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The Seven Five (2014)
Who are the villains in this piece?
The filmmakers appear to have about the same moral compass as their subjects, showing them as very sympathetic figures.
Nashville (1975)
I guess you had to be there...
I'd been wanting to watch this movie for the longest time and finally managed to get a DVD only in 2021. I guess a part of my disappointment comes from the high expectations. Not only is quite boring but even as a time capsule recording those times, it somehow fails. Like a lot of the movies from the late 60s, 70s era, this was overliked by the young critics of the time (who would go on to become important tastemakers). But like many other movies from the era (such as Easy Rider, for example), if you're seeing it now, you'll be scratching your head about why it's so highly regarded.
The Great Buster (2018)
Lazy and traditional
If you are not familiar with Buster Keaton, I guess this is not a bad place to start. However, unlike it's subject matter, this documentary is quite mediocre. In this age of great documentaries, this one still starts and ends in a traditional way - by starting with Buster's birth, career, etc. Even structurally, the docu is not well thought-out, suddenly showing a greatest-hits type compilation at the end, after having finished Buster's life story with his death. It has nothing new to add or show, except a few talking heads on what Buster meant to them. Most of these had either no connection to Buster, or they are not appropriate people to speak to (I mean, do you really care what Johnny Knoxville thinks of Buster Keaton?) It's a pretty lazy piece of film-making that is also not very well-researched.If you can, try to catch the three-part 1987 British docu called "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow".
A Confession (2019)
Well-meaning show, weighed down by Freeman mugging
I like Martin Freeman, but is it just me, or has he started taking his title of "King of Reaction Shots" a bit too seriously? He seems to keep mugging non-stop for the camera here, squinting his eyes, scrunching up his face and generally distracting from the scenes. Often he does it apropos of nothing and quite inappropriately for the scene. I suppose we can blame the directors/editors for leaving these in. It became such a distraction that I kept waiting for his reaction shot at the end of each scene.
This show is another example of a story that could be told in 4 episodes but is stretched out to 6 (and only some of it due to all the Freeman reaction shots that didn't get edited out). What starts out as a police procedural takes a turn mid-way to become a social-theme show (albeit, well-meaning) that passionately champions changing the UK criminal justice system.
After Life (2019)
A complete mismatch between talent and material
Is it just me or does everyone feel this is a letdown? This is not the show I was waiting for Ricky Gervais to make. A complete mismatch between talent and material that became more evident in Season Two, which has no reason to exist.
North by Northwest (1959)
Now, quite firmly my all-time favorite Hitchcock movie
I watched my first Hitchcock movie, Psycho, in my last year of high school and I immediately became a fan. Over the following 25 years though I have noticed that my favorite Hitchcock movie has continued to change. It was Psycho for many years, but sometime in the mid- 1990s, it became Vertigo (coincidentally a time when a new restored print of that came out). Apart from the beautiful new print (which I also saw on the big screen), I was probably somewhat also swayed by the Sight & Sound critics poll where Vertigo had just displaced Citizen Kane as the greatest movie of all times.
But, for the past ten years or so, North by Northwest has become my favorite Hitchcock movie of all times. It is the one I find myself watching over and over again (just caught it on the big screen, for a change). It is also the one I find myself recommending to others, when they ask what Hitchcock movie should they start with.
I guess the reason for this is that it is the most "perfect" Hitchcock movie. It has all the elements: the Macguffin, the wrongly-accused leading man, and the blonde woman who may or may not be who she claims to be. More than that, it has in one single movie everything that you will find in separate Hitchcock movies: a great screenplay (by Ernest Lehman), fantastic score (Bernard Herrman, obviously), great title sequence (Saul Bass), crackling dialogue and humor, and great chemistry between the leads (similar to 39 Steps). The interplay between Cary Grant (at his best - and more than Jimmy Stewart, the perfect Hitchcock lead) and Eve Marie Saint when they first meet on the train is an exercise in great writing and acting - it could be from any great romantic movie.
But most of all it has some of the great set-pieces assembled in the movies - the crop-dusting and Mount Rushmore sequences are already classics. Yes, it doesn't have the psychological complexity of Vertigo, the shock and horror of Psycho, but it is what it is: the most ENTERTAINING movie that Hitchcock ever made, and the one I can watch over and over again.
Nightcrawler (2014)
Taxi Driver meets Network
Jake Gyllenhaal creates one of his most unique characters in Nightcrawler. This is a movie that will remind you of some of the best movies of its ilk from the 1970s. This is essentially Taxi Driver meets Network, updated for the Internet/24-hour news cycle generation. It asks the same moral questions that Network asked. And it shows the dark underbelly of LA, which like NY in Taxi Driver, is just another character in this movie.
As Lou Bloom, Gyllenhaal is mesmerizing to watch. It will be hard for you to take your eyes off of him. As the creepy Nightcrawler, he gives an amazingly controlled performance. Rene Russo and Riz Ahmad provide great support. In particular, British actor Ahmad is very good, and very credible, as an Angeleno. The cinematography captures the LA nightlife beautifully.
Interstellar (2014)
A gargantuan piece of hokum
I am huge Nolan fan, but I am sorry: Interstellar will probably go down as his worst movie (so far). While the movie's heart appears to be in the right place, it always keeps reaching for something more than it is. It has its moments, but those moments are too few, and even the FX looks a bit tacky - especially coming so soon after Gravity which had similar, but superior, FX.
I lost it - and so will you - at the point where Anne Hathaway's character gives a long-winded speech about how "love transcends all dimensions of time and space." I wasn't expecting a movie from the maker of Inception to make a movie this corny.
Forrest Gump (1994)
The bastard child of "Being There" and "Zelig"
Somehow, I had not seen this movie when it first came out. I guess it became so big so quickly that it gave me some pause. Everything I had heard about it made me feel that it was going to be one of those cloying, hyper-sentimental Oscar-baits that come out late in the year. After the safe distance of 20 years - and almost as a bet with a friend - I finally got around to seeing it. While I probably didn't hate it as much as I would have in 1994, I still don't understand why it was such a phenomenon in 1994 (were the movies really that bad in the 90s?). I still don't think of it as highly original; it certainly has very strong echoes of "Being There" and "Zelig" (and it certainly is not a good sign when a movie reminds you of so many other, better movies). Overall it is a pretty competent bit of film-making with decent acting (though you can see the seams of the "acting").
Your Sister's Sister (2011)
Eric Rohmer would have been proud
I finally caught up with Your Sister's Sister on DVD, a movie that reminded me of Eric Rohmer movies, more than any other recent movie. (In fact, the movie I kept thinking of is his "L'Ami de Mon Amie" - variously known as "Boyfriends and Girlfriends" and "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend". But this is not to suggest that "Your Sister's Sister" is derivative or is a lesser movie.)
The writing and acting is superb, as is the ending. All three cast members are great, though Emily Blunt (she is great) may be somewhat miscast. And, watching this movie, I kept wondering why I don't see more of Rosemary DeWitt?
Don't miss this one!
The Tree of Life (2011)
A long, beautiful perfume commercial...
Seeing "The Tree of Life", one thing is quite clear: Terrence Malick likes (1) Stanley Kubrick, (2) Federico Fellini, and (3) a lot of perfume commercial directors. But, mostly (3). Though not completely free of life, "The Tree of Life" plays as an extended perfume commercial, where beautiful people are walking in beautiful locations, and there are mystical sentences (or fragments of them) are uttered in a breathy voice- over, signifying some deep, mystical sense. Except that CK commercials do it in under one minute (and probably signify more meaning). Terrence Malick's reputation as the world's best perfume commercial director is likely to be solidified with his forthcoming "To The Wonder".
The Muse (1999)
Just when you thought you had seen the last cynical movie about Hollywood...
Just when you thought you had seen the last cynical movie about Hollywood, Albert Brooks comes up with his best offering yet. How Brooks manages to get a film financed by Hollywood that takes digs at the town (and Steven Spielberg to boot!), I don't know. No wonder Hollywood still loves him; who else can get James Cameron and Martin Scorsese to put in cameos? It's a pity that the Academy didn't even consider it for a screenplay nod.