- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 208
I don't know how this ended up on my list. A reddit recommendation most likely, something probably in the lines of "What Movie Broke You...", and this was a suggestion and as I'd never heard of it I gave it a try.
Completely off my radar, and, while well written and executed not a movie I would normally, in my right mind, choose to give time to. I finished the entirety of it solely with the intent of trying to figure out why I was watching it in the first place...I never did.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 141
I'd never heard of this and it proved a charming surprise. About a group of men who all find themselves exiled for various reasons to a Porvenir, Chile and are offered a chance to redeem themselves with some great financial recovery if they'll take on the hazardous mission of driving an unstable load of nitroglycerin through the jungle some 200+ miles.
It's surprisingly engaging, and the pacing - exposition - plot development - well, all at odds with current film-making fashion. But well done, and the trucks they're given to accomplish their mission rival anything you saw in "Fury Road".
The reason - most probably - you never heard of it was that it was released in 1977 and immediately overshadowed by Star Wars.
William Friedkin also directed the "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist", Roy Scheider you'll recognize as the small-town sheriff from "Jaws".
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 210
This was brilliant.
And - allow me to clarify - while absolutely brilliant it was not an easy watch, and I was frequently tempted to abandon it. Billed as a comedy, and for sure, it has it's moments, it's more a meta-upon-meta scaffolding which builds a Tower of Babel upon notions of Identity, the choices we make, the people we meet and how we all - one way or another - intrude our reality upon other peoples lives.
There's a lot more than that I'm sure.
Spoilers ahead, so if you're not sure you're going to watch it don't follow the page break:
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 298
In 2012 the mysterious disappearance of an actor 22 years before is brought to a high profile television show in Spain.
Theories as to his disappearance abound, suicide, a lover, jealous rival, conspiracies, and everyone connected with the actor seems to have come to their own conclusion.
Following the televised profile of the disappearance new leads surface and take things in a new direction.
Curious, a thoughtful meditation on memory, identity, film, and - the ending - well, I've said it before, perfect, and you'd never see an American director take this most logical of turns.
Worthwhile.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 162
A collection of 4 new by Wes Anderson, for Netflix, all adapted from Roald Dahl Stories, and starring (in No Particular Order) - Ben Kinsley, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes & Benedict Cumberbatch.
Those stories, in order:
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, about a wastrel and gambler who learns to meditate, see through the essence of things and sets up charities and orphanages worldwide;
The Swan - A bullied child;
The Rat Catcher - Exactly That
Poison - About an imaginary snake that's affected a man with very bad manners.
Peak Wes Anderson, and admirable in the use of tear-away sets and simplified storytelling. While in terms of budget they seem like they would have been cheap enough to make (even cheaper if he'd opted for green-screens and no-practical effects) - still, the techniques of scene paintings, the narrator both within/without the story, other little tricks make this far more enjoyable than the budget would suggest. Wes Anderson is a genius and his economy of "Less is More" and spending his budget on competent writers and actors is brilliant.