Letterboxd — Your life in film

Ursula Meier’s second feature film is a compelling social realist drama set in the glamorous holiday destination of the Swiss Alps. It is a story about the divide between the rich and wealthy who holiday at the summit in their luxurious ski resort and the locals who struggle to make a living at the foot of the mountain. The film is centered on a young boy who steals skis and equipment from the unsuspecting rich to help pay for food…

There are good movies about war. This isn’t one of them. It’s a soaring, sprawling, ambitious film about life – using war as its medium. Malick, love him or hate him, is a fantastic auteur and has a great methodical way to his films. Some may see this film as too broad and ambitious, but when it’s a film about life, won’t it always be (ambitious)? On a technical level, it hits perfection. On a philosophical level, you don’t get…

I guess that Mr. Park, after serving up three savoury dishes of vengeance, thought it might be appropriate to whip up a sweet and fluffy desert. I recently sampled two out of the three main courses, and I can tell you that desert is exactly what I had in mind.

Park not only cleansed my palette, but he also went straight for my heart. He somehow knew that I craved the ingredients of quirky, absurd, and heartfelt, yet balanced with…

Was this Michael Shannon's first big role? He really owns it...and wow, I'm reading wikipedia and Shannon played the same role in the stage version which the movie is based on.

Bug is a fun movie. It's got B-movie flare and without knowing otherwise you'd think it was made in the 90's. It even co-stars 90's mainstay Ashley Judd and the ageless Harry Connick Jr. The movie is a black comedy and perhaps a warm-up to William Friedkin's next film,…

I was one of 'those' kids. While my friends were reading choose your own adventure books and Encyclopedia Brown, my Mother mandated I read things like 1984, Moby Dick, and, oddly enough, Papillon. Not sure what I got out of them at that age, but I read them and liked some more than others (I've re-read 1984 dozens of times since then, but I can't bear to look at Moby Dick and some of the others that were thrust upon…

I was surprised...I liked this.

It's Soderbergh doing what he does best, take a genre and make a quick easy version that doesn't do anything new, but doesn't screw up either. Contagion sets a pace and a mood, held together by a nice score by Cliff Martinez, and it turns into a nice thriller. The premise is strong, and while we might not care much about the characters, we care about the outcome of it all. It has you wondering…

If ya'll had told me that Peter Falk was the grandfather in this, I would have watched this ages ago. Seriously, the happiness and joy of this film is one thing, but Peter Falk is something completely different.

Anyways, The Princess Bride is the pure definition of charming. It plays like a parody of the fantasy type films it seems to imitate, but there's also a genuine wish to tell a story that's a part of it. It's a notably…

This movie had no business being as fun as it was. Credit to Soderbergh, McConaughey, and most importantly Channing Tatum. Tatum was fantastic in this. Charming, funny, sweet, and endearing in a way I did not think possible. I guess the role was made for him, since it was based partly on his real life, but still, he brought a lot to a role that could have been extremely bland. Oh and dude can dance; very impressive.

There are several…

Flight marks Robert Zemeckis’ first live-action film in 12-years, but is this a soaring triumph for the director or does it crash and burn? In truth, the only thing that saves Flight from being a catastrophic disaster is Denzel Washington’s excellent performance as an alcoholic pilot who saves most of the passengers and crew on his malfunctioning plane after pulling off an audacious maneuver.

Zemeckis’ disaster movie-cum-character study attempts to be a moving exploration of addiction as Washington’s pilot -…

Side by Side is a documentary exposing different cinematographers and directors thoughts and opinions on shooting digitally and its takeover within cinema. The argument between celluloid and sensor is one I’ve been over and heard hundreds of times before, but in actuality, it comes down to personal opinion and preference.

On one side, you have directors like Tarantino and Nolan who seem to refuse to shoot on digital. Not only that, but they feel that film is far superior to…

Film #27 of the June Challenge
 
Wow, what a remarkable film!  Jean Renoir's 1939 French farce is a beautiful, ridiculous, over-the-top mess. It's about some vapid aristocrats, their servants, and all their twisted love affairs. It also features a lot of brilliantly realized social commentary and throws around some heavy metaphors and symbolism. For such a brief and deceptively light film, it's extremely complex and even disturbing at times.

An early scene in which they all go on a trip…