The madness of love in wartime meets the sickening irony of armistice wrought from ultimate violence, and absolute suffering. How can we know one another? City to city, face to face, skin to skin. But even at our most intimate, does a tourist ever truly know the places they visit? Does reciting the fact mean you can you still feel the heat scorched into the Pavilion of Peace? Film, like memory, is an attempt to reconstruct, in solid forms, things…
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Oppenheimer 2023
Discussed on the First Watch Podcast. Listen here!
Do you hear the music, Robert?
A forlorn sonata heralds the twilight of mankind. Out in the desert, at the end of civilization, the wind is rising, then the fire, then the ash. Then the sound. Tuning their strings is an apocalyptic 4000-man orchestra, ready to unleash America's triumphant symphonic masterpiece on the world. Death from above, 1945. Standing tall at the podium are two maestros, looking through the flow of history…
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The Makioka Sisters 1983
Delicate cherry petals blush as they're kissed by the rain. An era is coming to its close, and what a delight it is to linger in its dying splendor. Kon Ichikawa's adaptation is lyrical but rapid-fire, quite a lot more blunt than Tanizaki's novel, but full of humor, desire, and vibrant eye-popping color. It's largely a sturdy and unspectacular rendition, but it's also rich with arresting detail and the strong performances don't just bring the Makioka family to life, but make them something entirely new, lively and unique to this film.
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In a Lonely Place 1950
War shatters the psyche, and Ray's searing noir shuffles the fragments like a deck of playing cards. The script is icy, cutting, and especially for its era and star, pitched entirely into the dark of a mind blotted by its own avowed virtues. Shrewdness, skepticism, explosive violence. All are the hallmarks of good soldiers and better officers on the field of battle, where the enemy is absolute and survival is more critical than civility. But they're the qualities of a…
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Totally Fucked Up 1993
This movie has post-punk, depression and gay sex, how do you think I feel about it?
