Jul 23, 2015

I think I love this film more than I should, but it's so well done..it was one of the bluray's I needed to get..and glad I got it awhile ago. Just a great film.. 8.4/10

 

Jul 23, 2015

It Follows is an indepenant horror film driven by a neat plot device. It's another addition to the subversion of horror catalog done by Scream, Cabin in the Woods, etc. Here, instead of the virgin having plot armor due to her purity, promiscuity is shelter. While there is much potential for this convention to be some sort of social commentary, I'm thankful I couldn't descern any. While I'm glad that didn't happen, I'm kind of disappointed they didn't touch on the existential dread that the follower represents. Not until the final shot anyhow.

While it's easy to like the film for its premise alone, there are some glaring issues. The over-eager director/DP's camera work can at times feel like empty gesture. The situations become a little repetitve and often rely on waiting. While this isn't necessarily bad, the waiting is used to build suspense (often redundantly) instead of building characters or relationships. Sure, horrors don't often need strong characters but this film begins the process and never follows through with it. Often the characters feel like ones pulled from a book and stripped of their intricacies for the sake of a film adaptation. A lot of gaps exist where maybe a young adult novella could thankfully fill us in. The problem is that novella doesn't exist. Finally, the climax of the film is just a mindfuck of stupidity. Once again, the characters in horrors are ususally dumb, right? The difference here is that it doesn't get them killed. They somewhat succeed despite their blunder.

The starless cast is refreshing. It's a fresh idea in a stale genre. Definitely flawed, but it's a good movie all the same.

 

Jul 25, 2015

Wrote on Bernard Shakey (aka Neil Young's) A Day at the Gallery..

70/100 - The entire concept is quite elaborate and exceptionally well executed, though A Day at the Gallery works less as a film than as an interestingly researched document of American folk culture. It perhaps belongs in a gallery.

http://nextprojection.com/2015/07/24/bernard-shakey-film-retrospective-neil-young-film-day-gallery/

 

Jul 25, 2015

Just now seeing this...

but yea, what's wrong with that?.. It's probably tied with Rear Window, as my favorite.. and probably my favorite Woody film, next to Annie Hall.

 

Jul 25, 2015

Was worried about this tbh

 

Jul 25, 2015

its an enjoyable film, sure, but wouldnt even come close to cracking my top five woody allen let alone top two films of all time... its a little slight no

and im put off by rachel mcadams depiction as a shrew.

edit: @Charlie Strangelove u didnt detect any social commentary in it follows?

edit: @Arch Dogg dogg you have a kid?

wtf guys

 

Jul 25, 2015

yes @Arch Dogg's kid is a s--- poster as well

no social commentary in It Follows? lol

 

Jul 25, 2015

probably for the 100th time

 

Jul 25, 2015

Three kids actually. I liked it raw in my younger days.

 

Jul 25, 2015

the simpsons movie again

 

Jul 25, 2015

Nothing so eyerolling that it hurt my experience. I was pretty engrossed by other aspects of it.
If there was (which there very well could have been) it was integrated into the plot well enough to be ignored.
I did write that right after viewing it and haven't thought much about it since or read any reviews.

Edit: I read Slant's review. I am not a smart man.

 

Jul 25, 2015

I respect that, to each his own my friend

 

Jul 25, 2015

Did this dude just say the cinematography in It Follows was a glaring issue? Welp, I'm done for the day.

 

Jul 25, 2015

Nah, I said some of the panning was showy for no reason. That "Jay in his driveway" shot especially. We'd already seen the suburbs, we'd already heard the girls talk about him moments before, we'd already seen him washing his car. Then they reestablish it all with a 360 shot for no reason. The color was pretty great and a lot of the finer details were nice. The car and parking garage scenes especially. Slant mentioned the sticks in the pool, but I liked him using the side of the pool with the filter and warning labels prominently in the shot just as much.

 

Jul 25, 2015

• 
  The Artist 2011
  ★★★ Watched 24 Jul, 2015
  A unremarkable faux-silent era film. A safe, conventional narrative in a novel, not so novel, package. Lacks the charm of the silent era, and only moderately offers silent film techniques. Way too little visual dialogue for a silent: much performance, little cinematography. A silent film for people who have never seen a silent film before. Stripped of all off-putting elements (characteristic film grain, shadows, fast motion, excessive theatricality) and designed for the modern popcorn viewer.
  
  60/100 - Decent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Ant-Man 2015
  ★★★ Watched 24 Jul, 2015
  
  A safe, tendentious superhero flick to put on the shelf with others. Subpar narrative, but stellar action and a focused script.
  
  65/100 - Decent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Inside Out 2015
  ★★★★½ Watched 24 Jul, 2015
  
  A captivating, high concept animated film from PIXAR which works on so many levels. Perhaps their best.
  
  85/100 - Excellent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Boys From Fengkuei 1983
  ★★★★ Watched 23 Jul, 2015
  
  Hsiao Hsien's understated depiction of youth: its pains, its desires, and its transformation.Finding his rhythm.
  
  83/100 - Great
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Like Someone in Love 2012
  ★★★★★ Watched 21 Jul, 2015
  
  An exceptionally subtle and fluidly conveyed narrative using real time and tense silence with masterful precision.
  
  93/100 - Amazing.
  
  1 like
  
  
• 
  The Drop 2014
  ★★★ Watched 20 Jul, 2015
  
  Tom Hardy is amazing in this scattered, somewhat heavy-handed, yet intriguing action flick.
  
  72/100 - Good.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Certified Copy 2010
  ★★★★ Watched 17 Jul, 2015
  
  A highly literary take on magical realism, at times convincing, others not so much, always captivating.
  
  82/100 - Great.
  
  1 like

 

Jul 26, 2015

Just a great "trilogy", Shaun & Hot Fuzz being my favorites of the three. The Word's End is good in it's own right though; I just love the Trilogy as a whole.. 8.8/10

 

Jul 27, 2015

K, with all the talk about it, decided to watch It Follows

• 
  It Follows 2014
  ★★★½ Watched 26 Jul, 2015
  
  The camera tracks vacancy, moral discontent, death of the sanctity of sex: the anguish of feeling empty inside. Sex and death.
  
  77/100 - Very Good.
  
  No likes
  

I don't really get these points... The virgin does have plot armour. Promiscuity is only shelter once the can of worms has been opened. That can of worms being one's p----. Sex puts you on the chopping block.

Why would the film require a young adult novella to explain its characters in better depth? lol

Isn't the whole succumbing to a moral loss of spirit and trading your soul by means of depraved prostitute shopping kinda the ultimate low the film is searching for?


By the way, the guy in the drive way is Greg.

 

Jul 27, 2015

The main character is usually the pure virgin who lives. In this, she has to keep having sex to survive. I wasn't speaking on anything deeper than that. After reading several reviews, it's pretty clear I was wrong about some things. I've confessed as much already.

Because there are some details that don't get fleshed out. Was the man in the pool her father? What happened there? Was she sexually abused? Was Greg just just checking out her friend for another sexual thing to throw in? Why does her friend have a stupid seashell phone (a reference to The Idiot apparently). She's basically a caricature. The sister relationship is abandoned once the film settles into its routine. As are most things it felt like. I could be wrong again, just saying the down time didn't feel constructive.

Jesus, I'll think tank my next book report mom. Didn't mean to let you down.

 

Jul 27, 2015

Reading and responding to @Charlie Strangelove made me think about it more... (thanks bro). Not sure if I'll go up any higher but it's possible.


It Follows 2014
★★★★ Watched 26 Jul, 2015

The camera tracks vacancy, moral discontent, death of the sanctity of sex: the anguish of feeling empty inside. Sex and death and the loss of self. Perspective is found in its finale: succumbing to a moral loss of spirit and trading one's soul by means of depraved prostitute shopping is the ultimate low the film is searching for. A literal expression of inner aching, unrequited desire, and fatigue, the film comments on vulnerability and loss of innocence, a generation of perverts in crisis confused in facing their simple existence to f--- and die.


79/100 - Very Good.

 

Jul 27, 2015

Gotcha. I didn't say i thought your comments were wrong, just didn't understand them. I didn't think much about the man in the pool or the guy checking girl out. I didn't think there was any indication on the first, and I think the second was simply to show what dogs 20 ish year old guys are. I think it was just truthfully observing what any 20 year old would do: check out some fine legs. It's the simplicity of this direct observation that works.

Agree with you about some of the aspects that don't feel constructive. I think it might be the reason I have some qualms against the film. I also think it falls a little bit too much into its own generic classification, using aspects of genre out of ease rather than necessity as a form of expression.