I still have a bit of catching up to do, but for the first time since my uni workload made me consider eating my meals with a side of cyanide, I'm less than a week behind on movies. As always, check the links in the titles for a plot description; I'm here to talk about the experience.
323. The Lost World (1925) - November 26th
People always talk of this film as the progenitor of many great dinosaur movies, so it's no surprise that no-one really talks about the blackface. I'm not going to dwell on it, because of the time period in which the film was made and because it's not the focal point of the film in the same way as, say The Birth of a Nation, but I was not prepared and it made me uncomfortable, and I imagine anyone watching this film now will feel the same, especially if they're as unprepared as I was.
This film has been hugely influential upon dinosaur and monster filmmaking, both in terms of effects and storytelling. The narrative is essentially King Kong version 1.0, with the same process of going to a land that time forgot, with the only difference being that capturing Kong was incidental, as opposed to here where capturing proof of the land's existence is the whole point. It's fascinating to see all of the prototypical effects work that would go on to influence so much, the stop-motion miniatures and forced perspective used so basically, yet revolutionary for their day. Plus, the film has dinosaurs. - 8/10
324. Paprika (2006) - November 28th
Man, this was such a trip. This film's use of space and movement to convey travel through different dream-scapes is really slick, and then the film twists it further with questions of self-identity and perspective within the loss of barrier between dreams and reality. The way that this is then layered with the perspective of a character obsessed with film, and toys with the very techniques he talks about and plays with the audience's perception to further reinforce that questioning, all within a film that has animation that is both expressive and subtly altered depending on the genres the film manages to hop through, adds up to a unique memorable experience. - 8/10
325. Creed II (2018) - November 29th
Rarely unexpected, skilled in contrasting melodrama and tender humanity for strong effect, Creed II is a worthy sequel. My full review can be found here. - 7.5/10
326. Apostle (2018) - November 30th
Gareth Evan's mish-mash of horror subgenres is both a homage to smaller, influential horror pieces (most notably the original Wicker Man), and an attempt to experiment with the formulas of horror story structure and horror scares by employing different kinds in different ways. Some moments of the film feel like it's trying to be a moody, psychological piece. Others come across as more reminiscent of supernatural fare. Still others incorporate the high-octane violence and gore Evans is known for in ways that evoke the torture subgenre. Even considering the variation in subgenre, the film can change from moment to moment; a scene can build upon moment after moment of slow, edge-of-panic tension, but when it tries to exploit that tension for a big and loud jump scare, the switch feels forced rather than organic, subtlety thrown out for a few seconds to no greater effect. I appreciate the film's attempt to experiment, the stronger moments of homage, and the best moments of genuine horror that he film offers, as well as a great leading performance from Dan Stevens; however, I also found myself disengaging from the emotion of several moments within the film because the attempts to incorporate different styles or moods didn't always work. - 6.5/10
327. 5 Centimetres per Second (2007) - November 30th
Even in his earlier work, Makoto Shinkai's artistry is so baffling for how gorgeous everything looks. There's a soft, dream-like state to everything that we see, with painstaking detail in the foreground played against jaw-dropping vistas and a colour palette so warm if feels like you're sitting by a fire even as the world gets colder and more detached. It also supports the film's tone, expressing a desire to go back, a romantic nostalgia that is in turn carried by the themes within the film's text. The two build each other up and allow for a very soft and easy story about love and loss that's also painful on a deeper level to those who aren't dead inside like me. That said, even if you don't engage with the story, I would like to direct your attention back to the artistry in the animation. - 7.5/10
328. Possum (2018) - December 1st
One of the creepiest and most wretched of psychological horrors I've seen in a while, this was an intense experience that I imagine I'll have stronger feelings about the longer I'm left to think about it. This is a captivating examination of arrested development and the burden caused by abuse through an absurdist lens. While the ongoing plot is nothing too engaging beyond some thematic ties to the main character Philip, the internal goings-on of Philip, expressed through a performance by Sean Harris that chills to the bone and aches with vulnerability, and the constant creeping of the puppet Possum, a horrifying nightmare amalgam of human and spider. This is certainly another unique horror experience this year, one that reminded me of just how good this year has been for the genre. - 7/10
329. A Most Wanted Man (2014) - December 1st
I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman. Seriously, this movie does a good job of establishing and then examining the paranoia around espionage in a post-9/11 world, but the real draw for this movie for me is Hoffman, whose work is always incredibly natural, and transformative when considered against his other roles. He's a transcendent character actor, but roles like this and his lead in Capote show off more range than his other parts are often allowed to exude. Being in a leading role, he's given much more time to develop as a character and feel like a real human being rather than a particularly attention-grabbing part of the background. Gunther Bachmann is an intriguing and commanding character despite his generally disheveled appearance and quiet posture; he also exudes a certain energy that suggests complexity that is somewhat supported by the text, with an unnamed but brutal failure from his past juxtaposed against his general ruthless manipulation, which creates an effect of both competence and incompetence. All of this is uplifted by Hoffman, who gives every emotional cue needed for what the text suggests about his character to be compelling, even doing so through an accent that he makes his own. Everything else in this movie is good or at least competent, if occasionally cliche, but damn... I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman. - 7/10
330. The Ice Storm (1997) - December 2nd
Ang Lee provides me with another reason for why he's one of my favourite directors. A lot of self-reflection allows an era purported to be filled with hedonistic glee to be presented as the facade to hide and hide from the minutia that slowly breaks us all. The sexual exploration implied in the film is seen as just one more attempt to escape from a cold, lifeless and unforgiving world, and the fact that the film uses this to build towards the idea that the only things that we can rely on to offer a real reprieve are the things we've always been able to rely on is both poignant and probably the best way to describe the conservative, reflective view of the 70s that arose in the late 90s. It's a simple enough message, but the context gives it subtle complexities that Lee handles with excellent recognition of tone; everything about the way this movie unfolds feels deliberate without being forced, a sort of nudge towards a conclusion that people had already come to with hindsight that could not be more appropriate given the subject matter and the fact that Mikey dies when the lure of sexual desire is overcome by the awe-inspiring power of nature, specifically that same cold world that has been the movie's message at work in the background this entire time. The fact that this tragedy is then what helps two disintegrating families realise what actually matters and expresses the varying levels of this realisation through the states of all the characters by film's end shows the power of perspective. As a bonus, this movie is filled with people who are name actors and who would go on to be name actors, so the power of hindsight continues to affect this film, even superficially. - 8/10
331. Scream 3 (2000) - December 2nd
This series has gone from charmingly self-aware to obnoxiously self-aware. The film is filled with lines that aren't as clever as the writer thinks they are; for example, a scene of characters discussing the film's events within the context of the "film within the film"'s plot structure get interrupted by police who brusquely reply "this is the scene where you come with us". The film does lean a bit more in to the comedy as well, which works sometimes, such as a fun play on expectations where a thrown knife hits its target with the hilt instead of the blade for some quick slapstick, or when a man, stabbed and bleeding, falls face first in front of the characters and Gale asks "is he dead?"; basically, any time the humour is quick and cleverly stupid, it works. Other times the comedy tries to come from more meta behaviour or intermingling it with the scares; these moments don't work nearly as well or as often. Then there's the writing; writer Ehren Krueger, who took over from series veteran Kevin Williamson, employed plot devices so lazy that the other Scream movies are laughing at it, and showed a certain lack of care, especially when within one of those plot devices it goes on to say that horror trilogies are a rare thing, even though three of the main slasher series have them couched within their many films (Friday the 13th has Part 2, Part III, and The Final Chapter; A Nightmare on Elm Street has Dream Warriors, The Dream Master, and The Dream Child; and Halloween has The Return, The Revenge, and The Curse of Michael Myers). It's just a lot of mediocrity with the occasional joke, which could be worse, but based on the previous entries, could also be demonstrably better. - 5/10
332. The Crow: Salvation (2000) - December 2nd
This might be poorly edited, somewhat over-stylised trash with weak acting, but it's also a considerable improvement over City of Angels. While some moments are so poorly edited that lines are literally cut off mid-sentence between scenes, and no-one offers a convincing performance, there are redeeming factors, all of which are borrowed from the first. The soundtrack is the same moody, metal, and the dialogue is cheesy enough that it might have been good had anyone come close to offering the sort of performance Brandon Lee did. The movie's also edgy enough for the style to work some of the time, usually when it confuses dark with cool and manages to make an odd mixture of the two that's kind of hilarious, which may not be intentional, but it worked for me, so I'll give it credit. Let me re-iterate, though, the editing in this movie is atrocious; the film will occasionally cut between scenes that have loose or even no continuity, without even some sort of dialogue establishing the change. - 4/10
Re-watches
65. Mandy (2018) - November 28th
Yes, this is my fourth time watching it. Yes, this is probably my favourite movie of the year, unless you count Paddington 2, but that technically came out in 2017 (and it's those sorts of technicalities that have been the bane of my attempts to make top 10 lists every year). No, this probably won't be the last time I re-watch it. I love the complete sense of style over substance, the unbelievably raw performance from Nicolas Cage, the fact that this movie is the most molten metal thing since DOOM (2016), the colour palette and the soundtrack, and the cameos. This might not be the best thing I've seen all year, but I can't think of much I liked more. - 8.5/10
Published December 3rd, 2018
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