani is feeling; the ugliness of the trauma that her boyfriend and his friends refuse to bear witness to.

The movie escalates as predicted, with obvious shades of The Wicker Man, while retaining the beauty of the earth around. I was reminded, too, of Melancholia, in that we are slowly drawn more and more into Dani's world, and by the end, we're rooting for her as she finally finds a path forward - a morally questionable path, perhaps, but one full of the unadulterated empathy and community she's been in desperate need of. Finally, Dani is in control of her own grief, and unlike with Hereditary, I left the theater feeling somewhat optimistic, in stark contrast to the bulk of the movie where I felt anxious, unsettled, and uncomfortable; as distant, too, as Dani felt to all the characters in her periphery; in the end, empowered.

 

I watched it with a few people way younger and obviously not accustomed to art house horror or abstract movies in general and their reactions were pretty funny. I don't think they liked it, but they all reallllly wanted to talk about it, which is cool. Actually, having finally seen it, I'm shocked and excited that I've heard so many people talking about it. Seems like the kind of movie that could really expose people to film.

 

I feel like kumail was the only funny part about the movie. I didn’t get any laughs from the other players, and the plot was pretty juvenile/basic. I don’t want my money back or anything, but I won’t watch it when it comes out either.

 

Minding the Gap - Really good documentary about the cycle of abuse and skateboarding as an escape. Unusual in that it was shot by a friend of not just the subjects but the subjects' families as well, and not only that but the filmmaker is very much a part of the story as well. Definitely recommended, but it's definitely a bit heartbreaking.

 

John Wick 1 - 8/10, Great choreographed action flick.

 

I teared up about a dozen times watching The Lion King remake b/c nostalgia 2 stronk, but The Farewell absolutely broke me and I ugly cried the entire drive home.

 

Naked - You’ll know whether you can stomach this movie from the very opening scene. This is an ugly film full of ugly people; victims of a cold, indifferent world and how they choose to navigate it. Amazing performance from Thewlis as Johnny as he pontificates and imposes his contradictory, cynical worldview (a worldview he uses to justify his own actions) on everyone around him; meanwhile, Jeremy, a wealthier version of himself, does the same but almost solely through violence rather than words, and lacking any sympathy whereas Johnny, even while he actively and quite maliciously berates and hurts others, shows a hint of understanding that everyone is in this hell together whether or not they can see it. This movie has an undeniable hypnotic quality to it, and while it’s probably not for everyone, I loved it even in spite of some scenes that were hard to watch.

 

John Wick Chapter 2 - 8.5/10, I like the plot they added to this assassin universe.

 

Heathers - 9/10

 

Maleficent was nice. Loved Angie and Elle in this. Excited for sequel.

 

Really enjoyed the documentary. I really wish the director won the best doc. Oscar too.

 

Apocalypse Now -

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this.

After the opening scene, I thought maybe I was about to see a spiritual predecessor to The Thin Red Line, but it couldn't have been farther from that; absent from this is the former's beauty and humanity amidst the destructive and unwelcome circumstances they find themselves a part of, and instead, Apocalypse Now makes us bear witness to a total descent into one terrifying, hallucinatory hell. My mistake was waiting for humanity to triumph over the violence, but this film is much too dark for that, and more respectful of the truths of war: utterly absurd, pointless, bloody, and dehumanizing.

Also, easily one of the more technically astounding films I've ever seen. So many moments where I audibly let out a "holy shit," and/or "that must have been so hard to pull off."

 

Shazam! - 8/10, DC is really improving with their live-action stuff. Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, and this are all pretty enjoyable. It captured the character perfectly. But idk who that’s supposed to be in the post credit scene...

 

Rewatched Lilo & Stitch tonight and wow has it aged so well. I honestly think I love it more now than I did when I was a kid. The way the movie handles the dynamic between Lilo, Nani, and Stitch and just the general theme of family is nothing short of perfect. Honestly think it's in contention for best Disney movie.

 

The Dark Crystal - 8.5/10, so dark but so good

 

Boosted my Warner Bros. Premium Collection further today with the purchase of Suspicion, Shaft, Marathon Man and Out of the Past. Watched Suspicion in eager anticipation considering all the other Hitchcock films I have watched this year with most being great and Suspicion comes close to matching some of his best work. With it being a collectors edition I also got four well-made art cards and a poster that looks like it would have been used as promotional material in a theatre.