Not since Saving Private Ryan I think has a film so powerfully depicted the horrors of war. It's set in WWI and focuses mostly on a group of very young German cadets. They enlist. They believe they will be in Paris in a few weeks drinking Champagne and hooking up with pretty women. Little do …
Continue reading All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger – 2022) A
The topic, the setting, the actors, the characters all sound so great on paper. A last minute or so twist helps. Does not make up all the way for a mostly dull movie.
I have to get how absolutely stunning looking this film is out of the way first thing. It is gorgeous with each frame, indoors or outdoors, that can be a prime candidate for a framed painting. On this fictitious island we start off with a quirky simple story where the older Colm (Brendan Gleeson) tells …
Continue reading The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh – 2022) A+
According to Roger Ebert, this is where modern movies started. The birth of jump fast cuts (sometimes illogically), the anti-hero who is downright unlikable, a plot that is at all not a plot, but a series of dialogues and scenes and posturing. We are hanging out with Laszlo Kovacs (Jean Paul Belmondo) and his girlfriend …
I want more. More Rian Johnson Knives Out Benoit Blanc mysteries. If there is a world where he can make one of these per year, I want to live there. It's fun, smart and constantly subverts expectations.
Had a good time watching this one, way more than I thought I would. Fast, funny and does not take itself too seriously. As the name clearly spells out this movie takes place pretty much entirely on a bullet train going from Tokyo to Kyoto. You have a bunch of hired killers, a briefcase, and …
I expected spectacle and I did get Spectacle for sure, like with a capital S. A fun thrilling sequel that, for me, was not "long-awaited". I really could not have cared had Cameron never made this film. So, yes it was a very pleasant surprise. The story avoids lots of the issues of the silly …
Continue reading Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron – 2022) B+
Yes, of course I would enjoy a well-made, well-acted, sharp film set in an ultra high end restaurant. It really is not about cooking or high-end restaurant culture per se. What I think it is about is making art, whether is is music or movies or whatever. It's about the artist who is "playing" to …
I can write a lot of facts about The White Ribbon. It's shown in brilliant black and white. It's set in the year or two leading up to the first World War of 1914. It takes place in a small German village where everyone knows everyone, most people work for the baron, and some weird …
Loved this hidden gem and one of the Verhoeven movies that I've never even heard of until it popped up on the Criterion Channel. Set in the final couple of years of World War II it tells a story based on the real life Rachel Stein, played by Carice van Houten who delivers a nuanced …
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