Not the biggest fan of the structure of this one or the sexual politics it ends up getting into (which is really dumb) but there is something about the blunt honesty of how people operate in this movie, especially the lead, that makes this a pretty compelling watch. Helps that this breezes by for the most part too.
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Wagon Master 1950
Incredibly proficient and well oiled, all the moments either played up or downplayed enough to make this incredibly balanced and running extremely efficiently the whole way through. Something also incredibly nice about the way this deals with kindness in this too, where you can be kind to everyone and good natured but also be wary of others while doing so and dealing out inevitable violence for a better society. It's interesting and while I don't really agree with it it's a interesting perspective in a already proficient film. Imagine if I had started off with this for Ford instead of, you know, Judge fucking priest lmao
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Beetlejuice 1988
Combines silly 50s horror movies with some great gothic design without feeling too horror convention core, but instead it's own creative, unique, fun thing (albeit with heavily wearing said influences on its sleeves but this isn't necessarily a bad thing). Not huge on the more whimsical stuff in this sometimes but it's in service of the fun vibe this creates so I can't really be too upset over it! The sequel to this is going to be insane ass though, even with a promising stacked cast.
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El Topo 1970
In theory I feel like I would've hated this, as everything I've heard about Jodorowksy has made him seem like a meaningless surrealist, or one that I would loathe. Make no mistake, there are parts of this that I do not like - a lot of sexual surrealism falls completely flat (and comes back far too often within the first half) and I'm not thrilled with some of the surrealism clearly meant for shock value that feels vapid. But Jodorowsky…
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80 for Brady 2023
Fanboys for the elderly who happen to discover the Lifetime channel or redbox, whichever one someone else shows them first. Truly ghoulish and mortifying.
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Figures in a Landscape 1970
Very nice thriller about two people on the run that works best when it's showing the landscapes and the ominous, seemingly cold-blooded helicopter and doesn't quite so work when the two characters seem to talk to each other about their backstories. Focusing on landscapes and the helicopter as ominous things that can creep up at any moment really makes this the more terrifying, making this super effective. Really helps that this delivers on its promise with, indeed, gorgeously shot landscapes…
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The Reckless Moment 1949
This move starts off like a normal noir, starting off with a forbidden romance that turns badly when the mother of the girl in said romance confronts the boyfriend. After that, this movie just goes in so many places in the following 75 minutes that it basically crams a bunch of shit that could be expanded into 2 hours or more into like....75 minutes. It's fucking nuts how many twists this has for a noir, it's like one subversion after…
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Bullet 1996
Definitely room temperature iq Abel Ferrara, esepcially when it focuses on the vulgarity of Ferrara's film rather than the tragic misgivings and humanity of Ferrara's characters. The vulgarity in these is pretty fun though, massively helped by the 5 main characters of the cast seemingly having a ball playing extravagant characters, in particular Ted Levine's turn as a schizoaffected person who believes he's in black ops, and Tupac's wonderful role as a fruit eating, eyepatch wearing villain. Fun times!!!
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Thunderball 1965
extremely mid but the biggest crime is this wears the colour palette of grey like spectre has a sepia tone for its entire runtime. funny as fuck climax though, who knew boats could go that fast!!!
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Air 2023
Tailor made and designed for your earnest dads that "speak the truth about everything" but doesn't actually make any statements about politics at all. This looks like insane dogshit but it is incredibly funny that they drop the fake filter 5 minutes in and just go to looking washed out. Appreciate that Damon and Affleck are just making the most non-pretentious dad movies out there, hard to hate stuff like this.
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The Roller Blade Seven 1991
Feels extremely alien to anything any person would know, but it's precisely those vibes that feel so outerworldly that makes this so great. Barely has any plot, it is instead just people in goofy ass costumes roller blading in open landscapes while fantastic music plays. It rocks, really just a totally vibes based outsider art flick with random c grade actors popping in to deliver lines that mean basically nothing. It fucking rocks, and the main guy being a total zen dude makes 100% sense. Baller stuff, the guy on the background of this cover has a sick costume.
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