This is the only the third film we’ve watched by legendary Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami and it’s his earliest one yet. This film seems to have helped establish the director’s reputation in the west though it was panned in Iran itself. It’s based on a real event with all of the main people involved playing themselves though understandably most scenes are reenactments.
In between playing the epic-sized games by big studios, I like to mess around with the small, indie ones. I have to say that while the big games are certainly more impressive both in terms of scope and production values, I usually find the small games to be more memorable due to how different and unique they tend to be. This tiny game is a case in point. I doubt that most people are going to play it for more than a handful of hours but it’s such a fun few hours different from anything else you might have played that it’s likely to stick in your mind for a long while.
This one made it onto my list as it is a highly regarded film, being apparently considered one of the best Canadian films ever made. It was inspired by a real life accident involving a school bus and a truck but I think it’s been fictionalized enough that it doesn’t matter. I found that I didn’t like it much however due to how its focus seems sort of spread out and how it doesn’t follow through on its individual storylines.
This one appeared on critics’ lists as one of the most notable films of last year so I had to check it out. The fact that it’s billed as a supernatural horror film out of Norway only makes it more intriguing. To me however the hype seems unjustified and it’s pretty standard fare. From what I can tell, it has been lauded simply because it is Norwegian and it portrays a lesbian relationship of a sort which seems unwarranted to me.
This was a recommendation from our cinephile friend but I had a hard time getting into it. Even with the help of Chinese subtitles I had difficulty following along as the characters switch between different Chinese languages and the cast of characters is huge with complicated relationships between them. The director Yang Ya-che must have realized this as well as there are captions when new characters are introduced as well as a pair of two mysterious elderly storytellers who provide exposition but that wasn’t quite enough for me.
Continue reading The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful (2017)
So yeah, I’ve never read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books before this which is embarrassing for a fan of science-fiction. I’ve read plenty of his short stories and even one or two his Robots novels but never any of the Foundation books themselves. I’ve inevitably absorbed some of what it’s about through cultural osmosis but I suppose it’s high time that I actually read them for myself.
Brie Larson is kind of big deal now that she is slated to appear as Captain Marvel and of course we loved her performance in Room. Short Term 12 however is considered her breakout role and it also made the name for its writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton. Cretton apparently made based on his own experiences working at a facility similar to the one shown in the film.