A few reviews

[bionicbob]

Asteroid City (2023)
... There is an interesting meta thing happening, on several planes of reality and meaning, but I was too distracted by the general bibble to really ponder it in much depth. Definitely not for the Anderson-sceptics and possibly not for some of his fans either.

I agree. This Anderson at his most Anderson -- completely unreined. Which is both inspiring and maddening LOL.

As I watched, my more mainstream brain wished the movie had just stayed within the reality of Asteroid City and had forgone the stage play element.

 

[TM2YC]

Society of the Snow (2023)
I saw 'Alive' back in the 90s but I didn't remember much more than the setup of this real life story, so this superb new dramatisation of the Flight 571 Andes disaster was edge of the seat all along. If you're in any way a nervous flyer do not watch the terrifying opening scene! After that it's nerve shredding survival horror, but by the end it's morphed into this powerful and subtly beautiful exploration of what it takes to survive, with increasing use of Catholic symbolism. I'd have to watch it a second time to re-think the meaning of the voice-over. The grainy cinematography looks convincingly like it was shot back in the 70s. Michael Giacchino's soaring emotional score works just as well for the sombre scenes, moments of terror and sweeping epic landscape shots.

 

[TM2YC]

Elemental (2023)
Another blandly adequate entry from Pixar. If you're excited about seeing what a weird and wonderful world populated by beings who are literally the four classical elements would be like, then don't be, it's exactly like our world (similar problem to 'Onward'). e.g. "What would a fire being use instead of flammable paper?!? Er just paper, they can read books, it's fine. Okay but what about water beings, they couldn't use electronics?!? Er they can, they've got iPhones and headphones and sh*t, it's fine". After spending the whole film repeatedly telling us and showing us that water and fire cannot touch (we see water beings instantly boiling in the presence of fire beings), the protagonists can touch, it's fine. Continually showing us that the threat from the water overspill is negligible, was an odd way to set it up as the big threat at the end. With all that said, the romance is cute, plus it gets points for trying something a bit different from the standard Disney plot because there is no villain.

 

[mnkykungfu]

^FYI, I complained about this in my Letterboxd review, and it was obvious to me that the villain plot was cut. (Why is that wall leaking in the first place? It looks clearly sabotaged.) I found out there was a villain. It didn't test well apparently.

The water dude's super-supportive mom is a secret racist, and wants to drown all the fire people. There was a whole sub-plot of her using her influence to clear out the town, and she was discovered in the end. Relics of these scenes are on Disney+ in the extras. Now it makes a whole lot more sense why Catherine O'Hara was wasted on the role.

 

[TM2YC]

^FYI, I complained about this in my Letterboxd review, and it was obvious to me that the villain plot was cut. (Why is that wall leaking in the first place? It looks clearly sabotaged.) I found out there was a villain. It didn't test well apparently.

The water dude's super-supportive mom is a secret racist, and wants to drown all the fire people. There was a whole sub-plot of her using her influence to clear out the town, and she was discovered in the end. Relics of these scenes are on Disney+ in the extras. Now it makes a whole lot more sense why Catherine O'Hara was wasted on the role.

Ahhhhhhh! That makes so much more sense of my confusion. Thanks. I was actually expecting a plot reveal as to who was behind it, only for it to be nothing???

 

[TM2YC]

Maestro (2023)
A 2-hour biopic about Leonard Bernstein which chooses not to dramatise any events from his long career and to not show why his work is import, or what it was, or why he made it, or into what cultural context it appeared. Half way through it's like they realise this and have an interviewer character just read out a list of his notable achievements to camera instead. When Bernstein's work is already widely known and celebrated external to the film, that decision is debatable but to do the same for his wife, when pretty much nobody knows who she is any more, yet still spend half the film on her, is a bit odd. The accents of Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan and Sarah Silverman are pretty out there, although not that far from the reality. Cooper's performance in strong but Mulligan seemed to be mostly stuck in that half-smiling/half-sad expression she does by default. The film looks very nice at least.

 

[TM2YC]

Nyad (2023)
'Nyad' looks like one of those annual middling award's season worthy movies and maybe it is a bit that, but the A-grade quality of the empathetic acting by the three leads Annette Bening, Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans had me completely hooked. I doubt it will win any awards for the unremarkable film-making but it's still 2 of the more enjoyable hours I've spent with a movie this year.

 

[TM2YC]

Saltburn (2023)
A satisfyingly dark and acidic, yet nuanced, satire on class and privilege. What makes Emerald Fennell's script and direction for 'Saltburn' tower over other films that might attempt this subject, is that she has such sympathy for the endlessly rich and effortlessly powerful characters who might otherwise be one-dimensional bitter takedowns. The casting is very smart, using actors who come from similar class/social structures to that which they portray. I personally greatly enjoyed the nostalgia trip the jukebox soundtrack took back into early 2000s indie-pop, plus I always love a 4:3 film and Fennell uses the format to perfection. The twist 2/3rds through was obvious to me from the start (not the final twist, which is so deliberately obvious, it's obviousness is pointed out in the ironic dialogue), fumbled in it's narrative execution and felt a little cliched and inauthentic from a class perspective. It was just a function of the script that needed to be there to make the last act happen and did feel like it was handled with as much care as that implies. But that was the only blip in an otherwise very fine film. I can see why the glorious ending sequence has been generating buzz.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

I loved the movie up until they seemingly lost trust in the audience. All of the hospital room stuff—both at the beginning and end—could go IMO. If it would’ve left things more ambiguous it may have been my favorite film of the year. There are two scenes (avoiding spoilers) not including the final scene that are getting a lot of attention and, while they work for me, it’s a shame those scenes are distracting from the rest of the movie.

 

[TM2YC]

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
I knew this 6th and final film in the Tomisaburo Wakayama franchise had a reputation as the weird one. It's got a legion of ski-ninjas, terminal incest, ghost magic, and a trio of mole-men assassins. There are still some cracking sword fights but the babycart's minigun gets overused and the film ends with Retsudo pursuing Ogami through the snow on a bazooka firing sled. This was released a year after the smash hit 'Enter the Dragon' and you can hear the influence in the funky Lalo Schifrin-style score. Considering this film has to introduce two previously unknown Yagyu sons/daughters, just to give Ogami somebody left to kill, plus sees him wipe out the rest of the massed Yagyu clan, I don't know why they didn't end this with a final battle to the death with Retsudo himself. I'll have to wait till I get to 'White Heaven in Hell's chapter in the fascinating book 'Father, Son, Sword: The Lone Wolf and Cub Saga' to read the full story of why this ended here, like this.

Father, Son, Sword: The Lone Wolf And Cub Saga Book

Buy Father, Son, Sword: The Lone Wolf And Cub Saga Book from Arrow Films.

www.arrowfilms.com

 

[TM2YC]

Rustin (2023)
Colman Domingo's title performance as civil rights organiser Bayard Rustin is the kind of one that makes you ask "Wow, why hasn't this 54-year old been the star of every movie so far this century!?!". I don't know about the real Rustin but you'd certainly march behind Domingo. The only problem is the guy playing MLK. The arc of the narrative leads up to the March on Washington and his "I Have a Dream" speech, but even with the score desperately trying to make it sound epic, the delivery falls flat.

 

[TM2YC]

The Canterbury Tales (1972)
Bawdy, badly dubbed, chaotic and scatological, with seemingly no scene that Pier Paolo Pasolini didn't think could be improved by having men and women running around naked. The live action recreation of a Hieronymus Bosch painting at the end was worth seeing. The film wasn't as funny as I was hoping for but if you were wondering what Doctor Who's c**k looked like, this is the place to find out.

^ I chuckled at this vintage UK trailer, which due to censorship is unable to show the 1972 British viewer the saucy scandalous stuff, so makes that tease a part of the marketing. "Uninhibited wenches of many virtues" and "Where's he taking her... I give you two guesses!"

 

[TM2YC]

Poor Things (2023)
I hadn't watched/read much about this but I knew the vague premise, knew it had had good reviews and it was by Yorgos Lanthimos, so I was already sold. Therefore I didn't know it was going to be like Francis Ford Coppola does steampunk 'Re-Animator'. I loved the appropriately childlike innocence with which the film approaches it's ideas. For a film depicting as much freaky gore and sex, its kind of beautifully wholesome and uplifting.

Reveal message: Spoiler

Not many movies could make the forced transplant of a man's brain with that of a goat, a sweet happy "alls well that ends well" conclusion to a narrative.

Mark Ruffalo is enormous fun as a self confessed cad. Willem Dafoe's accent occupies a no man's land between Irish and Scottish, which I was still trying to decipher by the end but his performance is still bloody wonderful (given the book, I'd assume it must be Scottish). Jerskin Fendrix's folktronic score is startling and original, he's knocked it out of the park with his first try. 'Poor Things' could be a contender for my favourite film this year.

 

[TM2YC]

Priscilla (2023)
I love the way Sofia Coppola creates such a slow burning intensity and disturbing mood with the pace of her direction and cutting. Her script cleverly shows us the events of Priscilla Presley's life completely from her perspective, so it's innocent, romantic, exciting and respectful, but leaves us the viewer with the room to feel it's creepy and sinister. I was very impressed that Australian actor Jacob Elordi could shift from note-perfect upper-class English in 'Saltburn', to disappearing into Elvis. Surely a major star of the future.

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Blue Bag Life (2023)
I guessed from the ‘Blue Bag Life’ title that this was going to be a documentary film full of sadness. It’s the kind of cheap thin plastic carrier bag you characteristically get in UK corner shops selling alcohol (lighters, rolling papers etc) 24-hours a day. I was struck by how a chaotic lifestyle can seem romantic and bohemian when you’re 30-something but deeply tragic when it’s still being lived into old age.

 

[asterixsmeagol]

Poor Things (2023)
Mark Ruffalo is enormous fun as a self confessed cad. Willem Dafoe's accent occupies a no man's land between Irish and Scottish, which I was still trying to decipher by the end but his performance is still bloody wonderful (given the book, I'd assume it must be Scottish).

I think Ruffalo is a good actor, but he is terrible at accents. Was he doing one as well? Have you seen All the Light We Cannot See?

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

… and Willem Dafoe’s natural accent occupies a no-man’s land between American English and an animated tortoise.

 

[TM2YC]

I think Ruffalo is a good actor, but he is terrible at accents. Was he doing one as well? Have you seen All the Light We Cannot See?

He is doing an English accent but it's so outrageously over the top that I loved it.

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Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
The tense opening scene shows how grating a song which I’ve enjoyed for years (the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s cover of ‘PIMP’, which I've got on 7" vinyl somewhere) can become with a skilled Director and the right tense context. I love a good court room drama and this is one of the best. The “justice is blind” metaphor is very clever.

 

[TM2YC]

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
A 23-years too late sequel which nobody asked for is quite welcome nonetheless. The recasting of the voices to more-easy-to-market-in-2023-celebrities adds a touch of sour cynicism to an otherwise sweet film. The setup is a bit lazy in the first act but once the heist is on it's so much fun. Jane Horrocks' cheerily dimwitted Babs is endlessly hilarious.

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American Symphony (2023)
I’m not sure that a separate full concert film and companion making-of wouldn’t have been better than this combination of the two. It’s a good film but the brevity of the former leaves you not really able to comprehend the shape of what Jon Batiste was going for (if you weren't there on the night), plus more depth to the portrait of his and his wife’s powerful story would've been welcome. I did chuckle at one point when Jon is forging a melody on his piano and asking “where have I heard that tune before...?” and my thought was it’s Nigel Tufnel's ’Lick My Love-Pump'.

 

[TM2YC]

Shogun Assassin (1980)
Not significantly different in visual content than the 2nd 'Lone Wolf & Cub' movie but the amazing synthesizer score and chilling Daigoro voiceover make this bastardised Roger Corman recut pure class. The total disregard for the accuracy of the translation from Japanese into English has such flair. We'll just redub it so the scheming Retsudo is now the insane Shogun because why not!

The trailer is one of the most awesome things ever made (remastered in HD thanks to Criterion). Thanks in large part to the bonkers voiceover "Mad wizards", "One sweep of his mystic blade" "meet the greatest team in the history of mass slaughter" "sword and sorcery", advertising a movie that in no way features wizards or sorcery.

Now I've watched/re-watched them all, I'd rank the series as follows:

1. Shogun Assassin (1980)
2. Lone Wolf and Cub 3: Baby Cart to Hades
3. Lone Wolf and Cub 4: Baby Cart in Peril
4. Lone Wolf and Cub 1: Sword of Vengeance
5. Lone Wolf and Cub 2: Baby Cart at the River Styx
6. Lone Wolf and Cub 5: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons
7. Lone Wolf and Cub 6: White Heaven in Hell

 

[mnkykungfu]

Wow, the hack job as better than any of the originals? Blasphemy! I feel like you need to track down the final film then if you're including that one....