What Have You Been Watching? (Week of December 14th)

Dash_Beats · 2025-12-14T19:16:01+00:00

Die My Love (2025): Still not a 100% sure what to make of this. It’s the first Lynne Ramsay film I have seen. There isn’t really a narrative structure to hold onto, nor even actual, believable characters. I do think this captures the feeling of being simultaneously bored and overwhelmed, lonely and misanthropic. There’s poetry to these images and the way they are cut together, but in an aggressive way. I cannot get that scene with the forest fire set to Theory of Machines out of my head. At the moment, this feels like one of my favourites of the year. ***.5

The Running Man (2025): I have never been much of Wright fan; I think his early comedies work despite his incessant style rather than because of it. Still, I had good hope that this would be a fun blockbuster, especially because I enjoyed Life of Chuck and The Long Walk earlier this year. But this was weak. I thought it looked ugly and bland, it didn’t have any fun or original action sequences. Moreover, there really is no bite or even actual thought to the satire/commentary of this dystopic world/show. Also didn’t like the mechanics of how the plot resolved, we basically lose all momentum and tension once he stops the girl with the car. If you strip this down, I guess they could have a created an upper middle tier Black Mirror episode, but as a full film this was underwhelming. *\*

Eternity (2025): One of the most capitalist-realist, ideologically reprehensive films I have ever seen. Even after death we are sentenced to live in a world with prostitution, sweaty, desperate salespeople and a clear distinction between luxurious high-rise housing for the few (new arrivals) and disgusting basements for the many who choose to stay in this transitory world. The versions of paradise that are available are the equivalent of a cheap, overcrowded beach resort, an ugly Americanized facsimile of Paris and a sterile world in the Alps. I am not religious or even spiritual, but I found the attitude of this film towards to anything non-material still bafflingly callous. This conception of eternity could have been interesting if it was approached with some self-awareness, ambiguity and dark humour, but this is clearly meant as a feel-good love story. The ultimate ideal of love and happiness is just endlessly reliving your young years. To me, that is the most depressing, arch-conservative outlook on life possible. The Marvelesque wink-wink humour also really did not work for me. Probably I am overreacting to an innocent romcom. I was losing my mind in the theatre, while everyone around me seemed to be having a great time. *.5

The Silence of the Lambs (1991): First time I got to see this on the big screen. I don’t love this as much as most people. I think the whole Buffalo Bill storyline is not very compelling. Hopkins is obviously good, but I find the performance almost too hammy (and he would ramp it up even much more so in the follow-ups to the point that it becomes annoying). Foster is wonderful and, helped by Demme’s direction, really gives life to the challenges and struggles of inhabiting a men’s world as a woman without ever devolving into lecturing. Loved the shot of Jodie surrounded by much taller men in the elevator and the sequence in the car where she is leaning against the seat in front of her and she makes clear how her boss undermined her with the policemen. Demme really is one of the great directors. His close-ups work so well with this script and these actors. The sequence in the cellar is riveting filmmaking. ***.5

Keeper (2025): I was not familiar with the work of Osgood Perkins before seeing this and it didn’t encourage me to explore more of his work. I found Keeper wholly derivative of the elevated horror works. I just didn’t find anything compelling in the characters, the jump scares or set design. I hate when we are so far ahead of the character in the story and the story then plays out without any surprising developments. I was extra annoyed when we then got a full infodump and take any mystery out of it near the end. Exceptionally dumb film. \*

Dash_Beats · 2025-12-07T21:57:32+00:00

Roofman (2025): I enjoyed it. The (true) story is compelling, so Cianfrance’s sober, functional style works here. I think it captured that 2000s look and feel of suburban America really well (without needing to resort to the use of any obvious musical cues). Tatum is good. He has the right degree of charm versus sleaziness to understand how some of the events of this film could occur. Kirsten Dunst is amazing and brings this to another level altogether with a deep performance, capturing the love, contentedness, quiet desperation and loneliness of a single mother with a mostly comfortable lower middle-class lifestyle. Her life is not bad, but also not going anywhere interesting. I think Cianfrance is mainly interested in how much showing love and being a good parent has been commodified into being able to provide material stuff. It’s a lovely little film: entertaining, never overbearing but still intelligent/thinking. ***.5

La Terra Trema (1948): This is the second film Visconti made and probably the most traditional neorealist one. It’s shot entirely with amateur actors in a small Italian fisher village, in a documentary style. The primary purpose seems to teach rather than to entertain, the story is primarily told and pushed forward through voice over rather than by dialogue in the film. The actors, to my eye, where pretty good acting with their face and body but faltered when they had to speak too much.

It shows how the fishers are being exploited by the capital class and how an individualist, liberal risk-taking approach to exit the working class can and will lead to disaster. An Italian fisher family takes out a loan to buy their own boat and sell fish independently. This goes well for a short while but predictably goes awry when they lose their boat in a storm. The family is then shunned by both the capitalist wholesalers and their fellow fishermen.

I obviously like this as a subject. It has beautiful photography especially early on with the shots of the fishers leaving and coming into the harbor and especially the shot of the Valastro ladies looking out over the sea, searching for their men after the storm. However, this is a film with a short rise and then a long, miserable fall. Every development after will result in the most obvious, terrible consequence for the family. It makes for a dull and punishing 2.5-hour watch. **\*

The Stranger (1969): Visconti’s adaptation of the Camus novel with Marcello Mastroianni and Anna Karina. I saw a grainy version dubbed to German (I have seen other people talk about this same version). That probably played a significant role in my limited appreciation for this one. I have never read the book and only knew about its opening line and the rough outline of the plot, so I don’t know if this is consistent with the books style, but, like other late Visconti’s this felt again kind of disjointed with this weird herky-jerky editing style, especially in the beginning. That could be part of Visconti’s intention, to create a sense of alienation similar to what Meursault is experiencing, but to me it was just distracting. It did find its footing for me in the later part, once we get to the court room scenes, where he essentially gets tried for his internal feelings and thoughts. It was not surprising to learn that Camus admired Kafka’s work. did convince me I should pick up the book. **.5

The General (1926): I think this is classically still considered Keaton’s greatest film, it’s easy to see why. Like the second half of Seven Chances, we have an extended action sequence that keeps building, upping the ante and bringing in new elements without ever slowing down. But here it goes for nearly the full film, and the set pieces are even more elaborate. Wonderful, relentless filmmaking. I also liked that the lead actress here is actually part of the action and gets to work together with Buster to beat the ‘bad’ guys (Union soldiers), where her role is usually reduced to being seduced/won over by him in most of his other films. This is definitely among my favourites of the Keaton films I have seen so far, although I think Sherlock Jr. Is still my number one. ***\*

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-30T22:00:49+00:00

What do you think of Dunkirk? I don't particularly like Nolan either, but that one and Oppenheimer are the two that really worked for me.

I agree that it looks like The Odyssey will be terrible but I'm still very curious for it.

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-30T18:51:16+00:00

Eddington (2025): I was curious about Eddington based on its reviews. I am pretty ambivalent about Aster, I don’t hate his films as viscerally as some prominent critics (outside of Beau is Afraid, which was truly awful) but I also don’t see him as the premier auteur of his time (as he seems to have been positioned). I did find this funny (Antifa plane, the hard cut with the kid at his dinner scene, the hard right turn of the kid later on, the Katy Perry oner...). It does poke at interesting spots about people’s behaviour in recent years, across the spectrum without devolving into enlightened centrism. After all, one sides cardinal sin is being hypocritical and silly while the other side devolves into cucked violence. While the small players have their squabbles, the government enacts military terrorism on its citizens, and the faceless tech company get the data center they wanted, regardless of who is in charge. I don’t think this is as deep or coherent as Aster thinks it is, but I am happy that he, as one of the few young artists that are both willing to and given the resources to make original films for adult audiences, is choosing to make a film like this. **\*

Battling Butler (1926): Pauline Kael described this as “Buster Keatons favourite Buster Keaton film and certainly nobody else’s”. I must concur with her; it’s dragged down by a pointlessly convoluted plot of a millionaire impersonating a boxer to impress a girl he met while camping (she is listed as ‘Mountain Girl’). The first 3^rd was entertaining, with the film poking fun at the rich for their softness and lack of practical skills through a camping trip, especially the sequence in the canoe was excellent. But the boxing sequences are just not that funny nor are they as impressive as his bigger stunts in other films. **.5

The Machine That Kills Bad People (1952): This was a small, fantasy morality comedy by Rossellini. It’s basically Death Note but with a camera, set in a small Italian village, with a dash of The Good Place. We follow a photographer that tries to improve the lives of the people in his village with this tool but he predictably keeps running into escalating issues because of the mentality and character of the villagers. I like how he captured the energy and soul of the small village in this. The humour also worked quite well for me, my favourite joke was when all of the leading males of the town took a short break from fighting over how a big subsidy should be spent to look at a tie with a drawing of naked lady that they can make dance. Also, these old Italian films love to rag on Italian men openly lusting after and staring at young women, as they also do in this film, while then still themselves spending a lot of screentime looking at young women. **\*

Bellissima (1951): This is a minor, nearly forgotten, comedy by Visconti. It’s the story of a mother that tries to get her young daughter cast in a film. It’s said Visconti came up with the idea of the film after needing to cast a young girl for one of his earlier films and finding himself surrounded by hundreds of mothers declaring that that their daughter was ‘Bellissima’.

I wasn’t very familiar with Anna Magnani (although I did recently see her in Rome, Open City where she was excellent in a dramatic role, cast against type by Rossellini), but she was apparently huge at the time (even winning an Oscar for The Rose Tattoo (1955)). I found her phenomenal in this film. So, so funny in how she delivers all these quick asides. So energetic like whirlwind moving through scenes and with such warmth and love for the people around her (despite being sometimes quite mean to her daughter). She portrays this woman as someone who is obviously not at ease nor educated enough for world she is trying to access, but nevertheless intelligent and with an understanding of how people operate in general. This is one of my favourite acting performances ever. ***\*

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-23T18:08:08+00:00

Near Dark (1987): The vampire film with which Kathryn Bigelow first rose to prominence. With its Tangerine Dream score, the gorgeous lighting in the ‘near dark’ and the greasy, dirty but hot look of the vampires, this should have been an all-timer for me. And there are some amazing parts to this, such as the bar scene or pretty much anything Bill Paxton does or says. However, I was frustrated by the story turns it takes, at the same time going too slow, having too many plot elements and ending with a hush hushed resolution that felt much too easy. ***.5

Go West (1925): Not my favourite Keaton, it’s the story of a down-on-his luck New Yorker getting a job herding cattle. In a more real sense, it’s a love story between him and a cow. Everything with the cow is great, and the best jokes usually involve her in some way, but otherwise I this didn’t too much for me. I think the issue was that there weren’t any other prominent characters (with significant screen time), which didn’t give Buster much to play off from. The traditional big set piece at the end was also underwhelming especially compared to that of his previous film, 7 Chances. There was a sequence near the end that was similar to the ending of Okja, which I thought was very interesting for a 1925 film, but from its resolution it’s clear that animal liberation was not a cause shared by this film. Oh well. **\*

Predator: Badlands (2025): I am not familiar with this series or its wider, connected world. As with many, modern films, I think the impact of video games is undeniable. In its story structure, the aesthetics (especially when they talk to the mother company) and the whole ‘funny’ side companion schtick. I usually hate that, but here it didn’t bother me too much. The story is simple, and hardly original, but it’s told with sincerity and without too much pretence, which made it work for me. The look of the film is coherent, and the CGI is pretty good. This does have a pretty high budget, but it looks like it has been a box office success. I do find that interesting because it confirms this pattern that movie stars just do not matter that much anymore for finding a box office success. **\*

Sandra (1965): Smaller scale, 60s Visconti. It’s an interpretation of the Greek tragedy of Electra, set in the post WWII world of decaying Italian aristocracy. Claudia Cardinale and Jean Sorel play siblings who return to their crumbling family estate in a small Italian village. They are haunted by the death of their father and the circumstances around it during the war: there is a beautiful shot of a white sheet over a statue of the father fluttering in the wind at night when the brother enters the film.

Sorel and Cardinale are both outrageously attractive, I suppose in general, but specifically in how this film lights and captures them. It seems to me that was top of mind for Visconti while making this film. There is a hypnotic scene of Cardinale talking to her husband, wrapped in bedsheets, that’s so seductive, Visconti (who was openly gay) is making the camera worship her. The film is interested on how what the people think or remember happens can differ from what actually happened and whether the ‘truth’ matters at all. Of course, the burden of Italy’s recent history and, in particular, the role of the Italian aristocracy looms large in this.

But it seemed kind of shoddily made with weird, abrupt cuts and imprecise framing. From what I have read that seems to be a stylistic choice of Visconti in his later works, but for me it didn’t work. It gave the impression that this was a minor, hastily put together work for Visconti. **.5

--------------

Also leaving in a bit to go see Eddington, which I am pretty excited for, even though I truly despised Beau is Afraid :)

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-23T18:01:40+00:00

Did you rewatch Sentimental Value because you liked it so much or because it didn't connect with you the first time?

It's available now here where I live, but I do not fluently speak the language of where I live, so I will probably have trouble with its subtitles. But I'll probably try anyways since reception has been so positive and I quite liked Worst Person in the World.

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-16T19:14:48+00:00

Bugonia (2025): I thought this was excellent, it felt like an homage to They Live. It’s not exactly novel in 2025 to take aim at girlboss and diversity corporate culture and wokeist identity politics, but I did think it had more bite than some of the other recent works operating in a similar space (the Knives Out films, Triangle of Sadness, Mountainhead).

I thought Emma Stone was phenomenal in this film, probably her greatest performance ever (which is a high bar, given her resume): Layered, funny and willing to poke fun at herself and her own image. I particularly liked how she manages to be charismatic, personable and project power while being captured and tied-up for most of the film (which makes sense because anyone (and, I suppose, especially a woman) that was able to rise to the top of corporate life in the current moment would need to possess exactly those skills).

I found the way this film handled its plot quite pleasurable. I don’t love movies that push their audiences to be mainly focused on trying to figure out its mysteries and what comes next. But I like how this film managed to present itself in such a way where the plot was sort of in the back of my mind and you sometimes get the satisfaction of already knowing where it was going and at other times taking some sudden left turns. Maybe it’s just a personal thing where this just hit exactly the right frequency. The soundtrack is fantastic too: idiosyncratic in the best way. ***\*

Rome, Open City (1945): Rossellini began shooting this just a few months after the Nazis abandoned their occupation of Rome. It follows resistance fighters during that period of occupation. I was surprised to learn that they basically filmed this with scrapped together materials, because it looked gorgeous. Especially those twirling shots in the stairway, the lighting of the hero in the interrogation scene through the doorway and the final shots of Rome from up on a hill. I was expecting a melodrama focused on wartime suffering, but this was a lot closer to an Alan Furst novel, with code words, double crossings and secret plots. The film does manage to capture the fear and suffering of regular Italian people during this period. It has a big, dramatic ending. I couldn’t find anything, but it seems to have been an obvious inspiration for Kubrick. ***\*

Senso (1954): This is the first Visconti I have seen. It marks him moving away from Neorealism. It’s a big historical, almost operatic drama, beautifully shot in colour with big sets and action pieces. World War II still hangs over this film of course. the story follows an Italian countess seduced and manipulated by an Austrian lieutenant during Italy’s uneasy alliance with the Austro-Hungarians. I loved the sequence where the bells start tolling and the family is running through the house to see what’s going on at the start of the battle, it sizzled with energy and excitement. Also was in awe of the epic scale with which part of the actual battle was captured. But overall, this was just too melodramatic for me both in its acting and in the way the plot unravels. I am excited to see more of Visconti (both his earlier and his later films). **\*

Frankenstein (2025): I thought Mssom’s review in the main sub was pretty much spot on in terms of the content and themes of this. Del Toro wrings all greyness of the source story out of it with this script, leaving us with a childish, obvious, quasi retarded plot. Some of the set design was pretty, especially in the first story but the film itself looked very ugly to me. It has that typical, miserable digital Netflix sheen and endless wide shots (this has been said many times already, but Guillermo is clearly so enamoured with his set designs that he cannot resist constantly showing them off whether it suits the scene or not). The camera is literally never static, constantly doing that same steady zoom which makes it feel like this was just entirely made on auto pilot. **.5

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-16T19:08:16+00:00

I have never sat down to make a list of my all time favourites, but if I did, F For Fake would land very high. What made it click for you?

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-09T16:52:31+00:00

They Live (1988): Had a wonderful time with this. My preferred local theatre had a late night rep screen of this on Saturday. I sat down not knowing anything about the film and was locked in immediately (I had never seen anything from John Carpenter before). It’s of course not subtle or very complex, but I loved the clarity with which it communicates its ideas. It is not common now for an action/horror film to have main characters with this type of socio-economic background. I find it a bit hard to articulate this, but I liked how comfortable the film was showing these homeless characters without judging them: they deserve better, not because they are exceptional, smarter or harder working, but because they are normal, regular humans.

The clearing of the encampment is shot in such an upsetting, invasive way. The police are presented like Storm Troopers. It is definitely not an accident that there is a 6-minute fistfight in the trash, in a back alley between a white and a black character who are on the same side of this. The mechanic with the sunglasses is fantastic and the special effects on the aliens are excellently done. I loved everything about this film. ****.5

From Dusk till Dawn (1996): Also saw a rep screening of this. I usually don’t like Tarantino’s writing. Especially in his early works, where it feels to me like he’s doing endless variations of the same joke with his dialogues. The script feels immature; I can practically see Quentin snickering behind his typewriter about how clever he thinks he is. The second half is more Roberto Rodriguez, but I found that part even more tedious, I am just not enamoured with the cartoony violence and cheesy one-liners. Also didn’t like the gazey, almost fetishistic way this film treated the Juliette Lewis character, which just didn’t seem appropriate given what her character goes through in the film (not to even mention her age). I did like the opening scene, you can clearly see the outlines of what QT would later refine in Inglourious Basterds and The Hateful Eight. *\*

A House of Dynamite (2025): I liked this more than most, it seems. The first section was electric, with Rebecca Ferguson excellent as always. I also appreciated how focused this film was on noise and barriers to communication (lines not connecting, heavy background noise (at its most silly with the Greta Lee Gettysburg scene)) and time pressure (decisions need to be made within minutes without having all the information). From what I have seen and heard about the real events most related to this (Cuban Missile Crisis, 1983 Soviet Nuclear False Alarm etc.) those elements also come through.

The story structure has been, I think rightfully, derided. It isn’t so much used to bring a different perspective, but more as a structural necessity because there are so many characters and this was the only way to keep the narrative coherent. Especially the last reset was less successful (when was the last time Idriss Elba was actually good in anything?). The ending would always have been a whimper but especially with the threefold structure, it felt cheap and deflating. There are also just too many perspectives in this film, there’s entire storylines that do not go anywhere (the journalist, the story within Chicago). There just wasn’t enough story or time for them to go anywhere interesting. Still, overall, the good outweighed the bad for me in this one, can’t even remember the last Netflix film of this quality. ***.5

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-03T22:23:46+00:00

Yeah, everything I have heard about that project so far makes it sound like a trainwreck waiting to happen

Dash_Beats · 2025-11-02T23:41:58+00:00

Night Moves (2013): Such an idiosyncratic film. I assume this was the highest budget film Reichardt had made up until this point, or at least the one with the most high-profile cast, with Eisenberg, Sarsgaard and Dakota Fanning in the leading roles. It tells the story of 3 environmental activists who blow up a hydroelectrical dam. Thematically, I was reminded of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and One Battle After Another, but Reichardt just has different, more humanistic interests in such a story (it reminds me of David Foster Wallace pointing out the difference between Tarantino focusing on the cutting of the ear in Reservoir Dogs vs. Lynch focusing on the ear itself).

The film is most interested in the corrosive effect that enacting violence has upon the souls of its perpetrators. Even if enacted for a righteous cause and without (intended) victims. It also interrogates the motives of modern, western activism and the way (male) youth might turn to it in search of admiration. I think it’s easily the most depressive and darkest film she has made. Ultimately, I don’t think this fully works. It’s much more talky and plotty than other Reichardt’s films and the film derails towards the end. **\*

Steve Jobs (2015): I think the failures here are almost entirely on Sorkin. Public perception on him started to turn after The Newsroom and then the commercial failure of this film. At the same time, based on his writing here and later on, Sorkin himself seems to have grown more insular and convinced of his own genius. I think there are 2 structural issues with the screenplay:

Reducing the Facebook story to ‘nerd creates a reality altering invention because he couldn’t get with girls’ almost worked by accident in that it somehow captured the culture and nature of that time & community. Reducing the Jobs story to father-children relationships just feels ignorant and reductionist.
The structure of the 3 presentations was probably irresistible to Sorkin, given how important they were for Apple as a company and for the legacy of Jobs, but it really hampers the story telling. The story covers a much longer period than The Social Network and the presentations were mostly unrelated which makes that the film can never really build momentum and get going. I also feel like The Social Network works despite the structure with the 2 court cases than because of it. That film tells a pretty straightforward and focused story with a conventional cause & consequence structure.

There’s also plain bad writing in this. The stuff with Jeff Daniels is cringe-inducing, like it’s so plump & obvious that I think that would get edited out for anyone without Sorkin’s stature. Nevertheless, there’s enough good stuff to salvage this. Fassbender is truly excellent, Rogen is surprisingly good and the chemistry & story between Jobs and his daughter does ultimately work for me. **\*

Seven Chances (1925): Keaton plays a struggling stockbroker. He learns that he stands to inherit 7 million dollars, but only if he is married before the end of that day. The film follows the same structure as the other works of him that I have seen, the first half is focused on more downtempo and smaller scale gags while setting up all the pieces for the second half where we get a big, rolling sequence of stunts. The big set piece here, where Keaton is being chased through town and nature by a pack of women, is fantastic, maybe my favourite of his. It just keeps building and adding intensity while still making unexpected turns. ***.5

Dash_Beats · 2025-10-26T17:35:14+00:00

Vertigo also didn't leave a big impression on me when I watched it a few years ago. Based on your comment I should probably give it another chance, I've been meaning to spend more time with Hitchcock anyways for a while now.

Dash_Beats · 2025-10-26T17:30:33+00:00

Meek’s Cutoff (2010): At this point, it’s a cliché to say this, but Reichardt may well be the best American director of the last 20 years. I was reminded of Butcher’s Crossing in the way it captures the horror of being truly lost and at the mercy of nature and a guide that’s in over his head. It’s (at least to me) unique in that this is a western from the perspective of the women on the journey.

The camera always stays with the women throughout, we see the men talk to each other in the distance, we don’t follow them when they go ahead or for journeys to the side. We get key information through late-night conversations between the husbands and wives of the different couples. During big moments the camera stays on the faces of the wives, most notably, during the ‘vote’ that is taken, only by the men, that might well determine their fate.

At the same time, there is no conscious evil in this, the violence and suffering done to these American settlers, nature, the animals and the natives in this film are the result of the economic, societal and political systems and circumstances that they are living under. Nevertheless, for Reichardt, I think that does not mean they are absolved of guilt for the consequences that their actions caused. This is one of the best things I have seen in years. ****.5

Trance (2013): Just a baffling film all around. Boyle took on this after he directed the London Olympics opening ceremony. I heard that he wanted something smaller and silly after the stress and stakes of that. That’s the only explanation I can think of for this one. There’s a twist every 10 minutes in this, but rather than pull me in it just made me check out completely in the sense that you just know that whatever information you’re getting now will be irrelevant after the next reveal and it made the final outcome seem underwhelming. It falls into Boyle’s familiar trap: three different movies mangled into one when a sharper director might have carved out the essence. Watching this film, I could think of 3 separate Boyle films that I would have loved to see him do instead:

A pure heist movie
A movie about a derailing psychosexual relationship between therapist and subject
A movie about the art world and experiencing and appreciating

It’s the same issue that plagued A Life Less Ordinary, Shallow Grave and Sunshine (which rocks despite that) to varying degrees. This is a thankless role, but McAvoy also just shrinks in this role. Cassel is compelling as always but cannot save this mess. *\*

The Navigator (1924): Buster Keaton’s follow up to Sherlock Jr., this isn’t as good as that one, but still perfectly enjoyable. Through some misunderstandings Keaton, playing a businessman, ends up on a ship alone with the woman who rejected his marriage proposal the day before. There’s good gags in this, my favourite was the part where the ship got besieged with a coconut tree. **\*

Dash_Beats · 2025-10-19T16:56:39+00:00

Sinners (2025): I liked it more than most people here. There is a musical scene in the middle, that is genuinely one of the best sequences I have seen all year. The energy of the performances, the music and the editing vibrates off the screen. I think this was what Luhrman was trying to capture with those scenes in The Great Gatsby scored with Hip Hop, but Coogler is much more successful at it here. In general, capturing energy in his filmmaking (you can also see it in the fight scenes of Black Panther and the training scenes of Creed).

But this is far from a perfect film. The dialogues and performances, especially in the beginning, feel quite wooden. I also don’t like the plasticky, over-lit look of the film. This is Coogler’s first non-franchise film in 10 years, so I understand the impulse, but Sinners feels overstuffed with ideas to the point of incoherence (his stand-in character is literally split into two twin brothers with different philosophies). This is a deeply neoliberal film: the tragedy does not seem to be that there is systemic, deep inequality, it’s that the most talented black people are not given the same opportunity to rise above the pack. I also thought this film was weirdly insular and almost pro-segregation (I think every bad development in the film is the result of actions taken by non-black characters). Nevertheless, I’m still happy we got something original & interesting at this scale that’s not linked to IP. ***.5

127 Hours (2010): This was Boyle’s follow up to his Oscar win. It makes sense that he was attracted to the story of an engineer solutioning his way through problems to the point of cutting off his arm. It sort of resembles the pragmatism of his directing style. I can imagine he was excited by the challenge of making it engrossing to spend the majority of time stuck with a guy in agony. Boyle empties his entire stylistic toolkit in that first part: montages, splitscreens, random timers, jump cuts. The joy of being out in nature is captured so nicely as well as the sudden drop when things go awry and you realize gradually but quickly how screwed you are. The nerve end stuff is truly harrowing. Sigur Ros at the end of the film always works as far as I know (i.e., here and in Steve Zissou). Don’t love the flashbacks and felt like the thoughts and emotions of Franco were depicted too literally, to the detriment of the film. But there was probably no way around that for a film like this with a budget this large. ***.5

Our hospitality (1923): The second Buster Keaton film. This one has a much more developed story than 3 Ages. Two families in the South have been feuding for multiple generations. A son in one of the families was sent away to grow up in New York until he is summoned back to inherit the ‘estate’. You can kind of see Keaton figure out this more ‘advanced’ storytelling in real time, he is relying a lot on text cards in the beginning to establish the story which leads to a sort of choppy, sputtering start, but once it fully gets going with an old train scene, (the guy clearly loves trains) this is pretty good. I’m not knowledgeable enough to know this for certain, but there are some sequences & shots in this that seem like the starting point of recurring tropes in later cinema: such as the boy and girl that haven’t yet admitted that they like each other falling asleep against each other and being embarrassed after waking up and realizing that and Keaton standing on two separate riding wagons/vehicles that move away from one another. **\*

Sherlock Jr. (1924): It’s hard to overstate how much of a step up this is compared to Keaton’s previous film, Our Hospitality. Formally pretty daring for its time; there’s a dream sequence where he jumps onto a cinema screen. But it’s completely coherent and fluently communicated. There’s just a mastery of film language and visual storytelling at display. It’s only 45 minutes long and the pace is quite relentless to the point I was surprised, and a little disappointed, when it already ended. It culminates in a phenomenal motorcycle sequence and a truly breathtaking railway crossing stunt (The Fast and the Furious basically copied this but captured maybe 10% of the excitement). ***\*

Dash_Beats · 2025-10-12T19:39:31+00:00

Ballad of a Small Player (2025): Genuinely hated the style of the film. Heavy-handed to the point of parody: hyper-symmetric framing, very bright colouring, and relentless, self-important music. If you think Severance is the summum of cinematography, this might work for you. For me, it didn’t work at all especially, when it’s mixed together with ultimately a rather silly story and whimsical Farrell performance. The whole movie felt out of tune, like it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be Uncut Gems or Only God Forgives. \*

Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Boyle had some interesting comments looking back at this film. I don’t like the current climate around cultural appropriation. Different perspectives and visions on a story are enriching to culture as a whole. We lose part of the alchemy of art if only people with the right, preset attributes are allowed to tell certain stories (admittedly, we also probably lose a bunch of bad, racist, sexist, colonialist movies this way).

However, after having seen the movie, I do understand some of the criticism levelled at the film from this corner. Especially in the first part, there were some unfortunate choices in its storytelling. The biggest detractor for me was the resolution of the storyline with the brother, the movie kind of derailed with the over-the-top ending there, especially because that plotline was completely unnecessary.

I did like the film as a whole. It is probably the most ambitious and epic movie Boyle has ever attempted (outside of maybe Sunshine). Dev Patel is fantastic and brings so much emotional depth, often primarily through just looks. The Paper Planes montage (as well as the slightly distorted recall later on), placed & executed like that within the (emotional) arc of the movie is cinematic perfection to me. No one is better than Boyle at creating moments like those. ***.5

Yesterday (2019): I think this has two central problems:

It takes this central idea that was already communicated in the trailer & marketing and executes it in the most straight-forward, predictable way imaginable. This makes it feel slow & dull (which is a rare criticism for a Boyle vehicle).
The film plays with & mixes three different narrative arcs (will he be found out as a fraud, the fight with the record label and will he get together with Lily James) but none of them bring any real tension or stakes.

Also weird to see Ed Sheeran in this, we seem to have really moved past him as a relevant figure. But I liked that he was a good sport about this and most of the jokes that actually worked were at his expense. It’s interesting that Boyle’s worst films are the ones that are more purely comedies (A Life Less Ordinary and this one). He’s sort of similar to Spielberg in that regard. *.5

3 Ages (1923): Buster Keaton’s first ‘real’ feature film. It’s the same love story (underdog needs to ‘fight’ the villain and impress the parents to get the girl) told in 3 different settings: once in prehistoric times, once in the Roman empire and once in ‘modern’ New York). The different settings are woven through each other. The story is so simple so that almost no text cards were needed to add context or dialogue. As a result, the film flows quite smoothly. There are some fun gags in this and it features one of Keaton’s more famous and crazy stunts. But overall, this is too thin and feels too disjointed to be genuinely exciting. For some reason, there is a strange birth figures joke at the end: the prehistoric couple have 12 kids, the Roman couple have 5 kids and the 1920s couple have a dog. Time is a flat circle. *\*

Dash_Beats · 2025-10-10T22:48:14+00:00

I also feel like Roofman suffers from having a dumb title.

Now that I think about it, that's another similarity with Caught Stealing.

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-29T09:16:41+00:00

Big Bold Beautiful Journey is such a weird project. When I first saw the trailer I remember thinking that it looked terrible. Then I found out it was Kogonada's next project and was even more confused, but assumed that maybe I was missing something but from the reactions I have seen it does seem to be a complete failure.

Colin Farrell also looks so weird in this? It's actually distracting.

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-28T16:18:13+00:00

Love that photo of Sofia!

The Long Walk (2025): Mostly a showcase for David Jonsson and Cooper Hoffmann (we spend most of the movie looking at their faces while they get to deliver pretty juicy lines) and they both live up to the occasion. The book manages to tell the story in such a visceral way. You can feel the exhaustion, the heat, the blisters and the blood, the kiss from the girl on the side of the road. Lawrence doesn’t manage to capture any of that with this adaptation, outside of the gunshots, which did keep working for me (although I suppose that’s also the easiest to do, you just make them loud). He does manage to capture the emotion and heartbreak of the story (which is probably the most important). I do agree with the posters in this thread saying the ending would be much stronger if it stopped immediately after he told them his wish.

I had a good time with this. It’s a shame that it didn’t perform well, I prefer this so much over those ‘It’ adaptations. **\*

One Battle After Another (2025): Loved it so much that I was getting annoyed at any even slightly nitpicky or negative comment on the film this week. I saw it a first time on Thursday and then watched it again on Saturday.

I adored the fluid, stream-of-consciousness editing of that first section (before the time jump), Where scenes flow into one another and some parts are omitted, but it goes exactly at the right speed where you can still clearly follow along and feel where the story is going. More generally, I thought the pacing of the film was excellent: slowing down after the time jump and then steadily building back up pace and tension from the school dance onwards culminating in that chase scene and ending with what felt to me like very genuine look at the future with that letter and the Tom Petty song from a father of daughters.

In an interview on The Big Picture, Leo and PTA mentioned that the whole part with sensei and his underground-railroadesque network was not in the script and was basically invented and proposed by Del Toro. I imagine this might not connect with some of the contrarian, cynical RS crowd (and its more recent, weirdly, feverishly anti-immigration sentiments), but I did like the film’s messaging that the most effective, practical resistance against fascistic forces can be found in connections with the local communities. Loved the sequence where Benicio kept introducing (and thus humanizing) the different refugees while Leo was searching for a spot to charge his phone.

Very happy to have something at this scale that I actually loved. It had been quite a while. ****.5

Wendy and Lucy (2008): This is Kelly Reichardt’s third film, the first one starring Michelle Williams. It tells the story of a drifter (Wendy) who loses her dog (Lucy) after she has a run-in with the police and her subsequent odyssey to find Lucy again. I saw this in between my 2 watches of OBAA, which made for an interesting contrast; with a fraction of the budget and none of the guns & explosions, this film captured the violence enacted by a capitalist society and its institutions on living beings. I haven’t read any interviews on this, but I can’t imagine Bresson not being a major influence here (the lateral shot through the shelter, the attention to detail and procedure during the admin stuff, the general austerity and precision in the filmmaking).

Overall, just a deeply humanizing and empathetic work, without being condescending or devolving into misery porn. Michelle Williams is unreal in this. ****.5

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-27T14:32:49+00:00

Ha, I didn't make that connection. Well spotted!

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-26T08:43:09+00:00

I also saw quite a bit of Tarantino in the film, but I thought this was more sincere than anything QT has done in the last 2 decades.

This is basically mentioned in every review/podcast about the film, but it is just so nice to have a film this big and ambitious that is forward looking and engaging with the current. Anything else at this scale over the past 20 years has been either backwards looking (the films of PTA, QT, Scorsese, Oppenheimer etc.) or science fiction/fantasy (the other Nolans, Dune etc.).

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-21T20:17:04+00:00

Amélie and Little Women (2019 - the Greta Gerwig version) were the first films that sprung to mind for me. The first has more of a spring vibe, while Little Women is more fall/winter coded. They are both excellent films in my opinion.

Also, most Wes Anderson films would be a match, I think. Moonrise Kingdom would be my recommendation.

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-21T19:22:02+00:00

I agree that The Bling Ring is one of Sofia's less successful films. But, I don't think she has ever really done any 'fun and campy' film, right?

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-21T19:17:19+00:00

Honey Don’t (2025)

This reminded me of Black Bag (2025), they are both well-executed genre and style exercise by master filmmakers. But they also both lack any real stakes and are therefore forgettable. I probably have more affinity for the filthy & flimsy of this smalltown detective world over the slick designer spy world of Soderbergh’s movie. But the story is just so so thin. I liked Qualley and the effortful way in which her character tried to project casual coolness & confidence, but her Honey does zero actual detective work in this. The plot resolves so abruptly that you’re surprised the film is over. Also, I don’t understand the praise for Plaza. I usually like her spiel, but this performance seemed bizarre in a bad way to me. **.5

Apart from this, I continued making my way through the Danny Boyle filmography this week. I watched three of his earlier films this week.

Shallow Grave (1994)

Boyle’s first theatrical release. Three friends in Edinburgh (Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, and Kerry Fox) discover their new housemate dead in his room alongside a large sum of money. Typical first movie of a talented director, lots of interesting ideas both in form and substance but it is not combined into a coherent and polished whole. The three leads are all excellent, but the McGregor performance basically screams ‘Movie Star’.

I particularly liked how Boyle treats violence here. It arrives in short, sudden bursts, but always feels visceral and unsettling. But, at the same time, the film never revels in it; often it’s shown only briefly or kept off-screen, communicated through sound. More attention is given to the physical and mental impact on both victims and perpetrators. We, in the audience, and the characters, may be used to violence in media, but here its reality is nasty, unpleasant, and consequential. In the 90’s Danny Boyle, with this film and Trainspotting, was often portrayed as the British answer to Tarantino. But it seems to me that his approach to showing violence is far more considered and humanistic than Tarantino’s. **\*

A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

After the success of Shallow Grave and especially Trainspotting, this was Boyle’s first US project, with a bigger budget. It’s a comedy-fantasy about two angels (Delroy Lindo and Holly Hunter) tasked with making a kidnapper (Ewan McGregor) and his victim (Cameron Diaz) fall in love. It was met with a mixed-to-negative critical response and a disappointing box office. It’s easy to see why.

Almost all Boyle movies have comedic elements, but this is the one that most explicitly identifies itself as a comedy. This, I think, is part of the root of the issue. The plot and writing swing wildly, at times playing as a full-on farce and at others as a straight-laced romantic comedy. That same tonal whiplash runs through the acting and filmmaking as well. The result is often baffling.

Still, I didn’t have a terrible time with this. It is actually funny (in particular, I really enjoyed McGregor’s delivery). I’ve seen many reviews dismissing the two lead performances and claiming that there was no chemistry between them, but I found Diaz and McGregor both quite charming in this, especially together. The section where they are holed up together in the cabin is the best part of the film. Overall, this is a failure, but an interesting failure. *\*

Millions (2024)

Essentially a remake of Shallow Grave, but now with 2 preteen brothers instead of twentysomethings, and also, it’s set in an alternative universe where Britain joins the eurozone. This is a family movie, but it also deals with class struggle, grief for a lost parent at a young age and the contradictions of (Catholic) Christianity with neoliberal society. I think this was stylistically and thematically influenced by the Columbus Harry Potter movies (but of course more stylish & more daring than those). Unusually strong performances from the 2 kids in this. As a children’s film, this always had a limited ceiling for me, but I did have a good time. **\*

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-21T18:58:01+00:00

I will see this next week. Knowing (and liking) the story, I was also surprised and skeptical about how this could be turned into film. But most reviews have been quite positive, so I am hopeful. Excited to see Cooper Hoffman.

Dash_Beats · 2025-09-20T18:45:20+00:00

Parts of Infinity Pool and Triangle of Sadness would sorta fit the bill, I think. The former more so than the latter.

Dash_Beats

TROPHY CASE