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Hundreds of Beavers (2022)
Possibly one of the funniest movies of all time.
My biggest regret is not watching this film with a crowd. But even then, it still managed to be one of my favorite cinematic experiences of this year.
You've read the plot summary, you've maybe seen the trailer, but nothing you could ever hear or read about this film could describe the crazy nature of the experience. Yes, this is a live action morbid rendition of a Looney Tunes cartoon. But it's also a film that fully commits to its tone and visual style, and it pulls them off both flawlessly. Some of the funniest scenes I've seen all year. The compositing, clever editing, blend of practical settings and green screens are done so seamlessly that you start wondering how the filmmakers managed to do all of that with a $150k production budget.
All of the performances are fantastic, Ryland Tews was an absolute joy to watch. There's also a lot of meme references in this film, and they're pulled tastefully in a way that it doesn't detract from the experience (special mention to the song at the start of the credits, they really got me there). The costumes are very funny, fitting, but not as incredible as THE PUPPETS, one of the highlights of the film. The film flies by easily, making the 1 hour and 40 minute runtime feel like 30 minutes. And what contributes to that feeling is the modernized editing, lots of music cuts, microphone peaking, quick transitions, repetitive music cues (in the best of ways). Incredible music, it was used appropriately and for the right amount of times.
What else can I say? Just buy the film and watch it with a crowd. It's the best experience you'll have this year.
Estômago (2007)
Interesting and funny film
This movie could've easily flown under my radar if not for Adam from YMS' recommendation, so big shoutout to him.
I was pleasently surprised by this movie, it had a lot of things that kept me interested. For one, the performances were very good, everyone seemed invested in their characters and the language barrier wasn't a huge deal to me. The sequence of events felt either believable or fitting given the movie's tone. It was quite funny, I laughed quite a few times and they were all intentional laughs. Even if some would find the female lead actor's role morally questionable, the movie still felt aware of its ridiculous premise.
There were two things that stood out to me:
Firstly, out of all the performances, João Miguel's was terrific and also ambitious, with the tone being both comedic and serious, the role needed someone with enough range to pull it off, and I'm glad that he managed to do exactly that. His performance was so colorful, so nuanced, and he truly immersed himself into the character.
Secondly, Giovanni Venosta's score was well composed and it fit the film perfectly. It was also used exactly when it needed to be, and it always conveyed the tone which the movie's going for and it never felt agressive.
Visually, this movie was perfectly fine. There were some points where the shots felt motivated but lacked in execution, but nothing stood out as being poorly shot. And it's cool that compared to the other elements of the film, there wasn't such a dip in quality. Also, the ending/resolution of this film is one of the most hilarious yet messed up scenes that could've happened in this movie. I can't stop laughing at it, it was so awesome.
Anyway, good movie. Highly recommended.
Alphonse (2023)
An embarrassing waste of time.
Nicolas Bedos has had an interesting career so far. Started off pretty good with his feature length directorial debut (Monsieur et madame Adelman) and went off to direct what will undoubtedly be his best film (La Belle Epoque). Watching these two movies back-to-back, it was clear that he had the narrative chops to make compelling narratives about love, desire and memory. And his presentation was admirable for someone who was mostly known for his involvment in TV.
But since then, he has massively fallen off. Not only directing the absolute worst iteration of the OSS 117 trilogy, returning to his roots with an absolute borefest (Mascarade) and occasionally being accused of sexual harrassment. Alphonse is the result of taking out all the substance from his previous work and pretending it's emotional high art.
None of my complaints are with the explicit content of the show. In fact, I think they're the better part of the entire show but it's because they're such in poor taste and terribly communicated. Louis' arc as a closeted homosexual was so incredibly funny, I couldn't take it seriously. Jean Dujardin's character deciding right away to be an escort was stupid, but I guess it's all right because the established universe of the show is filled to the brim with the dumbest characters ever written in a show.
At best, the "emotional" parts of the show are an absolute blast to laugh at. But unfortunately, these moments don't take a high portion of the runtime, and the rest of them are not only a slog but also unearned and tasteless. The most offending example for me would be the entirety of episode 4, where not only I had to suffer through this plain sex scene with Alphonse, Margot and an escort. None of the emotions in this scene are properly established and the dynamics between these characters as well as Margot's banker are not interesting nor playful. After that we get a flashback of Adèle's character, where she falls in love with a teacher and publicly frames him for indecent behavior because he (rightfully) refused her advances. I love dissecting unlikable characters but why does the show continue to build Adele as a broken likeable person. Special mention to Alphonse fingering her and she climaxes before her eventual death. That was the funniest scene I've seen all year.
The only other notable moment from the show would be the final scene of the season's finale, but that'd be because (as of the time I'm writing this) the second season hasn't been announced. I'd be happy if that cliffhanger turned out to be a wasteful hanger.
The acting sucks, not a single believable performance, Louka Meliava's was easily the worst as he also portrayed what I thought was the worst character of the bunch. Terrible writing, the tone is all over the place and it's in service of a flavorless story. Common complaint with the music in Nicolas Bedos' movies, the music in this show is very derivative, and the opening feels like the composer used Succession's opening theme as temp music. Although the lighting is good, there's nothing exceptional about the cinematography.
What else can I say? This show is bad. Watch it. Or don't, I don't really care.
Sl8n8 (2006)
Maybe the most shaky cam I've ever seen in a movie, it's ridiculous.
What you see is what you get with this film. A really really bad horror movie that is so derivative, you can call everything in the first 20 minutes. The acting sucks, none of the characters are likable. There are two dudes wearing blue, and they were so indistinguishable, I thought one of them came back to life after seeing him getting his throat sliced, when in reality, the latter was a different character. The effects are also bad, but the real standout was the cinematography. I cannot in good conscience recommend this film for anyone who has motion sickness, because this film has some of the most unnecessarily jittery framing of all time, and that's just for the non-scary parts, because the scary ones are somehow even more shaky. And it really doesn't help that every single shot was too close, so there was nothing that would catch your attention.
Anyway, not even fun bad. I'd only advise you to watch it if you've happened to watch it years and years ago. Apart from that, hard pass from me.
Hunter x Hunter: Revenge × and × Recovery (2014)
Just when you think the series wasn't tense enough...
Hunter x Hunter is easily one of the best TV series that has consistently brought its tone to its A game, and episode 116 is easily one of its best. For 20 minutes, this episode does an absolutely phenomenal job at building tension through Gon's confrontation with Neferpitou. It uses every single aspect of anime to its absolute best, and I love that this episode limits itself only to the confrontation.
As expected from Madhouse, the animation is wonderful. Megumi Han's performance as Gon for this episode was genuinely fantastic, she perfectly captures Gon's anger and despair. The editing is perfect, it made the visualizations' sense of flow even more perfected than the last few episodes. The interactions between the three characters are easily the best parts of the episode, I don't recall feeling so many shivers and dropping so many tears for a while.
This episode is the best outcome for the continuation of events, watch the anime and form your opinion on it.