Robert Pattinson is much derided for his role in the Twilight films but he continues to prove again and again that he really is a good actor. This was directed by the pair of brothers, Joshua and Benjamin Safdie, who seem to have some fame as independent filmmakers though I haven’t come across any of their work before this. Benjamin himself acts in this film as the mentally handicapped brother and does a great job at it too. Unfortunately while the film seems very promising at first, it doesn’t go where I thought it would and I’m mystified as to why the brothers chose to take it in that direction.
By dint of its commercial success and huge cultural impact this is one independent game that I consider a must play. It was even voted as the best video game ever made which made some people really mad. I held off for a long while as I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to handle the combat and I’m not a big fan of these Japanese RPG-type mechanics. As it turned out, I did indeed love the story but had a horrible time with the combat even after doing everything possible to make it easy for myself.
This is another Chinese film that I’m sure I picked up from Western sources as I don’t think it made too many waves within China itself. This is as far as I know the closest thing China currently has to a #MeToo film. It was directed by a woman Vivian Qu who is not very well known, having previously worked only as a producer. Indeed it’s straightforward and a little lacking in artistry but it does all the right things and sends the right message.
There’s no way we would be missing this latest film by the Coen brothers, especially one that’s so much fun. This is one those films that seems like it’s a personal vanity project, possible only because the brothers are now so successful and well known that they can make pretty much anything they want. It’s incredible how the brothers are the farthest thing from being complacent in their success and keep trying new things. The wonder of it is that they make it all work and it’s fiendishly good.
When I told my wife we would be watching a long, modern Turkish film next, her first reaction was to ask whether or not it’s by the same director as Winter Sleep. Indeed this was made by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and its screenplay was co-written by him and his wife Ebru Ceylan. Unfortunately while I found the dialogue in Winter Sleep to be almost magical, the dialogue here while being similarly wordy feels mostly dead to me, as if it tries too hard to be insightful but reveals nothing much of note.
It has been a long time since I played the first Injustice but I still fondly remember it as one of my favorite ever fighting game and one of the very few video games to have a truly awesome story. So it was with a lot of anticipation that I wanted to play this sequel. In fact I even bought a fighting stick for it, my first ever, though it is the cheap and small Hori Mini Fighting Stick. I had a lot of trouble pulling off moves that require a quick backward-forward movement on the thumbsticks of the usual gamepads and thought this might be better and it really did help a lot. Unfortunately while this sequel’s mechanics are solid, the story is awful and really spoiled the experience for me.
We’ve watched plenty of classic Hollywood films but I realized that we’ve never watched a single film starring Elvis Presley. That’s probably because although his films were commercially successful, none of them are considered especially noteworthy from an artistic perspective. This one doesn’t particularly stand out either but it does star Ann-Margret who was pretty good in Bye Bye Birdie so it seemed as good a choice as any.
