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All Ratings and Reviews are my opinion.
NOTE: I have seen lots of movies before I made this account on August 2020.
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Reviews
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
A good new continuation of the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise
While at times clunky with it's writing and dialogue, it's stunning visual effects, thrills, direction, and emotional weight of it's core helps maintain an fun, thrilling, and engaging fest of a movie for the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise. Wes Ball's direction on handling the narrative's setting, characters, and themes are solid and many of the special effects, motion capture, sound designs, and costumes are colorful, vibrant, and stunning. Each of the movements and VFX designs are genuinely impressive with their movements and realistic style.
All of the performances are great, especially Owen Teague and Kevin Durand as they perfectly captured their characters personalities and arches. Alongside with the musical score, action sequences, and camerawork. On characters, many of the ape characters were interesting to explore but meantime, the human characters, while have some moments, felt a bit distance to fully connect with.
Despite some of the clunky dialogue, narrative faults, and certain uninteresting characters, its emotional weight, atmosphere, and thrills have surpassed the negatives and ultimately provides a fun flick.
Aku wa sonzai shinai (2023)
Good slow-burn story about nature vs. people
Ryusuke Hamaguchi has made some interesting movies in his career like Drive My Car, Happy Hour, and Asako I & II. While I haven't been wowed by his works, I appreciate many aspects of his style and approach.
Throughout, this movie has some wonderful colorful productions, camerawork, sound designs and atmosphere which helped add layers of the nature landscapes and environment. The narrative provides some interesting themes of nature, conflict of interest, humans and humans vs. Nature issues and explores some interesting aspects that are strong. The performances are all pretty good as well.
However, I am a bit underwhelmed with certain aspects as I found some of the themes feeling a little uneven to work Hamaguchi is wanting to express. Especially when it comes to the characters as while I did found some of the characters interesting, I didn't feel too emotionally connected with their personalities and purpose which made it a bit difficult to fully invest at times.
The soundtrack is wonderful and the dialogue is solid. The film does suffer some pacing issues and with an ending that leaves to many interpretations which may be frustrating for some. Overall, despite it's flaws, it's mediative and nature experience made this movie pretty good.
Xiao bai chuan (2023)
Good Queer Romance from China
Rarely, queer works come out from China due to their traditions and culture and while A Song Sung Blue isn't amazing, it's beautiful atmosphere, soft tone, characters, and direction creates a melancholy and interesting romance story.
Storywise, it's the standard romance setting with some interesting concepts and ideas from the Chinese perspective. Although some feels repetitive, the performances, camerawork, and atmosphere helps make the movie well-crafted, engaging and at times, a bit emotional to observe. The colors reminds me of Portrait of a Lady on Fire quite a bit.
Overall, it's a good romance movie.
Déserts (2023)
Roy Andersson, Moroccan Style
If you love Roy Andersson, then this is for you.
An interesting road buddy comedy with wry humor explored throughout, gorgeous camerawork, strange but funny performances, and overall good sense of humanity and absurdity mixed together like candy. Filmmaker Faouzi Bensaïdi offers great direction choices to understand the characters purpose and personalities and the setting in which they are placed inside of. Including good visual gags, humor, and dialogue conversations throughout.
The narrative about a road buddy comedic isn't new but Bensaïdi does offer some new insight on the genre within the Moroccan landscapes and it did help add some funny layers to it. However, for it's 2 hour run-time, it does end up feeling a little exhausting towards it's third act and certain choices are a bit odd. But overall, it's a well-crafted movie.
Légua (2023)
Beautiful camerawork but a bit repetitive
Filmmaker João Miller Guerra & Filipa Reis provides an in-depth observation of the day-to-day of three generations of women and it's clear what their purpose and intentions are for this movie. With gorgeous camerawork, production, and sound designs, it achieves with many technical aspects and including the performances from the entire cast members.
Narrative-wise, it has it's faults because while the concepts are interesting, it's repetitive and uneven structure of what it wants to tell ends up being slow and vague with it's purpose. It felt like "Jeanne Dielman" but unlike it being masterful, Légua feels unfazed and unfocused with what's trying to be at times which ends up making it difficult to relate or understand much of the characters.
There are some good dialogue moments and designs as well. Overall, I did appreciate some of the aspects and while it is interesting, it's unfocused structure leaves more desired.
In Flames (2023)
Good slow-burn
While flawed with some of it's writing and pacing issues, no doubt, this movie is pretty ambitious with interesting themes explored within the narrative, good characters, performances, and direction throughout. Oftentimes horror psychological concepts aren't talked in Pakistan culture and it was pretty nice to see something different from countries I am not familiar with.
Many of the direction choices, camerawork, style and atmosphere was really good and carried alongside with wonderful performances from the cast members. Including some horror elements that, while some didn't fully work, did have some creative moments to add together. The characters and their journeys having to deal with the scenarios involved were interesting and helped to add some emotional layers to their developments.
Overall, while it isn't perfect, it's ambitious enough to show it is a good movie.
Blazh (2023)
Good Art-House Road Movie
Russian cinema is amazing as in the past Russia has provided some great works of art and while "Grace" isn't perfect, it's magical colorful presentation, interesting narrative structure, character conversations, and sound designs make this movie an experience to observe.
The filmmaker clearly if influenced from many art-house style and works and many of the camerawork and observation atmosphere approaches help create a vibrate, engaging, and interesting slow-burn study of the characters, setting, and concepts explored. Many of the performances felt nature and realistic, the dialogue is a bit clunky but mostly pretty good, and I love the atmosphere the movie was going through.
It isn't for everyone but someone who enjoys art-house movies, I enjoyed this one.
Shashvi shashvi maq'vali (2023)
Berries and Berries
I like stories where characters are living with a specific situation and being able to discover new things around life and Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry does a good character study drama with sweet atmospheres, good camerawork, wry humor, and good performance from Eka Chavleishvili.
Throughout, the camerawork is purposeful with colorful production and settings. The direction from the filmmaker was solid on capturing the tone, narrative structure, and concepts throughout as well. All in all it's a good sweet movie. Georgian cinema isn't something I talk much from but it was nice to see a movie from Georgia.
Agra (2023)
Probably the most messed up Indian movie I have seen?
When it comes to Indian cinema, shock value or really dark stories tend to not be often explored but with Agra, the movie carries some really interesting, yet, disturbing and pretty messed up concepts with strong direction from the filmmaker, flawed, yet, interesting characters, and strong performances from the cast members.
Following a character who is sexually repressed and an incel, the main character is well-explored in a slow burn study on examining his behavior as the movie does a good job on exploring his descent into madness, violent, and sex. With good camerawork, production, and sound designs, many of the performances are terrific and memorable to date.
Due to it being a slow-burn, there were some pacing issues that could have been improved and certain character decisions were questionable but not in a good way. Including some poor dialogue choices. But overall, it's messed up narrative yet interesting character studies helped to maintain it's structure.
Retratos Fantasmas (2023)
Good nostalgic presentation about old cinema and the history of film
Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho once again strikes with another good joint as this being a documentary, it's concept about the nostalgia of old cinema, especially Brazilian cinema, and from an personal lens, provides a strong sense of realism and nostalgic vibe throughout the setting.
It is a beautiful movie. Using archival footages and modern footage of today's time, the direction and concepts explored were well-explored and provides some unique facts, information, and feels about old cinema and how it resonate with Filho. While not everything worked for me, I found myself continuing to enjoy more works from Filho.
Talchul: Project Silence (2023)
Korean Sharknado
I don't mind silly horror gore movies as those Midnight type films are entertaining to watch. Unfortunately, this movie is the worst parts of those Midnight movies.
This movie is like Sharknado, but unlike it being self-aware and insanely dumb fun, this movie takes itself way too seriously and because of it, it provides an story that's terrible written, poor performances, unlikeable characters, and various terrible uses of poor special effects. It has a good concept but the issue is that filmmaker clearly has taken the movie way too seriously and instead makes it lackluster and so all over the place.
The special effects and creature designs are awful and it looks something from a bad video game. The acting is bad and everything about the movie is just poor.
What a shame.
Firebrand (2023)
Slay Queen, I mean literally, Slay
Honestly, I am a bit surprised with the low reception this movie has been getting because while I can understand some of the writing faults and direction choices being strange, I still thought it was an good ambitious tale of Katherine Parr with strong direction from Karim Aïnouz, gorgeous costumes, and strong performances from the entire cast.
Karim Aïnouz's direction remains powerful and vibrate and with this being his first English movie outside of Brazil, while some choices were odd, his direction remained well. The costumes, colorful presentation, musical soundtrack, designs, and the structures are all great. All of the performances are good as Alicia Vikander and Jude Law have great chemistry both volatile, smart, and love. The writing has some interesting concepts, themes, and atmospheres explored which I enjoyed, although some being predictable. The camerawork, unfortunately, is the worst aspect because the camerawork felt flat and usually Aïnouz approach on the camerawork is pretty good but here, it feels too flat which made certain moments feel lifeless.
Overall, it's not one of Karim Aïnouz best works but I thought it was ambitious and still engaging throughout.
Banel e Adama (2023)
Colorful, ambitious, and full of fables
First, I appreciate the filmmaker crafting an poetic narrative about love, culture, and it's honesty deception of Senegalese culture with some of the most gorgeous camerawork, color presentation, and musical soundtrack. The characters of Banel and Adama are explored pretty good that understand their actions, traditions, feelings, and the issues they are facing within their community and home that helped developed their arches and keep them engaged throughout.
With good performances, many atmospheres and themes are good and the magical realism, romance, and warm style choices are wonderful. It's narrative conveys a emotional development to it's character pretty well but I did wish the writing is able to be better because there are some aspects that were uneven and felt too thin. Including some cultural moments and traditions that I personally thought could have been explored a bit more.
But I applaud director Ramata-Toulaye Sy being able to craft something unique and I am interested to see what else she offers in the future.
Ayeh haye zamini (2023)
Amazing masterful exploration of the conflicts of individual's lives in Iran
Iran cinema has continued to impress me with their ambitious atmospheres, stories, writing, and concepts and this movie is another masterful work.
Presented using interesting setting structures and direction approaches, many of the themes of authority over people and gender problems are well-explored with being mixed of both serious and satirical tones that are strong and appropriate. Many of the dialogue between the characters are amazing and nature, the performances from the cast are great, and the writing and camerawork is honestly great. The filmmaker succeeds on presenting the issues woman and people face in Iran with it's ambitious themes and the style choices and sound designs felt purposeful.
For a short run-time, it succeeds with many moments. Another Iranian masterpiece to add.
Salem (2023)
Redundant and mess
Little as possible, this movie is a big mess. The direction and the writing tries to explore some interesting themes of a Romeo and Juliet romance scenario and other concepts but unfortunately, the filmmaker clearly doesn't understand how to handle each component properly and creates a messy story, unlikeable and annoying characters, and structures and atmospheres that are quite all over the place.
Many of the dialogue moments felt unrealistic as they felt cheesy and forced. There are some good camerawork and the performances are doing their best. But unfortunately, each moment just feels more redundant.
Rosalie (2023)
Good intentional but falls flat
The drama about the life of the bearded lady is well-intention and has beautiful camerawork and production. But unfortunately, just like the previous filmmaker's movie "The Dancer (2016)", it's cliched narrative structure, thin characters, and dull style approach fails to fulfill it's narrative purpose and themes throughout.
The colorful costumes, production, camerawork, and setting is good and the performance from Nadia Tereszkiewicz was great and is the best aspect about the movie. Including some good soundtrack. However, the predictable writing, over-exposure lighting, and uninteresting characters fails to engage the important aspects and causes the story to become a bore. Ends up feeling like the standard Hollywood biopic structure with no new approach.
Overall, I can see the good intentions from the filmmaker but I wish the movie had done a better job.
Wadaean Julia (2023)
Harrowing and tough watch on the modern issues, politics, and problems faced in Sudan
What "Goodbye Julia" succeeds is that it accomplishes with crafting a narrative about the harrowing issues and politics in Sudan with great sense of humanizing writing, flawed, yet, interesting characters, gorgeous direction and camerawork, and strong performances within the entire cast members. It's raw deception of the country, the conflicts, tension, and issues the characters are facing are genuinely investing as the saga of human emotions going through the divide is well-explored with gorgeous colors, wonderful music, dialogue conversations, and atmospheres throughout.
Exploration of woman and the problems are wonderful themes the filmmaker is able to fully explore well enough. Including the structure and style presentation. Although I wished the third act was a bit stronger since it felt a bit too rushed, the overall engagement and rawness made this movie great.
First time seeing a flick from Sudan. Wonderful!
Baavgai Bolohson (2023)
Wonderful slice of life movie about brotherhood and Mongolian lifestyle
From someone who loves Asian cinema, I have never seen a movie from Mongolia before and it was really nice to get to see a film from a country I haven't heard discussed much. Director Zoljargal Purevdash debut feature is a powerful, emotional and heart-wrenching tale about siblings doing their best to help one another with beautiful camerawork, realistic characters, and strong performances from the entire cast members.
Many of the interactions, dialogues and chemistry between the characters were heartwarming and they felt realistic due to the direction, atmosphere, and tone explored. Many of the themes, colorful camerawork, sound designs, and emotional depth between the characters and setting helps to relate to the characters and it genuinely made me feel for the children and wanting them to see them do better in life.
The conflicts the characters face were engaging to observe and even the side characters, despite being minimal on screen, are memorable as well. While there are some pacing that could improve and the ending did feel a little abrupt, Purevdash does an excellent job on capturing the life of people in Mongolia and I am excited to see what she offers next.
Les meutes (2023)
The insanity and tension to get rid of a corpse
A good noir movie about a kidnapping gone terribly wrong and the tension and dramatic moments of trying to get rid of the evidence. Throughout, the camerawork, pacing, and the performances from the cast members are pretty good as it helps to add the tense atmosphere, engagement, and clumsiness throughout in both nerve-wrecking and thriller ways. Including some great character dynamics and direction as well.
The narrative is the standard "getting rid of the body" genre and there are some moments that could have been improved and some of the characters being too thin to connect with. But for a runtime of less then 95 minutes, it's a good noir crime story with good thrills and good pacing where not a single moment feels boring. Moroccan cinema hasn't been discussed much and I'm happy to see more works from Africa coming out.
A Flor do Buriti (2023)
Strange, yet, fascinating hybrid doc-fiction exploration of the Krahô tribe
Brazil has an interesting history when it comes to the discussions about the tribal communities and their culture, lifestyles, and history. The filmmakers has an interesting but strange approach on exploring the stories about the Kraho communities but with colorful camerawork, good sound designs, observations, and interesting themes being explored, it creates a really good meditative and informed story about the cultures, communities, and the conflicts happening at the same time.
Filmmakers João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora pay respect to the community by providing interesting conversations with the characters, some emotional and engaging aspects about the conflicts of freedom, the people, and the controls happening, and the beautiful sound designs throughout the woods that helps to add the atmosphere and tone.
Many of the style and presentation choices remains me of Apichatpong Weerasethakul which I say is the biggest fault since it takes a bit too much influence from his style. But as a whole, I found myself being floored and wowed with this movie. Definitely a slow-burn but worth it.
Rien à perdre (2023)
Typical French drama with a strong performance from Virginie Efira
Nothing is more frustration when the social service system and government is being stubborn and frustrating to communicate with. The narrative about the troubling aspects of the foster care system have been explored before and while filmmaker Delphine Deloget doesn't really offer anything new to the setting, the direction, atmosphere, and strong performances maintain a tense and engaging conflicting drama to observe.
Virginie Efira has continued to demonstrate she is one of the best French actresses working today and her performance was very powerful and emotional. Including the other cast members as well. Accompanied with solid camerawork, dialogues, and tone choices explored. The narrative is predictable as there were some choices that were a little frustrating (whether it was intentional, the choices felt a bit forced and questionable) and certain pacing issues half-way. The engagement and frustration helps to keep the movie going forward.
Le retour (2023)
Families & Secrets
For those that are unfamiliar or familiar with, there have been some controversies surrounding the movie which includes undeclared scenes and sexual assault allegations between the cast and production during the filmmaking. I acknowledge the controversies which are pretty bad but I try my best to go with the mindset of separating the art from the artist.
As a whole, stories about families, secrets, discovery, and past aren't stories that are grand and have been explored in the past. Filmmaker Catherine Corsini doesn't offer anything too special with it's narrative and direction, but the colorful camerawork, strong performances and chemistry, and interactions between the characters helped the movie to feel engaging and meaningful.
The colorful camerawork, some interesting themes, and characters interactions felt genuine and engaging to observe with emotions and secrets explored. All of the performances are great and the uses of sound designs are really good. As mentioned, the narrative isn't special as it does full into some cliches and eventually felt a bit lost with what it really wants to be. Including some characters feeling a little underdeveloped.
Overall, if you enjoy watching stories about secrets, families, and past, this would be for you.
Il sol dell'avvenire (2023)
Solid meta commentary about filmmaking, entertainment, and art
Nanni Moretti is a filmmaker that while I wouldn't say he's my favorite Italian filmmaker, I have appreciated many of his doc-fiction/meta commentary films like "Dear Diary, The Son's Room, Ecce bombo, and so forth." While "A Brighter Tomorrow" is one of his weaker works, Moretti still has a heartfelt, humorous, and fun meta commentary stories with good dialogue, charm, and performances throughout.
With it's colorful production and simple setting, Moretti is able to convey interesting themes, atmospheres, and conversations within the setting that is explored pretty good and providing some strong moments about the frustration of filmmaking, art, and how it can put an affect in both fiction and reality. Many of the performances are good, there was good soundtracks, and camerawork. It's weakest parts are the narrative because while the narrative does have some strong moments, some of the uneven concepts and clearly too much influence of Federico Fellini's 81/2 causes the story to become a bit repetitive and self-indulgence at times. Including some character development needing some improvements.
Overall, Moretti latest work isn't grand but it remains heartfelt and solid.
Le théorème de Marguerite (2023)
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers
An interesting premise about mathematicians, solutions, experience, and autonomy with a strong lead performance from Ella Rumpf. Concepts about mathematicians and the solutions to solve them aren't something I am very familiar with but the idea of how it process is interesting. Filmmaker Anna Novion does a pretty good job on presenting the direction of the atmosphere, tone, and camerawork as there are some really interesting camera shots and presentations.
With good performances, Rumpf's performance as the main lead is pretty good as she presents an interesting, while at times, noisy, character study that is engaging to observe. Unfortunately, the fault of the movie lies on it's uneven narrative and themes approached. It's narrative explores some interesting concepts about errors and discovery but unfortunately, it lands onto some cliches that are boring and providing some side characters that have little development or engagement to connect with. Creating the movie to lose it's steam.
Nevertheless, for mathematician individuals, this movie will do good for the demographic.
The Garfield Movie (2024)
A not-so-good fuzzball
Look, I loved reading the Garfield comics growing up but unfortunately despite a few good moments, it's a bad hairball.
The animation is solid with cute character designs that reflect perfectly to the Garfield comics, setting and environment with good uses of colors, lighting and background designs. The sound design and the soundtrack is pretty good. But that's about it. Storywise, it's messy I suppose. Garfield and Odie are interesting characters however, the movie doesn't give them enough time to shine and includes new characters that are uninteresting and quite unbearable.
The voice performances were okay but Chris Pratt's voice performance is one of the most dullest and lifeless performances ever. I don't dislike Pratt as he's been in some great movies but as Garfield, he really is miscasted.
Sure, there are some okay humor moments and there are some parts that I thought were pretty interesting. But that's all I can say. I brought a few of my relatives siblings to tag along and they enjoyed it, so there's a plus.
Mark Dindal, you made The Emperor's New Groove and Cat's Don't Dance, you can do better then this! Oh wait, you made Chicken Little, never mind.