I'm away for awhile, traveling. Happy movie watching, everyone!
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Everything Everywhere All at Once 2022
If only we could recognize that those who combat us in life do so out of hidden pain, and fight them with kindness. If only we could accept our kids for who they are, and say supportive things from the heart instead of trying to mold them. If only we could be content with the life we have, and set aside the idea of the countless other lives we might have led, had we made different decisions along the way.…
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Meek's Cutoff 2010
Absolutely loved this. Director Kelly Reichardt subverts nearly all of the usual aspects of what we’ve come to expect in a Western, and yet creates a film that is gritty, tense, realistic, and gorgeous. It’s an absolute masterpiece. So many of her decisions resonated with me:
- The 4x3 aspect ratio instead of widescreen, mirroring the perspective from a covered wagon or a woman’s bonnet. Along the same lines, the lack of extraordinary scenery (e.g. Ford’s Monument Valley), instead giving…
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Blues in the Night 1941
“My mama done tol' me, when I was in knee-pants…”
I’m probably rounding up a little bit, but the truth is I just loved discovering this little gem, which is a film noir with some jazz and a touch of the blues mixed in. It lacks major star power, but the casting is brilliant, and the performances were a real highlight. The story has a jazz band form in St. Louis, and after getting some inspiration while in jail (more…
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A Fish Called Wanda 1988
Such a fun movie. It starts with a pair of Americans (Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline) working a heist with a pair of Brits (Michael Palin and Tom Georgeson), and wastes no time getting to it. Both pairs plan to double-cross each other, and on top of it, Jamie Lee Curtis plans to double-cross Kevin Kline. She’s a bit of a playful femme fatale here and is turned on by foreign languages, even if what’s being said is random…
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The Toll of the Sea 1922
Seeing baby faced Anna May Wong, just one year out of high school at 17 and in her breakout role, is enough to make this film worth checking out. The film was shot in two-color Technicolor (red and green), which I found added to the images, rather than awkwardly detracting from them as I feared it might. Unfortunately, the plot is typical of the period, a variation of the popular Madame Butterfly story of 1898, and it’s pretty maddening. At…
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Rafiki 2018
“Growing up, I saw everybody else fall in love. I saw Europeans fall in love. I saw Americans continuously fall in love. But I never saw Africans fall in love. I saw Africans procreate. I saw Africans affected by HIV and AIDS, but those weren’t love stories. And so more than anything, I wanted to add a love story to African film history, and that’s why I made Rafiki.” -- Director Wanuri Kahiu
A touching story of two young women…
