I’ve watched a few since I last commented in one of these threads. A couple of noir thrillers in Mulholland Falls and Shanghai, both competently made, good looking films that ultimately lack a bit in the story department and feel quite predictable as a result.

I also saw Men, which I really disliked. I had this on my watchlist for a long time and finally decided to give it a go, not knowing much about it. I really dislike films like this where the director seems to be going in a very obvious direction with their social commentary but doesn’t fully commit to it. I read some interviews with Garland afterwards and he was like “oh it’s up to the audience how they interpret it, I wasn’t really trying to say anything in particular” - such a cop out.

In contrast, I loved Past Lives which is a very personal film based on the writer/director’s own experiences. It reminded me a little of Columbus, another debut film from a writer/director which was similarly ambitious. Past Lives has a more interesting story, however, and some of the dialogue is so well written and relatable than I"m sure it’s heavily influenced by real conversations. There were also some interesting techniques used in the production of this film that contribute to its realism, like throttling a real Skype call between the actors so that their reactions to the cal dropping out are genuine, or hiding casting choices so that actors meet each other at the same time as their characters.

Finally, over the past weekend, I watched Hoppers, a pretty bizarre Pixar creation that gets quite unhinged in the second half. I thought the choice of a young college student activist as the protagonist was pretty interesting - most animated films featuring humans go for children/teenagers or adults. It was fun enough but ultimately a bit shallow and vapid, considering the potential of themes. I also watched Personal Shopper, starring Kristen Stewart, who at this point I’d have to say is one of my favourite actors. She is always excellent in slower paced, more realistic roles like this where there is room for her more subtle acting style to flourish. The film itself is sort of a reverse of Men, in the sense that there are some pretty interesting and varied ways to interpret it but the writer/director has been very clear in interviews about his intentions and they happen to be the least interesting and most obvious of those available.

What is the point of skipping the writing phase if you’re still going to take 3 years?

Not gone Peter, it lives on in my living room. :)

That’s a pretty brutal mistake.

Cinemas here went into damage control and allocated specific sessions for popcorn throwing, shouting, running around, etc. They’ll probably do the same pre-emptively for this film, whenever it releases.

RIP cinema staff.

I’ve been on a bit of a 90s thriller binge lately including a couple of Michael Douglas films, Basic Instinct and Disclosure, as well as Copycat with Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. Basic Instinct was really good, the two leads had great chemistry and it was very well made, although the conclusion was predictable. Disclosure and Copycat weren’t as enjoyable. Both suffered from bloated stories with too many things going on and underdeveloped antagonists, although I loved the 90s internet stuff which was very nostalgic.

I also watched Flowers of War, which is this strange Chinese film with Christian Bale in it. He feels very randomly cast at first - the first third is very typical Chinese drama with overacting, including from Bale, and Chinese war hero/nationalism stuff (it is set during the Rape of Nanjing). I was losing interest, but then it took a right turn and became a smaller scale personal drama that really started to develop its characters. It ended up being an enjoyable watch and a well made film, despite the slow start.

Finally, I watched The Mastermind (on MUBI, which I’ve recently started using). It’s an amateur heist/comedy of errors type film with an indie feel. It’s a bit slow but I think that’s sort of the point, it really labours on the weight of the main character’s poor decisions and the ending is very fitting.

Sounds like it’s not too baaaaaaad.

Battle Royale. It was okay, I feel like it’s overrated purely because it was first and is Japanese, but I suppose its hard to appreciate it fully today, given its influence.

There’s not many comparatively, but yes - I prefer Australians to act in their native accent.

I would rather have Americans acting in their own accent that butchering someone else’s. Even if they do an okay job, sometimes it can feel like they’re concentrating so hard on maintaining the accent that their performance loses its depth and starts sounding like line rehearsal.

Americans be like

Jackson had a pretty eventful life so I could forgive the filmmakers if they had chosen to avoid that stuff to focus on a specific period of it. The problem is that they had it all ready to go and then cut it due to legal difficulties. That’s inevitably going to lead to a misleading characterisation, which is extremely problematic considering the severity of the allegations against Jackson.

It’s interesting you bring that up, because it’s the example that really put this on the radar for me. He gave a generic action guy kinda performance and people reacted like he was the worst actor of his generation and had single-handedly killed the show.

I’m not sure as I don’t follow Marvel films, but I did always wonder if racism played a part in his criticism for Altered Carbon. Joel Kinnaman is basically the stereotypical Aryan alpha male actor (in appearance only, of course), so for him to be replaced by shorter black guy is exactly the type of casting choice that would trigger racists. And the second season wasn’t as good as the first, but the hate for Mackie was so bizarrely out of line with the okay performance he gave.

Why do people hate this guy so much? It seems like a very large portion of the internet absolutely loves it when projects he is in are review bombed or perform poorly at the box office. Even the phrasing of the title here makes it sound as if it’s his film, like he’s the producer and wholly responsible for its failure. Isn’t he just starring in it?

I watched Columbus last night. Pretty interesting film, it was a debut for the writer/director but you wouldn’t know it based on how good it looks. The choice of locations is superb, and it is shot in such a creative and beautiful way that literally every single scene is a joy to watch. The ambitious cinematography is paired with a very minimalist story, a choice reminiscent of Yasujiro Ozu’s work.

Just generally, I’d say Columbus takes a very Japanese approach to this type of subject matter with long ASL (average shot length), static camera-work and significant use of short, static transition shots of everyday settings and phenomena that stitch together the longer scenes and create some contemplative breathing space between them. It’s very subtle, meticulous film-making that is deeply satisfying and also oddly exciting to watch as someone who loves this type of stuff.

I think it does struggle a little bit on the story side, though. John Cho’s character feels secondary and his acting comes across a little wooden in some scenes. The relationship between his character and that of Haley Lu Richardson, who is very good, also feels a little lacking, though that is often the case with this type of film. Not every relationship is long, rich and full of deep meaning. People come into and go from each other’s lives and there can often be a sort of transactional feel to relationships outside of our core circle of family and friends, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in this context.

I’m sorry to be cynical, but it’s 100% just Michael Jackson fans rating it a perfect film. You see the same effect for every biopic about a modern pop star (check out the ratings for any K-Pop film, for example).

I guess it would be a favourite, probably Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I watched it countless times during my final year of high school as part of my major literature assignment (in addition to all the other times I’ve watched it for leisure), so I know it so well at this point that I’m far beyond the “I’ve seen this too many times, it’s boring now” stage. I appreciate every little detail now.

I’ve never been interested in playing the game, but the setting and visual aesthetic is really cool so this sounds promising.