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D.O.A. 1949
Edmund O'Brien's Frank Bigelow dashes through Market Street, San Francisco as if he were attempting to outrun death. He bumps into surprised people on the street — not actors, for Rudolph Maté and Ernest Lazlo stole that footage without the required city permits in a guerrilla style that puts French New Wave directors using similar tactics to shame because of the obvious technical accomplishment behind the camera. The location photography, the Noir lighting (both interior and exterior), and the general…
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House of Gucci 2021
Almost had me wishing Ryan Murphy was behind this instead of Ridley Scott, something I thought I'd never say. Enjoyed this immensely for the most part, and will never forget a cinema full of people gasping in outrage at the thought of a Bloomingdale's gift card as a Christmas present, but it could have done with another serious round of editing and should have gone full-ham-camp.
For me, this just didn't sufficiently follow through on the camp it promises. This…
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Images 1972
Reviewed on Cinema Eclectica.
Also part of 30 Countries 2018. Today: America!Feels like a dry run for Altman's theatre adaptations of the 1980s, particularly Secret Honor - because although there's more than one cast member in this one, Susannah York is the only one who really, definitely exists as we see her on screen. (I think) It's a bit shaggy and self-indulgent, but in that pleasing 1970s no-one-at-the-studio-is-watching-the-rushes way, and Vilmos Zsigmond shooting the Irish countryside in a Blu-Ray restoration from the original negative is what your eyes were born to see.
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The Mole Agent 2020
An unconventional spy operation leads to a hands-on exploration of the ways in which societies treat the elderly. Full of tenderness and loving concern. Sergio Chamy is the type of character that cannot be fabricated or manufactured, the type only found in the real world.
Having worked numerous years in various assisted living/nursing home facilities this really hit the spot.
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Framing Britney Spears 2021
Heart-breaking, and absolutely infuriating how much people relied on the public's misogyny and classism to obliterate this woman. This documentary gives a great overview of Spears' career. In recent years, with her being treated as a walking punchline, it's easy to forget how huge she was, how she was the most-Googled person for years running.
I hope this doc will cause the internet to wake up to the fact that Britney was misremembered, just like Tonya Harding, Anna Nicole Smith…
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Real 2019
"At just 76 minutes, Real isn’t long enough to properly process its third-act shift into melodrama. Even if it had an extra 15-20 minutes, though, it would still have been hard not to wish it had stuck to the promise of that early bicycle ride: a film that doesn’t ignore the hardships of working-class life, but transcends them instead. As it is, the most consistently strong aspect is Bennett-Warner’s excellent performance."
Read more at The Geek Show.
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Shirley 2020
Watched Josephine Decker's film about troubled horror writer Shirley Jackson twice, back to back, but ended up admiring it more than I liked it. Elisabeth Moss gives another terrific performance (right up there with Her Smell and Queen Of Earth), individual scenes are genuinely powerful (Shirley's extraordinary meltdown at a university faculty party is a highlight), and it casts an atmospheric spell that proves tricky to shake. However, the whole thing felt a bit overegged, so full of symbolism and…
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The Servant 1963
Why don't they make films like this any more?
First class cast (well, I always feel that the young Wendy Craig seems slightly at odds but that's by the by) excellently directed, shot impeccably, scored beautifully...the whole things drips with atmosphere. A heady treacle black brew of sinister brooding.
I hadn't watched this in years, kicking myself to have been so lax for so long.
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Zombieland 2009
Jesse Eisenberg’s meek inherits the Earth; and, because this is a big budget Hollywood goof, so does Woody Harrelson’s unstoppable, twinkie-obsessed zombie killing machine. The zombies are comic props, dispatched in various over-the-top ways, and the post-apocalypse is Disneyland for the survivors. What keeps the cartoon interesting over ninety minutes are the charisma and chemistry between the gang-of-four in the lead and the witty, self-aware script by the same team who wrote Deadpool, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Eisenberg’s voiceover…
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