I haven't done one of these for ages now.

In the Mood for Love I hadn't noticed before how distinctive the pacing of In the Mood for Love is. The plot is driven by short, sometimes fast-paced sections of dialogue. These are then followed by long shots in which nothing much happens. Those beautifully composed, colour saturated, lingering, often ( Read more... )

Restrepo
Lovefilm went on a bit of an Afghanistan binge and sent me Restrepo right after Armadillo. Restrepo was actually filmed some years before, but the tactics and attitudes seem just the same as Armadillo. The same massive use of firepower, the fruitless searches, wary villagers, and civil projects that go nowhere. Oh, and the sound of an A ( Read more... )

Still applying the Bechdel test to films: a pass is if they feature two female characters, with names, who talk to each other about something other than a man.

Animal Kingdom Probably not what you'd expect from a film about an Australian crime family, Animal Kingdom consists mostly of the stomach-churning feeling you get when you're stuck in a bad ( Read more... )

Damn, it's been a long time since I wrote one of these. Not so quick after all ( Read more... )

I got this book by Mark Kermode for Christmas. I think I must have first heard Mark Kermode when I started listening to Radio 1 when I was 12 or so. I feel like he was on Mark & Lard's show that I used to listen to in bed after ten or ten thirty, but perhaps that's just because everyone on the program seemed to be called Mark ( Read more... )

Julie & Julia: A Film For Democrats Maybe I should split this film into two reviews, as the film tells two different stories. One is that of a young woman's attempt to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year. What drives her to this life-changing task is not really clear. Is the fact she ( Read more... )

Mulholland Drive Just to be absolutely clear, Mulholland Drive makes no sense. It feels like many of the ideas or possible storylines have been cut off half way through, before anything is developed or tied together. It's a film you go along with for the atmosphere or experience. And that atmosphere is... Hollywood is sinister and weird? I didn ( Read more... )

I'm a bit behind watching films, but I did get round to watching a couple Mark lent me ages ago.

Russian ArkFamous for being shot in one take, I did actually find the device in Russian Ark quite compelling. The lack of edits removes some cues to how long a film is taking. Quite a bit of the discussion of the nature of Russia and its relation ( Read more... )

"You don't watch films that are full of blood and explosions ... the sort of film you like is where there's a French statistician who's really interested in clouds."

Natural Born KillersThough it was directed by Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers has writer Quentin Tarantino's love of pulp and screen violence all over it. As a portrayal and satire of the violence and hypocrisy in American society - a hypocrisy it deliberately tangles itself up in - it's reasonably successful. Like most Tarantinto, though, you ( Read more... )