This is the kind of story that is so big that it kind of demands to be a bigger project, like a miniseries, but it would likely be impossible to sit through, as these 90 minutes were tough enough.
I've never trusted the BSA and have always resisted the public image, and that's only knowing a few of the stories that were out in the public sphere when I was more in tune with reading the news. The idea behind…
This is the very definition of a film I desperately wanted to like more than I did. There are some incredibly strong elements here, but for me, it never fully gelled together as cohesively as it should have.
The acting deserves all the praise, across the board. Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson...everyone completely understands their characters and their struggles, and do wonders with communicating their emotions in any given scene. Judging the film…
Absolutely wild. Not sure if I've said "holy shit" out loud watching a documentary this often since Three Identical Strangers a few years back.
The stuff this guy will unapologetically admit to in front of the world is just crazy, as he practically rents a backhoe (that he then refuses to pay for) in order to keep digging himself a deeper hole. It's just unreal sometimes.
But while it's easy to focus on what an obviously terrible person this conman…
Wow.
Everything I ever read about this being a masterpiece rang true with me. This is a towering achievement that had me glued to my seat within minutes, and the more the film went on, the more I was drawn in to the performances, portrayal of madness, and the sheer insanity of not only the story and characters, but the filmmaking. It felt like the jungle wasn't just slowly swallowing members of the expedition, it was swallowing me too, and…
Knocked out another Seijun Suzuki film before bed last night, since it wasn't even 80 minutes long and fit perfectly into the time frame I had available.
I loved the concept, and the movie is fine and has some strong aspects, but it didn't land for me as much as the Suzuki film I started my day with. A train track is blocked by a landslide, forcing a group of passengers from all walks of life to take a bus…
I've seen a few Seijun Suzuki films at this point, but so far this is the earliest work I've seen, and it was an interesting film with a lot of energy and a powerful ending
It's the story of a group of disaffected Japanese teens acting out and dealing with their troubling personal situations in a variety of ways, none of them healthy. I viewed it as a very interesting examination of the first generation of kids born to the…
What a quirky little ball of fun this was, once again discovered thanks to Criterion.
It starts off as a mystery surrounding a missing man and stack of cash, but gradually becomes much more, as the main character examines the meaning of being Chinese-American, taking on themes of assimilation and identity. It can be wildly offbeat and funny one minute, yet somber and poignant the next. It's a very introspective piece of work, disguised as something of a cat-and-mouse search.…
As paranoid thrillers go, this was really solid. And while it may be humorously dated in some respects (look at the size of those computer terminals), the film has gained more and more relevance over the years, which I think is a hallmark of the better examples of this genre. Clearly, AI is a very big part of our society and isn't going anywhere. There have been plenty of movies since this released that tackle the idea of AI turning…
Film Swap Challenge
Me and the homie Noveliss started a weekly Film Swap Challenge where every week we choose a film for the other to watch, and have seven days to complete.
This was the weirdest challenge yet. Within five minutes it felt like a cult classic, though by the end of the film it hadn't resonated with me as deeply as I had hoped, given that I'd been hearing about it for a long time.
But the more I…
I feel like I need to take a shower. But not with Linda Fiorentino. Not because it wouldn't be enjoyable, but I'm officially terrified of her.
I was pleasantly surprised with how good this cast was, as I'd been unfamiliar with the film. Peter Berg is in rare form here, I will NEVER complain about seeing my guy Bill Pullman, and we get supporting turns from J.T. Walsh, Dean Norris and Bill Nunn? Hell yeah!
I'm a sucker for noir…
Exactly as one-note as the trailer depicted, and that note is beaten into the ground for 90 minutes.
That said, the voice cast does a solid enough job and I had a few decent laughs. I'll give the writer credit for not going the totally safe direction with Reggie and how his story ended. But overall, this is very forgettable.
Finally adding this to the list of 90s comedies I've shown my son, after talking it up for a while. But I think when I talk about how I grew up feeling like this was always on Comedy Central and you can easily drop into this for twenty minutes no matter what scene you come in on, that part missed him a little. I'm old, I guess.
I won't pretend this is some great piece of cinema but it remains…