I've been dreading having to write about There Will Be Blood...I mean, come on! What can I possibly add to that discussion. I'll usually encounter a film like that and it holds up the rest of my reviews...but I don't think it's been quite this bad yet =)
i know exactly what you mean! i planned to do a long analysis the last time i watched it, but i ended up just gushing all over the thing. good luck, i'm rooting for you :)
Mini-review for "Samsara"? Go see...or skip? It's coming to my indie theater next month. Also--I do want to read what you think of TWBB, esp. in light of your review of "The Master."
mmmm...I personally had problems with it. Found it (not overtly so, but there...) reductive, exoticizing, and appropriative. But it is a very beautiful film, and I know I am reading into it. I don't regret seeing it, butit just left a bad taste in my mouth. (I haven't seen Baraka). Man I don't even know if I can call my review of "The Master" a review =) it's so highly subjective and based on my like idolization of PTA. You talk about this in your review, which I skimmed, but I'm holding off on really digging into reviews until I've watched it again. I do want to think about that way more though.
Ah, I too have a backlog of unreviewed films. But I'm trying not to sweat it - there was a point where I was becoming resentful of the influence Letterboxd was having over my viewing habits. I was always critiquing a film in my head as I was watching it, instead of just watching it. I tried to step back for a while, but I've decided not to worry about it. Just let 'em slip by. Letterboxd isn't important. Letterboxd is not important.
TWBB is overrated, though. Come on, you can say it.
@David I definitely hear what you're saying; watching movies is something I love, and never something that I want to turn into a chore. And so this list is dangerously close to being that. But for me, this really started out as a personal project. At the start of 2011, I started cataloging everything I watched on my tumblr. At the end of each month I would try to write a line or 2 about each one. Then I decided that I wanted to start writing something about each one for 2012. And I started all this before joining Letterboxd. I was also a film theory major in school, so those viewing habits were already there, they were just rusty =) But you're right, this is so not important (let me just refresh my feed hold on one sec ;) I don't know if TWBB is overrated and besides I'm a terrible PTA fangirl anyway. But I do think it is excellent. Not my favorite of his, but still excellent.
@Thomas I try not to think about catching up on reviewing films that I saw before 2011, I would drive myself crazy =)
and yea (@David & Noetic) that is something that I struggle with now...but I mostly try to enjoy the writing exercise, and not get too caught up in trying to say something particularly insightful.
I loved them both! I also want to read some of Jo Nesbo's books - some book critic said that Nesbo is the Scandinavian crime novelist we should be reading, not Larsson, and Headhunters only makes me more curious. Sexy Beast was fantastic. I love Ray Winstone so much. If you haven't seen 44-Inch Chest (written by the same guy and also starring Ray Winstone), I highly recommend that too.
It's somewhere in my mass of bookmarked films to watch, I'm sure!
I think, judging by Headhunters, that the critical comparison of Nesbo to Larsson is off because Headhunters was more like an action thriller - I said it in my review, but it reminded me of The Fugitive. It's certainly far more fun than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
I recently watched another film by the Headhunters director Morten Tyldum called Fallen Angels, which is one of a series of about 12 adaptations of the Gunnar Staalesen novels about Varg Veum that were done for Norwegian TV. I have to say it was very good, so Tyldum could easily be one to watch, and I'm trying to track down the other adaptations although he didn't direct any of the others. I've found some but not others, might have to hope they pop up on TV at some point!
=) I'm about to declare bankruptcy. I've also started going out of order a little... it's definitely getting to the point where it's hard to write about some of these. I try to take notes at the time on the things I want to talk about, but still!
Yes, 19 reviews is a heck of a lot to get through if you're not being paid for them.
I'm trying to get mine done by the end of this weekend, but then I've half-written a lot of them; often it's the films I have most to say about, or which mean most to me, that I put off posting about.
I would like to know my thoughts on Holy Motors too... =) I'm feeling a lot of pressure to say I loved it and thought it was excellent, when instead I just really liked it and thought it was really good. I was hooked from the start though, and really enjoyed the ride. The thing I latched onto the most was the comment on our society and on our disconnect from our emotions and each other. In this I agree, but it was just a bit too clever and self-satisfied for me to really love; or maybe there were too many people around me who seemed to be laughing in a self-satisfied and smugly clever way. But there's a lot more to it, things I did love, and things that didn't work for me. Still working through my thoughts though...I just saw it last night, and it usually takes me a while before I can formulate anything coherent.
a lot of these are already on my watchlist! can't wait to see what you thought of them.
I've been dreading having to write about There Will Be Blood...I mean, come on! What can I possibly add to that discussion. I'll usually encounter a film like that and it holds up the rest of my reviews...but I don't think it's been quite this bad yet =)
i know exactly what you mean! i planned to do a long analysis the last time i watched it, but i ended up just gushing all over the thing. good luck, i'm rooting for you :)
Mini-review for "Samsara"? Go see...or skip? It's coming to my indie theater next month. Also--I do want to read what you think of TWBB, esp. in light of your review of "The Master."
mmmm...I personally had problems with it. Found it (not overtly so, but there...) reductive, exoticizing, and appropriative. But it is a very beautiful film, and I know I am reading into it. I don't regret seeing it, butit just left a bad taste in my mouth. (I haven't seen Baraka). Man I don't even know if I can call my review of "The Master" a review =) it's so highly subjective and based on my like idolization of PTA. You talk about this in your review, which I skimmed, but I'm holding off on really digging into reviews until I've watched it again. I do want to think about that way more though.
I have! I don't watch nearly as many movies as so many of the people here, so I try to make them count =)
Ah, I too have a backlog of unreviewed films. But I'm trying not to sweat it - there was a point where I was becoming resentful of the influence Letterboxd was having over my viewing habits. I was always critiquing a film in my head as I was watching it, instead of just watching it. I tried to step back for a while, but I've decided not to worry about it. Just let 'em slip by. Letterboxd isn't important. Letterboxd is not important.
TWBB is overrated, though. Come on, you can say it.
I have 3000 movies not reviewed on here. Too bad there's no way to import from criticker.
@David I definitely hear what you're saying; watching movies is something I love, and never something that I want to turn into a chore. And so this list is dangerously close to being that. But for me, this really started out as a personal project. At the start of 2011, I started cataloging everything I watched on my tumblr. At the end of each month I would try to write a line or 2 about each one. Then I decided that I wanted to start writing something about each one for 2012. And I started all this before joining Letterboxd. I was also a film theory major in school, so those viewing habits were already there, they were just rusty =) But you're right, this is so not important (let me just refresh my feed hold on one sec ;) I don't know if TWBB is overrated and besides I'm a terrible PTA fangirl anyway. But I do think it is excellent. Not my favorite of his, but still excellent.
@Thomas I try not to think about catching up on reviewing films that I saw before 2011, I would drive myself crazy =)
and yea (@David & Noetic) that is something that I struggle with now...but I mostly try to enjoy the writing exercise, and not get too caught up in trying to say something particularly insightful.
Looking forward to your views on Headhunters and Sexy Beast, Julie. Two great films in very different ways.
I loved them both! I also want to read some of Jo Nesbo's books - some book critic said that Nesbo is the Scandinavian crime novelist we should be reading, not Larsson, and Headhunters only makes me more curious. Sexy Beast was fantastic. I love Ray Winstone so much. If you haven't seen 44-Inch Chest (written by the same guy and also starring Ray Winstone), I highly recommend that too.
It's somewhere in my mass of bookmarked films to watch, I'm sure!
I think, judging by Headhunters, that the critical comparison of Nesbo to Larsson is off because Headhunters was more like an action thriller - I said it in my review, but it reminded me of The Fugitive. It's certainly far more fun than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
I recently watched another film by the Headhunters director Morten Tyldum called Fallen Angels, which is one of a series of about 12 adaptations of the Gunnar Staalesen novels about Varg Veum that were done for Norwegian TV. I have to say it was very good, so Tyldum could easily be one to watch, and I'm trying to track down the other adaptations although he didn't direct any of the others. I've found some but not others, might have to hope they pop up on TV at some point!
Thanks for the mini-review of Samsara. I'll give it a try, for the visuals, even if the subtext is a little off.
I hope you like it, and I'm interested to see what you think - I'm probably just crazy and over-sensitive.
Glad to see I'm not the only person with a list like this.
=) I'm about to declare bankruptcy. I've also started going out of order a little... it's definitely getting to the point where it's hard to write about some of these. I try to take notes at the time on the things I want to talk about, but still!
Yes, 19 reviews is a heck of a lot to get through if you're not being paid for them.
I'm trying to get mine done by the end of this weekend, but then I've half-written a lot of them; often it's the films I have most to say about, or which mean most to me, that I put off posting about.
I would like to know your thought on 'Holy Motors'...
I would like to know my thoughts on Holy Motors too... =) I'm feeling a lot of pressure to say I loved it and thought it was excellent, when instead I just really liked it and thought it was really good. I was hooked from the start though, and really enjoyed the ride. The thing I latched onto the most was the comment on our society and on our disconnect from our emotions and each other. In this I agree, but it was just a bit too clever and self-satisfied for me to really love; or maybe there were too many people around me who seemed to be laughing in a self-satisfied and smugly clever way. But there's a lot more to it, things I did love, and things that didn't work for me. Still working through my thoughts though...I just saw it last night, and it usually takes me a while before I can formulate anything coherent.