Jul 11, 2017

I wrote on a favourite film which I've never critically analyzed before. I wanted to understand why it's the masterpiece nobody believes it to be.

Bloodsport (Article linked below):
In spite of nostalgia’s effect on my revision, and in spite of Bloodsport’s apparent contrast to what we generally deem cinematic art, the cult-classic remains fastened on the minds of many a cinephile. Such a phenomenon surely calls for retrospection, and today, after viewing the now 28 year old film—which was released on my birth year—to an energetic 400 capacity venue in Vancouver, it will receive one...

Full Article:
https://aestheticsofthemind.com/2017/07/10/bloodsport-a-prime-example-of-affective-cinema/

 

Jul 18, 2017

saw baby driver yesterday. absolutely solid film.

 

Jul 19, 2017

rewatched the first two godfathers, classics. Gonna watch the 3rd one for the first time tomorrow

 

Jul 21, 2017

Interstellar

9/10.

 

Jul 21, 2017

Watched Eastern Promises, if you like Donnie Brasco, it's a must

 

Jul 21, 2017

Saw Monterey Pop ((DA Pennebaker) for the second time, this time on the big screen. Wrote a review:
https://aestheticsofthemind.com/2017/07/20/a-vital-moment-in-history-monterey-pop/
A Vital Moment In History: Monterey Pop
Posted on July 20, 2017by Kamran Ahmed


DA Pennebaker made history by documenting the first major festival of its kind, the huge (at the time) Monterey Pop Festival, which I consider to be a more significant moment in the late 60s hippie revolution than even Woodstock. It was the birth of an era.

During the Summer of Love, artists from Jefferson Airplane to Big Brother and the Holding Company to Jimi Hendrix to Ravi Shankar played a three day concert under the shining sun to a group of bliss-filled music listeners on the groove. Nothing but beautiful music and good vibes at this festival, unlike Woodstock which was both heaven and h---, beautiful and miserable, and filled with as much negative energy as positive according to basically any artist who performed at both.

Though he missed the opportunity to showcase the talents of groups such as Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Byrds, my biggest qualm with the film, Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop serves as a benchmark of the concert film, highlighting not only the music but the experience itself. Cross cutting between performer and listener, stage and audience, the film beautifully conveys the atmosphere of the festival for all us vicarious viewers to rapturously imagine.

85/100 – Excellent

 

Jul 23, 2017

The So-Called Caryatids 1984
★★★★ Watched 20 Jul, 2017

Music, cinema, and poetry come together in form of Varda's lexicon, elements which conjure insight & reflection.

82/100 - Great.

No likes


American Ultra 2015
★★½ Watched 14 Jul, 2017

Despite major cinematic flaws, it is clear that the work, though ill-fated, holds fast to its own concept and creation.

67/100 - Decent

No likes

• 
  Wonder Woman 2017
  ★★★½ Watched 29 Jun, 2017
  
  Showcases a brilliant performance within a tautly narrated, multi-dimensional script which elevates the film beyond average superhero fare. Some questionable action sequences and a little too on the nose at times, but a solid entry as one of the better films in the genre.
  
  78/100 - Very Good.
  
  1 like
  
  
• 
  Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 1992
  ★★★★½ Watched 26 Jun, 2017
  
  So expressive the atmosphere, so diverse the energy. Not quite top tier, but quintessential Lynch.
  
  86/100 - Excellent
  
  No likes
  

Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928
★★★★ Watched 25 Jun, 2017

Keaton's timing is impeccable, his stunts filled with energy and instinctual grace.

84/100 - Great.

No likes

 

Jul 24, 2017

Wrote on Nolan's Dunkirk.


How Music Ruined a Potential Masterpiece: Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and its Greatest Failing


There’s much in Nolan’s audacious new feature worth commending, chief among which is the underlying conceptual apparatus of time and rhythm and the greatly immersive experience it generates. Cross cutting between three divergent storlines yet maintaining a parallel flow of time between them is something I’ve frankly never seen before. In spite that each plot recount a distinct timeline, and each cut serve as an extension or contraction of time, the bombastic flow of Nolan’s pure visual storytelling remains uninterrupted...


[Read More]:
http://bit.ly/2tV7vv6

 

Jul 24, 2017

Dunkirk

 

Jul 24, 2017

finally got around to john wick 2, idk if it's better than the first. it's really close, great movies

 

Jul 25, 2017

Only a 9?

That film is f---ing amazing. One of the best I’ve seen in a very long time

 

Jul 25, 2017

I don't watch enough movies to give it a 10

 

Jul 28, 2017

Alien Covenant - f--- this movie, 4.5/10. The first 40 minutes was boring af, but once they get on the planet it got better. I was pretty into it until they left, after that it just felt dragged on. f--- the ending

Spoiler

You f---ing knew it was David. But it shouldn't have been bc there was so many inconsistencies with what David could do, such as healing. Why did the hole under his chin heal but not the cuts on his face, etc. Also why tf did they k--- james franco off without him even waking up. Waste of a big star

King Arthur - 6/10 First hour and a half I enjoyed. I liked Guy Ritchie's dialogue style, it became a bit much sometimes but I still feel overall it helped the movie. But at a certain point the story fell apart for me. Also you could tell the cut stuff for time sake, which hurt my enjoyment as well bc it was so obvious

 

Jul 28, 2017

Also for all the philosophical questions Alien Covenant TRIED to ask, the question that most intrigued me was "do androids hair grow?"

Spoiler

 

Jul 28, 2017

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a great film. Just watched it again

 

Jul 31, 2017

The Birds, it was like a 8/10 ig

 

Jul 31, 2017

Dunkirk was f---ing amazing

 

Aug 15, 2017

Haven't posted in a while...

• 
  The Red Balloon 1956
  ★★★★½ Rewatched 14 Aug, 2017
  
  Whimsical fare which demonstrates how childlike wonder is repressed by a culturally cold social climate.
  
  87/100 - Excellent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Dog Day Afternoon 1975
  ★★★★½ Watched 14 Aug, 2017
  
  Excellent narrative structure and cinematography convey dense themes of social alienation, hypocrisy, and corruption.
  
  85/100 - Excellent.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Zvenigora 1928
  ★★★★★ Watched 10 Aug, 2017
  
  s--- is mad hard to follow or have the patience for, but also incredible af and experimental way beyond its time.
  
  95/100 - Amazing.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1964
  ★★★★★ Rewatched 06 Aug, 2017
  
  Demy's rich mise en scene dazzles as the camera dances in long takes around the singing characters. Joy.
  
  96/100 - Masterful
  (Criterion Bluray)
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Big Sick 2017
  ★★★★ Watched 05 Aug, 2017
  
  Genuinely comic and comically genuine.
  
  80/100 - Great
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Given Word 1962
  ★★★★½ Watched 03 Aug, 2017
  
  Feels like a split between Italian Neorealism (with the on location shooting/non actors/dubbing) and Classical Hollywood (melodrama/music/climactic drama).
  
  The story is really genuine and heartfelt though at times the rhythm is a bit awkward or unsure of itself. The capoeira scene is one of my favourites.
  
  As a side note, I've been to the pelourinho in Salvador and sat on those steps where the film takes place. Watched musicians play at the foot of the stairs where the black woman… more
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  The Hart of London 1970
  ★★★★★ Watched 02 Aug, 2017
  
  Experimental Cinema 2, Jack Chambers' Hart of London. Review: bit.ly/2v41yOH
  
  Jack Chamber's masterpiece of experimental Canadian film carries within it some of the purest moments cinema has to offer.
  
  Chamber's sprawling form of experimentation straddles the fine line between so called high and low art.
  
  Adopting an anodyne viewpoint, he freely observes and presents both the unsightly and the majestic in a form of realism predicated on the viewer's subjective perception and emotional interpretation of the events being unfold, often… more
  
  3 likes
  
  
• 
  Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 2017
  ★★★½ Watched 02 Aug, 2017
  
  Spectacular imagery combines with fascinating concepts in Besson's subversive take on romance in future-space.
  
  78/100 - Very Good.
  
  1 like
  
  
• 
  Stalker 1979
  ★★★★★ Rewatched 01 Aug, 2017
  
  Just Too Good.
  
  5th rewatch? Cinematheque Criterion Restoration.
  
  99/100
  
  1 like
  
  
• 
  Step Brothers 2008
  ★★★★ Watched 30 Jul, 2017
  
  Raucous comedy step in toe with absurdist intentions and over the top performances. One of the best in a lamentable line of filmmaking.
  
  80/100 - Great.
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  La Région Centrale 1971
  ★★★★½ Watched 26 Jul, 2017
  
  A meditation of time itself.
  
  Challenges the viewer's capacity for prayer as it entangles the spiritual and physical in worlds both of the reveler and the revealed through a form of fixed yet flowing movement.
  
  Slighted only in that concept is greater than creation and the finite world of mathematics inspired concepts is limited by its own presupposed parameters.
  
  A novel experiment.
  
  85/100 - Excellent.
  
  (16mm)
  
  No likes
  
  
• 
  Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis 2009
  ★★★★★ Watched 26 Jul, 2017
  
  A cataclysm of unmediated energy.
  
  Reverberating pulses of light & sound conjure a psycho-physical response and shift in metabolic activity.
  
  Film grain and the dark cavern of cinema support this effect.
  
  90/100 - Amazing.
  
  (35mm)
  

Now You See Me 2 2016
★★½ Watched 24 Jul, 2017

Not exactly high cinema, but entertaining enough for an evening of escapism.

60/100 - Decent.

 

Aug 15, 2017

Attack the Block - 9/10
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - 7/10
Lucky Number Slevin - 7.5/10
The Town - 8/10
Die Hard With A Vengeance - 7.75/10
Sicario - 8.5/10