This is the second in the series of films that my wife picked out about senescence and its debilitating effects on the mind in particular. I believe that On Golden Pond was a much more prominent work than Away From Her, featuring as it does a star-studded cast. I find myself embarrassed that while it is the more traditional and even more sentimental film, I actually like it more due to how well-rounded it is and the excellent performances.
This was very popular for a while on Broken Forum and I was very interested in it but waited until it went on discount before buying it. I was also apprehensive about it being too difficult and in particular I have a hard time getting too far into rogue-like games. As it turned out, I found the difficulty level to be high but manageable. What got me down however is how grindy reaching the end of the game is.
So this is one of those big deal films that are impossible to ignore. Kathryn Bigelow is one of the most important female directors in Hollywood and seems to have made adapting important events like this a cornerstone of her career. Personally I’m not a fan though. Her films are well made and hard hitting certainly but there’s something off about them in their intent and perhaps their governing philosophy. Sadly Detroit feels that a continuation of that pattern to me.
This film was nominated for a bunch of categories at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards but didn’t really win much. It certainly wouldn’t have caught my attention. Our cinephile friend however sent it along as a recommendation and the first thing that caught my attention was that it has Michael Hui, the legendary Hong Kong comedian in it. Having not watched anything with him in it for years, this certainly makes the film a lot more interesting.
These days I buy pretty much all of my book on Google Books but for whatever reason this one didn’t seem to be available so I had to order a physical copy. I suppose that at some point I should start buying Amazon Kindle editions as they seem to have a much larger selection. This is another collection of short stories that chronologically follows The Last Wish. However while it was originally published in Poland in 1992 it was only translated to English in 2015, probably due to the overwhelming popularity of the video game.
Since I’ve never seen a Coen brothers film I didn’t like, I thought I work my way through their filmography as I’ve never watched some of their very early works. This film has familiar faces from the brothers’ regular cast and even features a very young Scarlett Johansson from before she became truly famous due to Lost in Translation.
I knew of this as recommendations from a couple of different sources and so I added it to my list without knowing anything about it other than its title. Within several minutes of it starting, I asked my wife, “so is this a film about architecture?” And I was totally right!