Ulrich Seidl takes us on a journey to hell, manifested as a deserted Italian tourist town in winter, following a narcissistic hotel-crooner who is willing to do anything for a large bottle of Ratzeputz.
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EO 2022
Jerzy Skolimowski directed some of the coolest 70s films you've never seen, and here's an unexpectedly potent coda. A road movie about a donkey, which at first makes me think about Bresson (the animal considers the strange behaviour of the humans), but turns into something much more neon-psychedelic.
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The Prowler 1981
Generic and boring plot, but... Excellent kills, with beatuiful Savini gore. A Graham Parker & The Rumour lookalike band. An incomprehensible cameo by Lawrence Tierney. Are these elements enough to make it a good film? Not quite, but...
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C'mon C'mon 2021
Something about this rings phony to me, it's all so Oscar bait. But the performances save it, and especially Gaby Hoffman. She's been so good in so many parts ever since she was the kid in Uncle Buck. But this feels like the performance that brings it all together, that will give her the recognition and, ahem, hmmf, Oscar?
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Benedetta 2021
You take:
1 cup Ridley Scott-style historical epicThen add:
1 cup Nunsploitation (*sexually explicit)
1 cup arthouse sensibility
1 cup Starship Troopers-style subversive buffooneryMix, knead and put it in the oven at maximum temperature for 131 minutes, and what comes out is a fully loaded Verhoeven pudding.
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Let Him Go 2020
A neo-western full of grief, bitterness, disillusionment. When the sole light in your life is your young grandson. And you find out that he's in trouble.
Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are excellent as the retired couple who must buckle up to save their only descendant. And Alberta, Canada delivers a convincing performance as North Dakota. While the storytelling is otherwise on the generic side - it's a film that would have benefited from more care put into it, a…
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CODA 2021
CODA is short for Child of Deaf Adults, which is not a bad theme for a sentimental uplifting drama I guess. We follow Ruby, a young woman living in rural Massachusetts with her deaf parents and a deaf brother. She's the only person in the family who can hear. And her dream is to become a musician - hence music, singing, sound, the auditory plays a big part in her life - a part she cannot share with her family.…
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The Nightingale 2018
The Nightingale smacks me in the face with a first acts that culminates in such soul-crushing depravity, I almost couldn't take it. But once I decide to stick with it, the film takes me on a journey of revenge that feels unusually justified - never have the bad guys more deserved every ounce of pain that may and will be inflicted upon them. The avenger is fearlessly played by Aisling Franciosi.
The film is also a journey through the magical…