I’ve gotten so used to flying Air Asia in recent years that I’d almost forgotten that one can actually watch films during flights. I picked this to watch during a recent flight but was not quite able to finish it plus of course watching this on such a small screen isn’t the best experience. Still I’d watched until the end of the climactic fight and it’s hardly a great film to begin with, so I think I have enough to write something about it.
This British drama made the rounds at film festivals and rated mentions from a number of critics, but it didn’t exactly blow people away. It was directed by Terence Davies, a director unknown to me, and is an adaptation of famous Scottish novel of the same name by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
So here’s yet another South Korean horror film. This was a commercial and a critical success both within its country of origin and internationally. It was made by a director who is unknown to us, Na Hong-jin, but he has earned some plaudits. Unfortunately while there’s no doubt that it is very well made, both my wife and myself were frustrated by how little sense the story seems to make.
I probably got this as a pick from some critic’s list or other but I remember where exactly. It’s a low budget film that stars some of the regulars in such independent productions and is made by a director, John Carchietta, that I’ve never heard of before. Unfortunately I found nothing particularly noteworthy about this film that elevates it above its humble origins and was overall disappointed.
My blog posts have been full of more recent releases lately so I thought I’d go back to plumbing the back catalogue of some of the most highly regarded films of yesteryear. Robert Bresson is considered one of the greatest French directors ever but this is the first time I’ve watched one of his films. His work is cited by the French New Wave directors as one of their primary inspirations and I believe that A Man Escaped is his most famous film.
So I have to confess to feeling a bit tricked by this film. Some of its posters floating around prominently feature Marilyn Monroe but in fact she only has a very minor role here. I also thought that this was a noir but it’s really more of a heist film. It was directed by John Huston whose most famous work is probably The Maltese Falcon that we watched only recently.
Moonlight was one of two films that swept the nominations during the Oscars earlier this year. La La Land went on to win most of them but Moonlight did win some important ones including the award for Best Picture. It’s also notable in a few other ways, such as being an all-black film, one that touches on LGBT issues even. I had high expectations for this one going in but it unfortunately was mostly a disappointment.