after life is my third kore-eda and its really interesting.
while its characters aren't fully explored, its not really about that.
its about the way we forgot, remember but also cherish certain points of our lives. its not a film big on building its world or ideas beyond the mere mention that it takes place between life and heaven but that isn't a problem per say.its world is linked to memories but also regrets.
it also has interesting thematic links to cinema itself and how films hold memories. its especially cool to follow people who died early.
its at its best when it justs lets the dead talk non stop, parts in the third act are not specifically interesting tho.(watch my feature film kodak: <a href="https://boxd.it/dNvKo1">boxd.it/dNvKo1</a> )
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a film about the transitional period in time to adulthood but also a job.
it also uses its location, that being a hotel to tell its story as hotels always were liminal to me, a place i liked staying at except for when alone in a long hallway because it never felt right.its not perfect, its cinematography can sometimes pick the most boring shot ever for such a thing and imo the camera is sometimes to loose with its position.
(watch my feature film kodak: <a href="https://boxd.it/dNvKo1">boxd.it/dNvKo1</a> )
made for white people who don't actually care about the fashion industry and the effects it has had on society for centuries and rather want a girl movie to watch thats totally girly.
What bugs me the most is how white centric it is despite BEING about racism and for that racism to be so obvious, cartoonish. This film was made like two decades ago so its expected for it to be dated.
It fails to see what racism actually is, it thinks its JUST people spouting slurs or racist remarks but its also in everyday normal conversations, it creeps into corners a lot of people don't realize. Crash has its sights on some types of racism but its always so painfully dry and it doesn't help how unfocused it all felt, having multiple stories happening at the same is neat but the screenplay is flimsy and can barely hold the weight of that concept.Some of its night scenes do like nice but the day scenes look extremely bland and forgettable. Everyone involved feels kinda tone deaf.
Smaltzy in the worst ways.(Watch my feature film <a href="https://boxd.it/dNvKo1">kodak</a> )
Pretty good film about the escalation on events and even more so about the the consequences of the decisions we make. The fact this is a debute is crazy because it is very confident in what its doing.
I do think it kinda slows down whenever the characters just have a conversation because its not like they are THAT interesting. I like 2 of them and the others are whatever.
(Watch my feature film <a href="https://boxd.it/dNvKo1">kodak</a> )
in its journey of artificiality, it itself becomes a little artificial.
its not bad, its decent and it shares a lot of dna with playtime from 1967 but where as playtime was a lot more quieter and a lot more interesting presenting that exact artificiality within its production design which the truman show also shares dna with, the sets and everything feels very modern but also cheap modernity.
where i think the truman show fumbles is that: 1, jim carrey sometimes tries way to hard which makes him performance come off as hamfisted (and not in a good way) and 2, its a lot saver and if im being honest, its satire on reality tv but also the way we as people seek for authenticity which leads to artificiality feels save sometimes and not as biting as it should be. it is original in the way that the ones behind the show aren't portrayed as inherentely evil but it would've made more sense. if you're gonna make a satire on reality tv but also the qeust for authenticity then morally qeustionable people or downright bad ones should be in the playbook. it doesn't outwardely states that the tv crew are good but also not bad which would create for interesting discussion when its so obvious that what they are doing is demoralizing. using a person as a puppet.
i think the ending doubles down on exactly that "you're on live television goddammit" and truman caves in, gives the audience the status quo catchphrase and then leaves that status quo. a catchphrase bound to his existence in a cage he became to hate and freaked out by.
it gives mixes messages more then anything.
also its not like we know truman enough as a person to have any sort of meaning behind it, there is no meaning behind the show but if thats your point, that there is no meaning to reality tv then why make the last scene end with truman's (the tv character) catchphrase? its just truman digging a bigger meaningless hole for himself when he so obviously wants out. good film making but its not andrew niccol's best work nor peter weir's.(watch my feature film kodak: https://boxd.it/dXI1IV )
A film for babies.
A film thats conceptually very interesting and in some cases, the actual film is interesting as well, a film that tries to examine the expendability we seem and are to eachother in highly important but also dangerous situations.
What and who is expendable?
My gripe with it is tho that it never concludes to anything, it never goes beyond Part in due to its 1 hour and 43 min runtime which could be used for character study but while a lot of the reactions are realistic and add to the theme of the fear of expendability, those characters aren't especially memorable and they forget to give 2 characters anything to do.Some early deaths are interesting conceptually, the early deaths set examples of the terrifying nature of space and in the end the film is surrounded by fear yet it all feels clunky, it doesn't feel streamlined.
Maybe that is part of how everything can go wrong yet i think it feels weird.
Sunshine is formally interesting in both its editing and cinematography but its characters and themes sometimes left me feeling mixed.
Not bad, more in the territory of good but not great on a first watch.
one of the most bold things this decade.
maybe not in its subtext even when thats really good but in its form.im someone who loves experimental film making but i also have the knowledge to know most people, even in cinephile circles, DON'T and that kinda shows in this films reception. i will say that obviously there many, MANY reasons why somebody wouldn't like this but i also qeustion the concentration but also apreciation for films like this. films like hotel montery, these films don't tell you what to think, they do have a goal made by the film maker but realistically, experimental films including this is a formal exercise in bending films to yourself and the text underneath the surface and personally i think thats a challenge for most people.
most people including cinephiles in nature mostly need a clear goal and theme in sight for them to connect which, fair enough but it cripples them in multiple corners of cinema.
and skinamarink is kinda the ultimate mainstream evolution to feature film of experiment film as it slowly moves allong as for its visuals, it places emphasis on low angles which conveys the perspective of a child and that emphization on being a child shapes the film.
i have memories of having sleepovers when i was a kid, at one of my friends who lived in a big house, roaming the dark and scary halls at night to take a piss. but the film also wears a coat of nostalgia but the film weaponizes that as it doesn't glorify childhood as the best time ever. while you can say its a nightmare...is it really?
as the film comes closer and closer to the end it becomes a lot more aware of its surroundings as a scene of repeating blood splats into frame which ultimately, for me, represents the abuse, neglect and hatefull moments that can abrupt in ones childhood, a childhood, a world where tv is the one bright light in an otherwise dark world.i think the jumpscares can be a bit forced perhaps but the sudden appearance of them adds to how those moments can appear out of the blue. one thing i also discovered love for within my favorite genre, the horror genre, is liminal spaces and how they are everywhere.
exit 8 is my favorite film of this year, im also am excited for the backrooms film but mostly its the terrifying presence of them.
they don't feel real yet they have a basis in reality but they appear and remain mostly empty. liminal spaces also have a nostalgic feeling to them even when someone hasn't ever been there.
liminal spaces work beyond our reality but the reason why they are affected is because they are reality but empty and without life. nostalgia is exactly that, its a feeling i don't neccesarily like but do feel but once you feel that sadness, trauma, anger or wanting to feel something at a specific time again, you're left empty without nothing.
it also helps that we never see any faces in hard light so that its that visible, we can fill ourselves into this.the film also reminds me of my own body of work and how my films are shaped by a lot of similaire aspects. the empty feelings, the quiet sound of home but also the story, the form in which my, and this film operates. im basically saying this is one of the most perfect films for me.
(watch my feature film kodak: https://boxd.it/dNvKo1 )
an interesting story about talent and how that talent comes at a cost but its told through the most boring way and honestly, it should've began with its surreal elements way sooner then it actually did because not a lot of things happen within that normal framework and story to add to the themes. it would've made much more sense to begin with the surreal at the halfway point.
(watch my feature film kodak: https://boxd.it/dNvKo1 )
No martin scorsese cameo nor a mention of the wiz from 1978??
(Watch my feature film kodak: <a href="https://boxd.it/dNvKo1">boxd.it/dNvKo1</a> )
a rare japanese remake of a canadian film yet it somehow doesn't really have anything special. its just the canadian film yet the original film was a lot more meaner and this one kinda makes its characters, their edges and smooves them off which sucks.
i like the opening because tokio emoto appears but there isn't much to it.
i've been watching the boys lately, im on s4 and sadly neither that nor this are very good.(watch my feature film kodak: <a href="https://boxd.it/dNvKo1">boxd.it/dNvKo1</a> )
