It's only January!

Everything I've seen in January...just for fun

Masterpiece(s): Vivre sa vie (Godard, 1962)

Near-masterpiece(s): Une femme est un femme (Godard, 1961)

Brilliant and the very, very good: Amour (Haneke, 2012), Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) Grizzly Man (Herzog, 2005), Hunger (McQueen, 2008) Killing Them Softly (Dominik, 2012), Notorious (Hitchcock, 1946), Silver Linings Playbook (O'Russell, 2012) Uncle Boonmee (Joe, 2011)

The solid and the meh!: Doodlebug (Nolan, 1997), Following (Nolan, 1998) Ip Man (Yip, 2010), Les Miserables (Hooper, 2012), Rejected (Hertzfeldt, 2000), The Sky Crawlers (Oshii, 2008), Primer (Carruth, 2004)

Well it could've been worse: Gangster Squad (Fleischer, 2013)

Ugh, I feel sick: Cashback (Ellis, 2006)

FILMS 2012, Entry #16

34 weeks

Total: 92 films

Good: Incendies, Audition, Greed, Blade Runner

--

Caught in the cinema:

1. Brave
2. Moonrise Kingdom
3. Bernie
4. The Dark Knight Rises
5. The Amazing Spider-Man
6. Prometheus
7. serbuan maut (The Raid: Redemption)
8. The Avengers
9. A Separation
10. Sink
11. The Hunger Games
12. John Carter
13. Margin Call
14. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
15. Moneyball
16. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
17. The Descendants
18. War Horse
19. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

--

Caught elsewhere:

1. Incendies
2. My Week with Marilyn
3. We Bought a Zoo
4. odishon (Audition)
5. Kick-Ass
6. chi bi 2 (Red Cliff 2)
7. Greed [1924, original release version]
8. chi bi (Red Cliff)
9. tropa de elite (Elite Squad)
10. Blade Runner [1991, director's cut]
11. Who's That Knocking at My Door?
12. The Departed
13. The Eastwood Factor
14. ultimo tango a parigi (Last Tango in Paris)
15. Casablanca
16. Casino Royale
17. Bullitt
18. Leon: The Professional
19. Inside Man
20. No Strings Attached
21. Easy A*
22. Requiem For a Dream
23. Melancholia
24. Martha Marcy May Marlene
25. 12 Monkeys
26. Red Eye
27. The Usual Suspects
28. Safe House
29. The Game
30. a bout de souffle (Breathless)
31. Taxi Driver
32. Pulp Fiction
33. sen to chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
34. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
35. Rashomon
36. l'arrivee d'un train a la Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat)
37. Rushmore
38. Bottle Rocket
39. Psycho [1960, original version]
40. Un Chien Andalou
41. Fargo
42. Heat
43. Up in the Air
44. Atonement
45. Another Earth
46. Rear Window
47. chinjeolhan geumjassi (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance)
48. Shaun of the Dead
49. Volver
50. Sherlock Jr.
51. Sherlock Holmes
52. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
53. The Dark Knight*
54. Four Lions
55. Lars and the Real Girl
56. l'enfant 
57. Hanna
58. Shutter Island
59. Goodfellas
60. Assault on Precinct 13
61. Notorious
62. City Lights
63. Bronson
64. Drive*
65. ajeossi (The Man from Nowhere)
66. cheng ji cha lou (The Teahouse)
67. Warrior
68. Dial M for Murder
69. Training Day
70. Winter's Bone*
71. oldeuboi (Oldboy)
72. Invictus
73. The Incredibles

FILMS 2012, Entry #15

31 weeks, 5 days

Total: 81 films

--

Caught in the cinema:

1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. Bernie
3. The Dark Knight Rises
4. The Amazing Spider-Man
5. Prometheus
6. serbuan maut (The Raid: Redemption)
7. The Avengers
8. A Separation
9. Sink
10. The Hunger Games
11. John Carter
12. Margin Call
13. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
14. Moneyball
15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
16. The Descendants
17. War Horse
18. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

--

Caught elsewhere:

1. Who's That Knocking at My Door?
2. The Departed
3. The Eastwood Factor
4. ultimo tango a parigi (Last Tango in Paris)
5. Casablanca
6. Casino Royale
7. Bullitt
8. Leon: The Professional
9. Inside Man
10. No Strings Attached
11. Easy A*
12. Requiem For a Dream
13. Melancholia
14. Martha Marcy May Marlene
15. 12 Monkeys
16. Red Eye
17. The Usual Suspects
18. Safe House
19. The Game
20. a bout de souffle (Breathless)
21. Taxi Driver
22. Pulp Fiction
23. Spirited Away
24. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
25. Rashomon
26. l'arrivee d'un train a la Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat)
27. Rushmore
28. Bottle Rocket
29. Psycho [1960, original version]
30. Un Chien Andalou
31. Fargo
32. Heat
33. Up in the Air
34. Atonement
35. Another Earth
36. Rear Window
37. chinjeolhan geumjassi (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance)
38. Shaun of the Dead
39. Volver
40. Sherlock Jr.
41. Sherlock Holmes
42. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
43. The Dark Knight*
44. Four Lions
45. Lars and the Real Girl
46. l'enfant 
47. Hanna
48. Shutter Island
49. Goodfellas
50. Assault on Precinct 13
51. Notorious
52. City Lights
53. Bronson
54. Drive*
55. The Man from Nowhere
56. cheng ji cha lou (The Teahouse)
57. Warrior
58. Dial M for Murder
59. Training Day
60. Winter's Bone*
61. oldeuboi (Oldboy)
62. Invictus
63. The Incredibles

"Take a close look at the world, keep on doing so, and in the end it will lay bare for you all its cruelty and its ugliness."

Andre Bazin, on Erich von Stroheim.

FILMS 2012, Entry #14

30 weeks

Total: 68 films

--

Caught in the cinema:

1. Bernie
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. The Amazing Spider-Man
4. Prometheus
5. The Raid: Redemption
6. The Avengers
7. A Separation
8. Sink (short)
9. The Hunger Games
10. John Carter
11. Margin Call
12. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
13. Moneyball
14. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
15. The Descendants
16. War Horse
17. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

--

Caught elsewhere:

1. Melancholia
2. Martha Marcy May Marlene
3. 12 Monkeys
4. Red Eye
5. The Usual Suspects
6. Safe House
7. The Game
8. a bout de souffle (Breathless)
9. Taxi Driver
10. Pulp Fiction
11. Spirited Away
12. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
13. Rashomon
14. l'arrivee d'un train a la Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat)
15. Rushmore
16. Bottle Rocket
17. Psycho (1960)
18. Un Chien Andalou
19. Fargo
20. Heat
21. Up in the Air
22. Atonement
23. Another Earth
24. Rear Window
25. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
26. Shaun of the Dead
27. Volver
28. Sherlock Jr.
29. Sherlock Holmes
30. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
31. The Dark Knight*
32. Four Lions
33. Lars and the Real Girl
34. L'Enfant
35. Hanna
36. Shutter Island
37. Goodfellas
38. Assault on Precinct 13
39. Notorious
40. City Lights
41. Bronson
42. Drive*
43. The Man from Nowhere
44. cheng ji cha lou (The Teahouse)
45. Warrior
46. Dial M for Murder
47. Training Day
48. Winter's Bone*
49. Oldboy
50. Invictus
51. The Incredibles

Short Cuts - Part #1

Short reviews of everything I have seen in the past couple of months, ranked from bottom to the top. In Part 2, I'll be writing about the three best films I've seen this past couple of months: Godard, Scorsese and Kurosawa. Not bad at all.

--

Prometheus (Scott, 2012): 4/10

Messy, contrived and often ridiculous. Immensely disappointing return to the Alien franchise for Ridley Scott. Screenplay was almost disastrous and editing was noticeably problematic. Astonished that its numerous flaws has been overlooked by a number of respected critics, simply because of its admittedly stunning visuals. Still, pretty pictures don’t make a film on their own.

The Amazing Spider-Man (Webb, 2012): 5/10

The Spider-man origin story receives the (500) Days of Summer treatment from director Marc Webb. Unabashedly commercial and completely harmless. As a whole the movie was utterly forgettable, complete with a strange and uncomfortable take on Peter Parker by Andrew Garfield. It will be very, very hard to get excited for the unavoidable sequel.

The Game (Fincher, 1997): 6/10

For the large part, it was interesting as a narrative experiment and a taut thriller. But in the end, it fails to reconcile the inherently conflicting tones in the screenplay and can’t quite decide what it wants to accomplish. The lame ending also diminishes and renders the tension generated in the earlier parts of the film somewhat meaningless.

Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994): 8/10

The copycats have reduced Pulp Fiction’s ability to shock. Regardless, it still remains an energetic and memorable film that is chock full of one-liners and quotable quotes. Yet it also showcases a surprisingly elegance in terms of both narrative and overall direction. More than anything else, it’s a reminder of how brilliantly Tarantino constructs characters and how his much-copied dialogue remains uniquely his own creation.

Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001): 8/10

Miyazaki’s much-celebrated film is meticulously crafted and beautifully realised. At its core, it is the simple story of a girl discovering what it means to grow up. Yet the film is far more complex than it appears: his constructed world lends itself to a discussion of greed, pollution and love amongst other heavier themes. Yet his skills as a storyteller ensure that the film never once strays from its intentions as a heartfelt ode to growing up.

FILMS 2012, Entry #13

27 weeks and 1 days

Total: 60 films

On my watch-list: Dark Knight Rises and Moonrise Kingdom.

Double edited to include Taxi Driver and Rushmore.

--

Caught in the cinema:

1. The Amazing Spider-Man
2. Prometheus
3. The Raid: Redemption
4. The Avengers
5. A Separation
6. Sink (short)
7. The Hunger Games
8. John Carter
9. Margin Call
10. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
11. Moneyball
12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
13. The Descendants
14. War Horse
15. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

--

Caught elsewhere:

1. The Game
2. a bout de souffle (Breathless)
3. Taxi Driver
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Spirited Away
6. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
7. Rashomon
8. l'arrivee d'un train a la Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat)
9. Rushmore
10. Bottle Rocket
11. Psycho (1960)
12. Un Chien Andalou
13. Fargo
14. Heat
15. Up in the Air
16. Atonement
17. Another Earth
18. Rear Window
19. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
20. Shaun of the Dead
21. Volver
22. Sherlock Jr.
23. Sherlock Holmes
24. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
25. The Dark Knight
26. Four Lions
27. Lars and the Real Girl
28. L'Enfant
29. Hanna
30. Shutter Island
31. Goodfellas
32. Assault on Precinct 13
33. Notorious
34. City Lights
35. Bronson
36. Drive*
37. The Man from Nowhere
38. cheng ji cha lou (The Teahouse)
39. Warrior
40. Dial M for Murder
41. Training Day
42. Winter's Bone*
43. Oldboy
44. Invictus
45. The Incredibles

une lettre d'amour

chère Sarah, comment allez-vous? Je sais que certains jours ont été terribles et ne semblent jamais finir, mais je sais que vous êtes assez fort pour tenir le coup. j'espère que les choses iront mieux pour vous, et n'oubliez pas que je serai toujours à vos côtés. Cordialement, Daryl.

FILMS 2012, Entry #12

25 weeks and 2 days

Total: 55 films

--

Caught in the cinema:

1. Prometheus
2. The Raid: Redemption
3. The Avengers
4. A Separation
5. Sink (short)
6. The Hunger Games
7. John Carter
8. Margin Call
9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
10. Moneyball
11. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
12. The Descendants
13. War Horse
14. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

--

Caught elsewhere:

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Spirited Away
3. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
4. Rashomon
5. L'Arrivee d'un train a la Ciotat (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat)
6. Bottle Rocket
7. Psycho (1960)
8. Un Chien Andalou
9. Fargo
10. Heat
11. Up in the Air
12. Atonement
13. Another Earth
14. Rear Window
15. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
16. Shaun of the Dead
17. Volver
18. Sherlock Jr.
19. Sherlock Holmes
20. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
21. The Dark Knight
22. Four Lions
23. Lars and the Real Girl
24. L'Enfant
25. Hanna
26. Shutter Island
27. Goodfellas
28. Assault on Precinct 13
29. Notorious
30. City Lights
31. Bronson
32. Drive*
33. The Man from Nowhere
34. Cheng ji cha lou (The Teahouse)
35. Warrior
36. Dial M for Murder
37. Training Day
38. Winter's Bone*
39. Oldboy
40. Invictus
41. The Incredibles

Writer's Block

Been having a bit of a writer's block recently. Wrote a couple of reviews and some other stuff and got really disgusted with my writing. GAHHHH!