Nine Queens (Day 10)
My Opinion: 6.4 || An entertaining, intellectually engaging movie about con men who are as busy trying to swindle each other as their mark. All the pleasures of a good fast-talking, fast-moving crime movie… Continue reading
Category Archive: Language
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Water (Day 9)
My Opinion: 6.3 || A sensitive, lusciously photographed film that depicts heartbreaking scenes with very little emotional manipulation. Deepa Mehta, who clearly has a great eye for color and composition, manages to indict the… Continue reading
Wild Strawberries (Day 8)
My Opinion: 6.4 || There’s much to admire, but I don’t think it holds the same fascinating power as Persona (my one other Bergman). As a frequently dreamy meditation on memory and age, it… Continue reading
The Front Line (Day 7)
My Opinion: 4.7 || An intermittently strong but ultimately flawed anti-war film. Strong acting, cinematography, and action staging are undermined by forced and wooden dialogue and too many credibility-straining moments. TITLE: The Front Line (Go-ji-jeon)… Continue reading
Nosferatu (Day 6)
My Opinion: 6.2 || A landmark movie that’s in bad physical condition. I wish I could have risen above the technical limitations. But for me, it was a movie more to admire than to… Continue reading
A Separation (Day 5)
My Opinion: 9.3 || Outstanding film. Like Tree of Life or Annie Hall or Persona, it’s impossible to identify a boundary between script and direction — it’s so obvious that they spring from a singular, cohesive vision.… Continue reading
Rififi (Day 4)
My Opinion: 5.3 || I’m a sucker for heist movies. One of the few (maybe only) genres where I can be satisfied with mediocre. And Rififi is not mediocre. In fact, the heist… Continue reading
Bus 174 (Day 3)
My Opinion: 7.0 || Excellent documentary about a bus hijacking and what it reveals about crime and poverty in Rio de Janeiro. The story of the hijacking is interesting in its own right, but… Continue reading
Bicycle Thieves (Day 2)
My Opinion: 7.3 || You go into a movie like this expecting sad, but what kind of sad? Dreary sad, tear-jerker sad, despair-for-humanity sad? Turns out it’s a better form of sad than any… Continue reading
Chunking Express (Day 1)
My Opinion: 6.5 || Some outstanding moments, a bold visual identity, memorable performances — and inspired use of music. But (great) style overwhelms narrative, and the lack of storytelling cohesion keeps it from being… Continue reading
