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One Day (2011)
7/10
The usual tropes are sad
5 March 2024
The movie is divided into anual 'chapters' as it tells the story of two friends with uncertainty on what they are to each other. He is a playboy and she simps for him. It's not original, but both actors managed to make it a bit more felt (not that much). Even the soundtrack felt like I was watching a war drama romance.

It's not a bad movie. It's somewhat endearing. But the end was incredibly depressing. It wasn't built and charged enough to make you weep and that was depressing by itself. Which can be adequate, as life goes. Somehow, I felt worse after after watching it. Which makes a bit more memorable for me, as dramas go.

Not all movies have to be epic to make you feel something. Life is full of contradictions, disconnections, failures, and not everything goes acording to plan; which is why we must live in the present as much as possible and cherish it.

It was a fairly good watch but it was strangely depressing. More than I'm used to and I'm by no means impressionable.
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Eileen (2023)
7/10
Eileen wears 'Blue Velvet'
6 January 2024
This is the kind of movie that is mysterious, slow paced, and character driven. It can take you anywhere. The movie had excellent cinematographic quality and Eileen is played finely by Thomasin. The character of Hathaway is double edged as it introduces a black swan event in Eileen's life but it made the movie less atmospheric as such a recognizable face as Anne's is hard to split from your usually chick flick or romcom. It defined the plot which turned out appropriate but it had some weird attempts at humor which felt out of place (maybe like Eileen herself).

Nevertheless, the movie still grips you and you're always expecting something to coalesce. It was a bit predictable but it made for an interesting movie with an eighties type plot resembling the feel of Blue Velvet, as an example.

I give it a 7 but If it wasn't for the too recognizable faces it would probably have made for an 8 as the atmospheric quality would have been amped.

I loved the feel of the movie; it took me back. And all actors had worthy interpretations. It was quality cinema and it breaks with the empty and flashy hollywood movies often pushed for the masses. The camera shots were competently done.

It was well worth the watch. It's not for everyone though, but cinema lovers will be welcome home.
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6/10
The coddled young female wet dream.
19 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The conclusion of this movie is not that Abe got meaning because he was doing something good for someone else; it wasn't even because he gained meaning; what really happened is that he found away to unleash is Id (his most animalistic instincts) and channel his evil urges.

What trully made him happy is that he was convinced he found a way to one up everyone and he felt on top of the world.

Ironically, this movie two main characters are really the same coin from two sides. They are both, in a sense, infantile, innocent, trying to step out into a chaotic area and taking risks to find their limits and their exciting side (within themselves through life). She did it through him because he fulfilled her fantasies of male dominance, mystery and excitement, and he did it through his self-destructive behaviors and ultimately his newly found raison d'être in getting away with murder.

Although, his/her rationalizations are wrapped in moralistic overtones (she was stepping outside the conventional and he was trying to argue the conventional to her favor), both him and her switch positions in the end as the drama unfolds. He doubles down on his rationalizations of murder being legitimate over morals, over health and happiness - even though he was inversely becoming the evil he thought to rid the world - and she to some extend colluded with him until she realized not that it was immoral but that it was too dangerous. All of her actions (as his) where predicated on excitement, power/sexual games and in the end survival.

It's also worth noting that this started a philosophical dissertation and transitioned into a coming of age young female erotic-thriller fantasy.

This was all about excitement, stupid and egotistical pursuits and narcissistic emancipation.

They were both juvenile dazzled fools that decided to play around with the forbiden fruit out of their need to step out of their overly comfort zones (he a bored successful teacher with a cliché past of faux excitement and she as a coddled upper-middle class gal).

It's a very superficial and light take on a sad reality that people are turning into as if life was subject to their own narcissistic spicy juvenile experiments, where real consequences exist but they're brushed off as just a chapter or a book in a shelf.

It's a take on a society that is losing conscience and has become the characters of their own fantasies picked up their favourite explicit novels or tv series.
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House of the Dragon (2022– )
8/10
It's good to see the GoT universe again but...
29 August 2022
After watching the second episode, the show is starting off slow. It doesn't have to be a problem, and it is fitting, as it allows the viewer to reminisce and savor the spaces and similar scenes that were so iconic in the sequel of the franchise. But, sadly, it is beging to unveil that this isn't so much a deliberate choice as much as it is a frugality to be able to afford detailed crafted scenes with artistic intentions It seems somehow like that duality isn't comensurate - it's like two different shows.

For now it is good to have some more content of the franchise but it seems that the show is much more insipid and empty (hiding behind stylized scenes and dragon cgi) without story and characters to intensify the show. The characters are plain and the show is not looking to stand on its own, but instead to find new ways to try and do what GoT already achieved with brutal and sadistic displays of violence, sex and fantasy cgi.

It may be soon to judge the show, but for now it is more like a taste for the GoT hardcore fans to saciate their hunger. Because the show seems too passive, much less focused and directed towards showcasing the setting again from a polished light instead of aiming to tell a story that stands on its own.

It's also relatively sad, even if tolerable, that the show tries to advance multiculturalism purposefully while neglecting to make a world that is convincing to the respective older age. We see a world that is technologically similar, and not much has changed.

In all honestly, I didn't read the books to attest how close it is to the orignial material, but from a logical standpoint, the world we should be seing should be more apropriate to the older age.

Nevertheless, it is still enjoyable to see a new council with new problems being discussed and solved, letting us peer into the medieval mentality and problematics.

I liked GoT mostly for the power games and political maneuvers and this show is focusing more on this aspect and not on action which they reserve only for dragon galore. I don't dislike this. It is fitting. The Targaeryans may not be the most insteresting house but they probably have the most lore and theatrical value (considering they have dragons) to stand for their own focused show.

I'm just glad there are not white walkers and zombies for now.

All in all, the show may not be as good but it can be enjoyable if you approach it as a peek into the world again. We might as well enjoy it and not have too many expectations.
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1883 (2021–2022)
9/10
A beautiful poem.
23 June 2022
This show stands on its own. The acting is truthful, the people are candid and the world is as raw as it is beautiful.

I cried at the end and that is the best compliment I can give this show. It could perfectly end with one season alone as it was a voyage not only in space but also in spirit. These stories are the sort that makes you wonder if we are not living in a dream. Every encounter, every tale and every lost soul. We are a once in a life time event and that ephemerality is worth cheerishing and appreciating. Life is a gift.
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8/10
A vortex of paradoxical sensations
7 March 2011
Downloading Nancy is fine piece of cinema. It perplexes you through out the entire time, showing the hidden box of feelings and ideas most people wont admit or share, thematics that are disguised with effort in order to adapt to the fine "perfect" machine humans have created to put some sense of order in life. The themes presented compose elements that mankind tends to ignore and expel in a funny attempt to give lucidity to the paradoxical events of life.

This story enlightens a slice of a woman's life who is getting in touch with the marks of the past, the wounds of the present and the prospects of the future as well as trying to manage the whole concept of reality and the real satisfaction that she can pull out of life, and in a very realistic way(and somehow raw, like life) the audience can assist to the "release" of all these factors.

The events are told in a mix of flashbacks and the present time line in which the characters are explored and keep progressing to the clash of a choice not everyone can understand.

You should take your time to think about what our experiences do to ourselves and to those surrounding us; the meaning of life, actions, words and everything.

Nothing is bad, nothing is good, it's only a question of perception.

Like many other movies and works of art it always comes down to the way the audience interprets the experience, but one can still analyze and question the message passed. This is a reality. Deal with it.
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