Letterboxd — Your life in film

I'm enjoying the Coen Brothers' work more and more as I make my way through their filmography (even if this is only directed by Joel!).

I went into this not knowing anything about the plot and I'm glad I did, because every twist came as a big surprise and I had no idea how it would end. Without any preconceptions I found the story brilliantly constructed and the script witty.

George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones are both excellent and they have a perfect chemistry that makes for a great rom-com.

It may not be a Coen Brothers' triumph and it certainly isn't as complex as their other work, but it's an easy and thoroughly enjoyable watch.

So it turns out I enjoy Snatch more with every watch!

The characters, the dialogue, the cast, the... everything. It's just fantastic.

I love Guy Ritchie's directing style. The intertwining stories are brought together brilliantly, and they are individually just as good as the last.

Vinnie Jones, Brad Pitt, and Jason Statham, are just a few of the big names in this and they each have their own hilariously memorable quotes.

Combining some of the greatest directors of their time, some of my favourites still today, you would have thought that New York Stories would have been quite the masterpiece. Whilst it's not awful, it still seems to be a collection of their worst pieces of film-making.

Martin Scorsese's opening act "Life Lessons" is quite forgettable. It's nothing really interesting and nothing really like his other work which was a shame.

Francis Ford Coppola's middle act "Life without Zoe" was probably my favourite. The story idea was clever and it was quite funny.

Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks" concludes the film with a great story but not one I could relate to as well as Allen's other films.

All in all, everything was very average.

I've seen a lot of people describe this film as "cute" and "cheesey", but they are probably the last two words I would use to describe Reality Bites. I would say it is a quirky, 90s high school drama that people of my age questioning, "What are we supposed to do now?", can easily relate to.

As Ben Stiller's feature directorial debut, Reality Bites isn't revolutionary but it's a great romantic, comedy drama if you don't take it too seriously. I hate hipsters too but Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke are both too brilliant to shrug off as dislikeable characters. They're romance is real albeit not very emotional but they have a great chemistry that makes the whole film very believable. I guess it's not a film for everybody and it won't be making it on any of my Top Film lists, but it works.

Shane Carruth has one complex mind. This is both a good and a bad point when thinking about Upstream Colour, or his filmography as a whole to be honest.

Just like Primer, I've had to do a lot of reading after watching this film. Fortunately, it turns out that the film was pretty straight forward despite its muddled structure, and that in fact I did understand what was going on at the time. However, it was hard to piece together in my head and I yet again had to read various plot descriptions to fully appreciate what I had just seen. I don't really like films like this, that purposefully don't make complete sense, but at the same time I didn't hate it. Still, what the hell was this?