Letterboxd — Your life in film

'What's the worst word you can possibly imagine?'

I was impressed by this film as an adaptation of what I consider to be an un-cinematic novel - so much of the thought and emotion that McEwan was able to put on the page, Wright was required to make his audience infer, and he accomplished this with expertly crafted sequences. The editing, score, shot composition...all masterful and complementary.

Observations:
- Keeping Juno Temple after recasting Saoirse Ronan was an odd choice.…

'Don't be afraid...'

Such a good film. All the stuff up to and including Batman's first appearance is stellar and really holds up, the photography is great and the scene where the audience gets a criminal's POV of Batman is genius (emulated fairly well by The Incredible Hulk, where it makes less sense). I'm less keen on some of the stylistic choices in the latter half of the film, especially when compared with followup The Dark Knight, but it hardly…

'No crying, y'hear?'

This film is majestic, engaging, fantastical, dreamlike and socially relevant. If that doesn't appeal, then damn. It's no wonder it took the festival circuit by storm, especially coming from nowhere - Benh Zeitlin is definitely going to be feeling the pressure when it comes to his follow-up feature, but I'm really excited to see what he does next.

The central father-daughter relationship really absolutely makes the film. Usually it would bother me that such a young child…

The trailer for this movie really grabbed me. I'm a sucker for heavily stylized visuals and 80s throwbacks with pulsing scores. The trailer promised a mood and aesthetic I was totally on board with, and it delivered on that front, but not on others. It was needlessly self-indulgent in its minimalism, and although it was clear that the sparse dialogue and vague allusions to unseen story elements were in service of the overall feel - I wanted more. I couldn't…

Far funnier than one might initially imagine it to be, with four excellently realized characters and pitch-perfect performances. We're presented with four perspectives on how a playground scrap should be dealt with by the parents of the two children involved, and each has an authentic and, at times, hilarious point to put across, which they articulate more and more as time passes and civility dissolves.

Observations:
- This film could just as easily be called 'Spite'.
- There may have…

'I'm an apex predator...'

As a comic book reader, superhero movies not based on comics have to do quite a bit to impress me. It's a challenge to compete with adaptations, which have a rich history of source material to draw from, the central concept and themes of which have been refined over decades, and needless to say even the vast majority of adaptations don't turn out so great. So I'm pleased Chronicle can join Unbreakable and The Incredibles in…

'You look ready.'

This film is easily compared with The Raid, which has essentially the same setup, without the bells and whistles of futuristic drugs and sexy psychic Olivia Thirlby. The Raid, being a relatively low budget martial arts flick, impressed me more. The Raid overcame a neat but slim premise by being extremely creative with its action, not just in its fight choreography, but with the basic setups of each individual conflict. Dredd was brutal, and entertaining, but ultimately…

'Unfortunately I misjudged you, you are just a stupid policeman...'

The movie that started it all, and it's easy to see why. Most of the key elements of what we know as Bond are already in place, from the familiar phrases to the flirting with Moneypenny. However, because it's the first big screen outing for Bond it isn't anywhere near as formulaic as latter Bonds would become.

Things really get good upon the arrival at Crab Key. Up to that…

'...shit.'

This is pretty much a does-what-it-says-on-the-tin movie, maybe a little surprising stylistically, which is great, but not in terms of story, which was fairly generic. Well, very generic. It's cool to see Gina Carano do her thing however, and Soderbergh straddles the line between glamorized violence and gritty realism, resulting in a pretty cool film indeed. I expect it to grow on me if and when I rewatch it, although I felt it never really built tension like it…

'For a few to be immortal, many must die.'

Yes, the car crash is bad, and yes, JT isn't the best leading man. Yes, the time puns are frequent and often cheesy (I'm okay with this), and yes, more could have been done with the concept. HOWEVER, it's a damn handsome movie (a dry run for Deakins shooting on digital before Skyfall with slick costume design from Colleen Atwood), it knows how silly it's being when it's being silly, and…