Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It

[kihei]

Isle of Dogs (2018) Directed by Wes Anderson 6A

in this stop-animated film set twenty years in the future in a city in Japan, a flu caused by canines leads to the exile of all dogs to Garbage Island, where they are basically abandoned and may eventually be subject to mass extermination. Into this dystopia, Atari, a young boy, literally drops in to the situation, looking for his dog whom he dearly loves. A bunch of abandoned dogs decide to help him in his search, including the reluctant Chief who answers to no human and no dog either. Isle of Dogs is a brilliant piece of animation, and I wish I could recommend it more strongly than I can because in many ways, it really is a fine movie. The animation is endlessly imaginative, and the voice over work by the likes of Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, and Yoko Ono is uniformly excellent. However, as much as my head liked this movie, the rest of my body kept fidgeting in my seat. Maybe the movie is a little too clever for its own sake, or maybe this will be another movie that I have a delayed reaction to, or maybe I really do have a Wes Anderson problem. Whatever, I never really connected with Isle of Dogs emotionally; too often I just felt that I was treading water, actively wishing that the movie would pick up the pace and get on to the next scene.

 

[OzzyFan]

Okay, but this is put forward as a possible interpretation, in no sense a definitive interpretation, just my two cents.

Spoiler

I took the ending to be a logical summing up of what the movie was about. I thought the movie presented a new creation myth (creation out of annihilation) with a new Adam and Eve who represented, in effect, the future of life on this planet. I think the last scene underscores that interpretation very well. When Lena asks Kane "Are you Kane?", he replies "I don't think so." Then he asks "Are you Lena? and she can't quite bring herself to reply "I don't think so." But Kane senses it and they embrace, a strange new glow in both their eyes. To put it more melodramatically, the aliens have landed.

Metaphorically, I'd go out on a limb and say that at one level this is an ecological horror movie. We have ****ed up the planet and we have ****ed up ourselves--as the psychologist points out: we always do. So the meteor that creates the shimmer brings with it a change that will alter everything on the planet (increasingly scientists suggest the possibility that a meteor may have brought life to earth initially--so this is a nice reference to that theory). A new creation myth begins, with no need for a god to explain it. Nature is a force that is neither willful nor judgemental nor anything else that is sentient; however, again not consciously but just because of what it is, nature has a way of rooting out dangers to its system and we well may deserve extinction.

One other bit: I wonder if there is another biblical reference floating around in the name Kane, who slew Abel, his brother, in the bible (a reference directly connected to Adam and Eve myth, too). --Only in the movie Kane slays Kane.

Thanks.

Spoiler

Creation through extinction with a nature/alien theme. I think there are some more biblical references like sin/self-destruction. I mean, the movie can be interpreted a lot of different ways too: pro-nature, pro-alien, pro-religion, anti-humanity, pro-humanity("the human condition", an almost "we are all broken/imperfect feel"), pro-science(genetic manipulation), etc. Very interesting thought provoking movie.

 

[kihei]

Thanks.

Spoiler

Creation through extinction with a nature/alien theme. I think there are some more biblical references like sin/self-destruction. I mean, the movie can be interpreted a lot of different ways too: pro-nature, pro-alien, pro-religion, anti-humanity, pro-humanity("the human condition", an almost "we are all broken/imperfect feel"), pro-science(genetic manipulation), etc. Very interesting thought provoking movie.

Agreed. I've even read one theory that the film is a metaphor for cancer. There is a lot to play around with in that movie.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Something fishy about the win, you think?

Hey-ohhhhh...!

 

[OzzyFan]

Unsane
2.20 out of 4stars

First 2/3 of the movie had some great ideas, realism, paranoia, flow, and more going for it (even if some elements are imperfect or rehashed from past genre films). Sadly, the last 1/3 of the movie goes bat poop crazy unrealistic, and even circumstantially doesn't have any good meaning to the story's messages or great payoff qualities. Conclusively, a pretty good "stalker themed" psychological/intellectual thriller that goes off the rails for the 3rd act. Foy might be near perfect as the lead, but it always hurts to see a movie with right pieces and foundations in play to become a great film yet just can not do it.

 

[Fantomas]

6.8/10... 6A... 2.20

Such surgically precise rankings here.

 

[Natey]

I don't think either was able to be ruled a homicide though, which is why she couldn't get backup. Didn't she have an argument with the coroner over that?

It's been awhile since I saw the movie, so some of the dialogue escapes me at the moment.

She had an argument over the Natalie murder. Nothing was said after she killed someone (which would had almost for sure had backup come to investigate) and after they found another body, which brings the total to 3 deaths.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

She had an argument over the Natalie murder. Nothing was said after she killed someone (which would had almost for sure had backup come to investigate) and after they found another body, which brings the total to 3 deaths.

Right, she argued to rule Natalie’s death a homicide, but the coroner couldn’t.

Matt’s body was found heavily scavenged by wildlife, so they couldn’t rule it a homicide until they did further investigating, which Jane and the tribal police were doing when they went to the drilling camp.

By the time they discovered Matt was in fact murdered, shit went straight to hell making it a moot point.

The other death would fall under the jurisdiction of the tribal police because they knew what happened (Jane shot him in self-defense).

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

A bittersweet life: 7.5/10

Joint Security Area: 7.5/10

No: 7.4/10

 

[kihei]

Fireworks Wednesday (2006) Directed by Asghar Farhadi 6B

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's string of successes (About Elly; A Separation; The Past; The Salesman) has led to the re-release of an earlier film by him, Fireworks Wednesday. Basically it is a domestic squabble movie, a study of a marriage in crisis. The wife suspects the husband of having an affair; the husband pleads innocence. A recently hired maid tries to make sense of what it going on. A whole host of social issues--gender relations and expectations, class distinctions, male attitudes--manage to come under subtle scrutiny (it's Iran--scrutiny has to be subtle) at the same time all the noisy melodrama is taking place. I would call this a proficient movie, one whose impact increases as the movie progresses. At the 45 minute mark I was wishing for some curves; by the end of the movie I thought there may have been too many of them. Yet the overall effect has a certain undeniable emotional wallop. Excellent ensemble performances enhance the film's power. I have the feeling Fireworks Wednesday will grow on me.

subtitles

 

[Natey]

Right, she argued to rule Natalie’s death a homicide, but the coroner couldn’t.

Matt’s body was found heavily scavenged by wildlife, so they couldn’t rule it a homicide until they did further investigating, which Jane and the tribal police were doing when they went to the drilling camp.

By the time they discovered Matt was in fact murdered, **** went straight to hell making it a moot point.

The other death would fall under the jurisdiction of the tribal police because they knew what happened (Jane shot him in self-defense).

Agree to disagree. Good movie anyway. Renner is severely underrated.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Bright

with Will Smith and other people

Racial inequality parables abound in a mythical LA gone World of Warcraft style. Humans live alongside orcs, elves, fairies, and other mythological beings. Will Smith is a cop unhappily partnered with the force's only orc cop, and he wants out. So do a lot of people; Jakoby the orc himself is loathed by the humans on the force for being an orc, and the orcs all hate him for being a sellout. Tension builds between the pair as they investigate a massacre where magic was used...and a magic wand is out there in the wind. Here, they're referred to as "nuclear weapons that grant wishes"...but they can only be used by a very, very rare type a person who can handle the magic: a Bright. Everyone else literally explodes. Of course, the wand itself is coveted by several opposing factions: cop elves trying to keep a lid on the case, evil elves who want to raise The Dark Lord (note: that's bad), gangsters both human and orcish, and of course our heroic pair just tryin' to get by in this crazy world, man.

A lot better than I expected, and a surprising amount of plot for a Will Smith movie.

On Netflix now.

 

[Spawn]

Saw Annhilation again with one of my daughters and was blown away, more so than the first time I saw it actually. I think the first time I saw it there was just too much to absorb. I still believe my "new Adam and Eve" theory holds up well. But this time I was better able to see how the parts fit together and to be impressed by the amazing set design and use of music in the film. It's much better directed than I gave it credit for--the mood Garland creates is almost indescribable but very effective. When I reviewed it the first time a couple of hours after I saw it, I gave it a "6" which quickly got transformed the next day into a "7." I'd rate it now an "8B." I find it hard to believe that I will see twenty movies better than Annihilation this year. I don't think that since Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin have I seen a movie that more rewarded a second look.


Best of '18 so far

1. Foxtrot, Maoz, Israel
2. Annihilation, Garland, UK/US

I saw Annihilation too for the 2nd time yesterday, and much like yourself I came away much more impressed with it on a second viewing. It's a beautiful film. Reminded me a lot of Stalker in it's beauty. Probably on purpose I Imagine. But it also had the benefit of not being mind numbingly boring.

I read the book a couple years ago but had forgotten most of what happened. So the first time I saw the film I kept thinking to myself "does this happen in the book?" not really caring either way. But it distracted me from the experience. Second time around and I was able to just focus on the film at hand.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Saw Annhilation again with one of my daughters and was blown away, more so than the first time I saw it actually. I think the first time I saw it there was just too much to absorb. I still believe my "new Adam and Eve" theory holds up well. But this time I was better able to see how the parts fit together and to be impressed by the amazing set design and use of music in the film. It's much better directed than I gave it credit for--the mood Garland creates is almost indescribable but very effective. When I reviewed it the first time a couple of hours after I saw it, I gave it a "6" which quickly got transformed the next day into a "7." I'd rate it now an "8B." I find it hard to believe that I will see twenty movies better than Annihilation this year. I don't think that since Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin have I seen a movie that more rewarded a second look.


Best of '18 so far

1. Foxtrot, Maoz, Israel
2. Annihilation, Garland, UK/US

I remember your first review of Annihilation and was really surprised TBH. Glad you gave it another watch and got more out of it.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Agree to disagree. Good movie anyway. Renner is severely underrated.

I think this was his first major lead role since Hurt Locker, but he always does quite well at making you see his character and not him. Not many actors/actresses can pull that off.

 

[Natey]

I think this was his first major lead role since Hurt Locker, but he always does quite well at making you see his character and not him. Not many actors/actresses can pull that off.

Nah, he's had a few.

Hanzel and Gretel (which I loved), Arrival, Borne Legacy (which he was great in but had some bad script decisions), and Kill the Messenger (very good Biopic). Not quite the leading role but he was nominated for an Oscar in The Town.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

Mr. Nobody : 7.8/1o

Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One ): 7.5/10

 

[kihei]

As I Open My Eyes (2016) Directed by Leyla Bouzid 7B

On one level, As I Open My Eyes is a conventional coming-of-age story, the likes of which we have all seen many times. Farah (Beya Medhaffar), a rebellious teenager risks everything, including her parents' and her society's displeasure, to perform in a Tunisian pop band (lead lute? Why not?). However this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with its far tamer North American counterparts. The film is set in Tunisia, and though it is among the more liberal Muslim countries (women have abortion rights for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, for instance), the attitudes and male expectations toward women still seem Medieval at best. So while there are realistic scenes of squabbles between Farah and her boyfriend and Farah and her parents, the sort of things kid are expected to put up a fuss about, there is also the heavy hand of government repression and the indelible trauma which is left behind in its wake. The movie helps provide some interesting insights. It seems to me that in the cultures in which women's rights are the most compromised, male behaviour is at its most f***ed up. That's a real good reason right there for gender equality--women's lot improves and men behave better; in other words, win win. The emotional heart of the movie is the relationship between mother (Ghalia Benhali) and daughter, and both Medhaffar and Benali are excellent in bringing out the volatile mixture of tensions that help to define that relationship. As I Open My Eyes is both entertaining and thought-provoking, a very brave debut by first-time director Leyla Bouzid.

subtitles

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Isle of Dogs (2018) Directed by Wes Anderson 6A

in this stop-animated film set twenty years in the future in a city in Japan, a flu caused by canines leads to the exile of all dogs to Garbage Island, where they are basically abandoned and may eventually be subject to mass extermination. Into this dystopia, Atari, a young boy, literally drops in to the situation, looking for his dog whom he dearly loves. A bunch of abandoned dogs decide to help him in his search, including the reluctant Chief who answers to no human and no dog either. Isle of Dogs is a brilliant piece of animation, and I wish I could recommend it more strongly than I can because in many ways, it really is a fine movie. The animation is endlessly imaginative, and the voice over work by the likes of Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, and Yoko Ono is uniformly excellent. However, as much as my head liked this movie, the rest of my body kept fidgeting in my seat. Maybe the movie is a little too clever for its own sake, or maybe this will be another movie that I have a delayed reaction to, or maybe I really do have a Wes Anderson problem. Whatever, I never really connected with Isle of Dogs emotionally; too often I just felt that I was treading water, actively wishing that the movie would pick up the pace and get on to the next scene.

That's disappointing to hear. I had a major Wes Anderson aversion for years until watching Moonrise Kingdom and especially Grand Budapest Hotel, which I thought was fantastic. I despised Fantastic Mr. Fox thought, partly for some of the reasons you mentioned here, and was worried that a return to animation might be a step in the wrong direction.

 

[nameless1]

As I Open My Eyes (2016) Directed by Leyla Bouzid 7B

On one level, As I Open My Eyes is a conventional coming-of-age story, the likes of which we have all seen many times. Farah (Beya Medhaffar), a rebellious teenager risks everything, including her parents' and her society's displeasure, to perform in a Tunisian pop band (lead lute? Why not?). However this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with its far tamer North American counterparts. The film is set in Tunisia, and though it is among the more liberal Muslim countries (women have abortion rights for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, for instance), the attitudes and male expectations toward women still seem Medieval at best. So while there are realistic scenes of squabbles between Farah and her boyfriend and Farah and her parents, the sort of things kid are expected to put up a fuss about, there is also the heavy hand of government repression and the indelible trauma which is left behind in its wake. The movie helps provide some interesting insights. It seems to me that in the cultures in which women's rights are the most compromised, male behaviour is at its most ****ed up. That's a real good reason right there for gender equality--women's lot improves and men behave better; in other words, win win. The emotional heart of the movie is the relationship between mother (Ghalia Benhali) and daughter, and both Medhaffar and Benali are excellent in bringing out the volatile mixture of tensions that help to define that relationship. As I Open My Eyes is both entertaining and thought-provoking, a very brave debut by first-time director Leyla Bouzid.

subtitles

I am so glad this movie found a distributor in Canada, at the very least. I saw this one two years ago at VIFF, and I had it in my top 10. It is very accessible, almost tailor-made for the Western audience, but it does not lose any of its cultural identity, so it still feels very unique. The subtle ending, particularly, is very well-done, for the way it says so much, with so little. The fact that it is directed by a woman, in a very conservative country, makes this work even more impressive.

If you get a chance kihei, check out other recent works from Tunisia, like Hedi, and especially Beauty and the Dogs. I am often amazed how much creativity can blossom, in the wake of the total chaos and unrest of the Arab Spring. Along with Bulgaria, it made some of the better films that I have seen in the last couple of years.

 

[OzzyFan]

That's disappointing to hear. I had a major Wes Anderson aversion for years until watching Moonrise Kingdom and especially Grand Budapest Hotel, which I thought was fantastic. I despised Fantastic Mr. Fox thought, partly for some of the reasons you mentioned here, and was worried that a return to animation might be a step in the wrong direction.

Wes Anderson's style is something you need to get used to because it's so unorthodox. When I first saw a film of his on TV and didn't have any background beforehand, I thought to myself "what the heck type of college arthouse indie film is this?" Haha. But once you get accustomed to it, his style is offbeat fun, a visual treat, and bluntly philosophical. That's not to say he doesn't have some misses in his repertoire, but he also has some greatness too.

 

[kihei]

The Unknown Girl (2017) Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne 4B

This one is an odd bird. The Dardenne brothers usual territory, which they explore superbly, tends to focus on the concerns and crises of working class French and Belgian people. Usually their movies (The Son; L'enfant; The Kid with the Bike; Two Days, One Night) are finely detailed character studies that carry both emotional and social impact. The Unknown Girl is a character study, too, of Jenny (Adelle Haenel), a young, pretty French doctor who is just learning that emotionally connecting with her patients is more important to her than she thought it was. To this story, a murder mystery is added in which Jenny doesn't seek to solve the mystery so much as to find out the name of the victim so she can provide her with a proper burial (Jenny has her reasons, though they are not criminal ones). There's really not much meat on this bone, but The Unknown Girl, like most Dardenne movies, is so well edited that I got swept up in Jenny's tale anyway. This hybrid narrative might have been able to work, or work better at least, but Haenel spends so much of the movie being inexpressive that she is never fully believable in the central role. She looks a little like Robert Pattinson's kid sister (if he has one). Indeed she possesses a bit of the self-containment that deepens some of his performances but in her case she just overdoes it and the impassivity becomes a hindrance.

subtitles

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

Like Father, Like Son: 8/10 Very good movie.

Our Little Sister: 7.8/1o

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Nah, he's had a few.

Hanzel and Gretel (which I loved), Arrival, Borne Legacy (which he was great in but had some bad script decisions), and Kill the Messenger (very good Biopic). Not quite the leading role but he was nominated for an Oscar in The Town.

Hanzel and Gretel and Arrival was more of him playing a supporting role to Gemma Arterton and Amy Adams. Those two were pretty clearly the main attraction. However, I never saw the latter two, which now makes sense why I haven’t really seen him in a lead since Hurt Locker.

Did see The Town and while that was supposed to be Affleck’s movie, I thought Renner put in the superior performance.

 

[Natey]

Hanzel and Gretel and Arrival was more of him playing a supporting role to Gemma Arterton and Amy Adams. Those two were pretty clearly the main attraction. However, I never saw the latter two, which now makes sense why I haven’t really seen him in a lead since Hurt Locker.

Did see The Town and while that was supposed to be Affleck’s movie, I thought Renner put in the superior performance.

What? He was the main star of Hansel and Gretel. He had the issue to overcome, he had the romantic relationship, he saved the girl, he was first billed. I don't get how he was playing a supporting role in that film.

Arrival, yeah, he was second fiddle to Amy Adams. But he was still the leading male character. And a huge part of the film.

He's also god a new movie coming out called TAG, which looks pretty awesome.