Vintage Nettles

Rules & Guidelines:
1. Keep track of every film watched throughout the year.
2. First time movies only (for either myself or my partner).
3. Review each.
4. Attempt 12 movies per month minimum.

Last year in March a few friends and I attempted to start a 50 Movie Club in which we’d watch 50 movies and record them all to our journals. Unfortunately due to an EXPLOSION in life events I managed to post two films before that utterly died.

So this year, a reboot. 12 months, 12 movies per month (minimum), for 2010. That’s a lot of ones and twos. And I like it.

To try and not OVERWHELM myself or readers, I’m posting reviews four up. Cause its a tidy little number that fits into 12 nicely. That and I’m already sitting at 13 films… xD

RECOMMENDATIONS ARE WELCOME! Though we already have quite an impressive list, we’re always looking for more and I’m pretty much up for anything, though don’t kill me if I absolutely hate your favourite movie ^_^;;;

Life as a House

(2001)
☆ 3/5 Stapleguns
⇒ Much better and simultaneously much worse than I was expecting. The whole film reeks of “I am trying to get an Oscar, and I bet I will.” But that’s sometimes okay too. Hayden Christiansen’s niche role as ‘whiny confused emo kid’ is played out to the hilt, Kevin Kline pulls your heartstrings as you know he can. The rest of the cast is predictably endearing/mainstream quirky and as such are solid in their roles. One thing that irked me greatly though? WTF STAPLEGUNNING LIGHTS ONTO THE GORGEOUS TIMBER BEAMS?! AUUUUGH!! All that beautiful hardwood, ruined! ;_;

And Soon the Darkness

(1970)
☆ 2/5 Bicycle Spokes
⇒ Slow, ambling, but somehow intriguing. You don’t understand how the main women, Jane & Cathy, are even friends and a lot of the film/character motivations makes no sense at all. However, it does draw you in to the point where you do actually want to see the film out. One shakily delivered line in the movie fairly early on does give what one assumes to be the climactic twist away, but it doesn’t detract from the unlikely captivation. Definitely looking forward to see what the remake has to offer.
Image courtesy of Shadowplay

Moon

(2009)
☆ 4.5/5 Post-It Notes
⇒ NOT EVEN REMOTELY SIMILAR/HOLY CRAP NOTHING EVEN RESEMBLING THE TRAILER/WTH..! But! Gorgeously acted, beautifully set, wonderfully full of ‘show, not tell’ this tale plays out simply, cleanly and still psychologically – just not in the ‘edge of your seat’ thriller sense of the word. Though the plot is predictable, it stills feels fresh and never detracts from the message, concepts and your very real emotional response. Sam Rockwell is a hero, and Kevin Spacey renews our faith in Robotic Assistants. IN YOUR FACE, HAL! Gerty forever ;)
Image courtesy of New York Magazine

Trilogia: To livadi pou dakryzei (Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow)

(2004)
☆ 2/5 Non Sequiturs
⇒ This movie is depressing and then its depressing and then its depressing. Or at least, its trying to be. Unfortunately the director/writer, Theodoros Angelopoulos, attempts to be much smarter and deeper than he really is at the cost of the viewer being able to identify or even empathise with any of the characters. Instead you get apparently profound knitting, or a tree fruiting the corpses of dead sheep. Having to constantly be aware that you’re watching a movie so that you can work out the time shifts or that there has even been a passage of time detracts too from your immersion in the moods the filmmaker is so desperately trying to evoke. The moral of the tale? Not that every film needs a moral… ‘War sucks, no one ever knows whats going on and just when you think you may have hope or that someone is back from the dead, they’re dead anyway.’
Image courtesy of Mostra

Friday, January 15th, 2010, 5:55 pm   |   challenges, reviews  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback